The local real estate market here in Orlando has been under a lot of scrutiny lately along with the majority of the US housing market. The headlines read "Orlando-area home sales drop 35% in April". While we cannot dispute this fact that the numbers are down but is the press giving this market a bad wrap?

In 1999 I was just getting into real estate sales. While taking my real estate classes I remember my instructor ranting about how great the Orlando real estate market was at the time. I do not recall negative press for the real estate market during that time. I went on to get my real estate license and never heard a whimper from anyone during my first few years about a bad market. Well as we all know from 2002 - 2006 the housing market in Orlando and…

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One of the newest and hottest concepts in the Orlando real estate market is the condo hotel. A condo hotel concept incorporates traditional condominium ownership with all the luxuries of a world class hotel resort. Condo hotel or CONDOTELSÂť appeal to many people interested in a vacation home due to their luxury accommodations, first class amenities and great locations. Combine all of these factors with the ease of ownership, and it is easy to understand why people are now opting to purchase a condo hotel over a traditional vacation home.

The Orlando condo hotel market has recently taken the area by storm. There are many new developments underway that will offer buyers some of the most exclusive vacation home ownership in the area. These four and five…

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In recent years there have been many cases where people are buying homes and later realizing that the square footage does not measure up to what they had been told. How can this be so? Most real estate professionals are going off of the tax records which should be accurate but many are finding discrepancies.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that there are no universally adopted standards in measuring the square footage of a home. Architects measure square footage from the interior of the wall and others measure from the exterior, some include stairways and others do not. In many cases the difference in square footage can be approximately 5%.  In a 2500 square foot house 5% is another 125 Square feet in many homes that's another bedroom.  What would…

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