Life In Bonita Springs

Real Estate List Price vs Offer Price

For the second time this week I was asked by a buyer what that our real estate market is averaging for the percentage off of list price. That question still surprises me because the real estate market has had a few years of being spectacularly unique and difficult to calculate. How on earth would it be conventional as a whole and fit into a tidy little box?

There are thousands of websites that offer available listings, recent closed sales and the county records are public so the closed sales aren’t a secret. Buyers come to the market with an enormous amount of research under their belt but sometime they just don’t know understand how to apply it.

It’s just as easy for a buyer to look at a list of available properties and question the viability of a listing price as it is for a real estate agent. Take a neighborhood with a half dozen properties of equal size and design, maybe even with the same floor plan. In the same complex it is possible to find a spread of tens, even hundreds of thousand of dollars amongst the similar units available.

If it were possible to calculate a “percentage off list price” for real estate would two nearly exact condominiums priced respectively at $200,000 and $375,000 both contract and close sale at the same percentage off of list price?

Just for giggles I checked the percentage off list price in a neighborhood I was showing buyers homes in to help put this into perspective. Choosing two current properties for sale; one at the high end and one at the low end yielded a percentage off of list price of one percent on one condominium and seventy-four percent on the other nearly identical unit when compared to the most recent closed sale. It’s a waste of time to even average that wild stretch of numbers and expect it to benefit a buyer.

What buyers should be more concerned about are the actual, recent closed sales prices and the amount of inventory currently on the market. Every neighborhood and every home is different. There isn’t a magic percentage off of list price but there are calculations that help buyers make educated offers with a realistic, value basis.

In a nut shell, the offer price should be based on closed sales weighed with supply and demand, not a percentage.

To make things even more interesting, in many of the entry level communities a good chunk of supply has now been absorbed. The inventory has been reduced from several years to mere months, which has increased the demand.

What is really difficult for some buyers to wrap their head around these days is that sometimes the winning offer isn’t the percentage off list price but the terms of the offer and sometimes even dollars over list price.

Properties priced appropriately and in great condition have been selling quickly. When the inventory is no longer there, the offer prices inch themselves closer to or even a little above list price.

When there is little supply and real life demands you get into a home right away the offer price is based on current values, buyer motivation and the supply of real estate not an actual percentage off list price.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

Just Another Sunrise in Bonita Bay

You know how you don’t know what a place is like until you drive around and see stuff, feel stuff, touch stuff?  Well, in a lot of gated communities that’s a challenge.  Take Bonita Bay, for example.  Bonita Bay is an absolutely beautiful gated community but because of the gates, access to passers by is limited.

Fortunately for you, I’m an imitation runner who wears a triathlon belt and there is just enough room for my phone in case I need to call a cab or an ambulance.  When I ran over the stone bridge in the back of Bonita Bay by the towers this morning the sun was coming up and it was just beautiful.  I took this picture with my phone because it was just so pretty.

This lake is right by the towers, the high rise condos in Bonita Bay.  The towers line the bay.  Everyone talks about the sunsets from towers … sweeping views and postcard perfect sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico.  What nobody mentions is that our sunrises are pretty spectacular, also.

If you think for a minute about the elevation I was at on the bridge, maybe at about the first or second floor of a tower by comparison and then imagine what it might have been like to be a little higher in the sky that day, I bet it would have been spectacular.

The people who live in the towers in Bonita Bay get to see these sunrises and awesome sunsets every day.  Can you imagine how fabulous that must be?

The Bonita Bay towers are priced in the high $400,000 to about $2.5 Million.  There are seven towers in Bonita Bay each offering their own special sunset and sunrises views.

Azure at Bonita Bay

Bayview at Bonita Bay

Esperia South at Bonita Bay

Estancia at Bonita Bay

Horizons at Bonita Bay

Omega at Bonita Bay

Seaglass at Bonita Bay

Tavira at Bonita Bay

Vistas at Bonita Bay

For additional real estate market reports, read also: 

Ten Years of August Real Estate Sales Compared

Short Sales & Foreclosure vs. Equity Sales August 2010

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All information is deem accurate, not guaranteed and subject to change.  Check the date on this report for freshness.  If you have questions regarding your particular neighborhood, your street or your home specifically you’re welcome to contact us for a current market report. Real estate consumers that read this website are urged to seek independent, professional legal, real estate and financial advice before engaging in any transaction. All information is deemed, accurate, subject to change and not guaranteed.

For additional real estate market reports, read also: 

August 2010 What Price Range Real Estate Sold?

Short Sales & Foreclosure vs. Equity Sales August 2010

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All information is deem accurate, not guaranteed and subject to change.  Check the date on this report for freshness.  If you have questions regarding your particular neighborhood, your street or your home specifically you’re welcome to contact us for a current market report. Real estate consumers that read this website are urged to seek independent, professional legal, real estate and financial advice before engaging in any transaction. All information is deemed, accurate, subject to change and not guaranteed.

For additional real estate market reports, read also: 

August 2010 What Price Range Real Estate Sold?

Ten Years of August Real Estate Sales Compared

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All information is deem accurate, not guaranteed and subject to change.  Check the date on this report for freshness.  If you have questions regarding your particular neighborhood, your street or your home specifically you’re welcome to contact us for a current market report. Real estate consumers that read this website are urged to seek independent, professional legal, real estate and financial advice before engaging in any transaction. All information is deemed, accurate, subject to change and not guaranteed.

A clever parody of selling real estate short.  If you do not see the video above: Click Here [this video is no longer available]

Off of Penzance Blvd - Paseo Fort Myers

When I showed up early for a final walk thru in Paseo I made the best of the extra time by seeing where Penzance Blvd. ended up.  There is always a photo opportunity to take advantage of when there are a few minutes extra in the day.

When I helped the buyers write a contract for the home in Paseo I had extra time and took pictures of the Paseo goats.  Right at the entrance to Paseo is a ranchette with a herd of goats.  The entire area is made up of acreage plots with quaint farms or just estate homes so folks can stretch out.

Paseo is off of the beaten path but worth the search.  They’re building townhomes and single family homes.  There is both new product and resales available.  The lucky buyers that just closed on a new home in Paseo got a heck of a deal.

The homes in Paseo are the same floor plan as the Savona section of homes in Grandezza of Estero, Florida.  The homes were built by Stock Development.  The difference is that at the time of that last contract there was about $100,000 spread in price points.  You can’t beat that with a stick.  On top of that, you can’t really beat the amenities at Paseo.  It’s just a great community.

Now, the trick to finding a great deal in Paseo is to watch the market and to make sure your agent also has access to the Rapattoni Fort Myers MLS and the Sunshine MLS.  There are a few local MLS systems so membership to that on is important because that is where most of the listings will be found.

And if you get out to Paseo be sure to look for the goats and the hot rod mailbox at the far end of Penzance.  It’s pretty back there. You should at least take a drive to learn about the neighborhood that surrounds Paseo before you buy.

Calculating Absorption Rates For Real Estate

Where our northern friends list their homes for the summer a lot of the southwest Florida real estate is listed in the fall. Those fresh real estate listings are going to be priced according to recent comparable sales and competing with real estate that is currently on the market.

A huge part of being successful when you list your home to sell it is in the preparation. Preparation isn’t just limited to the cleaning and decluttering process.

The real estate market has never been such a challenge to figure out for some sellers.

Simply sliding into the next season without a freshly updated market report is like going in blind folded and it can be a costly mistake. If your home has been on the market over the summer and you’ve not had the numbers crunched recently, it’s time.

Start from scratch and get a fresh take on the standing inventory, the current values and the absorption rate, which is the anticipated time on market.

To begin with, do you have any idea which price point is actually moving city wide or neighborhood-wide?

It sounds simple enough but there are many home owners that don’t realize that as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning eighty percent of August 2010 closed sales in the Sunshine MLS were priced under $400,000. That's a pretty big number and it might be an important number to know, especially if you’re not priced below 400K and you’re wondering why your home hasn’t sold.

That’s the broad stroke of the brush that paints Collier County and south Lee County. The broad brush indicates that if your home is priced under $400,000 you may have an eighty percent chance of selling it … that is, until you drill down and review the market report for your specific community, price point or floor plan.

In order to get the most accurate snap shot of the market you need find out the most recent closed sales. Those folks that mad dashed their way to a contract to get their stimulus money probably closed sale over summer and they are your new “not older than three to six month old” comparables to base your listing price on.

If your home is currently listed for sale or you’re about to list it for sale you will want to have the absorption rate calculated, also. I am continually surprised by the amount of home owners who have their homes listed for sale and they have absolutely no idea what the estimated time frame to sell is.

Wouldn’t you think that knowing whether it could take a few months or a few years to sell a home is pivotal information? Especially for sellers that have to be somewhere else with a deadline.

If your real estate agent doesn’t know how, here’s how to calculate it yourself:

· Add together the number of Active/Pending/Active-Contract Listings 50

· Number of Sold Last Year 66 divided by 12 = 5.5 (rate)

· Number of Active (50) divided by the rate (5.5) = 9.09

· Absorption Rate = 9.09 months

Remember, listing inventory and even closed sales fluctuate so an absorption rate is not an exact science but a trend.

Now go forth and properly price your home for the selling season so you’re not still wondering why it didn’t sell next spring during the expiration season.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

Just Like Ricky Bobby Said – I Wanna Go Fast!

Well, I finally had an opportunity to get out on Lumberjack’s airboat again.  It took some doing and a little payola but last Friday was the day.  I played hooky from work.  If you’re the sort of person who has a hard time putting work aside, then an airboat ride is just for you.  There is no reception for most cell phones out there.  If you don’t have a VHF radio and or a Verizon direct connect you’re going to officially be incommunicado.

At any rate, the day trip to the Big Cypress Preserve was with Sonny from Pittsburgh (pronounced picksburgh) and his brother Al Gorithm.  Right away the rules were laid down.  There was a Yankee and he needed to know how this whole thing worked.

The first rule on this trip was that everyone had to listen to the captain’s orders or else.  He was a fierce man, with a secret love of baby bunny rabbits, four leaf clovers and all breakfast cereals with prizes in the box.  One of us was not scared of him at all.

The second rule is, if there are girls on the boat and their hands are the size of a mans, then they’re fit to hold the rope for the boat so it doesn’t float away.  Twitterzilla’s man hands were finally useful.

The third rule about airboat club is that the deck hands should say a prayer before the boat leaves the shore.  Pray that the weather is good, the cooler is full of brew, the fuel tank is topped off and pray … pray that the doesn’t drive thru the reeds again and cover his mother with bugs. That’s when her cheerful demeanor departs airboat club.

It doesn’t take too long for everything to start looking the same out there so it would probably be wise to pray that someone remember a GPS or a compass or something, too.  That would be the fourth rule of airboat club.  Don’t be like this dingo and end up dehydrated, nakey and bug bit because you got lost for a week in the river of grass.

I’m thinking that Picksburgh Sonny probably wasn’t the most precise directional source in the boat.  We were going to be invited to the Captains house and I wondered allowed what direction was.  I think he just was guessing which way to go because he was pointing at the Miccosukee reservation, which is a no-no for us because the boat has no permit.  It’s against the rules and I’m way too cute for jail.

The fifth rule about airboat club is that when the captain takes you to his camp in the middle of God’s country, be respectful.  Every man’s home is his castle … so you should treat it as such.  Any sound of banjos, harmonicas or flashes of the movie “Deliverance” are no more than one’s imagination.

The sixth rule about airboat club is that when you’re at the captains house you should always flush the toilet and wash your hands when you’re done.  Just because you’re in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean that proper hygiene should not be used.  That’s how germs would be spread. It’s up to all of us to keep America clean and healthy.

The seventh rule about airboat club is that reading is fundamental.  Even in the middle of the Florida Everglades, boat captains who live in camps on islands continually read for self improvement.  What does a baby bunny loving, shack dwelling boat captain read?  Feast your eyes on that writing material.  Some of it is buried and I don’t remember what the titles were.  For instance, the red magazine by all of the cockroach droppings … I forget what that one was. 

The eighth rule about airboat club is “to each his own”.  I know what you’re thinking.  That comforter on that futon sofa does not match the southwest print on the occasional chair.  This could be the home of a first time home owner.  We’ve all been there and used second hand furniture and home accessories … sans confederate flag.  Now what you should really be wondering is does he check the batteries in that smoke detector?

The ninth rule about airboat club is do your chores, including the dishes before you go out air boating, fishing or frog gigging.  There’s nothing worse than coming home to a big, huge mess at the end of a long day.  The tenth rule about airboat club is you should always take time to stop and smell the roses and in the Everglades that means you should sit up to your chest in water in a lawn chair and fish.  As a general practice, beer drinking is encouraged to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion. Safety first. … and always remember that sometimes you can just sit and do nothing out there, too.  We’re not suggesting that a Yankee doesn’t know how to fish or is afraid of fish or anything.  We gave him the benefit of the doubt and figured he was just pondering why it took him so long to finally find his way out there to a whole bunch of peace and quite.  Later, he confessed that he was actually trying to figure out why his cell phone wasn’t ringing.

If you would like a private tour of the Florida Everglades all you have to do is swipe your card at the pump when the boat is pulled up there and he’ll take ya.  That big honkin’ Cadillac engine ain’t cheap to run.

Disclaimer: The author of this blog does not encourage or condone frog eating.

To read the other rules read also: Touring The Florida Everglades