Highlands County Talk

Vantage Pointe, a quaint and charming adult community with over 190 homes, is located only minutes from all the major shopping places, banks, dining and places of worship. Yet, Vantage Pointe is so quiet and tranquil, you would never know that the mall is only a short distance away.Vantage Pointe, Vantage Pointe of Sebring Florida - Deed Restricted Adult Community in the Heart of Sebring.


Like many other adult communities, Vantage Pointe offers planned activities, taking advantage of the beautiful club house, swimming pool and shuffle board court. While browsing through Vantage Pointe's website, I discovered there is a Polar Bear Club ,meeting at 4:00 PM at the pool any day the temperatures drop below 45 degrees F. How cool is that? Pun intended! If that is too cold for you, join the Water Volleyball team at 3 - 4 PM on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. If the pool is not your cup of tea, there is a line dancing group, daily coffee hour, of course BINGO. Every holiday is commemorated with a themed brunch or dinner. It's hard to imagine anyone ever gets bored in Vantage Pointe. Next on the Calendar of Event is Labor Day Dinner on Monday, September 7th. Cocktails at 3:30pm, dinner at 4:00pm.


Our office has several homes listed for sale in Vantage Pointe and we always enjoy bringing buyers to this well maintained community. The HOA President, Ernie Kelly, has been very helpful answering our questions regarding signage and we love to refer interested buyers to Vantage Pointe's own website for information about this very active and close knit neighborhood.

Call us if you are looking for active adult living in Florida! Andrea 863-202-0729 Darrin 863-202-5017
You may also email us, we reply to emails instantly!

Highlands County Real Estate - Making an offer? Put it in writing!

In Florida, the Statute of Frauds requires contracts for sale and purchase of real estate to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable.

What does this mean for you as a buyer? Let's go shopping and find you your dream home. It has everything you've been looking for, it's not a short sale and it's within your price range. Your agent writes up the offer. The seller counters back, in writing. You counter back, verbally. The seller agrees verbally. The seller is being presented with another offer. Your agent gets very upset because after all, the seller agreed verbally to accept your counter offer, right? Is the seller legally obligated to sell the home to you?

No! In Florida, the Statute of Frauds requires contracts for sale and purchase of real estate to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable.

Had your counter offer been in writing, chances are the seller would have agreed to your counter in writing, instead of verbally and you would be moving into your dream home.

Highlands County Real Estate - Making an offer? Put it in writing!

In Florida, the Statute of Frauds requires contracts for sale and purchase of real estate to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable.

What does this mean for you as a buyer? Let's go shopping and find you your dream home. It has everything you've been looking for, it's not a short sale and it's within your price range. Your agent writes up the offer. The seller counters back, in writing. You counter back, verbally. The seller agrees verbally. The seller is being presented with another offer. Your agent gets very upset because after all, the seller agreed verbally to accept your counter offer, right? Is the seller legally obligated to sell the home to you?

No! In Florida, the Statute of Frauds requires contracts for sale and purchase of real estate to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable.

Had your counter offer been in writing, chances are the seller would have agreed to your counter in writing, instead of verbally and you would be moving into your dream home.

Originally posted on Highlands County Talk Blog

Call us for any questions or concerns - 863-202-0729
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Short Selling in Highland County - Step 4 - Patience

The previous 3 posts in this series talked about Documentation, Your Hardship, and The Offer. If you haven't done so already, go ahead and read through the previous 3 step, I'll wait for you...

Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 1 - Documentation Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 2 - Your Hardship
Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 3 - The Offer

Now that we have assembled all required documents and have received an offer, it's time to assemble the short sale package. This is were our Short Sale Specialist, Mary Arnold, comes into play. By then, you have probably received several emails from her asking you for various documents.

Mary will submit the short sale package to your lender along with an authorization (Step 1) to speak with your lender on your behalf. It takes an average of 10 days to get confirmation that the package has made it into the lender's system. Mary will be in touch with your lender frequently to confirm receipt of package. 

The next stop for your package is the loss mitigator's desk. This can take anywhere from a few weeks up to a few months, depending on how efficient your lender handles short sales and how backed up the loss mitigation department is. Mary will frequently check with the lender to inquire about the status of the package and if a loss mitigator has been assigned. We have heard from lenders that are 6 months behind in their package processing but we have also worked with lenders that were able to have a loss mitigator assigned within a few short weeks. This is where "Patience" comes into play. Because there are no given timelines, this can be a very frustrating process. Mary will be in touch with your lender at least once a week and you will hear from us even if there is nothing to report.

Once we have an assigned loss mitigator, a BPO is the next step, which we will talk about in Step 5.

We hope this 4th installment, Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 4 - Patience" was helpful to you. For any questions or concerns, just drop us a line or give us a shout at 863-202-5017 or 863-202-0729 Be sure to visit:

Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 1 - Documentation Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 2 - Your Hardship
Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 3 - The Offer