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?

Sometimes it’s not easy to find a house that prospective buyers really like; with a multitude of objects on the market people have become picky and expect additional features and the extra mile as standard. However, the first impression is the most important one; if a house looks unkempt from the outside chances are that the prospective buyer will turn around and continues looking for something more appealing.

This is called curb appeal and was covered in one of our previous blog postings. Just as a reminder: a seller should make sure the house appears well taken care of from the outside. How about paint? Does the driveway have oil stains? How is the lawn kept? Are the flowerbeds overgrown? Just look at your home with the eyes of a prospective buyer and think: what do I really see?

Is has not yet made its way to Florida yet, but there are already professional stagers in California and Colorado; a stagers job is to make your home presentable to buyers. For US$50.00 to 150.00 an hour a professional stager, most likely somebody with experience in interior architecture, will stage your house for the perfect presentation. However, if you want to safe the money here are some tips on what you can do staging your home?

First of all: pack up about 90% of your things; if the house is clustered with personal belongings and pictures of the family a prospective buyer won’t be able to picture the house as theirs. You want to present the home as if it were a model, depersonalized. The buyer might feel uncomfortable to see the previous owner’s book or CD collection; everything pointing towards the personality of the current owner should go into boxes or drawer out of the sight of a potential buyer. Religious item should be removed, too.

A simple but effective strategy is to simple pack away all things that indicate daily activities. Things like calendars or notebooks on the kitchen counter, toothpaste on the bathroom counter. Remember, the house should appear as if it were a model, get all personal items out of plain sight.

There is some planning involved: how about renting a storage unit for all the things that cluster up the house? How about new interior paint? If walls appear dull and are stained new neutral paint can work wonders and make a buyers decision easier. Does the house need serious clean up action? If yes, how about a professional cleaning service? Don’t forget the windows, a female buyer will have her eye on the windows and if those aren’t impeccable she might disregard the entire house as probably not clean enough.

Many potential buyers turn around right away if an unpleasant smell or odor hits their nose. You should therefore refrain from cooking cabbage dishes before a showing. It should be self-explanatory to either put kitty’s litter box in the garage for the time being or at least clean it and make sure there is no odor. A nice trick to make the house smell good is to bake cookies, cook cinnamon sticks in water, or just put candles or diffusers up.

In summary: a few simple things can accelerate the sale of your home and you, the seller, can make a lot of difference. A house that can show its true face by being free of clutter and personal belongings, that smells nice, and is clean from the inside and out enables the potential buyer to envision it as “his” house. A potential buyer, who has taken possession of the house in his mind, will soon be the proud owner.

The National Association of REALTORS® recently reported that foreign buyers spent $12.7 billion on Florida residential real estate last year. Within that buyer pool, 39 percent were Canadians, 8 percent were Brazilians, and 7 percent each were Britons and Venezuelans, with Germany, France,  Argentina, Colombia, Australia, Mexico and Spain driving the balance of  buyers.

Breaking News – Breaking News – Breaking News

2 U.S. senators, Schumer (N.Y.) and Lee (Utah) came up with an idea that could be of highest interest for our European investors. They proposed to implement a new resident visa category for retirees who invest $500,000 in U.S. Real Estate.

This proposal has many supporters who hope that an initiative like this would bring relieve to the still overloaded Real Estate market; especially Arizona and South Florida are expected to greatly benefit from a move that could get some of the excess inventory off the plate.

Even without a resident visa on the horizon foreign investors have the pot of gold at their doorstep: prices for residential Real Estate are at a very low point and for those who profit from the Euro vs Dollar gap the promises are even higher and fulfill every investor’s dream.

The Wallstreet Journal (10/20/11) states that international buyers are responsible for 5.5% of home sales in the Miami area while by end of March 2011 the amount of money international buyers spent on U.S. Real Estate was $82 billion for the last 12 months. This is a tremendous increase compared to $66 billon the year before.

I am sure you know what a stigmatized home is when you watched Amityville Horror. However, haunted houses are kind of rare in South Florida but seem be a little more common the closer you get to Maine and Stephen Kings lair.

Still joke aside, stigmatized properties are something that realtors and prospective buyers may encounter even here in Southwest Florida. Not in the form of a haunted house but in the form of a house that was the scene of e.g. a drug related arrest or a suicide. The home may not have any physical damage but would be considered stigmatized due to the psychological impact of what happened inside. Surprisingly enough even the home or premises where a famous person once lived may be called stigmatized.

Laws in regards to the sale of a so-called stigmatized property are clear. Chapter 689.25(1) Florida Statute states that it must not be disclosed in the real estate transaction that the home in question was the scene of a homicide or death since this is not a material fact. Failure to disclose this information will therefore not result in civil action since there is no basis for a lawsuit.

However, to avoid trouble and possible litigation despite those laws a real estate professional would be well advised to suggest to sellers to disclose such facts. I would also be wise to advise buyers to do their homework and consult sources of information like local libraries or the internet to find out more about the history of a certain property.

Laws differ from state to state; in California a real estate professional must disclose if the home was the site of a homicide or suicide within 3 years or the property being put on the market for sale or rent.

As we take time to reflect on the 10th Anniversary of a day none of us will ever forget, let us come together to grieve, to remember, to express our gratitude to those who demonstrated what it is to be a hero, and to pledge ourselves to live in honor of their bravery.

According to the National Association of Realtors pending home sales have increased in June; activity has increased in the West and South of the Nation while declining in the Northeast and Midwest. The Pending home sales index is based on contract signings and rose 2.4% in June. The average time frame between pending contract and actual closing was 2 months.

Yun, NAR chief economist says that tight credit and economic uncertainty are constricting the market. Experts expect existing home sales to total 5 million this year. They also report that Foreclosure activity is down in most U.S. metro areas. Some metropolitan areas even see a sharp drop as banks no longer move all that hard against home owners who are behind on their payments.

In 178 of the country’s 211 largest metropolitan areas Foreclosure activity dropped during the first 6 months of 2011. Some 1.7 million potential Foreclosures are being held at this time say statistics. Florida is amongst the areas that saw big declines in Foreclosure activity.

Experts report that house prices rose 0.8% in April. That’s not much but it’s a start and it’s a trend. It was the first month-to-month increase since May 2010.

For the 12 months between April 2010 and April 2011 U.S. home prices fell 5.7%, the index being 19.7% below it’s April 2007 peak.

WASHINGTON – March 18, 2011 – Generation X — adults ages 31 to 45 — are expected to lead the recovery in the housing market, according to real estate experts in a recent webinar produced by the National Association of Home Builders. During the event, speakers highlighted results of a survey of 10,000 buyers in 27 metro areas.

While Generation X isn’t the largest population group — making up 32 percent of the population compared to 41 percent of baby boomers — it’s the most mobile age group, says Mollie Carmichael, principal of John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif., the company that conducted the survey.

“They are in full force with their careers, and they need to accommodate growing families,” Carmichael says.

This generation is coming with their own set of house preferences that may differ from other generations. Even though home sizes continue to shrink, first-time buyers and younger families are looking for more room to grow, Carmichael says. Nearly 50 percent said they prefer a home with a large lot and in a suburban development. Only 21 percent said they are looking for a traditional or “walkable neighborhood,” according to the survey.

“They want something compelling, from a design or personalization standpoint,” Carmichael says.

And many want “green,” energy-efficient features, too. Regardless of age group, 70 percent of buyers said in the survey they are willing to pay $5,000 more for a home with “green” features.

Most buyers also said they’d be willing to pay a premium for such housing characteristics as dark wood cabinets, a separate tub and shower, and a fireplace in the living room.

Source: “Young Home Buyers Will Lead Housing Market Recovery, Says NAHB,” National Association of Home Builders (March 17, 2011)

Investors from abroad are a huge factor in the slow recovery of the U.S. housing market. The National Association of Realtors has published new numbers on Monday, the 20^th of June, 2011 stating that in the 12 months between March 2010 and March 2011 international buyers initiated real estate sales for $82 billion. In the same time-frame a year earlier sales initiated by international buyers had a $66 billion price tag on them. Investors are mostly coming from the UK, Germany, Canada and Australia; however, also many investors from Asia develop a taste for American real estate.

International buyers benefit from a huge inventory, prices that are 30-40% lower than in their home country, and they take advantage of a “weak” US$ which takes another 20-25% off. Investors are mostly interested in cities in California, Arizona, Texas, and of course Florida.

10 of the cities that made the “most interesting for foreign investors” list are located in Florida; out of those 10 cities Cape Coral is number 1. Cape Coral comes before cities like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale which might be because of the the pristine beauty of the West coast, the many canals that make Cape Coral the Venice of Florida, and of course the affordable prices for homes in this young and ever growing city.