Posts Tagged ‘charlotte’
Posted by John Butzko on September 2, 2010
Discover a range of lifestyle opportunities in Burn Store Lakes.
A deed restricted community established in 1972, which resulted in the creation of 1860 single-family lots and 170 multi-family lots, Burnt Store Lakes is a captivating place to call home. To date, approximately 25 percent of the total properties have been developed and are occupied by year-round and seasonal residents alike. Prior to becoming a residential community, Burnt Store Lakes was operated as a prosperous gladiolus flower farm.
Residential Opportunities – Burnt Store Lakes
Pride of ownership is abundant in Burnt Store Lakes, as displayed by the tasteful new entry to the community and carried out by the individual homeowners throughout the neighborhood. The homes range in size from 1,400 square feet to over 3,000 square feet, and currently are selling from the mid $100,000s to roughly $400,000. Most of the homes in the community generally range from 5- 15 years old.
Convenient Location – Burnt Store Lakes
Residents of Burnt Store Lakes have the opportunity to take advantage of the neighboring 27-hole executive golf course, marina and dining opportunities at Burnt Store Marina. For those desiring to take in Florida’s great outdoors, Burnt Store Lakes is within proximity to Babcock- Web Wildlife Management area, Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserve, Peace River Wildlife Center, Ponce De Leon Park and boat ramp, Burnt Store Marina and Pine Island’s Matlacha.
There are several shopping and dining options approximately 15 minutes away in downtown Punta Gorda (to the north) or nearby Cape Coral (to the south). For those sun seekers looking for the beach, Englewood/Venice, Boca Grande, Fort Myers/Lover’s Key/Sanibel are all about a 45-60 minute drive. With I-75 nearby, Fort Myers’s Southwest International Airport is within a 50-minute reach. (more…)
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Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on April 1, 2010
The road to recovery for Southwest Florida’s real estate market has been long and arduous; fraught with an overabundance of properties for sale—many of them short sales and foreclosures. Yet following a winter in which sales of correctly-priced homes sizzled, even the most skeptical market watchers are trading die-hard pessimism for a healthy dose of informed optimism.
Prices are at long last stabilizing on properties priced below $300,000. The total number of properties for sale has retreated into a much healthier zone of balanced supply and demand; and the phenomenon of multiple offers on well-priced properties is not uncommon. The market for correctly-priced properties between $500,000 and $1 million has also begun to show signs of a slow recovery—although sales of properties above $1 million remain sluggish. Still, were it not for the 800-pound gorilla occupying the driver’s seat, some might conclude that our overall recovery is finally cruising in the fast lane.
That 800-pound gorilla is the beast called “foreclosure,” a tenacious problem applying considerable drag to the pace of our recovery. Yet, while the total number of foreclosures in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties has essentially remained flat over the past few months, the number is still high—9,844 at last count in March—and could potentially get higher before subsiding. That’s the sobering news of the day.
But there’s good news too. Unlike earlier in the crisis, newer foreclosures are being handled somewhat more proactively by the major financial institutions, who now realize that it’s often in their best interest to strike constructive accords with “underwater” borrowers at risk for defaulting on their loans. With so many foreclosures exerting downward pressure on prices, everyone’s bottom line is better served by keeping home and homeowner together wherever possible. Thus, the result of a constructive give-and-take between borrower and lender increasingly comes in the form of a loan modification or principal reduction plan, which typically reduces principal and payments for the borrower while keeping the property lived-in, cared for, and of greater value to the lender.
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Posted by John Butzko on August 20, 2009
Well-Manicured Courses Attract Golfers to Rotonda
The real estate market in southern Sarasota County and beyond to Charlotte County is very active, with two main driving factors: waterfront options and reasonable prices. The many available properties fronting waterways, canals and the Gulf of Mexico are cherished by those who enjoy fishing, boating, kayaking or even sunbathing along the miles of beautiful sandy beaches.
Areas of Interest
Home buyers looking for waterfront opportunities have an abundance of properties to choose from throughout Englewood, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Here, we have it all for a fisherman’s dream or a boater’s delight, all surrounded by scenic enchantment. In the Stillwater and Rotonda communities, there has been a notable increase in sales activity. Both communities offer newer construction and offer a variety of housing types. The golf courses of Rotonda provide challenging, well-manicured playing grounds for enthusiasts of the game. (more…)
Posted by Michael Saunders on July 31, 2009
Recently, Tripadvisor.com named Englewood, FL SECOND on a list of top emerging destinations in the U.S. This is very exciting and positive news for our area as well as for the company! Please see the article below that recently ran in the Charlotte Sun Newspaper:
Englewood is second on a list of top emerging U.S. destinations, according to TripAdvisor.com.
It is No. 1 in terms of being the best, affordable neighborhood to retire to in the U.S., according to walletpop.com.
In less than a year Englewood has scored high on several quality-of-life indexes and the accolades are beginning to pay dividends.
“You can’t buy that kind of publicity and recognition — you can’t put a price on it. It’s beyond anyone’s budget,” said Becky Bovell, director of the Charlotte Harbor Visitor and Conventions Bureau.
Now Englewood will be featured in stories appearing in “Southern Boating Magazine” in August and again in October in “PassageMaker,” a magazine for trawler and ocean motor boats. (more…)
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Posted by Michael Saunders on June 23, 2009
SARASOTA, Florida—(June, 2009)—“Its very heartening to see that the sales momentum that built so impressively during the first four months of 2009 continued to be strong even as we transitioned from the busy winter season into our customarily slow summer months,” said Michael Saunders upon examining the latest sales statistics for May, just out from TRENDGRAPHIX.. “With bottoming prices, low interest rates and extraordinary, limited-time-only buying incentives—like the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit—buyers are expressing their confidence in the market by stepping up to buy wherever they detect the best buying opportunities.”
“Sales continue to be disproportionately clustered in the under-$300,000 price range, thanks to prices that have been impacted by foreclosures and short sales; but sales are also occurring in every price range where sellers wisely list their homes in very close proximity to what comparable homes are actually selling for,” Saunders added. “The most encouraging news from this new data is that closed sales, although down slightly in most cases for May in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties—as would be expected as we enter the slow summer months—largely held their own compared with April; while pending sales are way up compared with last May. Further, with most of these pending sales set to close in the next 30 to 60 days, it looks like the trend toward improved sales, established early this year, will continue throughout the summer.” (more…)
Posted by Michael Saunders on June 23, 2009
NAR’s report for May shows a nationwide uptick in the sale of existing homes and sited favorable affordability conditions and the first time buyer tax credit as the primary reasons:
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.
Read the full article here.
It is encouraging to see the continued trend – the first nationwide back-to-back monthly gain since September 2005 – and Michael Saunders & Company recently posted our own area trend report for Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Unfortunately, month to month reports only tell a piece of the story. (more…)
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Posted by Michael Saunders on May 19, 2009
Much of the Michael Saunders & Company Reinvent Yourself 09 conference held last week pushed the notion that the fundamentals of the real estate industry, specifically the way we market property is and will be changing drastically over the near future. In fact if there is a bright spot to the housing and economic turmoil it is that it forces these changes to happen all the quicker: in the same way that higher fuel costs prompt more efficient vehicles, the evolved real estate agent is now leaner and smarter when it comes to marketing your home.
Out, are the single property advetisements in the newspapers and magazines – a quick appeasement for a seller, and not much else. Why would a potential home buyer wait until Sunday to look at one property in the newspaper when they can get instant gratification and look at all available properties on the market at once on the web?
In, are the targeted effects of social networking, otherwise known as the larest ongoing cocktail party on earth. Facebook, with over 275 million active users, now has a population greater than the 4th largest country on earth and is trailing only China, India and the United States in citizens. Bob Corcoran of Corcoran Consulting Inc. outlines some great techniques in a recent article on his website: (more…)
Posted by Michael Saunders on May 18, 2009
CNNMoney.com today reported that home prices across the U.S. are at their most affordable levels in 18 years:
Nearly 73% of all homes sold in the United States during the first three months of 2009 were considered affordable. That was the highest percentage ever reported by the 18-year-old Housing Opportunity Index, an analysis of markets compiled quarterly by the National Association of Homebuilders and Wells Fargo Bank.
While the article does state that the markets for new and existing home sales are still slow, they cite emerging optimism from homebuilders that the improved data – affordability, new homes sales up, pending home sales up – could indicate that the worst is behind us. Please click here for the full article.
As shown in our April Trends report last week, pending home sales for the region for April are up considerably: for Sarasota county, +18.44%; for Manatee count, +19.53%, for Charlotte county, + 16.91%.
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Posted by Michael Saunders on May 12, 2009
SARASOTA, Florida—(May, 2009)—“To see these positive trends solidify is an encouraging sign,” said Michael Saunders—founder and CEO of Michael Saunders & Company—referring to the latest TRENDGRAPHIX report on residential real estate sales for Southwest Florida, which shows a strong April following a stronger March; both of which were substantially higher than a respectable February. TRENDGRAPHIX gathers current and historical data from the region’s MLS to produce detailed monthly reports based on actual closed and pending sales.
“We’re by no means out of the woods,” Saunders cautioned. “Buyers are cherry-picking their way through best-priced properties in every price range; but especially those under $350,000. We’re starting to see improved sales in the $350,000 and $1.5 million range; but sales in the $1.5 million and up range remain something of a challenge for all but the most aggressively priced properties. Those that are priced aggressively are selling faster, as evidenced by recent record-breaking sales on Bird Key, in The Oaks and at the Ritz-Carlton, where properties were sold for $4.75 million, $3.175 million and $3.3 million respectively. The common threads uniting these properties are aggressive pricing and the seller’s willingness to negotiate down the stretch.” (more…)
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Posted by Michael Saunders on May 8, 2009
Working your way to the top of the industry is no easy task. Keeping yourself firmly planted in the summit requires a constant drive to enhance your skills and educate yourself on both the demands of market and your clients to stay ahead of the competition.
With this in mind, we at Michael Saunders & Company provide our agents with the educational resources needed to help ensure they are performing at the high level expected by their customers. On Thursday, May 14, our agents are invited to attend the company’s most valuable educational event, where some of the highest-regarded speakers in the real estate industry will present business-enhancing information exclusively to Michael Saunders & Company agents.
Michael Saunders, founder and CEO of the company, opens the event, followed by Matthew Ferrara-a driving force in real estate technology innovation-and Steve Harney-author and sought-after speaker on producing top results in real estate. Additionally, the event includes two Breakout Sessions. The first of which, titled Social Networking, Exploring Your Friendly Future, is moderated by the company’s director of interactive marketing, Matthew Haber. This session is directed by experts from Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Michael Saunders & Company, and AtLarge, Inc., to share their experience with today’s most popular networking web sites and how they can benefit our agents.
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