Real Estate Views from St Pete

When you're in a down market, it's often hard to feel up and optimistic. It's a great time to set up your systems, and a great time to take courses to improve your education and give your new ideas. To maximize that -

Take a class in an area that's a Hot market. The excitement and enthusiasm of your fellow students  is catching, and will get you enthusiastic as well.  

We find the same upbeat enthusiasm when we teach a class in an area that's doing well. You can feel the difference - agents are happy, busy. They're not only talking happily with each other, they're constantly on their cell phones conducting business.  

You need to be enthusiastic and upbeat - it's catching - not only to your fellow agents, but to your clients and potential clients.  

One of my favorite dishes is Ahi Poke (raw tuna with limu seaweed, onions, and who knows what else) and the best I've found it at a "hold-in-the-wall" restaurant in Waimanalo, Kimo'Z, on the island of Hawaii. The key is very fresh top grade Ahi tuna, and the crunch brown seaweed that looks like pencil cactus, but is brown.

I've have Ahi Poke at several restaurants on mainland US, but none of them have that crunchy brown seaweed. Since arriving in Oahu 3 days ago, I've had Ahi Poke as many times, but I still haven't liked it as much as at Kimo'Z. We'll rent a car on Thursday and head out there, hoping it tastes as good as it did a few years ago.

From Hawaii we'll fly back to Oakland and spend a long weekend with my son, Rusty, near San Francisco. His one request - buy some limu in a local supermarket and bring it when you come - we can get the Ahi tuna here. 

It's nice that clients think so well of you that they want you to handle things for them again, but sometimes it makes them reluctant to work with your team when you're away. Clients were ready to look, but suggested waiting til I returned from my 2 week trip - I persuaded them to go ahead and look with Rob, my son. Today's email brought this comment from my clients:

"Just wanted you to know what an asset your son is to
the Simms Team.  He went above and beyond the call of
duty to help find the perfect condo for "US".  You
taught him well and I'm sure you are very proud.
Can't wait until you get home so we can show you a
real gem of a property located exactly where we wanted
to be."

It's even nicer to know that things worked our very well. We were only gone for a couple of days when Rob found this condo for them and negotiated it so that it came within their price range.

Thanks, Rob! 

So many brokers

The

Having a few or a handful of people sharing a space can also lead to good camaraderie and support, especially if the groups can self-choose who shares the space. When I first started with Merrill Lynch Realty in the mid 1980s, I was fortunate to have such a space - and learned so much from the Pros, who became good friends that still stay in touch, though we've changed companies and/or retired. 

Some friends of ours, who have been vacationing in the St Petersburg area, first renting for a month, and this year renting for a season, have decided that they want to buy a property here. They think they want a condo, but might take a home, and just want to explore neighborhoods before they have me show them properties. I assured them that I'd be happy to show them areas, but they're really more comfortable at this stage just searching themselves. Many people are. They attend Open Houses on the weekend, and are always courteous to tell the agent when they walk in that they are working with me.

Lori called me Sunday evening to ask if things were different in Florida than in Buffalo, and told me about the two Open Houses they visited that day. The agent in the first one, upon hearing that they were working with someone else, told them that they should really work with her instead, because she could save them a lot of money, and get the property for them cheaper than if they worked with me. Lori asked how that could be the case, and she explained that she had a deal with the sellers that if she sold it she would get 4% but if another agent was involved, the seller would be paying a total of 6%. She then told them that she knew the seller's bottom line so could negotiate better for them. Lori asked me if agents in Florida were so desperate that they'd lose their ethics for 1%, and also wondered why an agent who displayed a total lack of ethics would think that anyone would trust her to look out for them.

She added that she felt much better when she went to the next Open House, where the agent said, "Oh, I know her. You're working with a great agent." and proceeded to show them the unit and tell them about the community. As they left, he said, "Please tell Sharon I said hello - I haven't seen her in a long time." This agent is not only reflecting well on himself, but on all of us in the industry.

Do agents think that buyers are stupid? No wonder they distrust agents and rank them hardly above car salesmen. They paint with a broad brush. Buyers and sellers DO want an agent with integrity, ethics and loyalty as well as knowledge.

Jackie Colson-Smith posted her view on this I voted No by absentee ballot before I headed to Hawaii to teach this CLHMS class and attend Sellabration. I started writing a comment but as it got longer and longer, felt it was due a separate post.

I'm for tax improvement, but I think the current proposal is not the solution, and was a fast bandaid with aspects thrown in just to get the approval of certain voters.

The original intent of Save our Homes was to keep people from having to lost their home, often fully paid for, because they couldn't afford the taxes. As much as I'd enjoy portability personally, that wasn't the intent of the law, and is another aspect of the Entitlement mentality.

The realtor association  caters to the majority of its members, who unfortunately are short term thinkers rather than long term planners. I hope it's PAC money they spent and not our dues!

Concerned about current inequities between one homeowner and his neighbor? This proposal will make it far worse. Will property taxes go down? If so, the burden will increase on second home owners and businesses, which may make they sell, and certainly will be an impediment to purchasing - so home values will go down, and both owners and the government will suffer from that.

SOH as proposed will probably be challenged as discriminatory under federal laws - and the challenge will probably win - which means we the voters will be stuck with the cost of defense as well as the costs the state has incurred to "sell" this proposal, and still be back to Square One.

Don't settle for patches - insist that the legislators really analyze the situation and come up with a GOOD solution.

Today I flew from Oakland to Honolulu on Aloha Airlines. Most of the process was pretty typical, though I appreciated that the flight attendants were always smiling, cheerful and helpful. Also nice was that the CEO had a short video to say Welcome and Thank You for flying with us, and at the end of each pilot announcement, he also thanked us. Typical beverage service and snack, then the movie.

At the end of the movie, Tami asked me, "What's that I'm smelling? It smells like fresh cookies." And sure enough, they served Cookies and Milk. 

When was the last time everyone was offered Milk on a plane? The cookies were warm, the chocolate chips were melting, and the milk a perfect complement. WOW! Just like when we were kids, with freshly baked cookies and milk.

It was unexpected and appreciated, and made us talk about it. So, it doesn't always take a lot of money or something elaborate to make an impression - it can be as simple as cookies and milk.

What's YOUR customer service WOW? 

The Vinoy Place condominiums in downtown St Petersburg Florida currently has 12 properties on the market, ranging from $749,900 to $2,799,000 No penthouses are currently available. Units with over 2,100 sq ft start at $1,100,000.

During 2007 there were 5 condominium units that sold, ranging from $760,000 to $1,825,000.  Again, if you exclude units less than 2,100 sq ft, sale prices started at $1,039,900.

Based on last year's sales, there is a 28.8 month supply on the market.

There are currently two units offered for rent, one at $5,000/mo and the other at $5,200/mo.

The Florencia condo is a luxury building developed by JMC Corporation (Mike Cheezem) at 100 Beach Drive NE. It's across the street from a park and has views of Tampa Bay.

During 2007 there were 3 sales in the building:  $1,050,000       $1,250,000     $1,250,000

There is currently one condominium on the market, which is priced at $1,150,000.  Based on last year's sales, there is a 4 month supply on the market.

One unit at The Florencia is currently offered for lease at $5,800 per month.

One Note is a software program from Microsoft that I use at conferences and meetings to take notes. It's as easy to use as most word processing programs, but has added benefits:

• You  can add labels such as
• To Do
• Important
• Books to order
• Websites to visit
• Blog about this

You can sort by those labels so that your action items are all at the front.

URLs are live links, saving you time later

Everything is searchable, so you can find it.

I keep all of my notes together on my laptop and on a flash drive, so if I'm looking for something for myself or for someone else, it's easy to find. It also saves file space and saves trees.

 Cost to buy is $99.99 but you can download a free trial to see if you like it.

If you want to see if something works for you, don't just try it once.

If you send one mailing out to a farm, and you get no response, it doesn't mean that farming or mailing doesn't work. It takes repetition to make an impression. Perhaps only with 6 or 8 consistent mailings will your recipients really become aware of you - and for others who did notice earlier, they may be waiting to see if you really keep in contact, or if you're the typical agent who sends one or two or three mailings, never to be heard from again.

If you attend one conference or go abroad to attend one trade show, and it doesn't generate any business, don't assume that doesn';t work or doesn't have value. You have to be consistent, attend several times so that you truly develop relationships.

If you put one ad in Homes & Land or Unique Homes or the Wall St Journal, and you don't get any calls, don't conclude that an ad there doesn't work. It's better to run a small ad consistently than a big ad once in a while.

Repetition, consistency, dependability.

A friend and colleague wants to take her husband to Scotland to play golf at St. Andrews, a lifelong dream of his, for his 40th birthday. Life is all about connections, and connections to connections.

So - I thought I'd ask all 66,443 of you on Active Rain whether any of you have connections to get a round of golf for 2 or for 4 at St. Andrews.

Many of us have talked about the education we've received on Active Rain, the inspiration, the clients, the referrals, the friends ... let's try the next level. Anyone here with connections to St. Andrews?

Last week Tami sold a new work-live condominium at 1010 Central in St Petersburg to a buyer who will be establishing a branch office here in St. Petersburg for his business. We provided the buyer with the 1" informational notebook and the 3" condo docs. Deposit received, inspection done, appraisal in process.

Today Tami received a call from the buyer. The condo docs said that internet services were provided by Bright House. The inspection indicated (based on the sticker on the box) that Knology was the provider. Knology is the provider that the condo association (then controlled by the developer) contracted with for service. So what? The "what" is that only Bright House provides fast enough and secure enough service for the buyer's business. Yes, it's a "deal breaker".

We're investigating options at this point, including determining the expiration date of the contract with Knology.

Just another day in the life of a real estate agent ....

The weakening of the US dollar against the Euro and other currencies means that US real estate is a bargain for most of the world. Couple this with the increasing number of immigrant buyers for US real estate and you have a wonderful opportunity to increase your business. (Isn't that positive news?) Many of us are members of NAR's International Section and/or FIABCI, some of us have earned the CIPS designation ...

Bernice Ross was one of the speakers at the Luxury Conclave today, and was pointing out many opportunities to increase our business this year. Yes, she mentioned Active Rain, and in fact, asked me to pose a question to all Active Rainers: 

What, specifically, are you doing to attract international buyers? 

This afternoon I met with some clients who had purchased a land lease waterfront home from me in 2003 - they wanted to know its value now, to determine whether they should sell it and move back up north (medical, personal reasons). I have already sold this home 3 times over the years, so this would be #4.

I'm able to explain to agents and prospective buyers that a land lease is where you buy the house and are assigned the land lease (it's for 100 years, with about 30 years gone and 70 years to go) for which they pay $250 per month to the land owner, adjusted annually by the CPI. The house owner pays the property taxes and insurance on both house and land.

Why would someone want to buy this?  

1) because it's the only way they can afford to live in a waterfront home in this community - if they can buy this home at $450,000 instead of $650,000 and pay $250/month vs $1,200/mo it can make the difference for some people. Yes, banks will lend on land leases as long as the remaining term of the land lease is more than the term of the mortgage.

2) because they feel they can still enjoy the house, but can better invest their $950/mo savings somewhere else.

Over the last years, I've sold several different land lease properties. There was one developer in St. Petersburg  who would keep a few lots in each subdivision he developed as land lease homes - an excellent retirement he's now enjoying. Some he has sold back to the property owner so that they became fee simple properties. Several he still owns.

My concern is the appraisal a lender will require. When I was selling these 5-15 years ago, there were always half a dozen comps that could be used. Now lenders want comps no more than 90 days old - and the last land lease in the county sold in early 2005.  How can this be appraised?

For our latest listing we have three sets of photographs, one set from the owner, and one from each of the above cameras. It was interesting to have three photos on the screen to compare the results from each. The owner's camera was a "normal" lens where the other two had wide angles to different degrees - we did not use the owner's as they showed less of the room.

Kodak DC-4800

Kodak V-705

Both of these were taken from the same spot, with the same lighting, just seconds apart.

As you can see, the wide angle lens of the V-705 did give a wider view, but the colors weren't as warm and inviting as those from the CD-4800. No adjustments were made to either photo.

Without having to go into a photo editing program, any suggestions for a setting change on the 705 to enhance the colors?

Why, oh why, when a product improves one aspect, does it degrade another aspect?