Real Estate Views from St Pete

According to NAR, last year nearly 1/3 of all sales were for second homes and investment properties. When you are talking to your clients about FORD (family-occupation-recreation-dreams) or your friends, if they mention skiing or vacationing at the beach, you have the opportunity to ask them if they've ever thought of buying a condo or home there. If they have, or if your question opens a new option to them, it's a great chance for you to refer them to a REALTOR® in that area. Lots of AR agents are in resort areas, and will be glad to receive your referrals. (Yes, I'm prejudiced - Florida has lots of second homes). Are home sales slow in your area? Expand your horizon.

Even though our area of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa is often referred to as Tampa Bay (diehards remind us that there is no such place, it's only a dividing body of water), and we are fortunate to share the advantages of a very large "city" with the feel of a comfortable neighborhood, there has always been a sense of rivalry. Fortunately new corporations and residents have been working to change that. Tampa has always been the "big city" - the financial center, with skyscrapers downtown, the hub for attorneys and CPAs and the big headquarters. St Pete was historically referred to as the city with all the old people (a misperception now, since the average age in St Pete is 39). Some people in St Pete longed to be like Tampa.

Now, interestingly, people of all ages being transferred to Tampa are choosing to live in St Pete. Young professionals are moving from Tampa to St Pete.  Tampa has large planned communities that we'll never have on our peninsula. But we have charming neighborhoods, little pockets of individuality. We have a downtown that doesn't dry up after 5 pm when everyone goes home. We have parks along the water, and lots of waterfront, and our downtown has become vibrant and exciting, a pleasure to many different ages.

The Tampa Museum of Art has been having problems in getting a new building, and I had to smile when I read in the newspaper recently that the mayor of Tampa was complaining that art and museums just didn't have the support in Tampa that they did in St. Pete. 

I love being in St Pete and being an ambassador for the city along the way. I also like that we can go to Tampa for the Bucs games, or the wonderful Tampa International Airport, or shows and exhibits. We're far more together than apart - the sum is greater than the parts.

p.s.  If you think St. Petersburg is still old people and green benches, just come on down (or up) and see for yourself what a wonderful place it is to live. (or visit, or vacation, or do business.......)

In Florida we have two acceptable Offers to Purchase - one is a FAR contract (Florida Association of Realtors) and the other is the FAR-BAR (a joint effort between the Florida Association of Realtors and the Florida Bar Association. Each comes with a variety of prewritten addendums - check the letter on the contract, and attach the appropriate initialled addendum. So far, so good. Sometimes, though, these addendums don't cover a specific situation. We may be fortunate enough to have a company list of addendums, approved by their attorney, or our company may have an attorney on staff.  That's not the case for many of us.

Be wary - if you write your own clause or addendum, you're practicing law. In addition to that, you may be liable to one or both parties to the transaction if the transaction isn't happy for both sides.

Recently I had a verbal agreement between both sides, and was not comfortable writing it, so sent a summary of the verbal agreement over to an attorney, gladly willing to pay his fee to keep myself out of trouble. After he reviewed it, he said - even if I wrote a 30 page addendum, there isn't a good and clear way to write this, and the party most likely to be stuck is YOU. Upon his advice, we renegotiated the item according to his suggestion, and then the clause was easily written.

Just a reminder not to be in so much of a hurry that you do the quickest thing, rather than the best.

We've talked before about the romance in marketing - for luxury homes, romance comes from the name of a home. A name conjures up an image, a lifestyle. Growing up in Newport, Rhode Island, I was surrounded by estates with names: The Breakers (waves), The Marble Palace, The Elms, Swiss Village (truly a cluster of buildings, not just one huge building), The Chalet (our old home, which was designed by a Swiss architect in the Swiss style, and even had European craftsmen come over to build it in 1854), Seafair, etc.  Some of the homes built in Florida in the 1920s have names, often Spanish or Italian to match the decor - Casa Bonita, Villa Reggio. Foreign names have always seemed to have allure here in Florida, though Newport had American names.

I remember one of Arvida's luxury training classes in Florida - after the classes and visits to the Design Center in Dania, we toured some homes by boat, and had a contest to see who could choose the best name for a house that didn't have one. I don't remember the name that won, but I do remember the process.

So, in addition to staging our luxury homes, we should name them. It's a real benefit in the marketing.

Part of marketing a luxury home is romancing it.  "Granite" is so common.  What about "curved countertops made of Volga Blue granite and Juparana Florence granite.  Much more enticing, isn't it?  Is the granite full bullnose or reverse bevel or ogee? How about "wood cabinets" or "custom wood cabinets" vs "Mahogany and curly maple cabinetry"?  It's important in marketing a luxury property to know the differences, and the costs - not only for your marketing materials but in explaining to the prospective buyer the rarity or value of the material, actually the WIIFM (what's in it for me?) If the property has a Sub Zero refrigerator, why does that matter and what does it cost more? Tell them about the separate compressors, the isolated cooling, the tight seal of the doors, etc. Your food will stay fresh longer, your tiramisu won't taste like broccoli.

How do you get to know these things? Go to the kitchen dealers, the granite suppliers, the flooring specialists. If you have a design center near you, such as the one in Dania, Florida, go there and learn. What's the difference in these counter materials? What are the pros and cons of each one? Yes, there's a lot you can learn online by searching, but it's better if you can see and touch the materials, so you can walk into a home and say, How wonderful that you chose the Uba Tuba granite! What a lovely Sherle Wagner sink you chose! You don't need to live the lifestyle, but it sure helps if you know it. 

Spend the time to learn, and you can become an expert in the luxury niche.

ActiveRain has become a community and a family, though I was looking for neither.

ActiveRain has become a place to write, which I want to do, but have never made the time (AR made me do it).

ActiveRain is a place to share ideas, market conditions, theories, things to use and things to buy.

ActiveRain is where you can mentor and be mentored (for all of need both), where you can encourage and be encouraged, where new agents and old agents can share, where you can laugh or cry.

It's a resource, of course, but so much more, because it's Active, and ever changing. 

It's a place to rejuvenate and grow your business, because the many contributors make it Rain.

It has a draw - whether you call yourself addicted, or whether you just look forward to reading the other blogs, to see what your favorite people have to say.  E-mail used to be fun, but when spammers outnumber friends and clients....well, let's say I check AR first (though I've limited it to outside working hours - it's kind of like not eating the first potato chip, or taking the first drag on a cigarette (I don't but others do) or the first sip of morning coffee. When I open AR it's all to easy to just read one more page of blogs, or check one more forum, or post one more reply. So - I treat it like a treat. Sometimes I read AR instead of the morning paper, usually I read AR instead of the magazines I used to read in the evening that are now spawning piles all over the family room. 

AR's constantly evolving, and I like seeing what Matt and Caleb are up to, and what changes they've made to AR.

What's AR to me? An indispensable part of daily life.

10.  No snowstorms, blizzards, freezing weather, typhoons, earthquakes...and warm enough weather year round.

9.  Dolphins and manatees that I sometimes watch from my dock, and nearly always see dolphins from our boat. They put on such a show, it never ceases to be fascinating.

8.  Christmas boat parades with lights reflecting on the water; homes decorated on both street side and water side;  warm weather;  palm trees decorated with tiny white lights (the original Christmas had more palm trees than firs and pines); having Christmas dinner outside by the pool; going to the beach after presents are opened; no storm cancelled flights.

7.  If we had basements, the Florida inventor would never have come up with Pods.  Garages are used for storage - that's why we need 3 car garages. Attics can hold some Christmas stuff, but don't put your candles up there! If we had basements, storage buildings wouldn't be such a good investment. It's good to unclutter your life - better Feng Shui. 

6. Chads have been replaced by touch screen voting machines. At least our elections aren't as long as the one in Mexico.

5. Tourists just looking at houses - and even those just looking at beaches - often become buyers, and bring their relatives and friends.  They can be entertaining to us.  I like to watch people walking on the beach in our winter months - you can tell the Northerners and Europeans are the ones wearing bathing suits, and the locals are wrapped in ski jackets.  As to wasting time showing them property - it calls for the same interview and judgment call as any other lookers. 

5A.  30% of all sales last year were for second homes and investment properties.   I'm not turning them down.

4.  You can choose between inside photos and outside photos for this blog.  Have someone take your picture when you're not looking and you won't have to hate getting ready for it.

3.  When you're tired of beaches, try the museums, the theaters, the shopping, the restaurants, the attractions, the sports events, the bicycle trails, and on and on and on.  When you tire of clear skies, wait for the August afternoon thundershowers - or watch the sunrise and sunset each day, which offers an unending variety - and look for rainbows.  If you tire of fruity cocktails - don't order them. We have as wide a variety of beverages as anywhere else in the country.

2.  If half of suburban Detroit is here, we don't notice them. We love the variety - New Englanders, Californians, people from Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans; from Scotland and Germany and India and Argentina and Japan and Russia; and even a few remaining Crackers (native Floridians). We have all kinds of different neighborhoods and housing types.  You're not back in Kansas, Toto.

1.  We have lots of good AR bloggers here - and benefit in learning from each other.

Maureen and Dmitry - couldn't help but respond to your blog. Come to Florida for a visit - you might like it enough to stay, or at least to buy a second home here to escape your cold Michigan winters....

Many agents wait for a designation course or educational course to come to their area.  We advocate just the opposite - go somewhere else for your course.  Yes, it adds to the cost for transportation, hotel, etc but you've already decided to invest not only in the price of the course, but the investment of your time. Being away allows you to concentrate on the content, and get better acquainted with the other attendees.  It brings ideas and comments from people in other markets, that you can apply to your own.  It lets you know what's really going on in other markets around the country. Most important, it puts you in contact with more agents that you can refer business to, and who may refer business to you.  Is that going to happen in your home town?

You can target a place where you have friends or family, or a desired vacation spot, but I'd encourage you to determine what areas have the most buyers coming to your market area, and take a course in those areas. They are the most likely to have agents who will have clients coming to your area.

More to the insurance saga in Florida ... Recently I gave you a client's experience in searching for insurance, and that he did not choose the lowest bidder - he chose the one who asked him questions and counselled him.  And more on my own property insurance quest (note that my non-renewed policy cancels in less than a week). Note - last year's homeowner's policy cost $1,729.

Old insurance agent:  I had initiated contact after the nonrenewal notice and agent's office returned my call to say, too early to worry about it, we'll get back to you 30 days before cancellation date.  2-3 weeks before cancellation date I received from the agency a policy from a new insuror for $9,900 and an invoice. A week after that I received cancellation of policy notice from new insuror that premium had not been paid and if it weren't paid by 8/30 it would be cancelled.  I ignored both. Thursday I received a call from a young woman at the insurance agency saying they hadn't received payment for the policy. I told her that I was not paying $9,900 for insurance.  She said, Oh, I have a quote here from Citizens (insuror of last resort) that I guess I should have sent you sooner. Do you want me to fax it over?  Yes, please. Interesting - the premium was $1,000 higher than from New insurance agent, for less coverage.

New insurance agent: Had one quote for $11,000 which she did not even forward to me.  Sent me quote from Citizens (insuror of last resort). Called me to go over the quote. Asked many questions - do you have a security alarm? is it monitored? What kind of screening/fencing do you have around your pool? Then she discussed options with me - do you want to explore the cost of changing the deductible amount?  We looked at cost vs benefit of stating I had an intercom system (definitely not worth getting replacement cost for this 20 year old intercom system I don't use). She was timely responding, gave lots of information and options, outlined the documents she needed, and sent someone over to my office to pick up the signed application and check.

Many of us start conversations with a new potential client with a counselling session. If any of you have wondered about the benefits of it, just look at the results from these insurance cases. Clients choose to work with someone they feel cares about them, and addresses their needs. They don't want to be just a number, or an "inconvenience" or afterthought to an agent. 

Oh, by the way - the premium I paid was $4,363 - a 250% increase from last year.

One of the high visibility long shelf-life publications that we advertise in is a luxury hotel publication, which is in all the hotel rooms and is mailed out to all club members. The Vinoy Renaissance Resort in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida (the one that is the #1 Renaissance hotel in the chain) is a luxury hotel overlooking the waterfront - the Vinoy Basin and Tampa Bay. The publication is annual, full color, and has excellent photos of the hotel and bits of its history since the roaring 1920s. It includes a map of downtown, calendar of annual events, directory of museums, etc.  Definitely a keeper piece.

We started with a 1/6 page ad and have grown over the years to a full page, opposite the index page. It's visibility in the community and a relaxing way for guests to find us. Of course we have our web site listed there for them to get more information.

Pinellas County, Florida, has lots of condos, ranging from older over-55 condos that are less than $50,000 to luxury condos that sell in the $millions.  Condo fees are a basic cost of living in any of them, and property and liability insurance on the building are part of that cost.  i.e., insurance costs could force people to move. Citizens Property Insurance Corp, Florida's insurer of last resort, reports an increase of 33 percent in condo insurance in Pinellas County, and coastal condo rates (barrier islands and around) a 259% increase.

This morning I had a call from a gentleman whose condo listing is about to expire - he was referred to my be a friend up north who has a friend who's a realtor (how's that for a chain?). His property was about an hour from our office so I decline the listing, but told him I'd take a look at the MLS and see if I had any suggestions. Just from the MLS information I suggested that he drop his price (the one comparable that sold near his listing price did not have an over 55 age restriction, and another unit like his, also without an over 55 age restriction and with more updates was listed $10,000 less than his.  I also suggested he raise the co-op commission, and that he remove that it was a Waterfront unit, since he did not even have a waterview from his unit, though the complex itself is on a small lake.  Suggester a visual tour, etc.

He felt comfortable with me and asked a few more questions:  Could he ask agents he was interviewing what their marketing plan was?  Was he expecting to much to ask for feedback after showings?  It's easy for us to forget that it may have been many years since an owner has sold a home.

As part of our pre-list package we give out a List of Questions to Ask Agents, one filled out with our answers, and another one blank for them to fill in or duplicate.  It's up to us to educate the public that there IS a difference between agents.

It looks like St Pete may be sharing the Devil Rays with Charlotte County, in Southwest Florida.   Roxanne and Shannon, be on the lookout.  The Devil Rays play in St Pete, and also have done their spring training here.  The new owners have really livened up the team, been great corporate citizens, and have finally made the fans feel welcome. Nonetheless, to broaden support for the team, the owners are looking to move spring training south to Charlotte County.  We taking big $ here - Charlotte County would be spending $15 million to renovate their stadium in Port Charlotte and the Rays would be contributing another $4 million.  Nothings set in stone yet, but it looks like a move in 2009.

I'm willing to share the Rays, but have concerns about what this will mean for our Al Lang Field - oops, Progress Energy Field.  Tropicana Field (aka "The Dome") is designed for big crowds, so there are lots of people and seats far from the field. Al Lang Field is a fantastic place to watch spring training. It's small, with shady seats, and a fabulous view of the St. Petersburg waterfront and Tampa Bay. In between innings you can watch the sailboats, with the white sails standing out against the blue water. You can also see the small planes coming in and out of Albert Whitted Airport.  You hear the familiar music, get the familiar hot dogs and beer. No huge crowds, just a bunch of locals (and temporary locals). No parking problems - many can just walk back to work or home.  Al Lang Field has had spring training for 60 years.  What will become of it without a team? 

The Windward at Harborage in St. Petersburg, Florida, has called it quits and returned a dozen or so deposits made by prospective owners.  Vector Commercial Realty and its partner announced this project last fall: a 4 acre waterfront parcel (actually the parcel is partly on the water and partly across the road from the water) where they would build three condo buildings, retail and a restaurant. It relied heavily on its location by the Harbourage Marina.  Costs were pegged at $7,000,000 to $3,500,000. Developers blame the demise on timing - the condo market has slowed and costs have risen.  I blame it also on the product: if you're going to live 11 blocks south of downtown, there has to be a price adjustment for not being right downtown.  There wasn't. The company plans to land-bank the property.

According to the St. Petersburg Times today, Signature Place has sold 75% of its 246 units and Ovation has sold 12 of its 45 units. Both of these are in downtown St. Petersburg

The iSucceed network has been helping agents for over 5 years. There are now about 150 agents that serve as mentors or faculty.  They provide weekly presentations, and a library of  print, audio and video presentations, as well as discounts on books and tape. Members can ask a question and have a variety of the mentors respond. You can search the site by topic and keywords.  It's a bargain at $29.95/month. 

You'll find several of the ActiveRain members participating in the iSucceed faculty - Sharon Simms, Margaret Rome, Ken Deshaies, Teri Isner, Wynne Achatz and perhaps several others.