Brandon Florida Real Estate

Someone emailed me an invite to this real estate network, so I went to check it out.  Seems like it's along the lines of ActiveRain with instant chat added to it.  Also looks like it's brand new too.

This was part of the email sent to me explaining what it is: 

RealEstateRiches is the #1 Social Network for real estate investors! Signup for your FREE Profile and start networking with thousands of real estate professionals Today! RealEstateRiches enables you to: *Network with professionals in REAL TIME via instant messenger! *Post all your listings FREE or browse them for opportunities! *Build strategic networks in the real estate ecosystem! *Meet Investors, Agents, Lenders, Builders, Appraisers & Title Pro's! *Participate in Blogs, Groups, Forums on real estate investing!

Customize your own profile page, share photos, music, video, make new friends, chat, blog, and much more at RealEstateRiches!

To join, simply click the link below.

http://www.RealEstateRiches.me.com/joinNetwork.php?network=RealEstateRiches&rflc=84tazwp

Anyhow, just thought I would throw it out there in case anyone is interested.

I have been a member of ActiveRain for almost a year now, but wandered away for quite sometime before I came back here to start blogging again earlier this month.  I have to admit, when I came back....I was SHOCKED!  LOL...Shocked at how many members are here now compared to a year ago!  WOW!!!

My question is, how do you guys keep up with all the posts on here?  It's hard to read through them and keep up with the newer posts, as there are so many people blogging here now that the newer posts seem to fall quickly down the pages as more and more people post.  If you are gone out for a couple hours on appointments and check back later here, the posts that were new this morning are now on page 3,4,5.....depending on how many people have posted since you left. 

I like to read other people's blogs, but with so many people here now, it's hard to keep track of who is new and who is who.  I have bookmarked some blogs that I like already, but I just wonder how you guys go about keeping up with the new posts.  Do you just read your set of "normal blogs" that you are subscribed to, or do you really scroll through the pages and pages of newer posts each day?

There is a TON of information here, and I am surely grateful to the people that continue to blog here. 

Anyhow, glad to see this place has grown so much in the last year!

Smarter Travel reports that Anna Maria Island made the list for one of the top 5 affordable beach destinations in the U.S and Canada.

"Anna Maria Island has somehow managed to keep condo towers, all-fast-food chains, amusement parks, and glitzy mega-resorts off its shores. In fact, no construction on the this seven-mile long barrier island on Florida's Gulf Coast is more than three stories tall, Subway is the only franchise, and 60 percent of its land is open beach. And, it's affordable, especially in the summer. You can rent vacation homes with water views and pools for well under $1,000 per week and get seafood entrees at beachfront restaurants for under $15." 

Read the rest of the article here.

Click here to visit the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce website. 

Browse the Bradenton area Visitor's Bureau website.

Click here for your FREE copy of a 39 page PDF version of a visitor's guide.

The bridge that connects Bradenton to Anna Maria Island will be getting a facelift.  Bay News 9 reports "It's going to be a long and arduous inconvenience, particularly for those going back and forth to work on the mainland, Anna Maria Island resident Bob Gottschalk said."

"Gottschalk said the year-long construction project is a necessary evil considering the bridge's condition."

"The project calls for a 75-day construction period when the bridge is closed entirely.

I hope they begin work on it soon.  Snow birds will be here again at the end of the year/beginning of next year, and traffic is bad enough when the bridge is open.  I couldn't imagine what kind of nightmare it would be to have the bridge closed during "the season."  Since the only other way onto the island from Bradenton is from Cortez Rd, it's going to be an inconvenience for sure.  I just hope they get it timed out correctly, so the businesses on the island don't lose any business if the bridge is closed or traffic is backed up due to the construction and the tourists decide it's too much of a pain to go back and forth to the island from the mainland and head further south to Sarasota.

I agree work needs to be done from time to time and it's a pain, and we have to deal with it.  But why didn't they start this process last month when nearly all the tourists/snowbirds were already gone?  This way they could get a jump start and get the majority of it done before the end of the year.  Who knows?

A story reported on TampaBays10.com is a reminder to check your SunPass statements to verify if all of the charges are correct.  A Tampa Bay 10 photojournalist Kurt Beabes replenished his SunPass with $50 and then 2 days later it charged his card again with another $50.  Beabes went online, checked his account and saw several charges for axle adjustments.  He then called SunPass.

"SunPass said a lot of times when someone is riding through a toll plaza and somebody is riding the bumper, that person will get charged for both vehicles' tolls."

"10 News made a public records request to the SunPass agency and found similar e-mail complaints, including "axle adjustment for $6" and "axle adjustment for $12."  There were email after email complaints.

If you use a SunPass, you may want to start checking your statements to make sure you're not being over charged.

In the Customer Agreement, it states the following:

Section 16. Dispute of Charges:

FDOT must be notified of any disputes of charges appearing on User's Prepaid Account within 90 days of the charge being posted. All disputes are subject to review and approval by FDOT and may require additional documentation or evidence from the User.

I was reading a story this morning in the Herald Tribune about how a Florida resident, Carl Taylor was contacted on a Saturday evening at dinner time from Allstate Floridian with a phone call letting him know that they were dropping him in November.

"I was so livid I could hardly stand it," said the Sarasota retiree. Why are they calling me on a Saturday to tell me that?  He cannot believe he learned about it with a phone call at dinner time on the weekend.  That's tactless, he said."

"The agents thought the clients would feel better if they got a call from a person rather than just a letter," said Chris Parsons, Taylor's local agent. "We're trying to make it as customer friendly as possible."

Trying to make is as customer friendly as possible?  HA!  So you pick the weekend when you KNOW someone will be home and pick the dinner hour of all times during the day to call one of your customers to inform them you are dropping them?  Tactless is right.  Why don't they just twist that knife is these people's back just a little bit more?

Thousands of people are paying out their a$$ for homeowners insurance here in Florida and then to get cancelled on top of that?  And on a weekend at the dinner hour? 

The senior citizens are the one's suffering the most.  My grandparents were dropped from Allstate earlier this year and were faced with having to get insurance through Citizens which ended up to be more than double what they were paying before.  How do these insurance companies think these people on fixed incomes can afford to pay for homeowners insurance?  I've heard countless numbers of stories from elderly people that can't afford to carry insurance, so they go without and pray that nothing ever happens.

"Taylor, who called state regulators to complain about Allstate, says he will take his homeowners and automobile coverage to another insurer."

"It may cost me more in the beginning," he said, "but just to show them, I'm not going to give them one last penny of my money because of the way they treated me."

I also currently have my automobile insurance through Allstate and have been with them for the last 14 years, and I can tell you that come July when it renews, I'm switching companies.  I don't care if it costs me more money to switch either, these bloody people aren't getting anymore of my money!

The sales tax holiday starts at 12:01 am on June 1, 2007 and ends at midnight June 12, 2007.

Below are just a few of the items that are tax free:

For a complete list of the items that are tax free, please click here.

Also be sure to go here to create your own family disaster plan in case of emergency.  On this site you will be asked to provide information about your home, family, and pets. Using the information you provide, this website will create a personalized Family Disaster Plan that you can print out and save for future emergencies. Included in your plan will be:

• Recommended amounts of food and water based on your family information.
• Contact information for your local emergency responders and maps of your local Evacuation Zones
• Checklists of important steps to take before, during, and after a disaster!

This week is  also Hurricane Preparedness Week.  May 20th through the 26th.  Be sure to check out that website to learn how to be fully prepared for this years hurricane season.

The St. Pete Times also has a free Hurricane Preparedness Guide you can view online and print off you if like.

I still have yet to be able to find a really good Mortgage Broker in my area (Manatee County, Florida) that I have wanted to stick with or recommend to more buyer's.

I prefer to work with local Mortgage Broker's, but at this point if I can't find a GOOD one to stick with, then I'm going to start looking outside of the area.

For whatever reasons the one's I have run into do not return my phone calls, don't return my buyer's phone calls, you can never reach them, they are rude, had one I liked on one deal I did with him and was passing out his cards & sent him an email about a month ago to follow up on all the sub-prime mess to ask him what types of loans he was still able to do......still have yet to get a return email from him or a phone call.  I've had one that tried to raise my buyer's interest rate the DAY of closing to nearly double what the initial rate was supposed to be, had one that went on a honeymoon and had no one covering his files while he was gone and didn't tell me he was even going on vacation before he left, so we had to postpone until he got back.  I'm sure I could continue on about bad stories and my encounters with Mortgage Brokers.  I know they aren't all bad....but I seem to just be finding the bad one's!

SO.....if you're a local mortgage broker or if you're an agent that knows of a really good Mortgage Broker in Manatee County, please let me know who you/they are!!

Let me know what kind of programs you have and what you can do for people.  Are you able to still do 100% financing, I know there are places that still can....I just need to find them.

Send me your information, or post it here.

Becky@BeckyTroutt.com

An article in today's Herald Tribune confirmed what I have been arguing for the last few months.  Things ARE getting better in Manatee County!!

I have been saying these very same words to everyone that asks me for the past several months.  I started taking note of the MLS activity every day starting on January 1 of this year and the numbers don't lie!  Things have slowly been getting better.

"Hank Fishkind, Florida's premier economist, believes that the downturn in the residential real estate market is over."

"I argue that housing has stopped going down," Fishkind said. "It is weak. It is painful, but it is not going to get any worse."

FINALLY!!!!  Someone is reporting the positive side of real estate and not the negative.  I am so tired of hearing all the negative news stories that the media plasters all over the news and the Internet saying things are still bad, when in fact in all areas that is not true!

I can't tell you how many countless conversations I have had with people that still argue that things will continue to decline.  This is not the case.  If you're sitting on the fence waiting....I hope this is your wake up call.  I have said and will still tell you that there are a lot of great deals out there right now.  But the longer you sit, the less there will be to choose from.  Inventory has stopped climbing and in fact is starting to slowly decline.  The longer you wait, the less you will have to choose from.

"He predicted that Sarasota and Manatee will burn off excess inventory this year, and that sales will improve in 2008 and 2009."

That was exactly my thinking and in fact I am going to start keeping track of the number of single family homes and condos that are Active on the market and start also reporting those numbers.

On May 9, 2007 there were:
4,457 single family homes on the market for sale in Manatee County
2,168 condos on the market for sale in Manatee County

On May 18, 2007 there were:
4,447 single family homes on the market for sale in Manatee County
2,132 condos on the market for sale in Manatee County

I will continue to report these numbers each week for the rest of the year. 

If you haven't already, head on over to my website and start searching the MLS before you miss out on these great deals!

FoxBrook is located on CR 675 in Parrish, just 5 miles east of Hwy 301.  It is a community being built on 945 acres and will be home to 298 families once completed. 

FoxBrook has one, two and five acre home sites to choose from.  On many of the two and five acre home sites, horses are welcome.  When completed, FoxBrook will have riding trails, over 7 miles of bike paths throughout the community, a park/picnic area, nature wooded preserves, quiet country setting, county water, underground utilities, Florida Power & Light, Time Warner Cable TV, RaodRunner High Speed Internet and builder choice of Hampton Home Builders Inc., McKenzie Builers, Tango Development Inc., La Maison Homes or Kemick Homes. 

FoxBrook was built at the highest elevation, so flood insurance is not required.  FoxBrook also has enhanced drainage which helps during the rainy season. 

FoxBrook is a community where each home is truly different from the next and is not a "cookie-cutter" subdivision.  Homes vary in size.  Many start around 2,000 sq ft and increase in size from there to over 4,200 sq ft in size.  The home sites are large enough for inground pools, gardens, tennis courts, studios and more.

If you enjoy the county setting of a beautiful community, yet still within minutes of shopping, restaurants, entertainment and expressways, then FoxBrook is the community for you.  If you would like more information about FoxBrook, or if you are interested in touring FoxBrook, please contact Becky Troutt at (941)962-6820.

*The above information and images are Copyright © 2007 Becky Troutt and may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed or published.  All rights reserved.  Plagiarism will be detected and is punishable by law.