daytona realtor: Suicide Bridge of Hope?
- 04/18/10 01:01 PM
“EVERY person who tried to kill themselves by jumping off the Golden gate bridge changed their mind on the way down” (From the comment on my post The Signs of Love? The Signs of Life? A good blog, BTW, about love, not death – sorry for shamelessly patting myself on the back)
Besides a funny thought that it is a bit late to change your mind if you are already on your way down, I thought that it would be interesting to see if there is such phenomenon as suicide bridge.
Turned out that yes, and as luck would have it, … (12 comments)
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daytona realtor: Real Estate Is Local. What About You?
- 04/18/10 11:47 AM
There were the times when we lived and died in the same place. We knew it simply because all our lives we were there. Times have changed and now we may be here today and across the country tomorrow. There is much more homogeneity now, and you do not have trouble adapting to new places. You have same Fast Food restaurants, same grocery chains, same department stores, signs look very familiar, so we now live in the United States of America.
But Real Estate we practice is local… So, even though you will find the same McDonalds and Burger Kings everywhere, … (9 comments)
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daytona realtor: Know When To Talk And When To Shut Up
- 04/03/10 10:54 AM
Know when to talk and when to shut up
I do not have a problem accompanying buyers' agents when showing condo-hotels when they want me to be there to answer the questions. This is a niche, and it is better to ask than to guess. But then the agents talk and talk and talk, and can't stop talking. Even for a minute.
"This is a kitchenette. Lovely, isn't it.... Look at this view... Gorgeous.... and they have a microwave... nice furniture...you see the pool?"
Are their buyers totally blind? Can't they tell the microwave from the fridge without the reminder from the … (24 comments)
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daytona realtor: Speed Limit: Not Faster Than Your Angel's
- 04/03/10 08:37 AM
If there is anything that I read every day, this would be AR blogs. There is some risk involved. If you venture from the names you know, it is very unpredictable. Which is the beauty and the curse of AR. So, I venture with caution...
I am not sure one can find a better example of the times, than by following AR. 100 years ago people were receiving long winded letters sprinkled with eau de cologne from the ones we loved. Letters would be read and reread and kept under the pillow. And for fun we read 800-pages War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
Times … (10 comments)
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daytona realtor: To Kill or Facilitate... or What Is A Real Estate Professional?
- 03/27/10 09:31 AM
Scott Guay from Maryland commented on my blog post Circle of Life In Real Estate. Demolition. Real (Estate) Short Story. He said
"We will aways be learning in our business. In almost every transaction there is a nuance that we have not encountered before."
This is true. In my blog I described a real situation that we encountered in the course of a transaction. After being in business for years, and having professional agents on both sides, what can go wrong if all parties do everything right? Nothing - right? Not necessarily. It may, as well, go wrong.
There are problems that I did … (30 comments)
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daytona realtor: Get A License... Or Get Lost
- 03/15/10 04:12 PM
We have submitted an offer on a condo-hotel unit in Plaza Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach on behalf of our anxious Buyer.
The listing agent is out of the area. The price shows that they do not really know the market, as they greatly undervalued their listing. But this is an opportunity for my buyer.
We knew that there could be more offers than one, we explained it to the Buyer and suggested that our buyer goes just a little bit over the asking price to win it. We hoped that if we move fast enough, we can get the Seller sign … (35 comments)
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daytona realtor: Gone Fishing...
- 03/13/10 10:52 AM
I was on my way to work today, and when I turned on the music, I heard "Gone Fishing" by Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby. I love this song. It stuck to me and the whole day I hear it playing in my head. Either the song is so good, or the head is so bad...
It reminded me another fishing.
GM of Oceanside Inn, a Daytona Beach Shores condo-hotel, where we have our branch office - James Dion - has a hobby, and it is fishing. In all other respects he is a decent human being. By his own admission, fishing is the … (15 comments)
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daytona realtor: Bikeweek 2010. Where Cool Chicks Meant Just That... Cool or Plain Cold...
- 03/13/10 08:55 AM
After the roaring sound of Daytona races subsided, a different sound started filling the air, and again, a welcome one... the sound of thousands and thousands of Harleys.
Camps went up, tents went up, vendors assembled the tables, hotels started filling up with a black lever-clad crowd, cash registers started their song... life was coming back to Daytona.
There were so many Bikeweeks before, but this one was very unusual. It was cold. Daytona cold that is. But even if it was New York warm, and Minnesota hot, it was darn cold and unpleasant here.
I have never seen so many bikers calling … (8 comments)
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daytona realtor: Converting Pride To Prejudice
- 03/09/10 03:58 PM
Interesting...
President Barak Obama, who is the strongest proponent of the government control and ownership of whatever he can put his hands on in the history of American presidents, makes one exception, where he favors private sector.
So, what business would he give to private sector, while he is trying to nationalize successful private businesses?
It is space exploration... NASA, which has always been a government sponsored program, is now at risk or being pretty much dismantled, with some of the long-term programs stopped... eliminated
In the world, there is no space program that is private. They are all government. They are all on a … (10 comments)
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daytona realtor: Stray Thought
- 03/06/10 10:09 AM
Any activity you take, there is a history of success and failures. And it is always that for a lot of failures there are few successes. That's why they fascinate us.
Of course, we all are successful in something. Even when it is something that is making people to say "Wow", like being a great dad or a terrific mom...
But before we became even mildly successful in anything, how many things were there where we failed? And how many times we failed even trying to replicate where others prospered?
Pretty much we all know that... with one exception:
How many … (16 comments)
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daytona realtor: A Study In Foreclosure Science
- 03/06/10 09:32 AM
Lately I have been frequenting our county court in Deland, Volusia county seat, trying to understand the science of buying foreclosure.I must admit that this is a fascinating class to be enrolled into even if only as a spectator.
The most interesting foreclosure (from the point of view of investment) was a 2/2 unit in Ocean Walk Wyndham Resort in the North Tower. Ocean Walk Resort is by far the best condo-hotel in the area.
The Lender, as usual, bid $100. The next bid came at $125,001, which made me think that the minimum set by the Lender was $125,000. Then the bids started … (10 comments)
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daytona realtor: I Am The Owner. And Who The Heck Are You?
- 03/06/10 07:42 AM
Can the owner of a condo be forced to sleep on the beach? No? You sure? Let's see... Ownership gives you the most of the rights you can get. What can be more than "I am the owner?". But we never get absolute rights. Even as owners, there are things that we can do and there are things that we can't do.
It is important to understand it, especially in condo-hotels. Because your rights as an owner of a house would be different from the rights of the owner in deed restricted communities (with HOA), and different in a residential (apartment) condo, … (0 comments)
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daytona realtor: The Right Way To Get Wrong Results
- 02/24/10 04:41 PM
How often in our lives are we absolutely sure that we know how to do things? Simple things. We can explain why we would do it way, and it would sound reasonable, and sometimes even scientific.
Our Branch office is all glass in the lobby of a resort. Right across from the Front Desk. We just opened it in January. When we were discussing the lease, we were asked to wear name tags "so that people could clearly see that you are not resort employees". What is wrong with name tags? Nothing...
So we got them. Now, every time someone has a … (10 comments)
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daytona realtor: Beyond The Mess
- 02/21/10 03:58 PM
One of my favorite bloggers, Patricia Kennedy, posted Listing From Hell? Not Necessarily. Very well written blog, read it and you will not regret.
It reminded me another story, somewhat weird, but we do not choose the stories, we only choose whether to tell them.
The Seller of a condo-hotel studio in the Fountain Beach Resort put it for sale for $50K. He had a tenant. The arrangement was that if the tenant was at home, we could call him, give him 10-15 minutes and then show. The tenant never said "no" so that was not the problem.
The problem was that … (25 comments)
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daytona realtor: What to Ask If You Do Not Want To Buy a Condo or Condo-Hotel.
- 02/21/10 03:32 PM
We advertise condos and condo-hotels. Prices are sometimes simply ridiculous. I do not know how somebody up north can seriously take ads like "$35K oceanview studio in the oceanfront resort".
So we get a fair share of calls. And so often the first and only question is "What is the monthly maintenance fee". And when I answer that it is $300, the next question is "A month?". That makes me think that they are calling from a third world country, where you can live on $4 a day.
Condo-hotel monthly maintenance in Daytona Beach area is different from residential condos, and coverswater, electricity, cable, … (2 comments)
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daytona realtor: My First License
- 02/20/10 07:43 AM
It is sort of a story about my American past. Sounds so strange to my own ears, but after nearly 19 years in the US, we got a significant "past" in America.
When we came in the summer of 1991 and plunged into the scorching hellish heat with 104F in the stone jungles of New York after cool Moscow, we were thirsty, poor and very optimistic.
I could write, read and speak English and do it all pretty well. But I had difficulty understanding English. My ears were not adapt, and fluent speech was difficult to understand.
Some of it was … (20 comments)
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daytona realtor: Jamie McMurray Won The Daytona 500
- 02/14/10 12:03 PM
Our office is in the condo-hotel, and last couple of weeks it is busy in Daytona Beach. But today it was dead quiet. Everybody went to the racetrack. Internations Speedway. And when the unusual quietness was broken by the noise from the bar, I knew that we have the winner - Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 in 2010.
I am not a big fan, my son went to watch the race a few times, I haven't. Still need to do it to get the feel of the ecstatic crowd holding their breath in dramatic moments of the race.
I live here, I need … (2 comments)
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daytona realtor: Race... As In Racing
- 02/14/10 07:53 AM
Wallace S. Gibson posted Top 10 Senate Seats GOP can take in 2010 She used an image of NASCAR race. And it reminded me that today is the biggest NASCAR event (at least for Daytona Beach) - Daytona 500. Actually, while I am writing it, they might be making their last lap or finishing few remaining laps and the winner will be announced any minute.
Anyway, if you read his interesting (maybe not so iinteresting for liberals - LOL) post, you will see that she uses the word race a lot. As I said, she even uses the image from NASCAR race. I guess … (12 comments)
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daytona realtor: Short Sale Short Story. Shorter Than The Short Sale
- 02/13/10 10:16 AM
This is a short sale. A direct oceanfront unit in Oceanside Inn, a very nice (by Daytona standards) condo-hotel resort in Daytona Beach Shores.
The sellers are retired. They bought the unit for cash. Then they decided to get money out of it, and this way weather the real estate downturn, and we helped them with that.
Then, there are mounting problems, financial, medical... need to let it go. I hate it as prices are so low, and I know that should they be able to hold for a little longer, they would be able to sell it for so much more, … (8 comments)
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daytona realtor: Who Said Real Estate Is Boring?
- 02/13/10 05:46 AM
There was a sale of the property. I was on the deed. The buyer couldn't come to the closing due to his schedule, so was driving a day earlier (he is 3-hour drive from us) to sign all the documents because he wanted to do the walk through and make sure everything what was promised to be left was indeed there.
It is a bit earlier than initially planned, so there was a hectic clean-up under way, but I was not there, I was in the office. I spoke to the Buyer's agent a day before, and I told him that because the closing was … (2 comments)
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“EVERY person who tried to kill themselves by jumping off the Golden gate bridge changed their mind on the way down” (From the comment on my post The Signs of Love? The Signs of Life? A good blog, BTW, about love, not death – sorry for shamelessly patting myself on the back)
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