Foreclosure Listings

While the entire Southwest Florida real estate universe suffers from a nagging ailment known as "shortsaleitis," I have been busy at the keyboard of my MacBookPro, with a robust supply of Red Bull and Oreos creating community specific foreclosure pages.

These pages display all the listings identified as foreclosures in the Greater Fort Myers and the Beach MLS System. These foreclosure listings are updated on a daily basis.

Check out:

Cape Coral foreclosures

Fort Myers foreclosures

Estero foreclosures

Bonita Springs foreclosures

With a top 10 ranking on Google for both Cape Coral short sales and Fort Myers short sales, we have been down and dirty in the short sale trenches representing many many buyers for several quarters. While short sale transactions are getting closed, success ratios are well below those for traditional transactions.

Serious buyers should focus their attention on the foreclosure listings as banks are not in the business of owning or managing real estate portfolios and have a keen desire to sell these properties. This is not always the case with short sales as the original owner is still party to the transaction.

Accurate Market Projections....Not

Here is a guaranteed laugh from Glenn Beck about the accuracy of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) projections. Big-time, card-carrying, pin wearing members of the NAR should skip this clip.

Fort Myers High-rises

The News-Press has an article about Fort Myers high-rises and some of the challenges developers are facing in today's market. This market sector was impacted by to heavy investor involvement in the first couple of projects including Beau Rivage and Alta Mar. The market swooned as these projects were coming to completion and those with a short-term investment strategy were unable to find end-users to facilitate an exit.

The misfortune of these high-rise quick-flippers creates an opportunity for today's end-users looking for a Fort Myers high-rise deal. Currently, price start at $235,000 for a 3/2 at Beau Rivage and 149,900 for a 1/2 at Alta Mar. These prices are well below replacement cost for this type of waterfront construction. This is truly an end-user buying opportunity.

Economy Low Blow for High-rises

Buyer Tip - Lee County Property Line

We have a great resource here in Lee County to help arm buyers with as much information as possible about a property.

This resource is the Lee County Property Line, which is managed by the County Property Assessor. The url for this site is easy to remember: www.leepa.org.

I frequently use this site to get more information about a property. Available information that I find useful includes:

• prior selling price(s)
• prior selling date(s)
  
• annual taxes
• tax estimator
  
• assessed value
  
• photo
• aerial photo
  

To access this information select ==> Database Search ==> Real Property Search ==> Enter property address. Remember to use the proper suffix abbreviations (ST, LN, BLVD, TER, AVE, DR) for the street name.

Good luck and happy hunting!

SW Florida Short Sales

Here is an informative WINK 6 video on the challenges that buyers face when dealing with short sales here in SW Florida.



Make yourself a cup of coffee or a couple of margaritas and check out all the Fort Myers short sale, Estero short sale and Cape Coral short sale listings. We have agents very experienced with the short sale process and can be your guide through this challenging environment.

Fort Myers 55+ Communities

The Southwest Florida region is home to some of the finest active adult communities in the country. These communities cater to 55+ active adults and are great alternative for those relocating to the area. One of the key issues for many is the ease at which they can make new friends with others having similar interests and lifestyles. Fort Myers 55+ Communities offer a wide-range of home styles and amenity choices.

Pelican Preserve, which was developed by WCI Communities, offers a luxury, gated country club lifestyle with an extensive roster of amenities. Pelican Preserve is a collection of 13 distinct neighborhoods and is located off Colonial Boulevard, a mile east of I-75.

Seven Lakes is an established active adult community and a favorite with the golfing an tennis crowd. If you are moving to Seven Lakes, bring your track shoes as the activities calendar at Seven Lakes is one of the busiest in Southwest Florida. Seven Lakes offers a wide range of affordable housing options and is located in Fort Myers on US-41, north of Daniels Parkway.

Heritage Cove offers a beautiful natural setting and features a lighthouse themed street layout. With an extensive list of amenities, Heritage Cove caters to those seeking an active lifestyle in a tropical setting. Heritage Cove is located in South Fort Myers off A & W Bulb Road, South of McGregor Boulevard.

The Cascades at Estero is a luxury gated active adult community with a world class roster of amenities. This community features detached villas and single-family homes and is located in Estero on Estero Parkway between US-41 and Three Oaks Boulevard.

Although this is just a sampling of the 55+ offerings in the area, they are my picks to check out if you are considering this type of community.

Fort Myers Realtors

USA Today discusses the plight of the Realtor in today's market. No doubt things are very tough in this industry right now.

Quite frankly, I think it is very positive that the downturn is culling out the weaker Realtors. There were way too many inexperienced and unprofessional opportunists in this business during the boom and a thinning of the ranks was absolutely needed.

Realtor skill sets need to adapt as well. This business has moved to the web and any Realtor that has not developed a strong web presence is going to be severely handicapped on a going forward basis. I take great pride in the strong search engine positioning of my site, Greater Fort Myers Real Estate. The site is now approaching 500 pages of unique content about the Southwest Florida real estate market.

My partners and I look forward to working with lots of new customers over the coming year and certainly appreciate the confidence that our current customers have bestowed upon us, thanks!

Realtors live close to the edge [USA Today]

Cape Coral Short Sales

Interesting overview of the current real estate market conditions in Cape Coral by the St. Petersburg Times. My takeaway about the market from this article is that affordability has returned in a big way to Cape Coral.

The growing short sale and foreclosure inventory has significantly changed the market dynamics in Cape Coral. These two listing categories dominate the pending and sold transactions right now.

Now that the speculators are being flushed out, Cape Coral can resume its rightful position as Southwest Florida's affordable bedroom community. Hopefully this market correction will provide every teacher, fireman, policeman, nurse and others with an opportunity to realize the American dream of home ownership.

Currently there are just over 1,900 Cape Coral short sale listings in the MLS system. These listings range in price from a riverfront mansion listed at $1.3M to a 2BR/2BA, 928 SF condo listed for $39K.

Cape Coral's real estate collapse attracts bargain hunters [St. Petersburg Times]

WCI Files Chapter 11

Southwest Florida powerhouse developer WCI Communities filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. While this filing was expected and not a surprise, it is tough to see one of the pillars of the area in such dire straights.

Southwest Florida projects developed by WCI Communities include Gulf Harbour, Gateway, Pelican Preserve and The Colony. WCI visionaries like former CEO Al Hoffman, who persevered in the last real estate bust to build Gulf Harbour, have left an ever-lasting imprint on our community.

I can't say that I blame the debt holders for taking a firm position and not granting another extension. Tough break for the equity holders who will in all probability be wiped out. Expect the sell-off to begin, might be some bargains to be had for the savvy investor.

WCI Fights For Life [News-Press]