Real Estate Views from St Pete

When we write about the local market and the lifestyle here, we often blog about what's happening with the schools. I'm no exception, and have blogged about our Pinellas County schools as well.

Sometimes our readers think we have all the answers.  Today I received this e-mail:

My son attends Pinellas Park High School and will continue for the next two years as I was told he will be grandfathered in since are area's zoned high school has changed. What I would like to be assured is that he will continue to be able to catch a bus to and from school.

Sorry, I can't give that assurance. I directed the writer to the Pinellas County Schools site and suggested she discuss her concern with them.

One of the concerns people have when moving to a new area is medical care.

There are several good hospitals in or close to downtown St Petersburg. One of them right in downtown St Petersburg is Bayfront Medical Center. Over 600 doctors serve Bayfront. It's a full service hospital, starting with a very active Emergency/Trauma center. Bayfront has continued to expand, and actually turned itself around - the front entrance moved from the east side to the west side! From obstetrics to cancer care to neurology and sports medicine, you can find help at Bayfront.

Often the trauma helicopters that you see flying from an accident scene are en route to Bayfront, where a trauma team meets the helicopter on the roof. Many of the ambulance sirens wind up at Bayfront, too.

Here's a downloadable guide to Bayfront Medical Center's services and programs.

Signature Place - newest condo in downtown St Pete

For the last couple of weeks Signature Place has been accepting Nonbinding Offers. This has led to rumors of trouble, as 400 Beach, a downtown luxury condo whose developer has recently filed bankruptcy, has also been soliciting Nonbinding Offers.

Not the case for Signature Place, according to the sales staff. Previous contracts were all Unfinished Building contracts, and now that the building is done, new contracts had to be approved by the State of Florida, appropriate to a finished building. In the meantime, they were accepting Nonbinding Offers. They expect this coming week to be ready with the new contracts for a completed building.

They expect to start closings the second half of June 2009.

This weekend at Vinoy Park in downtown St Petersburg is the Taste of Pinellas 2009. A fundraiser for All Children's Hospital which is opening a new facility later this year, Taste of Pinellas is a popular annual event. Walk over to this waterfront park, admission is free and food tickets are 8 for $5, with selections from over 40 local restaurants ranging from 2-12 tickets per selection. From fried clams to vanilla bean creme brulee, from jambalaya to grouper, from seafood Louis salad to blue cheese stuffed meatballs, there are delights for everyone. Even the soon-to-be open 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House is there with 4 selections.

Food, live music, rides, even fireworks after dark. Today until 10 pm and tomorrow from noon to 7 pm. Come have fun while supporting All Children's Hospital.

The new arts building, built and operated by St Petersburg College, was the location for last night's preopening reception for the new exhibit at the Florida International Museum, one part of this arts complex.

American Stage Theater has also relocated here and their first production will begin June 5th.

The Florida Orchestra has its headquarters here, and The Palladium, another St Petersburg College "acquire and rejuvenate" projects is within walking distance.

The contemporary shapes remind me of the swimming dolphins that I so enjoy seeing all around our area. The light ring changes colors, albeit a bit too fast for my comfort.

Across the street is Williams Park, and just down the block, past BayWalk, is the downtown St Petersburg waterfront.

What a great place to live (or visit).

Signature Place condominiums, downtown St Petersburg After years of watching the construction of this unique building, it's finally finished. The sales office has moved from its temporary location to the main Signature Place tower, and the models are being shown By Appointment. Your real estate agent can make the arrangements for you.

Signature Place expects to be closing on its preconstruction contracts during the month of June 2009.

I was worried that the water wall would be too loud, but it isn't. The sound is really relaxing and has great design and engineering.

Tower units are available from $375,000 to $3,255,000. For more information and for Buyer Representation, please contact The SIMMS Team at ALVA International, Inc. (727) 341-8400.

The Florencia is a luxury condominium in downtown St Petersburg, built by JMC Corporation, with 49 residential units.

This is a very stable building with few units coming on the market for resale. The last unit sold was in December 2007, an 03 (south) unit that sold for $1,050,000.

There are currently only 2 condominiums offered for rent. One is an 02 unit (facing directly east toward Tampa Bay), offered for $1,650,000. The other is an 01 unit (on the north side of the building) which has just been reduced from $990,000 to $875,000.

Both of these units are listed in the MLS, and neither is listed by The Simms Team. If you'd like Buyer Representation for either of these units, please contact The Simms Team at ALVA International, Inc. (727) 341-8400.

When a storm is coming or going, it's always interesting to see the contracts of light and dark.

When you have a wide view, it's also interesting to watch a storm coming. You can actually see the wall of rain as it approaches. This evening there was a lot of lightning as well, but it was always faster than my shutter.

This is the view from a penthouse at 475. Though it's only 7 stories up, the surrounding area is low enough that you get a panoramic view.

We're now on our 11th day of rain, some days or hours torrential enough that we imagine ourselves in Monsoon Country. Most days, though, we have patches of bright sunshine.

At least it's warm rain, though when you get enough of it, it really doesn't matter.

Contact The Simms Team of ALVA International, Inc.  for buyer representation on units in this building. (727) 341-8400.

Living Room With a View of the Plaza Courtyard in downtown St Petersburg.

Look below to see why I titled this "Ikea has  Room To Go":

When I drove past this ROOM parked beside BayWalk in downtown St Petersburg, I did a double take - drove around the block again, parked, and took these photos.

IKEA this month opened a new store in Tampa. What a creative way to advertise!

Why are some of our clients buying properties and/or land in Costa Rica? Of course there's the weather, the views, the wonderful Costa Rican people ... but why are they buying now?

For many people, our current economic conditions are scary.

What if ... we have super inflation when the bailout bills come due?

What if ... our taxes become the majority of our income?

What if ... there's a "one time" tax or fee on our savings and investments?

What if ... there's a "temporary emergency" and temporarily we can't get our money out of savings or stocks?

What if ... we can't afford to retire in the US and life the lifestyle we want to enjoy (or even if we can't afford to live here while we're working)?

Most of our clients certainly aren't ready to permanently leave the United States (though some are) or to cash out all their assets and invest somewhere else. They are ready, however, to take a portion of their assets and invest them outside the U.S. in a county that's established democracy and neutrality, in fixed assets, in a non-leveraged country. It helps even more if that country is close (to Florida, in our case) and a great destination.

For me - it doesn't make sense to invest abroad if you're borrowing money and taking on additional debt. If you have liquidity, though, it may make sense to take SOME of your funds and invest elsewhere.

We work with colleagues who are very familiar with Costa Rica, and who can truly look out for your interests.

Obviously a non-binding offer is an offer that isn't binding. But beyond the semantics - what is it really?

Two of the condo projects in our area, one that recently filed bankruptcy (Opus South who has 400 Beach in downtown St Petersburg and Water's Edge in downtown Clearwater, as well as others) and one that hasn't filed bankruptcy.  They are single sheets of paper where a buyer makes an offer on a particular condo unit. The "buyer" is not required to put down any deposit or earnest money and obviously neither the buyer nor the owner is committed.

So what's the point? To me, not only is this encouraging low-ball offers, but there isn't a way for the developer and/or lender to know if even the low offers are real. How do you know the offeror is serious, that he's qualified to buy? How do you know if the offer is accepted if the "buyer" will really close on the unit?

There must be a better way.  Hmmm - what about a typical offer? The buyer isn't committed until/unless the offer is accepted, but there's usually an earnest money deposit, and if the seller accepts the offer, the buyer is committed. Why the new non-binding offer? Protecting the seller/owner? Well - if the seller doesn't accept the offer, he isn't bound anyway.

It's interesting to watch how the English language has developed. Sometimes terms come up for new situations; sometimes one word can substitute for many - i.e., "google" has become a verb. I'm ok with hearing, "I google my prospects" rather than saying "I search for information on my prospects by searching their name on the web through the google site." Language evolves.

What I don't understand is expressions that are neither new nor time-saving - i.e, "It's my bad" instead of the traditional "It's my fault." It's not easier to say, and it certainly doesn't make grammatical sense.

What are we conveying to our clients when we, or our agents and employees use this slang?

This morning I stopped for a cup of latte at Kahwa Coffee Shop here in downtown St Petersburg. The usual neighborhood folk were there, before school or before work.

When I stepped back outside the door (it's getting warm here in Florida so I had my coffee inside instead at one of the outside tables) here were these two adorable dogs, basking in the morning sunshine. Attached to a nearby tree by their leashes, they were snuggly and apparently happy.

This is one more pet friendly place in downtown St Petersburg. Stop and enjoy a freshly brewed cup of coffee and bring your behaved pets along, if you'd like.

Oh - and they have the lightest, most delicious croissants, too.  Must be the French influence!

There are 3 Ps to selling your home quickly: Price - Prepare - Present

Price it right. It doesn’t matter what you paid for it or how much you have in it. It doesn’t matter if it’s “fair”. It doesn’t matter what you could have sold it for 2 years ago. It’s all about what’s actually selling - which do include short sales and foreclosures - and also what other homes are on the market. If you want to sell quickly, price it below those. If you want to sell “in the herd” price with the ones that are low. If you don’t have to sell and want to price .... more  

Christopher Bean suggests that resident Obama should enhance transparency through the new media and appoint a Secretary of Blogging.

Perhaps this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but his article in this morning's St Petersburg Times did make reference to an interesting government blog (that's not an oxymoron) for the TSA. It's written with a human voice, not governmentese, and you can learn - and sometimes laugh - about knitting needles, and why a book and wires might look like a bomb on the security screen.

This week My wonderful new Fujitsu Scansnap S1500 scanner arrived, and I love it even more than the ones that preceeded it.

For $450 you can save more time than you ever thought by not having to walk to the office scanner. This is so fast and convenient you'll want one right on your desk, and the space it takes up is about half of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Flip it up, flip it out, and in less than a second it's ready to scan a single business card or a 50 page contract.

Ever thought of having a paperless office? When I had to walk somewhere to scan something, I usually didn't do it. I'd have a folder or pile of "To Be Scanned" and somehow just never got around to it. With this Scansnap scanner, it's easy to go paperless. It scans 20 pages a minute (color or black and white), single or double-sided or mixed; business cards to oversize. You can mix sizes as well, and scan a receipt with your expense report.

• Ever been frustrated byfloor plans or surveys that are larger than 8.5 x 11? Fold it in the carrier sheet and the Scansnap will automatically merge the two sides into a single sheet.
• Back from a conference with a stack of business cards? Put the stack into the automatic document feeder, push a button, and they all go into CardMinder where you can export them into Excel or Outlook.

Find out too late that two pages in a stack of paper stuck together when they went through the machine? The new S1500 tells you when that happens - some fancy kind of sensor.

There are lots of tips on the Scansnap Community website, as well as ideas on how to use the scanner for more purposes than you may have considered.

Several years ago, when three of us were working out of a bedroom at home, complete with big copy machine, flatbed scanner, fax machine, phones, etc., I brought home my first Fujitsu Scansnap. Amy and Patricia almost in harmony wanted to know why I bought ANOTHER scanner and where I was going to put it. Don't worry about it, I replied, I'll keep it on MY desk - it won't mess up YOUR space.  It didn't take long for them to be amazed and envious, and each offered to keep it on their desk. Yes, it's that fast, that convenient, and that wonderful.

So, over the years, we added ScanSnap scanners, with the older machines going down the line, much like children's clothes are passed from one child to another. The four of us each have one at our desk, there's one on our spare desk, some of have one at home, and I have a mobile one to take with me on business travel.

After a week of working with my new Scansnap (or playing with it, if you want to be critical), I don't have a complaint. My only minor complaint on the old one was that sometimes it was hard to copy a drivers license, but the new model takes wider paper and cards, so that's no longer an issue.

Getting a tax refund or stimulus money? Buy yourself a new ScanSnap. You'll be glad you did.

p.s.  If you have the last Scansnap scanner, you really don't NEED to upgrade. The new features are Nice-To-Haves, not Need-To-Haves, unless you're a gadget geek like me. But - if you have a scanner that isn't a Scansnap, then yes, it's a Need-To-Have.

At the end of April 2009 there were 44 condos listed for rent in the MLS, ranging from $750/month for a 1 bedroom condo at The Beacon to $4,800/month for a 3 bedroom luxury condo at Parkshore Plaza.

During April 14 condos were leased, giving a 3.4 month supply of rental condos in downtown St Petersburg. Leases ranged from $850 for a 1 bedroom condo at Bay Villas to $3,300 for a 3 bedroom luxury condo at 400 Beach.

The average condo leased ws 1m291 sq ft and rented for $1,569. The largest supply of condos has switched from 3 bedroom units to 2 bedroom units, which now have a 13 month supply.

Just over half of these rental condos do accept pets, and in most cases that is a determination made by the unit owner. There are usually weight restrictions on a pet.