Satellite Beach Office is Open!

Hi Everyone!

You would think after taking two weeks off, I would be ready to go. Well I am! I got back to the office on Monday after spending a weekend in Los Angeles for a Sturge Weber conference. This is the disease my beautiful granddaughter was diagnosed with 6 months after she was born. She is now over 3 1/2 and doing great. It's a long road ahead and with such a rare disease, we just don't know her future. We will keep our fingers crossed. Each year we do our golf tournament and my wonderful Agents put their heart and soul into helping us raise money for Sturge Weber research. Once I got back from my weekend in LA, I spent the last week playing golf with my brother from Boston. We played 12 rounds in 7 days. It was a ton of golf and a ton of fun. Unfortunately he beat me and I now have to look at his name on the trophy for the next year!

So, we are finally starting to expand. I've held off until I felt like we should be listing properties and the fact is, if a property is priced correctly, they will sell. Our new Satellite Beach office is located next to The Dove restaurant at 1790 Hwy A1A. If you have never eaten there, it's a great restaurant!

Some people have asked me why I'm opening another office, especially in this real estate market. There are a few reasons. Firstly, we are doing fine. As mentioned in a previous blog, I had made the decision to concentrate on buyers over the past 5 years. We took very few listings as it didn't make much sense to me. Because of that decision, we have been able to become the number Real Estate office in the county in working with buyers (out of 500 offices). Of course I couldn't have done that without all of you! Secondly, there are a lot of consumers who believe that if your office isn't located beachside, then you don't know beachside. As much as this isn't true, I still felt we should have an office there to quell those concerns.

On December 1, from 5pm - 7:30pm we will be holding a customer appreciation/grand opening/ ribbon cutting party. If you are local, please mark it on your calendar to come help us celebrate our new opening! I hope to see some of you there.

As always, if there is anything we can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask. We are always here for you!

Tropical Realty is opening a new office in Satellite Beach

So here I sit, another long day coming to an end. Today was another day of dealing with lending issues, appraisal issues, growth issues and more! The fun never stops. One of my favorite things about being an entrepreneur is that fact that life changes with the flip of a switch. Being a Real Estate Broker probably has more switches than any other business I have owned. On top of our normal crazy life these days, I decided it was time to bring Tropical Realty to the Beach. So, starting November 1, we will be opening Tropical Realty Beachside in Satellite Beach. I'm a little nervous, but I'm also very excited. We do a lot of business on the beach, but there is always the fear of opening something new.

Opening a new brokerage is no different than opening most businesses. Finding the right space was pretty easy. We just took over another Brokerages space as they are retracting in this market. This saved us a lot of time and money since it is all set up to run pretty much. Of course there is still quite a bit to do. Pat, my office manager has been incredible as always. She has been amazing in all aspects of my business and this is no exception. Between her and Lindsay, they are doing a great job organizing the new space.

Some have asked me, "why would you open another office in this market"? I guess this is my sign to you that I believe the worst is behind us in Brevard County. Do I think we are going to have some more ups and downs? Probably. However, have we hit the bottom? In my opinion, I believe we have done so. With that said, it made sense to be to start expanding a little so we can be ready when the market comes back to normal. I believe this will happen the second half of next year. I think we will stay pretty consistent over the next 9 months or so. Prices should stay level for the next year or so. One of my beliefs is will most likely rebound fairly quickly when the market starts to come back. The two reasons I believe this is:

1. There are over 77 million baby boomers who will be retiring over the next 10 years.

2. Prices in Brevard County are one of the lowest priced, if not the lowest priced, waterfront communities in the state.

These are the two reasons I believe the Housing Authority in Brevard County will have a good chance of coming back. Does that mean we are going to see our market have price gains like we have seen in the recent past. I hope not. Hopefully we will see a normal increase in prices over the next several years. Price increases like we had are part of the reason we are in the place we are now.

We will be letting you know about our grand opening party at the new office on the Beach. It will probably be around the first of December and I'm sure it will be fun! We always have fun! In fact, my motto, "if it ain't fun, I ain't doing it" is what I live by.

Have a very fun night!

Mitch

Brevard County Homes are Selling Fast!

Hi Everyone!

Well first I must apologize for not keeping up with this as much as I should be. There's a good reason, we have been swamped! Last month, we wrote more contracts (41) than we have ever written in any month prior. Our record before this was 35 contracts. Since the slow down we have been averaging around 20-25 contracts per month. The uptick in home sales is a welcome relief to all of us. We all know that our economy will only come back when the housing market becomes more stable...it appears this is happening.

So what have I been up to? Obviously with more business it means I'm busy helping my Agents deal with the increase in business. But also, we have been in a tremendous education mode. I personally have hired a business coach to help me keep things organized and to come up with better training programs for my Agents. This has been a great success. I have also been spending a lot of time designing webinars and presentations to help educate our customers. You can check out our webinars for consumers at:

http://www.melbournehomesearch.com/index.cfm/Webinars

These webinars are to help you better understand the Real Estate market in Brevard County. We have had so many people lose out on great deals because of what they are hearing in the media, I figured it was time to educate our customers on the reality of our market.

The two areas where most of our customers seem misinformed are Short Sales and Foreclosures. If you listen to the media, they would have you believe that you can offer 50 cents on the dollar. However, in reality, homes are selling at 91.8% of their listings prices. Of course we have many homes that are still over priced, but those are not short sales and foreclosures. F

Foreclosures are priced based on Market Value. They are selling at between 5% under list price to as high as 10% or more than list price. This depends on the list price.

Short Sales are priced based on our market value in the area. However, regardless of what price the property is priced, the bank will only agree to sell the home through this process if the home is priced within 10% or less of the appraised value.

To learn more about both these type of sales, ask your Realtor or feel free to contact me. I'm always available to help anyone. Maybe I should really get a life!

What else is going on these days in our Tropical Realty life. We just held our Tropical Realty Charity Golf Tournament. It was a tremendous success and we raised about $15,000 for Sturge Weber. For those of you who don't know about Sturge Weber, it's a rare disease that attacks the brain. My beautiful granddaugher, Lola, was diagnosed with this disease when she was less than 6 months old. She has had two major seizures and we just don't know what the future is for her. Sturge Weber is one of those "orphan" diseases that counts soley on people like us raising money. We are hoping that with the money we raised this year, we will be able to receive grant money.

Other than that I am spending most of my time working. My golf game is terrible but I'm still playing at 6:44 every Saturday morning. I did, after 25 years, start a new band. It's fun to be a rocker again, but with a lot less hair! I think I'm going through a midlife crisis!

That's it for now. I'll try to be better at keeping on top of this. If you are thinking about buying a home...this is the time. I would hate to see more of our customers lose out on some of the best deals in the state!

Take care and call us if you need anything.

Mitch

Brevard County Real Estate is hopping!

Hi Everyone!

I know I have said this before, but if you are really interested in buying a home in Florida, this might be the best chance you will ever get! Interest rates are at 5% and below with good credit. Home prices are back to 2002/2003 and sometimes a heck of a lot lower. I don't know anywhere else in Florida where you can buy a home for under $200k that is 2o minutes or less to the beach.

Currently our inventory is down from a high over over 7,000 single family homes to 6,000 single family homes. This means that homes are moving again and once the inventory is down to 3,000 homes or so, you can expect the prices to start back on the rise.

Here are the facts:

• Brevard County is the least expensive waterfront community in Florida.
• Beachside homes can be bought for under $200k and you can walk to the ocean!
• In Palm Bay you can find homes built around 2005 with 1800 sq. ft. and sometimes more for around $120k and less!
• There are 77 million baby boomers retiring over the next 10 years....we know some are coming here and the prices are going to rise.
• Some experts have said that they expect our homes to be back to 2004 levels by 2012.
• Are you looking for an investment? We have many areas of Brevard County that offer a great opportunities to buy, rent and hold for a few years while the market comes back. And they cash flow!

I really can't think of a better time for you to buy your new home, vacation home, retirement home or to get into investing. You can listen to the media and miss out on a great opportunity, or you can look at the facts and realize this isn't going to last very long and prices are bound to go up!

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. We are always here to help. If you have been thinking about getting a great deal with a foreclosure, follow this link and we will send you a list of foreclosures and send you all new foreclosures that come on the market. Go to:

http://melbournehomesearch.com/index.cfm/Foreclosure_List

Have a great night and we will see you on the beach!

Mitch