My big plan this year is to buy my first house.

It seems so odd to say that, because I’ve actually owned several homes. In fact, I own one right now. The difference is that I owned those homes with my ex-husband. So, this goal I have of buying a house this year is a goal that involves me buying my first home all on my own.

There are a lot of great deals on the market, but I have always wanted to have a home built brand new, according to my dreams and personal tastes. When we were planning our move back to the bay area from Gainesville, we were “this close” to having a house custom built. In the end, we just couldn’t find a lot we liked in the middle of the insane real-estate bubble that was happening here.

Now that it is just me and my daughter, that “perfect” house I have inside my head is a whole lot smaller. It’s also got a cozier floor plan. Without the ex in the picture there is less of a need for a “man retreat”. I’ve been having such a fantastic time looking over the plans that Schumacher Homes has on their website. If I could fall into a great deal on a lot, then the cost of building the actual home is really quite reasonable.

All in all, the more research I do, the more I see that staying within a modest budget does not rule out having a dream home built to your own standards.

I think we all knew things for the housing market were only going to get worse, even though we hoped with all our might it would not happen. Hey, believe me, I am one of the people impacted by this mess. I have been divorced over two years now, and we cannot even put our home on the market since we know we will never get nearly enough to cover paying off the bank. We bought at the top of the bubble.

My ex lives in the house and is blessed that he can actually afford the payments. We are not caught in the trap of an ARM, thankfully. Our only headache is that we bought the house for such a high price that if we were to sell it for the going rate right now; we would not be able to cover the cost of the remained of our loan and would have to plunge into our savings accounts to pay it off. So, as much as I want that house out of the picture and loathe the idea that I still own a home with my ex, it would be unwise to sell right now.

On the other hand, those who have never owned a home and are also in a good situation to secure one of the very low interest loans are in a VERY good place when it comes to the availability of low priced homes. If I wiggle a few tings around in my personal situation, I am one of those people. I am heartily considering just signing the house over to my ex and moving along. I can pick up one of the townhomes in the community where I lived when I was first married for nearly the price we sold one for back in 2002.

Still, the overall picture is not good for our collective economy. Everything is so interlinked. More sad news about the housing market only serves as a harbinger about the jobless rate to come and issues like budget shortfalls in city and state governments. Schools are closing, businesses are shutting their doors, and the deep discounts offered by many retailers BEFORE Christmas are all sad signs of the state of our economy.

I keep thinking that I need to get my rear end in gear and put out a massive garden in the yard next year. I want to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Not working outside of the home is nice sometimes. It is not a long-term goal, though, because my income is not steady and I cannot count on a set amount each month. Plus, I want to buy a house and I cannot just walk into the credit union and declare my income when most of what I do is freelance. I need a job so I can prove regular income.

When I was first married I lived in a townhome community that I LOVED. My mother and my mother-in-law both begged us to not sell it when we moved to Gainesville. They thought we should keep it as an investment property and my mother even considered buying it. In the end, we sold it to have a tidy down payment on the dream home we bought in Gainesville.

What I wouldn’t do not to have that townhome. I’m back in the area now and single and in need of a place just like that.

However, I just noticed that some of the units are coming down in price and are not so much higher than what we sold ours for in 2003. I want one! I want one now, but I have to get that job first.

One of the more odd side effects of all of the foreclosures we are seeing in the area is how some communities are seeing their cable bills go up in price every single month.

One Gibsonton, Florida woman reports her cable TV bill has gone up 44% so far.

Why?

Some communities with homeowners associations were able to negotiate discount cable packages for their members. The problem is when home owners start going into foreclosure and stop paying their homeowners association becomes unable to pay the full fixed payment they agreed to pay the cable company.

Some community associations are finding themselves in the red, because the fees they pay monthly to the cable company makes up close to half their monthly association bills. The cable company charges late fees and sometimes increases the bill. The homeowners are feeling the pinch.

Banks are supposed to pay association fees on homes they receive through foreclosure. It turns out that actually getting them to pay can mean a lot of paperwork – which means increased legal fees.

When it was all guns firing in the real estate market in Pasco County, Florida a couple o years ago, you could not even get on a waiting list to contract a house for a good 18 months. Then, you had to hope that enthusiastic developers had not upped =prices out of your range so that you would not lose your deposit when you had to back out. It was one hot market.

Unfortunately, it was filled with buyers from out of town and those hoping to flip properties for a quick profit. Now that the market is taking a nosedive, the same communities that were selling homes faster than hotcakes are now full of rental properties and homes going into foreclosure.

And because of that, crime is on the rise, as are drug dealing, gang graffiti and poorly maintained properties.

Companies like Lenar are admitting now that they sold as many as five homes to a single investor. Some were lucky enough to resell quickly at a profit, while others are holding homes they can no longer afford, contributing to the downfall of the area.

Buying a house is a huge investment. Most families set themselves up for at least 30 years of debt when they buy a home. You shop around; look at many options, and chooser the best home for your budget and lifestyle. Most of us do not stop to think that the dream home we sink our life savings into to secure a down payment may have legal issues that could put our ownership in jeopardy in the future.

That is where a title insurance company comes into play. A title company has the means and experience to research the property you are buying to make sure it does not have liens against it or even inheritance issues. Once they determine there is nothing that will challenge your ownership in the future, they issue a policy that covers possible future legal issues and lawsuits attacking your claim.

Title insurance companies are often chosen by your seller’s realtor or perhaps your mortgage company. There are sometimes complicated professional relationships involved. You should be aware, though, that the law says you do not have to go with a title company you do not want to work with and may choose your own. In fact, if anyone tells you that you must go with a particular title company, you can inform them that they are breaking federal laws by telling you.

It’s not a headline that makes people like happy. I have a house on the market. And what a deplorable market it is! Believe me, if it were not for my divorce, I would not be touching the current real estate market with a 20-foot-pole. No, indeed.

In the midst of all that, Forbes magazine online and Moody’s Economy.com have named the Tampa Bay area as the number one place in the United States to buy a house.

BUY a house. Not, you see, to sell a house. *sigh*

Forbes says the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region is a prime bounce-back market. They predict a classic V-shaped recovery, where the real estate market will experience a free fall followed by a strong rebound. Forbes looked for areas that had a lot of seller’s desperate to strike a bargain. All in all, a good bit of news for buyers.

Of course, that is of little consolation to me. :

Forbes’ top 10

1. Tampa

2. Minneapolis

3. Miami

4. Kansas City

5. Chicago

6. Phoenix

7. San Diego

8. Milwaukee

9. New York City

10. Atlanta

I have bought and sold my share of houses since 2000. When I was married, we moved so often that it felt like we always had a house on the market. We even got to the point where we had specific professionals we liked to use regularly for our transactions. I am not sure we will be using all of the same people when we sell this current home, but that is simply because we are taking such a beating from the real estate market right now. I get so mad I could spit when I think about my ex’s timing on the divorce,… and the blasted real estate market condition.

If you have been involved in even one real estate transaction, you understand the importance of title insurance. When I was talking about having preferred professionals we worked with over and over, our title insurance company was one of those. On the whole, most title companies seem very much the same, but when you look a little deeper you will find that they differ greatly when it comes to reputation and community standing.

Basically, title insurance is your protection against the possibility that someone might come along who feels like they have some sort of legal claim to the property you have purchased, such as an inheritance or a lien. There are cases where someone purchases a property without knowing that another party had a lien on the property and that situation can get terribly messy. Title insurance covers the situation for future loss. You want to make sure the title company you are working with is thorough and reputable. That is why we tended to stick with one company over and over.

It’s not a good time to have a house on the market in the Tampa Bay area. I get itchy every single time I think about how long my house might sit unsold. If it were not for my recent divorce, I surely would not go anywhere near the housing market right now, not even to buy.

As of last month, the median home price in the area fell 14%. Homes sales fell 32%. Both of these are as compared to the same period last year.

Although other areas in the country are seeing a slow up rise in their housing markets, the situation in the Tamp Bay area is not projected to have a rebound until sometime in 2009. Yikes.

This is the worst things have been since 1982.

It’s a bad time to sell, for obvious reasons. And, although some people say now is the time to buy, things are only going to get more dire so the really great deals are actually further down the road.

Now that the writer’s guild strike has completely alleviated anything good to watch on network television, I find myself venturing up into the higher cable channels more often when looking for something to watch for a few minutes. I have been watching some of the real estate flippingshows on Home and Garden TV and wonder how old some of the episodes may actually be. With the real estate market in its current crisis state, less people are buying houses and condos with the simple intension of fixing them up for a quick resale profit. I see more people investing in commercial real estate, honestly. The shows are still fun to watch. The people flipping the houses go over budget more often than not and it’s cool to see how they compensate and still make the houses look great.

It’s no secret that the general housing market is tanking all over the place. It is especially bad here in the Tampa Bay area. In fact, the sales of new and previously owned home in this particular region have been harder hit than in most other areas. It’s a bad time to have a house on the market and I can say that from experience – unfortunately.

Just because the residential market is so difficult right now does not mean that real estate as an investment is no longer a viable option. You just have to look around for other ways to invest. Going in and buying a slew on pre-construction condos and hoping to flip them is no longer the way to make a quick buck.

TIC, or Tenant In Common, transactions, are where a developers purchase an institutional-grade asset and then offers investors a percentage interest in the property – or, fractional interest. I know this is an over-simplified explanation of the process, but my goal here is not to fully educate you on the ins and outs of a TIC as much as it is to point out that real estate as an investment is still alive and kicking. Unlike flipping a house, partnering in a TIC Investment is a long-term commitment and there are usually income guidelines. Nonetheless, if properly executed, they can provide a positive monthly cash flow.

My house is on the market. I cannot stress enough that this is not a good time to have to sell a house, but then the real estate industry took a nosedive exactly one month after we purchased our massive Albatross here in Florida and has not corrected in the least since. We have put off listing it for almost two years now, but I just cannot stand co-owning this house with my ex and have insisted that he comply with the court order and put it on the market this month.

My ex chose an agent that lives in the same neighborhood, which seemed like a good idea at first since she knows the area and the particular charms of our community. But, she is unwavering on her commission and I have not been happy with her repeated insistence that we do bits of work on the house here and there before she will even list it. Our house is stunning and relatively new. Keep in mind that her boyfriend is a handyman and thus far has procured a boatload of work out of our house, mostly because my ex is a sucker.

I am urging him to look for a new agent.

I plugged our zip code into the ePERKS.com website and came up with a real estate agent who says he offers 15.5% cash back. Essentially, he is offering a percentage of his commission back at closing. While browsing through agent listings in other areas, I saw people offering even higher percentages and even perks like cruise tickets and flight tickets.

ePERKS also has a section that lists car dealers and home improvement providers, also offering perks to incite you to choose their services.

I’m no expert, but in the process of buying and selling houses in the course of my marriage, I learned a lot about the real estate game and the other industries that feed off of it.

One of the aspects of the whole buying a house process that was new information for me was the concept of title insurance. I’ve bought and sold two houses now, with one last house on the market. So, all of the little expenses and legal aspects of the process are still important for me to understand. It’s complicated, to my ears. Title insurance basically insures against losses caused by title problems that have their source in past events, like liens or deeds of trust still attatched to the property. You need to know if you are buying your home free and clear.

TGenerally, title companies work along with your lender or real estate agent. When we sold our house in Gainesville, we happened to like the title agent we had used to buy the house and asked to use him again in the process, since the buyers were from out of state and had no preference.

What I focus on is my rights in the arena of title insurance. The homeowner has the right to choose the title insurance companies they wish to work with, though more often than not the bank or attorney involved in the purchase or refinance will choose the company., Nonetheless RESPA laws say that it is not legal for a homeowner to be forced to use any one company. In the end, you still have a say. Obtaining a clear title is usually not a problem, but title insurance provides you with assurance that you are not going to lose valuable property in the future if there is a problem.

I’m not sure how it will be before I venture out into the current housing market again once we sell our house, but I can say that I’m much more educated in the process than I was when we bought our first house.

I’ve always thought of Colorado as a place to visit rather than a place to live. I have an old friend from high school who is a Denver real estate agent and sometimes she sends me listings to try and entice me to move there. Clever thing, that girl. The properties are always tempting. But I am an East Coast girl to the core.

What got me to thinking about this is my dad just sent me some old pictures he found from a trip he took to Estes Park. I’d post some, but they are actually prints he sent in the mail. I’m not in a position to scan them right now. ? He went during the summer one year and the pictures he sent were taken from the open door of his hotel room. In the distance you can see mountains capped with snow. That sounds wonderful right about now.

It also makes me think about an old boyfriend who would tell me stories about when he lived in Denver. He and some friends decided to take off for the peaks one 4th of July to play in the snow. He told me that story while we were melting from the July heat in West Virginia watching the annual fireworks on the river. It made me crave a cold beer.

We have another hot day here in Florida. Picturing snow capped mountains actually does help cool me off as I sit here next to the oscillating fan.

Somehow you just don’t feel so alone in the world when you stop and realize that the United States isn’t the only nation with crappy real estate problems. We have a glut of properties on the market here in the U.S. due to plummeting home prices. The market is re-adjusting itself after a massive mushroom of falsely inflating pricing. We bought our last home at the height of the real estate bubble and now that we need to sell, we will not even be able to ask close to what we paid. And, there are unreasonable taxes and skyrocketing home owner’s insurances rates to consider.

Alas, over in the U.K. there are woes in the real estate market as well. Their housing market is also oversaturated, with the buy-to-let market seeing the biggest glut. Part of this is due to the fact that so many sellers put their proprieties on the market this summer to try and beat the June 1 HIPs deadline.

Currently, it still stands to see if HIPs (Home Information Packs) will be introduced at all. The packs would include title deeds, copies of planning approvals, local searches, guarantees for any work done and an energy performance certificate. They were going to be required for all homes sold after June 1 and cost sellers between 300 and 500.

Oddly, delays in the process have caused a situation where HIPs are now only required for homes with 4 or more bedrooms. There has been a trend in property owners listing 4-bedroom homes as 3-bedrooms plus stuffy, to avoid the fee. Silly, since a fee of 500 is far less than the additional income a 4th bedroom could potentially bring.

Seems to me that even if HIPs are a bane for sellers, they are a boon for buyers. The additional information required in the packets protects the buyer in many ways, much like an inspection does here in the U.S.

Real estate market woes: they seem to be universal. Perhaps going back to a time where we all lived in caves and log dwellings wouldn’t be so bad.