RE/MAX Convention Announcement

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Major news unveiled at RE/MAX Convention. For the first time in history, and due to public demand, RE/MAX will offer every listing in MLS accross America on their website, www.remax.com It is a large project, and will be phased in. Other companies, like Realtor.com, have tried unsuccessfully to include all listings. Entire boards were able to opt out of Realtor.com That will not be the case with Remax.com as they are working at the broker and board level.

This is a bonanza for the consumer, because now they will have one place to look for current listings, as well as past sold listing data, demographics, neighborhood information, community, and school information.

This extraordinary announcement helps in another way too. Many unsuspecting consumers would log on to various websites in hopes of obtaing information. What they didn’t realize is these websites were collecting their data and then selling to the highest bidder. As a real estate agent, we can’t begin to tell you all the offers we receive to purchase consumer data collected from these sites.

The shame of it all is the conusmer thinks they’re being referred to the best agents around. Truth is, they were referred to the agent willing to pay the highest referral fee. Because the Best agents have business, they would always pass on the high referral fees. The consumer was left with newer agents or agents who could not attract much business on their own and would take any business at all just before starving. This didn’t insure quality service, and in fact, left many consumers with a bad taste in their mouths.

RE/MAX has long been known for the Top agents in the business. By going directly to Remax.com, you’ll be assured of getting a good agent, one who isn’t the high bidder for your data. In fact, the data will never be sold. All data collected goes directly to agents in the field to help you. It is not sold to third parties. You also get to remain anonymous until you’re ready to contact an agent. This keeps you as the consumer in control.

RE/MAX has a long history of moving the market, and this is one move the customer will surely love.

Of course you can view all listings in Lee County simply by visiting www.LeeCountyOnline.com All data provided stays with us, and is never sold. Let us know how we can help you.

RE/MAX Convention

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If there’s Big news in real estate, typically it is announced at a RE/MAX convention, the world’s most successful real estate company in the World.

RE/MAX not only donminates North America, but also countries accross the globe, and with their significant dominance in the worldwide marketplace, it matters when they make major anouncements.

Each year at convention it is not uncommon for us to learn about major news events, and we’ll be sure to pass them along. We’ll post to this Blog, and our engineer has armed us with fancy equipment so we can report directly from the floor an interview powerful newsmakers as the news is announced,

Tune in in SWFL to AM 1240 Saturday at 11:00 AM and AM 1270 in Naples. For those outside of SWFL, our radio show is Podcast under Future of Real Estate-SWFL in Itunes, as well as the Podcast Directory.

2006 State of the Market Report

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2006 State of the Market Report

The real estate market is much like a finely tuned jet airplane. To fly at optimal speed and efficiency, the pilot sets the course at optimal altitude, which provides for greatest speed and least resistance. The SW Florida real estate market flew at high altitude from 2001-2003. In 2004, the jet airplane transformed itself into a space shuttle and left the earth’s atmosphere. For two years the shuttle flew at super sonic speed, at altitudes never experienced before.2005 was a year where nothing could stop the shuttle. It was flying faster than the engineers said it could, and seemed unstoppable; until the oxygen sprung a leak. Suddenly, the shuttle was forced to return to earth as there wasn’t enough oxygen to sustain this altitude. Like all re-entries, it can be bumpy and chaotic. The 4th Quarter of 2005 wasn’t bumpy or chaotic. It was as if the world had stopped, and we were flying in slow motion. Speed and altitude dropped quickly. Once the shuttle emerged on radar, it didn’t fly like a loud and confident jet airplane. It felt more like a hot air balloon, drifting slowly, silent and quiet, awaiting word on its future course from the tower. The tower didn’t answer. The flight became choppy in the 1st Quarter of 2006 when everyone realized we were back to flying at earthly speeds and altitude. Sellers began to grasp the gravity of the situation, and made adjustments.

The final altitude has not been set. Once our market finds its optimal altitude, it will once again be in balance. Once our market reaches balance, it will again rise, fly at great speeds and take us all to new heights. No one can say for certain what the correct altitude for this market is, or exactly when we will reach it. One thing we can say with certainty is that the market is balancing itself right before our eyes, and quickly. We are starting to see activity pick up again, either from pent-up demand or price corrections, or both. Once the plane levels we believe we’ll be in for another long and smooth ride. This plane will never land.

Download the full State of the Market Report

 

Florida Homestead Exemption Due Soon

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If you purchased a home in Florida in 2005, you’ll want to file for the Florida Homestead Exemption. Not only will you save approximately $400/yr in taxes, you’ll also cap the amount your taxes can go up each year. If you do not file, there is no cap.To be eligible you must have purchased the home by December 31, 2005 and use the home as your primamry residence. Lee County Florida has a Homestead Exemption Form you can download. Florida is very strict about the property being your primary residence, and they will prosecute you if you cheat. Lee County hires investigators who search for rental listings on the Internet, etc. They even invite the public to tell if they suspect a neighbor is cheating on the exemption, so you only want to fill out this form if you really qualify.

If you purchased in 2006, you’ll have to wait until next year to file. If you purchased prior to 2005 and have not filed yet, you still can. If you qulaify, it’s a wise decision to file. Do not wait as it can cost you much more than the $400/yr because you won’t get the cap.

Florida has two bills pending in the legislature regarding Homestead Exemption Portability. We’ll cover what these bills mean to you in a future post.

 

2006 Will Be a Year of Transition

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Look for 2006 to be a year of change. It changed from a "sellers Market" to a "Buyers Market" seemingly overnight. The reasons are many, and we predicted this was coming last September.<br /><br />Recently we did a news story for NBC-2. <a href="http://nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=5745&z=3&amp;p="><span style="color:#3333ff;">Find the story Here</span></a>.<br /><br />Soon we will be publishing our State of the Market Report. To receive a copy, simply call our office at 239-489-4042 and we’ll mail you a copy. A few of the graphs from the State of the Market Report were used in the NBC story.<br /><br />If you are buying or selling real estate in Lee County Florida, you’ll definitely want to find out the latest on the market. The market is changing fast, and there will be winners and losers. 2005 was a year of all winners. 2006 will still have lots of winners, unfortunately there will be some losers as well.<br /><br /><span class="technoratitag">

Real Estate Numbers May Be Inflated By Duplication

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The Ellis Team and NBC-2 broke a story of concern regarding reported housing statistics reported by the Florida Association of Realtors. These numbers have been unintentionally inflated due to multple MLS boards reporting sales on the same home, because the listing agent listed the property into more than one MLS.

Real Estate Numbers May Be Inflated By Duplication

When the Realtor closes out the sale in MLS, each MLS reports a sale up to FAR (Florida Association of Realtors). FAR compiles the data and releases a report and chart for the entire state. The report each MLS sends to FAR is raw data, a compilation of summary totals. There is currently no way for FAR to realize the duplicate reportings, so the end report contains inflated data.

This is important for a few reasons:

#1. Billions of dollars worth of decisions are made in the SWFL real estate market, and these numbers are one of the benchmarks builders, developers, investors, businesses, and the buying and selling public use to make decisions about building shopping centers, businesses, homes, communities, and what product mix and at what price points.

#2. Once the duplication problem is rectified, 2006 may appear to be a much worse market because it won’t appear to stack up against 2005, even though 2005 was artificially higher than it really was.

#3. The general public reads that homes appreciated at a certain pace, so they believe their home is worth a certain amount. All real estate is local, so because the overall market was believed to be at a certain appreciation rate, it never was fair to expect every home appreciated at the exact same rate anyway. However, the entire market may have been accidently exagerated, so sellers shouldn’t draw conclusions about today’s market based upon inaccurate data.

If you’re considering buying or selling in today’s market, it pays to consult a professional. Making a mistake in today’s market can cost you in untold ways. We’ll discuss how in a later article posted on this Blog.

 

SW Florida Real Estate Podcast

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Liesteners have grown accustomed to tuning in to our weekly radio show Saturday’s at 11:00 on AM 1240 Ft/Myers and AM 1270 Naples WINK WNOG. Each week we cover real estate issued affecting you, and we explain complex real estate issues and break then down so everyone can understand how they affect the market.

Our show has been broadcast over the air and wordlwide on the Internet for over 3 years. Recently, we took it a step further and have Podcast the show. Simply go to iTunes and search their Podcast for Future of Real Estate- SW Florida or go to www.podcast.net and search for Future of Real Estate and you can subscribe to the show for free.

When you subscribe to a Podcast, your computer will automatically download new shows as soon as we post them, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. You’ll never miss the latest news, and you won’t have to sit by the radio Saturday’s at 11:00 to find out what’s going on in Lee County Florida Real Estate. It’s kind of like TIVO for the radio.

Try it, it’s handy, and it’s free.

Lee County Florida Real Estate Rises 44% in 2005

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Lee County Florida Real Estate Update

Lee County’s median price rose 44% in 2005, from $192,700 to $278,200 The number of sales increased 26% from 9,612 in 2004 to 12,123 in 2005 making 2005 another record breaking year. To read the full story, click on the link.To view a chart of Florida Year End sales statistics, click here .

State of the Market-Mini Update

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State of the Market-Mini Update

Here is a look at Inventory levels from random past dates and today. Active represents Active listings by date, and Pending represents properties that were under contract for sale at the time. CMI represents our Current Market Index, which accurately predicts where the market is heading. See Below for Commentary.

 

Fort Myers Geo Areas
ACTIVE
PENDING
CMI
6/20/2003 819 378 2.17
8/7/2003 768 337 2.28
10/15/2003 825 303 2.72
12/14/2004 494 295 1.67
4/1/2005 435 428 1.02
7/25/2005 398 350 1.14
9/29/2005 490 267 1.84
10/25/2005 626 200 3.13
1/24/2006 1338 210 6.37
dddd

Cape Coral Geo Areas
ACTIVE
PENDING
CMI
6/20/2003 1575 805 1.95
8/7/2003 1463 733 2
10/15/2003 1593 651 2.45
12/14/2004 886 581 1.52
4/1/2005 1006 894 1.13
7/25/2005 1020 971 1.05
9/29/2005 1653 751 2.2
10/25/2005 2141 605 3.64
1/24/2006 3926 537 7.31

 

 

As you can see, inventory is rising quickly, and the market has swung from a Hot sellers market to a buyers market. The CMI index in October predicted the market would slow, and as you can see, Active listings have swelled while Pending sales have dropped.

We are seeing about a 5 to 1 ratio of new listings entering the market each day to number of homes that go pending, which has lead to a dramatic increase in inventory. How much will this build-up affect prices? Stay tuned and we’ll post more Mini-updates on what is happening in SW Florida Real Estate.

Note, we selected certain geographic areas inside our MLS system for same sales comparisons. The Fort Myers and Cape Coral Geo areas do not encompass the Entire Lee County market, there are actually many more listings than what is shown here. We do feel, however, this is an accuratae representation of what is happening all over SW FLorida, regardless of which Geo area homes are located in.

 

To search for homes for sale, feel free to shop at www.LeeCountyonline.com

NAR Study Commentary

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This study confirms what we already know. Sellers who use Realtors sell their homes for 16% on average more than sellers who try to sell their own home for the same types of home. This more than pays the fee, not to mention the time, effort, and money spent advertising. It also helps to close the first deal instead of the 3rd or 4th, and it make for less stress throughout the process. These are all facts and have been documented for years.

A reporter asked me why a buyer would use a Realtor given that so much information is available via the Internet. My response was this:

Even with all the sources available on the Internet, you can still only get about 60% of what you need to know. Even if you were able to obtain the 60%, you’d have to do it on each and every property to make the best decision, and the best proeprties would be long gone by the time you did all that. Once you go for all this information, it becomes information overload and analysis paralysis. Buyers resort to using a professional to sort through the maze of tangible data.

Then there’s the intangible data people look to a professional for. Questions like, What used to be here before this development, what is the zoning across the street, what will my house back up to, what is the reputation of the builder, what is the quality of construction, will this home be hard to resell, will the roads get busier, what is the reputation of the schools, what types of financing are available to me, should I buy this home or one of the others we looked at, etc… The list goes on and on.

Buyers want to make the best decision for their family. 77% of buyers look to the Internet first when shopping for a home. Internet buyers tend to be more sophisticated, and they don’t like un-answered questions by their very nature. They love to use the Internet to do as much research as they can, and they don’t settle for unanswered questions. These are the very people who realize they need a qualified agent the most.

More buyers are selecting their agents from the Internet. They’re looking for reputation, responsiveness, and product knowledge. We’ll profile Internet buyers more in a subsequent post.

Brett Ellis is an E-Pro Certified Realtor.