Life In Bonita Springs

Image courtesy Jeffrey Guterman

When The Real Estate Market Gets Better

There are thousands of economists and analysts that are trying to predict when the economy and when the Florida real estate market is going to get better. They all think they have the answer. In actuality, they’d bet better off shaking a magic eight ball. I have the answer for you. I can’t give you a date but I can give you a sign.

Since I’ve been selling Bonita Springs Florida real estate for about a decade I’ve seen and learned a lot. I was here during the beginning of a lot of development. I was just getting in the business when the mega builders showed up and turned our city from a tomato patch to the golf course capital of the world.

When we were a tomato patch the windows to restaurants were boarded up over the summer. Hitch hiking was semi-safe since everyone was a retiree. If you hitched you were usually picked up in a powder blue Cadillac by a gentleman with white hair and his wife in the passenger seat. They were usually on their way to get groceries.

The appeal to being a coastal town almost untouched by development was discovered and the express train to land clearing was headed our way.

Centex showed up and built in West Bay Club, Shadow Wood and Palmira, Pulte showed up and built in Spring Run and Copperleaf under the watch of Bonita Bay Group. WCI built anything with the name Pelican in it, Pelican Landing, Pelican Sound, Pelican Preserve, Pelican Marsh and Pelican Bay.

The developers all had a common dating technique. It was almost like having a “line” to pick up women in a bar. Developers loved the real estate agents and courted them by showering them with gifts of nifty promotional items, luncheons, drawings, give-aways and sales incentives. Why would they do that? Well, real estate agents work with buyers. Real estate agents also list and sell homes of people who want to buy newer, bigger, better or smaller if they’re downsizing. They wanted us to pimp out our customers and get them to buy their product.

Back in the day, those regular sales meetings that nearly every real estate agency holds was usually highlighted by a catered breakfast sponsored by a local development and national builder. Ah, I remember it well.

Flash forward about five years from the hay day: This fall I attended the National Association of Realtors convention in November. While spending time with a couple of Denver real estate brokers someone said, “I wonder how we’ll know when the market is getting better”.

Coffee cups. We’ll start getting coffee cups again. When the developers need us again they’ll start passing out their branded mugs for Joe and I’ll be rolling in style again. Currently, I’m down to a Jack Parker Homes mug. My closer at First American Title gave me a new one about a month ago but I accidentally broke the handle off of it, immediately. Bummer dude.

There you have it. The secret to the real estate market recovery is *coffee cups*. When the big boys start peddling their coffee cups things will be looking up.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Larry and Kristal for the Trent Realty Coffee Cup they gave to me, scored from NAR 2008. I now have two cups that are real estate related.

Al Gorithm felt sorry for me when I told him the story of my dwindling coffee cups so he ordered me an official Warren Miller coffee cup that I got last week.

The time space continuum is broken. Warren Miller has just proven that more money can be made skiing than in real estate.

If you are a builder or developer taking pity on me, send a coffee cup not condolences.

Not Bonita Springs

So I got away for the holidays last week and ended up being sick the majority of the time.  Boo.  I was in Northern Arizona and found this when I got lost and had to turn around in an auto parts store parking lot.

Onward and forward back to Bonita Springs and back to work.  I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, without Nyquil and Kleenex and Doctors.

Photo Courtesy ResPres

Dumping Your Bonita Springs Real Estate

The countdown to the end of holiday season has begun. Now everybody can get back to business as usual or at least as close to business as usual as they remember.

If you’re one of the people getting ready to get back into the swing of home selling there are a few things you will have to do if selling your Bonita Springs home before the end of tourist season is a must. By must, I mean you’re unable to afford it any longer and it must be sold or you need the capital for something supremely important.

If you’re under water with your mortgage vs. home value, still making ends meet and plan to stay in your home, this isn’t necessarily geared towards you. Not everyone must sell their home. This is for those whose home has been on the market for a while with no results or those about to list their home for sale.

There are a few statistics sellers are going to need to gather to put their own unique real estate market into perspective. You’re probably not going to enjoy them but if you’re selling you’re going to need to look at them. I’m just the messenger so prepare to swallow the jagged little pill and feel free to forego taking it out on me. The buyers are making the market right now, not me. Don’t forget that you were singing joy to the world, peace on Earth and good will towards men just a few days ago, too.

Despite the first time home buyer tax credit incentive and interest rates being at their lowest point in 37 years, many potential home buyers will be kicking back and waiting. A recent Trulia® poll revealed that among Americans surveyed, 92 percent of homeowners and 70 percent of non-homeowners say they plan on just staying put over the next 12 months.

Of course this is a national average and doesn’t take into consideration second home purchases in Bonita Springs, Florida. Still, fewer buyers coupled with standing inventory means fewer candidates available to purchase your home or condo.

Besides having your Bonita Springs home market ready you have got to have it priced effectively. It’s mostly about statistics and averages and we’re not talking national averages at this point but hyper-local numbers.

You need find out the standing inventory on the market that is your competition and the closed sales for the last twelve months that were once your competition. Have your agent figure the estimated absorption rate for your home with those figures. This is especially easy in planned communities with similar floor plans and a little more work in non-deed restricted communities.

Read also: So, What Is The Absorption Rate For Your Bonita Springs Home?

Nobody likes this part because it’s the stinging truth about what is really going on in the market you’ll be contending with. Pricing your home when there’s a couple of months of inventory is a whole bunch different than pricing it when there’s several years of inventory, especially if time is of the essence.

You have to know where you stand before you even begin to start stabbing at pricing. With only a few months to get the job done you don’t have time to waste guessing.

While you’ve got those closed sales reports out, take a look at the last three months closed sales. The odds are that if your home contracts for sale in the next few months, these are the comparables an appraiser will use. Appraisers only go back as far as six months and occasionally only three months by lender request. In high risk areas count on a second appraisal or field review of the first appraisal. Yes, it’s really that serious in the lending arena right now.

Simply put, if your home doesn’t appraise it won’t close sale. It doesn’t matter what you paid for the home, how much you owe on it or what you think it is worth. It’s worth what the comparables say its worth and what a buyer is willing to pay.

One of the most difficult things for home sellers to do is to price below the market, not “at” the market. Pricing below the market may be what it takes to get your home sold if the competition is fierce. If there are only going to be two homes estimated to sell this year in your neighborhood you need to attract buyers to be able to be one of those sales.

The Bonita Springs real estate market is loaded with homes that have ridden the market down and not hopped in front of it.

It’s the truth, whether the crowd hisses at me or not. You might not like it and I don’t like it but it may be the only way to find a new owner to start writing checks for the home you’re tired of supporting.

How much is that home costing you to maintain annually? Do the math. If you’re at the stop-loss stage of home ownership and your home costs you $20,000 per year to hold and maintain, why don’t you just whack twenty grand off the price and get it sold. Keep in mind that on average there is about two years of inventory across the board. So it may even be more than one year of holding costs you’re looking at.

Read also: Price Remains King in Bonita Springs Real Estate

If you’re thinking, “but I’ll be throwing away twenty thousand bucks” maybe you’re just looking at it wrong. Consider it a sales incentive to entice a buyer, not a loss. You can either cough it up now and get the home sold or fool yourself and bleed it out over the next year by maintaining a home that didn’t sell.

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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 left 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 www.NaplesNews.com it is probably stolen.

November Real Estate Was Kind of "Meh"

Here you go.The November 2008 absorption rates and sales numbers for the Bonita Springs and Estero Florida real estate market are ready.At least I got to them before January rolled around.

So, What Is The Absorption Rate For Your Bonita Springs Home?

As usual, the data is collected from the Sunshine MLS system and all information is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. I am only one man recording what hundreds of other men put in the system.

There’s good news and bad news about theBonita Springs real estate market.The single familyhome sales in Bonita Springsand Estero are the good news. Inventory is down to 25.4 months.The bad news is the High Rise towers and manufactured home sales are languishing.There was only one high rise sold last month.One, uno, 1, just one.

It was down on Hickory Blvd. beachfront with a gulf view, for what it’s worth.If you’re one of the sellers in Pelican Landing, The Colony,Jasmine at West Bay Club or Bonita Bay it might be time to get with the program and reduce.Add up your holding costs for one year: taxes, quarterly and annual fees, mortgage, utilities, etc.$29K is a figure I came up with on a Navona condo at The Colony in Pelican Landing– excluding mortgage expenses and utilities.

The reality of the situation is there is a three year absorption rate for tower residences in Bonita Springs and sales are almost non-existent.Price your condo effectively and consider possibly whacking $29-$58,000 (or whatever a year or two worth of holding costs is for you) off of that price to move that unit into the hands of a willing buyer.You’re either spending that in maintenance or using it as an incentive for a buyer to find youe condo.Your choice.

Here’s the rest of the numbers, standing inventory rate of sales and stuff.Read it and cheer or weep.

With the sound track of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” in the back ground I regretfully share with my public that I will no longer be responding to unsigned emails or no ID callers.

Although I love to help answer any real estate questions there are some people that just can’t be helped. Actually, they can. They can lay off the sauce or take their medication precisely as prescribed. That should help.

There are a few things I want you to know:

1. I don’t make the real estate market. The buyers do. Period. Blacktop. Get over it.
2. I don’t support Bonita Bay, the Ronto Group or anyone else that screwed over little old ladies that paid good money for a golf membership. If they laid out from $30,000-$150,000 for an optional, recreational, golf membership life can’t be that bad, can it? I just don’t see these little old ladies eating cat food between the 9^th and 10^th hole.  Take your arguments to court where they belong, not my email.
3. I just report the local real estate market conditions and have supporting figures that tell the story, if you don’t like it tough crap. (refer to 1)
4. No, I will not research your absorption rate unless you hire me. I don’t work for free. If your agent can’t do it then what exactly are they doing for you?
5. Everything I write isn’t a conspiracy. (refer to number 1) I don’t twist numbers because I don’t have the energy or time. (refer to number 3) If I was that freaking brilliant and diabolical I’d be fishing a bigger pond.
6. Yes, I make typos and occasionally a mistake. If you kindly let me know I will make the correction. There is no need to be such a tool bag about it. Besides, nobody really cares that much.
7. If you leave me a nasty, crazy voice mail telling me what a horrible person you think I am and leave your name and number. I won’t call you back but I will turn the voicemail into an MP3 and host it on my site so the rest of Lee and Collier County knows what a punk you are. (coming soon)
8. Bloggers blog, as in they have a blog that they manage, for example www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com. Bloggers do not comment on other blogs and get considered a blogger. Those would be commenter’s because they’re commenting. That means those who comment on the paper website are commenter’s, not bloggers. Joggers actually jog, bloggers actually blog. I am a blogger, you are a commenter. Please refer back to number 6.
9. When you email me and eventually ramble off to the Twin Towers conspiracy (refer to number 4) and ask me to do research on “Ben Ladin” know this, I don’t know “Ben” Ladin nor do I have any desire to research “Ben” for a real estate column.
10. Most of the time it is pretty easy to figure out who is actually a fellow blogger just being consumed with the green eyed monster. It’s just sad when I realize it’s actually the broker of the firm. (refer to paragraph 2) Yes, I am tracking IP addresses you silly goose.

Lowest Rates in 37 Years

I'm going to make this morning's update a quick one-

Everyone seems to be taking it easy now that the Holidays are upon us.  Hey - everyone needs a little break every now and then!

But keep a few things in mind......

* We still have a very strong Buyer's Market here in South Florida - prices have dropped quite a bit over the year and as we enter the traditional busy season, these properties won't be available forever.

* In addition to the low prices and healthy inventory, last Friday mortgage rates hit their lowest point in 37 years!  The 30 year fixed rate home loan is WAY down (for purchases and rate-and-term refi's) and I'm confident that the rates on the Jumbo loans will edge a little lower also.

So..... the money is available and there is a wide selection of properties to choose from.  You're still waiting because........??  I'll leave it at that.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

--
Marc J Blasi

(561) 282-7406

Citrus Trees in Southwest Florida

This little beauty was spotted in Nuttinglikit Grove.  There are tons of old groves around Bonita Springs, Fl.  Many homes have orange, grapefruit, lemon, carambola and papaya trees as landscape foilage.  If you aren't lucky enough to have them growing in your back yard many home owners sell them road side or offer u-pick.  Worst case scenario, you can snag some at Farmer Mikes on Morton Road.

East Bonita Springs Invasion

I've snapped so many pictures of fun mailboxes in Bonita Springs that I kind of forgot where I took this one.  I know it was off of East Terry Street on the right hand side, I think it was Allen Street but it could have been Jarvis Street. At any rate, this wasn't the only fun mailbox in that area.  There were several. I think there was a block party with a mailbox decorating contest.

Take a drive sometime and have a look.

Taking Advice of Strangers Instead of Hiring Professionals

There was a time when we would have our winter tourists come to Bonita Springs and fall in love with the area. They’d get “drunk on palm trees”, fall head over heals in love with the area and want to shop for a Bonita Springs Florida home. We had our impulse buyers but it was more about beach lifestyle than scoring a deal.

Some vacationing buyers would start off on an impulse buying adventure, shop till they drop for a couple of days, return back to their snowy northern home to “think about it” and in a few days they’d “forget about it”. Out of sight, out of mind; it only took about four or five days of reality to erase the dream of owning Bonita Springs real estate. In actuality, there was no plan and that’s why they never purchased.

Occasionally, a spontaneous buyer has had things work out while they’re here. They’d been to Bonita Springs before. They have friends and family in the area. They’d poked around, gathered information and looked at a few places over the last few years. Eventually, the idea of buying real estate crossed paths at a time that they were vacationing and possibly close to relocating or retiring. Their partially developed plan was firmed up and a home was purchased.

These are two different kinds of buyers but only one of them had done any research or any planning.

Lately, I’ve been a little surprised at the amount of people that are making knee jerk reactions in the real estate market. It makes me wonder if the people that are reacting with panic are the ones that didn’t do any planning up front.

I receive emails from sellers, buyers and I read message boards on the internet to eavesdrop on the conversations of others. One of the most disconcerting things been watching develop is the amount of people looking for advice regarding their real estate transaction, not from trusted professionals that they’re working with but from strangers.

Considering myself a stranger to anyone that anonymously emails me their dilemma and considering that message boards are laden with strangers, I am astounded that buyers and sellers are asking unqualified strangers for financial and legal advice. How different is posting for help on a message board than walking up to someone at a hardware store and saying, “I’m having trouble keep affording my home, what do you think I should do?”

My own theory is that many of these real estate transactions were impulse buys or even knee jerk reactions to the current events on the news. Some of the pleas for help I’ve read are laced in fear; fear of the market, fear of the economy, fear of fear. Where was the fear when they signed the sale and purchase contract two weeks ago? They were caught up in excitement of buying Florida real estate. Weeks later after a dramatic couple of days on Wall Street, buyer’s remorse set in and panic begins.

It makes me wonder if there was enough research done in preparation to find and buy the real estate in the first place. It makes me wonder if buyers came to town and thought they could score big by scooping up a deal and then reality set in after they got back and they realize that maybe they didn’t do adequate research before they signed on the dotted line.

A few words of advice for anyone buying or selling Bonita Springs real estate especially in these wild financial and real estate times - Do your research. Plan your work, work your plan. This is a business transaction and it needs to be treated as one. Save yourself the anxiety down the road by doing things right.

Get the “what if” questions answered before contract. What if:

• I can’t get a mortgage?
• The buyer backs out of the deal?
• The bank doesn’t take the offer?
• I get buyers remorse and change my mind?
• The property doesn’t appraise?

You need great support in place to get you through whatever process you’re experiencing; buying, selling, short sale or foreclosure. When you have proven, experienced help you won’t have to ask random strangers for their opinion about real estate. You’ll already have sources to count on to answer questions if you’re troubled or encounter problems.

Read also: How Many Foreclosures & Short Sales in Southwest Florida?

Unless someone is handing you the phone number of a proven real estate attorney, lender or real estate agent that you can interview, their opinion of your situation isn’t worth squat.

This may sound simplistic but maybe don’t panic quite as much while you’re watching the news. A lot of times it isn’t really news you’re watching anyway, but it sure sells commercial time. There sure is a lot of drama involved.

Panicking and trying to bail out of a purchase or sale contract because of news or speculation by a chimpanzee with a dart board is almost as dangerous as buying or selling real estate after a life altering, emotional event like death of a spouse or divorce.

Some of the worst financial and legal mistakes get made because vital decisions and choices were made without a true plan, verifying all of the “facts” and getting the guidance of the trusted, professional advisors.

Treat your real estate transaction like a business because that’s what the big boys that you’re dealing with will be doing. The last place you’ll ever want to be is unprepared, on the weak side of a transaction getting strong armed by your adversary’s good plan. One thing’s for sure, your adversary won’t be getting his real estate advice from strangers on the internet.

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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 left 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 www.NaplesNews.com it is probably stolen.