Living in Southwest Florida comes with certain inherent problems, one of which is power outages. They can be caused by a number of different scenarios, storms, hurricanes and frequently just the electrically charged lightning strikes that are often around, despite a lack of a storm.

It is always prudent to have an alternative means of power during those situations, preferably a generator, whether it be for the whole house or partial. A generator will take a lot of the inconvenience out of the equation when an outage occurs, but you need to access your needs and correctly match the generator with those needs.

A good way to start is to decide what you are going to want to power when your electricity goes down. Unless you are doing a whole house backup generator, you can generally forget running your air conditioning system during an outage. You will need to go around your home and choose the essential items that need to be backed up, such as a refrigerator and other appliances, certain lights and maybe a TV, radio or computer so that you can stay in touch with the world. You lighting will be determined by wattage, (see chart here,) while your appliances will generally have a label with their power requirements. Unless it is a whole house unit, do not expect your generator to run everything

Once you decide what you are wanting to have running, you will then have to choose a generator that produces more power that will be drawn than the total of the appliances and lighting, etc. You will also have to take into consideration the initial power surge at start up. I would also suggest hiring an electrician to put in a sub panel off your main panel, so that the generator will run the equipment from that sub panel and not from the main panel. During an outage, the main power panel is shut down and the sub panel will then take over, with a cord run from that panel directly to your portable generator. Never hook your generator up directly to your home’s wiring!

Taking action in advance of an outage will save you in the long run and make life less stressful knowing that you have an alternative power source.

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Yesterday’s real estate news for Florida seemed a bit more positive, certainly a sign that the market has stabilized and we should be seeing more positive signs of a recovery as we push ahead. It all centers on the favorable economic conditions, low mortgage rates and the job growth market in Florida as well. Existing single family home sales for the month of July were in line with sales during the same period in 2001 and 2002.

The National Association of Realtors updated market forecast is calling for an increase in sales with existing single family homes, certainly good news in helping decrease the burgeoning inventories. What will help will be getting buyers off the sidelines and into the decision making process. If they perceive that the market has indeed bottomed, then much of that pent up demand will help fuel the comeback to a degree. 

The mortgage rates remain lower than those of a year ago and the market has indeed changed. The words that need to be stressed are that it is a fabulous time to buy, and if we as realtors do that, the pendulum will begin its swing in a more positive direction!

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Naples, Florida has a wonderful and rich history. Prior to its discovery, the only people to traipse the white sand beaches were the Caloosa Indians. It was basically discovered and first settled in the 1860s by Roger Gordon and Joseph Wiggins, (two passes that open from the Bay to the Gulf remain named after them.) Later in the 1870s and throughout the 1890s, northern magazines touted the area’s “mild climate” and the fact that it’s Bay surpassed that of Naples, Italy…hence the name Naples caught on. And as Naples caught on through promotion and advertising, it amuses me to think that beachfront lots rose in price to $125. Today that same lot can go for as high as $20,000,000.

Soon it became a winter retreat for many celebrities, Greta Garbo, Hedi Lamarr, Rose Cleveland, Gary Cooper, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone, just to name a few. Interestingly that tradition remains alive and well as it’s not hard spotting celebrities during the high season months of winter, while traversing 5^th Avenue or hanging out at the Ritz-Carlton. (It has been long rumored, but oddly never verified that Steven Spielberg owns a home in the prestigious Port Royal.)

Over the years names like Walter N. Haldeman and Barron G. Collier, as well as many others, helped forge what Naples is today. Despite the real estate hard times that we are experiencing today, Naples remains a world-class destination and always will be. We truly live in Paradise!

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I enjoy blogging, but you know sometimes you just get ‘writer’s block’ and can’t think of anything that you want to write about. I certainly laud the people who write every day and it flows like water. I envy the fact that they seem to come up with something interesting or entertaining, whether it be about real estate or not. When I can’t seem to think of anything, I just won’t post for the sake of posting.

I read somewhere that top 10 lists are good thing to blog about, so here it is…the top ten list of common mistakes that can cost a home seller thousands of dollars. (I don’t believe that an explanation after each one is necessary.) The order that they are in is not necessarily by order of importance.

1.   Improper Pricing

2.   Not Providing Easy Access

3.   Bad Housekeeping

4.   Failure To Make Repairs

5.   Poor Home Showing Techniques

6.   Relying On Traditional Marketing Methods

7.   Making Decisions On Emotion

8.   Not Understanding The Market

9.   Working With Unqualified Prospects

10. Choosing The Wrong Agent

So there it is, some points for the homeowner and points some for the agent. You could write volumes about each one, but we’ll save that for another blog post.

Maybe by tomorrow my ‘writer’s block’ will have vanished and we’ll be back in the groove!

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Having just completed another short sale and being called today on yet another to list, I find myself in a quandary as to whether I really want to start doing more and more of them. It isn’t that they are particularly hard to get done, it is more a question for me of whether I truly want to start focusing on other people’s problems. Friends have said why not, it was their stupidity, (I prefer to look at it as a lack of knowledge,) that got them into trouble in the first place. Either way for me, it isn’t the easiest thing to mentally gear yourself up for.

Short sales are prevelant all across the country and I would expect that we will see more and more over the next couple of year at least. The only real good news is that a short sale will stave off and totally eliminate the seller having to declare bankruptcy, at least with regard to the mortgage. What happens after that regarding other bills owed is anyone’s guess.

The State of Florida is fairly liberal when it comes to bankruptcy laws. Having said that, all mortgages have a clause that basically waives your homestead rights and  allows the lender to attach or take your property.

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