Orlando Real Estate News

Top home sales in 2008

Luxury buyers include UK transfers, equestrian enthusiasts

Premium content from Orlando Business Journal - by Anjali Fluker

Date: Monday, April 13, 2009, 12:00am EDT - Last Modified: Thursday, April 9, 2009, 4:17pm EDT

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Central Florida’s luxury homes typically take longer to sell than the average-priced home, resulting in more work for ­local Realtors.

Luxury homes — those priced at $1 million or more — sat on the market for 200 days before selling last year, up from 133 days in 2004. In comparison, the average home — priced at $200,000-$250,000 — was listed for 104 days before selling last year, up from 54 days in 2004, said the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

One reason it takes high-priced homes longer to sell: Potential buyers typically are more wary than general homebuyers, said Marc Grossman, Realtor/broker with Longwood-based Marc It Sold! “Some of them are shrewder,” he said. “They didn’t get to the top by throwing money away.”

Another reason: Potential buyers of upscale homes are a relatively small group. After all, such homes can have monthly mortgage payments ranging from $12,000 to $15,000. So brokers generally require luxury home buyers to come pre-qualified, showing proof of funds or

an approval letter from a local lender before even scheduling a showing.

There were 971 homes listed at $1 million and up in Central Florida as of April 1, and the average listing price for a luxury home locally is $2.2 million. The most expensive home sale in 2008 in the four-county Central Florida region was a $9 million property in Orange County.

Selling homes with price tags like that isn’t easy. Agents typically put in extra hours — and dollars — to ensure buyers and sellers get personal attention. For instance, local Realtors sometimes throw lavish parties at the homes being marketed or stay up all night scouring the Internet to match interested buyers with the perfect home.

Here are the top-dollar home sales last year in each of Central Florida’s four counties, and the stories behind the deals:

ORANGE COUNTY

It’s not often a family can afford to buy a temporary home for $9 million.

But Dianne Duvall of Isleworth Realty, who has been a Realtor for more than 20 years, ran across one in early 2008. A second-home owner in the exclusive Isleworth community needed a larger home for a family of six on a temporary basis while designing a new dream lakefront home as a primary residence, Duvall said.

At the same time, another couple decided to sell an 11,000-square-foot, two-story, five-bedroom, 6.5-bath home they were building in Isleworth — a Windermere neighborhood which boasts celebrity residents such as Shaquille O’Neal, Ken Griffey Jr. and Tiger Woods.

It was an uncanny match, said Duvall, and the deal closed in about a month. “They both wanted new homes, so that’s how it worked.”

SEMINOLE COUNTY

When Realtor Chocky Burks of Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing for a Street of Dreams home built in 2008 at Lake Club in Seminole County, she incorporated her firm’s global resources to reach affiliate offices all over the world.

Although she declined to share the amount, Burks said she spent “more than usual” to market the home.

However, the buyer ended up being local: Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard closed on the 11,000-square-foot, two-story home — dubbed Chateau d’Ussé — for $7.8 million in October.

The home, built by Hillcrest Homes & Development Co., features 30-foot travertine arches, floor-to-ceiling fireplaces, a 3,500-square-foot patio, two guest cabanas and a pool with a “lazy river.”

The home had been on the market for 83 days before it sold.

LAKE COUNTY

Ronald Ziolkowski with Re/Max Properties SW Inc. in Orlando sold Lake County’s most expensive home in 2008 — a 20-acre, private horse ranch with a new 7,000-square-foot, two-story, home and a 6,000-square-foot barn that had been on the market for almost two years. “I found it online, in a Google search for another buyer looking for an equestrian center,” said Ziolkowski, who has sold luxury homes for 11 years.

Ziolkowski spent about $2,000 to create a Web site for the property, a virtual online tour, informational CDs and color brochures for the seller to hand out at horse shows.

Once an interested buyer surfaced, finding insurance for the private horse ranch was a challenge. And then the sellers had to get an easement from the county on another 25 acres it planned to retain, so the property wouldn’t become landlocked. “Every time there’s a roadblock, there’s always a chance the buyer will walk,” Ziolkowski said. “It’s a stressful situation when buying properties at any price range, let alone the multimillion-dollar price range.”

But the sale closed within three months for $2.3 million, selling to a celebrity’s ex-wife who lived in the area.

OSCEOLA COUNTY

Kim Hawk, a Realtor with Re/Max Market Place, said having many online listings in a single community helped a British family find her when the family searched the Internet for a new home in Celebration.

Osceola County’s most expensive residential sale last year — a $2.1 million, 10.500-square-foot, two-story home built in 2002 with an elevator, guest apartment, five-car garage and massive wrap-around porch — required quite a bit of effort, said Hawk, who had the home listed for 204 days before the sale closed.

Hawk said the family flew to Orlando many times to look at homes in Central Florida before making their decision. “They have a property in the U.K., but plan to spend most of their time here.”

Cheapest home sold for $10,000

One of Central Florida’s cheapest homes sold in 2008 for $10,000.

Overton Realty Inc. agent Robins Dorvil sold the foreclosed home near Kaley Street and Orange Blossom Trail within two weeks to an investor who demolished the 8,000-square-foot home, which had several code violations, along with mold and broken-down walls.

Although it’s unusual for a home to sell that cheaply, Central Florida saw at least one other sell for the same price last year: a three-bedroom home in Eustis.

Home prices affect sales

The number of homes sold in metro Orlando for $200,000 to $250,000 dropped 55 percent between 2005 and 2008. Meanwhile, sales of those priced at $750,000 or more declined by 75 percent during that time.

Source: Orlando Regional Realtor Association

Read more: Top home sales in 2008 | Orlando Business Journal

We've been in one of the best real estate markets in the history of our nation.  It seems like the past 6 years have just been a blur. A couple of years ago, millions of investors bought property to flip in a seller’s market. A lot of these investors were new to the investing business. They were jumping on the band wagon of the media and hype of homes being sold over the asking price. Unfortunately, a lot of investors over extended themselves and now they're deep in a whole with toxic debt. This is one of the main reasons why the foreclosure rate is rising rapidly. What they failed to realize was that the ones who really benefited from the "Seller's Market" were people that bought during the previous "Buyer's Market"

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