IF YOU ARE A BUYER AND OUT OF THIS MARKET, YOU’LL HATE YOURSELF LATER!

With inventory at record levels in every area of the real estate market in greater Naples, buyers remain squarely in the driver’s seat and have the potential to pick up some good bargains at an excellent price point. One area that I find particularly interesting and think has huge potential for finding a real bargain is the new construction arena.

It wasn’t long ago that new construction home builders were employing a lottery system, because they had an enormous amount of people interested in purchasing their products and too little inventory. Many of these people were investors or , with many realtors among them. Their main interest was to close on the properties and immediately ‘flip’ them for large profits, with never any intention of owning the property for any length of time. When the real estate market turned, many of these speculators had not yet closed on their properties and are now caught in a situation that they had not intended nor planned for, a down market.

With the turn of events in the market, many of these people are ‘panic selling’, simply because they are not prepared nor have the ability to carry these properties for any length of time. In communities like Aviano, The Quarry, Tuscany Cove, as well as many others, we are now asking prices well below what the buyers have actually paid for the single family homes, town houses and condominiums. As new construction closings continue throughout 2007, I believe that this trend will continue and that there will be a plethora of bargains.

For those buyers out there who have held off, it presents a fantastic opportunity, but only if they are willing to jump in and test the water. If they don’t now, they might well be kicking themselves later!