Gorgeous sunrise over Vinoy Basin out into Tampa Bay.

Downtown St Petersburg has its first Mounted Police. Brooklyn and Jacob came to St Pete from Boston - hope they'll like the warmer winter! Boston recently disbanded its 12 member Mounted Police which had served Boston for over a century.

I was having lunch at the St Petersburg Yacht Club when I saw this pair pass the big window by the waterfront. This is their first day on the job here, so heads are turning and people are coming outside to watch.

Tami took this photo from right outside our office - one more attraction we can see from our desks. They are in Straub Park, right by the Museum of Fine Art.

The St Petersburg Police Department has patrolled downtown St Pete by car, on foot, by bicycle and Segway - now they can add horses. Friday and Saturday evenings we'll see the mounted police as well as the horse drawn carriages in beautiful downtown St Pete.

This evening enjoy wine and cheese at ALVA International until 8 pm - author (and client and friend) Nino Fabiano is signing his newest book Egmont Passage Tale of the Dreamcatcher.

A tale of intrigue set on Tierra Verge, the book blends local history with current events.

Pirates Amy and Tami dressed for the occasion.

Nino will also be here tomorrow from 10 am to 1 pm.  Come buy one or both of his books, and have it autographed.

Vinoy Place continues to do well despite a slower condo market in downtown St Petersburg. Built in 2001 and 2002, the 4 towers and 10 townhomes have 102 units.

So far in 2009 there have been 5 closed sales of Vinoy Place condos, ranging from $775,000 to $1,200,000, with an average of $890,000. The price per sq ft has ranged from $262/sf to $331/sf, with an average of $293/sf.

There are currently 8 Vinoy Place condominiums available for sale through the MLS, ranging from $580,000 for a 1,793 sq ft short sale to $2,200,000 for a 4,033 sq ft townhome.

Generally the reason you have the inside track is that you're trusted. You need to respect that trust to maintain it.

Confidentiality is an important requirement in a client-agent relationship, and it's implied in your relationships with the community as well.

Often developers will share things with me before the information is made public. I always ask a) may I share this with my clients and b) is this something I can blog about? and I always respect their answers. Similarly, when I have multiple clients in a building or neighborhood, I'll ask them if I can share their information with my other clients - which may be a sales price before closing, coming price reductions, or information passed on to them by their attorneys.

Whether it's questions on a new shop or photos of a customer - always ask permission to share, telling them where you plan to share it.

Ovation condos have begun closing - so we now have a definitive answer for the question we're frequently asked - When will Ovation start their closings.

The first buyers to close are Richard and Melissa Middlesworth. Check out the Ovation article in tomorrow's St Pete Times.

Ovation is the latest luxury condominium developed and built by JMC Communities. Mike Cheezem has been building quality condominiums for many years here in the St Petersburg area. It means a lot to buy a condo knowing that the developer will stand behind what he builds, and will be there in the years ahead to take care of any problems that may arise.

It's a real pleasure to work with the JMC Community, and so good to know that whether selling a new unit of theirs or a resale, that they will be there to handle any issues.

In an era of extended finger pointing, it's a welcome change to deal with a company that takes responsibility. That's part of what you're buying when you buy a JMC condo.

The sales staff for Ovation will be moving into the Ovation building on Tuesday. If you have an interest in buying in Ovation and want to see one of the two furnished models, please call The Simms Team at (727) 898-2582.

Looking out my front window this morning I saw some young ladies walking up and down the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts - obviously working on their posture. Learning to model? Just gaining poise?

It's another day of sunshine in St. Petersburg so the umbrella is for keeping the sun off, not the rain.

By the time I got my camera and went out the door, I no longer could get the group ascending the stairs in harmony, heads held high and straight, but I think I caught a bit of the moment.

Sometimes it's tai chi, sometimes bicycles, but there's usually something going on along Beach Drive.

Antonino Fabiano, one of our favorite clients and friends, and author of Dreamcatchers, will be holding two book signings at our office, ALVA International, Inc., 238 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday, August 28th from 5-8 pm and Saturday, August 29th from 10-1.

Why a book signing at a real estate office? Well,

Why Not?

It's a win-win in our opinion - exposure for the book, the author, and our new (since Christmas) real estate office. It's a great downtown St Pete location where lots of people walk by.

Egmont Passage: Tale of the Dreamcatcher uses the St Pete area as a backdrop, and weaves history and current events into an interesting tale.

In the current economic environment, the more we can help each other succeed, the more each of us will thrive. I think making more people aware of this interesting book will enrich their lives as well.

If you can't make it to St. Petersburg to get your autographed book, you can order Dreamcatchers online.

We rather ignore hurricane season which lasts from June 1st until November 30th unless there's a named storn. Then some people are glued to every weather report to guess which direction it's going to take. I prefer to get the advisories directly from the National Hurricane Center rather than listen to the hype. The advantage of hurricanes is that you know about them days ahead of time. The disadvantage of hurricanes is that you know about them days ahead of time.

Personally, I keep track, but don't get concerned until much later when it's evident if it's really headed our way. But then, we keep our hurricane supplies on hand all the time, and we know where we'll go if we need to evacuate. Not being worried is NOT the same as not being prepared.

There have been several reports on the best college to attend for various reasons, from Wall St jobs to partying. Today Forbes.com posted a list of which colleges generated more billionaires. Here are the top 5 graduate billionaire generators.

#1 - Harvard with 54 billionaires  (5% of the world's billionaires)

#2 - Stanford with 25 billionaires

#3 - Univ of Pennsylvania with 18 billionaires

#4 (tie) - Columbia and Yale with 16 billionaires each

Some 10% of Forbes 400 Billionaires last year didn't have a college degree.  So I guess Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg count in that group since they attended Harvard but didn't graduate.