Julia & Matt Fishel, Real Estate YOUR Way in Tampa Bay by

There's this cool new technology that will let you search for that nice piece of Dunedin real estate by surfing the Tampa Bay MLS just like a Realtor does. It's free, it's easy, and you can sign up here.

It's called Listingbook. You'll see new listings as they hit the market, price changes, contracts that go pending, how many days a home has been on the market and so on, just like we do. You get to drive the bus and customize your searches any way you like, and as often as you like.

We've been offering Listingbook for a while now, but we heard it can offer a lot more, not just for those of you wanting to purchase a Clearwater Beach condo, but for our Crystal Beach FL home sellers, too. So, yesterday, we jumped at the chance to attended a free advanced training session presented by Tara Jacobsen of Marketing Artfully and sponsored by Joyce Smith of Somers Title and Ingegrity First Funding Group in Dunedin. Tara blew our hair off. We're going to be working hard in the next few weeks to bring you all of the bells and whistles we learned about to help make you the most informed Pinellas home buyers and sellers out there!

Sign up and tell us what you think. Surfs up! (yes, that's Matt being an off-duty Realtor and our son catching a few waves at Lido Key in Sarasota).

Lately, when not in the Keller Williams Realty Palm Harbor office, we've run into far too many bored Palm Harbor real estate agents. Some are from real estate offices that are on the verge of closing. I plead to them "There IS hope. There IS a success plan!". Most often it lands on deaf ears. I must not be conveying my message with enough conviction, or maybe I come off as annoying, or maybe I'm just too busy to do so properly.

On Monday, I was told about a Palm Harbor real estate agent, a fairly well known one just a short year or two ago, was looking for a part time job. We'll call her Sally.

On Tuesday, I ran into another Palm Harbor Realtor that used to do a LOT of business in Pinellas County, and let it suffice to say that the opposite has been true for her lately. We'll call her Sue. Sue was working the election polls for the day doing her civic duty (hats off to her for that). Sue confided that she was there because she was bored and had a lot of time on her hands because there's not a lot happening in real estate any more. I was polite and tried to not let my mouth hang open too much, but has she not seen the numbers? Just as many homes are selling this year as were a year ago!

This week I had a transaction not come to fruition. The other agent involved, we'll call her Samantha, spent countless hours of her time, and as much of our time as possible, on the paperwork details and commiserating over what might have been instead of proactively finding the next buyer for this fantastic house.

This morning I had FOUR agents whom I've never met call me on some of our listings. Each one wanted to chit chat at length about how bad the real estate market was and tell me their tales of woe.

Sally, Sue, Samantha, these 4 Pinellas real estate agents and countless others haven't been blessed yet with the ability to go out there and make things happen while ignoring the negative media, declining Pinellas home prices and stories of the sky falling in. It's heartbreaking.

We aren't saying this to brag, but Suncoast Partners' business is humming along at a full-tilt boogie like never before. We're fully engaged in this wildly fun and challenging real estate marketplace. We're busy working hard for our clients, marketing their homes like never before, negotiating Pinellas short sales for buyers and sellers alike, attending home inspections for upcoming closings, answering phones that are ringing all the time, previewing hundreds of homes at fantastic prices for our buyers, staying in touch with people we've worked with in the past, finding plenty of new clients and making new friends, staying in constant touch with Brian Forrester of TriCounty Mortgage who keeps us up on the latest mortgage industry news, answering a flurry of Internet inquiries, crunching Pinellas real estate statistics so we stay on top of the latest trends, assisting other agents whenever asked, writing the occasional blog post, and about 2,343,698 other things.

If you are that bored agent, or perhaps just feeling a little overwhelmed or hopeless, give us a call. There are countless ways to turn your situation around, and we'd be happy to share what others were kind enough to share with us. Know that we've been there, too, and that's why it's part of our life's purpose to share the secret of how to grow a successful real estate business - in any market.

If you are looking to buy or sell real estate and are interviewing agents, ask questions and do your homework to find out how many homes they've sold this year, what their list to sale price ratios are, days on market for their listed homes, if they are experienced and certified in Pinellas short sales and Pinellas foreclosures, etc. Don't forget to ask for references!

You might even want to contact us. We'd be thrilled to have the opportunity to interview for the job of being your Pinellas real estate consultants for life.

Do you want to know what's really happening with Pinellas Real Estate? Want to avoid the sugar-coated smooth talk and just want honest answers?

Suncoast Partners and The Pinellas Peach take pride in providing meaningful knowledge, insight and data to assist you with making informed Pinellas real estate investment decisions. Above is our first monthly installment of data that's seemingly too difficult for the educated Pinellas real estate consumer to find these days.

PRO, The Pinellas Board of Realtors, dispenses boat loads of data each month. Some meaningful and some, quite frankly, will put even the most analytical types to sleep. ZZZzzzzzzz. We've assembled the parts we believe are important, but we need you to please let us know what you like, don't like, and what data, if any, you would like to see that's not here.

This data shows us that for Pinellas home SELLERS (reverse this if you're buying or buying up):

The Good :

1. Just as many homes are selling this year as last year.
2. The number of homes on the market has declined slightly, which is good news for everybody because it's an indicator that we've got fewer non-serious sellers.
3. Our MSI (Month's Supply of Inventory) numbers are down significantly for single family homes and down slightly for condos - a healthy sign toward market correction.
4. In August we saw the lowest 'Days on Market' numbers we've seen in months. Homes are selling more quickly than they were earlier in the year.

The Bad:

1. Prices are down significantly from last year - roughly 14% for single family homes and 22% for condos. Keep in mind this is just a snapshot for the past two months over last year. The thing I hate about statistics is that one can slice them and dice them to suit just about any purpose, but know that the numbers being bantered about by those in the know is that Pinellas home prices have come down about 16% in the last year.
2. Prices are still declining as the Palm Harbor foreclosures and Dunedin Short Sales continue to pop up. (The rate at which that is happening and what we expect to happen is subject matter for another post).
3. These low interest rates aren't going to last forever (they were already up again to between 6.5% and 6.75% today), so it's going to continue to get harder and harder to find qualified buyers to buy your Ozona FL home. If you're considering a purchase, it's time to get your game shoes on (yet another subject for another post).

The Ugly:

There's nothing ugly about real estate as long-term investment, a great tax write-off, and most importantly, a place to call home sweet home.

Remember, tell us what you think. Your opinion matters!

Do you wish that all it took to make sound investment, including real estate investments, was a $10 magic wand? Maybe all we need is a cozy living room without a television, a dog house in the yard and a Palm Harbor Realtor with the faith and perseverance to help you find and secure a great Pinellas home at an incredible price.

For those of you that know me best, you know I often speak of my magic wand, and how I wish I had one that truly worked wonders. Lately, I'm beginning to believe my wand has hutzpah. It's been working magnificently as of late, particularly with finding bargains on gorgeous homes in Palm Harbor East Lake - the Ridgemoor neighborhood, as it so happens.

Last month my wand worked for Sasha and Kim, who landed an incredible below-market investment and beauty to behold, with two other bidders nipping at the heels of our offer. Today, my wand helped Charlie and Angela land the East Lake Palm Harbor home of their dreams, and we out-smarted THREE other bidders to land it! Poof! Just like that. (Well, perhaps it was because we really stay on top of these hot new listings as they appear out of the magic hat). These two examples of many remind us that:

• Homes that aren't in foreclosure are in high demand. These homes weren't Palm Harbor foreclosures or short sales. They were immaculately cared for.
• Homes are selling quickly. One of these homes was on the market 2 days before we made our bid and the other only 5 days before securing it. Note that they were well priced.
• Bidding wars are happening all the time. This is true for homes that are priced correctly and well-marketed, of course.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street, chaos abounds. Poof! 401K's, lifetime savings, gone. Just like that. Just accross the wires tonight, we have this AP article which may be of interest to Pinellas Home buyers. It brilliantly discusses the topic of just where did all that money go? Or did we ever really have it in the first place?

The notion that we've lost everything when the price of our stock tanks, when in reality its value equals only the amount that a buyer is willing to pay for it on any given day, is right on the money. This concept holds true for Pinellas real estate, too. Hmmm....

Tonight, my magic wand reminded me that it's probably a great time to remind all of our friends that at Suncoast Partners @ Keller Williams Realty we believe in our hearts that real estate remains the single best long-term investment.

Sure, Palm Harbor home values rise and fall, but over the long term the gains are there - historically and yes, even if you purchased fairly recently. Most remarkably, there's something tangible behind the investment: A house to call home where a lifetime of memories can be made. And, baby, interest rates are incredible! To me, that's much more exciting that a stock certificate any day of the week.

Would you like to see if the Suncoast Partners magic wand can work for you, too? Seeing is believing, after all. See for yourself

Apparently this divorced single mom, who happens to be ‘hot' (I'll let you decide) and her "agent", have HER included with the sale of the house on both eBay and Craigslist. Yes, that's right, you get the house and the gal!

Aside from the Ewwwwww Gross factor, has this agent no professionalism? Have we all lost our minds?

Matt and I have seen some desperate measures from people in the wrong hands, but folks, if you're trying to sell your Dunedin home, find yourself an agent with a professional and PROVEN MARKETING STRATEGY to get your home sold!

If you're smarter than this gal, I bet you can find your own dates.