Not Bonita Beach, Florida
It’s exactly this type of beach that drives people to Southwest Florida to find beaches that are warm, blue and not covered in ice. I drove past this sign and thought, beach? Brrr. Count me out! I can’t wait to get back to white sandy beaches and not white icy beaches.
Tags: Bonita Beach, florida
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Naples Florida
Tags: Bonita Springs, corkscrew swamp, Naples Florida, sanctuary
Real estate in the State Streets of Bonita Springs
Last week I stopped to visit Lumberjack and we went for a drive through the state streets. The state streets is the area of town where all of the streets are named after … states.
The state streets in Bonita Springs is the area of town with some of the first developed real estate. There are some older homes, historic homes, the Busk relocated, restored historic homes and a few manufactured homes.
The trees in the area are mature and huge. The real estate itself offers unusual sized lots, some with gulf access. There are winding streets. Not everything is cookie cutter like a gated community.
Today, I drove back through the state streets because Lumberjack and I had seen a Carambola tree that was huge and peppered with the fruit. The Carambola is also known as the star fruit. When it’s sliced the right way it creates little star shaped snacks like this:
See the star shape? Need a way to get your kids to eat fruits and veggies? Start by covering their plate with stars.
Needless to say, I couldn’t find *the* home with the tree but I found homesteads with star fruit. At one particular home, there was a man and a woman in front of a house on Tennessee Street and I asked if I could take a photo of their tree for you to see. They said yes. The husband went inside and got a bag and loaded it up for me! Bonitians are always so nice.
I asked how old the tree was and the lady said, “My daddy built this house in 1954.” I asked if the tree was that old and she said it was probably a few years later. It was a pretty big tree and the lichen are well developed. This tree could be fifty years old. Amazing.
My parting gift of fresh picked Carambola in tow, I headed over to see Lumberjack at work. He was all about tasting them and maybe starting a tree himself from the seeds. Seeds from old trees are better and not genetically modified or hybrid.
Even CritterDawg thinks they’re interesting. Local farmers markets sometimes sell Carambola and occasionally they are sold right on site by home owners.
If you’re thinking you’d like an original piece of old Florida real estate in Bonita Springs you can pick up a home in the state streets in great price points and have your very own vintage Carambola tree. You might even get a grapefruit or variety of orange tree, too.
The real estate along Old 41 is sprinkled with trees from groves of day gone by. Enjoy a day trip and pick up some fresh history for breakfast tomorrow.
Tags: Bonita Springs, Bonita Springs Real Estate, Carambola, Farmer Market, florida, real estate, Star Fruit, state streets, Tennessee
Taking Mortgage Broker Recommendations
There’s a big difference between inexpensive and a good value where home loans are concerned. Throw in a few dozen flashy ads with teaser interest rates and all the magic the loan officer promises to work for you and let the mortgage cyclone begin.
Getting a mortgage is unsettling for some people. It’s actually a little bit of work to weed through the piles of paperwork and documentation.
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to work with some very skilled mortgage brokers and loan officers. In spite of the bad press about the mortgage industry there are some quality folks out there whose main goal is to get families into homes. There’s no subterfuge involved.
When a buyer asks for a local recommendation there are only a handful of top performers out there I would trust enough to recommend. They’ve been tried and tested and over performed through difficult circumstances as well as the smooth loans.
Odds are that you’ll get a good recommendation from your real estate agent or at least a decent place to start. The name of the game is getting you moved in so we only want to work with the pros anyway. Most of the former sub-prime specialist, mortgage brokers have moved on and are now riding the gold bubble and throwing broken bracelet house parties, any way.
I’m still amazed when a buyer goes rogue and starts throwing darts to find a home loan. It’s usually not the kind of rogue where they’ve walked through the doors of a bricks and mortar bank but a “borrowing cashola dot com” crap-shoot that over promises and eventually under performs.
Here’s a little bit of advice for you buyers out there that sidle up to the keyboard looking for blind solutions to one of the largest financial decisions of your life: Prepare for debacle on a cataclysmic scale, book a hotel for the day of closing and don’t show up with your moving truck and the ridiculous notion that you’re even crossing a threshold.
If you’re extremely lucky whatever puppy mill is processing or underwriting your loan just might even be in the same time zone. If your crap shoot involves Pacific or Mountain Time prepare for the pain of losing two to three hours at each end of the work day with the time differences, alone.
I’ve seen more buyers create their own hostage situation by choosing an unknown, unproven lender for their home purchase. It just doesn’t have to be that painful.
Lending guidelines are stricter than they’ve been in quite some time. As a consumer you need to be able to pick up the phone and have a living, breathing human on the other end of the line with some authority, willing to answer questions and be able to tell you precisely where you’re at in the process.
When your more passive than aggressive underwriter is sleeping in California when the rest of us are trying to help you close on your home you need to know that there’s a good chance that you’re going to wind up at the Inn. They’ll leave the light on for ya.
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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 left 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: Bonita Springs, buyer, florida, home, interest rate, lender, loan, Mortgage, real estate
Lime Tree Park Bonita Banner Delivery
Today I stopped in Lime Tree Park for a home inspection on the remaining part of an estate. Usually, it’s a little sad to help liquidate the real estate of those who have passed on, then I saw this.
This sunny day I got to see a real old-fashioned paper boy. He was delivering the Bonita Banner doorstep to doorstep. He was just as cute as can be and gave me the low down on the activities in the area both on and off the shuffle board court and a little primer on the golf at Country Creek in Estero, Florida. He plays 18 holes every Friday, by the way.
You just gotta love people from Ohio … they keep it real. 
Tags: 55+, adult, Bonita Banner, Bonita Springs, estate, florida, Lime Tree Park, manufactured home, real estate
A Great Day Trip From Bonita Springs, Florida
Tags: Bonita Springs, corkscrew, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, everglades, florida, swamp, Things To Do
Happy Valentine’s Day Bonita Springs
Ever hear the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?” Whoever wrote that was either just picking on the women or its one of the old sayings that needs updated to fit modern times.
How about this update, “Hell hath no fury like a divorcing couple with more hate than reason and the money to lawyer-up for the express purpose of legally and emotionally pounding each other just for sport.” That whole “till death do us part” vow at the altar wasn’t a promise to eventually divorce and fight to death.
It’s no joke when they say they person you marry isn’t the same person you divorce. Usually, when a marriage or partnership is coming to an end one of the last persons involved wrapping up the sordid mess is the real estate agents.
Selling real estate is a stressful situation for a lot of people without the added twist of huge changes like death or divorce. Throw in a few attorneys, restraining orders or court appointed real estate agents and little poison darts start flying out of everybody’s eyes and any use of reason or accountability goes right out the window.
There’s occasionally an attempt for civility between the separating spouses “just for the sake of getting the house sold” but it’s an emotional pressure cooker.
Just about any real estate agent has had to deal with the passive aggressive phone call from one spouse to the other to let them know what someone, usually the real estate agent, allegedly said about them. That’s the sneakiest kind of saboteur; the divorcing spouse that decides to finally look out for the other, out of the goodness of their candy coated heart, to gas light them … and they fall for it.
Periodically, the court appoints everyone involved a mediator. It seems that even sometimes not only can the separating spouses not get along, but neither can their legal aid. Someone has to get be in charge or at least in charge of those in charge who can’t get along, right?
One of the first signs that there would be bloodshed should have been that every page of the listing contract was notarized. It wasn’t a fully executed contract signed by all parties, but since there were lawyers loafing around it seemed like a great day to whip out a notary stamp and get to authenticating nothing.
This is exactly how a two hundred dollar service of everyday silverware from the import store ends up eventually costing about four thousand dollars and the equity in a property gets eaten away with holding costs, taxes and condominium fees. Oh, yeah … sometimes these things drag on for years.
When you think about it, maybe him leaving the seat up or her not being the same size as on the wedding day isn’t so bad after all. Calculate the holding costs to fight over your real estate for a couple of years and maybe you’ll just start falling back in love that person in the recliner beside you, all over again.
At the very least it might inspire you to run to Walgreens and pick up a heart shaped box of candy or an underwear rose from the checkout counter. It’s the thought that counts.
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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 left 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: Bonita Springs, Bonita Springs Real Estate, Divorce, lawyer, Mediator, real estate, valentine
Now Open Weekends 10 a.m.-5 p.m., February-May ? 15000 Livingston Rd., Naples, FL 34109
(Naples, FL) – Rather than wait until it’s blazing hot, jump in the fun at Sun-N-Fun Lagoon now when it’s comfortably cooler. The water park is open and waiting for you, your friends and family.
From February through May, we invite you to visit Sun-N-Fun Lagoon located inside North Collier Regional Park. The park will also be open during the week of Collier County Public School’s Spring Break, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 29 through April 5 in addition to the normal weekend hours.
Sun-N-Fun Lagoon Water Park
Facility Attractions:
· One waterslide drops into Sunny’s Lazy River
· 4 water slides take you to a drop pool
· Heated family pool
· Tadpole Pool, a children’s activity wading water area with a fish slide and more
· Turtle Cove, a pool for ages 5 – 12 years old with lily pads and ropes for climbing
· Sunny’s Lazy River, 1200 feet long
· All pools except Tadpole wading area are heated
Cost:
The park is continuing to offer a special discount to Collier County residents with a Florida Driver’s License that has a Collier County address. With a Collier County address Driver’s License, you and your party will receive $2 off any 48 inch or taller entry, normally $12. Children three and under enter free and those shorter than 48 inches are just $5.50.
Add sales tax to all fees listed above.
Group rates, seasonal passes and party packages are also available. Call (239) 252-4073.
For more information about Sun-N-Fun Lagoon or other public pool facilities, please visit the Parks and Recreation Department online at www.collierparks.com. The public may call Sun-N-Fun Lagoon at (239) 252-4021.
Tags: Bonita Springs, florida, Naples, Park, Sun-n-Fun, Things To Do, water park
She’s looking for LBD!
This little rascal is one of a few that live in a preserve near my home in Bonita Springs, Florida. This was in the middle of the day which is unusual. They’re usually spotted when the sun is going down. This time of the year the pickin’s are slim and they’re hungry and hunting in the daylight hours.
Bobcats are very skittish and difficult to photograph. She heard the camera and was back in the brush in seconds.
Tags: bobcat, Bonita Springs, florida
May You Be Enjoying It With Best Buds
If you’re from in town or even from out of town and looking for a place to watch the game hit up Johnny Malloy’s Sports Bar or Big Al’s Sports Bar.
Tags: Big Al's, Bonita Springs, florida, football, Johnny Malloy's, Sunday, Super Bowl, Things To Do
Heaven Scent Flowers on Old 41 Road
Heaven Scent has been in Bonita Springs for years. It’s the place to go to get a great arrangement, balloon bouquet, bridal arrangements, gifts and more. Heaven Scent helped our family through three children’s home coming events and high school proms. The flower artists can create anything you need. If you give them a little bit of freedom of expression they can custom create a one of a kind corsage or arrangement for any special occasion. They’ve spoiled us on more than one occasion.
Just yesterday I stopped in for an “It’s a boy” balloon bouquet. Someone in our neighborhood was bringing their new baby boy home so we decided to decorate their mailbox for them. It was so much easier and faster to get in and out of the Heaven Scent shop than it was to make my way to a big box grocery store.
If you’re looking for a gift and floral shop for special occasions try Heaven Scent Flowers across the street from Riverside Park in Old Bonita Springs, Florida.
27515 Old 41 Road
Bonita Springs, FL 34135-5504
(239) 992-5683
Tags: Balloons, Bonita Springs, florida, flowers, Gift Shop, old bonita springs, Riverside Park
Bonita Springs Naples Estero Ft Myers Real Estate
Just like the past few months, the largest sector of real estate that is selling is priced under $400,000. The real estate priced under $200,000 is absolutely on fire. This data was collected from the Sunshine MLS and includes all closed sale properties in the MLS from Fort Myers through Naples, Florida.
If you’re currently in the process of searching for a home or condo in the $200,000 and under price range expect properties to sell quickly, and to experience multiple offers on well priced real estate in great condition. Yes, it’s were seeing multiple offers again.
While our prices are down our units of real estate sold is up and rivaling number from 2005 and 2006. If you’re interested in just how much real estate sold last month read also:
Is SW Florida Real Estate Selling? | January 2010 Report
Information is deemed accurate, not guaranteed and subject to change.
Tags: Bonita Springs, Estero, florida, Fort Myers, Market Report, Naples, real estate, southwest florida
Real Estate Unit Sales For SW Florida
As usual, I go back several years during the month of January to show you where we were, where we went and how Southwest Florida real estate is recovering. This is only a few days into February so the numbers will likely be higher. It’s good news that so much real estate is starting to change hands.
Yes, I know … Prices Are Down
I am usually a little surprised when someone says, “But real estate prices are down” after looking at the graph above. Yes, there down. We have excessive inventory (that would be the units) and we have to sell it off in order for real estate prices to go up. Look, we’re selling off the units and it’s the beginning of the end of excess inventory.
There are no magic wands or easy fixes for what happened to the economy or the real estate market. I’m still shocked by consumers that get impatient and want it all better in months, not the years it’s taking.
Depending upon the price range of the real estate it could be months, if you’d like to look at what price point of real estate is selling the most, read also:
What Price Range of Real Estate is Selling in Southwest Florida?
Country Club Communities 2.0
Country club communities that are in the green or in the process of recovering from the brink of near disaster are now trying to make their way through this difficult economy. They have a huge job on their hands.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a couple of complementary full page “Chris Griffith kicks puppies and breaks rainbows” ads so here’s the five hundred words of wisdom I have to bestow upon country club communities struggling to get their good news to consumers.
We’re in the information age. News travels at the speed of light and can be created and even spun by choice at the click of a mouse. Every business, including police departments have adapted to the technology of social networking and blogging. The real blogging that is … not harpooning in nasty comments on forums.
Get the public up to speed, get your residents up to speed by providing information in the most transparent fashion in which they’re able and to promote their business like any other business promotes; 2.0 on the web. You’ve not budgeted for it or hired professionals to do it, but you should probably start.
Instead of creating an uber secretive society of closed doors and secrets why not just expose how great your community is and how structurally sound it really is?
If you’ve not Googled your country club or your community’s name, you need to. For every blogger or newspaper that has published a story that isn’t positive why not invite the author for a fresh look at the community to write a new story?
Appoint a representative or a committee that monitors the sales of properties in your neighborhoods and create a .pdf file of what your community has to offer, maps, statistic, membership information or whatever else you want potential buyers to know and get it to the real estate agents to attach to the multiple listing of every single home in the community.
Your community websites should now be comprehensive and include just about anything an owner or potential buyer needs to know about your community. Why are your HOA and condo documents not on your websites? They’re a matter of public record, anyway. Why are the membership applications not up there, too? Meeting minutes? Budget? *gasp*
If you’re a member of a board in a community or condo, do yourselves a favor and anonymously call your management company and try to get one emailed or faxed. You’d think it was a national secret just to try to make application in some of these communities.
A blogging platform added to your website is a minor change that can bring a world of enlightenment. Publish your own news; let the owners publish their own news or photos of the latest events by submitting it to your web marketing expert. Your marketing expert could simply just be an intern at a local high school or college or maybe just a web savvy resident.
It’s not rocket surgery. The internet age has made it necessary for just about everything to be transparent. To succeed in this trying economy club house communities need to get on the 2.0 band wagon and manage their reputations, run their businesses like a business or they’ll continue to shrivel on the vine.
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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 left 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: Bonita Springs, community, country club, florida, Golf, real estate
Free Movies at Riverside Park
Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm (Main Event Starts at 7:00pm)
Price: FREE!!!
Place: Riverside Park in Downtown Bonita Springs
Main event, Grease, starts at 7:00pm. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy the show!!! Vendors will be available on site.
Tags: Bonita Springs, florida, Movie in the Park, real estate, Riverside Park
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