Cape Coral Real Estate

Yes, you hear me. My $5,000-more-than-asking-price offer has been rejected.
This is my 10th offer so far and I can’t get one to be accepted. The extremely strong seller’s market of Cape Coral-Lehigh Acres is unbelievable.
Anyway, there are so many properties on the market that I already have made an offer on another property in Lehigh. And I will make offers on a daily basis from now. This one however, is lower than the asking price because after reviewing the comps, it’s not going to appraise. So I had to adjust my offer. At this point, I feel I have to target higher priced property if I want one but I have to double check the appraisal value as well.

When I was an agent in the Pembroke Pines, FL area, back in the 2001-2005 era, when the market was so strong, I had not all these multiple offer on every listing I had. It happened I had 2 or 3 offers on a particular property but it was mainly a single offer very fast. Now, this area is experiencing 5 to 15 offers very fast on every listing. Amazing.

If you are listed with an agent and do not experience a multiple offer situation within a couple of days, you may reconsider your agent’s work.

I will post more details on this property later on, when I know I control the deal or if it’s gone again !

Comments (0) Jan 15 2010

I came across this new listing located in Lehigh Acres. It has some features that I was looking for, especially in Lehigh Acres, as at least half acre lot, s-tile roof, large square footage and a pool. I’d like to have some water behind, but for the price, it is a nice deal.
I finally ended up offering $5,000 more than the asking price with a hope that this time, I’ll get the deal. I have offered less than asking price and full asking price in the past and lost the deal each time. Cape Coral is becoming a strong seller’s market, whatever people are saying.
I’m waiting an answer from the seller very soon now and see from there.
I can’t wait to get there and keep doing my job in a different area.

Comments (0) Jan 15 2010

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

The decision is taken. We have decided to move back to Florida, and to be more precise, in the Cape Coral area.

As a Real Estate agent, it seems that the market is rebounding, not only due to the foreclosures there, but by the fact that the market has most probably touched bottom. And with all these beautiful properties on the water in Cape Coral, the city will most likely attract lots of investors and homeowners looking for a real bargain.

As a person, I definitely think that Cape Coral has a lot to offer. And after having visited the area before leaving Tennessee, my wife and I have felt in love again with Florida.

So, I’m in process to create a website for my business. I have called it www.1capecoral.com and will add several features that I think can help a potential buyer. I have already add this blog, because I want to share what’s going on in Cape Coral, for the out-of-state folks that may have the desire to move to South West Florida as well.

Stay tune. I’ll add lots of  features in a near future and I’ll keep you updated about every move!

Comments (0) Oct 24 2009