The Real Estate Mango

Archive for April, 2009

How to Wow Buyers In The Aventura Real Estate World

This a different market than any we have seen in a decade.  Buyers have so much to choose from and have so little respect for the unappealing property that sellers have to really take a good hard look at their homes and  see what the stranger coming into the house or condo sees.

• Hire a home stager.  It will be the best money you ever spent. This professional will rearrange your existing furniture to make the rooms look inviting and pretty.
• Update bathrooms with little expense, like replacing gaudy shower curtains with simple designs and neutral colors and adding new towels and remove all bottles and creams and soaps.
• Never leave an empty room, empty.  Buyers have little imagination.  Create a home office or a put in a bed and a table and some flowers and present it as a guest room
• Remove all clutter from the home. 
• Remove all personal items.  No one is interested in your family photos.  A Buyer wants to think of herself in the space.
• If you have some money to spare, and you have a very outdated kitchen, put in new appliances.

In a nutshell, dress up your home.  Let it shine.  Buyers will appreciate the new look and your chances of selling will increase exponentially.

If you have some good ideas or if you have succeeded in doing some of these things, let me hear from you.

A Retirement Visa?

I just read about this idea, this morning, and I thought I would discuss it here on the Mango.  This is a exciting new concept, issuing visas for people who qualify age wise and income wise, to come to Florida to retire.

It seems that a Retirement Visa would help Florida disproportionally to any other state in the union.  Almost 30% of all real estate transactions in Florida are with international buyers!

A Retirement Visa would be a great help to Florida, a state that depends on foreign buyers for its’ real estate industry which in this downturn has suffered enormously.  It would create thousands of jobs both in the building industry, the restaurant industry, and all retail sales. The tax base would increase.  After all, the building industry, plans for the foreign buyer in all its concepts. Florida builders advertise all over the world when they launch a new development.

Sounds like a good idea to me..what do you think?  Let me hear from you.

Freddie Mac CFO Commits Suicide

The madness isn’t over, yet.  There are so many people affected by the economic downturn and all its’ repercussions that terrible news comes out, everyday in some way.

David Kellerman,41, Chief Financial Officer, of Freddie Mac, killed himself by hanging, early this morning in his home.  Mr. Kellerman was a new man on the job, replacing the former CFO when the Federal Government  nationalized Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac is the name of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.  Friends said that Mr. Kellerman was staggering under the strain of the job.  New requirements imposed by the government and all the pressures of the new regulations were very stressful.

Tim Geitner, Secretary of the Treasury expressed his sadness at hearing the news as do we all.

Aventura Housing: The Power of Price

Buyers are coming back into the market, realizing that prices are lower than they have been in five years.  There are opportunities that turn out to be cheaper than the rent the buyers are currently paying.  Not only are there incredible deals in the foreclosures that are coming on the market, daily, but regular inventory has seen reductions in prices on a  weekly basis. 

More good news is that  investors are coming back into the market.  We need investors to help reduce the inventories.  Once inventories go down, and demand goes up, prices can start to go up again.        

The patterns are changing.  Once the market stabilizes, we will see many more sales but we will not be returning to the pre-boom patterns any time soon.  In many ways, this can be a good thing.  Sellers will begin to depend on prices staying in normal range without spikes up or down and buyers will find more equity in values.   

Aventura sales were up considerably in the last 30 days.  One hundred and twenty five properties went into contract as opposed to only 31 sales the previous month.  This is really great news!    

Right now, there is a terrific buy in Golden Pointe, a waterfront townhome with a beautiful water view of  the intracoastal, that sold in 2005 for $810k and is now listed at 750k and will look at offers.  It is a desirable corner property with 2505 square feet, four bedrooms and a two car garage.  An excellent family home in a unique and exclusive community.

Let me hear from you.  Tell me about your home or the home you want to buy.

Opportunities Abound In This Market

There are terrific deals for buyers, today, especially for  first time home buyers and they see this opportunity and they go for it.  With the $8000 given by the Government, they head directly to the foreclosures and there are plenty to choose from.

The activity surrounding the foreclosures are astounding, especially in the under 300k range.  The front page of  the New York Times featured a very happy woman, today, who had hundreds of homes to choose from that had been foreclosed and was able to buy one 200k dollars less than it once sold for.  These are going to be once in a lifetime opportunities.  When the inventory is finally bought up, prices will go up, so if you would like to live in that home of your dreams, now is the time to buy.

Call me anytime, for a list of foreclosures in the area of interest to  you.