Life In Bonita Springs

Your Second or Even Third Comparative Market Analysis

Chances are you probably had a CMA, a comparative market analysis, when you listed your real estate for sale. If you didn’t, you should have. What many home sellers do not realize is that there probably should be more than one CMA over the life of a home’s listing period.

Sooner or later your home is going to interest the right buyer and you will receive an offer. How you choose to respond to the offer, if you choose to respond to the offer, if you choose to counter the offer should be based on current, I repeat current, closed sale statistics and current market conditions.

The real estate market has been shifting and the inventory is tightening up. The market has undoubtedly changed enough for most home owners to get a current updated market on their property when an offer comes in. Whether the home was listed for one year or one month prior to the offer coming in a seller should receive an update on what has closed sale in the past six month time period, which properties are pending sale and how many active homes are now on the market competing with the subject property for the same buyer.

Every day that a home is on the market the sand is flowing through the hourglass. The comparable sales used on the day that a home is listed actually have a freshness date. If a buyer is getting a mortgage that freshness date has never been so important. The buyer’s lender is going to have an appraisal which is used to value the home as part of the mortgage process and the appraiser will only be using the fresh comparables, not the now stale comparables used to estimate the value of the home when it was listed.

If a home has been listed for three months at the time an offer comes in, there are three months of stale comparables which, in most circumstances, are no longer relevant. There are also potentially three months of fresh, new comparables which may be beneficial or possibly detrimental to supporting the offer price. These recent sales will be part of the new comparative market analysis.

Sometimes what a home seller perceives as a low-ball offer may be, in fact, based on similar closed sales which have occurred between the date a home was listed and the date the offer was presented. It may not be pretty but a closed sale is a closed sale.

So what’s a seller to do in this evolving market when an offer comes in? Demand a fresh CMA if your real estate agent hasn’t provided one so a decision can be made based on the same critical, current sales prices everyone else involved in the transaction is going to be using.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to have your agent ask the buyer’s agent to see the CMA they created when they chose their offer price. There are a few reasons this can benefit a home seller:

· To determine if they even did a CMA or they’re just tossing out offers.

· To verify that the buyer is actually using the most qualified, recent comparable sale prices.

· To make sure that there isn’t a closed sale that you and your real estate agent could have overlooked or not yet discovered.

Always get the facts and figures before you start negotiating or you could be negotiating a sale price which won’t appraise or, even worse, leave money on the negotiating table.

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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.

The Mexican Butterfly Weed

First, I apologize for the mediocre picture. I was so excited to see the caterpillars that I whipped out the cell phone and snapped a picture right away before the sun set fully.  Second, this nature experiment started sort of by accident because I took a picture of the plant in Bonita Bay and it had a monarch butterfly on it.   I matter of factly added that I need to find out what the plant is so I can get monarchs in my back yard.  The picture of the plant is here: Deerwood Bonita Bay

It wasn’t long until a loyal reader sent me the info on the plant and I was on my way to the Home Depot on Bonita Beach Road. I picked up a variety of plants that attract butterflies, including the Mexican Butterfly Weed. I had a monarch visit within days.  I saw them laying eggs and today, when I ate dinner out on the patio with Dillon the Villain and saw the caterpillars.  I have dozens of them already!  

We are officially, accidental butterfly gardeners! Thanks Minnesota Mike!

Here is some more scientific info about the plant if you’re interested in attracting monarchs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_curassavica

Tourist Season and Real Estate Rapture

There’s no doubt we have a seasonal resident population in southwest Florida. The other day, I pulled up to an intersection on a busy street and there were no cars coming, either direction. It had been months of bumper to bumper traffic on that street and it was quite a surprise to see nothing but a dashed yellow line. I said to my friend in the car, “Do you suppose the rapture finally happened and we didn’t make the cut?”

The off-season real estate season is back on the minds of real estate sellers again … and maybe even a few buyers. A reader has asked the reoccurring, annual question; is it even worth the hassle to list real estate for sale in the summer?

The question is not without basis. Not long after the Easter holiday we see the swarm of car carriers parked on the side of US 41 loading up vehicles to take them back north. As a matter of fact, I saw three of them on-loading cars in front of Bonita Bay the day before yesterday. Those who see the vacationers and snowbirds leaving wonder if there are going to be any opportunities to sell their real estate if there aren’t buyers in town.

First, not all of the real estate buyers are from outside the area. If a prospective buyer is, in fact, a northerner their access to resources has changed dramatically. As technology would have it, Google has made the world a much smaller place. Those buyers and sellers of real estate motoring north on I-75 don’t always forget about southwest Florida as soon as they get home. They’re quietly pecking away at the keyboard from their northern base, keeping tabs on the market and absorbing information for their return real estate buying trip and, believe it or not, many times that trip is actually in the summer. A summer buyer once told me that buying real estate in tourist season was like trying to buy a boat on Fourth of July, which is what prompted his return in the summer.

The approach of the summer real estate buyer is quite different from that of the typical winter vacation or seasonal resident buyer. The tire kicking is over. They’ve watched, learned and dialed into focus, more precisely, what they’re looking for in a Florida home or condo. This means that homes for sale may actually have fewer showings but the buyers who are looking are more focused and committed to buying.

Our unit sales do not sell at the same heightened level as in tourist season but we do have a respectable, healthy real estate market over the summer. Out of curiosity I checked and thought I’d share closed unit sales statistics over the summer last year; January 872, February 1,017, March 1,485, April 1,515, May 1,319, June 1,245, July 897, Aug 947, September 801, October 779, November 796, December 927.

Keep in mind that the exaggerated March 2011 through June 2011 sales indicate the big come back and sell-off of the then saturated market. The closed sale figures in winter 2011 actually rivaled the 2004-2005 recorded unit sales. It should be pointed out, for reference, so that it’s understood that those months were unusually high unit sales figures which cast a shadowing the respectable numbers that closed sale over the summer.

Real estate actually does continue to sell over the summer in Southwest Florida. When it’s priced appropriately and has been properly prepped for the market there is no reason why it shouldn’t sell over what is typically thought of by many as the “off season” summer market.

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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.

Things to Do – Take the Causeway to Sanibel Island

Just about thirty minutes away from Bonita Springs is the world famous vacation spot, Sanibel Island.  Home to great beaches and a laid back island atmosphere, Sanibel also has several great attractions to visit.  If you take a day trip from Bonita Springs to Sanibel, take a list of a few things to do while you’re on the island.  Here are some suggestions:

• Visit Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge
• Visit C.R.O.W. Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife
• Visit the Sanibel Lighthouse
• Have lunch at The Mucky Duck or The Bubble Room
• Continue your drive and visit Captiva

The Truth About That 10% Real Estate Value Increase

Did you know that the second Tuesday of every month all of the real estate agents of southwest Florida show up at a secret location, one minute before midnight, to formulate a plan to manipulate the entire real estate industry? Well neither did I. Apparently, I didn’t get the invitation.

Believe it or not, there really isn’t a huge, clandestine plan to dupe the general public into buying real estate they don’t want or need. The market will and is ironing itself out. It’s true.

It shouldn’t be that hard to believe that a down real estate market wouldn’t last for forever. Not that any consumer shouldn’t be cautious and do their homework as they’re preparing to buy or sell real estate. Those same economists throwing around that projected ten percent value increase figure have been “off” before.

The fact of the matter is that the now watered down phrase “real estate is local” is true and has never been more important. The answer to the state of your real estate, not my real estate, not your friend’s real estate, has been sitting pretty, all this time, right there in the local numbers. All that most heard from the report last week was that real estate values in Naples would be up by “as much as ten percent” by the end of the year. It’s plausible given the market conditions but not a definite for every single real estate owner.

It’s sort of like the surgeon general announcing that the average life expectancy in the United States has been extended to the age of seventy-eight and then someone you know or love passes at the age of fifty-three. Rip off or reality? It was an average and unfortunately we all know someone out there who is going to draw a shorter straw than someone else in life expectancy and in the real estate market.

So, what’s a home owner or a home buyer to do? Get to the bottom of the numbers. Either figure out how to calculate the numbers yourself or find a real estate agent who is capable of calculating inventory absorption rates for you, for the area in which you live or are thinking of purchasing real estate. A simple calculation can tell you where the market stands and likely which direction the real estate values are moving.

The reality is that there are still a few communities out there with excessive inventory. I attended a meeting in a bundled golf community where the manager of the community boasted that only six percent of the real estate behind the gates of the community was currently listed for sale. Six percent sounds optimistic but given the rate of closed sales recorded in that particular community there was fifteen months of standing inventory. Meaning that theoretically, if no other real estate were listed in that community, ever again, it would take approximately fifteen months to sell off the existing inventory.

Unless there is a surprise run on real estate in that particular community it could be speculated that there is a strong possibility that they are not going to enjoy “up to a ten percent increase” in property values across the board when the New Year rings in. There may be a particularly popular floor plan experiencing a surge in sales that will, however.

It takes drilling down and running the numbers level by level from the county, from the city, to the neighborhood, to the street or even to the floor plan to determine the inventory, the direction of that particular local market and a reasonable projection of that market in the near future … that’s the local in “real estate is local” and the truth about which side of that projected “up to ten percent value increase” your real estate is currently positioned and where it might be at the end of the year.

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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.

Learn More, Read Also: CREW Trails Estero Florida

Courtyard Home – Courtyard Floor Plan

Have you heard of the Courtyard Home or the courtyard floor plan?  The courtyard floor plan or courtyard home offers a unique courtyard entry instead of a traditional front door home entry.  Homes with the courtyard floor plan are for those who enjoy privacy within the courtyard, which often includes a private swimming pool.

Many developers use the courtyard home floor plan when villas are positioned close together or attached.  Courtyard home floor plans can be found in single family homes, also.  Frequently, the courtyard home is offered on lots with a limited view or lots which abut other homes.  When courtyard homes or the courtyard floor plan is used on lots with premium views the courtyard may be used as a seating area and the pool placed in the traditional back yard position.  This offers the unique upgrade of two lanais.

The courtyard home or courtyard floor plan offers a great atmosphere for those who enjoy entertaining. The doors of the home generally all open to the courtyard making for an open feel, breezy entertaining and a great social space. 

In addition, many of the courtyard home floor plans offer a free standing cabana or casita which offers a flexible space that home owners use as a pool cabana, billiard room, home office, private guest suite or for the boomer and sandwich generation it offers a private living quarter for parents or adult children to live in.

Courtyard homes and the courtyard floor plan can be found in many developments in the Bonita Springs and Estero Florida areas which include Bonita Bay, Pelican Landing, Grandezza, West Bay Club, Shadow Wood at The Brooks.

Just Off of The Walking Trails and Bike Path