Brevard MLS Listings

When you know someone is coming by to tour your MLS Listing, turn on all the indoor and outdoor lights – even during the day. At night, a lit house gives a "homey" impression when viewed from the street. During the daytime, turning on the lights prevents harsh shadows from sunlight and it brightens up any dim areas. Your MLS Listing looks more homey and cheerful with the lights on.
Fragrances
Do not use scented sprays to prepare for visitors. It is too obvious and many people find the smells of those sprays offensive, not to mention that some may be allergic. If you want to have a pleasant aroma in your MLS Listing, have a potpourri pot or something natural. Or turn on a stove burner for a moment and put a drop of vanilla extract on it. It will smell like you have been cooking.
Pet Control
If you have pets, make sure your MLS Listing agent puts a notice with your listing in the multiple listing service. The last thing you want is to have your pet running out the front door and getting lost. If you know someone is coming to your MLS Listing, it would be best to try to take the pets with you while the homebuyers tour your home. If you cannot do that, It is best to keep dogs in a penned area in the back yard. Try to keep indoor cats in a specific room when you expect visitors, and put a sign on the door. Most of the time, an indoor cat will hide when buyers come to view your property, but they may panic and try to escape.
The Kitchen Trash
Especially if your kitchen trash can does not have a lid, make sure you empty it every time someone comes to look at your home – even if your trash can is kept under the kitchen sink. Remember that you want to send a positive image about every aspect of your MLS Listing. Kitchen trash does not send a positive message. You may go through more plastic bags than usual, but it will be worth it.
Keeping the House Tidy and Neat
Not everyone makes his or her bed every day, but when selling a home it is recommended that you develop the habit. Pick up papers, do not leave empty glasses in the family room, keep everything freshly dusted and vacuumed. Try your best to have it look like a model home – a MLS Listing with furniture but nobody really lives there.

Citizens OK's rate hike for associations

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- March 31, 2006 -- Condominium associations covered by Citizens Property Insurance should brace themselves for an average statewide rate increase of about 20 percent in the coming months.

At a meeting in Tallahassee, Citizens' board on Thursday approved a rate-increase request from its staff and will submit it to state regulators, said Justin Glover, Citizens' spokesperson.

Condo associations will have a chance to voice their concerns about this increase at public hearings that insurance regulators will call once Citizens has submitted its filing. State law requires public hearings when an insurer requests a rate hike averaging more than 15 percent.

The state-run insurer of last resort covers 36,554 condo associations statewide, with more than half of that exposure -- 20,749 policies -- in South Florida. These policies generally cover the building structures.

Citizens must increase its condo association rates now because the Australian company QBE Insurance Group has just begun raising its rates by an average of 38 percent, and state law requires Citizens to charge the highest rates. This measure is designed to encourage consumers and businesses to shop around for a private insurer rather than turn to Citizens.

Condo associations are already reeling from double-digit rate increases in recent years as well as hurricane-related expenses.

Anticipating the hikes, Joseph Buerk, president of the 61-unit Seacrest Towers Condominium Association in Pompano Beach, insisted on doubling the budget for insurance, from last year's $47,000 to the current $90,000 a year, for its QBE premiums.

That comes to about $1,500 per unit. Individual owners usually get additional insurance to cover the interiors of their units, and they have been hit with increases as well.

"Something has got to be done," he said Thursday. "It's ridiculous, the costs are so high."

The market for condominium association insurance, already tight before the 2004 hurricane season, has clamped down even more. Citizens and QBE are among a handful of companies still writing this coverage.

Southern Family, a unit of the Poe Financial Group, has been selling condo association coverage as well. But the company announced earlier this month that it will cancel policies as they come up for renewal because of its financial problems since the 2004 storms. That means more policies will be flowing into the Citizens' pool.

In another action, Citizens' board also approved changes to its underwriting guidelines that will give owners of older homes a break. Surcharges on policies will be removed for homeowners who retrofit their homes and bring them up to the current building code.

Surcharges on these older homes ranged from 1 percent for a 20-year house to 20 percent on homes more than 40 years old.

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