Properties, Houses and Condos for Sale in St Petersburg Treasure Island Florida

Realtor in Tampabay Treasure Island.

I am a Realtor in St. Petersburg Tampabay. My job is not hard to do when you live in a vacation paradise like Treasure Island Florida. We have great weather, beautiful homes and condos to show and since I mostly sell waterfront and beachfront properties here in St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island my clients are from out of town and when they come here, they are in vacation mood. I sometimes wonder why I still hear so many of my fellow Realtors complain about everything. I mean how much better can it get ???

Being a Realtor here in Tampabay Treasure Island is hard work, long hours but thanks to my clients, but it is fun.

What is wrong with people?

The other day I was at the Tampa film festival, I got lucky to have VIP tickets and was invited to the before and after party and the hole experience was absolutely wonderful. Great energy, beautiful setting in the Tampa venue, wine, champagne, gourmet food, the whole nine yards. I was in heaven and thought this is the perfect evening UNTILL we sat down to see the movie. The guy next to me was very chatty and asked if I was an actress "Nooooooooo" Then he wanted to know if I was a Producer "Nooooooooo" He went on to tell me that he had also made a movie, a documentary about Cuba and that it will be shown tomorrow. I looked at him and said
"Interesting, (The guy was a 20 something year old redhead) how many years have you lived there? Long story short, it turn out, he never was in Cuba, actually never left Florida at all, he got a bunch of pictures and videos from his school teacher a few years back and did the rest of his research on the internet. I was very glad the movie started so I did not have to tell him what I thought about this. What is wrong with people?

Can you imagine doing a documentary about a country that you have never been to? The best part is that people will see it and BELIEVE it.

Make appointment, 24 hour notice required, listing agent has to accompany

Well, if you want to sell your home or condo the "24 hour notice" is not really working anymore. Years ago when we were very low on inventory and buyers weren't really looking on the internet for properties, the 24 hour notice was not a big deal. In today's world and market showing instructions like -  Appointment only, Call listing agent, 24 hour notice required, Key in listing office, Listing agent has to accompany, etc are a big obstacle to overcome for buyer's agents. The world is moving so much faster, the inventory of homes and condos we have in Pinellas County is huge. Buyers and their agents can pick and chose. For each home there are 10 others that are very similar, so why go through the hassle of calling the listing agent hoping he will answer, most likely leaving a voice mail, waiting for the agent to call back, trying to make an appointment, again waiting for listing agent to confirm with seller and call back again, when at the same time I have a ton of listings that are vacant Lockbox. No phone call needed, no appointment needed. NO hassle whatsoever.

Your home is sooooooooooooo beautiful, I absolutely love it.

I hate, hate, hate it when buyer's do this. If you show a listing and the seller is in the house buyers tent to say a million nice things about the house (without even being asked) They all love the home, the view is always incredible, the location is perfect and on it goes. The moment you leave the house they buyers tell you "this house is NOT for us, we did not like it at all"  Sure enough I get a call from the seller or seller's agent within hours asking if we submit an offer..............and of course nobody believes when I tell them that my buyers are really not interested in the home. Does that happen to you too? How do you deal with this?

 My seller withdrew the listing because a buyer really made him mad.

This new real estate world sometimes gets to me. I deal with buyers all day long and in this time and age everybody wants the deal of the century and that is perfectly ok. What is not ok is to drive around, stop at a real estate sign and insult the seller that happened to be on the driveway as in "What are you asking? Are you out of your mind? Do you really think someone will pay that much? (By the way, the house is priced just below fair market value) Long story short, my seller got so upset that he withdrew the listing because he doesn't need to deal with people like that. I can't tell you how many stories like this I have heard lately, people driving up to a property and instead of calling the agent they talk directly to the home owner, even knock on their door and start telling them that they are overpriced. What on earth do they think they can accomplish with this approach?

I took the liberty to ring the doorbell   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This just blows my mind each and every time it happens.  Showing instructions say  "Sometime occupied please call before showing"   So I get a call from Realtor around 2 pm wanting to show the listing this afternoon but since I was on the phone with someone else the call went to voice mail. My voicemail says "Please leave a message or if you need immediate assistance please call my partner at 410 7777.  About 30 minutes later I returned the call, agent does not answer. I called back again another 30 minutes later and he answered. I apologized for not answering the phone, he interrupted me immediately and said "NO problem, I took the liberty of ringing the door bell and I went in and showed the home"  he was just lucky that my seller was not in, if he had caught him in the shower we would have a murder on our hands right now. What are these realtors thinking???  Why even have showing instructions when you simply disregard them. Why even give an alternative phone number on your voicemail when they do not even bother to call?

I am sending an offer tomorrow morning for your Treasure Island Listing. So, please do not accept anytime else in the meantime.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH. I don't know how many times I hear this BUT I never get an offer not even a phone call saying, sorry my buyers changed their mind.

Why on planet earth do buyer's agents do this???   I just do not get this. Call me and say "I have a very interested buyer and we might submit an offer in the next few days, please give me a courtesy call if you get another offer in" Every time I got the "we are submitting an offer tomorrow" call I used to contact my seller and asked him to be available tomorrow because I would be presenting an offer. Well, I am not doing this anymore. I am pretty much just ignoring the phone call till I actually have an offer in my hands in writing! My sellers are so disappointed and frustrated when I tell them there will be an offer only to call them a day later to say, sorry NO offer. What a waste of time and energy. Does this just happen in the St. Petersburg Treasure Island area or is this going on all over the country?

A Realtor without and e mail address.  No, wrong he has an e mail address but cannot receive mails. I am really not believing this myself. I am asking myself every day if I will wake up from this bad dream soon or if it will actually continue till closing. Picture a commercial real estate deal, TONS of addenda, assignments, forms, leases , inventory, buyer, seller in Europe, landlord, management company, office condo association,  two lawyers, two realtors etc. 3 times the paperwork than a residential deal and the listing agent cannot receive e mails. Everything has to be HAND delivered. He is the sweetest guy on planet earth (so I do not have the heart to yell at him) but this is driving me NUTS. It has been going on for 2 months and I have 3 more weeks till closing. HOW can you possibly survive in the time and age as a Realtor if you cannot receive e mails? ............... I am just not getting it.

I really do not know what some people are thinking and how on earth they came up with their arguments. Whatever happened to "Think before you Talk"?

I am a single agent for the buyer. Asking price was $425,000 we offered $ 325,000

Listing agent just called me and said the seller is countering with $425,000 (you call this a counter?)

Anyway, his one and only argument was  " You need to know that they paid $600,000 for it" (do I really care?) (does he think I did not look this up before we made the offer)

So, my response was REALLY ??? and WHEN was that? 

 In the summer of 2006.

"OH, so you are telling me that they bought at the top of the market BEFORE the values went down by 40%.  Let me think, the values are still going down, in our area we have not seen bottom yet so we should actually subtract the 40% plus another 10% or maybe even more which really means that we are already offering too much"

WHY would someone bring up an argument that they clearly cannot win WHY WHY WHY???

Yes, another post about Open houses. Realtors, seller and FSBO need to know. Here are some exsamples of what I have seen or not seen.

HAVE THE DOOR OPEN!

And more  Be there at the open door, on the driveway

Welcome the buyer's to your open house

First impression !!!!!!!

 Never ever have an open house the same day the owner has a garage sale

First impression !!!!!!!!!!!!!  They have all their junk displayed on the driveway.

Don't do an open house with the owner present it can never help it can only hurt you. It is hard enough to sell yourself and the house - now you also have to sell the owner . . . impossible !!!

Never have someone sleep on the sofa when you have an open house or show a property.

Signs, it is great when you lead them to the right street, but it really helps to also have a sign in front of the home

Make sure the house is clean. Switch all the lights on. Bring in a nice smell. Have some candies. Have some music. Open all blinds.

Greet people in front of the door

Point out the good features of the house, not what could be done to remodel it.

If the owners have pets, they can't be at the house either

Knock on all neighbors doors tell them you have an open house _ come over to see it, call your friends

 So, take a moment

Put yourself in the buyer's shoes

What would a perfect open house be like?

 Something like

Easy to find because they have enough signs

Easy parking

Nice clean entrance way

An open door

Someone that welcomes you and introduces him or herself

Someone that listens to you, asks questions

Offers you a glass of water

Smiles, that is easy talking to

When the buyer walks out of the house

They have to feel good and they have to like you and feel comfortable with you!

The first thing you sell at an open house is - yourself, then the house

The next day you send them a personal Thank you card

You put them in your contact list and send them some printouts

and call them 3 or 4 days later

See how they are doing etc. . .

Stay in touch

St. Petersburg, Never a dull moment in Real Estate

Buying and selling Real Estate  in Pinellas county, being a Realtor, listing agent or selling agent. Agents wonder, and they will say, Open houses do not work.

Open houses do work, if you do it right. And I actually have to rephrase my headline for this one, it is a dull moment for me when I hear a realtor complain that open houses are just a waste of time.

Open house, just sticking signs in the yard and sitting in the property is NOT what I call an open house.

Do not get me wrong, I believe there are more efficient ways to get a house sold and to get new clients, so I am not a big fan of open houses, but if you do them, do them right!

Planning and open house all starts by finding the right date, not the Sunday before school starts or Super Bowl Sunday etc. Next step to a successful open house is advertising, advertise it everywhere, people need to know. Also put a sign in the yard saying "open house next Sunday" alert all the neighbors, knock on their doors, ask them to come and bring friends that might be interested. Send e mail alert to realtors in you county, saying open house send your buyers (you will be protected) write a blog about it on your local news paper website. You get the picture, the more you put in, the more you get out.

Make sure the house looks picture perfect, go and check two days before the open house, so the seller can clean up a little more.

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If you think about buying or selling a house or condo in Saint Petersburg Florida, give me a call. I know the market, I know the neighborhood. Ask me about waterfront homes or condos in St. Pete beach. Treasure Island, Madeira beach, Seminole and other Tampabay areas.    727 409 8706