On his first adventure across town, Harold "Rag Top" Shinski, after just moving to Bonita Springs, Fl from Edina, Mn is caught in the rain and refused to put his top up. Sometimes it's just the principal. He's waited his whole life for this moment to drive a convertible in Florida, and a little precipitation isn't about to dampen the mood.
So I'm sitting there just a few feet away from the "do not feed the alligator" sign watching a family of tourists feed the alligator. I guess people from Ohio can't read. They must have given him a whole loaf of bread and a half dozen chicken wings.
The signs are up for a reason. If you feed an alligator, bad things happen. Having nearly dealt with the business end of an alligator myself I can tell you they're dead serious about their business. The signs are up for a reason, the *law* is there for a reason. By the way, you're not suppose to feed most *wild* animals, here.
Here's an idea, don't feed anything unless it barks and has four paws. If you feed anything else, it's a no-no.
That "do not feed the alligator sign" is at the Trianon Hotel at the Promenade in front of Bonita Bay, Bonita Springs, Florida. If you're looking for a safe place to get a look at a gator head out to the lake house and watch for the tourists whippin' crap in the water. That's where the gator would be.
Everyone knows there are a whole bunch of fence riders out there. Buyers are watching the market, waiting to get in at the "right time". When is the right time? What magic number is a buyer waiting for or what feeling is a buyer waiting to have before they're comfortable offering on and buying a home? Daily, I receive calls from potential buyers and investors digging for information about the Bonita Springs real estate market and sharing their opinion about the market and value vs. price. Mostly, the buyers that are waiting usually have no factual reason for doing so. I surmise that they're just waiting for everyone else to do it, first. The old adage applies: "There's safety in numbers".
Recently, the Florida Association of Realtors released an article regarding the price of homes vs. getting priced out of the market by rising interest rates. An interesting comparison is offered using the value of a home priced at $250,000. With a 20 percent down payment and 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6 percent, monthly payments would be $1,199.10 (principal and interest only). Even if the price of this home were to drop 10 percent one year from now to $225,000 - but mortgage rates rise to 7 percent - the monthly payment for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with 20 percent down would be $1,197.54 (mortgage and interest only) - a difference of $1.56 a month.
Could this be point break? The time where values have reached the lowest point before being effected by other factors of the market? There are those who think so and have decided to take action. I've recently worked with a few buyers and Canadian Investors who decided to take advantage of the information and decide that this was the season to buy. For them, it was time to start enjoying the Florida lifestyle and begin making the most of their retirement this season. My most recent buyers have been folks making the relocation a reality before the next school season, Canadian Investors finally priced into the market with the dollar value and home values lining up and Baby Boomers finally deciding that it's time take the plunge and begin to enjoy their retirement years.
One thing is certain, there will be no alarm that goes off indicating the right time to buy. For the fence riders out there: Remember, the only time the bottom can be identified is when prices are actually going back up. If you do your research, watch the market vigilantly and negotiate a great deal going in you will be able to use and enjoy your Florida real estate while the others are watching and waiting for the courage to get in.
Last Friday I took this picture on my way from Bonita Springs to Estero for a home inspection in Stoneybrook. Half dazed with my head tilted sideways and listening to talk radio I had to tell myself to look....I mean LOOK at how pretty the sky was. I was missing a perfect sunrise, driving right through it like Mr. Magoo. Our sky is pretty here a lot, I mean most of the time it looks like it has been computer enhanced and in this photo it's just a random Friday morning in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Southwest Florida really is a beautiful place to live. Unfortunately it doesn't take long for people to become so accustomed to the area that we just don't see it any more. Take, for instance, the gulf ... as in the Gulf of Mexico. There are times when I don't see it for months and make a conscious choice to drive down and watch the sunset. I shame my self into some of the most beautiful sunsets I the world because I know there are people who dream of seeing it and come from half way around the world just to see it. Meanwhile, I'm squandering sunsets left and right. I have been taking Bonita Springs for granted.
It's the same with the flowers. Florida was named by Juan Ponce de León. It was named "Pascua de Florida," meaning "Feast of Flowers". You'll have to call yourself to action and actually look around the next time you're driving, walking or riding a bike. This place is covered with Flowers. Some of them are so tiny you can barely even see them. Every day we blow right on by them because we're use to them.
Take time to smell the flowers and make time to visit our beaches. We've got awesome city of Bonita Springs and Lee county parks, The Great Calusa Blueway canoe and kayak trail and state parks all over the place. There are plenty of things to do in Bonita Springs. Make sure you're not missing it.
If you have a great outdoor find, share it in the comments section. We'd love to know about it.
If this was the view from your Bonita Springs home, you'd better play it up online. THAT is a photo with a hook. Imagine a buyer sitting in their home in the middle of a cold snap or worse, a snow storm and they're researching Florida real estate online. That pretty sunset would make them pause and take a closer look for sure.
Years ago I had a home listed in the Bonita Springs Golf & Country Club area that had a fantastic pool and back yard. I used those pool photos, taken with a wide angle lens camera, in the majority of color print advertising, internet advertising and the visual tour. The response was greater for that home than any other home I had listed in some time. Why? The photos were perfect, they screamed "Florida" and showed a slice of the American dream. Who can't imagine lying by a sparkling pool? The only thing missing from the photo was a Corona bottle. The rest of the home, on the other hand was a bit of a handyman special. The pool was the best part and it made the phone ring.
With 94% of buyers now beginning their search for real estate on the Internet, it is more important than ever to get photographs of your home on the web. Photos sell homes. Period. Buyers want to see photos of homes, community amenities, and any other benefit a home has to offer. The photos are the hook.
Many of the buyers that are coming to Bonita Springs and Estero to buy a home or condo begin their search on the Internet. They've often weeded out the list of homes that will be not seen before they even arrive. Homes with little or no photos are usually the first to bite the dust. Think about it. Heck, test-drive the idea. Go to Realtor.com and find a few homes in your dream city. Pick your price range and try to start filtering out the homes you want to see. It won't take you long to realize that photos are an important tool. Now just imagine the challenges a buyer from outside of the country or up north faces while searching for a home long distance.
If you're a home owner and you're considering putting your home on the market or your home is currently on the market make sure you have photos on:
Buyers are looking for information. If you make sure they're getting information on your home you stand a better chance of getting into your home.
The Bonita Springs real estate market is fiercely competitive. There are a variety of dynamics at work making it harder than ever to get a home sold and off the market in a fair amount of time. Currently in Bonita Springs the real estate market offers a substantial amount of inventory. Our units of sales were actually up in February, but with so much inventory its hard to get a home noticed. It comes down to price, first and condition, second.
Say you're going to the grocery store and you're standing in the milk isle. There is milk from a few dairy brokers. The milk is offered in the same container size of a one gallon. The milk from two of the dairy brokers is for sale for $3.79 per gallon, but the milk from the third dairy is $3.39 per gallon. Which milk do you buy? Which milk does most of the public buy? You guessed it. Customers buy homes the same way. They shop value first. Where home purchasing is concerned if a home is overpriced it usually doesn't make the short list of homes to tour.
If a home does make the list to be shown it might be its one and only chance. It's like an open audition for a Broadway show and most of the time there aren't call backs. This is where the slightest, littlest thing could turn a buyer off. Homes have to be cleaner than clean. They need to look and smell good, too. After all it isn't that special of a house compared to the dozens and dozens that it is competing against.
The other day I drove up to a home to preview it for a buyer. I pulled in the driveway of a Bonita Springs home and was greeted by "the numbers" as my first impression. Why? It would have been better to just leave the number off of the home rather than stick it back up there using Terradactyl crap as adhesive. What a shame. I have a fairly broad mind when looking at homes. I'm good at seeing past some of the issues that are left for buyers to deal with. My first thought, was to put myself in the buyers shoes and ask myself what they would think. Would they think the home is in disrepair? Since the numbers weren't properly adhered to the home and were installed so poorly, maybe important items like the heat and cooling systems were not properly cared for either. Then, the buyers start scrutinizing and nitpicking everything because they can. Those gunky numbers gave them the permission to start looking hard at everything.
If you're trying to make a good first impression:
Never, ever, ever attempt a handy-man task that you can't make look 100% professional. You will undo every ounce of hard work you did in an instant. Now, get out there and start making a great first impression.
I snapped a photo of this little beauty on Corkscrew Road as I was heading back from Bella Terra of Estero. My parents are die hard Dem's so I couldn't resist pulling a little prank on them. I've been waiting for the phone to ring for the last few days. I figured they already got the photo of it in the mail. It was put in an innocuous white envelope that I carefully addressed with my left hand. Now that I think of it, it looked more like a ransom note than a prank. I'm still waiting....and now hoping that they didn't involve the FBI.
If you're one of Donna and Harry's friends, don't rat me out!
Today, I played a little bit of hooky. My intention was to play full hooky but I am so unskilled in hooky playing I failed miserably. I even had to turn around to get gear, at one point, to fully be able to enjoy my hooky. That gear would be sunscreen. Now, although I only live a few miles from the beach, shamefully, I rarely take the opportunity to visit it. This is reflected in my gear forgetting. Who forgets sunscreen on the way to the beach?
By the time I made it to the beach it was nearly 4:00. Technically, it was really 3:00 since the time change just happened. Don't judge, I already admitted to being bad at hooky. I was sidetracked by a few people, a drive by assessment of a home in El Dorado Acres and I turned around again to get the beach towel that I forgot. Yeah, I forgot a beach towel on the way to the beach ... where the water is. Turns out that that American flag beach towel was a sporty accessory!
It was a beautiful day at the Bonita Beach, by the way. When I finally made it there I was met with mounds of shells and sea urchins. We don't get many urchins ashore and there were piles of them. It was so windy I can only surmise that the wind churned up the seas and pushed them up. Tourists were walking with boxes and bags piled high with their perfect choices of coral, sponges, shells, sand dollars and urchins. All the while, sandpipers were running all over the beach.
For those of you who may be coming find your own sea shells in Bonita Springs take a drive down Hickory Blvd. Where you see the colorful flags hanging is free parking with beach access. It's a hot commodity so you might not get a spot, but if you do there usually are acres of private beach to use and enjoy. My next choice is Barefoot Beach Preserve. It's a fee park, I think about $5 or $6 bucks to get in for the car, not per person. It's also a Gopher Tortoise preserve. They also offer canoe rentals and rest room facilities.
If you have a favorite beach in the area that you would like to share, just mention it in the comments below.
Seriously, I was sharing market conditions and my own efforts to sell my personal home in Bonita Springs I had a home owner say that to me at a listing appointment. I then started digging through my mind trying to find why anyone would think that because I am a real estate agent that my expenses, time, insurance, education and gasoline would be free to me, simply because I'm in the biz.
I've soul searched for why people go for the jugular regarding the expenses and even the salary of real estate agents; I still struggle with finding a basis for it. The only thing I can come up with is discretion. I think it's because what reputable real estate agents do to help people buy or sell real estate isn't celebrated or done with fanfare. Since it usually goes unnoticed people assume there isn't anything being done, at all. Nobody has ever asked to shadow me for a day to find out what it is really like to be me, to do what I do, to do what I do for no pay until I am able to sell my listing inventory or help place a buyer into a home. It's a rather enormous undertaking and the work is often about problem solving and organization. It is tedious and would bore most people to tears.
Having been a Florida real estate agent for several years I can share that it is like any other business built of bricks and mortar. The expenses for being a real estate agent come in for education, insurance, office supplies, licensing, dues, printed material, and office equipment just like any other business. It is definitely not an inexpensive business to run. In addition to regular office and equipment expenses I co-broke commission to other real estate agents that bring happy, smiling, prequalified customers to my listings as buyers or refer the listed property to me.
I know this opens the whole can of worms about earned commission; the salary a real estate agent and the agent they co-broke with get paid. Don't go there with me because I know that I earn every penny of my pay.
This is usually where someone who has never worked in real estate or someone who "used to be a real estate agent" shares their opinion about commissions and whether or not an agent is worthy and payment is justified. Keep in mind if someone has never done the job [real estate agent]; they're ignorant in their opinion. It's like complaining about politics when you're an unregistered voter. If the opinion is from someone formerly in the business, they probably weren't doing it right and stunk at their job, which explains why they aren't doing it any more. Even a doctor that has accidentally killed a few patients eventually quits saying "I use to be a doctor" because someone will ask why he isn't a doctor any more. If being a real estate agent was as easy and as lucrative as everyone thinks it is, then who in their right mind would ever leave this business?
If I apply the same principals and practices to sell my own real estate that I use for my clients and customers, what would lead anyone to think it is faster, easier and less expensive for me to sell my own home? If just because I'm biz I have "special privileges" then why on Earth didn't my house sell faster, with less expense paid out and for more money than it was really worth?
As luck would have it Lansdowne Street is located in the same building as my office. Several colleagues headed down for the first annual block party on St. Patrick's day. I was given a green necklace since I wasn't wearing any green. I know, Griffith is my last name. Shameful. The turn out was excellent and everyone was in good spirits. The weather was absolutely perfect, too. It has been a about a week of perfect blue sky with not a cloud in sight.
Lansdowne had tents, outside grills and drink service and entertainment. A dance school with Irish Dancers performed. They were absolutely fantastic and just as cute as can be. I don't know the name of their school or anything about them, so if anyone that reads this knows either email me or comment and I'll amend the story with their details.
If you'd like to know more about Lansdown Street Pub, read also: Lansdowne Street Pub and Restaurant | Bonita Springs
Enjoy photos of the event HERE and watch a video of the dance at YouTube. I gave it my best trying to embed it in the website but it was messing everything up. Enjoy!