Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on August 5, 2010
The reasons to purchase a home in our market are as compelling as the most value-obsessed buyers could hope for. Prices across the board have fallen dramatically from their artificially-induced highs of five years ago; while the cost of financing a home has seldom been lower. Federal tax incentives—now expired—were another good reason to buy; but their one-time benefit has long since been eclipsed by historically low interest rates that save you money over the entire 30-year life of the loan. Long after tax incentives are forgotten, buyers will still be raving about mortgage interest rates—obtained in the year 2010—that are still saving them big bucks each month in the year 2035.
Meanwhile, the reasons for selling a home in today’s market can be just as compelling, if not quite as obvious. As Southwest Florida’s residential property market moves closer to some semblance of balance—with buyers driving sales up and inventories down to their lowest levels since October, 2005—we took note of what national real estate expert, Steve Harney, had to say recently about there being very good reasons to sell your home in today’s market.
Harney, of course, isn’t oblivious to the fact that recovering markets like ours still favor buyers over sellers; and that many sellers are forced to sell because of tough economic times and the burden of mortgages they can no longer afford. But he clearly doesn’t believe that the other 80% of homeowners—sitting atop positive equity in their homes—should deny themselves the opportunity to sell just because they won’t net the same level of proceeds their neighbors fetched during the boom. There’s both a practical need and a strong emotional component involved in the decision to sell a home; and Harney believes these needs shouldn’t automatically take a back seat to the absolute bottom line of a real estate transaction.
Discover your ideal lifestyle in Summerfield in Lakewood Ranch.
One of the original villages in Lakewood Ranch, Summerfield is located just south of State Road 70 off Lakewood Ranch Blvd. The Braden River runs along the southern border and connects to many lakes and two community parks that the residents enjoy. This is a family-oriented neighborhood with abundant recreational activities and community events. The winding streets are lined with mature trees that lead you to the five different Summerfield neighborhoods. Parents love the top-rated elementary and middle schools located with within walking distance of their homes.
The homes are single-family, with one maintenance-free community and one condominium complex. Only re-sales are available in this sold-out community from the high $100,000’s to the $400,000’s. The homes range in size from 1,300 to 2,500 square feet and were built from 1995 through 2002.
Market Activity – Summerfield in Lakewood Ranch
Of the 41 properties currently on the market, 35 are single-family homes and 6 are condominium residences. In the last 30 days, 7 single-family and one condominium have sold. There are 24 homes in the pending status right now! We are definitely seeing a lot of movement in the right direction for this desirable community.
Most recently, Elsa Roth’s REO listing on 12015 Winding Woods Way closed after just 21 days on the market. This property sold for $151,000, which was $6,100 over list price.
Why Choose Summerfield in Lakewood Ranch?
Buyers are drawn to Summerfield in Lakewood Ranch because everyone enjoys the sense of small town community that exists here. Lakewood Ranch is an award-winning, 8,500-acre master-planned community, and Summerfield residents take advantage of the shops, restaurants and movie theaters of Main Street in Lakewood Ranch. They use the business parks, hospital and medical center, and the golf courses. There are over 150 miles of sidewalks and trails, and the beautiful lakes, wetlands and nature preserves are abundant with wildlife. Summerfield in Lakewood Ranch is now more affordable than ever and you are within proximity to the culture of Sarasota and the best beaches in the world.
Michael Saunders & Company is proud to announce 2 successful closings made possible through the professional representation of our agents, who work each day to fulfill the unique needs of homebuyers and sellers. For the week ending June 19, 2010, 2 properties sold for over $1 million.
Sarasota property sold for $3,050,000 on June 17
Linda Roe Dickinson and JoAnn Thorpe of Michael Saunders & Company closed a sale on a home in Sarasota with beautiful views of protected Bayfront and a separate, 780 square foot guesthouse. Linda represented the seller, who sold the exquisite bayfront estate for $3,050,000 on June 17, 2010. JoAnn represented the buyer, who will be enjoying incredible outdoor living with a pool and spa, a deepwater dock with hoists, a complete summer kitchen, and even a tiki hut.
Deborah Nelson of Michael Saunders & Company closed a sale on a property on Longboat Key boasting 165 feet directly on Sarasota Bay with tremendous views across to Jewfish Key, Sister Key, and Tidy Island. Deborah represented the buyer, who bought the superb bayfront property for $1,400,000 on June 14, 2010. The seller was represented by Reid Murphy of Developers Realty Inc.
Michael Saunders & Company is proud to announce a successful closing made possible through the professional representation of our agents, who work each day to fulfill the unique needs of homebuyers and sellers. For the week ending June 12, 2010, one property sold for over $1 million.
Sarasota property sold for $2,000,000 on June 10
Stacy Haas and Judy Nimz of Michael Saunders & Company closed a sale on a property in Sarasota conveniently located just minutes away from downtown by land and from Marina Jack’s by sea. Stacy represented the seller, who sold the waterfront home for $2,000,000 on June 10, 2010. Judy represented the seller, who will soon be entertaining guests with an outdoor kitchen, pool, and spa.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on June 17, 2010
Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club
If you could position a glass dome over Lakewood Ranch—inclusive of such nearby neighborhoods as Greyhawk Landing and Heritage Harbour—you would have on exhibit a near-perfect microcosm of our region’s accelerating real estate recovery. For within this award-winning community and its many unique neighborhoods, buyers have scooped up the best-priced properties to such an extent that inventories of available homes have been pared down to levels that are at, near—or below—those typically considered normal in a balanced market. Moreover, they are confidently cherry-picking properties across all price ranges, so long as real value is at the core of every transaction.
As a matter of fact, based on the current pace of existing home sales in Lakewood Ranch—especially for properties priced below $150,000, below $300,000 or below $500,000—less than a four month supply is available for purchase in all three of these price ranges. Similarly, for homes priced from $500,000 to $1 million less than a six-month supply is available. Properties priced above $1 million have yet to re-establish a healthy balance—typically defined in the industry as a six to seven month supply, based on the rate of current sales. Yet with its supply now down to less than ten months, even the market for $1 million-plus homes in Lakewood Ranch is approaching equilibrium. Moreover, across all price ranges, less than a five month supply of properties is on hand. (Source: Trendgraphix, June 2010). Although it will be a very long time before sellers see prices rivaling those of 2004/2005, technically speaking Lakewood Ranch is on the threshold of becoming a sellers’ market again.
To pinpoint precisely how dramatically the Lakewood Ranch market has improved, one need only compare today’s level of inventory to that of two years ago when sales were painfully sluggish. Across all price ranges, the inventory has been drawn down from 958 properties in May 2008, to 341 properties in May 2010; a decline of over 64%. The number of properties priced below $500,000 has dropped by 61%; and those between $500,000 and $1 million by 71%. Even the inventory of properties priced above $1 million is down by 68%.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on June 16, 2010
Michael Saunders & Company is proud to announce a successful closing made possible through the professional representation of our agents, who work each day to fulfill the unique
Longboat Key property sold for $2,889,750 on June 2
needs of homebuyers and sellers. For the week ending June 5, 2010, one property sold for over $1 million.
Anne Mitchell and Kathleen Callender of Michael Saunders & Company closed a sale on a condominium on Longboat Key with generous terraces to savor the Gulf-front view from and a summer kitchen for outdoor entertaining. Anne represented the seller, who sold the home for $2,889,750 on June 2, 2010. Kathleen represented the buyer, who will enjoy the comfort of a house with the convenience and security of a condominium in the new home.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on June 9, 2010
Palmer Ranch is a master-planned community offering its residents the ultimate Florida lifestyle. It is conveniently located near Sarasota’s beaches, downtown, and arts and entertainment district.
The 10,000 acre area is rich in history. It was part of the original land bought by Bertha Honore Palmer around the turn of the 20th century.
A first impression is important when selling your home. Pictured: 625 Norsota Way.
With over 80 percent of buyers getting their first look of a house from a picture on the Internet, it has become increasingly important to take the steps to make the initial appearance memorable. If the “curbscape” of your home is unappealing or uninviting, most people will not venture to look any further by seeing your property in person. So, you definitely do not want to turn off prospective buyers based on the listing photo alone.
Developing that love-at-first-glance attraction for your listed property is a critical component in marketing and selling your home. Fortunately, even with a limited budget, you can greatly enhance your home’s visual appeal by focusing on a few key areas. Here are the top 10 ways to impress buyers and visitors before they even walk through your door:
1. Update Your Hardware – House numbers, door handles and an overhead light fixture are among the elements that can add style and interest to your home’s exterior. If they’re out of date or dingy, your home may not be conveying the aesthetic you think it is. Replace these with more attractive pieces. (more…)
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on June 3, 2010
What’s not to love about the Internet? Say what you will about its various shortcomings, it still manages to put a universe of useful information at our fingertips virtually as fast as we can type in a request. Entire generations of children will never appreciate the life-changing impact the Internet has had on every aspect of our society—because they’ve never lived a day without it. Frankly, most of us who can still remember what it was like to gather information in a pre-Google world would rather not.
Early on, many real estate industry insiders feared that the Internet would do much more than merely unlock the Multiple Listing System—traditionally accessed only by licensed real estate agents—and make its proprietary information accessible to anyone with a computer. They hypothesized that buyers and sellers would eventually use MLS information pulled freely from the web to effectively circumvent needing an agent at all. With these sites premiering one right after the other—and with consumer acceptance growing quickly—some industry watchers smelled blood in the water; believing that such rapidly evolving technology would ultimately render real estate companies irrelevant and obsolete.
None of this, of course, has proven to be even slightly prophetic. In fact, just the opposite is true. These national web sites have done nothing if not re-confirm your real estate agent’s supremacy as the most capable arbiter of what’s really happening in your local property market. By virtue of the incomplete data these sites must typically use to construct their local market profiles, it has never been more important to begin working with a local professional the moment your search becomes more tightly focused.
It’s not that the information gleaned from such web sites as Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Realtor.com, RealtyTrac and others is completely erroneous or misleading. Quite the contrary, in fact. These sites are enormously helpful in dishing-up general information about what’s happening in any given market and what properties might be of interest to you. It’s just that by the time their imperfect compilations of local market statistics and trends are gathered, analyzed and served-up for public consumption on the web—typically some 30 to 60 days later, as constrained by most data release timetables—local conditions have usually changed considerably; and many properties of interest have long since sold. Thus it’s not at all unusual or unexpected for their local statistics—which are often flat-out wrong to begin with—to be at even greater variance with what is actually happening in your market right now. You aren’t being misled, so much as being mis-fed statistics that no longer apply—or never did.
The reasons to purchase a home in our market are as compelling as the most value-obsessed buyers could hope for. Prices across the board have fallen dramatically from their artificially-induced highs of five years ago; while the cost of financing a home has seldom been lower. Federal tax incentives—now expired—were another good reason to buy; but their one-time benefit has long since been eclipsed by historically low interest rates that save you money over the entire 30-year life of the loan. Long after tax incentives are forgotten, buyers will still be raving about mortgage interest rates—obtained in the year 2010—that are still saving them big bucks each month in the year 2035.
