Michael Nolan’s Real Estate Blog

Real estate transactions are a part of life where I don’t think too much information is ever really a bad thing, except when the information is completely wrong. Nearly every day customers contact me completely confused due to all of the real estate information, good and bad, that is offered to them online. I assume sometimes that the public understands how the real estate web sites work. Frankly, even I do not understand why a property is to show as active on web sites when it really has a contract accepted on it. Web sites have become polluted with bad information. Yes, I know the stories about why some properties need more than one contract to sell or they need to advertise for backup contracts. The human error potential is also greater now than ever. If you see a property offered on my site as active and the true status is contingent meaning it has a contract or it is even sold, I have no way of knowing that either before I do the direct research work because the information is entered automatically on to everyone’s public sites by other computers. Yes that is a problem, but it is not within my ability to fix. I am very pleased when a person takes the time to contact me to ask questions and discuss their real estate goals since the computer is really just for the research of real estate. 

Years ago when internet real estate research was new, companies could only show the properties online that they offered for sale with signed agreements from their sellers. You could go from site to site of each good company and see the properties just like in most real estate sections of the local newspaper. That has changed. The internet now usually offers all properties available which may be an outstanding service to the public as it greatly simplified research. This abundance of property information was then made available to all agents and anyone who was willing to pay for it including creative online based companies. Now agents and others can have all available properties shown on their sites. When you contact me on a property you found online, it is not necessarily my clients home that I have under a listing contract. It is a property available for sale that as a professional, licensed Realtor I am highly qualified to assist you with the purchase of. A professional agent is very well trained to provide service to buyers and is vital to making an educated real estate transaction. For over a year I have been working mainly with Buyers in this Southwest Florida market, but now I am going back to both Listing properties and working with Buyers. Written representation disclosures are always provided to customers as a first order of business when you work with a professional, licensed agent.

 Personally, I think one of the great internet disservices has been the ability of anyone to buy and display real estate listing information. I am certainly in favor of maximum exposure for consumers and the federal government involvement in the matter has ensured that those freedoms are legally upheld. It has opened up an online business model that involves sites showing property information, collecting the information of potential home buyers and then selling that persons information.  Sometimes it is claimed that they have screened all of the agents in the area you are interested in and will send you to the most qualified. The truth is in many cases you will just be sold to the agent who wants to buy your information, no matter who they may be. So you know, a referral is when a legitimate licensed agent in another location, calls me because he has a client in his location who needs professional real estate service in my area. We make referral arrangements and that client is now my client who gets my full service and duties. I am sure it is no coincidence that it was at the same time all of this information was allowed to flood the internet that so many consumers were making misinformed purchases which now is called the real estate bubble and crash.

The fact is we are pretty smart as consumers and professionals. We are sometimes misled because we are mostly good people and want to trust others particularly in what should be regarded as a serious matter like real estate information. We look for the best value and efficiency for our money and the internet can often provide that. In a business as complex as real estate there are some corners that can’t be cut such as the service of a good agent no matter how much information you research online. Simply put, research heavily online if you want to, but when it is time to do business you need to contact me and let me do my job. There is always going to be too much bad information on the internet, but it is a simple matter to have me sort out your real estate search and help you achieve your goals.

Like many real estate agents, the Bravo channels “Million Dollar Listing” show caught my eye while I was surfing the channels and I had to watch. I am not a TV person. I do not mind knowing nothing about TV shows. I just don’t sit around long enough to watch any entire show. I am almost proud to say I have never seen American Idol; it makes me unique. If it were not for my DVR I would never be able to watch a complete program. From a real estate agents perspective, the “Million Dollar Listing” show is very entertaining. The interaction and differences of the three personalities are easy to relate to in our business and the show just cracks me up constantly. Few of us ever get to see the luxury homes of the Los Angeles area and I have considered that many of their clients are the type of people that buy properties and investments anywhere, especially in Southwest Florida where I work. The show is actually useful market information for me. Not knowing anything about how these reality type shows are put together, I first assumed the three characters on the show were actors playing the roles of agents. Hollywood is right there after all. When I noticed the three guys were actually engaging in some serious and highly professional real estate business practices I had to consider if they were being heavily coached or maybe they were actual agents. I Googled the names and the first I found was Madison who is a real agent at Coldwell Banker in Malibu. I heard in an episode he had a book and I saw it for sale on his site www.TheMalibuLife.com. I was still skeptical of the whole idea of the celebrity Realtor. My wife and I stood right next to Sylvester Stallone on the sidewalk at South Beach in Miami once as he was waiting for his car to get brought around. I know he is a real person, but I also know he is not actually Rambo or Rocky. Both characters who I enjoy immensely on TV. Out of curiosity and an appreciation of the personality I see portrayed on TV, I purchased Madison’s book. I fully expected to receive a Bravo channel promotional pack or something of the sort, but that is not what this book or what Madison Hildebrand is about at all.

I was amazed and inspired by this relevant, empowering and concise book. Plus, it often had me smiling and laughing as I read which kept it genuinely entertaining. I own stacks of books on professional sales, corporate training manuals, motivation, even the how to books. As a professional in marketing and sales it has always been important to me to stay well informed. I have a couple books on the shelf half finished because they just bored me too much. They really do just sound alike sometimes. I received Madison’s book in the mail and had the time right then to open it up and begin reading. The next thing I knew I had read the entire book. It is not a very long book which is perfect for busy people and it was just enjoyable to read. I felt like I was reading a long letter from a friend giving me some great advice. Some of the topics covered include goal setting, effective business planning, tips on making good choices personally and in your career and sound business building practices. He also makes outstanding points on ethics, professional presentation, and for anyone starting a new position working with the public. To me, what makes this book different than the stack of books on the shelf is that it is written in a way that is not preaching or from an overly egocentric point of view. The author writes a cleaver and engaging narrative from a real world perspective and without even realizing it, you receive the fundamentals for a great career. What I appreciate most from the book personally is how it reminded me about the importance of attitude and passion not only in my professional life, but in all important endeavors. I am 43 years old, I own companies and manage people and sometimes see myself too deep in the business end of it all. This week after I read Madison’s book I reevaluated how I was interacting with my clients, especially some of my past clients and I was able to identify and open several outstanding new business opportunities. If you have been around a while, this book will remind you why you got in business and how to stay on top, if you are new it will show you a clear path to success. The book has a focus on the real estate industry, but is relevant to most any career path especially any entrepreneur. I am hardly a professional book reviewer or critic, but I enjoyed this book and got something important out of it. I recommend this book and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

You can buy the book on Amazon at the link below or off Madison’s web site www.TheMalibuLife.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Activate-YOUR-Passion-Create-Career/dp/1419697676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261178726&sr=1-1

Now that I have completed the CDPE “Certified Distressed Property Expert” designation I have a much better grasp of the enormous problem of the distressed property market. I have found from several sources that here about 80% of short sale contracts written do not close. Considering the time and effort that goes into making a proper offer on a property, that seems to be a colossal waste of time for everyone. There are some factors influencing these numbers including: listing agents who have only a general idea about what the bank is looking for when presenting a sellers “contract package” causing weeks of waiting while the bank representative moves on to the properly presented contracts, multiple contracts being accepted by a seller on a single property, new scams featuring option flippers and get rich quick schemes that work the temporarily grey areas of bank fraud and the overwhelming scope of the problem. I am all for investors buying and selling properties and investing and flipping has never been a bad thing for me personally. Especially when it improves a home and community. There are many legitimate investors working with full disclosure and proper licenses and certainly do not ask the public to purchase rediculous e-books and CD’s about their “system / scam”. A legitimate investor could be a great resource depending on your circumstances, but scammer investors create greater losses in a short sale for everyone involved (except for themselves of course) and they expose short sale home sellers to potentially greater default judgements and higher promissory notes. I don’t want to think of what the lenders may do legally as they absorb inflated short sale losses and address the option flipper “or whatever the scammer calls it” problem. Some banks restrict the resale of short sale properties for a time period after the short sale closing and I know the wording in a sales contract or letter is probably not sufficient to keep a lenders legal and loss departments from pursuing a judgement against the seller during the five years they have in Florida to come after them, particularly if they believe fraud may have been involved. The get rich quick scams and Ponzi schemes taking advantage of people are prolific and any reader who really thinks those scams are a smart move should stop reading now because I do not offer the type of professional help you will require.

So what can be done? Short sales are a real and viable option for property owners who are in true financial hardship. I am told the government is helping to put together some guidelines to help the short sale process move more smoothly like, attempting to set a maximum bank response time (10 days I heard), incentives for sellers and lenders, a stipulation that releases sellers from future debt liability and even moving allowances for the sellers. Having a true hardship is one of the keys to a short sale, not just being upset because your home is not worth what you borrowed, but a true hardship that can be demonstrated to the lender. A short sale can help save the credit of the financially distressed home owner by avoiding a foreclosure which will help them get back on their feet sooner and usually saves the bank time and money compared to a foreclosure. Helping the homeowner is the goal which any good agent will tell you. There are certainly easier contracts for a real estate professional to work with for greater profits based on the time and effort spent. Short sales listings are not to be done on a whim and can involve much more work than the typical real estate agent is readily able or sometimes qualified to perform. If you need to consider a short sale, you should speak to a licensed real estate agent, but just don’t call any agent who may or may not have experience or training in handling a short sale transaction. You most likely will be one of the 80% wasting their time with an unsellable short sale. There are about 15,000 CDPE agents in the country right now who have advanced training in this matter. That is probably a good place to begin looking for answers. If you would like to contact me, please keep in mind that short sale listings still involve advertising and property expertise so unless you have a luxury or higher value property I will not be able to take on your business. There are agents who specialize in listing numerous inexpensive short sales and those agents are very well equipped to provide you with outstanding service for your particular needs. Don’t think I do not appreciate the needs of the low priced home seller, it is just a matter of what fits into my particular business model. I will provide you with a well qualified referral within my Re/Max office if needed.

When you pick your real estate agent, be prepared to open your finantial books and hardships wide as they prepare a complete bank package. The package is a very specific proposal to the lender demonstrating why it would be in the best business interest of everyone involved for them to allow a short sale. If this cannot be properly demonstrated or if you really do not qualify for a short sale but submit your package anyway, you will be wasting everyone’s time. Your real estate agent will help you determine if you are qualified. If you lie or your motivations are other than a hardship, you will fail and may open yourself up to legal issues. For your own sake, give your short sale the serious attention it requires by using a qualified real estate agent. If you have a luxury or waterfront home and are in a real financial hardship and you would like some options, call me anytime.

Time flies when your having fun. That is my only excuse for not posting in so long. I would like to thank the readers who continue to call me for their real estate needs. Like I have said before, my callers always get priority service because you can reach me right away and nearly all day, excepting of course for food, family and workout times, but nearly all day.

During the past few months I have been watching a sad but true fact in the Southwest Florida real estate market play out. While properties are selling, a vast majority are in fact the short sale and foreclosure properties. Distressed properties are king here in the former land of speculators. Not only in the cheap, less than $100k market that I try to avoid, but also in the high end properties. That can pose a problem to agents like myself who have always enjoyed that part of market. Not so much for our ability to help a buyer purchase one of these great bargains, but to list a property as a short sale or even work with Bank of America or whoever, requires some additional knowledge in the processes. There are forms to file, offers to submit here and there and additional wait times and general requirements. Combine that with the rightfully high expectations of the buyer and seller in a luxury home transaction and you can see how the agent had better know his business before taking on such an undertaking.

To be certain I am the broker who is at the forefront of distressed luxury home servicing, I am taking a few days out of my schedule this month to attend some rather costly course work to become a CDPE designated agent. CDPE is a national education designation agents can earn that stands for Certified Distressed Property Expert. Very few agents in the country have taken the time or paid the expense for this training. Many who are working in the short sale and foreclosure market have learned mainly through trial and error, including myself, and most are still struggling through their learning curve. I personally refuse to offer a service where I am not completely confident I know the entire process backward and forward and can guide my client like the professional I am in every other transaction. Now with the enormous amount of business coming my way in this specialized market of distressed luxury homes, I can’t avoid it any longer.

While few agents have become a CDPE, even fewer and devoted their work to the luxury home buyer and seller. Agents think it is not a priority considering the number of little homes there are to sell comparatively. For me real estate is not my first or even now the only industry I work in. I own a national company named Propane Outfitters Inc. that is a supplier of a specific industrial materials handling product to major companies and the government from coast to coast in the USA. I have the privilege of speaking to and conducting business with corporate executives and business owners nearly every day while providing a product that is an outstanding gauge of overall business productivity. That being the increasing or decreasing need for storage capacity of their forklift fuel for their plants and warehouses for example. I can plainly see a decrease in productivity over the past few years and the unwillingness to spend on the higher end products we offer in favor of the least expensive. When the business owners don’t make the money, first the employees don’t keep their jobs, which has happened, then the executives start to down size as well. That is about to hit us here now. We already see the real estate developers, construction company owners and not surprisingly many real estate agents downsizing their luxury homes. Unfortunately, it is not always a smooth transition with the property values dropping as quickly as they have here. With the continuing economic turmoil and a misled recovery that seems to think putting the boss in the dunk tank will help grow jobs, many of our luxury home owners are becoming distressed property owners. As everything, each property situation is just relative to another persons perspective. One persons distressed property at $1mil. is a downsize bargain for someone else. If the property is not represented or sold properly, that distressed property becomes a million dollar headache for the buyer and seller regardless of the price.

It is difficult to sell a property where the asking price is hundreds of thousands of dollars or more and the property is weeded over, moldy, smelly, rotted or infested with all creation: this is South Florida after all. Banks and seller have been turning these properties over to out of town Brokers or local agents who only provide basic services and many times the properties become ruined. Then the properties eventually get auctioned off at an even larger loss than was ever expected, worsening the situation for the sellers and further destroying local property values. While I am happy for the eventual buyer because purchase price, even they would have been happier if they did not have to now remodel or gut the once beautiful home because of simply neglect and they could possibly have saved time and money in the long run as well.

I will be posting my new business services for this market segment in roughly a week but please contact me for additional information on these new services anytime.

 I have been increasingly busy over the past month in my real estate business as I continue to meet buyers from around the world wisely taking advantage of our great prices in this resort area. While I can’t help the kid looking for a $50k home easily, I can find the $500k+ waterfront home for the UK buyer in my sleep. I enjoy the ability to focus my business on what I am best at, which is the upscale property.

 I have written briefly about this before and I have even made mention directly on my personal www.FloridaLuxuryBroker.com web site about the need to pick up a phone and speak to me. I love technology. My company www.PropaneOutfitters.com is all about the worlds newest technology in online storefronts and email ordering. Buying a property is not the same as buying an industrial steel cage. This does not mean a client can not contact me by email which is a typical means of first contact these days, especially with my overseas buyers. Consider this event. I recently had a domestic client email me from my Re/Max corporate web site requesting information on a very valuable property, but he failed to pick up the phone and ask me about the property or introduce himself even though my phone numbers are on the web site. Meanwhile a first time buyer who wanted to spend $50k called me twice in the same time period. As the first time buyer received extensive consultation from me on financing and the search process and a referral to an agent who specializes in first time buyers who will give him the expertise he needs, the buyer who I should have been helping sooner was waiting for my reply.

 I know people are jaded sometimes by the lack of competency and business aptitude that can be found at times in the real estate industry. I know much of that is well deserved as I am forced to do business with some of the same people who have caused these feelings. It is maddening to pick up the phone to conduct business and reach someone who knows less than you about their own work. Or worse, the person you call pretends to know everything and misleads you with the practiced lines and platitudes just to lead you on as they fumble through the work and hope you will feel committed to them at some point. One of my personal pet pieves is the 24/7 agent, which means they say they will take your call anytime no matter what. Not only does that reduce the agent to the same level as a convenience store clerk, but have you ever tried to conduct serious business with someone who obviously has not had enough sleep? I keep a clock of the world time zones on my desktop so I know when not to call my clients overseas. I have to admit though, I will take a call from some clients absolutely any time.

 Regardless of any trepidations or preconceptions you may have, when it is time to seriously conduct business in real estate, you will need to pick up the phone and speak to me. You will get specific consultation and up to date information on an expert level. Yes, you can contact me by email and I will respond the same day and usually right away. I will send you homes for review by email and extensive information about the buying process and each property so you can practically make the decision before personally seeing the property, but I always prefer you come to see the property at some point. Email is especially important with my overseas clients because of the costs, time differences and even some language accents and such are more easily understood in writing. You don’t really know a person until you speak to them and until you meet them. You should really want to know the person who is advising you on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions in my case. Direct communication is the most valuable and important business tool we have in the world.

Email vs. Phone:

• Email is perfect for buying industrial cages online, for casual and light business communication and real estate research.
• Phone calls are necessary for conducting business on a highly professional level and to ensure a complete understanding between parties in highly complex decisions like the purchase of a property.

 I have left out the obvious importance of personal meetings just because in my area of expertise there are so many variables including attorneys, personal buyers (shoppers), spouses, outside brokers and so on who can make decisions besides or on behalf of a client. I will probably write a complete article on that in the future.

 My goal and my job is to provide you as my client with the best service possible. How well we communicate is vitally important to my ability to deliver. Both email and phone calls are very important, but when it is time to do business do not hesitate to pick up the phone and call me.

The press has said yesterday home prices are flattening or leveling. Sales have been picking up and inventory has been thinning, economics 101 tells us the prices will level. There is still room to move downwardly in some areas like north Cape Coral, Florida where the city continues with a water and sewer project that will attach an assessment of somewhere between six and twelve thousand dollars to every property as it puts in a new water and sewer system. Considering Cape Coral is at the top of the national list for foreclosures and the well and septic systems work very well in that less populated area, that does not sound like a welcome action to the property owners. I own a property in that area and while the assessment does not affect me, especially since I already know it will mean my property value will increase by the assessed amount or more and I will get a new road installed as well, there are those who are not so fortunate and cannot afford this assessment. While I feel bad for those people, the best and only thing I can do is help them sell if they must, which is why I recommend that area as a great place to watch for upcoming deals.

My personal favorite investments now are the homes in the far southern end of Cape Coral with Gulf of Mexico access. Those homes generally peaked at over half a million dollars for basically tear downs and can now be bought for just over 100k. Not that I expect the old prices anytime soon, but consider the benefits of these properties: minimum 80 foot wide deep water canals with a standard lot size of 80ft water frontage and 120 to 150 foot lot depth, typical home is three bedroom two bath with a garage, usually just minutes out to the open water of the Gulf for fishing or pleasure boating, minutes away from Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach by water or land, direct access to the Atlantic directly across the State of Florida via the Caloosahatchee River which connects to Lake Okeechobee and exits near West Palm Beach. I hear people asking, “Where can I invest?” Buying at the bottom of the market in a location like this is hard to beat.

Here is my disclaimer, you need to do your homework before making any real estate investment. What is right for one person may not be right for another and if you buy a property without consulting a professional Realtor (see earlier article) and you pay too much or buy a lemon, don’t blame me. If you contact me and we get you a great property, then you are welcome to blame that on me to all of your friends.

A large part of the real estate business for agents has always been about getting the listing. Sending the postcards, making the presentation even making cold calls if need be. As I built my real estate business that was an important part of my work as well. When I began to specialize my work into luxury homes, listings became more than just a piece of inventory to be placed in a file and on the Internet like most home listings are handled. Luxury homes need to be presented and advertised in the correct fashion to the right clientele. Advertising a million dollar home in a book that is only found in the discount store exit or a web site that no one sees is not usually going to put the information in the right hands. The right marketing is a skill developed over years of practice, media contacts and web site positioning. It is also a very large monetary investment to advertise a luxury home properly which is another reason many agents should not attempt it.

As the market changed over the past few years my business adapted. Why would I want to take on a listing that was dropping in value on a weekly basis which drove off most all buyers. I consider every property listing into my business as an investment which I expect to make a return on. I only market a property the right way, so if I expect I will spend $20k to $30k in marketing for a luxury property, I will also expect a sale in a reasonable amount of time at or close to the price we set. For quite a while that has been a very difficult formula to justify when making this investment. 

This year property buyers from around the world have realized the housing market has reached a price point that makes sense again and have begun investing again in our properties. Many sellers have also realized they can sell their home at a fair market price and still be in great financial shape because their next home they buy, no matter where it is, can now be purchased at a very good price. There are still the sellers holding out and wishing for that extra few hundred thousand dollars or more that we just cannot justify with the facts. Those people will have to wait until the next market peak to sell their property at that price. The sellers with realistic expectations and who are willing to work with facts for the purpose of actually selling a property are who I am willing to work with now.

As I mentioned in another article, I put together a business plan of sorts to sell your property. We will meet and discuss your property and your expectations. I will tell you what Re/Max and myself can do for you and my expectations. We will decide on a sale price that will make you competitive in the marketplace, come to terms on a listing contract and then the fun begins. I do mean fun too; I enjoy bringing a property to the market. I use some of the most unique and high exposure marketing tools on a local, national and international level. The property will be exposed to all Realtors as there is a great possibility one of them will bring our buyer, but our marketing is targeted to the right clientele where ever they may be whether it is Miami, the Northeast, Lake of the Ozarks or California. I also have contacts in Re/max offices in Germany, the UK and other locations across the planet where our clients come from.

To find out more and to contact me about listing your property, go to my web site shown on the right side of the screen here or call 239-565-1126. 

I am a broker who is well positioned in the local marketplace. Because of that I am usually contacted several times a day by people wanting me to make appointments to show them properties and make offers before they even talk to a lender or verify they have the cash to buy any property. That is not the way my real estate business works. You can easily find other agents who’s experience leads them to think real estate transactions are supposed to be a series of hazards, headaches, and obstacles or you can work with me and follow simple steps to create a professional transaction. Making sure you have the money in place is the first step, but one that is too often blundered.

Before we set up any showing appointments:

1. If you are paying cash, you will need your bank to prepare an evidence of funds letter to accompany our offer on the property and to show me you actually have the funds as well. Banks are happy to print those up for good customers like you. People have tried to lie to me about their finances in the past just to get the luxury home or investment tour. Some sellers will not let a buyer on the grounds of a luxury home without first proof they can afford it. Don’t be offended, we will do the same thing if you have me sell it someday. Be sure you have the cash available to pay closing costs as well which I can help you determine. If you are writing a check from a line of credit, fund or something similar, that is still cash and we would need a letter showing your line is open, sufficiently large and available to you.
2. If you are going to finance, you will need to talk to your lender before we schedule on site showings and have them approve you for the general loan amount. That means you will need to tell them what you have in mind, show them some of the price figures and properties if needed which you and I will discuss before you approach them. You must then provide them with all of the information they need to submit to underwriting so you can get the loan commitment very soon after we have an accepted contract on a property. That means you give them your tax records, asset documents, whatever they need. You do not give that information to me, I do not want or need it. The lender will then give you a very professional letter on their letterhead which you will give to me that states you have submitted all of the information required to obtain a loan for “X” amount and your information has been completely submitted to and approved by their institution with certain exceptions like the appraisal, survey, insurance, inspection results, sales contract and such items related to the actual home and transaction that we can not provide yet. That letter will accompany the offer when I present it. You can provide all the information and ask the lender how much you are approved to borrow and they may give you an upper price limit, but the more specific you can be with the lender the better the information you will get in return. Plus, that answer may not qualify as an actual approval but instead just a pre-qualification which will not work for us. If there is any additional issue that comes up in underwriting your lender should be able to resolve it quickly with you if everything else has been done properly. If you are only financing a small part of a purchase you need to show evidence of the funds to close as above for the cash portion. Don’t even think about asking to make a contract contingent upon the sale of your current home unless you have enormously overwhelming evidence that the other transaction is about to successfully close.

Why is this all so important? Because most sellers now will not look at an offer without this evidence or approval from the bank. I don’t blame them considering how difficult it can be for even well qualified people to be financed. Even if it is not difficult, it can be time consuming and time is always of the essence in a real estate contract. Sellers do not want to take a property of the market unless they know the person can actually buy it. In the past, anyone could get quick, easy financing. There are still people out there who do not realize those days are gone and go shopping for a home when they can not even finance a car. This is also the reason I can not physically show homes before we address this and one of the two above conditions are met. It is completely unfair to the sellers and my busy schedule if you are not qualified. If you need advise on a good lender, I will recommend several excellent professionals who you can speak with and will take good care of you. I do not pretend to be a lender myself, I already have a good job. If you have the cash, you have the easy job. The bank can fax or email me what we need in minutes. Many banks are in trouble and I have had fully approved buyers have their loans denied in underwriting for no fault of their own. Chase Bank just recently did that to a very well qualified buyer of mine. We changed lenders and closed, but the closing delay was over a month. Just another very important reason to have the right agent.

Buying or selling property can be a lot of fun and a great experience, if you do it right. Otherwise it can be a very costly, hectic and even legal nightmare. These requirements are important steps in handling your transaction properly. They are not the only steps, just your first priority.

I was hounded to write my opinion about the sales market. This is a new blog and I was avoiding that because everybody talks about the market. I would rather have an open exchange of relevant real estate ideas and thoughts. My take on the market in general is similar to everyone elses. Low priced properties like the foreclosures and short sales are moving very well and giving the Realtors something positive to talk about. Those properties are not really my area of expertise, but I watch what is happening and the sales numbers are impressive. It can be difficult for the small investor to buy the best deals because we are seeing a different class of investors in the market now who are buying these homes like the pros they are. Multiple offers, multiple closings, some for rentals and some for fix and maybe flip. I hope they keep it up because they are fixing up a lot of ugly homes and messed up neighborhoods created by the previous owners and investors owning homes they never should have been able to buy and destroying them.

Homes over $100k off water are a great buy and you can find many foreclosures and builder inventory at bargain prices. That price on a Gulf access canal will be an older and probably ugly house, but a great investment for the future. Think long term or maybe boat house.

You can expect to get a beautiful home in the half million dollar price arena. I found that there are many people who are still holding out for hope and change in this price range, particularly in some of the higher prices on the golf courses in south Lee County and waterfront homes in Cape Coral. I truely wish I could get you that million dollars the appraiser told you it was worth back yesteryear. I know some of you took out those equity lines and used your home like an ATM machine. You are fully entitled to your own opinion about your home value, but not to your own facts. Your buyers are educated and they don’t care why the comparable home down the street sold for two hundred thousand less than you are asking, they just know it did and the bank will know it as well when they get the appraisal and they will not lend money on a home that is overpriced for the market. I would like to sell your home for the old prices, I would make more money that way as well, but that is not the way the world works.

In the true luxury home market it is difficult to determine a real trend because if you want the best, it still has great value in any sales environment. The undeniable fact is that those prices are deflated across the board as well compared to the peak of the market and bargains are to be had. I have seen some multi-million dollar foreclosures that are stunning deals. Comparable sales and comparable homes in general can be hard to find when pricing or making an offer on many of these homes so be certain to call someone like me who really excels at that work. Let me be clear, you should just call me.

If you are financing, the interest rates are still great. I think it would be foolish to think that will remain true. I am not a professional economist, but I hear many of those who are saying rates will be rising significantly in the near future.

The lines I hate to say, but can’t avoid are ” Now is a great time to buy!” and “You should really buy now!” It is true, especially right now as summer is here in Florida and the market is slower.

Each home, neighborhood and circumstance is different, especially in this crazy housing market. If you want to buy or sell we will need to speak at length and prepare a business plan of sorts to get you to your goal successfully. That is what I do.

Every day I am contacted by people who have seen a property on some web site that just looks amazing, incredible, unbelievable whatever. Every day I have to let them down by telling them, “No that condo is not for sale for $3500. That is the weekly rent.” or “No that home for $100,000 is is not really on a Gulf of Mexico access canal” or “Sorry that home shows active on that site, but it is really under contract.”

The point is the information you see in the automated property search sites is not accurate sometimes due to the lag time between the information update between the real Multiple Listing Systems, the IDX systems and the sites themselves or just because of human error in typing info and updates into the system. It has also been a trend by lesser agents in this competitive market to pad a listing with attractive, but inaccurate info just to lure potential buyers to contact them. That is the same principle as the phishing email scam. The MLS administrators and good brokers try hard to weed out that garbage, but there is a lot of information to cover.

 The bottom line: if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Don’t get hooked by a scammer or con person and if you want real, current information on properties in Southwest Florida just ask me. If you are serious, I will look at the real MLS which is the first hand information from our Board of Realtors and send the information right to you. You will save us both a lot of time and confusion.