Town & River Home For Sale

Check out this home for sale. It is located on McGregor Blvd in Fort Myers, FL , just south of Cypress Lake Drive/Daniels Parkway. The price has just been lowered to $339,000 and the sellers will even pay $2,500 towards the buyer's closing costs. It is one of the lowest price per square foot homes in the Town + River area. I am also including a Free 1 Year Home Warranty. Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think.

2310 Square Feet

3 Bedrooms + Den, 2 Bath

3 Car Garage

13810 McGregor Blvd, Ft Myers, FL 33919 <-- A great virtual Flyer

The sellers are the original owners and they've taken great care of this gem. They've recently updated the kitchen, with new Granite Countertops and Maple Cabinets, and a new brick paver lanai surrounding the large pool. At 1/3 acre, the private yard is more spacious than what is available in most developments today. Aren't low HOA fees of only $60 per YEAR a welcome change too? I've got a good feeling this home will sell soon based on the activity we're seeing, check out the pictures below and give me a call if you have any questions.

The updated kitchen is great, don't you think?

They chose some great colors for the granite and maple cabinets. It's such a wide open floor plan, you can be cooking and still have a conversation with your guests or family.

This is a great pool, with a new brick paver lanai that overlooks the 1/3 acre landscaped yard. Check out some more pictures below.

Searching for Short Sales: Southwest Florida Homes for Sale

So, in my last post I mentioned a client of mine that was deciding on putting an offer in on one of two homes she liked. One was a short sale, and one was just a great deal in a good location. You can look back at my last post to read about short sales, or email me if you have questions.

She decided to try to buy the short sale home, which already had an offer in on it. It was a bit risky because it may have taken weeks to hear from the bank whether they were going to accept the current offer or not, and then whether they would accept our backup offer or not. Short sales can be great deals, but they are a little more complicated, time consuming and frustrating for just about everyone involved. Be sure you know what is involved before you journey into the world of the short sale/pre-foreclosure. Here's why: You can place an offer and wait for 30-45 days for the banks decision and if they deny your offer, you have to start the process of looking for your dream home all over again.

That's not too big a deal if you're like my clients: renting and in no immediate hurry to move. They just want to make sure they're getting the best deal. Unfortunately, the bank did come bank and deny the short sale as of earlier today. Luckily, we had just put the offer in this week, the poor folks who put in the previous offer had been waiting almost a month!

The bank denied it because they felt that the sellers could come up with money to help the sale close, to the tune of 70k on a 350k short sale! My guess is that the bank decided that the appraisal or BPO (Broker's Price Opinion) showed them that the home was worth closer to 420k, and either the buyers or the sellers would need to come up with that difference. The bank is already owed close to 500k, so they're going to lose a chunk of money anyway, they may as well take the chance at getting a little more upfront and if they do go to foreclosure, hopefully they'll still make more than they would with this short sale. Only time will tell...

I'm going to post one of my listed homes for sale in Southwest Florida this weekend, I really like this one and I've got a good feeling it's going to sell soon. Let me know what you think when it comes out...

See you soon, Jeff

Multiple Offers?

So I was showing property yesterday to an awesome client who is looking for a single family home in Fort Myers/SW Florida. Wouldn't you know it, out of the 9 homes we looked at, the one she really liked was the one that had just received an offer yesterday. As I write this, she and her husband are still considering putting in an offer to compete with the first. But, we also got to see a home that is a short sale that would be a fantastic deal, maybe even a better deal long term. The problem is that because it's such a good deal it has had an offer at the bank awaiting approval for 2 weeks now. So they're considering offers on both of those great deals!



Here's a picture of one of them ---->





What makes these homes bring in multiple offers in a market where most homes are languishing on the market? #1 is the Price, they are both realistic and fair. I can very easily show my client why it is such a good deal using the data from the MLS. Secondly, the homes were prepared to be shown, ie. clean, no clutter, clean carpets, fresh paint, staged (or furnished) and most of all...no smells (don't laugh, it happens!). Email me or check out my site @ http://www.jeffcody.net/ for ideas on how to ensure your home is prepared to be shown to potential buyers.

I'll let you know how this situation turns out! Just a quick "Hello" to 2 of my online real estate/blog friends: Brian @ http://activerain.com/blogs/azbrady and Dustin @ http://www.raincityguide.com/author/dustin . Two great guys with great advice, thanks guys!

See you soon, Jeff

Countrywide Being Bought by Bank of America

As a sign of the times, the country's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, was reportedly bought today by Bank of America, making the Charlotte, NC based financial giant now the leading lender. There had been speculation for some time, especially after B 0f A made Countrywide a $2B loan late last summer for a 16% share in the company.

Many believed Countrywide was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, leading to a list of questions of what would happen then. The $2B loan helped their position temporarily, but when they own 1 out of 5 loans in America, it was just a matter of time. We've seen a list of lenders go out of business in the past 6 months, but the possibility of Countrywide adding to the list made many worry.

With short sales and foreclosures up recently, many lenders are having financial problems because many home sellers are facing financial problems. If you're not familiar with a short sale, I'll explain a bit about them, but feel free to email me with any questions.

A short sale is a situation where the home seller is behind in payments and is facing foreclosure if he doesn't sell or bring the payments current. More importantly, the home is no longer worth what is currently owed on the home. For example, you owe $200,000 but the home is only worth $150,000 in today's market. Ideally, you would want to just wait until the home appreciates enough to sell it and break even or better. But many investors or home owners in financial troubles can no longer afford the homes. The investors thought they could sell the home in plenty of time and make a nice profit. We're seeing a lot of that in the Fort Myers real estate market. The numbers of SWFL homes for sale has risen to record numbers.

It is a great time if you are a buyer though, there are some great deals to be had. Email me if you'd like to know some of the best. I've got to run, I'm actually going to show a couple this afternoon.

See you soon, Jeff

The Initial Blogger Post

Welcome to the SWFL Real Estate Blog I have recently created on Blogger. I am excited to generate some interesting posts relevant to Florida Real Estate and in general, Southwest Florida homes for sale. Please feel free to comment as much or as little as you'd like. My goal is to create a forum that everyone feels comfortable participating in.

You can see a little bit about me from the, um, well... "About Me" section of my blog, so I won't bore you. But if anything interests you, real estate related or not, please don't hesitate to drop me a line. Perhaps you're a Great Dane fan, like myself. Maybe you're a private or commercial pilot, let's talk. Or you love music almost as much as I do, send me your favorites, here's mine . You may want to know the value of your home, or what the best buys in SW Florida are today, just let me know.

Some posts will be about something that just happened in the Real Estate Market, a good buy or news that may help you save on insurance or taxes. Whatever the post...I hope you enjoy.


Regards,
Jeff