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  • Smart Moving – Top 10 Tips to Help Cut Moving Costs

    John Butzko 3:32 pm on March 9, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , real estate market

    Moving your things from one home to another doesn't have to be costly.

    After searching properties, making offers, securing financing and signing piles of closing papers, you’re finally ready to move your possessions into your new home. Understandably, by this point you and your finances are equally exhausted, so the thoughts of shelling out more money for moving can become quite daunting.

    Fortunately, moving your things from one abode to another doesn’t have to be as costly as you think. By following the 10 tips below, you can help make your move a little easier and a lot more wallet-friendly:

    1.  Garage Sale – If you plan to hire a moving company, many base their prices on what they need to move. So, get rid of the things you really don’t need or no longer use. The best way? Sell it in a garage sale. If you don’t have a lot of items to sell, consider a joint sale with some neighbors. With luck, you can rid yourself of extra baggage and put some money back into your pockets. Can’t sell it? Donate it.

    2. Timing is Everything – Most people move on the weekend, so truck rental companies and moving companies will increase their rates for weekends. Move during the week, and you’ll save on a truck rental and movers if you need help loading up or unloading the truck. Also, most choose to move in the summer months, when work may be slower and the kids are out of school. The least expensive time of the year to move is between October and April, so try to schedule your move date then. (More …)

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  • The Neighborhood Report – Lido Shores

    John Butzko 3:30 pm on March 4, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate market

    Lido Shores is home to an array of luxurious homes.

    Established in 1950 and nestled between St. Armands and Longboat Key, Lido Shores is an intimate oasis of approximately one hundred homes. The waterfront properties have frontage on Pansy Bayou, Sarasota Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and New Pass, which provide direct deepwater boating access to the Gulf of Mexico or Sarasota Bay.

    Lido Shore’s location is ideal, within walking distance of St. Armands Circle and Mote Marine, and just a few miles from downtown Sarasota with its restaurants and myriad of cultural activities. Residents have a private beach with pavilion directly on the Gulf of Mexico. The voluntary and friendly Lido Shores Property Owners Association organizes social activities including sunset parties, a Fall House Tour with Dinner, and Spring Beach Barbecue. Some of the most elegant homes in Sarasota are located on Westway Drive, often called “The Rodeo Drive of Sarasota.” (More …)

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  • Top 10 Tips for New Homebuyers

    John Butzko 3:44 pm on March 2, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , real estate market

    Work with professionals to avoid purchasing a home too small for your family.

    Buying your first home is the realization of the American Dream. This exciting, overwhelming and even frightening experience brings an array of emotions brought upon by feelings of achievement, apprehension and joy–all wrapped into the walled and roofed structure you now call home.

    To make the most of this life-enhancing event, you need to be sure that every step you take is in the right direction and with your best interests in mind. Before you sign those closing papers, there are many things to consider. To help you along, here are the top 10 tips for new homebuyers who plan to get the most from their first home: (More …)

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  • The Price is Right

    Michael Saunders & Company 11:11 am on February 18, 2010 | Comments:1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , interest rates, , MLS, , real estate market,

    Although it’s impossible to predict the bottom of our real estate market with anything other than months of perfect hindsight after the fact, who can blame home buyers in this economy for at least attempting to time it to their advantage?  In the best of times, saving big on one of life’s biggest purchases is as American as apple pie.  In troubled times, it’s a daily crusade.

    Yet, even if one could magically time bottoming home prices to the split second, you would still make a tactical mistake as a would-be borrower if you failed to notice a similar bottoming-out of mortgage interest rates.  Indeed, by allowing interest rates to climb while you wait for prices to fall, you can easily end up paying more for a property than if you actually bought it at today’s price while locked into today’s historically low interest rate.  That rate is presently hovering around 4.88%, give or take.

    Meanwhile, there’s scarcely an expert on the market who doesn’t fully believe that mortgage rates have but one way to go—up.   Rates have essentially been held as low as they’re likely to go for quite some time now in order to stimulate sales.   However, March 31st is expected to mark the beginning of a trend toward fewer stimuli and more tough love for the housing market—mainly in the form of higher interest rates.

    That day—the last of this year’s first fiscal quarter—is the deadline the Federal Reserve has given itself to begin scaling back on its widespread purchases of mortgage-backed securities.  Once this deadline has passed, most experts believe the Fed will begin in earnest to wean itself from propping-up a market that is already showing encouraging signs of sustaining itself through the lowest prices of a decade.

    (More …)

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  • Ask Ann- Describe the Mortgage Options Available for Today's Distressed Home Owner

    Holli Schleicher 4:57 pm on February 16, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , real estate market

    We asked Ann Stickel-vice president of Affiliated Services for Michael Saunders & Company Mortgage, LLC-what government programs are available for distressed homeowners? Also, how these government loans help keep people in their homes and the foreclosure rate at a minimum.

    If you have questions for Michael Saunders, email AskMichael@michaelsaunders.com.

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  • Special Teams

    Michael Saunders & Company 5:34 pm on February 11, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: brokerage affiliations, , , CMA, EREN, featured listings, , , , , , , MSC Marketing, MSC Technology, real estate market, , Super Bowl

    There’s nothing like a major upset in a riveting Super Bowl to remind us how important teamwork, preparation, focus and the right attitude are.  After all, strip away the hype and hoopla.   Skip the big-name entertainment, talking heads, pre-game interviews and trash-talking press conferences; and the Super Bowl ultimately drills down to which team shows up with enough heart to win.  For doing just that, and winning it’s first-ever championship, we congratulate the New Orleans Saints along with every faithful fan from the “Who Dat Nation.”

    The business of selling your home in today’s real estate market is one of life’s biggest Super Bowl events, requiring as much teamwork, preparation and focus as pro football’s premier match-up; but with no fumbles, interceptions or penalties allowed.  When you list your property with the team from Michael Saunders & Company, your quest for the ideal outcome is actually heightened through the combined efforts of several special teams within a team.  Their common goal?  To sell your home as quickly, efficiently—and as uneventfully—as possible; for as much as today’s market will allow.

    Sending in our special teams on your behalf begins with the preparation of a thorough Competitive Market Analysis (or CMA).  A timely and well-documented CMA shows exactly how your home stacks up against its competition; and how it must be priced to become an instant must-see for buyers in its competitive set.  If necessary, the special team from MSC Style can step-in to make sure your home looks and shows to maximum advantage through a number of recommendations proven to help a home sell faster.

    Once ready for the market, the special teams from MSC Marketing and MSC Technology swing into action to make sure your home is properly showcased and presented to as many potential buyers as possible.  Now that nine out of ten buyers start their property searches on the Internet the logical first step, of course, is to upload your property’s complete listing information onto michaelsaunders.com, by far the # 1 trafficked web site in Southwest Florida.   No other company in Southwest Florida has invested more time, money or talent into making sure that ours is at once the easiest to access, easiest to use and most information-packed real estate Web site in the region, if not the country.

    If you opt—as many of today’s sellers do—to price your home aggressively below competitive properties, it becomes immediately eligible to appear in the Best Opportunities section of michaelsaunders.com.  Because Best Opportunities is routinely visited and re-visited by today’s most value-conscious buyers, its featured listings average well over 500 showings per property.  Moreover, since debuting last May, 41% of the 812 listings that have appeared in the section have sold.

    Additionally, your property listing is uplinked to more than 2,000 other local, regional, national and international web sites for additional exposure to buyers everywhere.

    On the local front, with more than 550 agents working from 16 strategically-located sales offices, the ground team at Michael Saunders & Company is uniquely capable of capturing buyers wherever they happen to show-up first.  Many of these agents will preview your property during the company’s weekly caravan of new properties.  Here they actually visit the home in person to assess its potential compatibility with the housing needs of their extensive databases of buyers.

    On a much broader scale, our worldwide brokerage affiliations—strategic alliances formed over nearly four decades and strengthened by Michael Saunders’ continuous top-level involvement with each—are another way we make sure your home is systematically exposed to the most potential buyers.  These affiliations include Christie’s Great Estates, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Luxury Portfolio, EREN—The European Real Estate Network, Luxuryrealestate.com and Mayfair International Realty.

    It goes without saying that each offer received on your home is formally presented to you; then skillfully negotiated until one is accepted and a contract approved by both parties.  During this critical phase of the sale, two more special teams are prepared to go to work for you.   MSC Mortgage smoothes the way to a closed sale by pre-qualifying buyers for the safest and best loan products available on the market today.  Meanwhile, the team from MSC Title makes sure that all title issues are carefully researched and examined to assure free and clear title to the property.  If your immediate needs are best served through the “short sale” process, our MSC Short Sale Division puts a team of experienced short sale negotiators in your corner.

    Our market has at long last experienced months of positive and sustained buyer activity.   If your 2010 game plan includes selling your home, invite an agent from Michael Saunders & Company to explain how listing it with the # 1 real estate team in Southwest Florida will put a new owner inside faster than you can say “Who dat?”

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  • Ask Michael - What Advice Would You Give Real Estate Agents in Today's Market?

    Holli Schleicher 4:13 pm on January 19, 2010 | Comments:1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Real Estate Agents, real estate market

    In this Ask Michael video, Michael Saunders lends useful advice to help real estate agents navigate through today’s challenging market.

    To see our complete collection of videos, click here.

    If you have questions for Michael Saunders, email AskMichael@michaelsaunders.com.

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  • Looking Ahead – Top 10 Real Estate New Year’s Resolutions

    John Butzko 3:19 pm on January 7, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , real estate market, , ,

    2010: Your year to get the most from the real estate market.

    As the page on our calendars turned to the fresh slate of 2010, Americans are starting to plan what will be a priority for them when it comes to real estate. Exciting things are happening in the market, and the next few months will bring an unprecedented number of opportunities and possibilities for the heads-up buyer or seller.

    While existing homeowners and potential homebuyers experience different situations and needs in regards to their future goals and expectations, we present the top 10 possible New Year resolutions to help point some in the right direction for a successful 2010 in real estate:

    1. Get in the Game – Join the nearly 18 percent of Americans who say they’ve resolved to become a first-time homebuyer in 2010, according to a new survey HERE.  With the homebuyer tax credit extension running until April 2010, this is an exceptional time to get in the game and become a homeowner. (More …)

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  • Ask Ann - The Government's Impact In The Mortgage Industry Over The Past Six Months

    Holli Schleicher 4:50 pm on January 5, 2010 | Comments:0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , real estate market

    Ann Stickel, Vice President of The Michael Saunders Division of Affiliated Services, discusses the changes in the mortgage industry over the past six months. These changes will help protect the consumer as well as give the consumer a better understanding of their mortgage product.

    To view the view, please click here.

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  • The Neighborhood Report – Plantation Golf & Country Club

    John Butzko 2:49 pm on January 5, 2010 | Comments:2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate market, ,

    Our Plantation office is ready to assist homebuyers and sellers throughout the area.

    Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice was open for business with the completion of the Bobcat golf course in 1981. The Plantation added the second 18-hole Panther golf course in 1991 to complete the Ron Garl-designed 36 holes of championship golf. The courses feature two distinctively different layouts, providing challenging play and a rewarding golf experience at every level.

    The Plantation community consists of 1,300 acres and is approaching its build-out plan of 2,800 homes. Club membership is not restricted to residents of the community. Plantation offers a friendly yet refined atmosphere of comfortable elegance and first-class amenities, which include 13 Har-Tru lighted tennis courts, a heated junior-Olympic size swimming pool, a spa, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and a grand clubhouse with the ambiance and charm of “Old Florida.” Plantation was voted “Best Private Country Club,” “Best Banquet Facilities” and “Best Tennis Facilities” by the Herald Tribune’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Plantation Golf & Country Club is very proud to have been selected to host the LPGA Annual Tour Qualifying School since 1987, one of only two qualifying schools in the nation. And, the Bobcat and Panther courses are included in the Golf Digest’s Places to Play Directory. (More …)

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