Interestingly, we just listed several days ago, the least expensive single family home within the City of Naples. The home is small, only 900 square feet under air with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, but was extensively re-modeled several years ago. Nothing was left untouched, the roof, the a/c, the kitchen with all new appliances and on and on. It was done extremely well, almost to perfection. Oh by the way, we priced the home to sell in the current market at $189,900.

Yesterday we received an offer to purchase at $183,000 and the owner is considering the offer as we speak.

What makes this so interesting is the fact that we had this same home listed back in the heyday, (‘04/’05,) the height of the market then. At that time it was again the least expensive home within the City of Naples at almost $400,000 and eventually we had a contract on it.

As the price of gas continues to rocket upward, the price of real estate has settled back down, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just goes to show how far we’ve come in such a short time!

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I have been away from blogging for a bit, because we have been very busy in what has turned out to be a very challanging real estate market. Having said that I certainly do not want to sound like I’m complaining, because I’m not at all.

Throughout my career I have been primarily a successful listing agent, and now with the advent of the strong ‘buyer’s market’ that has taken firm hold, I find that I’m forced to shift gears and become much more of a buyer’s agent. Our web site at www.previewnaples.com has been producing a wonderful array of buyers, and as a listing agent, the challanges have been many, but the end result has been extremely rewarding.

Today buyers are squarely in the driver’s seat and should be for quite some time to come with the vast amount of inventory in the Greater Naples Real Estate Market. Once that inventory gets to a much more manageable level, the pendulum will again begin to swing the other way and the old addage List More…Sell More will become prevelant. Until that time and we get back to the listing game, one has to be thankful for those buyers coming to Naples to snap up the bargains. 

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As we head toward the end of ‘high season’, (Easter comes early this year and traditionally Easter signals the end of ‘high season’,) we are seeing pending sales picking up in the greater Naples Real Estate Market. Maybe it is because the fence sitters are finally getting the message that the market has indeed stabilized and the exceptional bargains are being snapped up by the Canadian and European buyer. It isn’t that the huge inventory that we have is going to disappear anytime soon, but the exceptional bargains will, it’s happening as we speak.

While some of the American buyers remain ambivalent about whether to finally pull the trigger, (they express concern for everything from the economy, their stock portfolios and such to the price of gas,) the Canadians and Europeans seemed rather un-fazed by it all and are taking advantage of a depressed market.

My suggestion would be jump in the water’s fine, because the smart money is certainly stepping in!

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I am totally amazed about the amount of Canadians that having been opting in to my web site during the past month or so, and even more amazed about the number scheduling trips to Naples and actually writing contracts to purchase. When I look at Google Analytics for the web site, I’m shocked to see that the site has reversed the former trend of more hits from Europe than Canada.

For years Naples has been a destination for Canadians to rent, more especially in ‘high season’ certainly because of the cold weather at that time of year. They have been coming in droves this year with their Canadian dollar now almost on par with the U.S. dollar, making greater Naples real estate a real bargain for them.

What I find even more interesting, since I always kiddingly accuse my Canadian friends of being cheap, (actually they call themselves frugal,) is the fact the many have been purchasing vacation homes in the upper end of the spectrum. You would normally think that because, in many cases these are just that, vacation homes, that they would be more interested in smaller condos. Not necessarily so though, in a lot of cases, their interest is in the upper and single family homes with land.

Whatever the reason is that they are here buying, we welcome them with open arms, because they, along with others, are helping to stimulate the down real estate market!

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The buzz words today with real estate buyers coming to the greater Naples area seem to be ‘short sale’ or ‘foreclosure’. Everyone is looking to get in on what is perceived to be a very hot segment of the market, and in actuality, it is.

Having been on both sides of quite a few short sales and foreclosures, I can tell you that it is not easy to bring the transaction to a close. In one instance where I had the short sale listing, it took nearly five months before the lending institution made a decision about whether to take the offer and bring the transaction to a successful conclusion. The interesting thing was that the homeowner was a lawyer and knew who to deal with at her lender.

I suspect that the inherent problem is that it can take that long because the offer is passed from desk to desk of people who are totally incapable of making that final decision as to whether to take the offer or reject it. By the time it does finally get to the potential decision-maker, it can take a substantial amount of time and one of the key elements is that a buyer has been effectively taken out the market with no guarantee that he or she will eventually get the property.

With regard to foreclosures, my belief is that the average buyers do not stand a chance of going up against all the professional groups that show up on the courthouse steps and should a buyer happen to win that property, they most likely paid too much money for it anyway.

I’m coaching buyers to totally avoid looking and bidding on short sales and foreclosures. There is so much value in our market now that a buyer can find something to fit their needs without having to go through all the confusion messing with short sales.

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The tourists, as well as the ‘snow birds’ are back as we head into full-blown season in Southwest Florida. How do I know, well for one my buddy who owns a body shop is busier than he has been in months and second, my open houses have suddenly become very busy, which is a good sign.

Buyers are certainly back looking as they perceive that there are bargains to be had in the greater Naples Real Estate Market, and yet the question becomes are they actually buying? Certainly in some instances they are, but I’m hearing the same story from a lot of fellow realtors that people are continuing to try and time the market.

I have been telling clients and prospects for months that trying to time the real estate market is no different than trying to time the stock market, and if you happen to hit it, you are just plain lucky. And is there really any reason to try and time it anyway, after all, you aren’t buying for the short term.

While you are hanging around on the fence, waiting for the market to drop another point or two, you are loosing true bargains that are out there that are being snapped up by other savvy buyers. The North American buyer who remains ambivalent about the market needs to realize that they are in direct competition with the European buyer whose money is worth far more than ours and sees greater Naples Real Estate as a true bargain now not worrying about whether the market will go a bit lower!  

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It seems as if the many buyers are playing a waiting game in the greater Naples Real Estate Market today and I’m not too sure what they are waiting for. I get the impression that they perceive the market will go lower and with the great amount of inventory that we currently have will be there for quite some time to come.

As far as the market going lower, who really knows. I tell clients that if I could definitively put my finger on it and accurately predict the outcome, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I would be down in Port Royal enjoying cocktails on my 150 foot yacht and we wouldn’t be having this conversation! With regard to the large inventory that we have now being around for quite some time, I would suspect that they are right, it will be around, but the ‘kicker’ is that the really good inventory won’t.

My perception is that with the influx of the foreign buyers coming to our area and the fabulous exchange rates that they enjoy, they won’t necessarily be waiting for the market to go down, because they will be feeling that they are getting one heck of a deal anyway. Plus their mentality comes from the standpoint that they are not buying for the short term investment, they are buying a vacation home to come to.

Point of fact…I have this wonderful single family home in Olde Naples that has only been on the market for a short time. At $1,374,900 I believe that it is priced extremely aggressively and literally has no competition in the Olde Naples area. And yet, I have had quite a few buyers through who have told me that they absolutely love the home and are seriously thinking of making an offer. In fact, I had one couple through three different times, spending a total of over three hours looking at everything. Upon leaving the husband said to me, Mel you will be hearing from me shortly. Well that was over a month ago and still no word.

My take is that they are playing the waiting game to see if the market heads lower and we are forced to reduce the price. If that is the case, I truly believe that this property, like other properly priced properties of value will not be around.

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The buyers are certainly out there looking, although they seem to be taking their time about writing offers even though the product is perceived as a value. For the sellers, it can be quite frustrating, since they have either reduced their price to get it to where it really needs to be or they have priced the property correctly from the onset.

I’m of the philosophy the it is useless to entertain taking a listing unless it is priced correctly right out of the gate. In my opinion, priced correctly means pricing the property so that it has no competition in the community, which generally makes it the lowest priced property by far.

Although sellers are usually reluctant to entertain that, I try convince them that it is far better, in today’s highly competitive market, to get to the bottom line initially rather than have the property continually go through a series of price reductions. I’ve never understood agents who have multiple reductions on a property, then terminate the listing only to put it right back on the market the same day. Since that information is mainly seen by other agents, you really aren’t fooling too many people.

As Alan Greenspan alluded to this past week, in order for real estate to sell today, it must be not only be perceived as a bargain, but rather an exceptional bargain at that!

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