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Come out and see this beautiful home!
2157 Deborah St, Punta Gorda, FL 33950
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday March 3, 4, and 6 2017
11 a.m.-4 p.m.
You can’t find your dream home if you don’t look! A builder’s model, every detail of the home was built to impress. Come out and see for yourself this weekend.
Is it February already? It’s hard to tell when it’s 80 degrees every afternoon. It’s officially season and our office has been a busy place this past month.
There is a lot going on in the next couple months, so I will get right to the good stuff.
Have fun out there! Follow us on Facebook for more updates on our market and local happenings.
By: Adrienne Andreae
There is so much going on in this town. It’s hard to keep up on it all!
That’s what a recent buyer stopped in my office to tell me. When she said it, part of me filled with pride. I love that Punta Gorda is so active. Our town is a place for doers. People come here eager to get out on the water, go out on the town, and meet people.
Another part of me felt a little guilty. I used to be much better at keeping this blog up with all that was going on around town. I’m starting my resolution early this year to keep you updated every month on what’s going on around town.
This month we are celebrating Founder’s Week. For more info on Founder’s Week check out their Facebook page.
December 17: Don’t miss the lighted boat parade!
That list should get all of you looking to get out started! As I learn of more events, I try to keep you updated on our Facebook page. If you’re a local hosting an event in January, please email me the info at Adrienne@andreaegroup.com.
This could be your winter.
By: Adrienne Andreae
It’s going to start snowing again soon. You might be wallowing in fall colors now, but they won’t last. You take to your computer determined to escape before the first flake falls.
While you may not know exactly where in Florida you want to go, you know you’re ready for the Sunshine State. You type in Florida real estate and Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, or Homes.com comes up. It doesn’t matter which one. This advice will work for all of them.
Before I get to my tips, I’ll admit: many realtors hate these sites. You can find countless realtor blog posts lamenting the hazards of using Zillow. I have my moments with Zillow and its competitors, but I also see why many of my customers start on them. My hope is this post will help you understand when these sites will help you as a customer and when they lose their value.
Do Use Zillow: When All You Know is You Want Sunshine.
You’re starting with a wide search radius. You want to go south. Your priority is to end the snow in your life. Maybe you’ve been renting a beach condo in Destin for ten years. You love it there, but you want to explore all your options. Maybe you haven’t been to Florida since you took the kids to Disneyworld in 1997. Maybe you’re even looking at Arizona and haven’t decided on a state yet.
Zillow and Realtor.com are fine sites for you. You can get started and see what areas fit your price range.
Don’t Use Zillow: When You Know What You Want Out of Retirement
You’ve waited thirty years to live near the beach or the golf course or, like many of my customers, to have your boat in your backyard. Zillow won’t tell you that Punta Gorda is consistently rated one of the best small boating towns in Florida. You may have to Google and ask your boating friends. You may have to play around on boating websites or read about us in boating magazines. You’re better off doing the research on areas that you allow you to successfully live your dream. Most realtor websites will let you check listings, and you will find them more accurate than Zillow.
Zillow can’t tell you which dock fits your boat best.
Do Use Zillow When You’re Just Curious
Want to know if it’s possible to find any house in Punta Gorda Isles under $300,000? You’re not looking to buy. You just want to know, like you might want to know what $1 million dollars gets in Boston versus Tampa. Zillow is a great distraction and fun site to poke around.
Don’t Use Zillow For Market Research
Zillow farms off the MLS. Therefore, it is often not current. Realtors may change a status in the MLS and sometimes Zillow and Realtor.com miss the update. I have gotten calls about foreclosures that happened years ago. Even in Zillow’s own Advice section, I found questions from homeowners looking to take the home they bought a year ago off Zillow. If you’re really looking for property, call a real estate agent or at least, use a realtor’s site.
There are countless stories of the Zestimate’s inaccuracy. I won’t get to into it here. I tried to figure out how they get their numbers, but I know too much about the Punta Gorda market. They make no sense.
(My favorite story about the Zestimates is the one about the CEO of Zillow sold his home at 60% of the Zestimate.)
Do Use Zillow: If you’re more than 3 years from retirement
You’re sitting at your desk right now dreaming of boating. I’m sorry. I did that to you with the picture above and now you’re wishing you could retire tomorrow. But the kids are small or in college and you know you’re ten years away, at least. You go on Zillow to play around, daydream, and find out what penthouses in New York cost. This is normal. Zillow can be fun.
Don’t Use Zillow: If you’re within 3 years of retirement
You’re close. You may not know what city you want, but you do know you prefer west coast Florida over east coast. You want water in your backyard and sunshine. As you narrow down your scope and retirement gets closer, you should start contacting realtors. You may think four years is a long way out, but this is when you can start paying attention to the markets in the areas you’re interested in. Believe it or not, I’ve had customers call me ten years from retirement. This is a little far out, but it takes nothing for me to add them to my email list. You can start watching the market at anytime.
In Punta Gorda, where the rental market is fantastic, I have many buyers who start to see changes in the market and decide to buy now, rent the home out for a few years and then retire in it. You can only do that if you’re paying attention to good information.
Don’t Fall in Love with a Home on Zillow Before Talking to a Realtor
My final piece of advice is to resist falling madly in love with that great deal you found on Zillow. That house may be the deal Zillow presents or it may have sold six months ago or have issues Zillow can’t know about. It happens often that a new customer calls me excited about the home they’re going to buy and I know immediately it is not what they think. I’d rather walk you through the process than be the one to tell you your dream is not what you see on the internet.
Have you used Zillow? Is it time to reach out to a realtor? We’d love to hear from you. You can call us at 941-833-4217 or email us at info@andreaegroup.com.
Sailboats docked at the Villas at Cedar Key
By: Adrienne Andreae
You’ve been taken care of houses for 20+ years. You’re tired. You want someone else to cut the lawn and maintain the pool.
Downsizing to a Punta Gorda condo could be the perfect solution. After so many years of homeownership, you may wonder what are the main differences in buying a condo vs. a home. I’m going to give you the basics about condo buying in a minute, but first let’s discuss the differences between a condo, a villa, and a townhome.
It’s my understanding that some parts of the country use these words differently. We’re talking Punta Gorda here, so I’m going to tell you what these words mean in these parts. A condo is in a multi-level complex. We don’t allow highrises to ruin are quaintness or cause traffic jams, so the highest living space you’ll see is three floors. (There is one exception to that rule. That’s another story for another post.)
Condo owners usually pay $350 per month in fees on the low side and $550 on the high end. Although, we do have a few complexes that go higher and lower in the area.
We tend to use the word villa more than we use townhome although they’re similar. A villa falls somewhere in between a single family home and a condo. You don’t have anyone above or below you. Sometimes they have two floors within the unit, but most are one. You will share at least one side with another villa. Villas have an association that takes care of the grounds and usually the outer shell of the building.
Villa fees in our area usually range between $500-650 per month.
1 Colony Pt, Vivante and Solamar complexes
When it comes time to purchase a condo, villa or a townhome, the transaction is very similar. Here are some basics you need to know:
Every association runs differently. You want an association that thinks like you do. Often I know the history of a complex or it’s reputation and I’m happy to pass any information I have on. However, the best way to learn about the association, bar going to a meeting, is to read their most current condo documents. When you put an offer on a condo, we attach a condo rider. This rider requests the listing agent give you the most current condo docs. I keep using the word ‘current’, because sometimes you’ll find these documents attached to the MLS or online. The seller pays for the most current and usually only buys them after an offer is put on the unit.
After you receive the documents, you have 3 days to back out of the contract if you don’t like what you read.
Along with the condo docs, you’ll receive the financials. If a complex doesn’t keep reserves, a bank won’t give you a loan. Paying cash? You still have problems without reserves. What if the roof leaks? You and your neighbors will have to get together to fix it. The bank doesn’t give loans on these complexes, because they’re so risky. When you go to sell, you’ve cut out a fair amount of buyers.
So, how much should a complex have in reserves? That’s hard to say. Reserves are like savings accounts. Some people like to be safe and keep a lot of money in them. They will raise fees over spending money from the reserves. Some associations lean towards spending. Older complexes tend to have more in reserves, because they’ve had time to build them up. Of course, their structures are older, so you could argue they need more.
Fannie Mae likes to see a certain amount of the fees being put into reserves every year. Some complexes have great reserves and stop paying into them, like you might with a savings account. Because of this, I highly recommend using someone local for your loan. They are more likely to do the research early and find loan products that will work for you. (If you need help with this, call me. I know some great lenders.)
Customers often ask me why a condo is priced so much higher or lower than the last one sold in the complex. First, it’s likely they have two different sellers. It is also likely that although they may have the same floor plans many factors go into the price of the condo.
Obviously, a differences in views or upgrades cause price differences. What you may not realize is in some complexes some condos have deeded docks and some do not. A deeded dock can add $30k-$50k on to the price of a unit.
Tarpon Cove condos (orange-ish roofs in the foreground) have private elevators and many have docks
by Luke Andreae
The past 18 months has seen a significant increase in the number of real estate transactions within the
PGI/BSI subdivisions. In a nutshell – the buyers are back. The increased demand has put pressure on inventory levels. Even as sellers continue to decide to sell their homes for a myriad of reasons, the inventory of Homes For Sale has continued to drop. Below are cumulative totals of existing homes for sale.
PGI/BSI Total # of Homes For Sale:
December 2004 – 69
Buyers are back. It’s easy to see why they’re coming to Punta Gorda.
December 2005 – 303
December 2006 – 339
December 2007 – 324
December 2008 – 282
December 2009 – 231
December 2010 – 275
December 2011 – 285
December 2012 – 225
December 2013 – 237
December 2014 – 185
October 2015 – 123
“Season” usually starts in late October / early November. Inventory of homes for sale going into this season will be the lowest since 2004.
For a look at all the Homes For Sale on a map, check out our Maps page.
by Adrienne Andreae
You didn’t grow up in Burnt Store Isles. Even if you own a home there now, you came from elsewhere.
How do I know? First, because when I tell people I grew up here, they invariably say, “What? We never meet anyone who is from here.” In fact, the Andreaes have dominated Burnt Store Isles for over 30 years. And I don’t mean just in sales (although that’s true, too.) In 1981, we lived in the fifth house built in BSI. My maternal grandmother lived down the street.
Second, when you see what Burnt Store Isles looked like back then, you will see that there was a time when I knew everyone in the neighborhood.
This is what Burnt Store Isles looked like in the 1980s.
Click on the pictures below to enlarge.
Burnt Store Isles 1983–The intersection of US41 and Monaco is in the foreground.
The Andreaes had already lived in Burnt Store Isles for two years when that picture above was taken. You can see a real difference in the neighborhood around 1990.
Burnt Store Isles 1990–Again, US41 is the two lane highway. You cans see the intersection of Tripoli and Monaco on the right hand side.
Burnt Store Isles 2004– The Wal-Mart (now the Muscle Car Museum) is now in the picture on the right.
Burnt Store Isles 2014–The corner of Madrid and Tripoli leading up to Monaco.
Have you heard? BIG things are happening in Punta Gorda. Recently, Bloomberg put us on its list of top 18 cities to see economic growth this year.
We love being on any list with a subtitle that begins, “Florida Dominates.” There is also plenty to be excited about around our town.
1. The Fishermen’s Village $40 million Expansion: The expansion will come in two parts: first, an $8 million facelift that will add parking, update the entrance and the center court, and welcome the arrival of Scotty’s Brewhouse. The second phase will take five years and cost $30-35 million. It will include a new space for marina facilities and shops, an additional parking deck, and a sand beach with a negative edge pool.
2. Cheney Brothers Opens in Punta Gorda: Have you driven on I-75 lately and noticed the large building adorned with the letters CBI? It’s a new distribution plant for one of the biggest food manufacturers in the southeast. Since 1925, Cheney Brothers have been feeding Florida. They’ve also won numerous big business awards, such as the 2012 Business of the Year award by the Palm Chamber of Commerce and 11th of top 100 Private companies according to South Florida Business journal.
Their motto is Delivering Southern Hospitality since 1925. We think they’re going to fit in around here just fine!
3. The Peace River Botanical and Sculpture Garden: Coming in September 2016, the Peace River Gardens will feature 27 acres of world class sculptures and botanicals.
In Phase 1 of the project, visitors will experience 7 sculptures from world- renowned artists and a community center. Plans for future expansion include: an art gallery, children’s garden, multi-use facility, and an event stage.
What are you looking forward to in Punta Gorda?
Forget driving. You want to sail.
But to get to your sailboat you must drive. That’s no fun.
You’d like to look at your sailboat from your kitchen. But sailboat access homes are out of your price range.
Maybe. Or maybe you’re not looking in the right area. For instance, did you know in the O’Hara area of Port Charlotte you can buy a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house for $198,000?
Even if you don’t have a sailboat yet, there’s something beautiful about having sailboat potential.
And if you like that waterfront view, you should know you can see the water from your kitchen.
Or see the boats go by from your living room…
And of course, there’s a patio…
Want to see more? Take a virtual tour. Want to know more? Call our office: 941-833-4217
It’s Spring Break time. College students from all over the country flock to Florida this time of year to party.
Visit other coastal towns and you’ll see spring breakers sucking down jello shots, yelling over hotel balconies, and drinking themselves silly.
When I was 17, I wished the jello shots and frat boys would make their way to my hometown. It sounded exciting then. Twenty+ years later, there’s not a midlife crisis severe enough for me to want to live in a spring break destination.
Instead, I prefer to do spring break Punta Gorda style.
Go Clubbin’
Start your day the Yacht Club or the PG Boat Club for socializing and boating.
Then, head to the Turtle Club (where you’ll never see anyone funneling a beer) for a nice glass of wine and dinner.
Serve up Shots to Your Friends
Go cruisin’.
Head over to the Muscle Car museum or join one of the many local car clubs. And the best part? You’ll never worry about traffic or where to park in Punta Gorda.
Soak up some rays…on the golf course
Watch the sunset at the Tiki Bar
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