This e-mail came today from Sweden, and to my surprise, when I Googled the name, it gave me the name of his wife of girlfriend, telephone and address. Quite surprising. Hence the reason I have changed the name. So, here it goes: Hello my name is Peter and I am from Sweden. I have a question about MLS ID: 51329  or other condos at Oceanside Inn. How many weeks can I have it for myself and how much do I get when the hotel rents it to other people. Thanks= First, as the owner, you are not obligated to rent. And you are not obligated to rent through the Front Desk. You can rent yourself, and you can hire others to rent it. Not that I would advise doing it, but I am simply stating the rights of the owners. If you decide that you want Integra Resort Management, which is the professional renta... 01/21/2011

Who said this is a stagnant market? Take, for example, Oceanside Inn in Daytona Beach Shores. Only 6 units for sale showing on MLS. At one time the number was over 30 units. And this is not the exception. Similar situation with other condo-hotels, but it is for another blog post. Of all the condo-hotels, Oceanside Inn is the trickiest to understand the records the way they show up in a compact form on MLS. Check the table below. I eliminated some of the fields that are not that important as agent and office numbers, etc. As for the view, all units have ocean view. Better or worse, but all of them have it. It is a 9-story condo-hotel built in 1973 (converted to condo-hotel in 2003-2004). Building is in good physical shape. Developer eliminated balconies and englassed the building. Units ... 01/06/2011

Actually, this is a new name but not a new Condominium Building in Daytona Beach Area. Recently Islamorada Condominiums in Daytona Beach Shores were sold to Canadian Investors, and they are changing the name to Opus. The investors bought it for about $12 Mil, which is half what the original developers Jim Mack and Alan Koch owned to Wachovia Bank. Exit Realty of Daytona will be handling sales. Prices start from low $200s and as of now I do not know how high they will go. Hope the sales will be brisk. Hate seeing an empty brand new building right on the World’s Most Famous Beach. Read more about this condominium in Daytona Beach Shores in my relatively recent blog How To Buy 53-unit Oceanfront Condo Building for $100   Call me if you are interested in buying a brand new unit in a brand n... 12/26/2010

Today we arrived to the Foreclosure Auction in Deland, the County Seat, a bit late. The auction has not started yet, but the maximum bids by the Lenders have already been announced, and I needed to know this vital piece of information, as I am with the Buyer’s mandate to buy a penthouse condo in Bella Vista, a gorgeous over 2,400 sf unit on the 11th floor in Daytona Beach Shores if the Lender discounts the price. Bought for $700K, the unit is under contract, it is a short sale, and there is a second mortgage, which makes short sales tricky. The Listing agent is confident that the sale would be stopped, but my year of participating in the auctions leaves much less confidence that it would really happen this way. Judgment is for $445K. Options are that it would go for the total, and it is... 12/08/2010

Built in 2006, this last building in the Oceans complex is also the last high-rise built in Daytona Beach Shores. The city is now limiting the height to 120’, and they are proud with this far from wise decision. But who said that government is supposed to be wise? Anyway, 189 units in 21-story Oceans Grand (no 13th floor). It is a triangular building with rounded corners. Each corner is a three-bedroom unit. 3rd floor and up has 7 two-bedroom and 2 baths units plus den in addition to 3 Three Bedroom units. First and second floor has only 3 units each. Ground level garage with gated access provides one reserved space per unit with a lot of additional spaces on the second level on first come first serve basis. Oceans Grand is not directly on the Atlantic, it is between the river and the o... 11/28/2010

Some condominiums in Daytona Beach Shores do not allow lockboxes of any type. To show a condo there you have to arrange with a listing agent to come and open it for you, or go to the Listing office and get the key. But agents are not average Joes and they can make a simple task a challenge. I am in a dual role today. I am showing units in Towers Grande in Daytona Beach Shores, which are our listings, and we are also showing someone else’s unit there to our prospective Buyer. First, getting a key. The office is about 25-minute drive, which is far by Daytona standards. Calling the office to make sure they have the key. Yes, they have the key. Just come and grab… 25- minute drive, inside, the girl smiles, goes for the keys… “sorry, they key is not here. Another agent took it, and I did not... 11/11/2010

We have a dear friend in the Bronx. When we became friends soon after coming from the USSR, her son Dmitry was only 18, as my daughter, and just one year younger than my son. Now he is turning 37 in December, but for us he is still the same Dmitry we remember him from nearly 20 years ago. He came to stay with us with his wife Julia. He has MBA and works in accounting for a ocean freight company. She is a medical technician and works in the Hospital. They are typical Americans. in their case – Russian Americans. Last year they bought a small condo in Yonkers, and every morning they go to work, making payment for his and hers student loans, mortgage, car payment… They have a town home in Venetian Bay, but it is rented long term. They stayed with us one week spending most of the time at th... 10/31/2010

Here is the classic scenario. A customer walks into our Daytona Beach office and asks us about the condo-hotel units. Because condo-hotel operation involves rentals, the question about income comes naturally. - What is the income here? I usually say that if the condo-hotel unit generates enough to cover Association (aka Maintenance) fee and Property taxes, it is already good and is not guaranteed. Some Condo-hotels do better, some do worse, but condo-hotels, at least in Daytona Beach Area, are not income producing properties. Their value is definitely in resale, and rentals only help to offset the expenses. If you get a little cash after all your expenses, it is good, but do not bet on it. - Why would anyone buy it then? - Because they are right on the Atlantic Ocean Everybody understan... 10/21/2010

First you have to have $100. Keep reading if you do. This brand new oceanfront condo building  with 53 three-bedroom units (Islamorada) in Daytona Beach Shores, was officially sold today for only $100... (plus what was owed to them) This condo building was just recently completed. At the time when market is down and condos in Daytona Beach Area had trouble selling off their inventory, this building was going up as if there could be no trouble for it in sight. And then it was completed…  and then nothing happened. I gave the information about the project to a good developer, and he tried to contact the owners, but they never responded. And then we saw it scheduled for sale for October 20. Which was today. We watched it for a few days, checking whether it would be cancelled, but it stayed... 10/20/2010

There is Biketoberfest in full swing just a few miles away in Daytona Beach, but here in Daytona Beach Shores you do not see that many bikes on the road, and the beach is serene and quiet. This is the time of the year when the daily temperatures still reach 80F, but the nights are in the 50s and the ocean cooled to 75F and is too cold for core Floridians. We are spoiled. We do not swim in the water at temperatures, which in many other places would be considered very warm. We went to the beach as we usually do on Saturdays and Sundays, and went a bit too late, and the sun was already gone. It was still coloring the foam of the breaking waves, and brightened the bellies of hunters pelicans, but by the time I got the  camera ready, the pelicans were far, and the attempt of my wife Olga to ... 10/17/2010

I have a customer, who wanted to see a few units in Oceanside Inn – a premier condo-hotel in Daytona Beach Shores. It is late Sunday morning. There is a line at the  Front Desk. Wet skin all over. Guests in swimsuits, which is purely Floridian. People went to the Beach and the pool to swim for the last time before leaving Daytona Beach Shores, and women are wrapped in towels waist down, and it looks like colorful summer skirts. This is the end of a very busy season this year, and GM James Dion is on a week’s vacation as of today. He came to pick his sunglasses. Where people go for vacation from Daytona? You got it… to Daytona. I am sure he will spend a lot of vacation time on his boat in the ocean. Now that the season slows down, showing units in Oceanside Inn would be easier. Today it ... 08/22/2010

We were working with a buyer, who put a $470K offer on a Penthouse condo in Towers Grande in Daytona Beach Shores listed for $499K, which at one time (in 2006) was listed for $1,950,000. Very low offer, but the Buyer thinks that he can do whatever he wants, and everyone would agree. Well, if it does not work (pretty much expected), the buyer will learn to trust us more and will be more reasonable. When the initial contract expired, the Buyer did not extend the contract and left the area. That happens. The Seller decided to change the horses, and relisted the property with us, so now we started working with the Listing. We could not afford lowballing now, that we worked with the Seller, and after analyzing the market we suggested to list at $575K so that we are just under the next compar... 08/18/2010

It is a busy season in greater Daytona area. South Florida is more a winter vacation area, and we are clearly a summer resort. I am seeing again plenty of “no vacancy” signs, which I have not seen for quite some time. It is especially busy on weekends. Oceanside Inn in Daytona Beach Shores is not the exception, and is rather a rule for them. It is good news for the resort, for unit owners. It is a bit difficult for me, as there is hardly a vacant unit to show. Not even those that are actually for sale, but even a similar unit anywhere in the resort. I get calls about condo-hotels, and I have to warn callers that showing units in Oceanside Inn is a challenge. My last customer wanted to see that one-bedroom unit, that I consider an exceptional deal, and there are only 4 units like that in... 08/07/2010

The Oceans Complex in Daytona Beach Shores is the largest built in one localtion by one developer in greater Daytona area. 11 buildings out of 16 in the complex are direct oceanfront, and there are 5 buildings, (4 condo-owners associations), which are between the ocean and the river. We will discuss those in another blog. In 11 direct oceanfront condo buildings we are only looking at 2 bdr/2 baths units, which are the majority of units in these buildings. And we will compare with what was for sale on January 31, 2010, just 6 months ago. There are 29 active listings in Oceans Complex today compared to 35 in January. 35 was practically 1/8th of what we had about 2.5 years ago. The inventory has decreased very significantly. And it is further decreasing. The decrease for the last 6 months ... 08/07/2010

This over 4,000 sf living and 6,000 sf total direct Intracoastal house built in 2002 is scheduled for foreclosure today at the Volusia County courthouse. We notice it from the publication, which is required by law. Checked MLS, the house has never been on the market. Judgment amount is $1,014,000. Wonderful area of very expensive estate homes on large half-acre lots. The home has a pool and a deck for the boat. I called a few investors and they showed some degree of interest. I called the owners and spoke to a lady. I asked her why it has never been on the market. She said they were doing loan modification, and they till the last minute naively believed that they could really get it. And when they were told “no” it was too late. I am trying to explain to the lady, that we can try to go ... 07/27/2010

We closed on a condo-hotel unit in Oceanside Inn – a Daytona Beach Shores premiere resort. And it was not a short sale… but it still took us 1,061 days to get to that Closing… Even those, who are not in distress, eventually start losing faith in the market. My clients are the first buyers in Oceanside Inn. It was the first sale in the resort after the remodeling was done and the sales office opened their doors. When they came at 8 AM in January 2003 to buy a unit, they had to wait an hour for the sales office to open. And when they came back in couple of hours, the prices have already been raised by the developer. My clients signed a contract for $77,000, and whoever happened to come later that day signed a contract for identical unit for $92,990. Of course, we can say that when the dev... 07/26/2010

Oceanside Inn is the nicest and latest condo-hotel conversion in Daytona Beach Shores. 191-room resort is well maintained and well rented. This year for Oceanside Inn is more active than last: 3 units sold. All three beat price record. The studio for $34,500 (City view), direct oceanfront studio for $55K, and double unit for $48K. One of those sold by us. Unit # Rooms baths Size Price Exposure 401 0 1 450 $45,000 City 601 0 1 450 $48,000 City 201 0 1 450 $49,990 City 905 2 2 793 $59,000 South 820 2 2 793 $59,999 North 520 2 2 793 $59,999 North 217 3 3 1130 $67,500 North 617 3 3 1130 $69,000 North 315 0 1 406 $70,000 Direct oceanfront 814 0 1 406 $74,900 Direct oceanfront 709 2 2 750 $79,900 South 103 1 1 527 $88,000 Direct oceanfront 716 0 1 496 $99,900 Direct oceanfront Two units we bo... 07/16/2010

Daytona Beach Shores is a roughly 5,000+ resident town that can swell to 20,000- 30,000 people during the Bike Week or racing events. The city boasts the longest shoreline in the Greater Daytona Area, and has the most condos lining Atlantic Ave. The Oceans complex is the largest condo complex in Daytona Beach Shores with 11 direct oceanfront buildings and 4 condo buildings between the Ocean and the Intracoastal built from early 70s until the last on – Oceans Grand- was completed in 2004. The City of Daytona Beach Shores prides itself on higher quality of life. Whether this is true or not, the fact is that the sheer number of condo units results in more money collected in taxes, and while other cities are financially strapped, Daytona Beach Shores continues with their beautification proj... 07/07/2010

It is a Holiday weekend in Daytona Beach Shores.  Time to relax, to party, to have a glass of wine at a local restaurant, or have a barbeque with your family and friends. I live in Daytona Beach Shores now, I am looking at a golf course out of my window. There is no breeze, absolutely quiet… What is happening in Daytona Beach Shores today? For the list of events we go to the City Of Daytona Beach Shores official site. “No events planned at this time. Check back at a later date.” But don’t rush to conclusions. Look at the left upper corner of their website. You see where it says “Welcome to Paradise”. Are you surprised that they do not have events in Paradise? Being in Paradise is an event by itself. People are smiling, they are happy, they are enjoying “nothing”, according the city. Wel... 07/04/2010

Daytona Beach is known as "The World's Most Famous Beach!"  Where else can drive directly on the sand and park your vehicle for a little fun and sun! During the summer our beaches get packed with people picnicking or playing sports.  Our beaches are active and caution must be taken because Daytona Beach allows parking right on the sand.  Here are just a few safety rules you should follow to get the most out of The World's Most Famous Beach! Because it is not uncommon for people to walk on the beach, there is a speedlimit you must follow.  In order to appreciate the beauty and site seeing it is helpful to follow the speed limit on the beach.  10 mph Because we share this beach with plant life and marine life its important to park in designated areas as well as leave the natural habitat a... 06/29/2010