Highlands County Talk

Surviving the Recession - Money Saving Tips from your Highlands County Realtors - Tip #1 - Your electric bill

Your A/C -for the first 26 years of my life (which is almost half of my life but keep that between you and me, okay?) I lived in a non-airconditioned environment. Yes, these days they sell portable room air conditioners in Germany but in the good ol' days, millions of Germans made it through hot summers without air conditioning. I'm in no way suggesting you retire your A/C unit - this is Florida, after all! However, does your home need to be a constant 78 degrees while you are at work all day long? Do you need to cool the entire home at night if you could get away with just cooling the bedrooms with more energy efficient window units? Do you really need to run the A/C at all once daytime temps drop down into the 70's?

Your Hot Waterheater - purchase a timer (at Home Depot for around 30 bucks) and set it for an hour in the morning before everyone gets up and takes a shower and another hour at night. Unless you are trying to break the world record in continuous showering or dish washing, there is really no reason why your hot water heater should heat water 24 hours a day.

Your Light Bulbs - Replace your incandescent light bulbs with flourescent light bulbs (CFL). Each bulb will save about $30 over its lifetime and pays for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75% less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.

Your Computer - turn it off when you are not using it for an extended amount of time! Home electronics use energy even when they are in "stand by" mode.

Your Pool - Instead of running your pool pump for 4 hours a day, try and see what happens if you only run it for 3 hours. If it doesn't go green, try out 2 1/2 hours. Still not green? Try 2 hours. Increase the frequency but cut down the length of each run time. No kidding, we run ours for 2 hours each day, 15 minutes each time. It's crystal clear.

Your Clothes Dryer - the Florida sun dries your laundry for FREE! No, it's not as convenient as your dryer because you have to hang up your laundry and take it down but when you look at it, hanging up laundry and taking it down is nothing more but a free workout. By not using your dryer, not only will you lower your electricity bill, you can also cancel your gym membership! Two for the price of one, I'm loving it!

Give it a try for 4 weeks and see how much money you have saved when you get your next electric bill.
If you have more tips and tricks about saving electricity, we'd love to hear from you......please comment.

We hope this article about Surviving the Recession was helpful to you. This article was originally posted on Highlands Talk Blog

In previous posts we talked about getting all neccessary documents lined up and explaining your hardship . If you haven't had a chance to read through these topics, go ahead. I'll wait for you!

Now that you have all your documents lined up and have prepared your hardship letter, let's talk about the next step: The offer!

In today's Highlands County real estate market it is not hard to get an offer on a well priced short sale. The secret to pricing is to net the lender enough for approval of the sale but keep the asking price attractive to buyers and competitive with other homes for sale. Sometimes, that'st not an easy task. Receiving an offer on a short sale is no different than with any other transaction. Even though the lender has to approve the sale, the seller has to accept, reject or counter the offer. As with any other transaction, the contract for sale and purchase is between the seller and the buyer, not the lender. The lender merely approves the sale.

Once there has been a meeting of the minds and there is an executable contract, our in-house short sale specialist will ask the seller for most two recent tax returns, most two recent bank statements as well as other various documents, as mentioned in Step 1. It is vital that all documents required by the lender be included in the short sale package. Generally, it will take up to 10 days for the short sale package to be received and to make it into the lender's system. This brings us to Step 4, the waiting game.

We hope this 3rd installment, Short Sales in Highlands County - Step 3 - The offer, was helpful to you.
For any questions or concerns, just drop us a line and give us a shout at 863-202-0729 or 863-202-5017

Be sure to visit:
Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 1 - Documentation
Short Selling in Highlands County - Step 2 - Your Hardship

Golfing in Avon Park, FL - River Greens Golf Course

Looking to golf in Avon Park FL? Located on the north end of Avon Park lies River Greens, a tranquil eighteen-hole golf course community nestled between Lake Damon, Lake Pythias and Trout Lake. The course, designed by Jack Kidwell, started out as a nine-hole course, underwent extensive renovation in 1969 and added 9 additional holes in 1974. The par-72 course measures over 6,000 yards from the back tees. The River Greens Golf Course has two lister courses; River Greens North Golf Course in Ohio and Lake Placid County Club Golf Course.
River Green Golf Course in Avon Park, FL - your best choice for golf south of Orlando.



You will find a wide variety of real estate neatly arranged around the golf course or along the lake shores. Driving through the neighborhood (watch out for golf carts!) Beautiful executive style homes as well as two story plantation style homes line the shores of Lake Damon. You will find well maintained 1 story florida style homes nestled along the golf course. The vast majority of property in River Greens is either lake frontage or golf course frontage. How can you possibly go wrong?



The River Greens Clubhouse was constructed in 1993, when River Greens celebrated its 25th year in business. Housed in the left wing of the Clubhouse you will  find a fully stocked and staffed Pro Shop which features many of your favorite name brands. The River Greens Restaurant is available for weddings, parties and a variety of other special events. Also available is a converence room for smaller gatherings. Call Kim at 863-453-5210 for more information and reservations.






If River Greens in Avon Park is what you have been looking for, drop us a line for a detailed list of homes available for sale in River Greens.

This article was originally posted on Highlands County Talk Blog