Cynthia & Preston's Blog

“How much are my property taxes going to be?” This is a question we constantly get from our real estate clients. It’s a reasonable question – property taxes are a factor in the operating cost of any property. To get the answer, I attended a forum featuring the newly-elected Sarasota County Proper...

“How much are my property taxes going to be?” This is a question we constantly get from our real estate clients. It’s a smart question – property taxes are a factor in the operating cost of any property. To get the answer, I attended a forum featuring the newly-elected Sarasota County Property Ap...

It's tough out there. The way I know is not from the nightly news (which we avoid). It's from the recent rash of rudeness and "me first" behavior, in real estate and elsewhere. It seems when people get squeezed, it can bring out the worst. It's pretty frustrating, and almost enough to make you be...

In 2004, Cynthia and I were looking at buying a nice rental in our then-appreciating Sarasota hometown. The problem was that it would not cash flow! We walked away, shaking our heads and wondering how in the world anyone could justify buying a rental property and then writing a monthly check to m...

I mentioned a month or so ago that it sure is nice when a listing client listens to pricing recommendations. The transaction I was speaking of closed just a few hours ago, so I can now say it out loud: Within 5 days, we got a full price cash offer. (And no, it was NOT a fire sale. We actually set...

Listening to or reading the news is a dangerous business these days -- dangerous for the piece of real estate between your ears! Our real estate practice slumped like everyone else's when the Florida Boom started looking more like the Florida Bust -- but our business began to improve when we cut ...

North Port is an area of Sarasota County that experienced tremendous growth during the boom due to its affordability. With property prices in Sarasota proper going out of sight, the working person found good value in North Port, a 30-minute commute down Interstate 75. That of course led to a boom...

One of the great things about launching the boat at Bradenton Beach, as mentioned last blog, is some of the territory it makes available. And one of the coolest destinations is the fishing village of Cortez, just a mile to the north. Fishing was the center of Cortez for 130+ years, not counting m...

What with the weather, a little travel, and clients, somehow 6 weeks slipped by without our getting out on the water. We didn't even notice how much of a "missing" it was until we got out late yesterday. We waited until after 5 so the temperature would moderate a bit, and headed off to launch the...

We've been saying it all along: the market determines the correct price, not the seller ... and certainly not the realtor! What the realtor CAN do is interpret the market, provide a suggested range to the seller, and help the seller match the desired time to sell with the price that is most likel...