Coastal Florida Real Estate

One of the simplest things you can do to help get your house sold is go take a look at it online. You may be very surprised at what is there as I illustrate in this true story. Maybe this will help get your home or a friend's home sold. And be sure to send along to a friend who might benefit.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

OK, this isn't exactly on the subject of real estate, but then again it is.  On the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death an auction of some memorabilia was held by Julien's Auctions in Las Vegas.

Among the items were the famous glove from the 1984 Tour and a pair of well-worn loafers.

The glove was expected to bring between $ 20,000 -$ 30,000. It sold for $ 190,000.

The shoes were supposed to fetch between $ 2,000-$3,000 and sold for $ 90,000.

WOW, talk about missing the mark. 

When pricing your home, maybe using comparable sales is a really good thing.  In Julien's defense, it is very hard to "price one-of-a-kind" items.

When pricing your house make sure that you get the price right at the beginning so you attract buyers immediately. 

Selling your house is all about increasing your value proposition to buyers so they make an offer. When all the houses have similar amenities, how can you make sure yours stands out? One idea is to pay the HOA/POA fee for a year. Here are my thoughts. And send to a friend that needs help selling. After that, be sure to visit me at www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net.

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REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion and I'll treat you to a cup of your favorite coffee.

Did you ever wonder why if houses are selling, in May 156 sold in Jupiter and Tequesta, the inventory never changes?  Here are my thoughts:

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Send this along to someone who needs to sell...NOW. And visit my website www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net and my You Tube Channel www.youtube.com/richardsites.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

 When selling your home, do you care which car the buyers come in?  I think not.  Here is an explanation of my position and how getting distracted on this issue might keep your home from selling.  Be sure and send this along to a friend who is trying to sell or having trouble selling.

 REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

This just came in from Florida Realtors:

Imagine going to a house or condo you own and finding a stranger living there who claims the property no longer belongs to you.

It’s happening across Florida and other parts of the country through what authorities say is abuse of a centuries-old concept known as adverse possession.

Dating back to Renaissance England, adverse possession allowed people to take over abandoned cottages and farmland, provided they were willing to live there and pay the taxes. These days, officials say, the legal doctrine is being misused by squatters, trespassers and swindlers to claim ownership of vacant or foreclosed homes.

In Broward and Palm Beach counties alone, adverse possession claims have been filed on some 200 homes in recent months. Three of the four people behind the claims have been arrested, and police are investigating the fourth man, who along with his father, a convicted mobster, tried to take over properties in Hollywood.

“We look at this as another con job, another get-rich-quick scheme,” said Don TenBrook, a Broward state prosecutor of economic crimes. “You’re starting to see them pop up all over the place. It’s been spawned by the real estate crisis.”

A bill in the Legislature this spring would have helped cut back on the abuses and better protect Florida property owners, but it failed to pass – the result of political retribution, state Rep. Ron Schultz, one of the sponsors, told the Sun Sentinel.

“We tried to nip this in the bud, but that didn’t quite work,” said the Republican from Homosassa. “This is becoming a fairly wide scam in Florida.”

Antonio Vurro owned an empty rental home in Sunrise that he was trying to sell when he discovered in February that someone had moved in, changed the locks and was trying to open a utility account.

“There were boxes all over the place and a mattress in each room,” Vurro said in a recent interview. “This is not right. It’s my house.”

The occupant, Fitzroy Ellis, told Vurro he was entitled to take over the home because it was abandoned. Police disagreed, and Ellis, 64, is now in the Broward County Jail charged with six counts of grand theft.

Ellis tried to claim a total of 48 properties in Broward, including a $1 million house in Coral Springs, through a company he formed called Helping Hands Properties Inc., county official records show. He told a Plantation police detective he planned to rent out the houses and condos and could offer tenants a good price “since he didn’t have to pay anything for the homes,” according to a police report.

Ellis, who is representing himself, wrote in court documents that the allegations against him are “false and an abuse of power.”

Another South Florida man, Mark Guerette of Wellington, filed notice in official county records that he was taking possession of 100 homes in Broward and three in the Palm Beach community of Lake Worth through Saving Florida Homes Inc. and two other companies. On one day last November, he filed takeover notices on 10 condos in the same North Lauderdale complex at 1200 SW 52nd Ave., records show.

Police say Guerette, 46, rented out six of the properties and collected more than $20,000 from tenants before he was arrested in April. He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of organized scheme to defraud.

His lawyer, Robert Shearin, said Guerette is nothing more than a good Samaritan, rescuing blighted homes.

“The banks are letting these properties go down the tubes,” Shearin said. “Here’s a guy trying to help out, and he ends up in jail.”

New twist, old law

The attempted takeovers are more fallout from Florida’s declining housing market, said Dennis Koehler, a West Palm Beach lawyer.

“People who are upside down just choose to leave the property, let it sit,” he said. “Some people have decided, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity for me.’ “

The opportunity involves a new twist on a very old law, dating to 16th-century England. Adverse possession allows non-owners of a property to eventually take ownership if they pay the taxes, occupy, maintain and improve the land for a period of years – seven in Florida. The purpose was to prevent abandoned properties from sitting idle with no one paying taxes on them.

It’s been used mostly to take over abandoned farmland or settle boundary disputes, such as a fence or building encroaching on a neighbor’s property.

In theory, vacant houses can also be taken through adverse possession, if the seven-year window passes and the property owner makes no attempt to pay the taxes or liens – an unlikely scenario, especially when a bank is laying claim through foreclosure, property experts say.

And claimants risk breaking other laws if they trespass, break into a home or try to collect rent without being the actual property owner.

Even if someone claiming adverse possession manages to legally occupy a home and pay taxes on it, “an owner could come in the sixth or seventh year and say, ‘I want my property back,’” Koehler said.

Koehler said he was hired by a West Palm Beach man, Carl Heflin, to provide legal advice on taking over homes through adverse possession. Koehler told the Sun Sentinel that he outlined a series of steps Heflin would need to take and stressed that he “couldn’t just move in and squat.”

But that’s exactly what Heflin did, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Beginning in December 2008, Heflin filed adverse possession notices on properties in West Palm Beach and even submitted deeds declaring ownership of 27 of them, police and court records show. He also moved his computer into a law office of a now disbarred attorney and changed the locks, the records say.

“When he told me about that,” Koehler said, “I dropped him as a client like a hot potato.”

Danielle Rubio said Heflin duped her into believing he was a legitimate landlord and in April 2009, she rented a three-bedroom home from him. The home was in disrepair, Rubio said, and Heflin’s ex-wife Cheryl collected a deposit with the promise to fix it up.

Rubio and her family spent just a few hours in the house when her 2-year-old son got sick from mold and was hospitalized, she said. Seeing little progress on the home in the following days, Rubio said she started checking Heflin out and tracked down the owner of record, who told her the house was in foreclosure and he had no tenants.

Rubio said Heflin refused to return her money, about $1,200, and she moved her family in with a relative.

“We were with my aunt two months before we could save enough to get a place,” she said. “We gave all the money to (the Heflins).”

Heflin, 52, was arrested last summer and is scheduled for trial June 21 on multiple counts, including organized scheme to defraud. Two associates, George Chambers and Sue Ann Smith, pleaded guilty in March to petty theft and as a condition of their probation must testify against Heflin.

Heflin and his attorney could not be reached for comment. Heflin’s ex-wife has not been charged and declined to comment. “I don’t care to speak to you about any of this,” she said.

“It’s scary that people can just take your money without even thinking about it,” Rubio said. “We never thought we would ever be in something like that. The paperwork looked legitimate.”

Ex-cons involved

Similar problems have occurred in Florida’s St. Lucie and Pasco counties, in Las Vegas, Nev., and southern California.

A squatter citing adverse possession took up residence last month in the former home of the mayor of Deltona in Volusia County. The house had been foreclosed on and sold when a woman moved in, hooked up cable television and refused to leave until sheriff’s deputies forced her out and gave her a trespass warning.

In South Florida, those trying to take properties have included people with criminal records, experience in real estate, or both.

Heflin told a sheriff’s detective he had “always been interested in real estate” and worked in 2007 for a company that secured foreclosed properties for banks.

Guerette had been an officer in property management, mortgage funding and real estate companies, corporation records show. He was convicted of misdemeanor and felony theft charges in 1994.

Adverse possession even lured a Hollywood man with ties to the mob.

Joseph Spitaleri was a member of the Trafficante organized crime family when he was convicted of racketeering in 2001, sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison and ordered to repay $1.7 million. He was one of 19 people named in a wide-ranging indictment that included charges of laundering money through mob-controlled check-cashing stores in Broward County.

In February, Spitaleri filed adverse possession notices on 14 Hollywood homes and one in Fort Lauderdale through Saving Florida Neighborhoods Inc. His son, Michael, claimed 13 other properties through his company, MAS & Son Inc., records show.

Joseph Spitaleri withdrew his claims in March, and his son gave up all but four of his last month.

One of the homes Joseph Spitaleri claimed ownership of is on Hollywood’s South Lake and is currently under contract to be sold for $1.2 million, said real estate agent Mike Harris. He said he learned of the adverse claim through another Realtor, and the owner’s attorney “contacted the outfit that was trying to steal this property” and cleared the title.

Joseph Spitaleri could not be reached, but was “not really involved” in the adverse possession claims, his son said.

“I canceled everything (for him) and had it all in my name,” Michael Spitaleri said. He declined to answer further questions.

Hollywood police are investigating Michael Spitaleri’s property claims, said spokesman Lt. Manny Marino.

Politics killed solution

For property owners, consequences of adverse possession can be costly. A claim can cloud the title and affect future sales, forcing the owner to hire an attorney and in some cases go to court.

One Polk County nursery owner has spent more money fighting an adverse possession claim than his property is worth, said county Property Appraiser Marsha Faux. Polk holds the state record for the most adverse possession claims 613 – many in unplatted subdivisions that are delinquent in their property taxes.

“Most are foreign owners, and they thought one day it might be developed and it would be close to (Walt Disney World) and they’d make a fortune,” Faux said. Others are properties in use by the actual owners but someone beat them to paying the property tax bill, she said.

The judiciary committee of the Florida Senate warned of the potential abuses of adverse possession last fall. Rep. Schultz, a former property appraiser, introduced legislation to stop them, including requiring all property owners to be notified when a claim is made and preventing non-owners from paying a tax bill until it becomes delinquent.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Paula Dockery, cleared the Senate unanimously but died in the House the last day of the legislative session, April 30.

Schultz said a House leader told him the sponsors were the problem. Dockery, a Republican from Lakeland, was running for governor, but the preferred candidate of the House leadership was Attorney General Bill McCollum, Schultz said.

And Schultz said he angered leaders by voting against their priorities, including bills tying teacher pay to student test scores and requiring pregnant women to get an ultrasound before an abortion.

“When you are the lone ‘no’ vote among Republicans, you can expect to be noticed, and your bills have a certain aroma,” Schultz said. “I was quite disappointed. It was a general purpose, anti-fraud bill and it didn’t get a hearing.”

Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits said the “political payback” has hurt all Floridians.

The proposed law “had statewide consequences and had benefit for all taxpayers,” he said, “so shame on the leadership.”

We live in an affluent area.

Many others like it here too. Tiger Woods, Burt Reynolds, Celine Dion, Alan Jackson, Michael Jordan, etc.  One of the prime locations is Jupiter Island.  But across from Jupiter Island on the mainland side of the Intracoastal Waterway, lies an interesting collection of houses.

Where the space between US One and the water is wide, we have the communities of Rolling Hills and Indian Hills.  These are across US One from Jupiter Hills.  But when you get further north, the land narrows and there are waterfront homes, the northernmost of which is owned by Burt Reynolds, who has had his house on the market for years.  The price has been reduced by about $ 8,000,000 or 50% and still no buyers. By the way, he is almost directly across from Mr. Woods.

Just a little to the south lies one of the two most expensive houses listed for sale in the MLS.  Originally priced at $ 12,900,000, along with another at this same price in The Bear's Club (Jack Nicklaus' private club next to the Ritz-Carlton, Jupiter) they were pushing the envelope around here.

Now,  Burt has a really nice spread.  Located on a couple of waterfront acres, with only Jonathan Dickinson State Park to the north he has no neighbors on that side.  But if he can't sell at $ 8,000,000, how is a home going to sell at $ 12,900,000?  The answer: It ain't.  So, let's try to find the right price. Down, $1, $2, $3 million and still sitting.

Now, let me tell you why this is a very bad strategy.

First, what is the approximate cost of carrying a home each month in the $ 10,000,000 range?   It could be in the tens of thousands.  Deduct this from the hoped for profit. 

Remember: HOPE IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE SELLING STRATEGY.

These homeowners could have been money ahead by hiring two or three certified residential appraisers to value the home before putting it on the market.  Unless it is a builder's spec house and I don't know if it is.

Why is this important?  Because before a lender will lend, they will hire an appraiser to make sure the value is correct.  Why not speed up the process since you already know what it is?

But, you may ask, why can't they just adjust the price now?  Let me explain.

When a home goes on the market, it is much like tossing a small pebble into a pond full of minnows.  All the minnows in the area immediately swim over to see what it is.  After they decide that it's not what they want, they swim away and as the pebble sinks a few more stragglers come by to check it out.  How does this apply to  you?

When a home goes on the market at $ 12 million, a certain number of people (a small group) look at it.  Now, if you were looking for an $ 8 million dollar house, why would you go?  You can't afford $ 12 million.

On the other hand, when a house is finally lowered to $ 8 million, all the people who were looking for an $ 8 million dollar house have already found one.  I mean there are plenty around here.  For this kind of money you could be living on Jupiter Island with Lou Gerstner and Richard Fuld.  So now you have to wait for the next $ 8 million buyer to surface and hope this is the home for them.  Of course, they might like Jupiter Island a lot more....and there aren't that many buyers around in the $ 8,000,000 range.

Maybe you can find a lender who will lend millions without checking on the value?  Seems unlikely.

Pricing the home correctly from the start is the key...PERIOD.

I know this sounds contrary to the popular thinking, but innovative thinking has allowed me to help plenty of homeowners navigate this turbulent market and move forward with their life plans.  It can help you too.  The last 3 homes I listed sold in an average of about 4 weeks when the average is about 4 months.

Visit my website at www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net and take a peek at some of the past sales and my other ideas.  Then, when you think it makes sense you can contact me.   561-762-4073 or rsites@coastalfloridarealestate.net.

When selling a house, I have posted many times that the key is differentiation.  Or to put it another way, increasing your value proposition.

When choosing the right agent, and I assume you want to, credibility is the key.  Credibility can be earned or claimed.  One way to claim it is to say we are the biggest, fastest, smartest, etc., or we sell X number of houses in such and such a period or we sell more than anyone or some variation of the "We are the champions of the world" theme.  The other way is to earn it by doing what you say you will do.

Combining these two ideas, you can come up with the resident agent theme.  Differentiation & credibility wrapped up in the "I live here, work here, play here" concept.  Time to call in Mythbusters.  Here are my thoughts on this.

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If you think it makes sense for us to have a conversation, give me a call at 561-762-4073 or send me an email and we will get to work and get your house sold. Or maybe you know someone who needs to see this information, please send it along.

There's an old saying, "The devil is in the details". When selling a house, nothing could be more true. Here are my thoughts on this critical part of the selling process and be sure to send it along to someone who may be having trouble selling. Visit www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net. 

REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

Mirasol Country Club is an exclusive golf and country club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Palm Beach Gardens is considered the golf capital of the world and Mirasol is located near PGA National Resort (home of the Honda Classic), BallenIsles Country Club, Jupiter Country Club and Old Palm.

I have just posted a photo album of Mirasol on Picasa. Take a look and send along to friends. 

If your are looking for a club community in this area, we offer many such as Frenchman's Reserve, Frenchman's Creek, The Bear's Club, Admirals Cove, The Ritz-Carlton, The Loxahatchee Club and Jupiter Island.Visit my website. www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net, where you can search the Multiple Listing Service in real time for the home of your dreams or send me an email and I will help you move forward with your plans. I can be reached at 561-762-4073.

When selling your house, there are some tough love lessons you need to be aware of. Here are a couple of these lessons.

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Trying to sell? Thinking of selling? If you think it makes sense to have a conversation, give me a call at 561-762-4073.

Short sales have received media coverage and made the phrase a synonym for a great deal. That's not true.

While the REO/foreclosure market may have some great deals, the short sale market is a completely different story filled with aggravation, delays, redundancies and frustration. Why bother when the market is full of non-short sale properties with none of these headaches and the thrill of getting a new home?

Here's my perspective on the situation:

If If you are serious about finding your place in the sun, forget the short sale quicksand and let's get you a home....now!

You can search for a home on my website at www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net or I can set up an automatic email notification that will have the computer do the heavy lifting while you enjoy life. Then just check your email to see what came up.

Trust me, the computer does a thorough job. And send this along to someone who is contemplating getting involved with a short sale.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS:  Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office?  Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits.  Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work.  Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

Here is the final installment in the series I'm calling, "Phrases that can kill the sale of your home". This one addresses the idea that your listing agent must accompany all buyers when they come to see the house.

Now, I know that a guided tour is very comforting. I mean how will the buyers know the kitchen is really the kitchen if its not pointed out to them? If you watch the HGTV shows you may have the idea that someone needs to guide the buyers around pointing out the obvious.

But the statistics tell a completely different story.

If If you have a friend trying to selling and they are asking the listing agent to accompany, send this to them right away. If you are trying to sell and are asking the agent to accompany, get over it and let's get your house sold!

REMEMBER: HOPE IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE SELLING STRATEGY!

REAL ESTATE AGENTS:  Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office?  Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits.  Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work.  Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

Bank repossessions (known as real estate owned properties or REOs) hit a record high in May for the second month in a row. Lenders repossessed a total of 93,777 properties during the month, a 1 percent increase from the previous month’s record and a 44-percent jump from May 2009. All 50 states reported a year-over-year increases in REOs, according to RealtyTrac.

So far this year, the U.S. foreclosure rate has been falling slightly on a month-to-month basis. And in April, RealtyTrac reported a year-over-year decline in the foreclosure rate for the first since the firm began reporting data in 2005. RealtyTrac still projects that over 3 million homes will receive a foreclosure notice over the course of this year, said Sharga.

The ten states with the highest foreclosure rates were little changed from the previous month. According to the RealtyTrac report, Nevada remains No. 1 with one in every 79 properties in the state getting a foreclosure notice, five times the national rate.

Arizona ranked second with one in every 169 households receiving a notice, followed by Florida (one in 174 households), California (one in 186 households) and Michigan (one in every 223 households.)

Florida is now sandwiched in between California and Michigan.

Need to get you home sold quickly and smoothly in this turbulent market? Visit me on the web at www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net or call me today at 561-762-4073. We can get your home sold too!

REMEMBER: HOPE IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE SELLING STRATEGY!

REAL ESTATE AGENTS: Tired or giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office? Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits. Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work. Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.  Could an extra 10-30% in your pocket make a difference?

 This is the second part in the series I'm calling, "Phrases that can kill the sale of your house, Part 2".  This video deals with the phrase, "Being sold As-Is for seller's convenience". 

In a buyer's market, there is no such thing as seller's convenience.  Get over it and let's get your house sold!

The last 3 houses I sold were only on the market an average of 4 weeks and we can get your house sold too.  If you know someone who is having trouble selling, send this along to them or give them my phone number, 561-762-4073.  This blog has been viewed over 3,000 times in the last 5 days so there must be relevant information here.

REMEMBER: HOPE IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE SELLING STRATEGY!

REAL ESTATE AGENTS:  Tired of giving a large portion of your hard earned commission to the office?  Realty Associates offers extremely generous payout plans with down stream income from fellow recruits.  Join one of the fastest growing companies with a contemporary business model that can reward you, not someone else, for your work.  Think about it and call me for a confidential discussion.

This is the first in a series I'm calling, "Phrases that can kill the sale of your house".

As you know, it only takes a 1% improvement to make all the difference between selling and not selling a house. Likewise, it only takes a 1% obstacle to keep your house from selling. Agents use lingo and fail to make sellers aware of the obstacles that can keep the house from selling, so I'm going to pull back the curtain for you.

In Part 1, I deal with "24 hour notice required to show"...or any notice period for that matter. Now this may not apply if we are talking about an estate on Jupiter Island that is closed up, shutters closed, furniture covered, for the season.

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You may think this is a small point, but I assure you it's not.

Be sure to visit www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net and www.youtube.com/richardsites and send along to your friends who may need this one little tip to get their house sold!

I know we all like to fiddle with technology and our devices. There’s just something fascinating about using computers, smart phones and the like. Otherwise, why would people send text messages from a phone which is designed to make calls and the person receiving the text is doing so on a phone and you could make a call faster and more easily?

What does this have to do with real estate and finding the right home?

Because of the depth of the information available on the Internet today, you could spend hours and hours looking for a house. Or, with a couple clicks of the mouse you could let the computer do the heavy lifting for you, then refine the choices sent to you. This is called Automatic Email Notification and it is available to you at no cost or obligation….and no salesman will call. Watch this short video to see how it can help you.

To you, it's a special house.  But, to a lender it's simply a commodity and nothing more.

Here are my thoughts on why this is critical to your selling success. 

If you think it might make sense for us to talk about getting your house sold, call me anytime at 561-762-4073 and send this along to a friend.

Here's another story of how just a 1% improvement can help close the sale. 

One of the great ironies of the real estate market occurs when the lines between selling and marketing are blurred. And real estate is the only place where this happens.

Auto manufacturers or software companies hire marketing firms to produce logos, catchy phrases and glossy brochures, then send sales people out to sell the product.

Products of any kind are sold when the value proposition is sufficiently high to justify a purchase. Grocery stores put things on sale for this reason. When you find a grocery item marked down and throw a couple in your cart, don’t you come home and tell your spouse you found such and such a product on sale and only paid X dollars for it? Don’t they always say, wow what a great price? Why are homes any different?

Here are my thoughts: 

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Be sure and this along to someone who is trying to sell or give them my phone number. It may mean the difference between getting their home sold and having to mark it down to buy one, get one free like the grocery stores do!