It’s one of the most picturesque places in town. Its no wonder it has been rated as the #1 beach! The water is beautiful, and the sand is literally like walking in powdered sugar. One of the best places to spend a relaxing day by yourself, or with family and friends. Check out this article now , as Siesta Key is named one of the best beaches in Florida!
source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/apr/27/best-beache
s-florida
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
3 listings under contract this week! 2 of which went under contract in less than 24 hours of being listed! Awesome Job The C & G Team!!
You might consider a staging consultation. Many home stagers will provide room-by-room assessments for homeowners, offering tips about paint colors, furniture placement, improving traffic patterns and more. Most consultations last about two hours and won’t break the bank at $150 to $250.
Or, you can use these five low-cost, do-it-yourself staging tips to create a space that sells:
No. 1: Cut the clutter
Get boxes and tape, and start packing. Clothes, books, toys, extra pots and pans – pack up everything you don’t absolutely need during the next two or three months. Remember that potential buyers will be opening closets and drawers; if it looks like there’s not room for your things, buyers will assume storage will be tight for them as well.
Too much furniture can also make a space look cluttered. Your home will look bigger if it’s not jam-packed. Go through the house room by room and ask yourself what you can live without. See if your friends are willing to store your things until the house sells, or consider renting a short-term storage unit.
No. 2: Let the sunshine in
“I advise homeowners to open all their window coverings,” says Maureen Bray, owner of Portland, OR-based Rooms Solution Staging. “Don’t just open the blinds — raise them to the top to allow people to see the view and let in light. Home buyers love light, bright rooms.”
Of course, that means windows must be cleaned inside and out, and window sills need to be wiped down.
Got a view you’re not so crazy about showcasing? Consider blinds that can be angled to let in light, or hang sheer panels.
What if you have those heavy, expensive, custom drapes and valances that were popular 20 years ago? “Take them down,” says Bray. “You got your money’s worth out of them. Today’s buyers want light.”
No. 3: Clean, then clean some more
“I always tell people, ‘Clean like there’s no tomorrow.’” says Bray. “A really clean house gives buyers the impression that it has been well-maintained.”
Unfortunately, a one-time cleaning won’t do the trick. You’ll need to keep at it until your house sells. Knock down cobwebs, wipe counter tops, scrub grout, mop floors, wash light fixtures and repeat.
If cleaning bathtubs and wiping down baseboards is simply not your area of expertise, consider hiring a weekly cleaning service. Yes, it’s an investment, but if it shortens your selling time, it’s money well spent.
No. 4: Set the scene
Want buyers to fall in love with your house the moment they see it? First impressions matter. Your lawn must be mowed and edged, bushes must be trimmed, and flower beds must be weeded and topped with fresh mulch or bark. Add colorful flowers near the front door, either in flowerbeds or pots.
You’ll make your home even tougher to resist if you borrow or rent a power washer to clean grimy sidewalks, driveways, stairs and decks. Remember: You want everything to look fresh, fresh, fresh.
No. 5: Take new photos
Once you’ve decluttered, cleaned and planted flowers, take new photos of your home.
According to a 2011 survey, 88 percent of buyers say their home search relies, at least in part, on online listings. It’s important that the photos used in those listings and printed fliers reflect the improvements you’ve made to your home. Photos that showcase your decluttered, squeaky clean, curb-appeal-laden abode will appeal to a broader range of home buyers.
http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-03-07/5-diy-tips-for-home-staging-on-the-cheap/
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.
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
ORLANDO, Fla. – Jan. 16, 2013 – To sell a home or get top dollar, sellers must look at their property through the eyes of a potential buyer. Consider the following five tips:
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=286008
WASHINGTON – Jan. 16, 2013 – Some refer to “zombie titles” as a little-known horror in the fallout of the foreclosure crisis. Thousands of homeowners are discovering they may be legally liable for a home they thought they no longer owned.
In some of these cases, homeowners receive a notice of a foreclosure sale and move out to give the home to the bank. But then the bank never completes the foreclosure.
“The banks are just deciding not to foreclose, even though the homeowners never caught up with their payments,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, told Reuters.
According to housing experts, the problem of “zombie titles” is worsening, although no national database tracks such titles.
“There are thousands of foreclosures in limbo, just hanging out there, just sitting, with nothing being done,” says Raymond Pianka, a judge with Cleveland Housing Court. He says the problem is due to homeowners who leave the home before an imminent foreclosure sale. Later, the homeowners discover they’re legally responsible for the home. By that time, the house may have greatly deteriorated. And some homeowners don’t even discover it until years later, such as when a municipality finally fines them for failing to keep up the property.
Source: “‘Zombie Titles’ Haunt Victims of Foreclosure,” Reuters (January 2013)
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http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=286001
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