It’s called Listingbook.  You’ll see new listings as they hit the market, price changes, contracts that go pending, how many days a home has been on the market and so on, just like we do.  You get to drive the bus and customize your searches any way you like, and as often as you like.

We’ve been offering Listingbook for a while now, but we heard it can offer a lot more, not just for those of you wanting to purchase a Clearwater Beach condo, but for our Crystal Beach FLhome sellers, too.  So, yesterday, we jumped at the chance to attended a free advanced training session presented by Tara Jacobsen of Marketing Artfully and sponsored by Joyce Smith of Somers Titleand Ingegrity First Funding Group in Dunedin.  Tara blew our hair off.  We’re going to be working hard in the next few weeks to bring you all of the bells and whistles we learned about to help make you the most informed Pinellas home buyers and sellers out there!    

Sign up and tell us what you think.  Surfs up!  (yes, that’s Matt being an off-duty Realtor and our son catching a few waves at Lido Key in Sarasota).

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Q:  I’m thinking about putting an offer your listing in Baywood Shores MLS 7346686.  I see that it’s a bank preapproved short sale at $283k (subject to 3rd party lender approval). My question is, how much leeway do you think there is on making a lower offer?

Also, I know that sometimes banks can take several months to accept/deny an offer.  Is it because they are waiting to see if they can get a better offer? If so, is there a way to write into a contract that if they receive a better offer during this “waiting period” that we may consider renegotiating ours at a higher bid?

A:  Hi Tina - Please give us a call and we’ll fill you in completely on the particulars of where we are with both lenders, other offers, suggested offer amounts, etc.

We are Pinellas short short sale experts and would be happy to fully familiarize you with how short sales work. Generally speaking, the banks are taking so long because they are so overwhelmed with case files that they can’t keep up with the workload.  Pinellas short sales are unusual in that the homeowner doesn’t have a vested interest in the amount the home sells for (they just want to know that they are out from under the house payments), so it’s just the lender(s) we are negotiating with. The bright side of this is that the banks (more…)

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On Monday, I was told about a Palm Harbor real estate agent, a fairly well known one just a short year or two ago, was looking for a part time job.   We’ll call her Sally.

On Tuesday, I ran into another Palm Harbor Realtor that used to do a LOT of business in Pinellas County, and let it suffice to say that the opposite has been true for her lately.  We’ll call her Sue.  Sue was working the election polls for the day doing her civic duty (hats off to her for that).  Sue confided that she was there because she was bored and had (more…)

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Do you want to know what’s really happening with Pinellas Real Estate?  Want to avoid the sugar-coated smooth talk and just want honest answers?

Suncoast Partners and The Pinellas Peach take pride in providing meaningful knowledge, insight and data to assist you with making informed Pinellas real estate investment decisions.  Above is our first monthly installment of data that’s seemingly too difficult for the educated Pinellas real estate consumer to find these days.

PRO, The Pinellas Board of Realtors, dispenses boat loads of data each month.  Some meaningful and some, quite frankly, will put even the most analytical types to sleep.  ZZZzzzzzzz. We’ve assembled the parts we believe are important, but we need you to please let us know what you like, don’t like, and what data, if any, you would like to see that’s not here.

This data shows us that for Pinellas home SELLERS (reverse this if you’re buying or buying up):

The Good :

1. Just as many homes are selling this year as last year.
2. The number of homes on the market has declined slightly, which is good news for everybody because it’s an indicator that we’ve got fewer non-serious sellers.
3. Our MSI (Month’s Supply of Inventory) numbers are down significantly for single family homes and down slightly for condos - a healthy sign toward market correction.
4. In August we saw the lowest ‘Days on Market’ numbers we’ve seen in months.  Homes are selling more quickly than they were earlier in the year.

The Bad:

1. Prices are down significantly from last year - roughly 14% for single family homes and 22% for condos.  Keep in mind this is just a snapshot for the past two months over last year.  The thing I hate about statistics is that one can slice them and dice them to suit just about any purpose, but know that the numbers being bantered about by those in the know is that Pinellas home prices have come down about 16% in the last year.
2. Prices are still declining as the Palm Harbor foreclosures and Dunedin Short Sales continue to pop up.  (The rate at which that is happening and what we expect to happen is subject matter for another post). 
3. These low interest rates aren’t going to last forever (they were already up again to between 6.5% and 6.75% today), so it’s going to continue to get harder and harder to find qualified buyers to buy your Ozona FL home.  If you’re considering a purchase, it’s time to get your game shoes on (yet another subject for another post).

The Ugly:

Tricked ya!  Happy Halloween!  There’s nothing ugly about real estate as long-term investment, a great tax write-off, and most importantly, a place to call home sweet home.

Remember, tell us what you think.  Your opinion matters!

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