Love the Dunes - Naples, Florida - Love the Dunes

This morning in Naples is the most beautiful day in weeks, with temperatures in the high 70’s and virtually no humidity. It’s a glorious ending to a week of rainy days and gloomy news from the housing markets.

Personally, I’ve had good news with regard to my own current listing. It’s not at The Dunes, but is in a comparable building to the three buildings in of Island Cove. My listing was first active last December, and though there were many showings, only a couple of verbal discussions until this week. You see, I finally lowered the price to the point I realized today’s buyer would find it attractive.
Full disclosure would require that I admit that my partners and I did in fact settle for significantly less than we’d hoped when listing originally. In fact, we will be selling for approximately 40% less than our purchase price at the top of the market in early 2006. Painful, yes! Realistic in today’s market, unfortunately, yes. That brings our sale price back to levels being seen in 2003 before the “bubble” began to develop.

In the end, we could either continue to carry the costs involved, or sell it at today’s market value. We’ve all regularly made those decisions with our stock portfolios. Why does it seem so much harder when we consider our real estate investments? I think it’s because we can actually see the investment, , and as in our case, enjoy it. But at the end of the day, it was still an investment, . We gambled and lost.

So, if you’re trying to sell in today’s market, you need to look back and see what the values were in the early years of this decade. That’s likely to be the price at which you can find a buyer at this time. If it’s your home, or your vacation home, you should find a way to hold on until this passes. If it was a pure investment risk, it may be time for you to consider pricing realistically to find a buyer. Call us if you need help determining exactly where a buyer will be willing to make an offer.

Labels: condos, current market, dunes, high end, life style, lifestyle, Love the Dunes, naples, real estate, southwest florida

We were recently asked why there are four of us at Love The Dunes.

Well, the easiest reply is there is strength in numbers and we multiply our efforts by working at a team.

Lesley is our “unofficial” leader. As a resident at The Dunes she’s our “on sight” expert. As an owner of South Bay Realty she certainly sets the standards for all we do.

Terrilyn is our newest member, and her expertise is sales and marketing. We’re up and running on Facebook and Twitter through her efforts, and she has a resource for everything we need.

Barb is our admin queen, doing lots of the mailings and follow up.

I do the research projects and lots of the writing.

All four of us are first and foremost Sales Professionals. Our combined years in sales approaches 90 years, and in Naples area real estate, we’re approaching a total of 50 years successful experience. All of us are Full Time agents, which doesn’t mean 9-5, five days a week. We’re for the most part available 7 days a week, and any reasonable hour of the day.

We work as a team because we enjoy sharing the vision of providing quality, in depth service to both buyers and sellers. We combine our marketing budgets to create a greater impact. We’re able to do frequent Open Houses because we take turns, and we have four good minds working for our customers at all times.

This web site is the most unique community based web site available in Naples. We hope you find it useful. Please share the site with friends and neighbors looking to buy, sell, or rent in the Naples area. If you have suggestions for us, please share them. We’re anxious to improve our service and see The Dunes become the most desired community in Southwest Florida.

Labels: current market, dunes, life style, lifestyle, Love the Dunes, naples, real estate, southwest florida

Two notes of GOOD NEWS this week.
The oil well it capped! Now hopefully, the dark cloud over head will pass and those buyers reluctant to buy with uncertainty in the air will go ahead and buy. I can tell you that our office had a difinity upswing in calls from potential buyers this week. Please tell all your friends that SW Florida has seen no oil at all.
I just read this article about a new estimate of the economic impact of the oil spill now being reduced by 80%.

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=244508

Now more good news. Mortage rates have dropped again this week to lows not seen in ages. If you're considering a refi, nows the time to move. If you'd like us to prepare for your review a Competitive Market Analysis to help you make that decision, email us at http://www.lovethedunes.com

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=244500

Labels: condos, current market, dunes, high end, lifestyle, naples, real estate, southwest florida