September 2008

TODAY...WAS IT ABSOLUTELY CRAZY OR WHAT!

Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 4:26pm. 104 Views, 0 Comments.

With everything that went on today regarding the failure of the “buyout”, Wall Street and the historic hit that it took, the takeover of Wachovia National Bank by Citi Group, as well as all the other news, it’s nice to know that there are some stable factors in the banking industry in all of this. One of them is Wells Fargo, the banking source for Prudential Florida Realty, our company.

Why Wells Fargo? There are many reasons, not the least of which is their approach to credit risk. Their business practices are sound and they prudently manage credit risk on home mortgages and equity loans with solid underwriting, something that many banks have failed to do.

Because of this prudent risk management, they are not facing many of the issues that other lending…

CAN WE NOT GET A LITTLE LOVE GOING?

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 5:08pm. 106 Views, 0 Comments.

While driving around Naples today trying to get real estate done, I tried to listen to as much of the live hearings discussion about the Government bailout proposal as I could on MSNBC radio. My main interest was in listening to the remarks of Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke while they were grilled by the committee.

While both sides of the aisle claim to be non-partisan and talk about the good of the people, I came away totally confused from listening to the statements and questions from the committee, while trying to evaluate what is on the table and more importantly what the outcome will be for the real estate climate. Everyone agrees that action is needed immediately and that it has to be addressed without…

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 3:57pm. 100 Views, 0 Comments.

While driving around today trying to get real estate done, I tried to listen to as much of the live hearings discussion about the Government bailout proposal as I could on MSNBC radio. My main interest was in listening to the remarks of Tresury Secretary, Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke while they were grilled by the committee.

While both sides of the aisle claim to be non-partison and talk about the good of the people, I came away totally confused from the statements and questions from the committee while trying to evaluate what is on the table and more importantly what the outcome will be for the real estate climate. Everyone agrees that action is needed immediately and that it has to be addressed without delay, but always with…

IS THERE PARANOYA IN THE MARKETPLACE?

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 4:04am. 101 Views, 0 Comments.

The recent announcement by the President of his proposal to buy out hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgage assets in order to stop the bleeding in the financial circles may have had somewhat of an adverse effect. The proposal we were told in part was to help stimulate consumer confidence and yet it might have done the opposite and caused people who were ready to buy now to think twice about purchasing.

The proposal, which will be considered by Congress this week, certainly didn’t do much to alleviate Wall Street investor fears as whitnessed by the dow jones plunge on Monday, giving back all the Friday gains. This coupled with the huge spike in oil prices because investors were looking more to what they considered a safe haven, thereby driving…

THE COYOTES ARE HERE...THE COYOTES ARE HERE!

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 1:03pm. 106 Views, 0 Comments.

All summer long we have been hearing about and reading stories of the coyotes up in The Brooks communities in Bonita Springs. They have boldly attacked small dogs while on a walk with their owners, and in some cases, the dogs have broken free of their leashes or backed out of their collars and were chased down by the coyotes, caught and dragged away. 

Fish and game representatives can do nothing, so communities are forced to hire private trappers. Despite the minor success the trappers have had in the Bonita and Estero area, the coyotes are here to stay.

A few months ago, there was a report of a coyote that was filmed in East Naples by a homeowner as the coyote tried to get at a cat it had treed. The cat eventually fell out of the tree and was promptly…

THE NEWS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER!

Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 3:14pm. 110 Views, 0 Comments.

Three pieces of good news in one day yesterday…Just unreal…

First…the 30–year fixed mortgage rates have dropped sharply to a seven month low and are now sitting at 5.78, down from 5.93 the week prior. It’s good news for those who have had the patience to wait to transform 3/1 and 5/1 arms to 30–years fixed notes. It was the fifth straight week that the rate has declined and certainly should help to stimulate mortgage applications.

Second…the Naples Daily News, yes the same paper that bashed us for the prior two years, has begun publishing positive real estate articles. I know, I know they are just reporting the news, but the stories that they published during the past few years were totally negative and did the market and the community a severe injustice,…

GOOD NEWS...NAPLES IS NOW UNDERVALUED!?!

Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 5:04am. 96 Views, 0 Comments.

Every early morning and late evening, we take Roxy, our Swiss Cattle Dog (Entlebucher Sennenhund) out for a 2+ mile walk. While the evenings have cooled significantly over the past couple of weeks, it is the mornings that I most enjoy because it has become quite cool with minimal himidity.

It reminds me somewhat of my days in New England in the early Fall, although up there it was quite a bit more brisk. Football is in the air. That in itself makes it a fun time of year and tonight I’ll walk over to the Naples High School stadium to watch the defending Class 3A champions host Cape Coral High School in what should be an excellent matchup.

Walking the neighborhood is a good thing because it gives you a far different perspective than it does just driving…

Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 5:04am. 93 Views, 0 Comments.

Every early morning and late evening, we take Roxy, our Swiss Cattle Dog (Entlebucher Sennenhund) out for a 2+ mile walk. While the evenings have cooled significantly over the past couple of weeks, it is the mornings that I most enjoy because it has become quite cool with minimal himidity.

It reminds me somewhat of my days in New England in the early Fall, although up there it was quite a bit more brisk. Football is in the air. That in itself makes it a fun time of year and tonight I’ll walk over to the Naples High School stadium to watch the defending Class 3A champions host Cape Coral High School in what should be an excellent matchup.

Walking the neighborhood is a good thing because it gives you a far different perspective than it does just driving…

THOSE 3 DIGITS CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 5:13pm. 111 Views, 0 Comments.

There aren’t 3 numbers more important than those which make up one’s FICO Credit Score, for that score will be the determining factor as to whether someone receives a loan for a car, boat or a mortgage for a new home. Not only that but the score will also determine at what rate that loan will be generated.

There are three major bureaus that help to make up that score, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, each assigning their score based upon a variety of parameters. Generally the basis for your score revolves around the length of your credit history, the different types of credit you might have, as well as any recent applications and your payment history. The scores can range between 300 to 850 and naturally the higher the score, the better chance you have…

THE INTERNET...IT'S NOT CHOPPED LIVER!

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 4:04pm. 95 Views, 0 Comments.

NAR (National Association of Realtors) recently completed a 10 year study of buyers on the internet and their behavoir. Not suprisingly they found more and more people are using the internet to search for homes and during the ten year period, there was a 15 fold increase of buyers who found the home that they eventually purchased on the internet.

Another interesting segment of the study found that back in 1997, when they first began the study, a mere 50% of the home buyers found the property the purchased through a real estate sales associate. At the end of the study, that figure had slipped dramatically to 34%. (Some of the other ways that buyers found their homes was through yard signs in front of for sale homes, as well as newspaper and magazine ads,…