Florida Legislature focuses on emotional support animals

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 26, 2019 – The Florida Legislature has turned its focus to emotional support animals under two bills introduced in the House (HB 721) and Senate (SB 1128). Three committees were scheduled to hear each bill in their respective houses, and both have passed two committees so far. If passed by their third and last committee, they will head to the full floor of the House and Senate for a vote.

Florida's existing law for service animals mirrors federal Americans with Disability Act (ADA) laws; however, state law does not address emotional support animals (ESAs). As a result, someone can currently comply with Florida law when dealing with ESAs but violate federal law. These bills would correct that federal-state discrepancy by adding ESAs into Florida statues if passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

If passed, the bills would also add a punishment for people who falsely claim that a pet is an emotional support animal. In the current version of the bill, which is still subject to change through amendments, the text reads:

"A person who falsifies written documentation … for an emotional support animal or otherwise knowingly and willfully misrepresents herself or himself, through conduct or verbal or written notice, as using an emotional support animal and being qualified to use an emotional support animal, commits a misdemeanor of the second degree … and must perform 30 hours of community service for an organization that serves individuals with disabilities, or for another entity or organization at the discretion of the court, to be completed in not more than 6 months."

The misdemeanor addition is new as it applies to ESAs, but it already exists in Florida law with respect to service animals.

The ADA defines service animal as an animal trained to do work or perform tasks benefitting a person with a disability. An emotional support animal (ESA) is not the same thing as a service animal, but the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing access based on a person's disability and requires reasonable accommodations. Unlike a public accommodation under the ADA, a housing provider must also make FHA reasonable accommodations for an emotional support animal.

In relation to ESAs in housing, a provider may ask a person to submit reliable documentation of a disability and his or her disability-related need for an ESA, including a written certification from a medical professional.

The bills in the Florida Legislature currently define ESAs; require a housing provider to offer equal access to a person with an ESA; and prohibit the charge of any additional fee associated with an ESA.

The bills permit a housing provider to request additional information regarding an ESA, including written documentation:

• From a listed type of licensed health care practitioner
• Verifying the applicant's disability or disability-related need
• Verifying the ESA provides support alleviating one or more symptoms or effects of a disability or disability-related need

If the bills become law as currently presented, they would require the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to establish the format a health care practitioner must follow when providing ESA documentation to a patient, and it grants rule-making authority to DOH relating to ESA documentation requirements.

If passed and signed by the governor, the bill becomes effective on July 1, 2019

FHA clamps down on risky government-backed mortgages

WASHINGTON – March 26, 2019 – The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) informed lenders that it will start flagging more high-risk loans. Those mortgages, many of which are extended to borrowers with low credit scores and high loan payments relative to incomes, will undergo a more rigorous manual underwriting process.

The FHA worries that lenders are making loans to borrowers who cannot repay them – and that will result in a jump in defaults that strain the agency's reserves.

The decision to tighten underwriting standards could mean that fewer first-time home buyers are able to secure mortgages.

FHA Chief Risk Officer Keith Becker says approximately 40,000 to 50,000 loans per year would likely be affected – about 4 percent to 5 percent of the FHA-insured mortgages originated annually in recent years.

"We have continued to endorse loans with more and more credit risk," Becker says. "We felt that it was appropriate to take some steps to mitigate the risks we're seeing."

Source: Wall Street Journal (03/26/19) P. A2; Eisen, Ben

Mortgage rates post biggest drop in a decade

WASHINGTON (AP) – March 28, 2019 – Purchasing a home just became a lot cheaper, thanks mostly to the Federal Reserve's decision last week to put its interest rate hikes on hold for now.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage plunged to 4.06 percent this week, down from 4.28 percent last week. That's the steepest weekly drop in a decade.

Last week, Fed chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy faces several headwinds, including slowing global growth, a trade war with China, and fading impacts from last year's tax cuts. Fed policymakers signaled they were unlikely to raise rates this year, after projecting two hikes in December.

Lower mortgage rates, slowing home price increases and a pickup in the number of available homes appear to be rejuvenating home sales after a slowdown last year.

Sales of existing homes surged 11.8 percent in February, a sign that lower rates were encouraging more people to buy homes. The average 30-year rate reached 4.95 percent in November, following a series of rate hikes by the Fed.

Mortgage costs are more directly influenced by the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which also rose last year as many investors shifted money into stocks. Stock market indexes rose at a healthy pace until last fall.

The yield on the 10-year note has fallen sharply since last year, when it touched 3.21 percent in November. On Thursday it fell to 2.39 percent in mid-day trading.

Potential buyers have rushed to take advantage of the cheaper borrowing costs. An index measuring applications for mortgage loans jumped 9 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Fewer people signed contracts to buy homes in February compared with the previous month, suggesting home sales will cool off a bit after January's big jump. But economists expect sales will continue to improve this year after last year's slowdown.

Hiring has been steady in recent months and average pay growth has accelerated, making a home purchase more affordable.

"With mortgage demand strengthening in the wake of the decline in mortgage rates, we look for better sales in the second quarter," said Ian Shepherson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week to compile its mortgage rate figures.

The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates.

The average fee on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages ticked up this week to 0.5 point from 0.4 point.

The average 15-year mortgage rate also fell, to 3.57 percent from 3.71 percent. The fee was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages dropped less sharply, to 3.75 percent from 3.84 percent. The fee remained at 0.3 point.

1031 Like Kind Exchange

Fla. Senate passes bill allowing home vegetable gardens

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In an issue stemming from a legal dispute in South Florida, the state Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would prevent local governments from regulating homeowners' vegetable gardens.

Senators voted 35-5 to support the measure (SB 82), sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.

Bradley took up the issue after a dispute between homeowners Hermine Ricketts and Laurence Carroll and the village of Miami Shores over an ordinance that banned front-yard vegetable gardens. The couple had maintained a front-yard garden for nearly two decades but uprooted their vegetables when faced with the possibility of fines. They challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance but lost in court, with the Florida Supreme Court last year declining to take up the issue.

On Thursday, Bradley described local-government efforts to prevent homeowners from growing vegetables and fruit as a "vast overreach." But Sen. Bobby Powell, a West Palm Beach Democrat who opposed the bill, suggested it was an overreach by the state to prevent local governments throughout Florida from having such regulations. Other opponents of the bill were Sen. Lori Berman, D-Lantana; Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando; Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale; and Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale.

A House version of the bill (HB 145), filed by Rep. Elizabeth Fetterhoff, R-DeLand, has been approved by one committee so far. Should it eventually pass, it will need Gov. DeSantis' signature to become law.

Source: News Service of Florida

Does dark paint really make a room look smaller?

Painting a room can be one of the most budget-friendly ways to makeover a space or prepare a home for sale, but some commonly held myths may prevent some homeowners from finding the truly perfect hue that enhances their space.

Realtor.com spoke with painting experts to address some of these common myths about painting a home. Some of those include:

• Dark paint colors make a room look small
  It’s just the opposite in many cases, says Ashley Blackmore, a real estate professional with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Western Colorado Properties. “If you use a dark color for an accent wall, it can truly make the home look much larger by adding variation to the eye,” Blackmore says.
  
• Primers aren’t necessary
  Many homeowners believe they can skip the primer step, but it’s a crucial one to ensure the paint goes on correctly, experts say. “In order for your project to look like it was done professionally, you absolutely need to use primer,” says Kayla Martin, owner of Acme Home Interiors. “It helps make the paint job look smooth and allows the paint to adhere to the wall.”

• You always need two coats of paint
  Don’t assume this one is always true – many times you may not. “If you apply primer and are using a quality brand of paint, you can absolutely get away with one coat of paint,” Martin says. However, it depends. Blackmore says in some cases she has seen rooms need six coats of paint, particularly where the walls weren’t properly prepped for painting or where there was a previously darker color painted.
  
• Trim must always be white
  White trim is the most common color, but it doesn’t always have to be, says Morgan McBride of Charleston Crafted. She says that extending wall color to the trim for both the top and bottom can make walls appear taller. It can also emphasize details in the room’s moldings.
• © Copyright 2019 INFORMATION INC., Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

$290,900 vs. $300,000: Which is better for pricing a listing?

ORLANDO, Fla. – March 15, 2019 – Price a can of beans too low and it hurts profits. But price it too high and the drop in sales will offset any additional profit per can. As a result, proper pricing is both science and art in the retail world.

In real estate, however, it’s not always so simple. However, online searches have changed some of those dynamics. Buyers now have price options when they do a listing search, and those often end on even numbers, such as $300,000-$350,000. In these cases, a listing agent pricing a client’s home using the drop-down method might advertise at $299,000. But a homebuyer using the noted range would then never see it.

As a result, homes with a recommended listing price close to natural break numbers offered in online searches can expand the number of people who will see the listing by using an even number. If that $299,000 listing is advertised at $300,000, the people looking for homes in the $250,000-$300,000 range will also receive it in their results.

Robert McTague suggests four ways psychology can influence price in a recent Inman article:

1. The nine-at-the-end price

Beyond the online search reason to use round numbers, what should be done for a home recommended at $310,000? List it at $309,900?

A nine at the end seems to make sense psychologically when trying to attract buyers. A 99¢ can of beans is somehow cheaper than its $1 competitor, for example. In home sales, agents may think it makes a home sound more affordable.

McTague writes that smart people aren’t fooled by this, however, and “You should position your client’s home as luxury brands do, not as discounters.” In the retail world, rounding down by a few cents suggests bargain shopping. Using an even number – a tactic used by Godiva Chocolates and Ferrari – suggests a luxury, top-notch item.

2. Odd prices seem more legit

McTague called the “power of four and seven … evident.”

Translated into real estate, a buyer who sees a home listed for $354,000 or $357,000 is more likely to assume that some thought went into that listing price. “Why the extra $4,000?” they might wonder. “Why didn’t they at least round up to $355,000?”

A precise price such as those ending in four or seven, McTague says, suggests to the buyer that a full analysis went into the pricing and that the asking price is exactly what the seller thinks his home is worth. The buyer may also think there is less room for negotiation.

3. Nix the commas and decimals

A study found that the way people read numbers affects how they feel about those numbers – and the less thinking they must do, the lower they think the price is. Here are three ways to write the same number, with the final one sounding more affordable to some buyers:

• $350,000.00
• $350,000
• $350000

Good pricing is not always good grammar.

4. Add the commas and decimals

This is the flipside of No. 3, McTague says. If lowering a home’s asking price, add in the commas and decimal points to make it seem like more of a change, as in “Price lowered $5,000.00 – now listed at $354000.”

Source: Inman News, Robert McTague

© 2019 Florida Realtors®