Wednesday, December 24, 2014

St Pete Beach FL home with wide open water views on Brightwater Beach Estates.

Bright Water Beach Estates 
St Pete Beach FL 33706
exclusively listed by 
REMAX Preferred
5801 Gulf Blvd St 
St Pete Beach FL 33706


Presents
A 4 bedroom 3.5 bathroom 2 car garage Ranch on wide open, deep water
southern exposure and stunning water views.
All of this in an Exclusive community of waterfront homes in the heart of St Pete Beach called
Brightwater Beach Estates.
See the property details here:
www.BRIGHTWATERBEACH.com
The following is the Aerial View

 Deep Sailboat water 
100' of New Seawall

  506 55th ave St Pete Beach FL 33706  is in Brightwater Beach Estates a highly desirable, exclusing Neigborhood of Waterfront homes on Beautiful St Pete Beach Floridas most popular barrier island off Pinellas County.

 click here to see all Luxury St Pete Beach Homes for Sale

Don't forget to call for an appointment to take a tour today
Diana Sames 727-776-0122 
REALTOR and LOCAL Expert.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Is the Sky the limit for the Florida Housing market.

                          This was an old Article I saved earlier this year.

CNBC HOUSING STATS -----Up Up?   This article says the For Sellers. SKY IS THE LIMIT


Tampa Bay Home Sales Continue to Fall This article says DOWN Down ?

                                         lets see how it pans out looking back.


 
 

Regency West Condominium For Sale St Pete Beach Florida

                  Explore Units for sale in REGENCY WEST Condominium  
 This huge peice of Real estate Acreage is owned and maintained by the homeowners, some have fee simple ownership but most have LAND LEASE ownership from the origional developer making, this Condo ownership quite affordable for second home owner's or especially a BEACHLIVING Dream for the owner's who have made Regency West their Homestead and with it gained a tax exemption.



 Www.REGENCYWEST.INFO is in the Heart of Saint Pete Beach FL.


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Good News for A Zone Home Buyers on Flood Insurance Rates

UESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014

 APRIL 15TH GOOD NEWS FOR THIS ST PETE BEACH 3 BEDROOM 2 BATHROOM, HOME WITH A GREAT WALKING SCORE, FORSALE.                                                                                                                                              WWW.MYSTPETEBEACHHOME.COM 

This Elegant home has had a lot of interest since I listed it for sale just before the Flood insurance reform act of Oct 2014 Click here to see this lovely home - detail and marketing website 
www.mystpetebeachhome.com.  This week, I am currently qualifying a buyer to put their offer in which will include Financing through his CHASE bank and Buyer asked me to get 3 insurance Quotes. The home for sale is  238 71st ave St Pete Beach Florida 33706. One of those companies who sent me a quote already, just under $6,000 per yr total insurance, before any 'credits', just sent an email saying, as of today the FLOOD insurance quote she gave for my Buyer's  Mortgage had gone down today almost $1755 per year!!!!!!!!! "No small chunk of Change" for a new home owner or second home owner looking to get a mortgage. Here is her GOOD NEWS Insurance email:
"Hi Diana,

I wanted to follow up and let you know that Lloyds of London had rate changes today and the flood premium will go from $3107 to  $1351.93.

Have a nice day,

Heather Puffer Heather Puffer <heatherp@flstrategic.com>
Direct- (813) 777-2728
Office- (727) 546-6000 "See the following GOOD NEWS PRESS Release.

NOTE another Insurance Company HOLEHOUSE followed with those  New A Zone FLOOD RATES with Private insurance companies

THIS IS THE PRESS RELEASE::
Gainesville, FL (PRWEB) April 15, 2014
Evan Hecht, CEO of The Flood Insurance Agency who administers Private Market Flood, says "Not only have we reduced rates for all policies effective April 15, 2014 and after, the Underwriters have agreed to allow everyone that has already purchased a policy effective prior to April 15th to participate in the rate reduction by converting all previous policies from their original 12 month policy term to a 15 month policy term at no additional cost." Existing policyholders will not have to come up with the premiums to renew their policies for three months later than they originally had expected. "That should help some families and small businesses with their budgets at a time when rising flood insurance premiums have done just the opposite," said Hecht.
The Private Market Flood policy has exactly the same coverage as a FEMA policy, uses the same claims adjusters as a FEMA policy, and has been accepted by every major mortgage lender. Letters announcing the three month extension of coverage will be mailed to all existing policyholders within the next two weeks.
The newly reduced premium rates are effective in all nineteen States in which the Program is currently offered. Commercial properties and non-primary residences, not given any relief by the newly passed Homeowner's Flood Insurance Relief Act, are priced well below policies offered by FEMA. Almost all older pre-firm properties should expect to pay less for a Private Market Flood policy than a FEMA policy.
Private Market Flood, underwritten by certain underwriters at Lloyd's of London, was first brought to the marketplace in November of last year. The program, administered by The Flood Insurance Agency located in Gainesville, FL, was originally priced to target older pre-firm properties located in Florida that had lost their FEMA subsidized rates as a result of the Biggert-Waters Flood Act of 2012. Since then the program has written millions of dollars in premiums in not only Florida, but in eighteen other States as well. As a result of being able to spread the risk across a much larger geographic area and avoiding a concentration of risk exposed to a single weather event, premium rates have been reduced significantly.
Hecht said he expects to expand into several additional States in the very near future. Policies are sold directly on the Company's website,http://www.privatemarketflood.com, and through over 700 independent insurance agencies. The rapidly expanding program signs up between five and 10 new independent insurance agencies every day. Insurance agencies that would like to offer Private Market Flood policies can register to become appointed on the Company's website.
About The Flood Insurance Agency
Licensed in all 50 States, The Flood Insurance Agency, located in Gainesville, FL, focuses entirely on providing flood insurance solutions to property owners, insurance agencies and mortgage lenders. To learn more, visit the Company's websitehttp://www.thefloodinsuranceagency.com.
Read the full story athttp://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/04/prweb11762504.htm

Friday, March 28, 2014


On March 4, 2014 the United States House of Representatives passed bill H.R. 3370 commonly referred to as the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014.” This bill directly relates to the Biggert-Waters act of 2012 and modifies parts of the act. The bill is broken into 26 sections and a couple of them have a major impact on Florida flood insurance and real estate. Please keep in mind that this bill has only passed the House and it still requires a Senate vote and to be signed by the President. A common statement has been that this bill delays the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012, the bill does not delay Biggert-Waters. We have made incredible progress, but we still need to continue encouraging our Senators and President to finalize this bill. According to www.govtrack.us this bill only has a 74% chance of being enacted, so we do need to continue pushing this bill forward


Please email me diana@flabeachfront.com, (or the Holehouse insurance company directly)  if you want is further reading on the Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014  prepared by HOLEHOUSE Insurance agency a local St Pete Agency or 
RATE COMPARISON One the following 2 Bella Vista homes  can be seen on HCI rates PDF of these 2 pictured local St.Pete Beach homes  The first photo is Large home. Its Flood Insurance is at $312 per yr 


compared to this little home is $8,734 per yer! 

 The following is was sent to me Via Email from Jake Holehouse regarding an update based on the house bill that passed last week.  
"With all of the changes, some lenders are being very difficult to accept the new private market flood insurance which results in the client paying a much higher premium rate.  With that clients, become frustrated and end up backing out of deals.  In working with all the lenders, I can say that BB&T is by far the best at being flexible and finding what fits the client.  An example of this is that the Homeowners Choice Insurance Company’s flood policy uses a deductible that is a percentage of the overall dwelling to mirror the hurricane deductible compared to most of the time when we write homeowners and flood policy and each one has a deductible.  This creates a major advantage for the homeowner as they only have one claims adjuster to work with and they only have one deductible compared to two deductibles.  For example if a house has a hurricane wind and flood loss with HCI they only pay one deductible, compared to splitting the policies and paying the homeowners hurricane deductible and separate flood deductible.  However, on a $300,000 dwelling value the flood deductible would be 2% of $300,000 which equates to $6,000.  The challenge that some lenders are having is that normally the highest flood deductible that can be used is $5,000 but the highest homeowners deductible is 5%.  Being that this is a homeowners policy that covers flooding, BB&T is accepting this under the homeowners rules of a 5% deductible while Wells Fargo, VanDyk Mortgage, Flagstar Bank, and multiple other companies are sticking to saying it cannot exceed $5,000.  This makes an enormous difference as we have seen the flexibility of BB&T save clients thousands of dollars on flood insurance.  I am attaching a rate sheet for the HCI flood product that BB&T is actively allowing us to use resulting in premium rates at least 50% less expensive than Lloyds of London. 

If you have a client that is purchasing a pre-Firm house in a flood zone, we highly recommend working with Tammy Griffith at BB&T.  Tammy and her staff at BB&T are the best in the industry at customer service, underwriting time and flexibility.  With over 27 years of mortgage experience, Tammy has the knowledge to ask the right questions and be creative.  Customers have a phenomenal experience with her and she closes loans faster than any other lender.  We have worked with Tammy on FHA, VA, Conventional and Construction loans and every client has had a great experience.  As an insurance professional, our agency can honestly say that Tammy is the best in the business.  Tammy’s contact information is listed below-

Tammy Griffith
Vice President
BB&T Mortgage
NMLS#415170
400 N. Tampa Street
Tampa, Fl  33602
Phone: 813-314-3185
Fax:     813-228-0274
Mobile (727) 647-5801

 If you have any questions on the current flood insurance legislation please do not hesitate to give our office a call.
 Sincerely,

Jacob W. Holehouse, CPCU
Vice President
Ronald F. Holehouse Insurance and Risk Management
Main Office - (727) 823-5551
Fax- (727) 894-3339
125 28th Street North

St. Petersburg, FL  33713"  Thank you Jake!!!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

U.S. House overwhelmingly passes flood insurance relief bill

Looking for a high and dry FL home?  
www.myhighanddryhome.com a post war bungalow with fireplace, wood floors,123x125 lot in the heart of ST Pete with 3 plus car garage 

Flood Insurance News 
Republicans joining Democrats to meet a required two-thirds majority Vote. 
They now have something to take to the tenant.
Today, the vote was unanimously agreed in the House,  helping bring some sanity to the abrupt change in flood insurance policy that came in to effect Oct 1 2014, numbing the dream of affordable beach home ownership.

"Owners of grandfathered second homes and commercial property would also be spared, but older properties of the same type built before the Flood Insurance Rate Maps are not covered by the legislation and could face significant increases. Passage of the bill was a rare show of bipartisanship in the typically discordant House. And it came despite significant opposition from conservatives, budget watchdog groups and some environmentalists who said the 2012 reforms were needed to shore up the National Flood Insurance Program, which is more than $24 billion in debt, and to wean people off government subsidies. Alex Leary, Times staff writer 
Read the artilce here: tampabay.com/news/business/banking

Homes fro sale in 33713

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A letter about Biggert-Waters Act shortcomings and Homeowner Affordability Act

Diana, Throughout 2013 and 2014 REALTORS® have been working to address serious shortcomings in the 2012 Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act. This week the U.S. House of Representatives scheduled a vote on H.B. 3370, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act. After careful consideration, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) strongly supports this bill and is actively encouraging every member of Congress to support it. NAR President Steve Brown has sent a letter of support, delivered by NAR lobbyists, to all Congressional members. You can read the letter from President Brown by clicking here. The letter outlines why we support the bill as amended. Once the House acts on this bill it will go to conference committee to work out the differences it has with the Senate bill passed a few months ago. Stay tuned for further developments - we will continue to update you on this important issue. Sincerely, David B. Bennett, CAE President & CEO Pinellas REALTOR® Organization

Thursday, January 30, 2014

UPDATE ON FLOOD INSURANCE PREMIUMS

Senate Finally made a Decision.......

This is a quick update on flood insurance premiums….  The Senate has just passed the Menendez-Isakson bill that would delay premium increases for about four years. Here is the video showing Senator Menendez speaking about the issue:


Also, the link below contains an article from the Insurance Journal explaining what took place in the Sanate. Both Senators Nelson and Rubio voted Yea. The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives. I will continue to watch the situation and will post an update.


http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/01/30/318895.htm#.UuqWq2yAYpE.email