Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted!

So here we are. It's been another interesting year in the world of Real Estate. We have seen prices level out, inventory come down and interest rates reaching an incredible 4.125%! The question is, did you buy a house during this great opportunity or did you let it slip through your fingers?

Let's take a look back. The year started out normal and then the fireworks of the tax credits helped increase sales from March through the end of June. We had 4 record months in a row. Then the bottom fell out again. July through October were unusually slow in our industry and the market has started to rebound again this past month. I'm not a huge fan of government involvement in any industry, and I believe all the tax credit did was speed up those who were going to buy anyway.

So the question remains to me as it has throughout the year. Why are so few people actually buying homes in probably the best opportunity to buy a home in over 10 years? The answer of course is obvious. The fear that has been generated by the media, by our politicians and by all the talk show hosts out there has really done a job on our economy. I believe we would have came back a year or more ago if it weren't for the fear generated by these groups.

The obvious next question is what is in store for 2011? I wish I had that crystal ball to tell everyone that things are going to get better. In my mind, they certainly will get better. They can't get any worse than we have had the past several years in Brevard County. Interest rates have started to rise. They were at 5.25% right before Christmas. I believe that as interest rates rise, consumers will realize that they might be missing a great opportunity to own a home or investment property. Keep in mind, 5.25% is an awesome interest rate. We have become spoiled the past couple of years with steady low interest rates. It's just a matter of time before they rise to 6%, 8% or more. As mentioned in other blogs, this has a tremendous affect on your buying power.

One thing I like to tell our customers is that they need to understand that the real estate market is only tough if you are trying to sell a home. It's all about price right now, so if you are having to sell your home before you buy, look at your price. Even though you will take a lower price on your home, you will still get a better deal on the other end. If you price it right, they will come!

Well as I finish up Christmas night, the family is in bed, my two cats are sitting next to me as I watch a dvr'd CSI episode. It's been a great Christmas having my grandchildren here with us and both my wife's kids. Unfortunately my kids couldn't make it down this year, but that's ok. They are grown adults now and have their own obligations and have become two great men! I have a lot to be thankful for as I come to the end of 2010. My family is doing great, my granddaughter's disease hasn't had any major affect on her this year, and business is good.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you need anything in 2011, you know we are always here to help.

The end of 2010

Well it's been a long year for us in the Real Estate business. Luckily, and thankfully to all of you, we have had another good year. That doesn't make it any easier, but we are very lucky and grateful that we are still doing well in this economy.

Many people have asked us why we have done so well throughout the housing collapse. I believe that most if it is our attitudes. We believe that the current bad market is only bad if you are trying to sell your home. With that said, if your home is priced correctly, it will sell. In todays market, it's all about price. So yes, it's tough to sell your home today...but have you seen how great it is to buy a home right now?

This past several months have been an incredible time to buy a home. I feel bad for those who have decided to wait. I know that they have most likely missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Rates have climbed from 4.125% a couple weeks ago to 4.75% today, Dec. 13. Prices have been level now for almost a year and I don't see them going down any further than they are currently listed. Do I know that for sure? Of course not, but our average price in the county last year was $117k and I believe this year we are going to end up right around the same price. We have bottomed, but I believe we did that a year ago. Right now it's really about figuring out when the home prices are going to start going up. We know that the more interest rates go up, the less buying power you have.

So if you have been thinking about buying a home, this is probably your last chance before interest rates go up as well as home prices. As always, if you need anything, that's what we are here to do....help.

Thank You Veterans

Lately I've been travling a lot. It's a lot tougher than it was 15 years ago when I traveled almost every day of the month. I guess it's age. My schedule the past few weeks has been crazy. Three weeks ago I spoke at the Inman's Agent Reboot in Fort Lauderdale, the day before I was at a Fannie Mae Broker seminar also in For Lauderdale. The following week I was in D.C. speaking at another Inman Agent Reboot there. The week after I was in Orlando doing a seminar called Internet Marketing and Lead Conversion - The Truth. Finally, this past weekend, I spent three days in New Orleans at NAR and had a blast!

Why am I telling you all this? Because I am free. I am an American. I'm proud to be an American, but more importantly, I'm so proud of the men and women who currently and in the past have given their time and often their lives so I can live the American Dream. I travel freely around this country because of these men and women. I run my companies and will succeed or fail, but either way because I have the freedom to succeed and fail. Only because of these brave men and women I have had all the opportunities I have had the past almost 50 years of my life.

Have you ever thought what it would have been like if you were born in a different country? Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we weren't blessed to live in the United States? I think about it often, how lucky we are and have been for so many years. Without our soldiers, our warriors, none of this is possible.

Make sure you always thank a soldier and their family's. Every time you do it puts a smile on their face.

To all the current and past men and women who serve our country, Thank You! and God Bless America!

When is the best time to buy?

I hear this question probably 5 times per month, every month. We all want to know when is the best time to buy. The quick answer is when you need a house. However, since we know that's not what people mean when they ask, let's look at why I believe November and December are the best time to buy a home.

A funny thing happens every year in the Real Estate industry. 3/4's of the entire Realtor workforce takes from the second week or so of November off through the end of the year. Personally I have never understood why so many people take that amount of time off, but I'm not like most Realtors and Brokers. I work, I work all year. I do take time off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Usually about 3-4 days for each holiday. However, most Real Estate professionals look at this time of year as a very slow time. The reality is, it can be a great time to buy a home.

Here is why: Since we know that most Realtors take the last 6 weeks off for the most part, the amount of showings on listings goes down dramatically. So here we are in the second week of December. Most showings of homes are very few and far between. As a seller, when showings drop off, it's a signal for buyers to come into the market. The reason being is that with fewer showings on homes, sellers are more apt to negotiate a little more liberal because of their desire to sell their home and their fear that an offer at this time might be the only offer they receive.

So why buy now? Between interest rates being as low as they have ever been (4.125% the other day) and home prices being as low as they have been in around 10 years, and add in motivated sales and it's the perfect storm to buy. If your goal is to get the best deal on real estate right now, this next 10 weeks may just be the best time for you to put a contract on a house.

One last thing, don't forget that at some point in the very near future interest rates are going to climb. How high? When? Who knows! I don't have a crystal ball, but if you are close to my age (almost 50, yikes!), you know that the interest rates are crazy low.... I've never seen them this low. However, in short order they will go back to at least 6% or maybe 8%. A $200k house at 6% is going to be about $400 more per month than the current rate around 4%. That's a heck of a lot more buying power now than in the future.

Don't miss the boat and be one of the thousands that are about to say: "I should have bought a house during the crash of 2006-2010.

If you need anything or have any questions, don't hesitate to call or email.

Have a great weekend!

4.25% Interest Rates

I know, I get a little smiley when I see a rate that I have never seen before! I know I have said this before, but with interest rates between 4% and 5% why would you not buy. With the exception of adjustable rate mortgages a few years ago, we just don't see rates this low. So when will they go back up? It's just a matter of time as we all know. However, whether you take advantage of this opportunity to buy a home, is up to you.

Ok, so I know you think I'm just saying this so you will buy a home from us during the downturn. The reality is, we sell a lot of homes and have sold homes to more buyers than any other real estate office in our county (out of over 350 offices). This has nothing to do with Tropical Realty selling you a home. This has everything to do with you taking advantage of probably one of the best opportunities to buy a home in the past 15 years or more! When you look at it, by buying today you are getting a $200 - $300 a month savings verse when interest rates go up.

Go ahead and take advantage...it's time you got a good deal isn't it!

Have a fun night!

Mitch

A sharp drop and then back to normal

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are all doing great this fine Sunday night. Business has been interesting the past month or two. We had 4 record months from March - June. It was pretty incredible but most of us knew it was not a real return back. It was supported by the first time home buyer and resellers tax credit. Once the credit ended, we saw one of the worst two months since opening our doors with regard to new contracts. I was expecting a drop off, but was hopeful, that with our interest rates around 4.5%, we might get lucky.

With all that being said. August will not be as bad as July and it seems like a lot more people are starting to come back out again. Hopefully we will be getting back to our new normal. What is the new normal? The new normal is 50% short sales and foreclosures selling at a decent clip and properly priced properties selling within 90 days too!

In a market like this, it would be understandable for Realtors to give up on the business. I'm sure that many of my Agents think about leaving on a regular basis. It's a ton of work, customers are cranky for the most part and worse, buyers and sellers still are not very realistic on home prices. However, my Agents have held up strong and continue to do a great job helping their customers. Not only do they work full time, a real full time, but they live and breathe this stuff. My job, as the broker, is to work hard to make sure my Agents are trained properly to help you.

You may not know that every other Tuesday we have our training sessions. These sessions can touch on things such as goal setting, our over the top customers service, how to find homes more efficiently for our customers and so much more. My beliefs are the better my Agents skills, the better experience you are going to have with Tropical Realty of Suntree. One of the flaws in this industry is that training, besides the mandatory 14 hours every two years, is not really present in most companies or this industry. I grew up with the work ethic and words from my dad that carry me through. He said, " no matter what you do in life, make sure you are the best and most honest at what you do." I have always lived by being one of the best and always the most honest and ethical Realtor in the business. My Agents are reflections of my beliefs. They are all wonderful people who care tremendously about their customers goals and needs.

So if you are out and about with one of our agents. Ask them what we have been training on lately. I'm sure they will be anxious to tell you. If you haven't met your Agent yet, take the time to look at a few homes with them. Get to know him or her as they can make your home buying or selling experience very positive and fun!

I look forward to helping you!

Mitch

Just another day

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are having a great day today. Being a broker can be very interesting. It can also be very boring. However, since I'm not just a Broker, I'm an Entrepreneur! I have been self employed most of my adult life and have had a ball. I've had many ups and many downs, but in the end, everything has happened for a reason and the experiences have been amazing!

So here I am the Broker of my Real Estate Company, Tropical Realty of Suntree. We have around 20 Agents and an awesome admin staff. We are one of the lucky Real Estate companies. We have survived the brunt of this recession. Has it been stressful at one time or another? Of course it has, it's been down right scary a few times! However, we have managed to keep on growing 20% per year, each year. The reason, great systems and most important, great people!

When I started the Brokerage I knew I didn't want to be like a traditional brokerage. On the outside we appear to be just like any other Brokerage. We offer a full service experience. However, the real success of our company comes not only from our great Internet Marketing program, but from our relationship with each other within our office. I've owned several companies and I've run others. I have never been lucky enough to work with this many great people who all get along like family. It's really very cool. I feel very blessed!

So why am I telling you all this stuff? I'm not sure. I'm in one of those reflecting moods where I'm just thinking about things. Sometimes, no matter how difficult things can be, you just have to look at all the good in your life. Sure the Real Estate business, no matter how well we are doing right now, is a tough ride especially emotionally. However we keep our eye on the ball and know that we do a great job for our customers. We do whatever it takes to help our customers have a smooth non-stressful experience. Our job is to absorb that stress, deal with it, and give you service with a smile!

Let me know what we can do to help. Take care!

Mitch

Tropical Realty of Suntree now accepting listings!

I know, two post in one night. I want to chat real quick about our new listing program. You can go to www.ListWithEase.com to check out the program.

In 2006 I made the decision to stop taking listings. Most in the industry thought I was crazy for doing so, but as a business person, it just didn't make sense. Sellers were not realistic in their expectations and homes were not selling. We had a ton of listings and our Agents, and myself, were getting daily calls from our customers yelling at us. Was it our fault? Absolutely not. The market fell like a rock! No matter what we told our customers, they told us we were wrong and we didn't know what we were talking about.

Just a quick example. I ran into an old customer, well potential customer, from 4 years ago. He practically ran after me at the golf course. Mitch he says, I just have to tell you something. Four years ago you told me that my house would sell for $550,000. I had other Realtors that insisted I could get what I wanted, $650,000. After 3 years on the market, and not listening to you, the house sold for $350,000. If I had listened to you, I would have made $200,000 profit. Instead, I lost money. This story is true and not the only one I heard. I have heard it several times.

So here we are now, May of 2010. The market has leveled for about a year now and finally consumers are realizing that their homes are going to be worth whatever the neighbors foreclosure or short sale sold for. Those homes are part of the value of your home now no matter what the consumer believes. Consumers are finally listening.

So why list with Tropical Realty. The biggest reason of course is that for the past 4 years we have helped more buyers buy homes than any other real estate office in Brevard County. In the end, the most important ingredient in selling your home is buyers. Our Suntree office alone has almost a 9% market share out of about 400 offices in the county. Between our Suntree and Merritt Island offices, we have about a 15% market share. Pretty impressive numbers but that's just the beginning. Here are some more stats:

Monthly Visitors to our websites - 75,000 +

Monthly Unique Visitors - 20,000 +

New Buyer Leads Daily - 60-120

Average "clicks" on each of our listings - 250 + times per month

Database of Buyers - 59,000 and counting daily!

In the end, why would you list your home with an agency that just lists homes when you can list with an agency that sells homes. It's really simple. Those who have the buyers rule this market. Tropical Realty has more buyers than anyone else! It's that simple!

If you are interested in having Tropical Realty evaluate your home, please feel free to call us directly or go to www.ListWithEase.com and we will be glad to help you. If you owe more than your home is worth, we also can help you with the short sale process. We have sold tons of short sales over the past couple years. We are experienced! I look forward to helping you!

Mitch

Home sales are up and interest rates are down!

I hope you are all doing well. I feel like I open these always apologizing because I haven't written in a while. The reason, as always, is we are swamped! That's a good thing of course!

In March and April we had two of the biggest months we have had since we opened our doors in 2005. We helped 58 customers in March and 46 in April. Our record prior to this was 44 customers in a month. Not to shabby! Was the tax credit the reason for the increased sales? I'm not sure. I do know however, that our marketing has produced a ton of new buyers coming into the area. Even though May, which is usually a slow month for us, is slower, we are seeing a lot more buyers come out who are looking for higher priced homes. The inventory of the low end homes continues to evaporate and prices have definitely leveled for quite some time.

So, with all that said, there is a lot of excitement in the market right now. Our bookings (people coming in to view homes) for June and July are extremely high. That should mean very busy months for our office and our Agents. Luckily we have some of the best Agents in the area working for Tropical Realty. The always put their customers first before their commission. We always talk about how important it is to help our customers. I'm blessed to have 20 + Agents that have the same moral fiber I do when it comes to this business. We love helping our customers!

As of today, interest rates were down under 5%. According to the news, the problems over in Europe are actually helping to keep our rates lower. Foreigners are buying our bonds which keep our rates low. This really is the perfect situation for buyers. Prices are at their 8 year low and interest rates are at their 50 year low according to the news today. What are you waiting for?!

As always, we are here to help you. If you are seriously thinking about buying, this IS the time. If you have been thinking about it, then this IS the time to make your move. It won't be long before this perfect time becomes the past time.

If you have any questions. Always feel free to call or email me.

Have a fun night!

Mitch

Just 30 days left for the tax credit

Hi Everyone!

I hope all of you are doing great today. It's the last Sunday of the first quarter and we are kicking into high gear. I'm not sure if it's my great marketing or if it's the tax credit, but our office is extremely busy right now. This month, March, we have set new records in written contracts. I'm very proud of my Agents and admin staff for how hard they work to keep our customers happy. Most of you don't know, as I didn't before getting in the business, that this is one of the hardest jobs out there. Agents, at least ours at Tropical Realty, work 24/7 and take each transaction very personal. We truly care that our customers have gone through their transactions with the least amount of stress. We absorb the stress so they don't have to feel it!

If you have been thinking about buying and taking advantage of the tax credit, this is the time. You will have to have a contract by April 30th and close by the end of June. I don't think they will extend the credit...at least I don't know where they will get the money to pay for these credits, once this is over. I'm not sure where they are getting the money for the current program! So if you are thinking about this 6, this is the time. And by the way, it's a great time to buy! House prices are the cheapest I have seen since 2001. It's amazing!

So what else is new? This year we started really taking listings as part of our business model. We had spent the last 4 years not taking them or at least being very selective when we did take them. The reason we are taking them now is I believe people understand that their home's value is what it is. The numbers don't lie and no matter what some other Realtor might say, we can still only get what the home will appraise at. No higher.

I ran into a guy yesterday morning at the golf tournament. He had asked me to list his home 3 years ago. At the time I told him it was worth no higher than the mid $500's. Of course he had two other Realtors tell him that they could sell it in the mid $600's. I told him I wouldn't take it at the price because it would waste a lot of money on my end and not do him any favors. In the end, because of his price, he would not sell it. He opted to list with one of the other Agents for $650k. Three years later, he finally sold the home for $350k. When I saw him yesterday, he told me that if he had just listened to me three years ago, he would have made an additional $200k.

Here is the deal. If you are going to list your home, don't always go with the Agent saying they can get the highest price. Anyone can say anything, the numbers are the numbers. There are plenty of Realtors who will take your home at an inflated price just to get their sign in your yard. To me, it's wasting everyones time. Look at the numbers, look at the comps. That's what is going to determine your price. Just because your home has an upgraded this or that, doesn't really matter much these days when it comes to selling. Sure, it helps sell your home, but the price isn't going to change to much. If your neighborhood is selling at $200,000, don't expect to get $250k. It just isn't going to happen...and if you are lucky enough to get a contract at that price, it won't appraise and you will be starting all over again.

If you are interested in finding out the true value of your home, feel free to contact us as I'm always glad to help.

That's it for now. If you need anything, we are always here to help. Have a great week ahead!

Mitch

What an amazing month!

Hi Everyone! I know, I'm doing a terrible job of keeping up with this blog these days. I'm going to try to do a better job but I'm working so much right now, it's tough. Here I am at 1:52am on a Friday night and I finally had a couple of minutes to fill you in on what's going on.

Business has been booming since the first of the year. This month we are close to hitting an all time record for homes under contract in a month and it's a short month. Our record is 46 and right now we are at 41 with the weekend to go. I'm so proud of my Agents and how hard they are working to help all of you, our customers. I am so blessed to have such a great group of Agents and a wonderful support staff. I don't know how we would be able to do all we do without our assistants, marketing coordinator Lindsay, and our office manager, Pat. They are all awesome as I know most of you have already learned!

So we are starting out the year on track to have another great year. This year we have made a decision to bring on more listings. I know I have talked about this in the past, but since January of 2006, we pretty much stopped taking listings here. It really didn't make much sense from a business standpoint. And, after all, I was a businessman way before I got into Real Estate. In January 2006 we had somewhere around 75+ listings. Not one had sold in about 6 months and it was becoming more and more costly to carry these. They were all way over priced and the owners were calling yelling at me and the Agents. I even spent a small fortune over the 6 month period on print advertising which I knew didn't work, but I wanted to show our sellers that it didn't work. I think I wasted close to $50k. Not only did we not sell any of our listings back then, we barely got any phone calls.

Fast forward to a few months ago, the end of 2009, and now we are ready to take on listings again and we have been. We actually started taking them last year and just being very selective by only taking listings that were priced appropriately. After all, when a seller says let's see if we can get this price (way overpriced), why would I take the listing. It costs me a good amount of money to market the property and if it is over priced in this market it will not sell. Even if we were able to get a contract, it would never appraise. Of course most sellers don't think, or most likely don't care, that they are wasting my money. Then again, I don't know that I would have given a second thought prior to becoming a Realtor. I didn't know as I'm assuming most of my potential customers don't either.

I believe right now we have about 50 listings or so. I know we had 12 or 13 this month alone. Over the past several months our listings have been selling and because of our systems, we have been selling 40% of them in house. Why are we having so much luck selling our own listings? Well for one, we have been, since 2006, the number 1 office in buyer transactions out of over 450 companies in Brevard County. So because we have so many buyers, we are able to sell more homes inhouse. It does make for a much cleaner transaction as we know that the Realtors are going to work great together to be sure that our customers are serviced properly.

I thought it might be a good idea to give you a few stats if you are thinking about listing your home and why you might want to list with us. Keep in mind though, we are going to be honest and you might not want to hear what we have to say. We don't take overpriced listings and I won't allow my Agents to do so. We will tell you at what price your home will sell. Plain and simple. Right now selling your home has two ingredients. It's all about price and exposure.

Our exposure is as follows:

Currently we have over 35,000 buyers in our Suntree database and another 19,000+ in our Merritt Island database. That's over 54,000 buyers!

Last month, January 2010, we had over 91,000 visitors to our 4 sites. with over 2,300 new buyers registering on our sites.

Our average listing was clicked on over 300 times per month and that number will most likely increase as our visits to our sites go up.

So as you can see, exposure is our specialty. My background as most of you know is Internet Marketing. We upload all our listings to 20 or so major sites including Google, Yahoo, Homegain, Zillow, Trulia and more! My belief is if we can't sell your home, nobody can!

I think it's time for me to get some sleep. We have our yearly office kickoff party tomorrow night and I have a busy day before hand. Unfortunately I have to go home early after the party and go to bed for a few hours. I have a 6am flight to San Fran to teach a class on Internet marketing to Real Estate Agents and Brokers from all over the country.

As always, if there is anything we can do to help. we are always here for you. Have a great night and a better weekend!

I can't believe it's been so long

First I need to apologize for not writing for so long. I have been non stop since the end of the year and here we are, Feb. 1, 2010 already! So what's been going on you might say. Well it's been an interesting past year in 2009, and I expect another interesting year in 2010.

In 2009, we ended up being the number 1 office in the county out of around 450 offices in buyer transactions. What does that mean? It means that we helped more buyers than anyone else in 2009. It's a great feeling to know we helped so many people move into new homes this year. We ended the year with 311 transactions. Not bad for a small company!

Starting now, in 2010, we have decided to add listings to our office. It's something that we had stayed out of the past 4 years or so as most people were not realistic in the prices they wanted for their homes. It's impossible for us to take on and carry tons of listings just for the sake of having listings. However, I do believe that now, after all this time, the market has leveled and it's time to start taking listings.

Why would someone want to list their home with a company that has spent most of it's time and effort in helping buyers? The answer is simple. What's the most important ingredient in selling your home...the answer of course is buyers. Tropical Realty has more buyers than any other brokerage in Brevard County....in fact I wonder if any one office in the country has more buyers than we do. Currently we have over 34,000 buyers in our Suntree office and another 18,000 buyers in our Merritt Island office. Pretty impressive numbers.

You may be asking though, how many of those buyers are looking in my area? We have a simple program to find out. Just go to www.tropicalrealtybuyers.com and you will be able to put your info in the form. From there we will check our database and get back to you with how many people match your home price and city. For instance, as of yesterday, if you were trying to sell your home in Palm Bay between $100k and $200k we had over 764 buyers from our Suntree database. Are they interested in your home? Of course we can't guarantee that, but we can surely tell you that we will get your home more exposure to buyers than anyone else.

My favorite saying lately is: "Why list with an agent or brokerage who lists homes when you can list your home with an agent or brokerage that actually sells home!" It makes sense doesn't it? If you are looking to sell your home, you need buyers. We might not be able to guarantee we will personally sell your home (although we sell 40% of our own listings) but we can guarantee that you will receive incredible service and most importantly incredible exposure to your home. This past month, Jan. 2010, we had over 90,000 visits to our sites. That's an amazing number of visits with over 65,000 of those visits repeat visitors. We must be doing something right if all these people come back to our sites on a regular basis.

With all the buyers in our database and an additional 50-100+ new consumers registering on our sites every day of the week, there is a good chance we have a buyer sitting there waiting for your home to come on the market. To discuss marketing your home, please feel free to call us.

BTW, is your home listed with another agent out of Brevard County? If so, we are always willing to help your Agent market your home by adding them to our site as well as uploading them to the other 22 sites we work with. Obviously the sooner you sell your home, the sooner you will use us to help you buy your new home. If this is you, feel free to contact me and I'll let you know what your Agent must do to take advantage of this program.

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

Have a great night and I promise not to take so long between posts.