In-Line Strip Malls Are Booming The Post Pandemic World is reshaping suburban shopping habits with more people working at least part time from home. Annual visits to strip malls increased 18% last year compared with before the pandemic, according to retail and commercial real-estate data-analytics firm RetailStat, which analyzed foot-traffic data from 2,500 centers. People who previously drove straight...

Homes Sales to Improve in '24 from Current Levels The highest mortgage rates in 23 years are dragging down home sales to their lowest levels since the subprime crisis period. Sales of previously owned homes in 2023 are expected to dwindle to a rate not seen since at least 2011, when the U.S. population was smaller and the country was still recovering from one of the worst housing crises ever. This...

A home appraisal is a crucial step in the closing process. But depending on how the appraisal comes out, it can make or break a sale. Let’s talk about everything you need to know about home appraisals. What is a home appraisal? An appraisal is an assessment of the property’s worth based on an appraiser’s professional opinion.  Are home appraisals and home inspections the same thing? No. Though both...

New Business Development Tool! Liberty Title has recently launched a new Lead Generation platform on our website, to provide Realtors and Investors with the latest technology to assist in business development and also market intelligence to make more informed Real Estate decisions. As a Realtor, are you having particular success in a specific neighborhood or have you developed a particular expertise...

Estoppel letters are commonly known as homeowner’s association (HOA) dues letters or certificates in other states. But in Florida, we refer to them as estoppel letters. Let’s talk about the role an estoppel letter plays in a real estate transaction and the common fees associated with getting one. What is an estoppel letter in Florida? Estoppel letters are part of any real estate closing for a home or...

The Liberty Library is a publication of the latest, most important news in the Financial and Real Estate markets. Rising Insurance Costs Start to Hit Home Sales Cape Coral, Fla., was devastated by Hurricane Ian last year, but real-estate agents still pitch waterfront homes as “Gulf access haven.” Insurers take a different view however. Home-insurance premiums are soaring in the Southwest Florida...

No matter where you live, you need to prepare your home for any type of climate threat or natural disaster. And if you live in an area like Florida prone to hurricanes or other storms, it’s especially important. This means making sure your homeowners insurance has you covered with the right amount and policies. How much homeowners insurance do I need? It all depends. You need the right amount of...

US homeowners are nearly twice as willing to sell if their mortgage rate is 5% or higher, but just one in five mortgaged homes meet that criteria. For those who have a mortgage rate of at least 5%, 38% said they’re planning on selling their homes, according to a quarterly survey by Zillow. Just 21% of holders with rates below that dividing line said the same. Existing-home sales have...

Most people feel they pay too much in property taxes. But there are ways you can lower them. Let’s look at the 5 steps you can take to lower your next property tax bill. Request your property tax card The local assessor’s office has on file all of the necessary information about your property. And you can request a copy of your tax card with this information from them. On the property tax card,...

"A rolling loan, they say, gathers no loss." Commercial mortgages function differently than residential loans. Investors borrow for shorter periods and structure loans with large balloon payments at the end. They're designed to be refinanced. It's not that market participants have forgotten the lessons of the global financial crisis that followed the 2000s boom, it's that they remembered them. In the...