Posts Tagged ‘cape coral real estate’

Hiding Behind The Door? Come On Out

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Hiding Behind The Door

Folks are hiding behind doors when the doorbell rings. They haven’t made a payment for a long time on their mortgage. The Ostrich syndrome I call it. Don’t think about it and maybe it will go away. It won’t, but we can help minimize the damage. Please let us help.
Perception is reality. Changing perception is always an uphill battle. A home owner in trouble is scared and trusts in the banks, still. They have the misconception, fostered by these same banks that they are truly out to help. The lending institutions are a corporation in business to make money. Never forget that.
Perception that Realtors made gobs of money in the hayday and they are all out for themselves is still prevalent. It is so hard to fight fear and gain trust. So my goal is to save one homeowner at a time from foreclosure. It feels really good to have a homeowner finally get thru the shortsale process and get back to their life.
My husband and I both became CDPE certified to help homeowners mitigate the damages in a more timely manner. It has changed my attitude and business. We can really help one homeowner at a time make their life a little better.

Evictions Suspended For the Holidays.

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Freddie Mac said Wednesday that it will suspend foreclosure evictions from Dec. 20 through Jan. 3 of next year.  This is the 3rd year in a row. This is just for those that have Government backed loans; but it is a good thing for those that really need it.

Sales Numbers for September and October 2010

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Single family homes were the big winners in both Cape Coral and Fort Myers.  I imagine condo sales will pick up when season is here.

Single family homes closed: September October

Cape Coral                                   422                           411

Fort Myers                                   253                           193

Condo’s Closed:

Cape Coral                                     36                             37

Fort Myers                                    139                         114

If you need information for your specific neighborhood, just let us know.  We have lots of tools that can help if you are thinking of selling your home.

Are You Sure Your Seller Is The Real Owner? WARNING!

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

This is a cautionary tale.  I received an email several months ago from a potential client. He claimed to be  a lot owner in an exclusive neighborhood in Cape Coral, Fl.  The lot is valued today around $450,000.  The owner purchased this property at the top of the market for well over $1,000,000.

The email was his name @yahoo.com. He asked for comparables which I provided and he then instructed me to send him the listing agreement which he returned.  These folks live in Germany so this did not seem unusual.  I listed the property and did a video, signage and marketing.

I received a phone call from a friend/realtor of the REAL seller who just arrived for the winter. He told me these people never signed the listing and never intended to sell their lot. I met with them the next day and they were upset. I don’t know how far this could have gone, but let me tell you I was upset.  We have both been scammed maybe because of absentee ownership. I can only imagine they might ask to use their title company or maybe a fraudulent passport and notary. I did report this to the FBI cyber crimes, yahoo and the local authorities.

Thank goodness we never received and offer. Don’t let this happen to you. Contact me and let me help you protect your investment!

Rantings On Mortgage Money. Just Do It Now.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

We have gone from fogging a mirror to get a loan to blood type and perfect credit.

We should never have had the first. It just led to misuse, greed, corruption and financial ruin. Who is to blame?  Well, the financial institutions under federal mandate to have everyone own a home and then the almost manic lending practices instituted by these same institutions.  It was out and out greed on their part to make as much money as quickly as they can. As competition for this market increased the crazy ideas to lend went even farther.  Try to get an 80/20 loan now. What was that? When it was first announced I knew it was the beginning of the end.  Life is just not 100% free without some serious strings attached.

Since the debacle we are back to 20% down or FHA 3.5% down.  The trouble now is the pendulum has swung to the other direction.  The mortgage process is arduous at best.  By the time people even with good credit finally get their loan they are so stressed, angry and frustrated the excitement of their new home has been destroyed.

  1.  The appraisals are often very low due to the crazy foreclosures and condition of properties. Prices on similar homes can vary 30% or more. The appraiser then takes the lowest and adjusts to that. The appraisers have taken the blame for much of this down market and now their rules have tightened. THIS IS THE FIRST AND OFTEN FATAL HURTLE.
  2. b.      The old saying “Dot the I and cross the T” is taken to new heights. Here are just two examples. A Physician with and established practice was asked for a copy of his license. A senior VP transferred every year for the past three years had rented because of the transfers. They asked for 15 months of cancelled checks (front & back). After receiving those wanted 3 more months. AND ON AND ON AND ON!

 

I don’t know when things will get back to “NORMAL”.   I just hope it will be soon!

Now that you know the bad let’s look at the good news. That would be: Interest rates are at an incredible all time low rate. Take advantage. What are you waiting for?  Extremely low prices and extremely low interest rates are here now.  Have you done the numbers? It is a WOW!   Sign up for automatic searching in your area or desired area at www.TwoCityLink.com

The Wealthy Moving to Lee County

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Forbes Magazine has reported that the wealthy are moving to Lee County.
The report states that one of the favorite locations is Lee County, Florida. Well I did my homework. I checked the numbers on the multiple listing. I found an astounding number of homes sold over $1 Million. In Lee County since April 1, 2010 to today there were 103 homes sold over $1 Million. The Lowest price was exactly $1,000,000 and the highest was $3,250,000.
Ok, now are you a believer? We in the Fort Myers area know that there are great deals and It is a tropical paradise.

Low taxes, warm sunshine and deep discounts on real estate. No wonder IRS data shows the wealthiest among us are headed south to Florida.

Getting Your Home Ready to Sell

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

How do you get a buyer interested in purchasing your house in this tough market? Impression is the keyword. You just need to get your house ready to sell by doing some preparation. Get inspected by a professional if you want to put a little effort for maximum results, or if you don’t want to spend much money by paying professional you can do it by yourself but it won’t have the same impact for a buyer.

 These are the steps for getting your house ready to sell to a buyer.

Beautify your exterior!

The goal is to make your exterior look pretty and fresh to impress your buyer. Just to inform you that the exterior becomes the first impression of your house. There are two sensory areas of a buyer you must impress. Those are eyes and nose. The garden must be neat and must look pretty and fresh. The steps you can do are:

-              Get the grass, trees, flowers, and plants tidy and fresh by mowing and watering it

-              Clean up the curb and entering path, plant flowers and lay down fresh mulch

-              Freshen up the smells by put scented potpourri.

-              Clean up all of windows and entering doors.

-              Get rid of equipment and put out of sight.

-              Paint the walls if necessary.

Make the Interior Cozy

Now the exterior has that welcoming feel  do some simple things to get the coziness of your interior. The aim is to make a buyer feel like home when entering your house. These are the steps:

-              Clean up the tile floors; scrub it if there are some bad spots.

-              Polish furniture and pack excess pictures and collections.

-              Shampoo carpets .

-              Get your furniture well placed and get rid of unnecessary pieces.

-              Clean out closets and organize

-              Clean the garage and attic

-              Get the windows opened and clean, it lets the light in.

-              If you have pets, bath them.

-              Put some fresh fragrance in air conditioner.

Repairing and Replacing

Some Repairing and replacement is necessary to do, if there are some broken furniture, equipment, or appliances remove or fix them.

-              broken or missing doors and handles

-              cabinet handles

-              ceilings with old stains or cracks.(paint and caulk)

-              ventilation filters must be clean

-              broken tiles in bathroom and kitchen

-              faucets shouldn’t leak

-              wallpaper (remove if dated, stained); then paint

-              some furniture (too much-remove; broken-remove)

Get your friends’ opinion or a home stager

Assume some friends like a buyer, and get some advice and suggestion to make your house get more ready to sell.

Word on The Street

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Prices are up and continuing to climb. SW Florida was the epicenter of the overbuilding investor debacle. We were the first to send prices out of sight. We were the first to fall and we are the first to start the recovery.
For starters let’s talk about 30 homes listed over one million dollars that have closed in the past 3 months in Lee county. They are evenly divided between Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Bonita and Sanibel. We have had record number of sales this year because pricing is so wonderful. That means the economy is improving and we are on our way back.

Ripping off Cape Coral?

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Not completing the audit because the contractor refuses to release payroll records is not right! Think their costs were excessive? Someone made and obscene amount of money at the expense of the citizens. The job of council is to find out why and how this happened. How can you have half an audit? MWH needs to turn over these records. What are they hiding? I know; huge profits and price fixing. Prove me wrong, please. History should not repeat itself. Knowledge is the key. We need a city manager that can control the overcharging our citizens. Look at the $110 million building turned down by the citizens. It was well known and talked about by commercial builders in town that they could build that building for $45 million. How did it get to a vote? Why did the city let it get that far? If we the public get it, why don’t the people running our government get it? Council needs to think with common sense. They need to put people in place that watch the spending and bills.
Cape Coral utilities expansion shouldn’t be that hard. We need answers. I have stated for years that the amount of money charged for utilities is ridiculous. You don’t have to be an accountant. THINK about it; Dig a trench 80’ long in front of a standard Cape Coral lot. Bury three pipes. Hook them to the neighbor and pay a portion of the pumping station. How on earth can that possibly cost $26,000 to a home owner? It just doesn’t add up.
Look at Lee County over paying for the newly acquired land in Lehigh by 2/3. OUCH! It’s our tax money. How does this happen. Fix it! Hazel McCallion (Mayor) of that wonderful city in Ontario, Mississauga. She has run her very large city for over 30 years in the black with reserves. Check her out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY79KbCptTo. Go to Canada and take her too lunch, dinner or whatever it takes to learn and get ideas for our beautiful city to be a better more fiscally responsible Cape Coral.

Housing Tax Credit Over

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

This was a very big deal. Loads of closings the last day of the month and what a wind fall for first time buyers. They were giddy with excitement. This wasn’t chump change. It was up to $8000!
There are still significant tax credits for air conditioners, etc. If you can use it.