Real Estate Views from St Pete

Last week my son and I attended realtor.com's latest "dog and pony show" here in St. Pete, primarily because the speaker was Bob LeFever. I met Bob over 20 years ago when he was the trainer for Merrill Lynch Realty, and in fact spent a week with he and a dozen others when he taught the week long management training course. That was before he was a big broker in California. It's always good to see old friends.

But to the point - one of Bob's points was to know all you can about the other side in negotiation. He gave the attendees a brief DISC test, so that we could know ourselves, and then talked about ways to identify the personality we're negotiating with. I've found the DISC ratings very effective, and in our ACT record for each person, we enter their DISC personality, to quickly help the rest of the team when they're talking to that person. And Bob's right - it's easier to negotiate a win-win when (I like that - win win when) you aren't alienating the other personality.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.

     One of the less desirable aspects of Florida living is Palmetto bugs, a euphanism for big roaches.  They may have started outside, in the Palmetto  bushes, but they manage to get inside, and it isn't pretty.  (Chameleons, on the other hand, are not only harmless, and eat small bugs, they are really cute).  So,  it's normal in Florida to have pest control companies come in and spray all around the baseboards. Some do it monthly, some quarterly, some annually - in any case, the bugs seem to know the contract term, because they start appearing about a week before the bugman is supposed to come.  I don't like stuff being sprayed inside my house, and I don't like bugmen wandering all through my house.
     New construction has solved this problem. One option, and you should really upgrade to this, is a system of tubing that is actually inside the walls. Tubins is installed in new construction in the wall system, before any sheet rock is installed. These tubes fun ablove the baseboard level, and also connect to moisture points throughout the house, such as any  bathrooms or kitchen facilities. It's all continuous, without splices. So - when the quarterly bugman comes,  he high-pressure sprays into a service box located on the outside of the house, which then goes through the tubing, which is perforated to cover all the areas. No smell, no mess, nobody inside the house.
    I'm waiting for someone to come up with a way we can put this in older homes as well.  If you're building new, though, be sure to ask if the builder is included this in wall pest control system and, if not, upgrade to get it.  You'll be happy you did.

 
Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

The popularity of bamboo as a hardwood alternative and an environmentally friendly flooring has resulted in some inferior product on the market, according to a Wall Street Journal article several months ago. Although bamboo is harder than maple, the quality will depend on which part of the bamboo stalks are used, how they're cut and edged, how they're dried, and how they're shopped.  All bamboo floors aren't equal - some can split, warp or delaminate. It's important to shop well and learn the differences.

 Bamboo also can be colored - I just saw a Brazilian cherry bamboo floor that looked magnificent!  One company offers over 50 colors. 

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.  

Many people feared the internet would take away the relationship between agent and client, that high tech would replace high touch. It's actually led to a good merging of high tech AND high touch. As Matt Heaton said in his blog, the goal should be fostering the relationship.

Interesting - more internet prospects choose to work with real estate agents than print advertising prospects. They're choosing agents who give them lots of information to peruse at their own convenience, who give them prices and addresses, pictures and visual tours. They read advice on preparing a home for sale, and things to do in advance of looking at properties. They get information overload, and are looking for interpretation - for observations and help from an agent who really knows the local market, who can sift through the 3,628 homes that fit their initial criteria. 

From the beginning we should establish a dialogue, go three deep into their questions and answers, so that we can sort homes for them, not send them a link to 1,000 of them. They can "play" with varying criteria on realtor.com. At your site they can get serious.

In general, they DON'T want to identify themselves, and if forced they may sign in as Bugs Bunny.  Many of our clients have said that they pursued us when ready because we did not force information from them.

What you say and how you say it are key to websites, blogs, e-mails, phone conversations, meetings. They are part of your branding, part of who you are.  Keep them consistent.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.  

Most of us don't choose a title company because of donuts, or Halloween candy, or Open House flyers, though title companies still hire people to distribute these to real estate agents. Why won't you at least TRY us?, they ask. Well, for one, because our clients aren't guinea pigs or mice. But we do get to "try" other title companies, because the custom in our area is for the Seller to choose the title company. So, nearly every time we represent a buyer, we are dealing with a title company chosen by someone else. That's our chance to evaluate service, followup, detail work, accuracy, customer service.

That's how we found Julie Holt, who owns Anclote Title Services in Tarpon Springs. We represented a buyer and the owner of the home they were buying chose Anclote. I was impressed by the service, decided to hire her for a subsequent closing and well, the rest is history.

The company has stability - there's not only Julie, but the others we talk to at Anclote during the closing process have been much the same for more than a decade. For special quotes or process information, yes, we can get it from Julie, and usually do, but Donna and Shirley also  recognize the voices from our team.

Julie's a chameleon, but an intentional  chameleon. She can be pleasant and charming, or pushy and threatening. If you do your job well, you'll like her. If you don't, well she'll harass you until you do.

Other title companies ask, "Didn't we do a good job?" Yes, usually they did a good job, but not a great job. We want to surround ourselves and our clients by Great, not just good.

They're detail oriented and professional. Names are spelled correctly. Any inconsistencies in the contract or addendum are checked out well in advance. They always check before preparing a HUD, to be sure there aren't any credits or issues that were changed during the process and not sent to the title company. They've sometimes found a problem with the prior title, but did that early enough that they were able to solve those title problems before the closing. When sellers or buyers call them directly with questions, they're polite, informative, reassuring. Julie seems to know everything, whether it's the history of Latvia which she discussed with a recent buyer, or the details of the Graham-Rudman Act, or which neurosurgeon would be best for your child.

When our buyers/sellers come to a closing with Julie, they're in for a treat. It's an enjoyable event. All the documents are prepared and in order. Julie explains the content of each form, succinctly and with a dash of humor. Her British accent charms, and her humor relaxes. It's hard for people to be angry or up-tight when they're laughing. Not only is laughter good medicine for your health and curing, it's a wonderful prescription for a great closing. That's important to me - that this last part of the transaction, the closing, be happy and memorable, a fitting conclusion to their purchase or sale.

There's more, but that's just the frosting on the cake. She recommends us to clients, because we're professionals and because we care about our clients and serve them well. She's a true friend, who's been at our side in intensive care, at birthday parties and funerals. In our closings, she's held snakes and driven long, dark country roads at night. But all that's fodder for a chat over coffee or cocktails.  Thanks, Julie, for everything you've done and keep doing, for us, and for our clients. 

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

A recent Featured Blog by Carole Cohen talked about missing photos and information in the MLS.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, whether it's in the MLS to agents and their clients who are getting a daily Flash of new listings, or when it hits realtor.com. If they skip it because it doesn't have photos, or don't find it because it doesn't have a visual tour on realtor.com and they're searching only for properties that do, or there isn't a description to read, or directions, then you've lost that chance. The best buyers are the ones that are ready, waiting to pounce on something new and buy. 

To combat this lack of information, we discuss the preparation with our sellers, and ask them to sign the listing papers 3 days to a week before the listing goes live in MLS, so that we can have everything there for the first impression. We want to have all the photos, with proper lighting, and perhaps a night shot; we want to really spend time on lengthy descriptive remarks that feature all the high points of the house; we want to have all the correct zoning information, and homeowner/condo association rules and fees if they apply; we want our Visual Tour to be done and linked; we want to have our separate property web site finished and connected; we want the neighborhood photos for our Visual Tour and property website - on a sunny day, not a rainy or cloudy one, and take the photos at the time of day when the sun best shows the house.  

We want the sign(s) to be on the property when the property hits the MLS (and with huge inventory we often have a 3 day wait for the sign companies to make the sign post and then install the sign) and have a flyer box on it, filled with flyers, which need time to be done professionally, with lots of photos, information and enticing text.

We want our coded electronic lockbox to be on the property, after we've made extra keys in case one gets stuck in the lockbox.

We want everyone on our team (four of us) to have seen the listing, and for the information to be on the "cheat sheet" we carry with us.

Certainly we don't want all of our extra marketing efforts to be apparently lacking, because all of this couldn't be done within 24 hours of listing.

Whether it's painting a house, presenting a speech, or putting a home into the MLS system - good preparation is the key. 

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.

Sometimes a client will buy a house with the intention of renting it our. Other times a client is going to be away for a couple years and wants to rent his house, or she has bought another house and wants to rent the old one since it hasn't sold.  Do you manage that for them? 

For several years we reluctantly did locate tenants for clients with homes in my neighborhood (where it was easy to keep an eye on them) and inevitably, no matter what the contract said, the tenants came to us for property management issues as well (after all, we were right here and the owners were in Europe). Finding tenants I don't mind, but property management I do, so now we refer out all of the rentals. Some agents make a lot of money on rentals, but for us, it's a matter of keeping to our niche, doing what we do well, and doing what we like.

We've seen a lot of interesting things on the waterfront, but a floating wedding chapel in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida is a bit unusual. It was just in for the weekend, in conjunction with a wedding exhibition, but will be coming back soon for a 90 day trial period, anchoring on the approach to the Pier in downtown St. Pete. This is primarily chartered for weddings, since it's actually equipped as a chapel would be, with two rows of pews. 

In the background is a bit of downtown St Pete - the building on the left is an office building, the center one is The Cloisters, a condo, and the tall one is the newly completed condo Parkshore Plaza. Both condos have retail on the ground level.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

Although it's nice to have a table to work on (Jay's new Cyber Cafe has tables), that's often not an alternative. What if you're at the beach, or in a car, or in your lounge chair? Get a lap desk.  I've had a few over the years, and when I found this one I bought a few of them. One I keep in the back of my car, one I keep by my favorite chair, one I keep on the boat. This model has a soft suede covering on the bottom, and the inside (beads or whatever, I haven't taken one apart to know) needs to be flexible not solid - you want to be able to angle the desk surface, and have it fit comfortably on your lap. It's nice to have the piece across the bottom, so that you can keep a pencil from rolling off. This one even has small pockets on the two sides. It's not only a more solid surface than your lap, it keeps the heat of the machine away from you, and at the opposite angle of your legs, it isn't likely to slide off your lap. Just another non-techie tool for the techies.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.

Today, as on many other Sundays, I received a call from an agent who had showed one of my properties yesterday, asking me to send him a copy of the Sellers' Property Disclosure form. I pointed out to him that if he had a computer (he did) that he could download a .pdf file of the disclosure either from the MLS listing where it's attached or from the property website, which was www.PropertyAddress.com. On it there is a button "For Realtors" which has the property disclosure, a partially filled out offer, and additional information.

He was delighted that he could have it immediately, and I was delighted that I could immediately satisfy his request - whether I was in the pool (which I was) or out on the boat, or anywhere else enjoying the weekend. You can definitely be available without interfering with your time with family and your regeneration (sharpening the saw).

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.   

Years ago all the agents in our office would caravan the new listings each week (all get in cars and go to each listing, thus a caravan or line or cars). In the recent few years when we had a very hot market, agents stopped going on caravans and the caravans themselves stopped. Our office reinstituted caravans again a few months ago, now that our inventories are swelling and market times are increasing. Perhaps 1/3 of the agents are going on caravan. In our area, seeing all of the new listings in a week would have us waste a lot of time travelling between them, so we caravan geographically, rotating going north, south and west. Since the agents are usually in and out in about 5 minutes, some of the sellers offer coffee or juice and pastries to keep the agents around a few minutes longer.

One things we used to do, which Kelly Mitchell's blog about showing buyers homes and letting them guess the prices reminded me of, was that we'd have each of the agents guess what the selling price was, and the one who was the closest to the actual sale price when it closed would win something - I don't remember what, but I suppose today a Starbucks card would be appropriate.

In our small sampling - it worked. One of the agents who had a home on caravan recently sold it because an agent who was on the caravan talked about it to a colleague, who brought the buyers who bought it.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.  

It's often tempting to show waterfront property by boat - both for the lifestyle experience of being out in a boat, and to see the properties from the water side, and check the docking facilities and the water depth. There are a few things to check out first, though:

Does your boat insurance cover it's use in business? If you take people out to look at or show properties, that's a business use.

Do you need a captain's license? As long as your passengers are not paying for the ride, you may not - but check the regulations in your area to be sure.

While you may want to use your own boat to show property, you might want to check into hiring a captain and a chartered boat.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

We often hear "I want a waterfront home" when a prospective buyer is telling us what they'd like to find here in Florida. Whether it's St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa, the Gulf Beaches or Apollo Beach, there are lots of choices. This should lead to a series of questions:

• Are you a boater or are you looking for a view? If only a view, it could open up homes that are not on the water  - they are waterview - i.e., they don't own to the waterfront but it's a park or easement in front of them, so that they can have a great view, and at a lower price than waterfront. Sometimes the buyer isn't sure of the difference, so it's important to discuss this.
• Are you looking for lakefront, or do you want something that connects to the bay and the Gulf of Mexico?
  
• Do you have a sailboat or a power boat? Unless they have a removable mast, which few do, for a sailboat they'll need a home without fixed bridges.  What is your keel depth? You'll need to be sure there is enough water at low tide that the boat won't be aground. Sometimes a property advertised "sailboat water" is only referring to the lack of fixed bridges, and the only sailboat that could use the dock would be one with a removable keel.
• Will you be keeping it on a lift, or in the water. Again, this can affect the water depth needed, and how the boat will access the slip/dock/lift.

Before showing property, it's good to check a plat map, to see how much waterfront the property has, and how the property fits with adjacent properties. At the dead end of a canal the properties often "form" pie shapes that go out into the water, which can severely limit the property owner's access and maneuverability.

If the boat is going to stay in the water, it's important to know to what extent it's protected in storms or squalls. How will the boat be protected if a hurricane is coming?

It's also important to know about the condition of the seawall, since this is generally the homeowner's responsibility. A certain % of the seawall should be in the ground below the water - over the years this level can change, increasing the probability of a  seawall failure. Most home inspectors only do a visual inspection, so it's a good idea to have a separate seawall inspection done, preferably by a marine engineer, not a company that builds or repairs seawalls and may have a vested interest.

Generally property insurance, flood insurance and wind insurance exclude damage to seawalls, so this is a potential expense that homeowners should know about. It's also good to know what things to look for in observing a seawall, so that you can get potential problems corrected before they become major issues.

Despite all these cautions, most waterfront owners love living on the water. Even if you don't intent to be a boater, it's nice to see the boats go by, to watch the fish jump and the dolphins play, and to watch the tides and the water birds. Besides, it's often cooler by the water, especially out on the dock.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

 When there is a pre-construction project that I'd like to feature on my website or in a blog, I'll approach the developer or broker to ask if I can use their photos. People want photo to get their attention, not just text, or a photo of a vacant piece or land or an old building that will be torn down. Many agents just copy from the developer's promotional materials, which is copyright theft, and despite some of my competitors (in this sense I must call them competitors rather than colleagues) taking and using the photos on their sites, I won't do that without permission. I ask, and I ask, and people are always going to look into it, but somehow it never happens. The same applied to Signature Place, a wonderfully unique condo to be built in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, where EVERY unit will have a water view of Tampa Bay.

I recently wrote, sans photo, a short blog about Signature Place. One of the comments came from Joel Cantor, the developer. He subsequently called me and invited me to lunch, together with his Director of Sales and Marketing, Debbie Newman. I have sold several units in the building, so I wasn't unfamiliar with/to these people, but the blog on ActiveRain obviously hit a cord with the developer that I was doing some unique marketing. We had a mutually enjoyable and beneficial lunch, feeding on each other's ideas. My suggestions of how to extend their marketing and exposure without additional cost, by allowing me permission to use their photos in my marketing (noting that the project was being marketed by Smith & Associates, and not implying that I was their marketing agent) made sense and I now have their permission to use their photos. Thanks, ActiveRain.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.  

Most attendees of NAR conventions talk about all of the inside benefits: the trade show, with the opportunity to see new products and services, and to talk with existing suppliers; the international networking; the wide variety of educational opportunities from classes to renowned speakers to panels of experts in the field. For us, there is as much, if not more, value outside the convention. Many groups we belong to have functions outside the planned program - a luxury agents' cocktail party, a dinner with Allen Hainge's CyberStars, a meeting of ActiveRainers. It's coffee with a colleague from thousands of miles away; it's the conversation over after dinner drinks in the lounge; it's the relationships deepened and started. It's getting new ideas for your market, getting stimulation, getting out of the box. One year we never even made it to the trade shows or a single educational session, but came home with lots of valuable ideas and content. 

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

A few weeks ago  Kevin Brass called me to ask about the impact international clients are having on the styles and amenities of Florida luxury homes. We spoke further at the Leaders in Luxury conference in Dallas, which was also attended by a group from Ginn Company, developers of Bella Collina and Renunion in Orlando. His resulting article was published yesterday in the International Herald Tribune.

New homes in Florida are incorporating many features from Europe and other parts of the world, but I don't think it's because international buyers are demanding that, I think it's because Americans are travelling more, and wanting to recreate aspects of those experiences. International visitors, on the other hand, are experiencing American ideas and wanting to take those back, with one client wanting to take her refrigerator back to Europe.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area. 

When I'm explaining to the owners of my listings why I don't feel Open Houses are a good use of my time or theirs, I point out that less and less people are visiting Open Houses - and when you eliminate the "looking for decorating ideas", "My house is being held open" and "I need to use the bathroom/cool off/rest" visitors, how many REAL buyers have come through? I feel a lot of this decline in buyer visits is due to the new consumer - who wants to see things when he wants, where he wants and how he wants.  Why should I give up my Sunday afternoon, right in the middle of the day, when I can be boating, watching a football game, curling up with a book, shopping, etc?  With so many sites with photos online and visual/virtual tours on line, I can look whenever I want, at my leisure and convenience, and if I find something I like, can schedule a showing at MY convenience.  Open Houses have gone to the web. There are much better ways to spend my Sunday afternoons?  When you add the value of your time, holding an Open House is very expensive. 

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.

Are you familiar with the DISC personality tests? If not, check out Howard Brinton, or just google DISC - actually, so that you don't get computer storage, google "DISC personality tests" - there are over 1,000,000 reponses. Or go back to some of Teri Isner's blogs. In any case, on to the point:

Different personality types look for different things - some want lots of pictures, some want lots of flowery text, some want lots of details, and some just want a few of the major bulletpoints. Design your flyers so that there is something there for everyone. You can see one of our flyers, if you'd like. We use these in flyerboxes on our signposts as well as numerous other places. Use lots of color.  Write in understandable language, don't just copy an MLS sheet.

 For your ads, you might want to DISC them as well, and rather than writing a long ad, write a short one for each personality type, then measure response to each one, compared to response to one general ad.

As a listing agent, how often have you attended a condo association meeting or a homeowners meeting for the community where you have a listing? It's a great source of information, and gives you a flavor of the community.

Does the area have problems, security issues, pet peeves?  These will come up.  Is the group cooperative or combative? They may be discussing future plans for the neighborhood, use of facilities, social events. Watch how the owners interact. 

I remember attending a Placido Bayou neighborhood association meeting a few years ago, and the main topic was what to do with homes that needed painting. This association was responsible for painting the exterior of the homes, and each home was on a schedule, so many each year. The problem that arose was that the developer had either used inferior paint or done inferior preparation because the paint was peeling, and some were looking very bad. The question from some homeowners was: We want to paint our home now, because it looks bad, but we're not on the schedule for 2 years. Interesting dilemma.  The group's solution: you can paint it now, at your own expense, and when your turn comes up, the association will reinburse you for the cost. That's a win-win to me. I've told that story many times to prospective buyers for the community.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.    

Lots of newer communities have required Homeowner Associations. Many townhouse developments, where the developers wanted to avoid all the condo regulations here in Florida form PUDs instead and the owners have a Homeowners Association. All of these affect real estate agents because we need information for our listings, and information for our buyers. Many also have approval forms and required meetings (though more condos have this than homeowners associations). We need to know the fees, what the fees cover, what the minimum rental period is, whether pets are allowed (how many, what weight, breed restrictions). We need to provide homeowners association documents and budgets, and be sure everything is up to date. As we've all found, some are easier to deal with than others. Some are nearly impossible.

One of the best/easiest that I've dealt with is Huntington Townhomes, in downtown St. Petersburg. They are self run - don't use a professional management company (this can often be a disaster, but these mostly professional owners have done a great job). They have everything on line, which any of us can download. No cost, no fuss. Their web site lists the officers, and tells who to contact for what. They have the condo docs with ALL additions and updates. They have the Rules and Regulations, again updated to the minute. They have copies not only of this year's budget, but prior years' budgets as well and financials. They also have copies of the Minutes of the Board Meetings - what a great way to know what's going on, what's being considered, and get a tone of the people you're going to be sharing a community with.  It's fast, complete, easy.  

In any case, be proactive. As a listing agent, get these as soon as possible and have them available for the selling agent - don't send them on a goose chase to find everything, while the contract is "in limbo" because the buyer can walk any time up to 3 days after he gets the documents. If you receive these from the homeowner, be sure they are up-to-date and include all the amendments. If one is missing, the buyer can walk.

Sharon Simms, Real Estate Agent serving St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf Beaches and the Tampa Bay area.