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Hannity Penthouse Sells in Naples, FL

Moraya Bay Beach Club

Sean Hannity’s Penthouse in Moraya Bay, Naples, FL sold $5,700,000. Hannity originally purchased the property from the builder in 2009 for $4,750,000. The penthouse vacation home of conservative political commentator and talk show host, Sean Hannity, sold on December 14th, 2020. Hannity originally purchased the property from the builder in 2009 for $4,750,000. The property…

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Are Verbal Offers for Real Estate Valid in the State of Florida?

Contract for Real Estate

“The fax didn’t go through; just tell them verbally that we accept $875,000.” This was a quote from a recent real estate transaction that went downhill shortly after the agent relayed this information, verbally. In the state of Florida, verbal contracts are not enforceable. A real estate contract must be in writing. In the good old days,…

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36 Sales Opening Day at Riverstone Naples!

Riverstone Naples

36 Sales on Opening day at Riverstone in Naples FL. “We slept in our cars overnight to be the first in line to buy at Riverstone,” according to Derek Anderson Realtor for White Sands Realty in Olde Naples. “People wanted the biggest and best cul-de-sac lots on the lake and they were willing to wait over 12 hours to be first in line. Naples Florida real estate is looking positive no matter how you slice and dice it.”

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Who Buys Naples Homes? – 5 Buyer Profiles

First-off, nobody likes to be profiled. Whether at the airport taking a flight or walking into the real estate sales office at a shiny, new home model. We are all unique and deserve respect. Yet, clients often are asked who is the “usual buyer” of Naples Florida real estate today. Some want to get an…

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Are Naples Homes Headed Up Like Beverly Hills?

Naples, Florida is a lot like Beverly Hills when it comes to luxury home prices. If the median home price in Beverly Hills is any indicator of sunnier days to come, we may soon be be seeing brighter rays of sunshine on the Naples beaches as well. The median sale price of Beverly Hills single-family…

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Busier Spring & Summer for Naples Luxury Homes

The Naples luxury home market saw an increase in overall sales this summer. This corresponds to figures released from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). According to NAR, the home sales for $1 million plus homes were up .7 percent in July 2010 as compared to last year at the same time. These figures are…

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Home Showing Tips

Keeping Your Home Neat and Tidy Keeping your home picked up at all times can make showings go better and selling it easier on you and your Realtor. In today’s buyer’s market with tons of inventory for buyers to pick and choose from, your home must meet the cleanliness test. You want buyers to stick…

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Showing Your Home: 4 Tips to Make the Best 1st Impression

In today’s buyer’s real estate market, every detail counts when you want to sell your home. Here are four tips to make the best impression on home buyers who come to view your property. Lighting – Turn on All the lights! When preparing for a home showing, turn on all the indoor and outdoor lights –…

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Why You Should Not Be Home for Showings

If you are home when a showing is scheduled for your home, potential home buyers will feel like uncomfortable intruders. They will spend less time looking and more time worrying about invading your space. To put them at ease and keep them around long enough to fall in love with your home, take a walk…

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Showing Your Home to Potential Home Buyers

Your house should always be available for show, even though it may occasionally be inconvenient for you. Let your listing agent put a lock box in a convenient place, to make it easy for other agents to show your home to homebuyers. Otherwise, agents will have to schedule appointments, which is an inconvenience. Most will…

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Open Houses

Open Houses An open house when your property is first placed on the market can be very important, but not for the reasons most homeowners think. Just like with advertising, most visitors to open houses rarely buy the house they come to look at. They may not even know the price of your home when…

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Neighborhood Announcements

Neighborhood Announcements When you first list your home many real estate agents send “announcements” to all of the other houses in your neighborhood. This can be done in the form of postcards, a letter, or flyers left hanging on the front door. The postcard may read “New Listing” or “Just Listed.” These are important because…

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Marketing Sessions

Your agent probably belongs to a local association of Real Estate Professionals and they often have meetings once a month. At these meetings there is often a “marketing session” where some agents stand up and tell about their listings and other agents stand up and tell about their buyers. Your listing agent has an opportunity…

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Removing Clutter & Preparing Your Home for Sale

Preparing your home for a real estate sale involves several steps including staging your home for showings to present it in its best light. Removing clutter is the hardest thing for most people to do because they are emotionally attached to everything in their house. After years of living in the same home, clutter collects…

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De-personalize the House

The main reason you want to “depersonalize” your home is because you want real estate buyers to view it as their potential home. When a potential homebuyer sees your family photos hanging on the wall, it puts your own brand on the home and momentarily shatters their illusions about owning the house. Therefore, put away…

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Introduction – Emotion vs. Reason – Selling Your House

When conversing with real estate agents, you will often find that when they talk to you about buying real estate, they will refer to your purchase as a “home.” Yet if you are selling property, they will often refer to it as a “house.” There is a reason for this. Buying real estate is often…

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Termite and Pest Inspection

When buying real estate part of your offer for a home may include an inspection of the property. Along with that inspection, you may require a termite and pest inspection. This company not only inspects for termite damage and pest infestations. The company that performs the inspection is important to you as a buyer, because…

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VA and FHA Appraisals

How FHA and VA Financing Affects Your Offer Home appraisal inspections on FHA and VA loans are a little more detailed than on conventional loans. Qualified appraisers are required to perform certain minimum inspections as well as evaluate the market value of the property. Although these inspections are not as detailed as a professional home inspection and…

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Extra Costs to the Seller for VA & FHA Financing

How FHA and VA Financing Affects Your Offer If you are obtaining a VA or FHA loan in order to finance your home purchase, you must include that information in your offer. This is because government loans place additional financial and performance obligations on the seller. FHA and VA appraisals are also more strict and…

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Other Financing Details in Your Offer

How Financing Details Affect Your Offer When making an offer to purchase real estate, financing contingencies should be carefully considered. Your financing contingency should contain information on whether you are obtaining a fixed rate or an adjustable rate mortgage and what maximum rate is acceptable. Of course you may be able to get a loan…

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Cash Offers

How Financing Details Affect Your Offer If you are a fortunate real estate buyer making a cash offer to buy a home, there are certain things you should consider when making an offer vs those who finance. First and foremost, you are offering one less contingency than those buyers who finance. If your offer is…

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Seller Financing – Making an Offer

Another occasional request when making an offer to purchase real estate is to have the seller finance the whole transaction or “carry back” a second mortgage to help facilitate your purchase of their home. In cases when the seller owns the home free and clear or does not need all the proceeds from their sale…

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Closing Costs and Financing Incentives

How Financing Details Affect Your Offer There may be times when, as part of your offer, you request the seller to pay all or a portion of your closing costs, or provide some other financial incentive. One common request is asking the seller to pay a certain specified amount towards “closing costs and pre-paids.” Such incentives can…

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Interest Rates

How Financing Details Affect Your Offer Interest Rates A financing contingency in your offer protects you if interest rates suddenly become volatile and rise quickly. By adding a maximum acceptable interest rate in your offer, you are protecting yourself from such an occurrence. At the same time, the seller will probably want to see that…

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How Financing Details Affect Your Offer

Most buyers do not have enough cash available to buy a home, so they need to obtain a mortgage to finance the purchase. When making an offer, it is vital to include a financing contingency that informs the seller about your financing plans. A seller will want to know that you can quickly obtain a…

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Final Walk-Through Inspection

Writing an Offer – Safeguards Regarding the Property Before closing, the buyer should revisit the property to ensure it is in the condition you required in your offer and to inspect any required repairs have been performed. The closing or settlement company should not close until you or your Realtor give them the final go-ahead.…

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Inspections You Should Require

Besides an appraisal and the termite inspection, you should also have a professional home inspector go through the house and seek out potential problems. Of course, you will have inspected the home, but you are not used to looking at some things that a professional will find. Even if they are not things the seller…

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Condition of the Property

Writing an Offer – Safeguards Regarding the Property Condition at Closing The last thing you want when you assume possession of your new home is to find it in a total mess. Therefore, you should make it clear in your offer that certain minimum standards are required on closing. If you do not, you might…

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Disclosures From the Seller

Writing an Offer – Seller’s Disclosure Statement Although you have toured the property, looked at the walls and ceiling, turned on the faucets and played with the light switches, you have not lived in it. The seller has a lot more knowledge about his or her home from living there. For this reason, you may…

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Transfer of Possession & Closing on Your Home

Closing On Your Home A transaction is considered “closed” once all documents have been signed, money transferred and the deed has been recorded. Then you own the home. On the day of closing (or prior to if you are doing a mail away closing), the closing agent will provide you with a finalized Settlement Statement and HUD-1…

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The Closing Date

Offering to Purchase Real Estate- the Basics It is absolutely essential that you include a closing date as part of your offer to purchase real estate. This is an important date in the contract and should not be considered lightly. If you’re obtaining financing and a mortgage approval, allow as much time as possible. With…

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Earnest Money Deposit

An earnest money deposit is the initial deposit you make with an offer to purchase real estate. How Much Should You Put Down With Your Offer? After you have come up with an offer price, the next step is to determine how large a deposit you want to make with your offer. Determining what to…

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Contingencies in a Purchase Offer

In most purchase transactions there may be a slight challenge or two, but most things will go quite smoothly. However, you want to anticipate potential problems so that if something does go wrong, you can cancel the contract without penalty. These are called “contingencies” and you must be sure to include them when you offer…

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Writing an Offer to Purchase Real Estate

Once you find the home you want to buy, the next step is to write an offer – which is not as easy as it sounds. Your offer is the first step toward negotiating a sales contract with the seller. Since this is just the beginning of negotiations, you should put yourself in the seller’s…

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The Final Decision on Your Offer Price

Major Factors Influencing your Offer Price Comparable sales information helps you to determine a base price range for a particular home. Adding in the various factors like property condition, improvements, market conditions, and seller motivation help determine whether a “fair” price would be at the upper limit of that range or the lower limit. Perhaps…

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How Seller Motivation Affects Your Offer Price

The most common “motivated seller” is someone who has already bought his or her next home or is relocating to a new area. They will be under the gun to sell the home quickly or face the prospect of making two mortgage payments at the same time. Since that can drain a bank account quickly,…

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How Market Conditions Affect Your Offer Price

A hot market is a “seller’s market.” During a seller’s market, properties can sell within a few days of being listed and there are often multiple offers on the same home for sale. Sometimes homes even sell above the asking price. Though most buyer’s want to get a “deal” on a home, reducing your offer…

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How Home Improvements Affect Your Offer Price

Home improvement additions or big upgrades should be considered when comparing similar homes you are considering making an offer on. Cosmetic changes should be largely ignored, but major improvements should be taken into account. Most important would be room additions, especially bedrooms and bathrooms. Other items, like expensive floor tile or swimming pools should be…

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How Property Condition Affects Your Offer

Since you have toured the property you are interested in, you should know how it compares to the general neighborhood. All you have to do is put the home in one of three categories – average, above average, or below average. When evaluating a home’s condition, there are a number of things you should consider.…

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Other Factors Influencing Your Offer Price

Comparable Sales and Your Offer Price Gathering and analyzing information from comparable sales helps to establish the price range you should consider when making an offer to buy a home. More weight should be given to the most recent sales (in the last 3 to 6 months), but even so, you need to do a…

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Comparable Sales in the Public Record

The most accessible source of information on comparable sales for the public are closed sales is the county’s public record system. The public records include all sales, even ones that don’t go through Realtors and are thus not entered into the MLS. When someone buys a home the property is deeded from the seller to…

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Supply and Demand in the Housing Market

The Business Cycle and Buying a Home When the supply of available homes is greater than the supply of buyers, appreciation may slow and prices may even fall, as happened in the early eighties, the early to mid-nineties and currently. This the classic buyer’s market. If you are lucky enough to purchase a home during…

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Recession and Expansion

The Business Cycle and The Housing Market There are times when the economy is brisk and everyone feels confident about his or her prospects for the future. As a result, they spend money. People eat out more, buy new cars, and….…they buy new homes. Then, for one reason or another, the economy slows down. Companies…

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How a New Car Payment Reduces Your Purchase Price

If you’re in the market to buy a home, buying anything as expensive as a car is a no, no. Even if you feel you can afford the car payment, mortgage companies approve your mortgage based on their guidelines, not yours. Can I Buy A New Car If My Mortgage Has Already Been Approved? Let’s say…

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