WOW! And the hits just keep on coming. We had a record-breaking week, logging four sales, penned an amazing nine new contracts, added six new listings, and cut prices on nine others. With all that, our inventory dipped a little, closing down by three from last week, with 385 MLS listings in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market, with 113 homes and 272 lots. Once again, we have a lot of territory to cover, so let’s get right to it.
The first of our four sales is this lovely gulf front home on Haven Road on the Cape between Sea Grass and Ocean Haven. My New Listing Pick of the Week when it debuted the first week of June, I love this awesome 5-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath, 2,911 square foot gulf front home with a list price of $789,000. Built in 2009, it’s situated on 50′ of waterfront in a micro-subdivision of four homes. The lot alone sold in early 2008 for $575,000. This is a high-end vacation rental with impressive GRI of $91,345 in 2010, and already has over $80,000 on the books for 2011, expecting to exceed 2010’s GRI. The buyers got a great deal on Tuesday when they picked up the keys at closing for $760,000.
Our second sale takes us to the south side of the Cape to San Blas Plantation for an estate sale of a third-of-an-acre, first tier lot. The representative listed it for $89,900 and sold it on Friday for $54,000 cash. I’m not sure why, but the county had this one up at $135,000. The last time this property sold was back in 1990 when it went for $20,000.
Our second sale is a bank-owned lagoon front lot out on C-30 almost to the Franklin County line. It’s about three quarters of an acre, measuring roughly 83′ by 405′. The previous owners paid $325,000 for it in February 2005 and turned around a year later and put it back on the market at a modest markup of $339,000. No takers came along and the property eventually went to the bank, who set a fire sale pist price of $24,900, resulting in a sale this week for exactly that amount. That’s about bang on the money with the county’s assessed value of $24,000.
Our fourth and final sale is out on C-30 over in Money Bayou where this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,140 square foot bath gulf front front town house in Cape Villas was listed for $195,000. It wasn’t a short sale even though the sellers paid $339,000 for it in August 2008. Cape Villas is a cute little complex of 12 units located on the gulf west of the little bridge at Money Bayou. There is a shared community pool overlooking the beach. The parties went to closing on Thursday with the buyers picking up the keys for $183,000, not too much above the county’s assessed value of $153,609.
Now on to our banner crop of nine new contracts, heading back to the north end of the Cape to Sunset Pointe where this quarter-acre first tier lot listed as a short sale for $99,000 went under contract on Thursday. The seller paid $525,000 for it in the summer of 2004, so he and the bank have some negotiating to do. He’s been trying to sell it ever since 2006 when he first listed it for $699,500. The current list is well below the county’s assessment of $120,000.
Our second new contract is in nearby Barrier Dunes, where this 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 1,172 square foot lake-front townhouse went under contract with a list price of $179,500. There have been a couple of 2-bedroom units on the lake which recently sold in the $125K range, so I’m thinking this one will probably close at around $135K or so. It’s one of the newer units in this complex, having been built in 2003, when it sold to the current owner for $210,000. The county has it assessed at $162,131, which I think is high.
About three miles further south on Cape San Blas Road just shy of The Tradin’ Post our third contract is another one of the several lots on Catamaran Drive which went under contract simultaneously last week. This week the agents penned yet another contract on this third tier, half-acre “X” zone lot listed for $60,000, a smidgen of the assessed value of $80,000.
Lots of action on the Cape and our next contract takes us a few blocks further down the road to this 50′ wide roughly half-acre gulf front lot listed for $265,000 which went under contract on Monday. This is part of a minor replat the seller is in the process of completing, so they’ll need to wait for that in order to close. It’s being carved from the parent parcel, a 100′ wide gulf to road lot, that the county has assessed for $350,000. The other 50’wide gulf front lot in this parcel is still available as I write this, so let me know if you”re interested.
This next gulf front lot on the Cape is an odd duck, as my grandmother used to say; a 37′ wide piece zoned for construction of a duplex, which is about all you could fit into this foot print what with side setbacks being 9.5’each. I guess you could squeeze an 18′ wide shotgun-style home but that’s as wide as you could go. The sellers have owned it since 1984 when they bought the previously existing one side of a duplex there at the time, paying $95,500 for it. I forget which storm took the duplex out. They’ve been trying to sell this lot since the summer of ’07 when they listed it for $395,000. By now that list is down to $139,900, below even the county’s assessment of $146,300.
Our seventh contract and we still haven’t left the Cape. We’re back down on the south side again for this one, in Boardwalk, my Price Change Pick of the Week from just last week. It’s a pleasant, long-established subdivision off Cape San Blas Road about a half mile from C-30. We’re looking at a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,656 square foot home built in 1990. The sellers bought it in early 2005 for $405,000 and subsequently did some major renovation work on the interior, so they have a good bit invested in it. Unfortunately, it went under contract this week as a short sale with a list price of only$215,000.
OK – we’re finally leaving the Cape and heading back out onto C-30 heading towards Indian Pass stopping at this bank-owned lovely 6-bedroom, 4-bath, 3,348 gulf front home built in 2008 as a spec home and now listed for a mere $590,000. The owner bought the lot alone in February 2007 for $926,5000, then built this lovely home, so they were very heavily invested into it, and tried to market it as early as the summer of ’07 when they listed the home for $1.825M. They eventually lost it to the bank who is selling it ‘”as is”” with some interior finish work still needing to be completed.
A little further up the beach in the Money Bayou subdivision of Sweetwater Shores someone wrote a contract on another gulf front lot, this one a beautiful half-acre parcel with 50′ of waterfront. The sellers bought it in January 2005 for $795,000 and tried to flip it just 2 months later listing it for $1.130M, a nice 40% markup. That train was long out of the station by then and they’ve ridden the market all the way down to it going under contract on Tuesday as a short sale with a list price more in line with today’s market, $250,000. Two similar lots at the other end of this street sold at the turn of the year in the $200,000 range so I won’t be surprised if that’s close to what this one closes for eventually.
Could this really be our ninth and final new contract? It is, and it’s another gulf front home, this time over on Indian Pass. A couple of buyers liked the looks of this 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,670 square foot home built in 2000, listed right with a $549,900 asking price. The sellers are the original owners so this will be an arms length transaction with no short sale involved.
We have some great looking deals in our six new listings, all of which are lots, and one of which has already gone under contract, so I’m making it a package-deal New Listings Pick of the Week – check them all out!
From our crop of nine price changes, there are several I like but I’m recommending two as Price Change Picks of the Week: check out this gulf front lot at Jubilation on the Cape now just $265,000, and this gulf front townhouse on C-30 now $249,000.
That’ll do it for this week. Glad to have so much activity going on as people are snapping up these bargain-basement great deals on premium properties. If you’re looking for terrific values, there’s no time like the present to start searching, and I’ll be glad to help you with that. Simply call or text me on my cell at 850-227-5197 or use good old reliable email to [email protected] . Get in on the sales action here at the Cape where the only thing hotter than the weather is our real estate market. Have a terrific week, keep cool, and hope to see you back again next week. Thanks for stopping by today. Take care.