Another day in paradise.....

After a very challenging couple of years, things are picking up famously for me.  Now, the challenge is getting short sales to closing and reducing the countless hours spent with buyers as they narrow their choices.  I've never spent so much time showing properties ha ha.  The good news, and I'm sharing what everyone probably already knows, but......Most of my leads come from referral or the internet cuz I'm not a big door knocker or socialite ha ha, but I do alot of narrowing and question asking via email in the beginning and through phone calls.  Pinellas County and the Tampa Bay area in Florida are pretty expansive relative to an out of state client asking for "something near the beach" in whatever price range, so I've found that maps are very important and, flood insurance and pricing are of course a big part of everything....Ultimately before anyone dozes off, I've found that upon the client coming into town, usually about a solid hour of looking in the MLS, seeing pictures of units and complexes and mapping, I have managed to narrow lists of 50 and 60 showings into a much more manageable amount.  That's my big share for today.....I welcome any other techniques....I love to educate my clients about the area, as I have seen a good percentage of the homes and condo complexes and don't like to tell them "they'll hate that one", so this has worked well for me......