Cape Coral Real Estate

If 2012 is your year for home hunting and purchase, here is a list of 5 things you should consider to do NOW before anything else.

1. 1. Check your credit. And I’m serious about that. Make a copy of your credit report online and review anything that can show negative transaction. Call the credit bureau in charge and fix your problem. There is nothing worse than finding the perfect home at the perfect price, getting ready with the down payment and everything and learn that you have been denied because of your bad credit. So, if there is any problem there, fix it now.

1. 2. Do your homework. Do you research online about 1 month before buying. Check the neighborhood, the market value, compare the foreclosure with the regular market, learn about short sale and see if it’s for you. Shop around for the best terms mortgage out there, call 4 or 5 mortgage broker and compare what they need and they fees/expenses. Ask them what documents you need to be qualified. Ask to be approved for a loan before even getting out to see properties. It’s frustrating to fall in love with a home that is price at $10,000 more than you can afford. Everything else will be disappointing at that point!

1. 3. Fluff up your down payment. Make sure to have a full understanding of the money you have to bring at closing, all fees including. Again, it’s frustrating to be short of a couple of thousands dollars in front of the home of your dreams. Get your finance in place and ready to go.

1. 4. Grow your cash. You’re gonna to move. So double check all that stuff that you didn’t use for the last 12 months or more. You won’t probably never use it ever. So make a big yard sale of that stuff, sell them on ebay or on craigslist and keep the money for your down payment or for some work you’ll need to do in your new home, like painting or new moldings.

1. 5. Be prepared. If you want to purchase a great deal, like a foreclosure, be prepared. I wrote a guideline about being prepared to make an offer on a foreclosure: Cape Coral Foreclosure . I have come across a lot of excited people like kids in front of a toy getting frustrated with those above asking price multiple offers. So being psychologically prepared will help you to handle your purchase.

Once you have everything ready and you have prepared yourself for your 2012 home purchase, feel free to give me a call at 239-240-7346 and I’ll prepare some visits and will help you during your transaction to make it as smooth as possible.

Comments (0) Dec 17 2011

So, you have been looking to buy a home in Cape Coral for over 6 months now. There is something important for you to know.  Stop looking to buy a home right now.  You are wasting your time and energy. Cape Coral properties prices have been increasing for the last 6 months in a row. So, if you’re still looking, it’s not for finding the best deal of the century, it’s already too late. It has to be because you’re searching for the best floor plan or curb appeal possible, but then, the inventory is so wide, if you didn’t find it already, it’s because it doesn’t exist.

Not to mention all the time that is being wasted by professional lending and real estate brokers. They are not your taxi driver even if it’s my second job. They are not the ones to fix your poor credit scores.  They are not the ones to hold your hand every step of the way even if I do it on a daily basis.  They are there to help you not be taken advantage of by someone who is not committed to the home buying process.

Buying a home is a process and it doesn’t take over 6 months to complete.  A Realtor can help you with the home buying process, however, you the buyer must take action to make it become a reality.  Seeing every home that comes on the market for a year is insane!  It’s not that big of a deal to find the house you will come to know as home.  If you see a house you like and it’s within your means, then buy it.  Otherwise, go home and leave everyone alone.

You can read more at 1capecoral.com or in my blog. The time to buy a home was in the last 6 month, with a rock bottom price reached last December 2010/January 2011  or today…not in 6 months. Quit trying to out think the other guy or the sellers. Find what you like and buy it.  If there isn’t anything out there that you like then you probably are not going to find it.

Go home.  Stop wasting your time. Watch some football or NASCAR or a movie anything but get out of the home buying process as you are not a buyer.  You are a looker and you are frustrating people around you that can actually and willingly help you.

The time is ripe to buy a home today.  Interest rates are low.  Prices are still low. In most markets inventory is high.  Sellers want to negotiate on their homes. It’s easy and time for action. And if you think that a home priced below a car’s price is too high, you’ll never buy anything. So, do something else.

If you are angry right now…good.  Here is a way which may help.  Revisit why you wanted to buy a home in the first place and re-motivate or inspire yourself.  If that doesn’t work then forget about it.  You will never achieve your American Dream without concise methodical action on your part.  Now go out there and become a buyer and call me to seriously get started!

Comments (0) Oct 25 2011

Do you think you can write an offer on a Cape Coral foreclosure for sale without the help of an agent? The answer is a big YES!

If you think about it, my guess is you want to save the typical 6% commission that we make. If it’s the case, you are completely mistaken. First, our commissions are not set to be 6%. It’s negotiable. And in the foreclosure and REO world, it’s the bank that decides how much they really want to pay. Most agents doing foreclosure make about 1 to 2% of the closed price as the seller representative. So the buyer’s agent is really doing something like 2 to 4%. In that case, if you represent yourself for that foreclosure home purchase, you’re really saving about those 2 to 4% commission.

Now, prepare yourself to get an accepted offer on that Cape Coral foreclosure house for sale. You will need a few things checked with the listing agent, and I have been in contact with most of them, they use to be very difficult if they are not in front of another agent because they think they’ll have to do all the work believing that you won’t be able to do your part:

• What kind of paperwork do they want?  Typical is proof of funds, pre-approval letter from your bank, etc…
• How many offers are on the property? Maybe it is a multiple offers situation already.
• Is there a mandatory minimum MLS marketing time?
• How do they want to receive your offer?  Fax, website or email.

So, once you have all that done, you’ll be able to put a good offer but you will need to know something important: the price. Don’t google that. You will not be able to rely on sites like Zillow or Trulia for pricing. They are not accurate. Hire an appraiser instead, especially if you do not have access to your local MLS. The point here is that you don’t want to pay too much or too little. Too much and you may overpay for the property and too little,you may lose the home to higher bidder.

You can also read this buying a foreclosure in Cape Coral post for more tips.

Comments (0) Sep 26 2011

I read an article published by cnnmoney about the 10 best places to retire. Cape Coral was voted #2!. So that’s good news after all the effort put into making Cape Coral a better place to live.

The single most effective move in making your retirement stash go further is, well, a move. “There’s nothing more powerful than relocating from a high-cost-of-living area to a low-cost one,” says Baltimore financial planner Tim Maurer.

If “low cost of living” conjures up visions of some bleak backwater, think again. MONEY combed its Best Places to Live database to find affordable cities and towns that offer lots to do, both inside and out. Places that are safe, with violent-crime rates below the national average. Where there’s good medical care close at hand. And where at least 30% of the population is over the age of 50, so you’ll have no shortage of golf or bridge partners.

The ten places you’ll read about in the story that follows offer all that — plus they’re exceptionally kind to your wallet. Their cost-of-living indexes range from 87 to 97, meaning that as little as 87 cents buys residents what a dollar would buy the average American. Homes are affordable, with median prices below the $173,100 national median (some well below). And tax rates are reasonable, with either no state income tax or significant exemptions for retirees. Could Cape Coral be your new home?

You can read the full story by following this link

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Comments (2) Sep 22 2011

I read an article online the other day and it was said that Councilman Chris Chulakes-Leetz spoke of working with a group of citizens to present a proposal to construct a convention center in Cape Coral. Last week the group unveiled its plan to a group of citizens and business leaders at City Hall.

The brainchild of Cape Coral resident, Martin Brady, the group announced the idea of the Cape Coral housing a 16,000 to 18,000 convention center and entertainment complex in the city, “Anything you can do outdoors and anything that can be done outdoors can be done at the complex we are imagining,” said Chulakes-Leetz.

The group says the area of land in North Cape Coral known as Academic Village would be the perfect spot for such a venue. Academic Village is located on 170 acres of city owned property at the corner of Del Prado Boulevard and Kismet Parkway. The area was in the spotlight in 2010 as the proposed location for the failed Swim Center.

Brady, a retired firefighter from Philadelphia, moved to Cape Coral in 2005 and began working for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. During this time he realized the city was missing something in his opinion, “As I drove around I realized this city has a lot of parks. Everything here was planned around children and young adults. There was nothing for adults.”

It wasn’t until Brady and a few friends attended a boat show at the Harborside Convention Center in Fort Myers that he realized what Cape Coral truly needed, “We went to the boat show and had to park a mile and a half away from the venue and had to be shuttled in, making numerous stops on the way. Another thing I noticed was they basically closed all the streets in downtown Fort Myers for the show and upsetting many local business owners doing so. I thought North Cape Coral has a vast amount of land and would be a perfect location to host these types of events and conventions.”

During this same time, the city began discussions with a private company regarding the idea of building a Swim Center in North Cape Coral. Brady said he decided to wait and see what happened with the swim center before moving ahead with presenting his idea of a convention center. Once the swim center was defeated, Brady began putting together his plan for the convention center.

Brady says he has spent the last 1.5 years working on the plan and feels the convention center would be a major economic boom to the city, “Do you know how many industries and companies have events and conventions throughout the year? The American Medical Association, the Boy Scouts, big trucking companies, any type of industry that is out there, anybody that sells anything, where do they go? They go to conventions.”

Brady also stated that when people attend conventions, it is not just the conventions they attend, but many of the surrounding businesses as well. Brady says because of this it would cause the need for such businesses as hotels, restaurants and other service oriented businesses.

Something Cape Coral resident Mike Kumbier, who has worked the last 27 years in the RV industry as a manufacturer’s representative completely agrees with, “A convention center like this would add a lot to the Cape. It would bring industry back into the Cape and put people to work. Really, that is what we need to see happen.”

According to a recent study conducted by the Convention Industry Council, the meetings industry was responsible for $263 billion in spending in 2009. The study also related 1.7 million jobs in the United States to the meetings industry.

Brady along with Chulakes-Leetz says the center will not only house conventions and other events, but it could also serve as an emergency evacuation center during times of disaster. Brady says school gyms are not made for housing people after a storm and the convention center could store ready to eat meals, have a 3,000 gallon water tanker available, air conditioning, first aid, cots, and everything else needed for creating a well equipped evacuation center. Brady also says by creating the evacuation center grants from state and federal government agencies could help offset the cost of construction on the convention center.

The city currently owns the land the proposed convention center would be built. Chulakes-Leetz says in order to finance the construction of the center it would have to be financed by bonds and hopefully federal and state funding, “This would be the citizens investing in their own city.”

Chulakes-Leetz said the city would retain ownership of both the center and the land and would outsource the running of the center to private companies. The revenue generated from events, souvenir and food sales would go back to paying the bonds off and once those are paid money generated from the center would become a revenue stream for the city.

In order to make the convention center a reality, Chulakes-Leetz says it would have to be something the citizens of Cape Coral actually want. Chulakes-Leetz said he would like to see a referendum on the initiative before 2013. The councilman says he has been in touch with the Lee County Elections office and said it would be possible to do a mail referendum to get a vote on the initiative.

Those in attendance seemed cautiously optimistic about the reality of Cape Coral getting its own convention center, “I think it is a great start. I would love to see something like a convention center come to the city of Cape Coral. Who wouldn’t? There is a long road to go, though,” said Cape Coral Construction Industry Association Executive Director Heather Mazurkiewicz.

Brady says the next steps will be to put together the framework and further define the overall vision of the project, “This is the shot in the arm this city needs. This will make Cape Coral a destination for thousands each year.”

The group says it plans to meet again at the end of October and the meeting will be open to the general public.

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Comments (0) Aug 30 2011

If there has been no action on your residence which is for sale, chances are it is as a result of 1 or all of the factors we have listed below. If the Realtor you might have hired has not gone more than these guidelines, possibly it is time to reevaluate why your house is just not selling.

Overpriced!

This really is the most common reason for a home not selling. Unrealistic property owner objectives can cause this even with the best of Agents guidance. A Seller that will not listen to their Agent, are losing both their times if your residence is valued greater than the competition. The 1 thing you Do not need to do is overprice your residence!

The Condition

When there are numerous houses within the marketplace for sale, buyers will keep searching until they discover that ideal move-in prepared property. If your house will be the identical cost as the competition, but they’ve new kitchen/baths/carpet or hardwood floors, they will get the action. If your price may be the very same, but the competition has much more bedrooms, a lot more baths, or perhaps a finished basement, you might be giving the buyers the benefit of seeing yours and then acquiring the 1 that they are going to get more for the same money. You want to make the biggest impact on any buyer viewing your house.

Showing Times

When you have limited times when a home buyer can view your property, you are performing a dis-service to your self, the buyer and the Real estate professional who desires to obtain your house sold. We know it can be tough to show at a moments notice, but you never ever know when the proper buyer will appear. Should you can’t show it as a result of work schedules, you could wish to supply your Realtor using a important to ensure that no appointment will probably be missed. Other Agents will have a tendency to show houses when you can find not too many restrictions and they know they are able to acquire access to easy.

Net, Net, Net

That is appropriate, if your Realtor will not market your property on the net, you could not be obtaining the very best marketing and advertising value. Though all listings should be on your local MLS, your Realtor need to also have their very own web sites and other ways to promote your property online. This really is the top form of advertising your house for sale.

Location Is Nonetheless Key

It is still accurate, as far as Real Estate is concerned ~ the top locations, best schools, and curb appeal with the neighborhood is still crucial. Even so, not each and every property could be Mid-Block location, or handy to all things, and have the very best of almost everything. It is possible to make your home stand out from the crowd by enhancing your own curb appeal, generating improvements towards the interior and by pricing it lower then the rivals. We recently had a listing exactly where the backyard faced a large commercial developing. By pricing it correct and producing some small interior upgrades, ours sold as well as the 1 across the street is nonetheless in the marketplace. Make your house outshine the other people.

Also, believe about Staging your residence. Your home will stand out among the competition as a stager will showcase your home to its best advantage and this can re-force the buyers decision that your home may be the proper option.

Bear in mind, the longer an over-priced house remains on the market, the lower it’s final selling cost will probably be. Step into the buyers shoes and you will see that you wouldn’t wish to invest a lot more cash on a comparable property and you can’t anticipate others to be any diverse.

Most essential ~ listen closely to your Real estate professional. They sell homes everyday and have the experience to lead you inside the right direction for a closed sale!

Comments (0) Aug 22 2011

I just got this article from Realtor.com regarding the areas with the highest price rising and the highest price decrease. It’s very interesting for us since the Cape Coral – Fort Myers area is number one as the highest rising price area. Have a look:

Southern metro areas dominated a list of the 10 markets with the biggest year-over-year increases in median list price in April, according to monthly data released this week by Realtor.com. The data considers 146 metro areas nationwide.

Two Florida markets saw the highest jumps: median list price in Fort Myers-Cape Coral rose 25.7 percent to $225,000, and the median in Miami rose 8.6 percent to $239,000.

Shreveport-Bossier City, La., followed with an 8.1 percent increase, to $173,000. Fort Myers-Cape Coral and Miami also saw the biggest year-over-year drops in inventory: -25.3 percent and -29.9 percent, respectively.

The two Florida markets were the only metros in the top 10 to move properties at a slower rate than the national median: 95 days. Median age of inventory for each was 116 and 129 days, respectively.

In order to obtain the median age of inventory for each market, Realtor.com subtracted a property’s listed date from whichever was earlier: its end listing date or the end of the time period, and took the median of all the resulting individual days on the website.

The three other Southern metros to make the list were Charleston, W.V.; Tyler, Texas; and the Virginia segment of the Washington, D.C. metro area. (Realtor.com separates data for metro areas that encompass multiple states.) The Washington, D.C., metro was the fastest-moving among the 10 markets with a median inventory age of 57 days.

In the U.S. overall, the median list price fell 4 percent year-over-year in April, to $191,900.

Two Midwestern metros (Columbia, Mo.; and Peoria-Pekin, Ill.) and two Western metros (Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.; and Anchorage, Alaska) made the list. No market in the Northeast was among the top 10.

Eight of the 10 metros saw their inventory decline year-over-year last month, six of them by double-digit percentages. Only Anchorage and Tyler saw their total listings rise: 15.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.

Nationally, total listings fell 8.3 percent.

Among the 10 markets with the fastest-dropping median list prices, Western metro areas prevailed, accounting for six among the top 10; two are in the South and two are in Midwest. All 10 saw double-digit declines compared to April 2010. No Northeastern market made that top 10 list.

Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, Calif., saw the biggest price decline: down 26.2 percent to $498,250. The market was also one of two to see its inventory rise year-over-year, by 6 percent. The other was Reno, Nev., with a 9.5 percent increase.

Inventory declined by double digits in six of the remaining eight markets. Savannah, Ga., experienced the sharpest decline: -48.3 percent.

Savannah was also one of three markets with a median age of inventory above the national median. The market’s median inventory age was 198 days in April, though that represents an 11.2 percent decline from April 2010.

I hope you bought last year. If not, give me a call to begin right away. It’s still time to build some serious equity here, in the Cape.

Comments (0) May 25 2011

It’s all over the news that the next generation of buyers would rather go with a smaller size home and use every inch of it instead of a big one with unused space.
The U.S. Census Bureau finds that the median size of a new single-family home nationwide continued to get smaller last year and that the downward trends is likely to last significantly beyond the end of the recession.
It was 2,268 square feet in 2006 and dropped to an even 2,100 last year.
And honestly, when I talk with buyers these day, I have a similar answer about this. It seems that the living room as we know it, meaning the room closed by the entrance and used to entertain people that we know less than family members without to get them in the core of our home has a tendance to be more and more useless. I guess it will disappear soon or later and we’ll entertain folks in the family room instead. The second point from buyers is the dining room. This one is still used but it seems that the use is only when an event occurs or when more people than the family is having a reunion. But most of the time now, the family eat more in the kitchen or in the breakfast area. I don’t see the dining room disappearing though.
However, those square feet have a better use in the younger buyers now. An office with all connection seems to be a better use than a living room. Overall, smaller square footage with a smaller price tag is what we are going to see in the future.
Looking at the specific amenities, there is a steady decline in the number of homes that were started since 2005 with three-car garages, fireplace, patios and deck. On the other hand, porches and heat pumps were on the rise. Home are getting more and more “green” as well.

Comments (0) Jan 20 2011

If you are a Real Estate agent, you will most likely be confronted to short sales soon or later, especially if you are in Florida. Here are some tips to master those short sales.

First start off listing the property right in the mid range of all the other comps and current listings in the neighborhood. If the comps and current listings range from $150K – $180K for example, then you want to
start off listing your property around $165K.

Secondly, you reduce the list price by about 3% each week until you receive an offer on the property.
So in this example you would drop the list price by about $5K each week until you received a solid offer.

Remember, when you first list the property you will also be submitting a COMPLETED Short Sale packet to the lender (with a lowball offer)… Once you do this the lender will order a BPO which will usually take 3-4 weeks to complete.

So in this example, by the third week of lowering your list price you would be the lowest priced property in the area, which would also be about the same time that the BPO would be completed by the lender.

This means that when you do receive a solid offer on the property, you will be able to get an answer from the lender very quickly, now that the BPO has already been done.

Another possibility in this situation is that you drop the list price from $165K to $160K after the first week and you then get an offer on the property… Now you can leave the list price at $160K while you work on getting this very strong offer approved by the lender…

Remember, if you started listing it to low, you would never have received an offer this high…
When you use this strategy you can also show the lender your activity report on the property. You can show them that you made an attempt to get them the highest possible offer.

Here is why this is important…

The lender knows if they ever had to Foreclose on the property, they would have to pay attorney fees, auctions fees, and the process may take more than 6 months.

And that’s not all…

After all that time and money, they would have to list the property as an REO and do the same thing that you just did! List the property and then keep dropping the price until they get an offer.

Here is the key…

By showing the lender that you have already done exactly what they would have to do, and that you can save them 6 months of expenses, it will make your offer much more likely to get approved. If you can get a dollar number for those expenses, the bank will see you know what you talking about and will most likely follow you advice, and even gives you more listings.

This is the only way to make sure your Short Sales get completed in a timely manner and you don’t waste your valuable time with listings that sit on the market with no activity for months.

Comments (0) Dec 01 2009

Well, I did it again.

I saw a nice little house for sale in Lehigh Acres. On a bit more than a half-acre, this little house has been a grow house and all dry walls are of Chinese origin. So I could see it as an investment by redoing the place.

I made it as a comfortable offer but it has not been accepted. Too bad. But not a major thing, so let’s just move on.

I already have an eye on another one actually. There are so many properties for sale there these days.

I’ll begin my new job down there by January, no matter what. It’s about time!

Comments (0) Nov 18 2009