Treasure My Home Team

Top 10 markets for rising list prices

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:27:54 +0000

Realtor.com finds list prices up nationwide in March

Naples one of the Best Small Towns in America

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:13:25 +0000

NAPLES, Fla.- If you live in Naples, you’re living in one of the best small towns in America according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Art, music, the shopping and restaurant district of 5th Avenue South, and of course the Southwest Florida sunshine helped the city squeek into the top 10, in the 9th spot.

Great Barrington, MA took the top spot.

The top 20 best small towns are featured in the magazine’s May issue.

To view the article online, click here.

10 home maintenance tips for spring

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:47:14 +0000

When was the last time you checked your foundation vents?

By Paul Bianchina Inman News®

Always nice to hear!!

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:41:06 +0000

Wow…you guys do such a great job. Prior to encountering you, I had emailed a number of realtors in the Sarasota and Ft. Myers areas for information. That was back in January. I never heard from them!

You have set me up on emails, returned my emails, returned my calls, answered my questions and, in general, represent what I believe is the best of the real estate industry. I look forward to coming to SW Florida to meet you and look at properties.

John K

Phoenix, AZ

Top 10 Turnaround Towns

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:05:08 +0000

Top 10 turnaround towns

money.cnn.com

Florida’s cities were some of the hardest hit by the housing bust, but now they are leading the charge back. Of Realtor.com’s top 10 turnaround towns, eight are in the Sunshine State! Read on.

What Does Warren Buffet Think About Buying a Home?

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:52:06 +0000

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:00 AM PST

Warren
Buffet is seen by many as the greatest investor of our time. When he speaks,
people listen. Like anyone else in his position of influence, he is criticized
by some for using his bullhorn to promote his own business agendas at times.
That makes it very interesting when we occasionally learn of how he privately advises those
closest to him.

Such a situation occurred this week.
Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffet’s secretary of 37 years, recently purchased a
second home in Surprise, Arizona.

In an article in the Omaha
World Herald, Mrs. Bosanek discussed her reasons for purchasing a
second home and the personal advice she received from Mr. Buffet.

“I just thought it was time to buy a home. Warren tells me that it will be the best opportunity in my lifetime. Mortgage rates are low and prices have dropped dramatically…I share Warren’s view about the future of America, and we believe that our country will do just fine. I’m happy to make this investment.”

The greatest investor of the last
century privately has told the people closest to him that buying a home right
now “will be the best
opportunity in [their] lifetime”.

That’s good enough for us. How about you?

Naples Zoo is Free on the first Saturday each month

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:58:24 +0000

The Naples Zoo is Free on the first Saturday each month – Naples Resident requires picture
ID (FL Drivers license, or Tax, Electric or such)

see: www.caribbeangardens.com
Free Admission Each Month!

On the first Saturday of every month, 12 times a year, Collier County residents
receive free zoo admission all day long. Enter any time, all day long up
until 4 p.m. with no coupon required – just proof of residency for all adults. Visitors under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult at least 18 years of age.

How to Prove Collier County Residency: A state issued photo ID with a Collier
County address like a driver’s license is the easiest form of ID. If you have
an out of area photo ID, but own property in Collier County, just bring in a
utility or tax bill for a property in Collier County with a matching name photo
ID.

Top 10 Reasons to Hire a Real Estate Agent

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:20:49 +0000

By Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com Guide

With so much information readily available online, clients sometimes ask me,
“Why should we hire a real estate agent?” They wonder, and rightfully
so, if they couldn’t buy or sell a home through the Internet or through regular
marketing and advertising channels without representation, without a real
estate agent. Some do OK, many don’t. So if you’ve wondered the same thing,
here are 10 reasons why you might want to consider hiring a professional real
estate agent.

1. Education & Experience

You don’t need to know everything about buying and selling real estate if you hire
a real estate professional who does. Henry Ford once said that when you hire
people who are smarter than you are, it proves you are smarter than they are.
The trick is to find the right person. For the most part, they all cost about
the same. Why not hire a person with more education and experience than you?
We’re all looking for more precious time in our lives, and hiring pros gives us
that time.

2. Agents are Buffers

Agents take the spam out of your property showings and visits. If you’re a buyer of
new homes, your agent will whip out her sword and keep the builder’s agents at
bay, preventing them from biting or nipping at your heels. If you’re a seller,
your agent will filter all those phone calls that lead to nowhere from lookie
loos and try to induce serious buyers to immediately write an offer.

3. Neighborhood Knowledge

Agents either possess intimate knowledge or they know
where to find the industry buzz about your neighborhood. They can identify comparable sales and
hand these facts to you, in addition to pointing you in the direction where you
can find more data on schools, crime or demographics. For example, you may know
that a home down the street was on the market for $350,000, but an agent will
know it had upgrades and sold at $285,000 after 65 days on the market and
after twice falling out of escrow.

4. Price Guidance

Contrary to what some people believe, agents do not select prices for sellers or buyers.
However, an agent will help to guide clients to make the right choices for
themselves. If a listing is at 7%, for example, an agent has a 7% vested
interest in the sale, but the client has a 93% interest. Selling agents will
ask buyers to weigh all the data supplied to them and to choose a price. Then
based on market supply, demand and the conditions, the agent will devise a
negotiation strategy.

5. Market Conditions Information

Real estate agents can disclose market conditions, which will govern your selling or
buying process. Many factors determine how you will proceed. Data such as the
average per square foot cost of similar homes, median and average sales prices, average days on market and ratios of list-to-sold prices, among other criteria, will have a huge bearing on what
you ultimately decide to do.

6. Professional Networking

Real estate agents network with other professionals, many of whom provide services
that you will need to buy or sell. Due to legal liability, many agents will
hesitate to recommend a certain individual or company over another, but they do
know which vendors have a reputation for efficiency, competency and competitive
pricing. Agents can, however, give you a list of references with whom they have
worked and provide background information to help you make a wise selection.

7. Negotiation Skills & Confidentiality

Top producing agents negotiate well because, unlike most buyers and sellers, they
can remove themselves from the emotional aspects of the transaction and because
they are skilled. It’s part of their job description. Good agents are not
messengers, delivering buyer’s offers to sellers and vice versa. They are
professionals who are trained to present their client’s case in the best light
and agree to hold client information confidential from competing interests.

8. Handling Volumes of Paperwork

One-page deposit receipts were prevalent in the early 1970s. Today’s purchase agreements
run 10 pages or more. That does not include the federal- and state-mandated
disclosures nor disclosures dictated by local custom. Most real estate files
average thicknesses from one to three inches of paper. One tiny mistake or
omission could land you in court or cost you thousands. In some states, lawyers
handle the disclosures, thank goodness!

9. Answer Questions after Closing

Even the smoothest transactions that close without complications can come back to
haunt. For example, taxing authorities that collect property tax assessments,
doc stamps or transfer tax can fall months behind and mix up invoices, but one
call to your agent can straighten out the confusion. Many questions can pop up
that were overlooked in the excitement of closing. Good agents stand by ready
to assist. Worthy and honest agents don’t leave you in the dust to fend for
yourself.

10. Develop Relationships for Future Business

The basis for an agent’s success and continued career in real estate is referrals. Few agents would survive if their livelihood was dependent on consistently drumming up new business. This emphasis gives agents strong incentives to make certain clients are happy and satisfied. It also means that an agent who stays in the business will be there for you when you need to hire an agent again. Many will
periodically mail market updates to you to keep you informed and to stay in touch.

The New Rules of Real Estate

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:31:53 +0000

The New Rules Of Real
Estate

Dennis Rodkin

Chicago Magazine / November 2011

RULE NO. 1

Yesterday is gone.

The cardinal rule for sellers in today’s real-estate market is that what you
paid for your home is irrelevant when you are setting an asking price. “If
you’re hoping to get what the Joneses got, I’d like to get gas at 80 cents a
gallon,” says Michael Parent, managing broker of Coldwell Banker’s St. Charles
office. “I can drive around all day looking for it, but it’s gone. Forget what
you paid four, five, six years ago.”

Local home values
have dropped more than 30 percent since their peak in September 2006, according
to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, and despite the
earnest optimism of many homeowners, they have not shown signs of a fast
rebound. Foreclosures, job losses, steep increases in the cost of living, and,
in Illinois, a crushing public debt are all diminishing economic good cheer.
Over the summer, economists were forecasting that home values would finish 2011
at least 4 percent below their already depressed 2010 levels and wouldn’t be
growing steadily again before 2014.

Watching your
biggest investment wither is dispiriting, and as the downturn has dragged on,
the number of people who retain any hope of seeing a price rebound has withered
too. But many real-estate agents say they still encounter homeowners who either
can’t or won’t believe that so much of the equity they used to be sitting on
has evaporated. “We hate to be the ones to tell you that what you paid [for
your house] has nothing to do with its value today,” says Joe Siciliano, the
branch manager in Coldwell Banker’s Lake View office. “But if you need to move
and you want your house to get sold, we’re going to have to tell you that.”

Even some sellers
who get it don’t get it. There can be a disconnect between understanding that
real estate is in the dumper and the emotional attachment to one’s own home.
“Often there’s a little bit of a feeling that ‘it doesn’t apply to my home; my
home is unique,’” says Janet Owen, a Prudential Rubloff agent. “Learning that,
no, your house is like everyone else’s is painful.”

RULE NO. 2

Don’t play the
“let’s just see what happens” game.

Some sellers who still don’t get it—or who do but have a tough time accepting
the fact that they are going to lose money—figure they might as well try
putting the house on the market at an inflated (i.e., nostalgic) price, just to
see if they get any nibbles. Every credible real-estate agent I have spoken
with over the past year has adamantly discouraged that approach. A home’s first
exposure to potential buyers is its most opportune, many of them say, and
today’s educated buyers recognize an unrealistic price right away.

“When sellers tell
me they’re not in a hurry so they just want to try out the price, I would
rather have them wait until they’re ready and price it right,” Owen says. In
her stratum of the market—high-end properties in the Gold Coast and Lincoln
Park—sellers sometimes suggest that maybe a New Yorker transferring here won’t
blink at a high price because prevailing prices are so much higher in
Manhattan. “But these buyers are savvy about the market,” she says.

That’s true in more
moderate price ranges as well. The blizzard of real-estate statistics and news
from the media, combined with the ease of Internet-based property research, has
made many buyers discerning appraisers of home values in their targeted
neighborhoods or towns. “Most people can tell a bad price—or their agent can,”
Parent says. That’s not to suggest they can pinpoint the exact ultimate sale
price of a home, but they know fat in an asking price when they see it.

Owners who
intentionally assign a high price to their home are a key example of what
Parent calls being on the market but not in it. A house that is
in the market, he says, is priced to get sold, not to test someone’s optimistic
pricing theory. “If you’re in the market, you’re in the game to play it, not
sitting on the bench hoping somebody comes along who wants to give you extra
money.” Sellers who ask too much, he adds, are “getting in the way of the
people who are serious about selling their homes.”

RULE NO. 3

The right price
sells fast.

Last spring, the owners of a seven-year-old Bucktown home put it on the market
at $799,000, just 79 percent of the $1.007 million they had paid for it in 2006.
Eight days later, it was under contract at $800,000. Those sellers were clearly
in the market. There may have been some late-night teeth gnashing over
the $207,000 lost in the deal, but at least they got their house sold and could
move forward.

“A compelling price
gets you sold, and if moving is your goal, you need to get sold,” says Mabel
Guzman, president of Envision Real Estate and the Chicago Association of
Realtors. How to determine a compelling price? “Know the inventory you’re up
against,” she says. Do a serious, clear-eyed study of the comparable properties
in your neighborhood that have sold in recent months and carefully tot up your
home’s pluses and minuses compared with those. (This is also something a
qualified real-estate agent can do.) Then cut 1 to 2 percent off your price.
You were probably favoring your own home, knowingly or not.

“Studying the comps
is an eye opener,” says Beth Burtt of Hinsdale’s Brush Hill Realtors. “If
you’re being diligent about it, your price becomes pretty obvious.” As your
economics professor used to say, the marketplace speaks clearly if you’re
listening.

Not all homes start
out at the right price for today’s market, but when they get there, you will
know. The 20-room Gold Coast mansion of Jamie Dimon, the former Chicago banking
executive who left to become chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase in New York,
went on the market at $13.5 million in April 2007. It sat for three and a half
years, even though its asking price drifted down to $9.5 million by mid-2010. But
when Janet Owen, the last agent on the house, cut the price to $6.95 million,
it moved within a few weeks, finally selling for $6.8 million. “When it got to
where the market perceived it to be priced correctly,” Owen says, “it sold.”

RULE
NO. 4

Low-ball offers are insulting—but don’t get insulted.

The dark underside of a marketplace that rewards competitive pricing is the
low-ball offer, the scourge of many a home seller. Some cocky buyers, their
heads filled with images of sellers desperate to get out of their homes, see
the chance to snare a once-in-a-lifetime bargain and swagger in with
startlingly low offers. It’s their version of the seller’s “let’s just see”
game.

How
low the ball can go has changed as house prices have slumped. At the height of
the market five years ago, Siciliano recalls, “you offered 5 to 7 percent less
than what they were asking. Ten percent less was blasphemous”—and sale prices
frequently wound up above what the sellers had asked. Now, he says, it’s common
to see a first offer at 10 or 15 percent below the asking price, and sometimes
it’s even lower. While buyers certainly have the right to try to puncture what
they believe to be an inflated price, throwing out a very low price just to see
if it sticks is not a smooth move, he says. Guzman agrees. “If you want to
negotiate a good deal,” she advises, “start out amicably.”

Remember,
many sellers are already digesting the idea of losing substantial money on the
sale. Antagonizing them with an offer that makes that loss even greater could
sour them on working with you. “Don’t make the sellers hostile,” Guzman says.

Nevertheless,
the low-ball offers continue, so Owen encourages her sellers to maintain a
Zen-like calm in the face of a ridiculous first bid. “Any offer is a starting
point,” she says. “You might be surprised by it, but don’t take it personally.”
If the offered price isn’t flat-out absurd and the terms other than price are
good—the financing and closing date, for example—Owen advises sellers to
counter conservatively to show that they are willing to negotiate but not to
give the house away.

“There’s
a distinction between a smart buyer and a bottom feeder,” she says. The smart
buyer may start lower than expected but then come up to a more reasonable price
range; the bottom feeder is scavenging for steals and won’t respond to a
conservative counteroffer because there is no whiff of desperation in that.

RULE
NO. 5

Honesty is the best policy.

It’s as true in real estate as it is in politics: There are no secrets anymore.
Buyers have access to an enormous amount of information. On the Internet,
details about what a home last sold for and how much it now might be worth are
usually only a series of clicks away. Where sellers might once have coyly
declined to say what they paid for a house, sellers and buyers can now assume
that each has most or all of the information the other has. “I tell my sellers
that the buyers are going to look at all the same facts I’ve [given] them in
the listing presentation,” Owen says. “There’s no way to hide it.”

Some
sharp real-estate agents have been capitalizing on the newfound transparency,
playing to buyers’ understanding of the market. They may trumpet the size of
the bargain, such as the listing for a St. Charles home sold in June that
announced the asking price of $1.249 million was “$1 million less than seller
paid in ’06!” A Lincoln Park home’s listing sheet blared that the $1.75 million
asking price was well below both the original asking price of $3.65 million and
the appraised value of $2.5 million. For another residence—this one in Lake
View—the agent confessed that the home “was overpriced for much too long.”
Those revelations might spark pangs of humiliation in the sellers, but at the
same time, they send a clear signal to buyers: Game on.

Honesty
is essential in another aspect of the home-selling process. When first meeting
with a real-estate agent, sellers should be up-front about their financial
status. As Parent explains, there are markedly different routes for selling a
home that is in or near foreclosure, one that will be a short sale—where the
lender agrees to let the homeowner sell for less than the amount owed on the
mortgage—or one that will be sold conventionally. Many agents have trained in
the differences, and they will ask potential sellers tough questions, such as
when they last made a mortgage payment and whether their homeowners’
association dues are paid up. Sellers who aren’t current on one or the other
then get a fuller examination of the financial status of their home.

Parent
acknowledges that some sellers become annoyed when asked these things. “It’s
like going to the doctor and being asked if you smoke or drink,” he says. But,
as with doctors, real-estate agents need to know the risk factors so they can
respond accordingly.

RULE
NO. 6

Buy for the long term.

If the collapse of the housing market taught us anything, it’s that a home
shouldn’t be used as a short-term investment. “Everyone thought for a while
that there was a guarantee that a home’s value would go up,” Burtt says. “Now
people realize that it’s a fluctuating market, like any investment.” Flipping
homes for quick profit may have been fun back in the boom years, but in this
moribund economy, it’s time to go with a buy-and-hold strategy.

That
entails looking at a property not as it is today but as it will be ten or more
years down the line, when a family’s needs may have changed. “Ask yourself,
‘Can I grow into this house?’” counsels Burtt. “‘What space will I need if my
family grows?’”

It’s
even more important to be realistic about what you can and cannot afford.
“People are reviewing,” Burtt says. “Do they need to spend so much on their
home? Do they need to have quite as much in terms of square footage or
amenities as they once thought? Does every child need a separate bathroom, or
can they be more flexible on that?” In today’s subdued real-estate market,
ratcheting down expectations—whether about the number of bathrooms or how much
a home is really worth—is an essential tactic.

John R. Wood #1 closed volume, 2010 Naples & FM

admin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Naples/Ft. Myers

(Ranking by sales volume) Closed Volume 2010

John R.Wood Realtors $1,192,537,482

Premier/Signature Sotheby’s International Realty $1,131,153,363

Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate/NRT $ 870,215,000

CENTURY 21 Sunbelt Realty $ 439,439,467

RE/MAX Realty Group $ 217,299,710