Off of Penzance Blvd. By Paseo
When I showed up early for a final walk thru in Paseo I made the best of the extra time by seeing where Penzance Blvd. ended up. There is always a photo opportunity to take advantage of when there are a few minutes extra in the day.
When I helped the buyers write a contract for the home in Paseo I had extra time and took pictures of the Paseo goats. Right at the entrance to Paseo is a ranchette with a herd of goats. The entire area is made up of acreage plots with quaint farms or just estate homes so folks can stretch out.
Paseo is off of the beaten path but worth the search. They’re building townhomes and single family homes. There is both new product and resales available. The lucky buyers that just closed on a new home in Paseo got a heck of a deal.
The homes in Paseo are the same floor plan as the Savona section of homes in Grandezza of Estero, Florida. The homes were built by Stock Development. The difference is that at the time of that last contract there was about $100,000 spread in price points. You can’t beat that with a stick. On top of that, you can’t really beat the amenities at Paseo. It’s just a great community.
Now, the trick to finding a great deal in Paseo is to watch the market and to make sure your agent also has access to the Rapattoni Fort Myers MLS and the Sunshine MLS. There are a few local MLS systems so membership to that on is important because that is where most of the listings will be found.
And if you get out to Paseo be sure to look for the goats and the hot rod mailbox at the far end of Penzance. It’s pretty back there. You should at least take a drive to learn about the neighborhood that surrounds Paseo before you buy.
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Tags: Estero, florida, Fort Myers, grandezza, homes, Paseo, Paseo of Fort Myers, ranchette, real estate
Calculating Absorption Rates For Real Estate
Where our northern friends list their homes for the summer a lot of the southwest Florida real estate is listed in the fall. Those fresh real estate listings are going to be priced according to recent comparable sales and competing with real estate that is currently on the market.
A huge part of being successful when you list your home to sell it is in the preparation. Preparation isn’t just limited to the cleaning and decluttering process.
The real estate market has never been such a challenge to figure out for some sellers.
Simply sliding into the next season without a freshly updated market report is like going in blind folded and it can be a costly mistake. If your home has been on the market over the summer and you’ve not had the numbers crunched recently, it’s time.
Start from scratch and get a fresh take on the standing inventory, the current values and the absorption rate, which is the anticipated time on market.
To begin with, do you have any idea which price point is actually moving city wide or neighborhood-wide?
It sounds simple enough but there are many home owners that don’t realize that as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning eighty percent of August 2010 closed sales in the Sunshine MLS were priced under $400,000. That’s a pretty big number and it might be an important number to know, especially if you’re not priced below 400K and you’re wondering why your home hasn’t sold.
That’s the broad stroke of the brush that paints Collier County and south Lee County. The broad brush indicates that if your home is priced under $400,000 you may have an eighty percent chance of selling it … that is, until you drill down and review the market report for your specific community, price point or floor plan.
In order to get the most accurate snap shot of the market you need find out the most recent closed sales. Those folks that mad dashed their way to a contract to get their stimulus money probably closed sale over summer and they are your new “not older than three to six month old” comparables to base your listing price on.
If your home is currently listed for sale or you’re about to list it for sale you will want to have the absorption rate calculated, also. I am continually surprised by the amount of home owners who have their homes listed for sale and they have absolutely no idea what the estimated time frame to sell is.
Wouldn’t you think that knowing whether it could take a few months or a few years to sell a home is pivotal information? Especially for sellers that have to be somewhere else with a deadline.
If your real estate agent doesn’t know how, here’s how to calculate it yourself:
· Add together the number of Active/Pending/Active-Contract Listings 50
· Number of Sold Last Year 66 divided by 12 = 5.5 (rate)
· Number of Active (50) divided by the rate (5.5) = 9.09
· Absorption Rate = 9.09 months
Remember, listing inventory and even closed sales fluctuate so an absorption rate is not an exact science but a trend.
Now go forth and properly price your home for the selling season so you’re not still wondering why it didn’t sell next spring during the expiration season.
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.
Tags: absorption rates, Bonita Springs, florida, home, inventory, listing, Market Report, sale, southwest florida
Just Like Ricky Bobby Said – I Wanna Go Fast!
Well, I finally had an opportunity to get out on Lumberjack’s airboat again. It took some doing and a little payola but last Friday was the day. I played hooky from work. If you’re the sort of person who has a hard time putting work aside, then an airboat ride is just for you. There is no reception for most cell phones out there. If you don’t have a VHF radio and or a Verizon direct connect you’re going to officially be incommunicado.
At any rate, the day trip to the Big Cypress Preserve was with Sonny from Pittsburgh (pronounced picksburgh) and his brother Al Gorithm. Right away the rules were laid down. There was a Yankee and he needed to know how this whole thing worked.
The first rule on this trip was that everyone had to listen to the captain’s orders or else. He was a fierce man, with a secret love of baby bunny rabbits, four leaf clovers and all breakfast cereals with prizes in the box. One of us was not scared of him at all.
The second rule is, if there are girls on the boat and their hands are the size of a mans, then they’re fit to hold the rope for the boat so it doesn’t float away. Twitterzilla’s man hands were finally useful.
The third rule about airboat club is that the deck hands should say a prayer before the boat leaves the shore. Pray that the weather is good, the cooler is full of brew, the fuel tank is topped off and pray … pray that the doesn’t drive thru the reeds again and cover his mother with bugs. That’s when her cheerful demeanor departs airboat club.
It doesn’t take too long for everything to start looking the same out there so it would probably be wise to pray that someone remember a GPS or a compass or something, too. That would be the fourth rule of airboat club. Don’t be like this dingo and end up dehydrated, nakey and bug bit because you got lost for a week in the river of grass.
I’m thinking that Picksburgh Sonny probably wasn’t the most precise directional source in the boat. We were going to be invited to the Captains house and I wondered allowed what direction was. I think he just was guessing which way to go because he was pointing at the Miccosukee reservation, which is a no-no for us because the boat has no permit. It’s against the rules and I’m way too cute for jail.
The fifth rule about airboat club is that when the captain takes you to his camp in the middle of God’s country, be respectful. Every man’s home is his castle … so you should treat it as such. Any sound of banjos, harmonicas or flashes of the movie “Deliverance” are no more than one’s imagination.
The sixth rule about airboat club is that when you’re at the captains house you should always flush the toilet and wash your hands when you’re done. Just because you’re in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean that proper hygiene should not be used. That’s how germs would be spread. It’s up to all of us to keep America clean and healthy.
The seventh rule about airboat club is that reading is fundamental. Even in the middle of the Florida Everglades, boat captains who live in camps on islands continually read for self improvement. What does a baby bunny loving, shack dwelling boat captain read? Feast your eyes on that writing material. Some of it is buried and I don’t remember what the titles were. For instance, the red magazine by all of the cockroach droppings … I forget what that one was. 
The eighth rule about airboat club is “to each his own”. I know what you’re thinking. That comforter on that futon sofa does not match the southwest print on the occasional chair. This could be the home of a first time home owner. We’ve all been there and used second hand furniture and home accessories … sans confederate flag. Now what you should really be wondering is does he check the batteries in that smoke detector?
The ninth rule about airboat club is do your chores, including the dishes before you go out air boating, fishing or frog gigging. There’s nothing worse than coming home to a big, huge mess at the end of a long day. 
The tenth rule about airboat club is you should always take time to stop and smell the roses and in the Everglades that means you should sit up to your chest in water in a lawn chair and fish. As a general practice, beer drinking is encouraged to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion. Safety first.
… and always remember that sometimes you can just sit and do nothing out there, too. We’re not suggesting that a Yankee doesn’t know how to fish or is afraid of fish or anything. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and figured he was just pondering why it took him so long to finally find his way out there to a whole bunch of peace and quite. Later, he confessed that he was actually trying to figure out why his cell phone wasn’t ringing.
If you would like a private tour of the Florida Everglades all you have to do is swipe your card at the pump when the boat is pulled up there and he’ll take ya. That big honkin’ Cadillac engine ain’t cheap to run.
Disclaimer: The author of this blog does not encourage or condone frog eating.
To read the other rules read also: Touring The Florida Everglades
Tags: air boat, airboat, Bonita Springs, everglades, florida, Things To Do
They are in Bonita Bay, if you know what they are feel free to share in the comments.
Tags: bonita bay, flower
Friday Night Lights – Estero HS Football Game Time
8/27 Estero High School at Cape Coral-Baker High School
9/03 South Fort Myers at Estero High School *
9/10 Estero High School at St. John Neumann High School *
9/16 Lemon Bay at Estero High School *
9/24 Estero High School at Palmetto Ridge *
10/01 North Fort Myers at Estero High School *
10/08 Desoto High School at Estero High School *
10/15 Estero High School at Fort Myers High School *
10/22 Estero High School at Hardee High School *
11/05 Immokalee at Estero High School *
11/12 Estero High School at Cypress Lake High School *
* Denotes Conference Games
All game times are at 7:30 p.m.
Tags: EHS, Estero, estero high school, florida, football, high school, Prep Zone., schedule, sports
Bonita Springs Golf & Country Club Home
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Three Bedroom
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Two Bath
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Room for Pool
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No HOA Fees
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Not a Short Sale or a Foreclosure!
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$155,000
If you do not see the real estate listing widget above, click here.
Tags: Bonita Golf, Bonita Springs, country club, florida, home, house, real estate
How To Screw Up a Perfectly Good Death
There’s a fabulous little isle in the Office Max store. Maybe you’ve seen it when you were looking for something you needed just enough to cross that fifty dollar threshold in order to use the ten dollar off coupon.
For you do-it-yourselfers this is the aisle to be in. Do-it-yourself legal doesn’t end in the business forms section of your local store. There are places all over the web to create all sorts of legal forms, too.
From divorce to bankruptcy to real estate transactions, discount legal is just a trip to the office store and forty bucks away. In the store near my house there were “ten different ways to screw up a real estate transaction” available. There were all kinds of ways to mess up an estate, power of attorney, a will and a couple of vague, “general agreements”.
In a perfect world, I would imagine that a person could buy their lawyer-kit, fill in the blanks and be on their way. There are probably plenty of people who have done it successfully or at least they think they’ve been successful so far. Usually, everything is rainbows and puppies until probate court has to get involved, anyway.
When the surviving heirs begin liquidating the estate they usually find a few surprises with a deed or trust. Sometimes the issues can be corrected relatively easily and other times there are challenges. “Challenges” is an understatement in some circumstances because what went wrong usually couldn’t have been thought of until it actually happened.
Never before have consumers had the power to easily create a monumental mess for their family other than today. For consumers mesmerized with being their own legal council and saving tons money, it’s a road trip or point and click away. Unfortunately, there are a lot of times that the forty dollar kit ends up costing the surviving family members, spouse or estate ten times more to clean up than it would have cost to just hire a professional in the first place.
Most of the time it isn’t the financial expense involved that is the issue to the surviving family, it’s the grind of estate settlement that seems as if it’s never ending. It can go on for months, even years. Dealing with loss of a loved one is difficult enough but throw in legal and financial mayhem and it becomes cruel and unusual punishment.
You probably won’t find that warning in the forty dollar packet. They also didn’t mention your mom will end up bawling her eyes out at a conference table trying clean up the mess or your children trying to figure out who owns the financial institution you named as a trustee. Apparently, banks buying banks shell game wasn’t mentioned on a warning in the forty dollar packet, either.
It seems that the only form missing from the do-it-yourself isle is how to clean up the mess the do-it-yourself forms can make when the average, every day consumer tries to be an attorney for forty bucks.
If it was that easy and that fool proof to practice law, why the heck would any lawyer be saddling themselves with six figures in student loans when they could just load up a grocery cart with forms at Office Max?
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.
Tags: attorney, deed, estate, lawyer, real estate
2nd Annual Bonitian Snail Week
It’s Like Shark Week only slower. Summer in Bonita Springs yields daily rains and brings out the snails. So here’s a dose of seven days of straight snails going about their daily life. The good news is that unlike sharks they’re less violent and there is far less carnage. Try not to doze off like my little buddy below. Mouse over the photos for commentary.
Tags: Bonita Springs, bonitian, snail, Snail Week
Casa Bonita Condominium Gulf Front ~ Real Estate
The Casa Bonita I Condominium is one of the three gulf front Casa Bonita Condos on Bonita Beach in Bonita Springs, Florida. Casa Bonita Grande and Casa Bonita II are also part of the Casa Bonita series. Casa Bonita Royale is across the street and offers back bay and pass views with a more eastern exposure.
Read also: Casa Bonita Grande on Bonita Beach | Bonita Springs, Florida
Casa Bonita I is an eight story building built in 1972 with fifty four gulf front condominium residences. Units in Casa Bonita I offer two bedrooms, two baths and vary in square footage from 1,100-1,200. The design in each of the units at Casa Bonita I vary due to the age of the building. While many of the units have been renovated and updated, there are some vintage units that occasionally hit the market.
Amenities at Casa Bonita I
Rentals at Casa Bonita I are rather popular due to the amenities which include a BBQ and picnic area, bike storage, clubhouse community room, community pool, extra storage, library, shuffleboard, trash shoot, vehicle wash area and the exclusive Bonita Beach, Hickory Island, gulf front lifestyle. Casa Bonita I is one of only a hand full of condominiums where it is possible to walk out the door and have your feet in the surf.
Restrictions of condominiums at Casa Bonita I include no pets permitted, vehicle restrictions and rental restrictions of thirty day minimums. Most beach front condominiums observe strict pet limitations. 
The View From Casa Bonita I
Casa Bonita I is located approximately thirty minutes from SW Florida International Airport and minutes away from many conveniences such as shopping and dining both on Fort Myers Beach and on the main land in Bonita Springs and Naples, Florida. Ample walking paths provide access to dining at Big Hickory Grille and Marina and Doc’s Beach House a few miles away. The Lee-Tran trolley system offers low cost public transportation from Hickory Island north to Fort Myers Beach – Matanzas Pass and south to the K-Mart & Publix in the Centre at Bonita Springs Plaza at the corner of Bonita Beach Road and Tamiami Trail.
Casa Bonita I is located at 26000 Hickory Blvd, Bonita Springs, Florida 34134
Current prices and condominium real estate for sale in Casa Bonita I can be found below:
Tags: Beach, beach front, Bonita Beach, Casa Bonita, Casa Bonita Grande, Casa Bonita I, florida, gulf, Gulf Front, hickory, hickory island
Village Walk of Bonita Springs Featured Listing Single Family Oakmont Floor Plan in Village Walk of Bonita SpringsIf you Don’t see the flyer below click here .
To learn more about this Divosta Homes community, read also: Village Walk of Bonita Springs, Florida.
Tags: Bonita Springs, divosta, florida, home, house, oakmont, Puffin, real estate, village walk
Learn more about the community. Read also: The Reserve at Estero
Additional Reserve at Estero Listings Below:
Tags: florida, Fort Myers, reserve, Reserve at Estero, The Reserve at Estero, toll brothers, villa
The Hunt For Bonitian Neon Lights
It was really an effort to find neon in Bonita Springs. We don’t have a whole bunch of it, besides the classic, common “open” sign. If you’re a resident of Bonita Springs you may recognize a few of them or be able to put together where they’re located. Here’s a few things I realized while gathering these pictures.
First, I do have to say that when you take pictures at night … especially of neon signs at night, the proprietors of the businesses get nervous and think you’re with Bonita Springs code enforcement. I got charged by two business owners in the last month. After explaining in detail that I am a sweet little cupcake and mean no harm they eased up but still gave me “the eye” while I was walking away.
Second, we don’t have a lot of neon lights so I had to drive more than walk because it was more like a city wide hunt. Basically, the majority of the signs were on a trip down Old 41 Road starting at the north end in the Bernwood Plaza and heading south. I stopped at Riverside Park.
Signage is a big reason why Bonita Springs maintains it’s small town feel. We don’t have much neon, no LED signs and our monument signs are restricted in size. I tried to link up to the page on signage but he City of Bonita Springs website is pretty darn confusing, the ordinance is not searchable but you can report anything that ticks you off pretty easy. Sure would be nice to see the preventative measure first and just the “report violation” form.
Enjoy the rest of the neon’s and see if you can remember where you saw them in Bonita Springs.
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Tags: Bonita Springs, code enforcement, florida, lights, Neon, Riverside Park, signs
Homes, Condos & Villas at Marsh Landing
Marsh Landing is located in Estero, Florida just north of Bonita Springs. It is situated north of Coconut Road and west of US 41 (Tamiami Trail) directly across the street from the new Coconut Point Mall.
Marsh Landing is a quiet, secluded enclave of less than 400 residences. Home styles in Marsh Landing include coach home condominiums, attached villa homes and single family homes. Single family homes may or may not have a pool. Homes without pools can have a pool installed subject to architectural review committee approval. Residences in Marsh Landing start in the low $200′s. Marsh Landing is currently built out and only resale properties are available.
Amenities and benefits of living in Marsh Landing include affordable fees, no CDD and gated entry. The community also offers a clubhouse facility with community room, fitness room, coconut palm lined swimming pool, hot tub spa, bocce court and tennis court. Marsh Landing is truly a community that fits the entire family regardless of hobby or activity.
One of the best benefit of living in Marsh Landing are the affordable homeowner association fees and close proximity to local conveniences. Nearby conveniences to Marsh Landing include the Estero Community Center, Bonita Beach, Miromar Outlets, FGCU and Southwest Florida Regional Airport.
Nearby communities include:
- Spring Run at The Brooks – Bonita Springs, Florida
- Colonial Oaks of Estero Florida
- Copperleaf at The Brooks – Bonita Springs, Florida
- Fountain Lakes
- Meadowbrook
Call today for a current list of Marsh Landing real estate offerings – 239-273-7430.
Tags: Bonita Springs, Estero, Estero Communities, Estero Florida Real Estate, estero homes, Estero Real Estate, fitness, marsh landing, pool, tennis
Short Sale List Price vs. Appraisal Value
The biggest issues both sellers and buyers have when dealing with and understanding the intricacies of short sales is how the appraisal process can effect the transaction.
Recently a home seller requested a price opinion on a home that would be a short sale. The home owner felt the price quoted by one of the interviewed real estate agents was particularly low. Even though the home was being sold short, at the quoted price they really felt that they would be “giving it away”.
The home seller was correct in being concerned about listing the home at too low of a price. While a lower list price will materialize a faster contract, that contract needs to also endure the appraisal process in order to close sale.
One of the many gears in the short sale machine is that darned appraisal. The lender being asked to forgive the homeowners debt is usually taking a heck of a hit and wants to be sure that the home is being sold for its current market value. The majority of the time the lender or loan servicer had nothing to do with determining the list price and, of course, the list price of the property doesn’t indicate its value.
The appraisal is a means to vet mispriced or “drama priced” properties simply to get an offer. It also flushes out schemes to game the system for the purpose generating sweetheart deals for friends or family members or for the homeowners themselves in a buy back scheme. Surely you aren’t surprised that people are doing that, are you?
The fact of the matter is that you could paper the walls of Mall of America with failed short sale purchase offers that died when the bank or investor countered the offer over list price. Buyers get a little miffed and bail out when they feel they “offered full price” only to be counter offered after months of waiting. The buyer trots off into the sunset and the home owner starts over with a new and improved list price to support the appraisal.
So what’s a seller to do when they’re pricing their short sale real estate? First, they have to start out as close to the estimated value of the property as possible. Second, they have to be mindful of standing inventory and what the absorption rate is for the community. What is or is not on the market at the time, the pending sales about to close and the rate properties are selling at is going to have an effect on the sale, appraisal and market value.
The homeowner who was questioning the proposed list price being too low was located in a community with about six to seven months of inventory, which is essentially a balanced market. The proposed list price was about twenty percent under recent closed sales which were recorded within the last thirty days.
Whether that home owner lists twenty percent below market value or for one dollar the end result would, in all probability, be the same. The list price is wrong and the bank will counter the offer when the appraisal comes in.
The end result is that the less than committed buyer ends up walking and that contract ends up decking the halls of Mall of America or at the bottom of the bird cage, right beside this little work of art.
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.
Tags: appraisal, contract, lender, market value, real estate, short sale, value
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