Lehigh Ghost

Haunted warehouse on SW 10th St??

Juicee News Daily reports on haunted locations across Florida including an abandoned warehouse in Lehigh

Lehigh acres - An old ware house - it now you hear doors slam in the opposite
room cables slam up and down really fast. and in the shed a couple of black men
where tortured and killed in there and hung on the roof you can still hear
slamming on the roof from there bodies. Its located at the end of 10th street by
7/11 when you get to the end of the street you will see an old twisted fence
just take that dirt rode and there u are. It is abandoned - May 2004 correction:
the directions were wrong. It is at the end of SW 10th Street, not W 10th
Street.

Haunted Places in Florida [Juicee News Daily]

The new deal

Immigrant buyers are growing in numbers

The SFgate reports on a transaction that was mighty strange and raised suspicions, but ultimately highlights a new class of home buyers. This article hit home with me on a number of fronts, particularly with some of the construction financing deals that I have seen lately.

Weirdness abounds in real estate, but sometimes a transaction is so peculiar that even after the deal goes through it continues to haunt you. Such was the case for Jessica Newman (not her real name) after she and her husband sold their three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Redwood Drive in Concord.

It all began when the couple accepted a backup offer that made them uneasy, though it was well over the asking price of $530,000. The buyer planned on getting a zero-percent-down loan and was paying several points for the privilege. In exchange for the higher offer price, the sellers would pay $8,000 of the closing costs. These details suggested that the buyers weren't exactly rolling in dough.

A Strange Tale With A Twist Sometimes a risky transaction is not what it seems [SF Gate]

Rush to commercial

First time buyers are entering commercial market

Many real estate executives say they have recently seen a significant uptick in the number of first-time buyers who are entering the commercial market. Many buy small apartment buildings or retailing centers or mixed-use properties that combine apartments with a few stores, real estate professionals say.

Some executives say the influx has been large enough to prompt them to try to track these types of buyers more diligently, as well as to reconsider their marketing efforts. "I call it the democratization of commercial real estate - everyone wants to participate, and access to capital is wonderful," said Gary Gabriel, executive director of the metropolitan area capital markets group at Cushman & Wakefield.

A Rush to Commercial Property [NY Times]

Storm class divide

Weathering the storm with the wealthy

The Miami Herald reports on post hurricane happenings in the upscale Naples 'hood. One's level of wealth, which often translates into newer sturdier housing, allows the upper socieconomic classes to ride out these storms more easily than those less fortunate.

Insulated by wealth and privilege -- and the luxury of new housing built to exacting construction standards -- Naples and its millionaires carried an air of satisfaction just 48 hours after the storm.

Crews with leaf blowers were already out early Wednesday morning on Fifth Avenue, clearing any debris that would mar the city's boutique-lined main street.

By noon, sidewalk cafés were open to patrons in pastel-colored pants and boat shoes, resort attire rarely seen outside its native habitat on the sidewalks of Naples and Palm Beach.

Wealthy spared hurricane's worst [Miami Herald]

Northport lot auction

2,100 seized lots on auction block


North Port and Sarasota County will jump into the real estate market in a big way next week, hoping to make $50 million to $70 million that the county can use for affordable housing.

The county has already committed much of its windfall, expected to top $20 million, to affordable housing initiatives. While North Port hasn't yet dedicated its windfall, one commissioner said the city needs to use the money to pay for road projects.

The two governments hired Fisher Auction Co. of Pompano Beach to conduct the auction with bidding, some via the Internet, starting in early January and ending Feb. 11.

County, city to sell a lot of lots [Herald-Tribune]

Burnt Store Commons

Shopping center coming to Burnt Store area

If there is an area in SW Florida in need of shopping amenities, Burnt Store would top the list.

This area just over the Lee County border in the in the southern end of Charlotte County is rapidly growing collection of residential developments. At present time, the area is utterly devoid of any retail establishments.
Charlotte Development Corporation is planning a 120,000 square-foot shopping center with a major grocer tenant for Burnt Store Road.

The Burnt Store Improvement Initiative recently issued a report about development in the area.

Retail rush in Charlotte [Herald-Tribune]

NAR vs. web

Real estate anit-trust hearings

A major showdown is underway in Washington pitting the traditional real estate practitioners dominated by the National Associaction of Realtors against the new web-savvy discount practitioners.

While I am not taking sides in this epic battle, in the end consumers will ultimately decide who the winners and losers are in this battle for the $60 billion pot of commission that is up for grabs each year.

Discount and non-traditional real estate firms vented their frustration and rage at the powerful National Association of Realtors yesterday at an all-day hearing held by federal antitrust regulators.

Many long-standing grievances bubbled to the surface as panelists representing new kinds of real estate businesses spoke about ways they said the trade group had blocked them from full participation in the market. Several derisively called the Realtors group a "club" that excludes members who won't play by their rules, such as adherence to the traditional 6 percent commission charged on home sales.

Discount Firms Blast Realtors [Washington Post]

Lee prices up

Home prices continue upward climb

While not reflective of any post-Wilma sentiment, the median price of $288,700 for a home resale in Lee County was up 46% in September over previous year. This is a new all-time high for Lee County.

There were 1,075 home resales in Lee County during September, which represent a 50% increase over September 2004.

In Collier County, the median home resale price of $500,800 represents a 40 percent increase over September 2004.

While we have seen some buyers particularly at the low-end of the spectrum having more difficulty obtaining financing, this issue does not appear to be significantly impacting the overall home resale market. From my vantage point, there appears to have been a buyer mindshift over the past year from "lets get it now so we can flip it" to "lets get it now before the prices go up."

The million dollar question is what will be the rate of appreciation over the next 12 months? While I am not going to make any predictions, the curve should flatten due to the increasing inventory of available properties. I do like the area demographics and think that they will play a key role in keeping value increases ahead of many other less retiree friendly parts of the country.

Local home prices surge again [News-Press]

Upscale renovating

Designer renovators are successful flippers


You won't find any Home Depot fixtures in a renovation completed by the designer renovating team of Gordon Alvarado. This team focuses on renovating under-sized and under-valued properties in the upscale resort areas including the Hamptons and Key West.

They target homes in serious disrepair that have the potential for volumetric expansion. Renovations are completed with high-end appointments and decorated with an eye for resale. When a property is resold, all furnishings and decorations are included for the new owner in a turn-key scenario

"We do something different from the speculative players," Mr. Alvarado said this week in a telephone conversation from Sag Harbor. "We're buying property that's undeveloped and increasing size and doing major renovations, creating a new product. So we're not only counting on increase in price from year to year, we have a margin between what it costs to build and what we sell for, and our margins have been rather good: 40 to 50 percent. If the market stays flat, the margin may narrow a bit, but even if it drops to 30 percent, we still have a good business model."

There certainly are opportunities for this type of custom renovating in SW Florida, particularly in the downtown area of Naples and on the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva.

Flipping With a Twist: The Camera-Ready Cottage [NY Times]

Nervous snowbirds

Remote ownership challenges

The snowbirds' song soured a bit Monday as Hurricane Wilma's pounding rains and winds up to 125 m.p.h. swept across Florida, leaving Michigan's prodigious number of wintertime Sunshine State residents wondering what they would find left of their second homes.

"I was up all night long flipping channels and I still know nothing," Sylvia Landuyt, a 71-year-old Grosse Pointe Park woman whose family has an apartment on Florida's Marco Island, said Monday. "It's very frustrating."

That was the story across southeastern Michigan, as many snowbirds tried, often without success, to find out what Wilma had wrought.

Florida storms are taking toll on snowbirds [Detroit Free Press]

Wind, water, now what?

Wilma packs it punch on SW Florida

While watching the CNN coverage of the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the impact of this storm to the local real estate market.

It would appear that Lee County has a lucky charm dangling somewhere with Charley hitting just to the north in Charlotte County and now Wilma just to the south in Collier County. Wilma certainly could not have hit the SW Florida coast in a location with a lighter population than Cape Romano.

A key factor regarding damage for homes in the path of a hurricane is the age of the structure. Buildings constructed after 1994 are built to a much stricter code that went into effect after Hurricane Andrew damaged 53,000 homes in the Miami area. With vacant land on Marco Island and Naples so scarce, much of the housing stock in these affluent communities is new. Older homes particularly those along the coast have been either torn down or extensively renovated and brought up to new hurricane codes.

While many of us are suffering from severs hurricane overload, it would not appear that this storm created enough damage to scare away winter snowbirds. Certainly the lack of a major storm surge sparred much of the region from the type of flooding that so devastated the New Orleans area. I think that many will have a false sense that the area can withstand any storm that nature can send our way.

The clean-up and repair activity from Wilma is sure to distract the already taxed construction industry here in SW Florida. Shortages loom for roofing materials, pool cages and labor as crews are redirected from new construction activity to repairing damaged buildings. This resource shortage will further drive up new housing prices throughout the region.

I expect this barrage of hurricanes will focus home buyers on the age of the structures and will depress interest in structures constructed prior to 1994 when the new codes went into effect. Expect an increased level of tear down activity to occur in the riverfront areas of Ft Myers and along the gulf access canals of Cape Coral. Older structures on land in these prized locations will prove detrimental to the value of the land.

Cool-off predicted

Rate of appreciation expected to slow

Look for real estate prices to cool off after the fevered increases of the past three years, commercial real estate broker Frank D'Alessandro told the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce at its annual luncheon Thursday.

Prices should continue to increase modestly even as interest rates rise and consumer costs increase because of soaring oil prices, he said. His research shows that the 4 million baby boomers coming to Florida in the next five years should keep prices from falling.

Red-hot real estate forecast to cool off [News-Press]

Agents nailed

Proceed with caution......sharks in area

Here are a couple of Florida real estate agents with a colorful past, Vicki Mann who fled to the US after being found guilty in England of ripping of a client and Stephen Duffy (AKA John Clarkson) a convicted drug smuggler who has been on the run from Canadian officials for 29 years.

Herald-Tribune columnist Tom Lyons comments about the ease of obtaining a Florida real estate license are valid and is an issue that needs attention from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Judgment blemishes agent's past [Herald-Tribune]
Real estate license process a bit too simple [Herald-Tribune]
Feds: Weston man linked to Canadian gang [Miami Herald]

Purchase option problem

Major landlord backs out of rent-to-own deals

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has launched a formal investigation into a Venice businessman who consumers say refused to sell them houses after they paid thousands of dollars under rent-to-own contracts.

Crist said the action was prompted by a recent report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and other information about Venice businessman Rod Khleif, whose firms own hundreds of properties and advertise rent-to-own deals in at least seven counties stretching from Tampa to Fort Myers.

Dozens of Florida families have signed contracts with Khleif agreeing to rent houses with an option to buy, often shelling out thousands of dollars in down payments.

But when it came time to buy their home -- sometimes after years of additional payments toward the purchase, repairs and other expenses -- many say they got nothing but a runaround and lost everything.

State investigates Venice man's lease-to-buy arrangements [Herald-Tribune]

Martha time

Decorating diva hits SW Florida

America's favorite bad girl, Martha Stewart, is partnering with KB Homes and will decorating model homes in SW Florida for Halloween.

The KB featured models are located in Deep Creek at 24500 Sandhill Blvd; in Lehigh Acres in the Town Lakes community at 18351 Pine Nut Court and in Cape Coral at 971 Chiquita Blvd.

Martha Stewart coming to Charlotte ... in a way [Herald-Tribune]

Cashing out

SW Floridians are taking real estate riches elsewhere


While much is written about the 1000 people a day that move to SW Florida, the Herald-Tribune has a piece on SW Floridians who are cashing out of this market and relocating.

They're scraping profits off the lucrative Florida real estate table and leaving, for small towns in Tennessee, cities in the Carolinas, villages in Washington state, even elsewhere in the Sunshine State -- all in search of the next paradise.

"Migration is happening throughout the country," says Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania."It's fueling the growth of places like Phoenix and Las Vegas, which are the exurbs of California," Wachter adds."

People leaving Florida are fueling the growth of the Carolinas and of Georgia, and the spillover is keeping the housing boom going in some places.""Smaller towns are often particularly attractive, and they grow in response to affordability pressures in places like Southwest Florida," Wachter says.

Adventurous? Trade in your bit of the boom [Herald-Tribune]

Invasion of the geeks

Newcomers changing real estate industry

A press release from issued today by Lead Lease caught my eye, Internet Entrepreneurs Will Take Control of the Real Estate Industry. While I don't think much of the expensive hosting services offered by Lead Lease, I couldn't agree more with the headline that technological innovators are sure to significantly impact the real estate industry.

The comment in the press release about Realtor branding is pretty interesting. Hoards of Realtors have built websites that create themselves as the brand. The only problem is that home buyers doing a search don't care about a branded Realtor, they are interested in communities and amenities.

The site Trulia is going to make a big impact on how buyers locate potential properties. With its impending success, others are sure to follow. Although it has not yet made much of an impact in SW Florida, Craigs List is playing a significant role in real estate advertising across several major markets including San Francisco, Boston & New York.

After spending the majority of my career in the technology sector, I am continually amazed at the lack of technical innovation in the real estate industry. Simple automation tools that are taken for granted in corporate America like desktop faxing and data sharing between systems are nearly non-existent in the world of real estate. I often ponder this industry's complete dependence on faxes and the number of faxes required to complete a transaction.

I am considering a number of tools to link buyers and sellers and facilitate transactions, sure beats complaining about the ongoing pain of entering listings into two MLS systems here in SW Florida because our local boards don't communicate very well.

Internet Entrepreneurs Will Take Control of the Real Estate Industry [Business Wire]

Urban living economics

Urban growth reduces region-wide housing costs

Kudos to Matrix for this post regarding a study by Sacramento State University that suggests overall region-wide housing costs drop if a central or downtown area has a 10% growth in housing. These findings differ from the long-standing belief that reducing sprawl drives up housing prices.

The study suggests that if sprawl is controlled housing prices could be expected to fall as buyers would purchase homes in a more dense setting. If sprawl is allowed buyers will seek out larger homes on larger lots, which are usually located further out from the urban center.

It will be interesting to see if the theory plays out here locally with the development underway in downtown Ft. Myers along the Caloosahatchee River. In theory, the buyers of a riverfront condo would probably be looking at a single-family gulf access home if the condo alternative was not available. With all the planned projects it seems feasible that we will approach the 10% downtown growth threshold.

Study: Growth control does not mean high housing prices [Central Valley Business Times]

Chasing deals

Investors searching afar to find next deal

With home prices skyrocketing, many investors are having to move to new less expensive markets to find new investment opportunities.

Having been an active participant in the dotcom run-up and subsequent collapse, I cringe when reading about investors that are highly-leveraged and borrowing as much as possible for the next investment. Yes, placing a bet on a property in a rapidly appreciating market is in and of itself a gamble, utilizing an aggressive financing instrument just further ratchets up the stakes.

Many chasing housing deals for investment [Miami Herald]

Positive business climate

Area ranks highly for starting & growing a business


Both Naples and Ft. Myers-Cape Coral were recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as having a positive environment to both start and grow a business.

In the mid-size city category defined as having between 20,000 to 50,000 businesses, Naples was ranked 26th and Ft. Myers-Cape Coral 34th in the nation.

Factors contributing to this ranking include the explosive population growth in the region coupled with the great climate, growing university presence, expanded airport and heavy tourism.

Magazine rates SW Florida as a top spot for business [News-Press]

Ugly house shorage

Fixer-uppers are tough to find

Buying ugly houses is getting harder and harder. Maybe that's because everyone is doing it.

The national real estate investing craze has made it harder for wholesalers like HomeVestors, the real estate franchise best known for its "We Buy Ugly Houses" billboard campaign, to ply their trade.

Investors across Southwest Florida are complaining about the tight housing inventory.

"With the market the way it is, the buys are few and far between," says Wayne Mitchell, owner of the Fort Myers franchise of HomeVestors. In past years, Mitchell's HomeVestors franchise has sold a lot of homes to investors who then rent or resell them. But the margins just aren't there anymore in the housing wholesale trade, Mitchell and other investors say.

Winning ugly [Naples Daily News]

Seller attitudes

Don't let greed impact decision making process

Harold Bubil of the Herald-Tribune comments on seller greed in his recent column.

Economist and Sarasota resident John Tucillo puts it bluntly."Sellers are always the last to know" when the market has turned, says the former chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.

"In many markets across the country, listings are up," Tucillo writes via e-mail. "Prices have risen to the point where some buyers are discouraged; the rent-vs.-buy calculation is convincing others to move from ownership to tenancy; and sellers are getting greedy (either rushing into the market to beat the slowdown, or overpricing
their homes).

As market forces begin to favor buyers, sellers need to modify their decision making to be aligned with current market conditions. This is going to be a difficult process for many in SW Florida that have grown accustomed to quarterly double digit appreciation rates.

No time for greed [Herald-Tribune]

Overvaluation challenges

Naples & Cape Coral climbing overvaluation index

Naples topped the Global Insight/National City home overvaluation index for Q2 05 with a 79.4% overvalued rating, up from 3rd place and a 61.9% rating in Q1 05.

Cape Coral ranked 34th nationally in Q2 05 with a 44.1% overvalued rating up from 42nd place and a 34.6% rating in Q1 05.

Global Insight’s study merges data and forecasts for home prices, home sales, housing stock, and household income—with a methodology developed by the economics department of National City Corporation examines current and expected housing prices in the 299 largest US Metropolitan areas.

Study findings indicate that 53 metropolitan areas, representing 31 percent of the total value of the US housing market, "are extremely overvalued" and face a high risk of price correction. To be considered "extremely overvalued," markets had to have current prices exceeding the expected price by 30 percent or more, a threshold that was determined from the median degree of overvaluation that preceded 63 known local price drops over the past 20 years.

Extreme Overvaluation in Housing Market Becomes More Pervasive During Second Quarter [Global Insight]
Housing Study Table Q2.xls [Global Insight]

10 signs of a changing market

Play detective....clues to determine if market is shifting

Here are 10 subtle clues that the real estate market is changing courtesy of Inman News:

1. Kinkos is busy: Copy/graphics/printing shops are producing volumes of fliers, postcards and other materials for Realtors to send out to promote listings. Realtors have to keep going back to these shops to print new marketing materials, reflecting reduced prices on properties that just aren't selling as fast as they used to sell.

2. Ads get more graphic: Some brokers and agents in Colorado are including a graph of the 20-year home price appreciation forecast in their advertisements. They're trying to show buyers there's nothing to be afraid of, that buying a home now will not hurt them financially in the long run.

10 signs of a changing housing market [Inman News]

Boom winding down

NAR Chief Economist addresses Marco Island Realtors

David Lereah, the Chief Economist and seemingly head cheerleader for the National Association of Realtors, recently addressed the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors.

The market is actually returning to the more realistic level of the early 1990s, Lereah said Oct. 4 at a function hosted by the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors.

So instead of the 31 percent price appreciation that occurred on Marco Island last year, for example, these figures will eventually steady around 5 percent to 7 percent, he said.

Lereah said the end of the real estate boom represents air coming out of the proverbial bubble, rather than the bubble bursting.

"The real estate markets (across the country) are fundamentally sound," Lereah said, citing reasons beside lower interest rates — and a substantial refinancing boom — that first began to propel the market in 1992. These included:
— the emergence of the flush baby boomer market;
— the increasing buying power of immigrants over the past few decades; and
— technology both facilitating and reducing the costs of home ownership through more efficient business processes.

It is refreshing to hear Lereah speak realistically about the state of the market. I think most us involved with real estate need to properly set expectations on a going forward basis. While this may be a painful process for some, it is a neccesary one.

Top economist: End of boom won't doom real estate market [Naples Daily News]

Deed rip-off

Record retrieval company gouging customers

Florida Record Retrieval Inc. of Plantation is contacting Lee County property owners by mail with an offer to obtain certified copies of deeds. The problem with the offer is that this firm charges $55 plus $4.50 in postage and handling for a document that can be purchased directly from the county for as little as $2.50.

If you own property in Lee County, you can view your deed online at Lee County Clerk of Courts under the option search/download official records. It is always a good idea to check your deeds for accuracy of information contained on them. It is much easier to fix a problem now, rather than have a property closing delayed due to a clerical problem with a deed.

Official warns of costly records [News-Press]

Price-to-rent ratio

Rents not rising with housing prices

The Herald-Tribune reports on the price-to-rent ratios and signs that the area's low rents and high housing costs may represent a bubble. Gulf Returns previously commented on price-to-rent ratios in May.

According to Celia Chen, an Economy.com economist, It's not surprising that Southwest Florida's markets have higher ratios than average because of a growing retiree population, but the fact that the ratios have "increased so greatly in the past few years indicates that house prices are becoming detached from their underlying value,"

Rent or buy? A reality check [Herald-Tribune]

Construction costs rising

Katrina impact is real


As we approach prime tourist season, those considering building a new home in SW Florida are in for a surprise. The effects of Hurricane Katrina are already impacting raw material costs and are being passed on to new home buyers.

In the days following Hurricane Katrina's assault on the Gulf Coast, the price of plywood rose 50 percent.

Add to that the wrinkle of petroleum driving up the cost of everything from plastic pipes (a 45 percent increase) to truckers' diesel (up 50 percent from a year ago), and economists are saying the price of a new home will rise by as much as 10 percent during the next year, barring any other factors..

A big issue impacting new home contracts is the use of escalation clauses by builders. Since many potential new home buyers are scared off by these type of clauses, builders are forced to anticipate future costs that may be up to a year away.

If you are considering building a new home, committing as soon as possible is probably a wise move as the future cost structure appears to be rapidly moving upward.

Katrina raises local building costs [Herald-Tribune]

IRA pre-construction play

If it seems to good to be true.......

Tampa-based real estate IRA services firm Independent Executive Management (IEM) has announced a program for single-family pre-construction which can provide returns of nearly 500% on an investment of $7,500.

"An investor comes to us with $7,500 and for that amount, we arrange to have a home built in either Cape Coral or Lehigh Acres. One of our affiliates then provides a tenant who enters into a lease-to-buy agreement for that home. The amount the tenant pays each month toward the lease covers mortgage payments, taxes and management fees -- so there's no additional outlay for the investor."

"At the end of 24 months, the tenant is obligated to buy the property for a set price. When the tenant buys the property, the investor earns a gross return of 14% of the sales price of the home. Assuming the sale price is $250,000 plus closing costs, the investor receives $35,000 for a total return of 466% on the original investment."

IEM has partnered with First Home Builders and the Florida Gulf Coast Group to provide this offer. Investors can use retirement or non-retirement funds to participate in this program.

Interesting timing for this program to surface soon after it was announced that the FDIC has ordered First Community Bank of Southwest Florida to stop making construction loans. First Community had been one of the largest pre-construction originators in SW Florida and a major financer for First Homes. Looks to me like First Homes is is leaving no stone unturned to keep the new home locomotive running. Hopefully, those pondering an investment in this program will not put future retirement funds in play without truly understanding all the risks.

Florida Pre-Construction Program Promises Spectacular Returns [Marketwire]

Condo conversion risks

Know the risks before getting on the escalator

Many investors are jumping at the chance to purchase units in newly converted condo projects. The draw to these projects are often lower pricing than new construction and in some cases, positive cash flow from rental income.

The downside to these projects is older stock with a higher likelihood of problems than new construction. As these are new condo associations, there often has not been enough time to build up reserve accounts to deal with major issues. In these scenarios, it is important to understand whether the renovations were down to the shell and included the major infrastructure items or were the more customary paint, carpet, countertop and cabinet flavor.

Condo conversions can leave buyers with structural, legal surprises [Sun-Sentinel]

Save Our Homes Amendment

Property tax cap under fire

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune recently featured a fascinating series on the controversial Save our Homes Amendment, which caps annual property tax increases at 3% for homestead residents. This amendment shifts a disproportionate amount of the tax burden to second home owners and businesses.

Many existing homeowners that benefit from the amendment are feeling trapped because they do not want to sell their homes and trigger a major tax increase. There is a growing call to add a portability option to this amendment. The challenge for political leaders will be to drive reform without creating revolt among homestead taxpayers.

Save Our Homes Special Report [Herald-Tribune]

An investors first year

The trials and tribulations of a real estate investor

It's been a busy year for Jeff Jones. The 33-year-old real-estate investor has a full-time Microsoft Corp. sales job and is the landlord of two Seattle single-family homes, which he purchased within the past 19 months. He now plans to own 20 investment properties by 2020. As his first year of real-estate investing comes to a close, so does this series, which has traced his investment efforts.

Looking back, Mr. Jones says he doesn't have any regrets about the homes bought -- or the purchases he lost out on. Investors, he says, have to start somewhere, then apply what they learn with each transaction to other deals. He's made smart investments in water-view property in his local market, he says.

Landlord Has No Regrets After Year of Investing [Real Estate Street Journal]

Realtor mailings

Northerners targeted in winter season

If you are a new Florida investor, be forewarned that you will soon start receiving a steady supply of mail from Florida Realtors. Postcards, letters, flyers......you name it and they will be hitting your mailbox this winter.

There will be offers to list or purchase your property, if the price is a high one...it is usually an offer to list the property. If the price in the mailing seems low.....it is probably an offer to buy the property.

One of my all-time favorites letters was from someone who claimed to be a local school teacher who was struggling to afford a home in Cape Coral. He wanted to buy one of my properties at a discounted price. I checked him out on the tax records and this alleged struggling teacher actually owned over 20 properties, many that were acquired at discount prices.

How do these realtors get your out-of-state mailing address? Most counties in Florida provide on-line access to property appraisal and tax information. In Lee County, the property appraiser site even provides an aerial photograph of each parcel in the county. Both the county appraisor site and the MLS systems, which also draw from this database, provide many options to Realtors for extracting data about property owners.

Greetings from Southwest Florida: Realtors 'delivering paradise' to northern residents [Naples Daily News]

Florida housing affordability

Fourth largest affordability gap says FDIC study

In another sign of Florida's tightening housing affordability squeeze, the state's soaring home prices are far outpacing workers' pay raises.

A study released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ranks Florida fourth in the nation in the gap between home price increases and income growth, behind only Arizona, Nevada and California.

Florida home prices soared 24.5 percent in the 12 months that ended June 30, while income rose only 5.4 percent, the FDIC said. That 19 percentage point gap is well above the 11 percentage point difference a year ago, when Florida ranked seventh nationwide.

Housing costs outpace pay [Palm Beach Post]

New home permits

Lee County and Cape Coral permits continue strong


Lee County issued 1,181 permits for new single-family in September, off the record 1309 issued in August but well ahead of the the 510 issued in September 2004.

Cape Coral issued 765 permits in September, up from 742 issued in August and 477 in September 2004.

The continued strong pace of single-family home starts is a positive indicator for the continued health of the local market. Another positive economic indicator for Lee County is an unemployment rate of 3.2%, the lowest in Florida.

September 2004 permit numberss were impacted by Hurricane Charlie and are not necessarily a good barometer to judge this year's results.

Home permits still up from previous year [News-Press]

Ave Maria construction starts

SW Florida's first planned community

A planned community centered around a downtown with affordable housing........almost sounds too good to be true. Ave Maria will be anchored by the new Ave Maria University that is emerging in this area 30 miles east of Naples.

Construction is set to start soon on a university town offering
half-million dollar homes, affordable apartments and stores in fast-growing east
Collier County.

Developer Barron Collier Co. of Naples promises the new town of Ave Maria
will offer something now rare and valuable in Southwest Florida: housing for
low-income workers and young families.

Town of Ave Maria born [News-Press]

Cheap Florida land play

Major public company landholder undervalued?


Where can you buy land in Florida at $5,400 and acre? A good place to start would be investing in shares of the St. Joe Co.

Even if St. Joe weren’t such a creative developer, the company’s $60 stock price (as of Sept. 28) would still be something of a head-scratcher. With St. Joe’s total stock market capitalization now standing at $4.6 billion, Wall Street is valuing the company at the equivalent of roughly $5,400 an acre—about a week’s rent for an upscale Florida condominium.

That’s even cheaper than it sounds. St. Joe right now has 19 active developments spanning about 13,000 acres. Recent sales range from a $2.9 million beachfront condominium at WaterSound Beach in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., to a $130,000 lot in a Tallahassee subdivision called Southwood. (Ball would not be amused: Southwood used to be his personal estate.) In the second quarter of 2005, St. Joe recorded an average profit on all home and home-site sales equivalent to $160,000 an acre. St. Joe won’t make that much on all its sales, but even now, the company is selling remote unimproved ranch land for upwards of $7,000 an acre. And that’s before the population boom that everyone knows is coming.

Buy Florida Land Cheap! [Fortune]

Home-equity credit lines

Investors turn to home-equity to fund purchases


HELOC, which sounds like a Truman era missile that we pointed at Russia, is short for home-equity line of credit. Many investors are utilizing these lines to expand their buying power.

Instant equity: Just add a booming real estate market, stir in modest interest rates, cook up some fast cash and make your dreams come true.

Rotonda Realtor Marty Remillard is using a home-equity loan to purchase investment property, and he advises his ReMax Properties clients to do the same.

"It's an interest-only loan with no prepayment penalty," he said. "When you buy additional property with the loan money, you don't have all the closing costs. It's to your advantage."

A smart investor can "snowball" the equity on a series of properties,
Remillard said.

Financial advisors often recommend this vehicle to investors rather than have clients liquidate portfolio holdings. In many cases the investment banking firm has a mortgage division that can handle the entire process.

Home is where the cash is [Sun Herald]

Construction loan concerns

FDIC shuts down local bank loan program


The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has halted the construction loan program offered by First Community Bank of Southwest Florida.

Bank President Edward "Chip" Black said construction loans were the bank's biggest business and had been for some time, until the FDIC order.

Black said the bank made construction loans on 12 percent of all single-family homes in Lee County in 2004.

Tighter loan regulations is a good thing for our real estate market. Many of these loan programs were targeting buyers very much on the edge. I am pleased that the FDIC is taken proactive action on this issue to prevent a catastrophe like the S&L Crisis of the 80's. Weeding out high risk buyers and improving the quality of local lenders loan portfolios is a good thing for the industry.

Regulators may be getting nervous over real estate bubble [News-Press]

Ft Myers riverfront

Condo resales....riverfront renaissance wrinkles


Surprise Surprise, resales of Ft Myers riverfront condos have been disappointing.

A year after Fort Myers' first downtown condominium tower opened, two of its units have sold for less than the initial buyer paid.

In one instance, county records indicate, the buyer lost $46,000. In the other, the price dropped almost $34,000.

Taken together, the two sales have raised the question of whether they may be a harbinger of a softening market.

I am not at all surprised at the lackluster resale activity for these riverfront units. Over the past couple of years, I have had numerous opportunities to participate as an investor in the riverfront renaissance. To date, I have not jumped into this market as I see a number of problems with these developments.

My biggest issue is the lack of amenities in the direct vicinity of the projects. While downtown Ft Myers does have some interesting restaurants and clubs, it is currently not an inviting walk from the towers to these establishments. I think it is a real shame that the condo projects did not include a retail element on the ground floor. This is a concept that is now endorsed by most major cities with world class waterfronts.

From an investment standpoint, there is just no way to generate positive cash flow on units in these towers. While long term these projects should appreciate handsomely, the carrying costs are way too high to use as a rental investment. There are plenty of other condo opportunities throughout the region that make more sense.

Condo sales trigger doubts [News-Press]