This has been the hottest week of the summer so far with daily forays into the 90’s and only making it into the mid-80’s at night – just like Florida in July. Fairly hot week in real estate, too, with two more sold, five new listings, thirteen new price tags and eight expired unsold. Virtually no change in the overall inventory, though, up two this week to 482, with 187 homes and 295 lots listed for sale between Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and the C-30 Scenic Corridor. As always, we’ll start with dessert and look at our two sales first.
Good news/bad news if you’re trying to sell a lot right now: both sales were lots but wow, the sellers sure had to slash their list prices to make it happen.
First up is one I encouraged you to jump on several weeks ago, the 75′ x 550′, 1+ acre gulf front Indian Pass lot which had been offered briefly for $330,000 before raising it back up to $375,500. In the end he took $329,000 for it and closed on Tuesday. That buyer got a great piece of land. What really surprises me here is how long it took to sell it even after dropping the price. Did the Seller take a bath? I’d say he cleaned up all the way to the bank, since he more than doubled his money in less than 10 years having paid only $199,000 for it in late ’99. I’d label this a perfect win-win transaction for both parties. Way to go.
The other sale was the interior lot at Peninsula Estates on Cape San Blas and is a truly long and seemingly sad story. This seller listed it all the way back in October 2005 for $375,000, left it there for a year before dropping it to $250K, waited another 10 months with no action so dropped it to $179K but still not takers, so this past April he slashed it to $110,000. Well, that was close, but no cigar, as they say. The most he was able to get for it was $79,000 at the closing table on Wednesday. Before your eyes start welling up for the poor fella, I should add that he bought it in ’85 for $11,500 so it still wasn’t bad for a 23-year investment, returning roughly 9% annual interest.
I don’t often find many offerings to get really excited about among the five new listings as even as long as we’ve been in this buyers market now sellers are still slow to accept reality and typically start out high before ratcheting their way down to market-bearing reality. This week’s new listings are no exception so I’m moving on to see what great buying opportunities there are amidst our thrteen new price tags.
I have two picks of the week this week, both homes, and oddly enough each landing at the same price of $275,000, and we’ve seen both of them before.
This gulf view, 2-bedroom, 2-bath gulf view townhome at Barrier Dunes looked good when it went to $299K and looks absolutely mouth-watering at only $275K. This seller is serious, folks – she paid $395,000 for it in 2005 so I don’t know how much louder she can say “BRING ME AN OFFER”! I’ve shown this place and it’s lovely. Great rental income, too; the numbers work if you’re looking for a terrific income-producing rental property. Beautifully furnished and upgraded renovations only a few years ago make its effective age pretty young.
The other hot deal is on this single family, 2nd tier gulf view home over in Money Bayou that started out in July ’07 at $429,000, has dropped incrementally ever since, and comes in at a very attractive $275,000 this week. I’d say this seller is echoing pretty loudly, “Bring Me An Offer!”, too. The Seller paid $175,000 for it a little over 5 years ago.
That about wraps it up for another week in review. If you’d like more info on any of these properties or if you have property you want to sell, call me toll free at 877-512-9366, ext. 109, or shoot me an email to [email protected]. Thanks for stopping by today.
Please note: whenever I mention a property in this blog for which I am the listing agent, I will clearly identify it as such.