Larry Chatt

Everyone loves a good parade. The privateers are holding their annual Anna Maria Island Christmas parade December 12th. If you are in Tampa, Sarasota or Orlando swing out to Anna Maria Island to put your feet in the sand and enjoy a great Christmas parade.

The parade starts around 10:00 AM at the North end of Anna Maria Island in Anna Maria City at Bayrfont park. The parade will end around 11:15 AM in Bradenton Beach at Coquina park. I strongly suggest if you come to park at Coquina or the Holmes Beach public beach so it is fairly easy to exit Anna Maria Island to Bradenton. It typically takes about an hour for traffic to get normal on the island after a parade.

Take a look below for some pictures from the 2008 Christmas parade. After the parade have lunch at any one of our great restaurants on Anna Maria Island.

This post serves two purposes...

Firstly, I am traveling up to Tallahasee to the Great American Realtor days and meeting with leaders of government over the two day conference. I live and work on Anna Maria Island and the largest factor affecting our area is the updated guidelines required for purchasing condominiums on the island. Of course I plan to communicate the largest real estate concern regarding Anna Maria however I would like to help fellow real estate professionals if possible. What is affecting your area of real estate negatively or positively that you feel is important to communicate to our politicians? Each area has varying demographics and legislation can severely impact one area where another is less effected. Let me know...

Secondly, I will be traveling up the Gulf Coast and plan to visit several Gulf Coast resort areas on a fact finding mission of real estate values, vacation rental values, and general information of the area. If you live in a Gulf coast resort like community North of Tampa I would love to hear from you so I can add the area to my visit.

Make today a great day!

February 10th the Holmes Beach, Fl city commission discussed the R1 one month rental restriction for a second time in 2009. The February 10th speakers were predominantly made up of local residents that strongly favored the one month rental minimum along with several hotel-motel establishments that supported less accommodation competition.

I did speak during both discussions however the limited support speaking on behalf of the silent majority of absentee owners was not enough to overturn the decision in 2007 to enforce a one month rental for R1 Holmes Beach properties. Our local real estate professionals did not turn up at either of the R1 rental restriction discussions. This is disappointing given the fact that we are all supported by buyers purchasing a second home to support their retirement dreams. More than 70% of second home buyers are using vacation renting income to help offset operational costs and one month rental minimums cut incomes by more than 50%.

More specifically, any property that was in possession of a weekly Holmes Beach, FL rental license in March of 2007 will have 10 years of continued one week rentals. After ten years the one week rental license will "expire" and one week rentals will no longer be allowed in R1 areas. New or current R1 Holmes Beach owners requesting a one week rental will be declined from now on.

Don't panic yet, Holmes Beach and Anna Maria City still have plenty of accommodation choices. Some owners will be a little surprised after their one week Holmes Beach rental license is declined. If you have any questions give the Holmes Beach city hall a call or contact me.

I am excited to introduce my new website regarding Anna Maria Island information. The website includes my blog regarding general Anna Maria Island information supplying plenty of information on things to do on Anna Maria Island. It also includes a blog discussing Anna Maria, FL Vacation Rentals, and finally an Anna Maria Real estate information blog.

I hope that the new website that pulls everything together helps visitors to the island. Take a look and check out www.AnnaMariaPropertySpecialist. Finally, an IDX link allows for plenty of real estate property searches.

My past 2 1/2 years of property management has provided a very steep learning curve that has just started to taper off in the past half year. From my first weeks of inspecting properties, reserving vacation rentals, and revamping our policies & procedures, I feel I have had the unique opportunity to witness vacation rental operations from a small operation to a larger one striving towards continuous improvement.

I was elated to offer my lessons learned to the Florida Realtor magazine for the December 2008 publication. Please review the article on property management ...I am proud to have been solicited concerning my opinions regarding property management and Resort Real Estate.