Of course it's a given that at Pelican Bay Beach you will find Pelicans.  Pelican Bay birds come in different species, but of course Pelicans are a community icon. Brown Pelicans are quite big. Sometimes they weigh between 10 to 15 pounds.  Wingspans of up to 3 feet and sharp eye sight.  Pelicans fly in a single file of a dozen or more, low or high, ready to hunt. Watching Pelicans fish is one of the luxuries you get by living at Pelican Bay. The pelicans come when the tide changes and once they spot a fish, they flap their wings to up to 75 feet of altitude, to then dive straight down to catch their target.  It's so interesting to watch them flip themselves over to hit the water upside down and minimize the impact on their bodies. The impact with the water stuns the fish. I once held a... 09/25/2009

It's apparent that lending standards seem to be getting tighter not looser. I spend at least an hour a day research lender guidelines to ensure loan products are still available for my clients. The main reason for the changes is the appetite for investors to purchase loans has severely been hampered by foreclosures. This can be deceiving because what investors thought to be a quality loan goes into default. This might not be the fault of the borrower because maybe they lost their job, had a tragic issue or just plain ran out of monies. No one ever thought that 30 year fixed mortgages would be forced into foreclosure. But it’s a reality and will continue for at least another 24 months. It my opinion once the foreclosure rates decrease, we will see lending standards ease at bit. Credit sc... 09/25/2009

SALES UP 87 PERCENTReport Shows Inventory Declines 13 Percent The headline is from a very recent (September 11, 2009) press release from the Naples Area Board of Realtors - NABOR. "...Overall pending sales, which are a key indicator of buyer activity, increased 87 percent with 872 contracts in August 2009 compared to 461 contracts in 2008..." Additional specifics from the press are: Overall closed sales increased 38% with 545 closed sales in August 2009 versus 395 in 2008 Single-family homes pending sales contracts for properties under $300,000 increased 106 percent to 344 contract in August of 2009 The available inventory decreased 13 percent to 9,163 compared to August of 2008 The average days on market (DOM) decreased to 160 which is a 21 percent reduction from its peak in May of 200... 09/24/2009

Naples FL has a lot of amazing parks for such a young area. A lot of these are accessible right from Pelican Bay. Pelican Bay Community Park At the North end of Pelican Bay, across from the Fire Station and off Vanderbilt Road you can find the public Collier County Pelican Bay Community Park.   The community park was Pelican Bay’s gift to Collier County. It is entertaining to watch little league softball and soccer matches at the Pelican Bay Community Park. They have an active tennis program featuring 8 lighted tennis courts, as well as soccer fields and picnic tables.  Naples parents love the playground area because it is fenced and very fun for all ages. The Pelican Bay Community Park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Clam Pass Park The Clam Pass Park is at very South end of Pelica... 09/24/2009

I recently posted "Pelican Bay Parks". Pelican Bay is the place I call home.  The natural beauty is incredible, the scenery is breathtaking!  If going for a walk inspires you, this is the park for you.  There are 4 parks within the Pelican Bay community, all of which offer something unique besides the amazing natural setting. At Pelican Bay, we give "active lifestyle" a true meaning. This is an open invitation! 09/24/2009

My baby girl and I last Friday. I went to the School and we had a healthy breakfast with all her classmates and we sang the "Happy Birthday" song. It was fun and everyone enjoyed it.   I am so happy my little girls are growing up, but a little nostalgic, as well. They are my strength and my inspiration, and believe it or not, my best teachers.  Do you remember when you turned 7? It's a big deal! 09/22/2009

The Naples International Film Festival is the talk of the town.  It is quite an event for Pelican Bay residents because the Film Festival opening night Gala will take place at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts on  November 5th at 7:00 p.m., which will be hosted by the NIFF co-founders:  Eric Raddatz, Dan Linehan and Rowan Samuel.  A film Premiere and music will be a delight for attendees. NIFF partnered with the Cove (www.thecovemovie.com) as the featured presentation for the gala. The Naples International Film Festival will present a series of films and short documentaries by both local and International indepenent filmmakers in the fashion of Cannes.  This event will be held at the hottest spot in Naples right now, Mercato, right at the Northend of Pelican Bay on Vanderbilt ... 09/22/2009

Homeowner’s insurance is synonymous with buying Naples Florida real estate. It’s one of those required items that although costly can save homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars in unforeseen situations. What many fail to comprehend is what’s actually covered under their policy and what isn’t. Here are a few tips. Your coverage should be enough that it would allow Naples homes to be built from scratch. Instead of relying on an agent to give you the amount of coverage, get an estimate based on the square footage and how much it would cost to actually rebuild. You may also want to check out the fine print under “loss of use” as this will determine how long your insurer is required to pay your rent while your home is being rebuilt or repaired. Always do the customary research when sea... 09/21/2009

Finally open is the 11-screen theater that boasts a 65-seat restaurant and lounge with marble floors and leather chairs to make it "...not your father's movie theater..." It's been described that each chair is "like a La-Z Boy Sofa." The Naples International Film Festival is scheduled to be held there November 5-8. This is the first U.S. venture for Venezuela-based Cine Unidos. The theater has a total of 11,000 seats grouped in clusters of two and each seat is numbered. The numbered seat is assigned when you purchase your ticket on-line or through one of the touch screen terminals. There are no traditional box offices to purchase tickets from. Sounds great, I can't wait to go! www.BobPisa.com     09/21/2009

Pelican Bay to me is sort of a giant park!   Mangrove trees, exotic birds, and wild life surround us all year round. There are two county parks adjacent to Pelican Bay. The Pelican Bay Foundation maintains four parks covering over 40 acres within Pelican Bay:   Commons Park is right at the center of Pelican Bay and where I play tennis most of the time, because it is close to my home at The Stratford.  Commons Park is a 10-acre park, where you can find the main offices of The Pelican Bay Foundation and the tram stations.   Oakmont Park winds around a pretty lake in Pelican Bay. No bikes are allowed so it is a serene place for walking or jogging, especially in the morning. It really is my favorite park. Ridgewood Park is very popular amongst Pelican Bay pet owners.  I see them walk their ... 09/21/2009

2009 showed a definite trend in real estate investing - buy old fashioned locations. France is leading the way in popularity for UK real estate buyers. Spain was number one last year and slipped very little to number two. Turkey, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria are on the rise as well. However interest in overseas real estate investment is much colder with UK buyers in 2009. US and especially Florida was number 4 in real estate investment popularity last year with 9% of total property inquiries, but in 2009 US generated only 1% of inquiries and slipped to number 7. So old fashioned investment locations like France and Spain prevailed with UK buyers. It is no wonder to me though, because UK buyers follow the same patterns as US buyers - they need mortgages; they are looking to put as little... 09/20/2009

I have visited Tallinn, Estonia several years ago with my wife and made some magnificent pictures of local "real estate" that is 900 years old. The old town in Tallinn is abundant with historic sites, gift shops, concert halls, antique shops and local unique restaurants. My absolute favorite was Olde Hansa with great herbs beer and dried elk chips. Gotta go back some time just for that. Medeaval architecture is absolutely stunning and equals German, French and British sites. Have a look!     09/20/2009

I have mentioned several times the importance of reseraching your local real estate key words so that you can optimize your website for better search and better results. Google Insights For Search is a great tool for you to measure the importance and vitality of key word combinations in your local real estate market and global internet. Here is the sample of how the research chart in Google looks like for my local search "Naples real estate" and its key word dynamics.     09/20/2009

I am a real estate agent in Naples with a unique international marketing strategy and a number of foreign cash buyers who visit Naples on a  regular basis to buy middle market homes - $200K to $500K. I have a number of buyers coming by the end of September and throughout October.If you are looking to sell your home quickly to a cash buyer I am your man! Visit my website http://www.naplesrealestateseller.com for more info or call 239-297-3992. I work with over 200 international real estate portals in Europe with monthly viewership of over 25 million people in addition to all major US based internet portals. I am a search engine optimization professional with superior results and will promote your home's individual web page for a huge international audience. International BrokersRealty is... 09/20/2009

Jason Sanders recenly wrote a blog post titled FREE Website or Blog Translation to Spanish , which made me think of my favorite tools: This magnificent translation tool now allows you to translate any document into one of over 40 languages that are available (the list, of course, gets longer each time you look at it).   Arabic Bulgarian Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Filipino Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Ukrainian Vietnamese On your Google account, simply go to your Google Docs, click Tools > Translate document, and select the language of your preference.   When your translation is complete... 09/18/2009

FOR BUYER'S  .......SEE THE VALUES AROUND A POTENTIAL PROPERTY YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN.......   FOR SELLER'S...... SEE WHAT VALUES ARE AROUND YOUR HOME..... To see a market valuation using google earth technology go to: http://www.naplespropertyvalues.com   For any questions, call 800-214-4949 or email jkrol@rwagroupinc.com 09/18/2009

In Real Estate, we deal with transactions that require many agreements (such as the listing agreement); however, the most critical agreements are those we make with ourselves before any of those real estate agreements are even drafted. 1. Be Impeccable With Your WordSpeak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word tospeak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power ofyour word in the direction of truth and love. Real Estate Agreement: Deliver the "bad news", apologize for what you do wrong, do not bash your competition, and build a reputation upon reliability and dependability. 2. Don't Take Anything PersonallyNothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is aprojection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immuneto the opinion... 09/17/2009

I am having fun embracing social media and what it has to offer.  It is quite an adventure.  I joined Facebook not long ago and soon discovered the Facebook Fan Page.  A great way to increase brand visibility. In a short period of time, I have now 133 fans on my facebook Business Page and over 2500 followers on Twitter. The numbers don't sound alarming, and yet, I am the most connected real estate agent in Naples FL. Scary or good start?  How about the ActiveRain props? I have had huge results here. Thank you AR community! Fan pages are visible to anyone even if they are not on Facebook. In fact, this is what you see when you go to Facebook.com/luxuryreport : If you love all things luxurious...   Become a Fan    of the LUXURY LIFESTYLE Luxury awaits... Upscale Updates Luxurious Photos A... 09/17/2009

If you have time to shoot video of communities and homes, here is how you can make them work for you even better. Make a list of key words you want to be positioned nicely in. Don't count only generic key words in like "city real estate" - think niche key words like "city luxury homes" etc. Then look up how competition goes in those key words. You will notice that page one and especially two are frequently inhabited by real estate video optimized for that niche key words. Please, notice though that Google likes different video sharing websites for different key words and localities. So open accounts with at least 5 video sharing websites like Metacafe, Revver, Vimeo, Viddler in addition to Youtube, Yahoo, MSN or AOL video. Next important thing is use your niche key words as you title fi... 09/16/2009

Whatever UK property portals try to do, US real estate lead generation market remains elusive. UK owned DotHomes is for sale now, because the owners claim that US real estate market wasn't really their goal. However just a short time ago DotHomes boasted that they go after Trulia big time. There are several factors that impede British real estate portal invasion. Google is territorial and does not promote them in US searches as good as US portals. Next is delivering the message - takes a lot of money and TV ads to set a portal off the ground and attract nationwide audience. Another things are customer service and convenience of the website for its users. Uploading speed is a good consideration too. Did anybody hear of Primelocation or Findaproperty? I am sure some did, but not too many.... 09/16/2009