Michaelsaunders.comnow features rich neighborhood profiles, community videos, local real estate market data and improved property search functionality
SARASOTA, Florida—(August 17, 2010)—Michael Saunders & Company, the leading real estate company on Florida’s Gulf Coast, announces the premier of its new web site, michaelsaunders.com. The distinctive new site combines consumer-centric design and ease of usage with the compelling neighborhood content, market data and advanced property search capabilities that buyers and sellers need to make important decisions impacting their real estate goals. The new site is now live at michaelsaunders.com.
“When we opened our first office 34 years ago, we did so with the commitment to deliver an outstanding real estate experience to every customer who passed through our front door,” said Michael Saunders, company founder and CEO from her headquarters in downtown Sarasota. “Times have definitely changed; with today’s “front door” very often being the home page of our web site. The new site renews our commitment to an exceptional experience no matter which portal a customer comes through.” (more…)
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on August 18, 2010
Yesterday michaelsaunders.com was re-born after more than 14 months of intense labor. Needless-to-say, re-developing the site was a labor of love involving not only our technology, marketing and management teams, but also the most nationally prominent interactive communications and web design agency in the real estate industry. More importantly, it involved significant input from our clients, customers, and agents.
For the fifth time since it debuted 15 years ago michaelsaunders.com has been completely made over to provide users with an online real estate experience more befitting of today’s vastly improved web technology. Combining up-to-the-minute market conditions by city with a simpler, more advanced property search function, the site has been extensively tested by many of the industry’s leading experts—with additional improvements the direct result of their participation.
In the end, however, it was the input of home buyers and sellers—along with our own agents—that mattered most. These will be the site’s most frequent end-users—and its toughest critics. So far, we’ve received raves about its wealth of relevant content and user-friendly design.
Specifically, here are the three major features that users find most relevant:
- A simple, straightforward search function that includes property information delivered directly from the MLS—including big bold photography.
- Up-to-the-minute market reports—compiled by Altos Research—a company that pulls statistical data from a variety of sources, including city property records, to deliver local market conditions for incorporated cities. While traditional data sources still rely on months-old or incomplete data, we now provide visitors to michaelsaunders.com with a clear, concise view of current market conditions.
- Neighborhood pages filled with content to help facilitate important real estate decisions. These pages combine real estate listings with High Definition community video tours, local business reviews, a library of area photos; and much more.
Obviously the best way to find out about michaelsaunders.com is not by reading about it; but by visiting the site yourself and sampling its features. As always, we welcome your comments, criticism and suggestions for improvement. It took a lot of hard work to re-birth this “baby” and we want to make sure its just right.
Updated and Enhanced: The new michaelsaunders.com is designed with a focus on your needs.
After months of rigorous planning, meticulous development, thorough testing and scrupulous user feedback, Michael Saunders & Company is pleased to announce the launch of its new web site, michaelsaunders.com. An entirely updated version of the award-winning web site we first introduced in 1995, the new site is home to a new level of user features and upgrades specially designed to provide the compelling neighborhood content, market data and advanced property search capabilities buyers and sellers have come to depend on for their real estate needs.
As you already have experienced a taste of the new site to find this blog, this is your chance to learn more about the exciting results brought about by its technological makeover. Keep in mind, we have a few more tricks up our sleeve that are yet to come. So, here are the top 10 features of our newly launched web site:
1. Instant Market Data – While traditional data sources rely on months-old market data, we now provide users with a clear view of current conditions provided by Altos Research, an award-winning company that monitors millions of properties in order to deliver the most comprehensive database of local market conditions available. Select your area of choice and learn up-to-the-minute market information.
2. Enhanced Property Search – In conjunction with our striking new “Gallery” display feature, our simple, straightforward search function includes property information delivered directly from MLS.
3. Just Listed – Be among the first to identify new listings available in your area of choice. Located on our home page, our Just Listed option delivers the most recently listed properties on MLS with full information and mapping capabilities.
4. Best Opportunities – A smashing success on our former site, we would be remiss to discontinue our popular Best Opportunities feature, showcasing the area’s most aggressively priced properties. Also located on our home page, this option brings you to the forefront of the greatest local values in real estate.
5. In-Depth Neighborhood Information – The new michaelsaunders.com features neighborhood pages combining real estate listings with high definition community video tours, local business reviews, a library of area photos, and much more. Basically, each neighborhood now has its own website complete with the information to serve your needs.
6. Local Real Estate News and Advice – Designed as your homepage source for gaining market knowledge and advice, our Local Real Estate News and Advice section is your command center for comprehensive real estate information. Tabs include Video introductions to areas, a snapshot of recent posts to The Saunders Blog, a link to sign up for our informative monthly newsletter, and access to the Michael Saunders & Company Newsroom—where you can learn more about our recent transactions and company news.
7. The Saunders Blog – Since you’re reading this post, you already understand the value of The Saunders Blog—an inside look at the real estate market from the professionals. Besides our enlightening and endearing top ten lists, the content on The Saunders Blog are treated to a wealth of real estate news and information from up-close video interviews with Michael Saunders herself and some of the company’s department managers to weekly neighborhood reports and informative articles. You can also sign up HERE to receive new blog posts to your email.
8. Connect to Agents – It is no secret that our agents are the best around. Discover the difference when working with a Michael Saunders & Company agent by accessing them directly through our Agents link. Here, you can search for a particular agent or find one by entering certain criteria that matters to you, such as language preference or office location. Or send us a message, and we can match you with the perfect agent best for your needs.
9. Open Houses – Before taking a driving tour of your open houses, chart your course online with our interactive Open House section. Here, you can view the week’s open houses by photo, area or map, then access a wealth of property details to further match your needs, including mortgage calculations, neighborhood videos and photos, agent contact information and more.
10. Your Feedback – Your satisfaction is important to us, so we want our website to be as accurate and user-friendly as possible. On the bottom right-hand side of each page you will notice a small red triangle. Simply click on this triangle to rate your experience with any page or supply feedback for any issues that you may encounter. Your feedback is important, as it helps make michaelsaunders.com better every day.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on July 8, 2010
This month Michael Saunders & Company celebrates its 34th birthday—an age which Goldilocks would consider not too young, not too old; but “just right.”
With nearly three and a half decades of experience behind us, we’re old enough to have experienced several real estate cycles, wise enough to predict developing trends and changing market conditions; and nimble enough to reshape our customer service model as quickly as new challenges and opportunities mandate. Meanwhile the “youngster” in us consistently earns high marks throughout the industry for always being among the first real estate companies to import the benefits of the latest information and technologies to our clients and customers. Michaelsaunders.com, already widely regarded as one of the best web sites in real estate, is presently undergoing a dramatic transformation to further enhance its user capabilities.
As every business blessed with longevity knows, success typically comes from correctly identifying an underserved market, serving it as never before; and never becoming too comfortable with the status quo. Combining success with the growth needed to sustain it requires a willingness to continually offer the same brand of exemplary service to new segments of the market.
Posted by Michael Saunders & Company on June 24, 2010
Myakka River State Park
We were informed the other day by friends who are avid hikers, campers and birders that not only is June National Camping Month but also that 2010 marks the 75th Anniversary of Florida State Parks. So to honor their good-natured scolding that this column has yet to address the recreational opportunities that exist in what they like to call the “Great Florida Outback,” today’s feature is dedicated to the sea of green that defines eastern Sarasota and Manatee Counties, mainly east of I-75.
The first destination that comes to mind, of course, is the granddaddy of them all—Myakka River State Park—which is not only Florida’s largest state park, but also one of its oldest. Just nine miles east of Sarasota, its 58 square miles of wetlands, prairies, hammocks and pinelands are bisected by the hauntingly beautiful Myakka River—whose serpentine length stretches some 66 miles from its headwaters in Northern Manatee County to its outfall in Charlotte Harbor.
Due to strong grassroots support for preserving its magnificent scenery and pristine qualities, the Myakka River was declared “Wild and Scenic” by the Florida Legislature in 1985. Moreover, the legislature noted that the segment running through Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte Counties “possesses remarkable ecological, fish and wildlife, and recreational values which are unique to the State of Florida.”
Before there was a Myakka State Park, much of its land—then known as Meadow Sweet Pastures Ranch—was owned by Bertha Honore Palmer, one of Southwest Florida’s most important historical figures. Palmer used her land to raise cattle; and much to the amazement, annoyance and barely-concealed anger of her neighboring ranchers, this most unlikely rancher and doyenne of Chicago society completely “out-ranched” them all by adopting new cattle-rearing techniques for which she was looked upon as being certifiably crazy. For one thing, she was the first to dip her cattle in insecticide to prevent deadly tick-borne illnesses from decimating her herd; an unheard-of process her fellow ranchers were sure would annihilate the cattle first. She also was first to fence-in her cattle, something that wasn’t required by Florida statute until 1949. Twelve years after her passing in 1918, her sons donated 2,000 acres of the ranch to form much of what is today Myakka River State Park.
A gorgeous community boasting one of the area’s most prestigious golf courses, Prestancia is the home of the storied TPC @ Prestancia. TPC @ Prestancia was the host of the Chrysler Cup (Senior Ryder Cup) and then the American Express Invitational, a senior tour event until 2000. As the former head golf professional until 2004, Steve Abbe of the Palmer Ranch office finds that the courses—two 18-hole courses—at Prestancia are outstanding. “With 80+/- single digit handicappers playing out of the TPC at Prestancia, you would be hard-pressed to find a club in Sarasota with a stronger core group of players,” stated Abbe. Although the country club itself was purchased by Heritage Golf Group almost two years ago, it continues to operate as a TPC licensee assuring the high quality one expects of a TPC facility.
Market Activity – Prestancia
Prestancia contains approximately 550 residences ranging from 12,000-square-foot single-family homes to beautiful condominiums overlooking the Stadium Golf Course and all points in between. Sales this year in Prestancia have been strong. With 13 properties sold and five more pending, 2010 is on track to be one of the better years in recent history. Recently, Steve Abbe arranged a deal where two homes in Prestancia were traded for another home priced at $2.5 million, clearly showing the strength and belief in the value of Prestancia. In this transaction, there were two current residents that preferred staying in the neighborhood rather than moving elsewhere.
At this time, there are 33 active listings ranging from 1,648 square feet to 5,146 square feet. Prices are from $169,000 to $1,300,000.
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
North Port is one of the largest cities by geographic area in Sarasota County. It is conveniently located next to Venice and Port Charlotte, offering many of Florida’s amenities with a small town familiarity. Toledo Blade and Sumter Blvd. act as gateways into this well-priced primary and second home mecca.
North Port has experienced explosive growth in recent years, making it a natural destination for young families as well as those seeking a second home in a warmer climate.
