Lisa Hill (Daytona Beach Real Estate)

It's Wordless Wednesday again. So once again, I'm providing a photo-centered blog on the appropriate day; while tossing the whole "no words" idea out the window... Hey. At least I'm consistent! ;-)

So, for this Wednesday, I'm sharing two photos from one of our marinas/yacht clubs; Halifax Harbor Marina & Yacht Club.

This yacht club is absolutely beautiful, as it was completely remodeled a few years ago. It's also one of the more affordable yacht clubs in the Volusia county area.

I have many photos that I've taken while attending functions at the various yacht clubs in the Daytona Beach, Ponce Inlet, and New Smyrna Beach areas, so choosing just one can be quite difficult. (So I didn't!)

In this first photo, I like the blue skies and puffy clouds, and the rows of boats and yachts that look so inviting. It makes me want to go water skiing! And the second photo is of the front elevation, showing how beautiful the newly renovated Halifax Harbor Marina and Yacht Club really is. And the inside is just as beautiful!

The Halifax Harbor Marina and Yacht Club is in a perfect location on the Halifax River/Intracoastal Waterway, and within walking distance to the fabulous Daytona Beach downtwon area, where we have trendy new restaurants and shopping, and the new "Wall Street lofts" for those of you who like a condo in the middle of the downtown hot spots. (Call or e-mail me for more info on the Wall Street Lofts!)

If you're considering buying real estate in Daytona Beach FL, be sure to visit our beautiful downtown area. I can help you find a house or condo that is close enough for you to enjoy the many street festivals, fine dining, the Halifax River, riverfront pavilions, walking paths and much more. You can buy a beautiful Daytona Beach house or condo, within minutes of all this!

To buy your Daytona Beach house or condo... make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill with Adams Cameron & Co., REALTORS® today.

Search Daytona Beach real estate MLS listings for sale <---Click Here to search for MLS listings

Lisa Hill is a Daytona Beach Native, and expert hometown REALTOR®! <---Click here for information about Lisa =)

As I was posting the price reduction to all my real estate blogs (using several is great for pushing your web site up the search engines!), for my real estate listing: Daytona Beach house for sale, within walking distance to the beach... as I got to my personal, Trulia real estate blog, I stumbled across a link that questioned the "walkability of the neighborhood". Well I can't say I've ever seen a web site like that before, so my curiosity was piqued. But not only am I a REALTOR®, I'm also a Daytona Beach native, so I already know the statistics and demographics of pretty much any neighborhood; such as whether or not it has sidewalks... how safe it is... and other factors you might want to know, if you like to walk for exercise.

So to do a test on the Walk Score web site, I used my home address as a test subject... and FYI, I live in a gated housing community in Port Orange... (10+ years ago, we knew we wanted to live in Port Orange; and we decided to buy a house in a subdivision, within another subdivision.)

Now before I tell you my own neighborhood's walking score, let me provide a few more details about Port Orange. The whole city of Port Orange has sidewalks on both sides of the street in almost every neighborhood; and even along the sides of the busiest roads! It also has doctors, all sorts of shopping, banking, restaurants, etc., within walking distance of almost every community in the city. It also bears mentioning, the motto for Port Orange is "Unique by Choice, Not by Chance". Needless to say, a LOT of thought has been put into the planning of this beautiful city. Oh, and on a personal note, I frequently walk several miles at a time, sometimes late at night, without a care in the world.

Now to get to my neighborhood score... I input my address and discovered we had been given one of the lowest possible scores. Well, to put it bluntly, that is absurd! So what the heck is the criteria for these supposed walking scores!? I'll let you see for yourself. Just follow the links below. Because the irony gets even better... Check this out!

At the top of the web page, there are links about the sit that say "How it Works" and "How it Doesn't Work". Excuse me for thinking this but if you have to post a link on your own site, that tells you how it goes wrong, you have a serious problem with your system.

So to finalize this, I'm interested in what kind of results you get when you run your own walkability tests. I'm not going to list all the criteria from the How it Works, and How it Doesn't Work links. I'll let you check it out for yourself. And then, I'm VERY interested in what kind of results you get. Run your own little tests, and let me know what you think.

Is the Neighborhood Walkability Score a legitimate test, or a malfunctioning piece of crap? As Broker Bryant would put it... What Say Ye?

*This post is written and copyrighted by Lisa Hill, The Smart Choice logo, and House logos are also copyrighted by Lisa Hill.

It's time for another Wordless Wednesday post... with a few words ;-) I almost forgot about this photo. I just wish I could send the overpowering fragrance through the monitor, along with this photo. It's incredible! So incredible that if I bring a few inside, I can only place one in a room, at a time! So you'll have to imagine that part. And I hope you enjoy the photo =)

If you're considering a move to the Daytona Beach and/or Port Orange area, Lisa Hill is a Daytona Beach native! I have experience selling real estate in every city in East Volusia County and beyond. I live in Port Orange, and I love it! I also have family in this area. My family is at least 6 generations deep in Floridians =) So if you're considering a move to anywhere in Florida, feel free to contact me. If I particular city is too far for me to help you, there's a good chance that I know REALTORS® in those other cities, and I'll be happy to refer you to an excellent REALTOR® there!

For real estate information on the Daytona Beach area, visit my web site at www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com. And for you Port Orange fans and residents, I have a special section of my site just for you. You can get directly there by way of www.PortOrangeRealEstateSales.com.

View my Featured Listings from the Daytona Beach Area Realtor Association and Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

Search Florida REALTOR® and MLS listings here.

Make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill for all your real estate needs!

*All content is owned and copyrighted by Lisa Hill. Do Not Copy!

Lisa C. Hill | Adams Cameron & Co. | 386-212-5357 263 Euclid Ave., Daytona Beach, FL Beautiful, remodeled 3 bed, 2 bath Daytona house for sale, near ocean. Fireplace, swimming pool, garden area, tropical landscaping, great floor plan. Feels much larger than the square footage indicates. This house is spectacular. 3BR/2BA Single Family House Reduced to $184,900! Don't wait. Call Lisa Hill today! Year Built 1952 Sq Footage 1,684 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 full, 0 partial Floors 1 Parking 1 Car garage Lot Size 6,750 sqft HOA/Maint $0 per month DESCRIPTION LOOK! Realtors and Home Buyers; This home is as unique as it is beautiful! This is a beautiful, remodeled, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, beachside home with plenty of eastern windows for lots of light, and peaceful, completely private views of your garden area with pavers and covered patio. Use your outdoor wet bar with work surface and cabinets to store your gardening or entertaining supplies for your family or guests, while you enjoy your large, screened, sparkling pool. Prepare to be impressed as you enter the foyer and are struck by this home’s wonderful flow. The large, formal living room has pecky cypress walls and a warm, comfortable feel. Your open, expansive family room has a wood-burning fireplace, a wall of windows to view your patio and garden, and your formal dining room is waiting for your full dining set (or use this area for a fantastic office). The eat-in galley kitchen with Corian counters and sink, has breakfast bar, and even more storage, and leads to a multi-function bonus room; great for a children’s play room or an entertainment area, or even a 4th bedroom. The laundry area has plenty of cabinets, counter space, and a basin. The master bedroom has a step-in shower with steam function, plus new commode and pedestal sink. The guest bathroom has been completely remodeled with neutral colors and a beautiful tile inlay, and combined tub and shower. The 3rd bedroom which is currently being used for an office has quality plantation blinds. Your one-car garage has upper storage, your yard has a timed irrigation system with rain sensor, and your side yard has a gardening shed, to maintain your gorgeous tropical shrubbery. This fantastic Daytona Beach home is just 2 blocks from the beach, and less than a mile from the Bellair Plaza. Don’t wait! This home puts the competition to shame! See additional photos below PROPERTY FEATURES - Central A/C - Central heat - Fireplace - High/Vaulted ceiling - Walk-in closet - Tile floor - Family room - Living room - Bonus/Rec room - Dining room - Dishwasher - Refrigerator - Stove/Oven - Laundry area - inside - Balcony, Deck, or Patio - Swimming pool OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES - Garage with overhead storage - Galley Kitchen with Corian Counters - Wood-Burning Fireplace - Pecky Cypress Walls in Living Room - Formal Dining Room - Lots of Windows in Family Room - Large Bonus Room - Indoor Laundry - Brick Pavers on Patio - Screened, Sparkling Pool - Great Floor Plan ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Front of House Formal Dining Room Fireplace in Family Room Pecky Cypress Living Room Screened Pool Tropical Landscaping Contact info: www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com Lisa C. Hill Adams Cameron & Co. 386-212-5357 For sale by agent/broker Equal Opportunity Housing Posted: Aug 31, 2009, 10:53pm PDT

*Description, logos, and ALL images are owned and copyrighted by Lisa C. Hill. Do not copy.

This is post #3 in my "Real Estate Professionals Working Together" series. My other two posts in this series are "REALTORS® and Closing Agents Working Together" and "REALTORS® and Mortgage Professionals Working Together".

For this post, we're going to discuss REALTORS® and Real Estate Appraisers Working Together. As a real estate buyer or seller, you probably know that an appraisal is required if a buyer needs mortgage financing, in order to buy real estate. And you probably also know that real estate sellers can get an appraisal before listing real estate, to help determine value. You may even know that when a real estate buyer applies for their mortgage, it's the mortgage lender who gets to choose the appraiser. What you may not know is that appraisers sometimes call on REALTORS® for help when they're determining real estate value.

Now you may be wondering why an appraiser would need any help from a REALTOR®. After all, isn't the appraiser the most knowledgeable party for determining real estate value? Well of course they are! That's their main profession. But sometimes there are extenuating circumstances in real estate sales, that are not always noted on the tax assessor's records, or in the MLS. (These are the Real Estate Appraiser's sources of information... among others.) And with sales being much slower than they were during the boom years of the real estate market, sometimes the appraiser can't find enough comparable sales to get a good idea of the true market value of a particular property. So they then call REALTORS® who were involved in sales that are possible comps, but these comps can lack crucial information in determining value.

The best example of how information can be missing is when a seller contributes money toward a buyer's down payment. This essentially means that the sale price according to the contract, is not the true sale price. Make sense? If the seller didn't actually receive the amount of money indicated on the real estate contract, then that may or may not be a comp for the "subject property". The contract will state the sale price, and an addendum will be added to the contract, which states how much the seller will "give back" to the buyers, to help with their closing costs. So in reality, you have to subtract the amount the sellers gave to the buyers, to determine the real sale price. And that information is not in the local MLS, or in the tax assessor's records. So the appraisers call around to REALTORS who were involved in recent sales, and ask if any concessions were made, or if any special circumstances were involved.

So now we find another way that different real estate professionals work together. When you look at all the different arms of the real estate industry, and the many people who are involved in each sale, you see that the industry professionals are more closely linked that it would seem.

If you're a real estate buyer or seller and would like to buy or sell real estate in Port Orange FL, I'd love to help. Make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill for all your Port Orange real estate needs.

Visit my primary web site at www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com.