Orlando Real Estate News

National News is reporting more issues with Chinese Drywall:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Jan. 14, 2010 - Louisiana's attorney general on Wednesday sued building supply manufacturers and developers over imported Chinese drywall that homeowners claim has damaged their homes and made them sick.

Attorney General James D. "Buddy" Caldwell said he filed a lawsuit in state court on Wednesday to help state and local governments recoup the cost of dealing with contaminated drywall. The suit names a slew of companies - from Chinese drywall manufacturers to home developers - as defendants.

"The state attorney general's office said enough is enough," Caldwell said at a news conference on the steps of the Louisiana Supreme Court in the French Quarter. "We've had too many catastrophes down here."

Reports of tainted Chinese drywall began to surface last year and homeowners who bought houses with the imported materials have filed hundreds of lawsuits against builders, suppliers and manufacturers.   What does this mean for Orlando home buyers?   Well it means that you will need to do your due dilligence when purchasing a home.   This is an important question you can ask of your home inspector, who will be able to guide you through the testing process.

For information on great real estate buys in Orlando and nearby suburbs,
contact the Orlando Property Group, your short sale and luxury home specialists.

Or Search Now for Real Estate & Homes in the Orlando Florida Area

Looking for specific information regarding Orlando Florida real estate prices and communities? Get Your Free Market Snapshot

Read Also: Unemployment Rises and So Do Foreclosures

Read Also: New Appraisals Do They Work Better?  

Read Also: Foreclosures Climb Even With Loan Modifications

Read Also: Disney World Resort Struggles

If you want to sell your Seminole County or Orlando area home in the next 6 to12 months, now is the time to begin putting your plan into place while time is still on your side. Please contact us for any real estate assistance you may need.

We're experts at putting people together with homes they love and can afford. Contact us today for information on Orlando and Seminole County real estate, Orlando & Seminole County homes for sale, Orlando & Seminole County relocation information, a free market analysis of your Orlando area or Seminole County home or statistics on homes in Orlando & Seminole County Florida or the surrounding Central Florida area, including Seminole County, Orange County, Lake County and Volusia County. We're always available to answer your questions.

FPL is the target of a lawsuit in Palm Beach County alleging that the utility could have avoided the blackout last weekend that left thousands without power during near-freezing temperatures.

The complaint, filed this week for Anthony Stampone, an FPL customer in Parkland, alleges FPL was negligent in ensuring its grid could handle unusual but foreseeable weather. FPL Spokesman Mark Bubriski said the lawsuit is frivolous and "utterly without merit."

Attorney Scott Gelfand in Coral Springs, one of Stampone's attorneys, said they want class action status and money for the 25,000 Broward and Palm Beach County customers he says were affected.

The complaint says FPL's "band-aid" fixes -- restarting transformers or replacing fuses in them insteading of replacing transformers -- is to blame for transformers that "routinely shut down again in a matter of hours or even minutes."

Bubriski said FPL deployed 1,300 workers to restore power as soon as possible and replaced 1,300 of its 800,00 transformers. He said the transformers are designed for Florida's normal climate but held up well even in the record-setting weather.

FPL's electricity demand hit an all-time high of 24,354 megawatt-hours on Monday and almost as much on Sunday, Bubriski said. That's more than the record summer demand of 22,361 megawatt-hours on Aug. 17, 2005. "Through it all, FPL maintained power to an average of more than 99 percent of our customers while operating at near-maximum capacity," Bubriski said. "No system is perfect."

For information on great real estate buys in Orlando and nearby suburbs,
contact the Orlando Property Group, your short sale and luxury home specialists.

Or Search Now for Real Estate & Homes in the Orlando Florida Area

Looking for specific information regarding Orlando Florida real estate prices and communities? Get Your Free Market Snapshot

Read Also: Unemployment Rises and So Do Foreclosures

Read Also: New Appraisals Do They Work Better?  

Read Also: Foreclosures Climb Even With Loan Modifications

Read Also: Disney World Resort Struggles

If you want to sell your Seminole County or Orlando area home in the next 6 to12 months, now is the time to begin putting your plan into place while time is still on your side. Please contact us for any real estate assistance you may need.

We're experts at putting people together with homes they love and can afford. Contact us today for information on Orlando and Seminole County real estate, Orlando & Seminole County homes for sale, Orlando & Seminole County relocation information, a free market analysis of your Orlando area or Seminole County home or statistics on homes in Orlando & Seminole County Florida or the surrounding Central Florida area, including Seminole County, Orange County, Lake County and Volusia County. We're always available to answer your questions.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Jan. 7, 2010 - What's hot in the state? Florida Realtor Magazine compiled the top five niches noted by leading brokers and Realtors. They include:

Short sales and foreclosures
Real estate professionals have a great opportunity dealing with distressed properties, says John Tuccillo, president of Tuccillo and Associates (JTA) in Sarasota.

"These are difficult transactions, and real expertise in getting them done is gold in the marketplace," Tuccillo says. Remember that foreclosures happen at all price points, including the luxury segment.

"Associates who are experts at short sales in the more moderately priced properties will be able to move this skill set to luxury and commercial real estate as well," says Mike Pappas, broker of The Keyes Co. in Miami.

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WASHINGTON - Jan. 15, 2010 - When agents want to compare their performance to other agents and companies in their local markets, they often make comparisons to MLS data for number of units sold, listings taken, listings sold and total sales volume.

While this provides a comparison to the overall market, most agents specialize in certain niches and would be wise to break the numbers down in an ethical and fair way.

They could reduce the geographic area of the MLS numbers to cover a certain neighborhood or region, broaden the geographic area to include other neighborhoods in which they work, or concentrate on a particular price range or property type.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Jan. 14, 2010 - With the 2010 Florida legislative session looming, insurance industry advocates Wednesday stepped up their call for deregulating the residential property insurance market.

Instead of Citizens Insurance, the state-backed insurer of last resort, "becoming the preferred market" for many, the free market should be allowed to regulate rates and give consumers more choices, said Bill Gunter, former Florida insurance commissioner and chairman of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.

Florida needs "a viable, competitive marketplace" for insurance, one that will encourage more private carriers to come back into the state, said Jeff Grady, president of the group, along with Walter Dartland, executive director of Consumer Federation of the Southeast.

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