Real Estate Views from St Pete

St Petersburg has a variety of magnet schools, one of which is Perkins Elementary, a magnet school for the arts. They offer a multimedia course in the primary grades. Andy Levy, a second grader, placed third in the state in a video contest last year, when he was in first grade, with a comedy about his little brother. This year he turned to a more serious documentary and won first place. His topic: homelessness. 

Andy saw homeless people on his way to school every day and had questions about them. Who were they? Why were they there? He and his Dad went to "tent city" to interview some homeless. Here's a link to his winning video. Sorry - you'll have to endure a 17 second commercial before getting his 3 minute video.

It's pretty amazing for  an 8 year old to do a documentary like this. His conclusion - he's glad HE has a home.

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

Many areas of the country have had successful developments of Ritz-Carlton Hotels and associated Ritz-Carlton condos. The nearest to Tampa has been the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, a very successful project. Tampa Bay does not yet have a 5 star hotel, so this could be great news for the tourism industry in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in Florida. There is currently a large inventory of condos in the Tampa Bay are, but condos with a Ritz affiliation should sell well - and they won't be finished until 2010. Click for more information...

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

We read about it. Some members have had it happen to them. An article by Jean Chatzky brought out some facts that surprised me:

• In the last 2 years there have been nearly 20 million victims (one every few seconds).
• To fix your credit back takes an average of 175 hours (over a month of full time work) and over $1,000.

We know we should shread paperwork. I picked up a free shredder at Office Depot some months ago and use it to shred any credit cards, expired or not; any credit card or check solicitations that come through the mail; checks to use against your credit cards; anything with revealing personal information on it.

A major point is that credit cards are much safer than checks. Jean suggests that you not write checks for purchases or to hand to people you don't know. Use them for utility payments that you send by mail, if you must. I pay almost everything from my bank account online, or will use my credit card to get frequent flyer miles.

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

 While in Austin, Tami and I met with Dan Waterman and Michael Miller of LuxuryProperty.com and heard about their upcoming website and their creative and extensive program for luxury real estate properties and the agents and companies who handle luxury properties. Dan attended the recent CHLMS class in Phoenix, and Michael attended the CLHMS class this week in Austin. The site will focus, obviously, on luxury properties, but will incorporate listings, blogs, and multimedia, as well as profiles, agent links, and much, much more. Look for the release of a beta version this summer. There are three levels of service, one being free, and there are prices for individual agents as well as for entire companies. We’re waiting for their launch with baited breath…

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

 There are often times when you’d like additional information about something – what’s the phone number for that restaurant where you want to make dinner reservations? Where’s the nearest Fed Ex store or Starbucks? You can ask and get the answers from your text-messaging-enabled cell phone or PDA. Send a text message to 46645 asking what you want to know with a zip code or city and state, for example, “pizza 33711” or “Siena Restaurant Austin Texas” and in a few minutes google will text you back with the answer or closely matching choices

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

There are neat widgets of all kinds, many of which have been referenced on Active Rain and many that are used on some Active Rain blogs. Some of these – the faces of recent visitors, lists of books you like – are great for a social networking site, but do they enhance a professional blog site or detract from it? Do they take away from the topic or purpose of your blog? Have any of you using them on your “other” blog sites had feedback from your clients on whether they’re viewed as positive or negative?

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

Vintage Shopping on South Congress

Austin, Texas

Yesterday we wandered through the Warehouse District of  downtown Austin, Texas, looking for interesting and unique shops. We found a few, but it was hit or miss. Today, on our way to the airport, we stopped along South Congress, a mile or so south of downtown Austin. Now this had some unique shopping: a large boot store, antique jewelry, art, costumes. What a pity we only had an hour to stop. We shopped instead of having lunch (note, Kristal, no eating at this stop) though there were appealing choices. Next time we come to Austin we’ll allow for a day of browsing through the South Congress district. If you have time to spend between hotel checkout and your flight, try this – it’s less than 30 minutes from the Austin airport.

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

While driving along Highway 360, Capital of Texas Highway, in Austin,  from our hotel to the CLHMS class we were teaching, we were looking at the scenery, and of course at the homes. Lining the tops of many of the hills were row of homes, many partially hidden by trees. One large home was out at the tip of the ridge, closest to the highway. This large home had a huge banner hung on the side of the house FOR SALE, with a phone number to call. Easily visible from the highway, this banner advertises to tens if not hundreds of thousands of people traveling that highway every day. Now if it just had a website instead of a phone number ……

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

Austin, Texas - The Old Pecan St. Cafe

Tami and I toured part of downtown Austin today, going through the Warehouse District. We enjoy old buildings, so chose this restaurant for a late lunch. We liked the old wood floors, the brick walls - the windows open to the outside with flowers in the windows and on the tables.

The food was basic and good, fresh, and presented well, with friendly service. We decided it was a good choice, and enjoyed people watching as well as eating. (Yes, Kristal, we were eating again!) 

After lunch we ambled through some of the shops and I took photos of other interesting architecture.

On this building, I like the arched windows on the second floor, and the detail work around them; the dentils and border on the bricks at the roofline. Awnings add interest to buildings, and here the flags/banners coordinate and attract the eye as well.

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

Yesterday USA Today published some statistics from DataQuick:

Last year (2006) home sales slid 8.4%

Last year (2006) residences prived at $5,000,000 or more increased 18%.

In the first quarter of 2007 sales of $5 million or more residences increased 31%!

It seems that sales in the lower end of luxury ($1 million to $2 million) have slowed, but the upper end is more resilient and not as affected by changes in the economy.

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

While spending a "tourist day" after the CLHMS class, we came by this Victorian hotel in downtown Austin, Texas. It's on a corner and the wonderful detailing is evident on both street faces.

It's said that this hotel, built by a cattle baron, is where Lyndon Johnson courted Lady Bird.  With its location just a few blocks from the Capital, I'm sure it's been the scene of more than a few political deals.

The marble floors and stained glass add additional interest to the wonderful detailing of the building.

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

The previous record  was set in Palm Beach in 2004 when Ronald Perelman sold his home for $70,000,000 - this week news surfaced that Ron Baron purchased 40 acres in The Hamptons NY for $103,000,000. 4 historic homes were on this property which have been moved and will be the "new" town hall. Who knows how long this will continue to be the record - there are currently homes on the market for $125,000,000 and $135,000,000. This new record is a waterfront property in East Hampton, where Baron plans to build a new home.

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

Siena Restaurant, Austin

After Tami and I finished teaching a CLHMS class in Austin yesterday, one of the attendees, Michael Murphy of LuxuryProperty.com, suggested this place for dinner - whether because it reminded him of his favorite region in Italy or because Tami speaks Italian, I'm not sure. This restaurant is at the intersection of Route 360 and Texas 2222. and well worth a meal.

The atmosphere was wonderful, the service friendly and attentive, the food excellent, from the pate to the lamb to the varied desserts. As a matter of fact, we enjoyed it so much, we're going back there tonight.

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

Just as some of us are right brainers and some of us are left brainers, some of us prefer keyboard shortcuts, and others prefer to use the mouse. I find it much faster to stay on the keyboard than to move my hand to the mouse, move the mouse, click and go back to the keyboard. So here are a couple of Active Rain keyboard shortcuts for those of you who prefer them, and may not have tried them.

When you finish typing your blog, just hit ENTER and then TAB and the cursor is right down in the Tags Box for you to type in your tags.

From there hit TAB 4 times quickly to get to the box For real estate professionals, or 5 times to get to For Consumers.

Alas, if you have lots of groups, as I do, then you'd better just move the mouse down to Post Blog Entry - it's actually faster.

 And a tip for when you're making Comments - once you've typed in your fruit, just hit ENTER - no need to move over to the post button.  (And just like posting a blog, once you've finished typing your comment, you can just hit TAB twice and you're in the Fruit Box.)

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

Today I went to Office Depot and bought a new keyboard for my home computer - one that I'd been wondering about for a long time - Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.  Cost $59.  It's curved and sloped and most prominent of all - the two sides of the keyboard are split.

No trouble installing it - ran the CD, rebooted, plugged the keyboard into a USB slot, and I was ready to go - it was even extra simple to put in my favorites - so I can now get to ActiveRain just by pushing a button.  Easy to adapt to the new shape, easy to type away. My only problem is the B. On the middle keys my hands are used to helping each other out - kind of like playing the piano, there are times when one hand crosses over.

It's obvious that my right hand always went over to push the B for my left hand. But it's no longer right there, just over the middle line - my right finger doesn't make it as far as the B, and my left finger obviously hasn't had to do that job in years and years. So - I'm relearning how to type the B. Other than that, it's a great keyboard and well worth splurging on (I needed another keyboard like a hole in the head - but it is easier, faster and better - better with a B.

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

One of the most compelling parts of a blog or website about a community is truth and reality. Direct comments from existing homeowners/condo owners can be a big help in selling a neighborhood.  Whenever you're showing a property and the seller is home, or you're attending a neighborhood meeting or picnic, ask the people you meet - What do you like best about living in ____?  or  What factors made you choose this neighborhood?

Ask owners, workers, anyone you can. What do you like about this area. Then write about that in your blog and on your website. It definitely adds credibility, and will often come up with an attribute that you'd never considered.

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

For many years publishers have held the trump cards when it comes to book publishing. They like proven authors, they're a bit afraid to take a chance on the unknown.  It's easier to be wrong in choosing a book than in sending yet another REJECTED slip.

Now we can have books printed by the dozens rather than by the 100,000s - we can even publish it ourselves as an e-book and let the reader download it and print it on his own paper.

There's no longer a reason not to publish. Have a good idea? Write about it. Create an e-book. Share or sell it. Even Seth Godin publishes e-books. Sometimes he publishes it a chapter at a time. What a great way to get reader comments to improve it even more.

The buck no longer stops at the publisher's desk - it stops at yours.

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

How often, when we have someone interested in a new condo or a new home development, are we faced with "Here's our contract. We can't use anything else because this has been approved by the state.?  It's true, we can't use our state real estate contract, and we do have to use the developer's approved contract.

What the developer's rep won't tell you, however, is that you can add clauses or addendums to the contract. That's one of the benefits of working with a knowledgeable real estate agent - they know that!

So, yes, you can add a change in terms - a penalty if your clients have to stay in a hotel because the house isn't finished, more upgrades, a change in deposit terms, extra independent inspections. The developer won't automatically accept it just because you ask, but often times she will. In today's Florida market, you're more likely than ever to get addendums and concessions.

This is one more benefit the buyer gets when working with a professional, experienced, qualified agent.

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

Yesterday I was setting up appointments for showings starting at 9 am this morning. One of the townhouses was a "pick up key" showing. My colleague in another office was trying to be cooperative, and we decided that she'd bring me the key and I'd bring it back to her - but it was at the end of the day, my office was closed, and our schedules were far apart in both time and location. 

Since I go to the Renaissance Vinoy Resort every morning to work out, and then enjoy coffee and reading newspapers in the lobby (or veranda if the sun is up and the weather pleasant) after I've showered and changed, I suggested that she leave it at the hotel, a block from her office, with the concierge and that I'd pick it up this morning. She did, I did, and it worked out well. Certainly helpful to have a hotel concierge at our service.

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

I've blogged in the past about positioning I've gained by a combination of my sites - ActiveRain, Localism and blog.ssimms.com to give multiple positions, as in 4 of the top 6 for a condominium building where I recently gave a listing presentation.

Recently I posted 3 blogs on blog.ssimms.com about the proposed Westin Hotel and Condos in St Petersburg, Florida:

• April 25, 2007
  

• April 29, 2007
  

• April 30, 2007

• May 15, 2007

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