Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Sarasota : Culture by the Sea

Sarasota has long been considered the cultural center of Southwest Florida. For a city its size, Sarasota has a definite cosmopolitan flair, due in part to its numerous theaters, museums, festivals, public and private art galleries, restaurants and shopping areas.

It's an eclectic town, gathering its inspiration from an international influence. Casual yet discriminating, Sarasota has managed to corner the best of everything while maintaining an outdoorsy, friendly atmosphere.

Much of the credit for Sarasota's commitment to the arts has to go to John Ringling, who first came here in 1912 while searching for a winter headquarters for his circus.

In the mid-1920's Ringling built an ornate 30-room residence complete with marble floors and wrought-iron balconies. Styling it after the Doges Palace in Venice, he named it Ca'd'Zan --House of John.

Ringling traveled the globe searching for art treasures, and built on his property a monumental gallery in which to display them. With its ornamental gardens, fountains and statuary, the gallery resembles a 15th-century Italian villa.

Today these buildings are part of the Ringling Museums complex, which is open to the public and houses a collection of more than 1,000 paintings, as well as hundreds of pieces of sculptures, furniture, coins, clocks, tapestries and musical instruments.

Among the artists represented in the Ringling's collection are such old masters as Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco, and Gainsborough, as well as a contemporary collection that has been added since Ringling's death.

Also located in Sarasota is the Ringling School of Art and Design, which has a national reputation for training students in the visual arts. It's ranked in the top tier with Pratt, Rhode Island School of Design and some of the other schools in the country. Founded in 1931, the school is the oldest independent institution of art and design in the southeast.

In recent decades, the citizens of Sarasota have built on Ringling's foundations, adding such cultural showcases as the Van Wezel Peforming Arts Hall, an elegant setting for symphony concerts, Broadway musicals and international artists. Sarasota also has its own opera company, which employs world renowned singers, a full orchestra, and performs in its own theater.

For more natural beauty, the Selby Botanical Gardens provide room for a quiet stroll.

Golf was first introduced here in 1885, making Sarasota the birthplace of American golf. Throughout the area are 33 golf courses, including such fine courses as The Concessions, The Founder's Club, University Park Country Club, and Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club.

Sarasota is a water wonderland, offering all kinds of water recreation, including boating, water-skiing and wind surfing. It is definitely a world class paradise to savor a luxury lifestyle of the finest vintage with beautiful sunsets, rippling waters just at your doorstep. The time to come is now since tomorrow might be to late...

For more information, please call:
Louis Wery, Broker Associate, CIPS, CRS, ABR, LHMS
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Inc.
201 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite One
Longboat Key, Florida 34228 USA
Direct Line: 1-941-232-3001

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Tips for Sellers in a Buyers' Market

House prices are falling in much of the country, and more than 4 million dwellings are on the market. That's bad news for sellers, because buyers feel free to make offers and then just wait.

It's a buyer's market, but don't despair.
You can increase your chances of selling your house in a resonable time following a few good guidelines.

First play the cards you're dealt. A successful home sale begins before the house is listed, when you decide not to expect to make a killing.
All you can do in a falling market, if you have to sell, is have the bet possible product out there at the best price it should be. Not what you wish you could get, not what the neighbor got two years ago, but at the price you should get now. That's reality.

It takes discipline to face that reality. Humility, too. For many sellers, the only disappointment is that their friend, six months or a year ago, got more than they're getting. Ego gets in the way when they're trying to sell. Or a little inflexability should we say.

Second, break though your ego and inflexability by looking at the good deals that your neighbors are offering. The most important thing is to really shop the competition on the market right now. Get out in the car and spend a weekend looking at everything you can. Visit some weekend open houses. Just get a feel for what your buyers are looking at.

Third, make it a turnkey, not a turkey. The word turnkey is used in commercial real estate. It means a property is ready for immediate use. Your house has to be that way when buyers have a cornucopia of houses to choose from. You have to make it 100 percent turnkey situation. Everything has to be ready to roll, because buyers never want to buy a house that needs a lot of work unless it's an absolute bargain. You have to take away all their opportunities to say no.

Fourth, offer incentives. Besides a low price, incentives for buyers include paying discount points to lower the mortgage rate, paying closing costs or providing flexibility about the move-in date.

Consider offerring a premium to the buyer's agent. Add a half-point or a point to the commission, or give the agent a cruise or a big -screen TV. It may not cause the deal to happen, but it can just attract a little more action and make your deal stand out.

Fifth, and most important, price realistically. Don't get greedy, just because it went up to some astronomical value and it went down from there, you have to be realistic that there has been moderation in the market. It takes research, often conducted by a real estate agent, to come up with a realistic price, and discipline to abide by it. It's not enough just to throw out a figure. Using tools on sites such as Zillow, buyers can get an idea of your house market value. You and your agent can't bamboozle buyers because they have so much information about comparable house values.

In a seller's market, sellers typically ask for a 10 percent to 20 percent more than they expect to get. You don't have that luxury in a buyer's market. Normally one would suggest asking for just 3 percent to 5 percent more than you realistically expect to get. Setting an aggressive asking price attracts more prospective buyers to your door, discourages lowball offers and saves negotiating time. You'll know fairly quickly whether they're willing to meet you or not.

In a market where prices are falling, asking prices must fall, too, which is a whole new concept for sellersright now. For example, if the Smiths sold their house early this year for $700,000, you might have to ask just $695,000.

An agent has to have tact to break the news. When we tell our clients this, they think we are the mean guys.

For more information, please call:
Louis Wery, Broker Associate, CIPS, CRS, ABR, LHMS
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Inc.
201 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite One
Longboat Key, Florida 34228 USA
1-941-232-3001

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Points of View of the U.S. Economy

"Overall, the U.S. economy seems poised to grow in coming Quarters."
—Ben Bernake
Federal Reserve Chairman


"I think there's going to be a relatively quick correction. I think we're in the process now of bottoming out in the housing market, but I don't expect it to collapse and drag the entire economy down with it like a big whirlpool."
—Brian Wesburg
Chief Economist
First Trust Advisors


I'm very worried about housing and the potential negative impact on overall economic activity... the big question for me is how will that impact consumer spending?"
—Nancy Lazar
Economist
International Stratergy & Investment


"If you go back, there have been many declines in the housing markets. Some have ended in recessions. Some have not."
—Allan Meltzer
Monetary Policy Historian
Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business

The economy has "caught a cold, or has a little case of the flu-but it's not on its deathbed."
—Peter Hooper
Chief Economist
Deutsche Bank

FACTS
Since 1920 there have been three depressions, six sharp recessions and six mild recessions in the U.S. The longest was the depression of 1929-33 which lasted 43 months. The shortest was the 1980 recession, which lasted six months.

The total value of goods and services — including income from abroad — produced per person in the U.S. is about $44,000, according to the World Bank. That ranks seventh in the world behind Luxembourg — $66,000 — and then Norway, Switzerland, Bermuda, Denmark then Iceland.

The highest recorded monthly average pump price in the U.S. was set in March 1981, when gasoline cost $3.12 a gallon in 2005 dollars.

The word "weak" was used 50 times in September Federal Reserve "beige book" — a roundup of regional economic reports — up from 40 in July, according to Merril Lynch. It was used 53 times in January 2001, two months before the last recession began.

Americans spent $1.58 trillion on medical care over the past year — the highest category of personal consumtion expenditure. Americans spent $1.37 trillion on housing and $1.27 trillion on food.

In some luxury areas, housing prices are still climbing. Home sales in Telluride ski resort area in Colorado rose 7% from last year. The average home-sale price in the Vail, Colorado, area was $840,646 in July-up 21% from a year earlier.

For more information, please call:
Louis Wery, Broker Associate, CIPS, CRS, ABR, LHMS
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Inc.
201 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite One
Longboat Key, Florida 34228 USA
1-941-232-3001