I had the opportunity to attend the Great American Realtor days in Tallahassee, Florida. I cannot say I enjoyed the drive from Anna Maria Island although I did have the chance to visit a few towns I have never had the pleasure of visiting. The most interesting visit was a small fishing village just North of Tampa called Cedar Key. Cedar Key is a very small village with the closest grocery store being 30 miles away. Their real estate has started to pick up in the last month and the realtor I spoke with proudly stated there were 2 contracts pending for her office which has not happened since 2006.

The Florida Association of Realtors (FAR) has the event very well planned. One meeting prepared the ~1000 real estate professionals with the talking points of our visits with our local representatives. Some of our highlights of the talking points were SB 1718, SB 2250, and HB 809 which was legislation to reduce the current eviction fees for landlords of $265. In addition, we worked to be sure our representatives knew we supported HB 7057 and SB 532 which limits the growth of property tax assessments on businesses, second homes, and non-homesteaded properties to a cap of 5% annually. Finally the last legislation that caught my eye was legislation that supports a “preponderance of evidence” for challenging property tax assessments. SB 1006 and HB 521 changes the philosophy of property owners challenging their assessments. Instead of a property owner proving their property is lower in value, the local tax collector must prove the value of your property is correct. There is a subtle difference between the two but if passed it could make a large impact on the ease of fighting your property value estimates. The above links for each individual bill is a link to the progress of each bill in Tallahassee. In addition for a list of more legislation visit FAR’s website.