How To Be Top

As we enter a New Year Nick Churton of Mayfair international Realty takes a look at what may lie ahead for the real estate market.

Although mature real estate brokers and agents are apt to say that they have seen it all before, this time it is different. No one has seen this market under this set of national and international financial conditions before. But what is rather refreshing is that the uncertainty now cuts down the speculation aspect of a home purchase and strips the requirement to buy down to the real and age-old essentials. This makes for easier choices.

Le Corbusier, the pioneering architect, stated that, “The requirements for a house should be to provide a shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive”. He didn’t add that a home should also provide its owner with an investment return of seven per cent year-on-year.

For the first time since, perhaps, the 1960s property investment can take more of a back seat in the home buying mindset and, instead, fundamental life requirements can come back to the fore. Of course with other financial instruments providing so little in the way of return, real estate is a natural arena in which to invest. But with little or no indication about if or when the market will return in any zest we are left with simpler decisions and choices - does a home suit our requirements in size, location, style and price?

It is although our needs have been simplified in the way they may have been fifty years ago. With less frenzy and greater choice, for a while at least, this may be a very good time to choose a primary or secondary home for all the very best lifestyle reasons.

We quickly learn to expect that there is an investment opportunity to be gained from property purchase in a rising market. But we are rather slow to appreciate the reverse is likely in a poor market and/or in particularly adverse economic circumstances as we have now.

2011 was a hard year in property and this year may not be much better. We may have new US, Russian and French presidents, more ructions in Europe and the Middle East, and greater privations at home before we see greater improvement. But still there is a reassuring level of market activity that has more to do with need than discretion. This is the market we have and this is the market we have to deal with – and deal with it we will.

But real estate buyers and sellers should not be deterred. Indeed they should be encouraged as the more life there is in the real estate market the more life there is in the economy. But those still insisting on the sort of financial profit they may have achieved several years ago should perhaps think again and get real. It will be the enlightened that get to the top of the property class in 2012, not those in denial.

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The Bell Team has over 26 years of experience in the Sanibel Island Real Estate & Captiva Island Real Estate Markets, you couldn't be in better hands. Call Karen Bell & The Bell Team for all your real estate needs. 866-472-7800 x 270/ 239-472-7800 x 270 / 239-851-0168

Labels: boating, captiva island real estate, Captiva real estate, fishing, investment property, Island homes, island life, sanibel island real estate, Sanibel real estate

The Bell Team has over 26 years of experience in the Sanibel Island Real Estate & Captiva Island Real Estate Markets, you couldn't be in better hands. Call Karen Bell & The Bell Team for all your real estate needs. 866-472-7800 x 270/ 239-472-7800 x 270 / 239-851-0168

Labels: boating, captiva island real estate, Captiva real estate, fishing, Gulf and Bay access, investment property, island life, sanibel island real estate, Sanibel real estate

The Bell Team has over 26 years of experience in the Sanibel Island Real Estate & Captiva Island Real Estate Markets, you couldn't be in better hands. Call Karen Bell & The Bell Team for all your real estate needs. 866-472-7800 x 270/ 239-472-7800 x 270 / 239-851-0168

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The dean of U.S. travel writers ranks Sanibel Island first among his 10 favorite places to visit — in the world.

That’s above the island of Bali and Paris, which are Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, on Arthur Frommer’s list.
To be sure, it’s high praise from Frommer, who in 1957 published “Europe on $5 a Day,” which is credited with changing the way a generation of Americans visited Europe.The book launched one of nation’s the biggest lines of travel guides, under Frommer’s name.
Tourism promoters in Lee County, not surprisingly, are thrilled about the compliment, and the media and visitor buzz it is creating.
“It’s perfect timing,” said Ric Base, president of the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce. In a few weeks local tourism’s winter high season kicks in. That’s when demand — and lodging rates — are the highest.
Reservations for island lodgings and vacation rentals already are looking very strong, Base said. Frommer’s remarks can help sustain the momentum, according to Base.
About a year-and-a-half ago, chamber staff gave Frommer a “behind-the-scenes tour, all over the islands,” Base said, adding that Frommer is a longtime repeat visitor to Sanibel.
Writing for his Dec. 28 frommers.com blog, Frommer calls Sanibel an “idyllic haven of white-sand beaches, condos whose sea-front apartments are available for weekly rentals, excellent restaurants, good shopping.” He then singles out for special praise, J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, “visited by thousands of birds of every species, who bask in the sun after diving for fish and are one of the great natural sights of wildlife in America.”
Frommer’s remarks also appeared in a column he writes, and which a number of newspapers across the country use.
Favorable remarks “from a person of Arthur Frommer’s caliber means they will be repeated in a number of media outlets. The reach will just grow and grow,” said Lee Rose, a spokesman for Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau.
This isn’t the only recent accolade from important travel sources. TripAdvisor recently named greater Fort Myers as No. 3 among of the “15 destinations on the rise,” based on a significant increase in user reviews for the area on the travel Web site over the past year. Sanibel and sister island Captiva were also recognized by readers of TripAdvisor when they were named the “Top 25 Beaches in the United States & the World” in TripAdvisor’s Travelers Choice 2011.
Some visitors to Lighthouse Beach late Tuesday afternoon didn’t hesitate to add their endorsement of Sanibel.
“It’s beautiful,” Jeremy Rosen and Susan Crouch of Pittsburgh said in unison.
“We just love the area,” Crouch said. “We are planning on moving down.” She said they learned about the island through word-of-mouth recommendations.
St. Louis-area residents Camie and Roy Northcutt said they honeymooned on the island 25 years ago, and have been coming back ever since.
Camie Northcutt said she loves the shells, the cleanliness of the beach and the minimal commercialism.
Ray Northcutt said he enjoys the quiet: “It’s not so much a crazy college beach,” he said. “It’s a laid-back beach.”

Written by: Laura Ruane & Dennis Culver of the News-Press.

The Bell Team has over 26 years of experience in the Sanibel Island Real Estate & Captiva Island Real Estate Markets, you couldn't be in better hands. Call Karen Bell & The Bell Team for all your real estate needs. 866-472-7800 x 270/ 239-472-7800 x 270 / 239-851-0168

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