David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

Great news for bikers (the pedal kind): Sarasota County is in the process of moving forward to contract land for an extension of The Legacy Trail to downtown Sarasota. http://www.yourobserver.com/article/sarasota-commission-land-legacy-trail-extension For homes and condos for sale near The Legacy Trail, visit my website www.davidbarrhomes.com/homes-near-legacy-trail-sarasota-venice

My Sarasota real estate website has a new web address:   www.sarasotadavid.com . I've greatly expanded the number of individual neighborhood and condo profiles on the site.  Now you can find Siesta Key and Lido Key condos individually by name, or by using my custom map. Browse Lido Key and Siesta Key condos by map or by condo name on my custom maps I've also added more search tools for you such as price range search, map search, and map draw search for your favorite geographic areas. Take a tour of easy to navigate www.sarasotadavid.com for all your Sarasota real estate needs.

Home buyers don't like to pay them, but CDD fees are a necessary evil in funding new residential development, that you will have a hard time avoiding.  CDD fees in Lakewood Ranch can be over $3,000 per year. You'll find CDD fees for new construction homes in Ft. Myers, Bonita Springs, and Naples.  The good news is that some of the lower CDD fees are found in The West Villages in Venice FL, ranging from $300 to $1700 per year. For more about CDD fees visit  http://www.davidbarrhomes.com/cdd-fee-venice-fl

As I write this, another hurricane is forming in the Gulf of Mexico headed towards a Texas landfall. In fact, since 2004's Hurricane Charley and 2005's Katrina, Florida hasn't had a direct hurricane strike.  We have had tropical storms, which are basically prolonged versions of a typical afternoon thunderstorm in intensity. Wind mitigation (roof construction) is a major component of homeowner's insurance, and newer homes have to be built at least 10 feet above base flood elevation (BFE).  If you are thinking of buying a waterfront home in Florida, there's always a risk, but the likelihood of you experiencing major damage as a result of a storm should be low if the 10-12 year trend continues for a few more years.

Real estate in Sarasota County showed mixed results for 2017.  While dollar volume was up over June last year, the number of sales was flat, and time on market increased. Sarasota County June 2017 Summary: Single Family Homes Median sales price in Sarasota County continues to climb.  This statistic is affected by both an increase in the sales price of resale homes, and increasing sales prices of new construction. Increasing prices are a function of demand and still relatively low inventory. Sarasota County June 2017 Median Sale Price: Single Family Homes A common question among Sarasota County home buyers is how negotiable are list prices?  While every situation is unique, the average list price to eventual sales price ratio has remained consistent over the past year.   Important :  list price to sales price is based on the current list price of the property at the time of contract, not the original list price. List Price versus Sales Price Ratio ...

A new study shows that for sale by owner properties (FSBO's) tend to sell for lower prices than properties sold through Realtors through the MLS, and in many cases below the differential of what it would cost in Realtor compensation.  The study was conducted on data  from home sold from 2016 through the first half of 2017. FSBO's sell for less than those sold by a Realtor, study finds FSBO's attempt to avoid paying a Realtor fee by selling their home on their own, but it can backfire with a much lower than market sales price and the time the seller has to invest in the sale.  The study found that FSBO sales averaged 6 percent lower than those involving a Realtor. Click here for the detailed results of the study from Collateral Analytics Research. SOURCE:  "Saving Real Estate Commissions at Any Price", Collateral Analytics Rearch

Zillow is in legal trouble (again), this time with the federal government for alleged violations of anti-kickback and deceptive practices rules.  In short, it's a violation of RESPA, the Real Estate Settlement Protection Act, for an entity to pay for real estate referrals, such as a lender paying for advertising for a Realtor. Buyer beware: Whenever you see a Zillow Premier Agent promoting a lender, that lender is helping pay for that agent's marketing on Zillow.  When you hire a Realtor to market your home for sale, you need someone can market themselves first.  Gary Keller of Keller Williams once said "Zillow is lazy marketing for agents".   Zillow is an unethical company which always seems to be in litigation for misuse of data or misleading business practices.  Avoid Zillow when looking for a property because of bad data, and when choosing an agent who can't market themselves.