Fort Myers Housing Market Nearing Bottom, according to Zillow.com

We have great news that hit USA Today's front page today for Fort Myers Real Estate. According to the article in USA Today, Fort Myers Real Estate is one of six cities in America that have gone through the worst part of the foreclosure and mortgage crisis that took America by surprise in 2006 through today. The foreclosure filings in Lee County have dropped some 28% in a year and the inventory available to purchase has decreased by 52%, according to the article. What does that mean for Suzy Q HomeOwner and Joe Smith Home buyer? If Joe is an end user who will move into the property as his primary residence and stay in the home for years to come, then his choices for availability are limited. It used to be that Joe Smith Home Buyer could see 20 homes in a day and love 2 or 3 of them put an offer in and purchase it that day. Today if Joe Smith Home Buyer is able to see 5 homes a day or 10 in a month, because inventory is so low and one of them he sees hits 7 out of 10 wishes on his wish list, well then he better pick it up. If he doesn't he is likely to purchase something with only 6 out of 10 items on his wish list or worse yet, might only get 50% of his wishes. When searching for your dream house there are many things to consider so please buyer, visit my son's blog finding that Dream House. Now, if you are Suzy Q Home Seller, today's news couldn't be better!! For sellers who have tried to compete with the REO market only to learn that lenders hate real estate and they hate not selling it in under 30 days and they are motivated beyond all reason to lower the price to get it sold, well that price competition is moving out of the way for Suzy Q Home Seller. If you considered selling your home this past year but thought better to wait, I commend you and say your wait could soon be over. Does this mean Fort Myers Real Estate is going to rebound and recover in the next 12 months? I predict it will "recover" in that people who want to sell can sell and people who want to buy will still be out there, but in terms of gaining prices back that we say in the 2005, that will still be years down the road, in fact my son wrote a blog on that as well.

CAPE CORAL VETERANS INVESTMENT ZONE

Cape Coral is going to have a Veterans Investment Zone. (VIZ) The goal of this is to develop of symbiotic businesses to surround the new Regional VA Outpatient Clinic.

The Regional VA Clinic is opening in the spring of 2012 and is going to have 220,000 square feet. The 220,000 square feet VA Clinic will rank in the top 3 to 5 of the 800 clinics that exist nationwide. The clinic will employ a staff of nearly 300 and provide services to over 700 patients daily. The VA Clinic in Fort Myers will close and this one in Cape Coral will take its place. We are quite excited about it because it is going to have a lot more room and contain a lot more facilities that were available to the veterans at the Fort Myers clinic.

The VIS is located on Diplomat Parkway and Corbett Road in Northeast Cape Coral, with easy access from US 41 and I75. The VIS will have over 430 acres of undeveloped land within one mile of the VA clinic sight. The zoning is corridor and industrial which is optimal for business diversity. The VIS will also have 220,000 square of Patriot Plaza. This will be a mixed use development of medical offices, wellness and rehab components, hotel, and retail. It will also have 53,000 square feet of Hope Hospice which is presently in the area and is a palliative care facility. In addition to that it will have a 15 acre Army Reserve sight. This does not mean there will be tanks and halftracks driving around the area, because the Army is changing and it is going to be a technical facility and area.

For those of you who wish to take advantage of the economic development in Cape Coral, the opportunities at VIS are:

1. Medical Clinics and Offices

2. Wellness Providers

3. Assisted Living Facilities

4. Patient/Family Support Services

5. Hospitality/Entertainment

6. Hotel

7. Retail

8. Pharmacy

9. Medical Research

10. Life Science Facilities

11. Business Support Services

12. Call Centers

13. IT Industry/Data Processing

14. Green (Industries)

15. Light Industrial Enterprises

I am taking classes to receive my ACCRS designation which is “Accredited Cape Coral Residential Specialist”. If you have any questions or could use any help getting in touch with the correct people, please feel free to contact myself at Just Right Realty Company, and I will be more than happy to help you and put you in touch with the person that can help you the most. I am also a veteran who does use the VA clinic and will be more than happy to assist you any way I can if you need help getting in touch with or joining the VA Clinic.

In the meantime, I’m just having another great day in “Paradise”.

Jerry Ruzicka, Broker

Just Right Realty Company

SPACESHIP DISCOVERY’S LAST RIDE

A few weeks ago, my wife and I decided to see the last take off of Discovery. We drove from Cape Coral, FL to Titusville, FL for this extremely eventful happening. It was definitely worth the trip. We arrived about 3 hours prior to the take off of Discovery and were fortunate in finding a parking spot in Titusville right off A1A right next to the water. It cost us $10.00 for parking and we had only a 1 ½ block walk to find a perfect spot on the water to view the take off. We were approximately 9 miles from the launch sight.

It is an incredible experience to watch our space program in action. Because this is the very last flight Discovery will ever make, it made it that much more important and exciting to see. We only have 2 more space flights prior to our government shutting down the space program as we know it.

I find it extremely distasteful and difficult to comprehend why our United States Government is dropping our space program and allowing the other countries to move ahead of us. It seems to me to be an extremely sad time in the history of our country that we are giving up such an important program and allowing other countries to move ahead of us. We, in fact, are going to pay other countries to shuttle our astronauts back and forth to the space station. It seems to me like we are going backwards in a very fast downward spiral. We are certainly having change in our government but none of this change appears to be progressive for the United States.
Back to the shuttle take off. The feeling and exhilaration of the ground shaking and the noise created by the incredible power of the space shuttle is something that everyone should see at least once. It makes you really feel great knowing that we were once the leader in the space program and at the same time it is extremely saddening to know that we are giving up.

One of the last two shuttles is supposed to be an evening blast off. My wife and I plan on making this trip because we have never seen one take off at night. To find out specific dates and times, check with NASA and follow your local and national news.

I highly recommend you take the time to see the next take off of the space shuttle.

Best regards,
Jerry Ruzicka, Broker

Property Management in Ft Myers FL

There is not many joys in the real estate career equal to that of telling a prospective tenant; They meet requirements to rent your property and you would be happy to have them as a tenant. The pure joy and often relief of finding the home they need for the next year, or maybe 2 years and sometimes just a few months is one reason I love my job. I am the head of the Property Management division within Just Right Realty Co. and today I had the joy of telling a tenant they made the cut. What a great way to end the week. I have made three families happy. First the homeowner who hired us on March 1, will be happy to know that within 3 weeks we found a tenant who is moving in April 1, so vacancy is null. Second a tenant who is in love with home and neighborhood that the house is located. Last but not least my family is grateful that we are able to have one more client added to our list of properties we manage successfully.

Now, lets talk about “successfully” managing property. This is where property manager earn their keep. This is where the stress and headaches come in that force many people out of the business. This is where paying 10% of the rent each month becomes a huge benefit to the homeowner. Yes, this is the part of the job I try to avoid at all costs. What are the items that create troubles for a property manager? For the most part it all deals with money, the money the tenant is required to pay for rent each month. This is where Life Happens, and rent often becomes the last bill paid. I think there is a different term for Life Happens but we will keep this PG rated. As life throws us the curve balls that it naturally does to each and every house hold we as property managers need to be clever in our ways to communicate the importance of making sure rent is paid on time, every time. However in the event it is not paid on time, as property managers we need to be understanding, compassionate, and very good problem solvers of problems we have no control over. There are some of my tenants that pay me on the 5th of every month. They get their paycheck that day and go and draw a check for rent immediately and like clockwork I can count on it. SO, do I charge them a late fee because the lease says I have the right to if not paid on the 1st? Do I hold it over on them because they are late every month? Absolutely NO to both of the previous questions, remember Life Happens, so we have to roll with the punches. The toughest times as a property manager is the times you have to go to the extreme and evict someone.

Those times you try to do everything humanly possible so you don’t have to go to the extreme but in my tenure with property management and the hundreds of tenants I have worked with on the properties we manage in Lee County, we have had to evict a few. I pride myself on that fact that over the time I have managed property that I can still count on my hands how many I have had to evict. Which for the home owner means less costs and less head aches in the long run. I hope your Friday is starting off great and I hope it carries over to a great weekend and an even better Monday morning that you could ever hope for. If you would like more information on Our Property Management Services in Fort Myers FL, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, please send me an email. Jerry@jrrc1.com.

Real Estate Investor Round Table Discussion

The other night Entrust Freedom had a great after hours meeting at their new location 1520 Royal Palm Sq #320 Fort Myers FL. By the way, I must say; beautiful new offices in Fort Myers, congrats on the upgrade. Entrust had a half dozen real estate experts present reasons why now is a good time to buy and invest in Southwest Florida. Entrust Freedom offers a self-direct IRA which allow you to invest your IRA money into real estate essentially tax free. Opps, I better say, “I am not a tax advisor, nor is any info in my blog tax advice, you should consult your accountant.” However I am a client of Entrust Freedom and have been purchasing real estate with my IRA for a couple years now. What a growth in assets I have seen even in this difficult market we are in. The meeting was amazing, there were well over 30 folks around the conference table from a vast array of knowledge bases, in real estate. At the table there were investors, contractors, realtors, and financers all who are very successful in their own rights. What I thought was amazing, besides the presentations by Ravenwood Homes, Great job guys, was the articles Dave had printed off that night from WSJ.

One article, “Home Affordability Returns to Pre-Bubble Levels, if you want more, read my son’s opinion. The other article was “Cash Buyers Lift Housing.” It was amazing that Nationally all cash transactions hit 28% in 2010. This goes to say that people are out there buying and they have the ability to purchase like no other time before. Many of these cash buyers were taking money out of their stock portfolio and looking for gains from rents collected on real estate. Rent prices have not dropped too far in Cape Coral and Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres, so a purchaser can often get returns greater than 12%, for me that is great. I am one of the many baby boomers that have seen my stock portfolio take a huge hit, so I too have chosen real estate as a safer investment with a better ROI than I have seen in stocks. If you are considering like the 30 plus professionals in the room to invest in real estate in 2011 and want some good advice, good service, and someone with a keen eye on details email me today. My son and I are working as a team researching great foreclosure opportunities for rent and hold, and every now and then buy and flip. Long term the hold will prove to be more profitable is my opinion.

PREPARING YOUR HOME FOR SALE

With our market slowly coming out of its slump, it is time for you to start thinking about the preparation of your home if you wish to sell it without a short sale or foreclosure.

Hire an Agent.

Now is not the time to try to sell your home on your own. You need a real estate professional like Just Right Realty Company to help you price your house, do open houses; we hire the professional photographer for you and also for us for brochures.

Curb Appeal.

Make sure your house looks excellent from the outside as well as from the inside. Drive by your home a couple of times, stop and view it to make sure it looks excellent from the curb. Landscaping is a very cost effective way of making a property look fantastic from the curb. If your buyer does not like the looks of it from the outside, they will not even enter the inside to take a look at it.

Clean the Area.

One of the easiest ways to have your house looking great from the curb is to haul away all of the trash. The trash also includes any material left over from anything you built or whatever is lying around your yard. Get rid of all of the old swings etc. that you are not going to be using. In this same vein, get rid of all of the excess clutter in your house and make it as appealing as possible. A clean house sells.

Fix everything.

You need to repair any broken joints or cracks in the walls. If there is anything that needs fixing, be sure you have a handyman or you; yourself fix all that is necessary to be fixed. Painting is one of the least expensive and best ways to make a house look bright and shiny. If you are an excellent painter, you can do it yourself but if you are like me, it would be important for you to hire a professional to paint your home. Painting the interior will dramatically increase the value of your home and if the exterior needs it, it will be necessary to paint that as well.

Home Staging.

Last, but not least, maybe it’s time to hire a professional stager to really increase the value of your home. It is hard for the individual who has lived in that house a while to see it and they sometimes need a stranger to help them see it. This stranger should be a professional re-stager.

Be sure to hire professionally licensed contractors etc. to help you make your home stand out. You can check with the Better Business Bureau and call references before hiring anyone to do any of the work in your home. Just Right Realty Company has a list of these contractors that we have used before and can help you with the hiring of anyone you need. We have an “in house” handyman who we guarantee his work and can get him to your property at the time you want him there. The timing certainly seems to be a factor in Southwest Florida. While you are getting the work done and re-staging the home for the sale, we can take a ride out on Revelry to catch fish, dive, or just have a great day of a beautiful boat ride.

Have a great day in Paradise!

Jerry Ruzicka, Broker

Southwest Florida Housing Market Has Bottomed Out!!

I have great news to share...Everywhere on national news you hear about the housing market taking another dip in the year 2011, as high as an additional 15%. That does not appear to be the case in Southwest Florida. The prices in our market have actually shown an increase for the last 1 ½ years. National articles show that prices in all the major markets are declining except in Southwest Florida. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY! Our inventory of foreclosures and short sales is decreasing, therefore investors and first time homebuyers should be taking advantage of the existing inventory of homes for sale that are all below replacement cost. The actual median home prices rose 3.65% from 2009 to 2010. Unfortunately the area is perceived as still being depressed. This is because we were in the top 5 of foreclosure sales for such a long period of time. That number has risen from being in 4^th place to now being in 54^th place in foreclosure sales. This area is a HOT REAL ESTATE MARKET. Our single family housing permits increased by 23% in 2010. Another great showing of positive activity is that we have steadily decreasing unemployment rates in the area. Also, for January 2011 our foreclosure numbers fell significantly. Lee County has dropped to 19^th in the state for foreclosure filings. One home of every 428 borrowers were foreclosed, a decrease of 35.4% from December 2010 and a decrease of 71.74% when compared to January 2010. Collier County had a decrease of 37.99% compared to December 2010 and a decrease of 72.6% from January 2010.

You all come on down and take advantage of the existing inventory of low priced homes. After you get through looking for your dream home, or your second vacation home, we can take a ride on “Revelry” and catch some fish or do a great dive.

It’s a great day in “Paradise”.