Duncan Duo 12-22-24

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Sunday, Tampa Bay. We're with you for another week

(00:02):
here on the Duncan Duo Real Estate Show, talking about
the Tampa Bay real estate market like I am every
Sunday for more than a decade at ten o'clock right
here on WFLA news man, I have to tell you,
I am so grateful to be here talking real estate today.
I have spent the last week in bed, bedridden after

(00:23):
a surgery I had last week that was expected only
to take a day or two of recovery and ended
up taking a week. It's a reminder as I get older,
how much longer it takes the heel so finally up
and out of the bed and feeling closer to closer
to normal, still pain and weakness, but a lot better

(00:44):
than I was. I was in pretty rough shape there
for a week. So excited to be talking about the
real estate market today and everything that we have going
on Tampa Bay real Estate. When we aren't on air,
make sure to follow us at the Duncan Duo, foll
us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and so much more

(01:08):
videos content, everything we put out about real estate with
on our socials and if you're thinking about selling your home.
You know, we've got some great success stories lately. We've
helped people who needed to sell their home fast because
it was damaged from the storms. We have people who
we bought their home cash because they were just ready
to move. We have people who we put on their
home on the traditional retail market, got bidding wars above

(01:30):
asking prices, sold very quickly. So no matter what your
path is, whether you want a quick sale, whether you
want the most money, we'll execute the strategy that lines
up with your goals. And you can find out your
home value and apply for any of our programs at
Duncan Duo dot com. Again, that's Duncanduo dot com. So
I want to talk about the Federal Reserve cutting rates,
but first I want to get to something that my

(01:52):
buddy Burlander sent me this week about political affiliation. There's
a new website and I would love to hear you
guys thoughts. I'll post it on my social channels. I
would love to hear you guys thoughts about this. It
is a new platform that lets home buyers check their
neighbors' political affiliations. Now, for some people, they may look

(02:16):
at this and say, hey, I don't really care what
my neighbor votes as or votes like, or I really
don't want to be around a bunch of people that
have an alternate political view system to me, and I
want to be around people that think more like me.
And you know, a few years ago, out and have
thought that this was kind of silly and probably wouldn't
impact much, and maybe just the morbidly curious would likely

(02:38):
use a service like this. And the service is called or.
It's like Odyssey without the D. So it's o y
ss y. And so what you can do is you
can look up if you're thinking about making offer our house,
and you can find out all the affiliate political registrations
and affiliations of your neighbors. Now again, years ago, I
would have thought, Ah, this isn't going to be valid,

(02:59):
this is going to work, This isn't going to mean anything. However,
what I can tell you today is that we've never
been more politically polarized, and we've never you know, used
our wallet to voice our political opinion as well as
our where our families live than today. And I can
tell you this because of how many people have moved
to Florida since COVID based on some other states draconian

(03:24):
COVID restriction rules and laws, and how many people moved
here because in their states they were far too left
with how they instituted policy, and COVID was kind of
the breaking point. So we see a lot of political
movement now. We see people that leave Florida because they
want to go somewhere to a blue state. We see
people moving here from other blue states because they want

(03:47):
to be in a red state. They want to be
more around conservatives, and so, you know, and it's interesting
because of all the years doing this, I had never
really ever seen California license plates in Florida moving here,
with the exception of the military. Now, look, we know
that we have some you know, soldiers and and you

(04:09):
know Armed Forces personnel officers pcsing to McDill from places
in California, so that I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking people moving their families from California to Florida. And
it just didn't happen. And now it's a regular occurrence.
And whether you love or hate the number of people
that have moved here because our population has grown, it's

(04:30):
because Florida is operating as a successful state in those
people's eyes. So With that being said, if we know
that consumers have said, hey, i'll move states because of
my political belief system, we're pretty confident that they'll move
to different neighborhoods based on the political makeup of the
neighborhood as well, because the people they have to see

(04:52):
when they take their trash out or when they go
get their mail. So it's really an interesting concept. I
think it'll be something that more and more consumers use. Now. Look,
as a real estate agent, we can't really get into
the the business of helping guide you based on that.
There's there's fair housing laws, and there's there's guidance that
we can give based on you know, the condition of
a home or the comparables or material defects or the disclosures.

(05:17):
But you know, we'll get consumers sometimes say well, I
want to live in this kind of neighborhood or that
kind of neighborhood, and it it skirts very closely to
violating you know, fair housing laws, where realtors really can't
even talk about it. So I don't suspect realtors are
going to start advocating this platform, but it is a
platform that home buyers are going to use to determine

(05:39):
what's going on in the neighborhood that they want to
move into. So it's a tech startup launching this month
in South Florida and New York City. Let's buyers access
neighborhood political affiliations based on election results and campaign contributions,
along with housing trends and other social data. It's betting
that buyers today care just as much about their neighbors
values as they do about square footage or modern finishes. Now,
I don't know if I believe that, because I think

(06:01):
we're I don't know that we've ever been less social
of a country than we are today. And when I
say that, I mean because the majority of our social
interaction is from our phones and devices and apps, not
from our interactions with people. So do I think it
will have an impact? Yes, of course it's going to
have an impact. Is it going to have as much
of an impact as someone's desire for square footage or

(06:23):
a garage or a modern home. I don't think so.
Will it have a minor impact yes? Will people use
it yes. Gold to develop into a tool that some
buyers use to decide where they want to live in
a particular part of town. City or state. Of course,
the public has already shown us that because of the migration.
If you look at the states that had the most

(06:44):
population growth, those states are gaining population. They're red states,
you know, and they're gaining population from blue states. So
we already know people do this. So within a state,
this is kind of taking it to another level. This is,
you know, not just within a state, but within a city,
within the neighborhood, and even within a street. On a

(07:05):
micro level, people are going to make choices based on this.
So I do think it's a neat platform. It is,
you know, it's it's not just about getting homes. The
buyer's love, but also buyer's priorities have changes. Buyers often
want to know, you know, what's going on in their neighborhood,
who lives there. And again, of course you could drive
around during an election and see the political signs, but

(07:28):
that's again the majority of people don't put political signs out.
They kind of keep their political affiliations close to their
chest or not trying to publicize it. But this app
really will advocate giving them data. But again, as far
as agents, it's a it's a really slippery slope for
agents to get involved with guiding consumers based on political beliefs.

(07:49):
It is you know again, you know, until there's some
sort of you know, release from different brokerages and Florida
reiltors and and all these other places, will be hard
to see how much this ends up, you know, checking
things out. But if you're curious, and look, everyone's curious.
You know that you've looked up your neighbors here and there.

(08:10):
You know, somebody you met, you want to know whether
they are aren't you know, your political beliefs isstem Are
they a Republican? Are they a Democrat? You don't really
want to ask them. You try and ask them questions
to try and figure it out, and they're guarded because
they know how polarizing society is today. So again, a's
see O Y S S E Y. We'll put it
up on our socials so that you can, you know, learn,

(08:33):
But I think it'll have it'll certainly have an impact.
So Federal Reserve cuts rates by a quarter point this week,
and it was it was not super well received. Most
of the markets had already factored in a quarter point cut,
at least from a mortgage perspective. The mortgage markets had
long anticipated we were going to see a quarter point drop.

(08:55):
They'd already priced it in for mortgage rates to drop
too much more then where they are from the Fed news,
we would have needed a couple of things. One, we
would have needed a bigger cut and or some indication
that rates would cut more next year, and they actually
dialed that in reverse. So prior to this this FED meeting,

(09:17):
the last FED meeting, there were anticipations that the Fed
was going to cut four times next year. Now they've
said it may only be twice next year. So they're
wanting to keep inflation in check. And while President elect
Trump has proposed a range of tax cuts as well
as scaling back of regulations, doesn't really have a control

(09:39):
over the Fed and interest rates and shared your own Powell.
So the reality is it's going to be a work
in progress. It's not going to happen quickly, and we're
not going to see dramatic cutting of interest rates in
twenty twenty five like the market, stock market, and like
a lot of people are hoping. It's why we saw
some pullback the day of the news, you know, you know,

(10:00):
drop in the stock market, a couple percentage point drop.
So again, what does that mean for rates in twenty
twenty five, they'll come down some, they're not gonna come
down a lot, you know, unless, of course, there's stuff
that changes. But as of right now, we're not going
to see a lot of change with mortgage rates from
the news because the markets had already factored it in.
So when you see that news, don't think all of

(10:22):
a sudden, mortgage rates are dropping. Now. What is going
to drop a quarter point would be things like credit
card rates, home equity lines, car car loans. So does
that help? Does it make things slightly more affordable, of course,
but but not some huge relief that that that a
lot of people were hoping for. Again, Wednesday's projection success

(10:44):
suggest that policymakers may think they're not very far from
the level. The benchmark rate stands at four point three
after Wednesday's move, which followed a steep half point reduction
in September. So so again we're expected to see, you know,
a couple more rate drops next year, probably a couple
more quarter point drops. Rates will come down a half
point maybe next year, but again that isn't getting us

(11:06):
anywhere near, you know, the the mark that the stock
market wanted, that the banks wanted and is literally more
of a slow move towards a you know, improved interest
rate market. So hopefully that helps you understand what's going on,
and again check us out on all of our socials,
will put up this information. We'll put a boss these

(11:26):
information at the Dunkin Duo, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. And
if you need to sell your home, man, we've got
some success stories lately. Oldsmar South Tampa, Reddington Beach, Shore Acres, Loots, Sarasota, Manatee.
Lots of homes that we've sold in the last few weeks.
You know, some in record times, some in bidding wars,

(11:47):
and some are just straight cash offered deals where we
bought the properties. So if you're someone that is looking
for any of those options, whether it's the best price,
the fastest sale, quick, in cash and clean, we've got
all the options at Dunkin Duo. We're gonna be back
after a quick break here on WFLA News. If you've
been paying attention at all to the real estate market
in Tampa Bay, you know that we really kind of

(12:08):
have two segments of the real estate market happening. You
have single family homes and then you have the condo market.
I'm Andrew Duncan of the Dunkin Duo team, and I'm
here every week talking about the Tampa Bay real estate market.
I've talked about this a few times, but with the
new year, there are going to be some new condo rules.
The condo market in Florida and in Tampa specifically has
just been throttled. We've seen a massive increase in inventory.

(12:32):
HOA rates have risen, insurance has risen. There are a
lot of things hoa's have to do because of the
Milestone Survey, Milestone Inspection, Turnover Report, and Structural Integrity Reserve study,
condos now have to take advantage of They have to
do all of these things which cost us an increase
in costs and increase in insurance, and they have to
solidify their building so that we don't see another condo

(12:55):
collapse like we did in Miami. Now, some people might
think that a lot of this is an overreaction, and
it's probably more of the impact is on older condos,
but we have a lot of that in our area.
So starting on January one, contracts for sale of a
condominium require statements to be included regarding the milestone inspection
to Turnover inspection report and Structural Integrity Reserve study. These

(13:17):
are three scenarios that require statement if the association is
required to complete one and the association's not completed them,
if the association is not required to complete one, and
if the association is required to complete honor after July one,
twenty twenty three, and the association has completed them. So
these extra things are basically that's kind of the thorn

(13:37):
in the side of the condo market. This is what
has caused our condo market to turn into a massive
buyer's market. I mean right now, if you own a
condo and you call a real estate agent right now,
I mean again, they know it's gonna be a hard sell.
Now again, there are some buildings doing well, there are
some newer construction buildings, there are some that maybe this

(13:59):
doesn't apply to, But overall, the condo market is in
much worse shape than single family homes because of this
specific scenario. So we're seeing in some parts of Penelas
County fifteen plus months of inventory. To put that into perspective,
that means if no other condos got put on the market,
which we know isn't gonna happen. It would take fifteen

(14:19):
months based on the current number of buyers that are
out there buying to sell the existing inventory. That's comparable
to the number of homes we had on the market
for months supply of inventory during the Great Recession, which
I remember unfortunately very well. If you had to sell
a property during that time, okay, you had to price
it like it was in a price war, and it

(14:42):
had to be a beauty contest. At the same time,
you had to have the best price in the best
condition to be the next one selected. Condo owners lose
the arrogance, lose the belief that yours is the best
in the community, lose the belief that this stuff doesn't
apply to you. Lose the belief that you don't have
to listen to your real estate agent, or you can
price higher than everyone else because you got nice cabinets
or countertops. The run up of the condo market is over.

(15:05):
Our condo market is dark. If you have a condo
to sell, you best price it very aggressively. You best
put it in the best possible condition. It must it
best be the best price, best conditioned condo in that building,
and it still might not sell. That's how much condo
market is out there. Again, it's similar to the foreclosure
market after the Great Recession. There's so much infinto wor

(15:26):
it is so much for people to choose from. And look,
they're looking at this stuff too. They're looking at it
and seeing what's happening. They see the inventory rising, they
see the price is dropping, They see how long it's
taking some of them to sell. Buyers aren't dumb. They
see this and they just say, I'll just wait for
a better deal, or I'll pit it three or four
of them against themselves to get the best deal I can.

(15:47):
So the condo market right now really really, really rough.
And you know a lot of this is geared around
these the Milestone Turnover and the the Structural Integrity Reserve
study that are all being integrated into law here in Florida.
So our condo market it's rough. If you got a

(16:09):
condo to sell. Again, like I said, better price aggressive.
We have clients call us or potential clients call us
and say, hey, I've got a condo I want to
sell for four hundred. We look it up. There's other
very comparable units in the building for three twenty three
point fifty four hundred is a dream. It's not happening.
Three twenty isn't happening. It's listed three twenty your competition,
and it isn't selling. So condo owners have to get really, really,

(16:32):
really serious. You have a poor performing asset that unfortunately
these new laws and the hurricanes have hurt them, and
for you to sell them to a buyer that sees
all the data, that understands what's going on, that sees
the trends, that sees the inventory, you have to knock
a buyer off the fence. You have to be an
incredible deal. You can't get what you got a year
ago or two years ago, where neighbors got three years ago.

(16:54):
Condo prices are headed downwards. So I hate to be
the bearer of bad news or the Grinch jury Christmas,
but condo homeowners, condo owners right now are just so unrealistic.
It's like they don't even pay attention to the data.
The data tells us you better price really aggressive if
you've got a condo if you want to sell it,
so hopefully that helps you. If you do have a
condo to sell, you can hit up dunkin doo it

(17:14):
dot com, but be advised if you call us, and
you want us to sell your condo, you better price
it aggressively or we don't want it. Frankly, it's just
gonna you're just gonna end up complaining when it doesn't
sell because you wouldn't listen on price, and six months later,
because you're fifty thousand dollars overpriced from the jump. By
the time six months is there, you're now one hundred
thousand dollars below and you can't get it sold, and
you want to blame the agent simply because you wouldn't

(17:35):
listen on price. We're not taking them. Honestly. If you've
got a condo and you're not going to aggressively price it,
don't call us. If you want to aggressively price it,
if you really want to move it, if you want
to move your condo, that's a business we're in. If
you're in a business of just listening to condo and
fantasy land prices and dreaming that the sunshine and rainbow
condo market's coming back anytime soon, this stuff is going

(17:55):
to take a long time to get through. The condo
market is going to be rough for a long time.
If you're thinking it's going to recover in six months.
You are sadly mistaken. So we'd love to help you
sell a condo, but man, you best price at writer,
it's not going to sell. So if that's you Duncan
Duo dot Com, We'll be back after a quick breaking
on the Duncan Duo Show. So back here on the
Duncan Duo Show talking about the Tampa Bay real estate market.

(18:16):
Andrew Duncan with the Duncan Duo team at LPT Realty.
We aren't on air at the Duncan Duo Twitter, Instagram, YouTube,
and TikTok and dunkin Duo dot com for your home
Value as them if you want to know what's going
on in your neighborhood, are there any foreclosures coming? Are
there any short sales? What's your neighbor asking for their home?
Would the properties sell for? How aggressively do I need?
The price? Very aggressive, especially if you're a condo. Duncan

(18:39):
Duo dot Com. American homeowners are wasting more space than
ever before, according to a recent article I reviewed. And
it's interesting because you know, and I think part of
this is also kind of aligning with the times. More
and more people kind of looking and opting to move
out to the urbs, work from home, not have to commute,
and they're opting for bigger home, bigger homes because they

(19:01):
get further away from you know, the urban core, meaning
it gets cheaper. So the number of extra bedrooms defined
as a bedroom in excess to the number of the
people in the home and even including one from offices,
reached a new high. The sevenfold jump over the past
forty years comes as the number of any people people
in any given household has declined. So obviously we know

(19:21):
that people are making less babies, okay, and because of
that and more people are splitting homes aka divorce. Because
of those things, you would expect home sizes a number
of extra bedrooms to drop, but quite the opposite has happened.
People apparently want more space. They want more space, they

(19:42):
want more extra rooms. And there may not be a
lot of homes for sales these day, but there's a
lot of housing space sitting impy. In fact, the most
in recorded history. The number of extra bedrooms is the
highest level ever. The number of extra bedrooms reached thirty
one point nine million, up from thirty one point three
and twenty two back in nineteen eighty. There were just
seven million extra bedrooms. Isn't that wild? How many more

(20:07):
extra bedrooms people feel like they need today than they
needed a few years ago. So home sizes continue to jump.
But again that that is applicable because I think more
and more people can afford a bigger home as they
move out further away from the city. And I think
we're in the beginning of, or continuation of a migration

(20:28):
of people from urban cores out to more suburban and
rural areas. I think the election was a mandate on that.
I think that the people moving to Florida have kind
of made those choices. I think in Tampa Bay specifically,
people moving away from the urban core because it's waterfront
and we have storms. So all these things, especially here
pointing to you know, homes getting a little bit bigger,

(20:50):
a little bit newer, and people moving you know, out
of their you know, kind of core areas and having
more space because again they're not making as many they
get the five bedroom home and the kids are off
to school and look, I get it, I'm in that boat.
So I think it's more and more common for people.

(21:11):
The top ten housing hotspots in twenty twenty five, I
found this interesting nun are in Florida, which isn't that
surprising to me? Our market is cooling a little bit,
and storms and insurance and costs and the milestone surveys
and the condo market. All these things I've talked about
have not put us, not put our our market in
the hot spots, but I want to go through them

(21:32):
very quickly just in case you know you're considering leaving
to one of those hotspots, or maybe you want to invest.
And whether you're thinking about leaving or whether you want
to invest, we can still help you. While we are
a central Florida based real estate team, we have relationships
with real estate agents all over the country. So if
you're thinking about buying home somewhere else, and you trust
what I talked about on the radio, know that I

(21:54):
have vetted a real estate agent in the market that
you're looking to buy, and I can help you find
the right agent that's going to give you great results
and great service. So if you think about moving, if
you think about buying an investment home somewhere else, we
can certainly refer you it help you regardless. So here
are the full NAR list of the top ten hot spots.
Four of them are in the South. Nut are in Florida, Boston, Cambridge, Newton, Massachusetts,

(22:20):
Charlotte's Concord, Gastonia, and North and South Carolina. Grand Rabbits, Kinwood, Michigan, Greenville, Anderson,
South Carolina, Hartford, East Hartford, Middleton, Connecticut, Indianapolis, Carmel, Anderson, Indiana,
My old stomping grounds where I went to high school
and college, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas, Knoxville, Tennessee, Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Arizona,
and San Antonio New Brownfells, Texas. So while the NAR

(22:43):
did not rank the hot spots, the Metro ARI comprising
of Greenville and Anderson, South Carolina, stands out. According to
the report, Factors such as positive financing environment, strong migration gains,
better affordability, and job creation and appreciation of the area
helped drive those results. So again, you're listening to the
Dunkin Doo Real Estate Show. When we aren't on air,

(23:04):
please follow us. We are at the Dunkin Duo Twitter, Instagram, UH, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook,
and so much more. Uh. Anytime that we are talking
about real estate, we are right here giving you all
the knowledge and keeping you posted on what's going on
and always available at duncinduo dot com. Again, that is

(23:27):
duncinduo dot com for your free home value askimate to
learn what's going on in your neighborhood and find out
what's going on with your home value, with your neighbor's
home value, and so much more. I already talked about
the you know, the mortgage rates, you know, but but
I want to talk about Fannymay's affordability study that they

(23:49):
came out with, and affordability over the next year, depending
on where you're at in the country, isn't going to
change a whole lot. Truthfully, prices in some areas are
going to rie a little bit, some areas are going
to stabilize and flatline. We're not going to see huge
drops and pricing in markets overall, except in segments of
the market. We're in a real estate market in Tampa

(24:11):
Bay where it's probably never had the segmentation impact that
we have now, where different product types are performing drastically different.
What I mean by that is what I mentioned earlier.
Single family homes and town homes are still performing very well.
Values are still rising, People still want those products, people
are still buying them. There's people still moving here. Condos,

(24:32):
on the other hand, are like the scarlet letter of
the Tampa Bay real estate market. They're sitting on the
market forever, those months and months and months of invatory
prices are dropping aggressively. So so you know, again, the
affordability of condos may get a little bit better from
a price perspective, but most people expect HOA fees to
go up because of insurance, so that overall affordability won't

(24:54):
be impacted as much. So Fannimaze economists shared five predictions
for the housing market in twenty They expect average mortgage
rates will decline modestly but remain above six percent, with
likely bouts of volatility. Existing home sales will remain near
thirty year lows, but location matters. New home sales will

(25:15):
remain a bright spot in the housing market where they
can be built. National home price growth will decelerate. In
other words, they predict we will not see an increase
in home values the home value average nationally. Now again,
you may see that in some areas. We may see
that in Tampa simply because the single family home market

(25:36):
may perform a little bit better than the condo market.
We may see a little bit of price acceleration, but
we're not going to see much, and multi family housing
will remain in a holding pattern. Twenty twenty five will
look a lot like twenty twenty four. Mortgage rates above
six percent, home price growth easing but staying positive, and
supply remaining below pre pandemic levels, and again the reality

(25:58):
of a massive change in our real estate market. I
talked to friends this past week that had contemplated selling
and upgrading. They're doing better now financially, but the the
low interest rates from a few years ago are kind
of like golden handcuffs for people, you know, when they're
when they're in their property and they've got a two
or three percent interust rate, there's just not a lot

(26:19):
that's going to motivate them to move to a seven
that they just prefer to stay where they're at, or
if they do move up, they keep the property that
they own that's at two or three percent and rent
it out. So without more inventory, we can't create more sales. Now.
The condo market, of course, we're seeing a litany of
of you know, unrealistic, ridiculous priced, unsellable, unrealistic seller condos

(26:43):
because they're just not paying attention to what's happening. They're
not they're not listening, they're not looking at the data.
And there's a lot of a lot of real estate
agents out there, you know, blowing smoke to people and
giving them pricing opinions that are just completely unrealistic based
on the data. So when I'm talking about this, I'm
I'm really more referring to the single family home market
because it's a little bit more stable, but the affordability

(27:07):
is just knocking to change a whole lot in twenty
twenty five. If interest rates drop more than predicted, and
the Fed just came out this week and said we
were going to see two drops next year, whereas before
they were saying four. If there's some sort of change
and it gets into maybe even more FED rate cuts,
you could see some affordability. If interest rates getting into
the fours and fives, a lot of those people in

(27:29):
the twos and threes will We'll move. They'll say it's
close enough. But with interest rates and the sixes, it's
just not that rates haven't dropped enough to motivate those
people to create enough inventory, to create more home sales,
to create the momentum we need to increase home sales
because so many people are just going to say, why
would I sell? Why would I sell this asset that
I could rent and make great cash flow? Or why

(27:51):
would I if I'm not if I don't have to move,
Why would I sell my home right now and go
out and buy one unless I have cash? Why would
I go buy one at seven percent? Nobody would, which
is what we're seeing. We're seeing more and more consumers
say they're just staying put, they're not going to sell.
And so until a substantial movement in interest rates, probably

(28:15):
at least a full point point and a half or
more happens, we're just not going to see a massive
change in the affordability or a massive move towards you know,
any kind of peak real estate market. So we're going
to kind of stay in this whole, you know, kind
of stabilizing holding pattern with without a lot of you know,

(28:38):
without a lot of movement heading in a in a
good direction. So, hey, I do want to mention one
thing though, you know, one of the things I always
like to do during holidays is kind of go through
and and do almost like a financial study on you know,
what I spend money on my insurances, my set bills.

(28:59):
You know, I spent some time this week going through insurances,
going through you know, some of the streaming services that
I that I've signed up for twice. You know that
I have two subscriptions for just a whole bunch of
different things that I did. But one of the things
I uncovered was not understanding some of the insurance that
you get on your credit cards, whether that's car rentals,

(29:22):
lost or destroyed phones. I had a friend tell me
this week and I didn't even realize it. There they
lost their phone in the flood and their AMX covered it.
So you know, again, I know there's a lot of
people helping people out there right now. I know there's
a lot of people focused on disaster relief. But our
counties you can go and apply to try and get
your your your property taxes rebated. You there's things you

(29:46):
can do with relief from insurance. But don't forget, especially
when it comes to some of your materials. You may
have credit card insurance, you know, whether it's you know,
a a you know, device that you lost, whether it's
some sort of you know, you went past a return
period because the storms happened there, there are some things

(30:07):
I think that people are missing right now. So go
through your credit cards and make sure because I found
a couple of opportunities where I'll get some money back
from from different things that happened, you know, kind of
due to the storms, simply from the insurance and the
protections on my Annex cards. So no matter what your
credit card is, take a look at the take a
look at the offerings. Look, they send these big books

(30:28):
that give you all these benefits, and so many people
don't take advantage of them or forget about them, and
then they'll go out and buy a new phone when
their insurance may have covered it on their on the
credit cards. So you know, as you're kind of you know,
kind of heading towards the end of the year, and
you have a little bit of downtime. And look, we
know anybody that you know, after about this point in
the year, people aren't really working that much anymore. You know,
everyone's kind of taking it slow and kind of winding

(30:49):
down the year. So as you get some of that
free time, sit down and go through your credit cards,
go through some of the things that you've lost money
on or you had damages from, and and you know,
and be aware of what your credit card offers, because
there are a lot of times where you can get
some money back, you know, through the insurance that you pay,
and it's whether you pay an annual fee on that card,

(31:10):
whether it's through the interest that they make. They're making
money to offer you those things. So definitely worth looking
into and taking advantage of if you're somebody that had
some losses from anything recently that a credit card may cover.
Most real estate agents know about chat GPT, but man,
I want to tell you I went to the Lightning

(31:31):
the Vinex Sports Group Lightning Partner Mastermind event that they
had a couple of weeks ago, and my goodness, the
amount of the pace at which AI is growing in
terms of content creation at photo editing, giving you answers,
helping you come up with things. It's really pretty remarkable.

(31:51):
So if you haven't looked into that, just know that
real estate agents starting to use to them more and more.
It is going to replace a lot of the services
you know, from photo editing to description right, it's pretty
incredible how useful it is becoming to manage expenses, organize contacts,
and so many other things. It is just amazing. What's
happening with AI technology, So we'll be back. We're need

(32:13):
this conversation if you want your home value estimate dunkin
duo dot com, if you're thinking about selling your home,
Duncan Duo dot com. And we'll be back after a
quick break here on WFLA News. So back here on
the Duncan Duo Show talking about the Tampa Bay real
estate mark. I talked in the last segment about your
kind of year in financial planning or financial review, cutting expenses,

(32:33):
figuring out where you're spending too much money, getting new
insurance prices. But one thing I want to speak on
and again it's still fresh in our minds. We're still
recovering as a community from you know, Helena and Milton.
There are still people homeless, you know, that are living
in hotels and dealing with the construction nightmares. There are
still people fighting with cities and municipalities over their you know,

(32:56):
their substantial damage letters that indicate they can't read build
their home as it sits, they must raise it or
tear it down. There's just still so much going on
in our community right now from the storms, and I
want to make sure people don't forget because again we're
in December, We're past hurricane season. Okay, it's it's you know,

(33:16):
maybe a half year away or you know, around that,
And I want to make sure that people don't forget
about the importance of getting flood insurance. This is the
time of year to get it because there aren't any storms.
It's it's it can be a little cheaper sometimes in
off seasons, but if you are someone who was impacted

(33:37):
or you dodged a bullet, and you know, again, there
are just so many people that if they would have
had flood insurance, the impact would have been different. People
that frankly aren't required to have flood insurance. So I
want to I want to like reiterate this because when
people are told they're required to have flood insurance, I
want you to understand that is the mortgage lenders saying
they're required. That is FEMA, the wonderfully well run, well

(34:03):
respected Can you sense my sarcasm FEMA. FEMA determines your
flood rate based on the elevation of the home, not
historic flooding, not how often it floods, not how poor
the drainage is, not how close to water, it is elevation.
That's it, and you know how horrible of a job

(34:26):
they do at determining what mandatory flood zones are. When
we have so many homes in Tampa Bay from Helena
Milton that flooded that aren't in flood zones. Okay, that
aren't in areas prone to flooding. Okay, do not trust
FEMA with deciding you should get flood insurance. Don't trust

(34:46):
your lender doesn't care about you. Your lender only cares
about checking a box on a federal form and making
sure that you follow the law. Okay, determine if you
should get flood insurance based on your own research, and
do deal diligence and win in doubt. Get it. It's
cheap if you're not in a flood zone. It's cheap

(35:06):
if you don't if your elevation is high. But I
can tell you how FEMA determines who should get flood
insurance is a joke. It's a joke because if you
look at how many people got flooded and damaged from
these storms that aren't in FEMA flood zones, it tells
you how accurate they are aka not accurate at all.
It's a joke. Don't let anyone tell you whether you're

(35:27):
required or not required. Do not let that make your decision. Okay,
make your decision, doing your own research and win in doubt.
Get flood insurance. There are so many people that could
have avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars of loss with
a few hundred dollars or maybe even one thousand dollars
annual flood policy. A few trips to Starbucks a month,

(35:49):
a couple trips to Chipotle, and there you go. You
got it. Okay, Really think about whether you should should
or should not have flood insurance. Think about buying it.
Don't wait till it's too late. Don't be one of
the horrible stories on the news of people that are
devastated because their lender told them they didn't have to
have flood insurance. Don't rely on anyone else for this.

(36:10):
Don't rely on lenders, don't rely on the federal government.
Decide for yourself whether you need flood insurance or not.
And if you think there's a chance that you should
get it, it is worth it. It will save you
a lot of money. There are people that lost everything
because they didn't opt to have flood insurance because quote
unquote or undertold them they didn't have to have it.
Not having to have it and not choosing to have

(36:31):
it are two completely different things. There are so many
people that need flood insurance. And again, I could do
a whole segment, a whole show on the number of
people that I've spoken to that passed on flood insurance
that regret it. And I promise you this, Okay, it
is worth it. We are on a peninsula, especially if
you're anywhere close to water. We're on a penince. Florida's

(36:53):
a peninsula. The whole thing's a flood zone. Okay. The
federal government determining through FEMA who should or shouldn't have
flood insurance is a joke. It's not going to make
you feel good at night. It's not going to help you.
If you don't get it. You're seven hundred and fifty
dollars from FEMA. Good luck getting it. It's a joke.
Please please don't trust FEMA. Go get flood insurance. You know,

(37:15):
whether you know, find a way to afford it. If
you're a homeowner and you are in Tampa Bay, you
should have flood insurance. Period. So that's my podium speech
that's my Christmas speech. Where a week before or the
week before Christmas here or the week of Christmas actually,
and I hope you're enjoying time with your families if
your real estate goals are to sell a home or

(37:35):
buy a home. In twenty twenty five, our team is
still working. We have agents going throughout the holidays in
the new year because there are a lot of agents
that are just gone this time of year. So if
you're experiencing that, if you're working with someone else and
they're not serving you, we'd love the opportunity to apply
for the job. Dunkin doo it dot com, hit us up,
call us eight one, three, three five nine eighty nine
ninety call or text us at that number, and we

(37:57):
would love to help you with your real estate needs.
Appreciate you tuning in. Hope you have a very merry Christmas,
have an awesome time with your friends and family this
holiday season, and we'll be back next week continuing to
keep you updated on everything real estate here in Tampa
Bay on the Duncan Duo Show. Have an awesome rest
your weekend. Tampa Bay