Time to book next winters rental

If you are thinking of coming down next winter now is the time to make your reservation. Although I do not deal in the rental market I own a rental home on Longboat Key and have been a condo manager on Siesta Key. Judging from the amount of calls I am getting just for my home alone I would recommend making your reservations as soon as possible to avoid getting shut out. Here are two great website to get you started http://www.vacationrentals.com/ and http://www.vrbo.com/. If you need any assistance let me know.

A home run for housing

I've already received a housing inquiry due to the fact that the Boston Red Sox may be moving here. For those of you out of the loop here's the scoop.

Although Fort Myers has been the home to Red Sox Spring Training for the last 16 years there is a clause in their contract that says if they outgrow their present stadium they are allowed out of that contract in 2009.

Sarasota officials are trying to lure The Sox with a multi-million dollar deal they hope The Sox can't refuse. It includes a brand new $70 million stadium that seats about 4,000 more people than The City of Palms. It's still very early in the negotiations process, but Sarasota officials are prepared to do whatever they have to, to get the Sox here. "I'm sure that the most attractive financial package is what will sway them and thats what we have to focus on," said Ken Shelin, a Sarasota City Commissioner.

Cherry Picking

What we see in the news is the number of sales as compared to last month or last year and what that shows is that sales are up. What the figures don't show however is the amount of cherry picking going on. What I have noticed is that earlier this year people began snapping up the most pristine properties in whatever price range they were in. For example I looked at 14 houses in River Club by Lakewood Ranch in the $500,000 - $600,000 range in February. You could have bought 3 that were absolutely pristine for between $500,000 - $535,000. Right now only the ones that are not as nice remain in that range. The pristine ones now available are in the $600,000 to $650,000 range. This similiar pattern holds true in all sectors presently so the interesting thing to find out is if people are going to start paying a higher price to again obtain the most pristine units or are they going to wait until the most pristine ones fall in price. It will be interesting to see what happens."