Manatee Realtor defines purpose of Women’s Resource Center
We couldn’t be more proud of our Team Leader Angie Cegnar, as the guest speaker yesterday sharing her story on domestic violence to more than 250 people who attended the Women’s Resource Center’s Founders Impact Luncheon. Such a strong and inspirational woman! Read her story here on the front page of the Bradenton Herald!
RANCH ADDS NEW COUNTRY CLUB EAST NEIGHBORHOOD WITH GOLF COURSE LOTS
Lakewood Ranch is proud to announce the addition of its newest neighborhood, Windy Hill, located in Country Club East. The neighborhood is comprised of 37, 62-foot home sites. All sites are amenitized, many with unbelievable golf course views overlooking 10th hole of the Royal Lakes Golf Course – a challenging, dog-leg par four. Other home sites are situated on a preserve, overlooking a protected wetland. Most have southern exposures. “This is a great addition to Country Club East, as we have not had golf course home sites for almost two years” said Jimmy Stewart, vice president of sales for LWR Communities. “The ongoing demand for new product in Country Club East is part of the continuing momentum that Lakewood Ranch has realized over the past few years. As of June 30, 332 new homes had been sold in Lakewood Ranch; a 7 percent increase compared to the same period in 2012. There are currently 328 homes in various stages of construction, Stewart said, with new home sales representing more than 55 percent of all homes sold in Lakewood Ranch. Homes will range from 2,000 to 3,800 square feet, with home and home site packages beginning in the $400s. Windy Hill’s six approved builders are Arthur Rutenberg-Nelson Homes, Lee Wetherington Homes, John Cannon Homes, John Neal Homes, Homes by Towne, and Cardel Homes. There will be no builder models in Windy Hill; visitors can tour the available models in Country Club East’s Haddington neighborhood. Lots are available immediately.
Country Club East is a private, gated community built around lakes, nature preserves and 18 holes of Rick Robbins-designed golf. Every home built in Country Club East meets the Florida Green Building Coalition’s standards for energy efficiency, clean indoor air, sustainability and drought resistant landscaping.
Lakewood Ranch is the 17,500-acre award-winning master-planned community in Sarasota and Manatee counties on the West Coast of Florida. Just minutes from the Gulf Coast beaches and cultural assets in Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch is already home to more 18,000 residents and features A-rated schools, a hospital, the Sarasota Polo Club, the 75-acre Premier Sports Campus, Ancient Oak Gun Club, its own Main Street with theaters, shopping and dining, and four million square feet of commercial property
Call us for more information 941-556-5030
article courtesy of Lakewoodranch.com
Boca Grande Lennar Designed home boasting an expansive water view Sold by The C & G International Realty Team.
LAKEWOOD RANCH — The major partners in Keller Williams Lakewood Ranch, Paul Cornuke and Steven Dutoit, have purchased the former Neal Communities offices at 8210 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. for more than $1.3 million as part of a new venture.
Keller Williams is leasing the space and will move in beginning Thursday. The business partners purchased the building as Red Vette Ventures, LLC, drawing the name from Dutoit’s prized 1967 red Chevrolet Corvette.
“I always like to pick a name that’s cute,” said Cornuke, who was dressed for work Monday, hammering along with construction workers as they completed renovations on the building. “I have the tool belt on as we speak.”
They chose to purchase the building now because “we practice what we preach,” Cornuke said. “It’s the best time to buy so we felt this was a great opportunity, what with the timing of our lease expiring.”
Red Vette Ventures is leasing the building to Keller Williams.
Neal Communities relocated to 5800 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., just south of University Parkway, said Leisa Weintraub, vice president of marketing for Neal Communities.
The majority owner observed that the real estate business seems to go in five-year cycles.
“This has been an extreme
ly long down cycle and we are having a great up cycle starting now,” Cornuke said. “Agents are getting back into the business now because we are seeing the up cycle now.”
The pair said they chose the location because of its central location and surrounding beauty.
“It has beautiful greenery and landscaping, yet you can walk across the street to Starbucks. It’s heaven on Earth,” Dutoit said.
The new location is big enough to house about 300 agents and to offer a place for companywide meetings.
“We always want to have a desirable place for people to work,” Cornuke said. “We are almost fully occupied already. The majority of agents have a home office. We can provide an office atmosphere if they want to come in and check on the computer.”
Dutoit said he was drawn to the nature surrounding the Lakewood Ranch building.
“There’s 46 oak trees on the lot and a lake on the back of the property,” Dutoit said. “The conference room looks out at this beautiful lake. There’s a picnic area under the oak trees and we’ll be setting up a barbecue grill for office events. The land is timbered and we are upgrading the landscaping. It’s the kind of an environment where you go there and you don’t feel like you’re in a commercial space at all.
The current Keller Williams office is moving from the former John Cannon building on Professional Parkway, less than a mile away.
5228 58th E Terrace, A Spectacular spacious family home was listed and within 24 hours, was under contract just above asking price!
Let us do the same for you now! call us @ 941-556-5030 or email us at angie@cegnarsellsflorida.com and we would be more than delighted to help you in the sale or purchase of your home
The supply of homes for sale is still unusually tight as the spring buying season opens, helping sellers by turning up the heat on already-rising prices.
The number of homes listed for sale on real estate website Zillow was down almost 17% in late February vs. a year earlier. In some California markets, they were down more than 40%, Zillow data show.
The supply crunch is likely to last all year, says IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport. “We’re still not building enough homes.”
While the U.S. is creating about 1.1 million new households a year, housing starts in January came in at an 890,000 annual rate, the government says.
But as prices rise, more owners will be motivated to sell, easing supply shortages, economists say.
Home prices were up 7.3% in the fourth quarter from a year before, Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller data show. That was a much faster rise than most economists expected for 2012.
Nationwide, the supply of homes for sale — based on the pace of sales — fell in January to 4.2 months, the National Association of Realtors says. That’s an almost eight-year low. A six-month to seven-month supply is considered balanced between buyers and sellers.
The availability of the most expensive homes in the markets Zillow tracks has tightened more than those at lower price levels.
Homes for sale in what Zillow defines as the top price tier in each market fell by almost 21% in February compared to a year ago. By comparison, the inventory of homes in the middle tier dropped 17% and those in the bottom tier fell 9%.
The price tiers vary by market, based on local prices.
Five California cities in Zillow’s survey are among those seeing the biggest inventory drops, ranging from a 48% decline in Sacramento to a 36% falloff in Riverside. But other cities are also seeing significantly fewer listings. New York is down almost 19%, Dallas-Fort Worth, nearly 21%, and Orlando is off 27%.
Only five of 99 metros showed an increase in listings, led by El Paso, up 19%, and Albuquerque, up 8%. Little Rock, Fort Myers, Fla., and Youngstown, Ohio, also saw increases.
Are banks easing up on mortgage standards?
NEW YORK – March 6, 2013 – A very tight mortgage lending environment “promises improvements this year as the drivers of tough credit standards reverse,” according to Moody’s Analytics ResiLandscape Report. Still, lending will remain tight by historical standards, the report notes.
Tight underwriting conditions have been one of the main obstacles to a housing market recovery. But the credit agency says that those conditions began to ease somewhat this year and likely will continue to do so.
“Rising house prices give lenders more breathing room to extend credit,” the analysts at Moody’s noted.
Over the past year and a half, large lenders have loosened up or, at least, held standards stable on prime loans for mortgage originations, according to the Survey of Senior Lending Officers.
Aiding lenders’ confidence is that mortgage delinquencies have fallen to pre-recession rates.
“Being right-side up on the mortgage improves a borrower’s credit profile. It also lowers the risk of default and increases the likelihood of trade-up buying,” according to Moody’s report.
Mortgage supply will remain constrained, but “improved consumer credit quality combined with steady growth in jobs, low mortgage interest rates and modestly rising house prices makes it clear that more households will be able to qualify for a mortgage,” Moody’s said. “Greater credit availability will, in turn, help drive stronger home sales and stronger price appreciation.”
Source: “Slight opening of credit spigot aids housing outlook,” HousingWire (March 4, 2013)
© Copyright 2013 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
for more real estate information visit us now on www.cegnarsellsflorida.com
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=288341
Q: Can I make an offer contingent on selling my home first?
I would love to buy a smaller house but have to sell my own home first for the funds. Years ago you could put an offer on a house only if you sell your own home first, is there anything like this anymore? I’m sure there isn’t but thought I would ask.
A: Yes, times have changed. In today’s world there are very few, if any traditional sellers who are willing to take the contingency of “Must sell my home first.”
The short-sale and bank-owned sellers (basically banks) will take no such contingency. However, there may be options when selling that may assist you in a new purchase.
A: Yes, it happens still, not as much due to how fast a seller can release an asset.
For higher end homes that have a premium, I have seen this exercised in contract. It is part of our standard 11 page GLVAR contract in Southern Nevada. With the vast amount of short term rentals out there and the amount of investors in our market, a possible option that makes more sense with seller market, is to sell your home and lease it back from investor until you get your new place. Another option is to sell and then do a short term rental of a different property and then transition.
WASHINGTON – Jan. 11, 2013 – A website appears to scam Realtors by posting negative comments – probably fake – and then offering to remove them for a fee.
According to Stacey Moncrieff of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), the website – realtor-complaints.com isn’t authorized to use the Realtor trademark, and NAR is investigating the site.
The New Jersey Association of Realtors looked into the website after it received a string of complaints from its members, and found that most complaints on the website had similar phrasing.
“This leads to suspicion that these are not all public-submitted complaints,” says Lauren Castellano, director of communications for the New Jersey Association of Realtors.
The alleged scam, however, does not seem to be targeting consumers with false information – it seems to be targeting Realtors who are worried about their online reputation, and who try to have a negative comment removed.
When agents who have a complaint contact the website, it offers them the “opportunity” to pay to have the complaint and their name removed, says Michael Thiel, an attorney for NAR.
NAR legal staff checked the WHOIS record for the site and discovered it’s hosted on servers located in the Seychelles. “It’s recorded as having been initially registered on Jan. 1, 2013,” Thiel says, “which makes the site’s claim of having been around since 2002 very suspect.”
For more information on the alleged scam, read Moncrieff’s blog on NAR’s website.
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=285637
Website scams Realtors protecting their reputation
WASHINGTON – Jan. 11, 2013 – A website appears to scam Realtors by posting negative comments – probably fake – and then offering to remove them for a fee.
According to Stacey Moncrieff of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), the website – realtor-complaints.com isn’t authorized to use the Realtor trademark, and NAR is investigating the site.
The New Jersey Association of Realtors looked into the website after it received a string of complaints from its members, and found that most complaints on the website had similar phrasing.
“This leads to suspicion that these are not all public-submitted complaints,” says Lauren Castellano, director of communications for the New Jersey Association of Realtors.
The alleged scam, however, does not seem to be targeting consumers with false information – it seems to be targeting Realtors who are worried about their online reputation, and who try to have a negative comment removed.
When agents who have a complaint contact the website, it offers them the “opportunity” to pay to have the complaint and their name removed, says Michael Thiel, an attorney for NAR.
NAR legal staff checked the WHOIS record for the site and discovered it’s hosted on servers located in the Seychelles. “It’s recorded as having been initially registered on Jan. 1, 2013,” Thiel says, “which makes the site’s claim of having been around since 2002 very suspect.”
For more information on the alleged scam, read Moncrieff’s blog on NAR’s website.
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=285637
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Jan. 16, 2013 – In October 2012, Florida Realtors joined state leaders for a discussion on business identity theft, and the state recently issued a report of its findings.
Business identity theft can work the same way as personal identity theft. If criminals can get important business keywords, they can access tax records, bank accounts, suppliers and more.
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=286005
Sarasota & Bradenton Florida Real Estate & More! 