PART 1 – One Hand and one Hand only: selling – buying – property management – vacation rental services
Sanford Realty, Inc. is a licensed Florida Real Estate Brokerage and can therefore – unlike Property Management Companies – take care of all your real estate needs. We take pride in assisting our clients in all aspects from buying to renting and advertising the property for vacation rental; property management is just another one of the services we offer. Our clients benefit from our long years of experience and our well established network of services. We are by your side from the start; we help you select a home that fits your purposes, we have plenty of tips and helpful hints, and we answer all your questions. This article will be released in parts; most details and facts apply to the City of Cape Coral.
How to find a Home?
Especially for Europeans, who don’t know their ways around Florida’s southwest too well; it can be difficult to pick a home destined to be a vacation home from the wide selection of houses on the market. It’s here where it pays to work with a Real Estate expert; a Real Estate professional will not only assist you with offers and contracts but also be your adviser in the early stages.
Location, Location, Location is the old but still true slogan in Real Estate; it’s even truer when the home is supposed to be rented out to paying guests. Many vacationers, boaters or not, prefer a waterfront home. Even waterfront has more than once choice: Fresh water canals, salt water canals which usually have access to the Gulf of Mexico, on a lake, or maybe even directly on the beach. There are many things to consider; if you buy a home on a salt water canal it may be fun to cruise through the canals for 2 hours to get out to the Gulf once or twice, but if you have to do it every time you want to take the boat out it may get a bit nerve-wrecking; this is why it’s important to not only consider a house because it’s Gulf Access, it’s also important in which part of the city it’s located. However, the closer to the Gulf the higher the cost, not only the initial sales price but also taxes and maintenance. Other guests don’t consider being on the water too important and are happy in a house off water with a nice tropical back yard especially if they wish more privacy.
A Real Estate Professional – most Europeans prefer to have someone who speaks their language – will start by collecting as much information about the clients dream home as possible. It’s important to know what the client is looking for in regards to location, desired size and age of the home, features, and price. With this important data stock at hand the Realtor will than start to search the Multiple Listing System for a match. Many potential buyers learn at this point that some of the prices and information distributed in some “do it yourself” Internet sources are not necessarily to be trusted. The MLS displays all real estate offered by a licensed Broker on the market in real time; the MLS is always up to date. The potential buyer will then be presented with a list of homes that match the buyer’s requests enabling him or her to look at the house from the outside to see if the first impression is the right one. Depending on the criteria neighborhood, location, and “love at first sight” the potential buyers can work themselves through the list of possible fits. The favorites that remain on the list after the first “drive by” will then be look at more closely in what is called a “showing”. The showing will be scheduled by the Realtor who will be present for the walk though. One very important fact about buying a home is: don’t get hung up on color or landscaping; many things that hurt the eye in the first place are easy to fix. A new coat of paint is easy to apply but you can never change the location of the home!
To be continued soon …
Part 2 – Broker, Real Estate Agent – what do all those titles really mean?
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