Hickory Island and Bonita Beach 

Hickory Island has the best mailboxes.  Since there aren’t gated communities and condominiums are limited home owners have the ability to express themselves at the curb.  This mailbox is on Melody Lane. 

There aren’t a lot of streets on Hickory. It’s a narrow strip of land that separates the Gulf of Mexico from the back bay our limited version of the intracoastal waterway.  Every home on Hickory is walking distance to Bonita Beach and many homes have gulf access, plus there is a boat ramp just down the beach at Bay Park North and about 2 miles away at Carl Johnson State Park.

Real estate pricing on Hickory Island begins under the $500,000 price point [August 2010 pricing] for cottages without direct gulf access.

This Shows Where Bonitians are Born

I just stumbled onto this snowbird and Florida relocation map and thought is was interesting enough to share. It was on the Forbes website.  You can click the map above to see it in full scale at their site or to do a search for the county in which you live.  The map above is for Lee County, Florida. It’s easy to use and does not require registration. If you do not see the map above you can click Where Americans Are Moving.  The black lines are “moving in” the red lines are “moving out”. 

Real Estate – More Fun Than a Barrel of Squirrels

Q. Are you a shill for NABOR? A. No, I am not a shill or even a member of NABOR nor have I ever been. If you don’t like what I write, turn the page or click the little red X in the upper right corner.

Q. Are you one of the Griffith’s involved with Moraya Bay? A. No, Griffith is a common last name. I am not the only one. I am also not related to Andy Griffith or Melanie Griffith. I am also not Irish and I do not have red hair. I don’t even like Lucky Charms.

Q. Had enough of the "greedy Realtor" references? A. No, just bored with it.

Q. Are you too special to answer my email? A. No, you were probably rude and I deleted it.

Q. You real estate agents did this! How can you say real estate selling off at bargain basement prices is good news? A. News about the real estate market is relative. Whether it’s good or bad, someone isn’t going to like it. That would probably be you.

There are plenty of people that are bitter about their housing situation and rightly so. You didn’t have to get into the real estate market during the volatile years to end up upside down or at a value below where you started. The current market value in my own neighborhood is back at what I paid for my own home in 1997.

If I could fix anything about the real estate market, I’d start on my own street. While I was at it I’d also get some of my neighbors to pay their HOA fees, too. Then maybe the vote would finally pass for me to get those three dead bushes replaced.

While I’d love to personally take the blame for single handedly destroying the nation’s economy and the real estate market, I just can’t. I have never flown to Bull Shoals, Arkansas or wherever, dragged buyers back to southwest Florida, carted them around in my car for three days, forced them to get a home equity loan and sign contracts to buy four condos in the same building.

That wasn’t me. While we’re at it, I also didn’t orchestrate the pump and dump of Cape Coral, Las Vegas, Lehigh Acres, Phoenix or any tower on Miami Beach.

There are plenty of people that got themselves into a world of hurt all by their own doing.

Put your finger away; whichever one you have displayed. I do not doubt for one minute that there are crappy real estate agents out there, but not all of them are.

To date, I have only met one consumer who took responsibility and admitted in a candid conversation, “I was greedy, the market changed, I got stuck. I was just greedy.” In all these years, one person out of a city, county, state and nation of people that participated in a financial and real estate anomaly that unraveled at one hundred times the speed it took to build up.

With all the blame shifting I have to ask if you really believe that we are an entire nation of hostages who fell victim solely to über powerful real estate agents whose two weeks of real estate class also armed them with hypnosis skill so cunning they were able to render every real estate consumer unable to make their own choices to walk away or to say no?

Maybe we should take over congress, next.

Remember, it’s the red X in the top, right corner.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

Passaflora Vine

Subject To Third Party Approval

A buyer could have purchased dozens of homes throughout their lifetime but a short sale will be the first time they get to purchase one on a hay ride.

It really doesn’t matter how much a buyer or seller is prepped for the short sale process there is always a point of shock and disappointment when it just doesn’t happen in the motion-picture like version playing in the imagination.

The price the property gets listed at and the price that it gets contracted at is more or less only considered a guideline. You may as well make that purchase price another item on the wish list, just above the new Berber carpet you’re hoping to get installed, too.

Ninety nine percent of the time the bank involved or the loan servicer has absolutely nothing to do with determining the price a short sale is listed at or contracted at. It’s all subject to review, appraisal and discovery.

When the seller of the home decides to sell the home, for whatever reason, and they owe more than the home is worth they list it for sale with a plan to ask the bank for debt forgiveness. When the bank approves the short sale there is generally a laundry list of financial and time sensitive demands that have to be met in order for that sale to go through.

Most of the items relate to how much is going to be paid toward other closing expenses and how much the bank will net at closing … down to the penny. The last statement I reviewed had $.02 at the end of a six figure settlement demand. I consider that irony because the sellers, figuratively and literally, weren’t left with two pennies to even rub together.

The glow of the home purchase starts to fade somewhere around the line where there is a figure of payment to the condo association or homeowner association. The demand calls for $3,500 maximum to be paid to the HOA at closing. In reality, there is a little more than that outstanding in back fees and someone gets to make up the difference.

When the seller can’t or won’t ante up all eyes fall on the buyer who has engraved the contract price in their brain and is offended and shocked to learn that in order for the closing to occur they just might have to contribute funds to get the property closed.

In dramatic fashion, the wick is burning at both ends and the property will go to foreclosure in a few days if this doesn’t happen.

The last buyer I shared this sort of situation with felt that it was a shake down. Is it a shake down if the “subject to third party approval” purchase price plus the extra cash needed for fees is well below recent comparable closed sales and is still less than what is currently available on the market at this moment?

Surprises and expecting the unexpected, which may include unknown fees, are the cost of doing business with short sales. They’re not asking for the first born child to get the back fees squared up at closing, just a short stack of Benjamins.

Besides, the first born are usually promised to the attorney who issues the eleventh hour estoppel to the homeowner association, anyway.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

Bayfront Gardens at Barefoot Beach Frangipani

Frangipani trees are pass/fail horticultural tests for most gardeners.  The plants either struggle or thrive.  There is an absolutely perfect, flourishing tree in Bayfront Gardens of Barefoot Beach.  It must have tens of thousands of blossoms on it and nearly every one of them is perfect.

It isn’t possible to see the blossoms and not smile.  They’re just so sweet and harmless.

No running, chasing, leading, following, barking or splashing.

Size doesn’t matter, but …

If your dogs legs are less than three inches long, they must swim in packs.

Definitely no galloping or jumping … or smiling.

Stare down, staring matches and blue eye hypnotism will barely be tolerated.

Pretend you’re having fun even when you’re thoroughly miserable.

Obey all commands, that man behind you is following you … not running after you.

No sniffing butts.

“Finders keepers” is considered beach policy with toys and food. 

Sea gulls are point-worthy, same as pheasant and duck.

If you’re interested in the legit rules of dog beach read also: Dog Beach Rules

To break every one of these rules use this map to find dog beach:

Little Hickory | Back Bay | Gulf Access

We don’t have an intracoastal waterway on gulf coast of Florida.  We do have back bay and cruising water ways but they’re not continuous.  In south Lee County in the Bonita Springs and Estero areas there are a few channels that open to the back bay from the Gulf of Mexico – New Pass, Hickory Pass, Big Carlos Pass, Wiggins Pass.

The flamingo mailbox is located just off of Broadway Channel on Hickory Island.  I found it last week on my way to take a look at Bay Park North boat ramp at the north end of the island. 

The homes on the east side of Hickory Island often have gulf access via canals or Broadway Channel and the back bay.  They’re within walking distance of Bonita Beach, too. 

There’s a premium to be paid for real estate that offers gulf access within close proximity to the beach.  It’s the fastest access to the open gulf in the area, just minutes away.

The supply for real estate on this narrow strip of land is limited and the demand usually remains high.  Vacant lots to build on are few.  A good portion of home owners purchase older home to rehabilitate or to add onto.  The area has older cottages, stilt homes and some of the original fishing cottages from decades ago.

The next time you drive down Hickory Boulevard turn onto Melody or Harmony Lane and take the tour or stop by Cypress Land and see the flamingo mailbox.  If you’re  daredevil take a look at *this*, it was on the mailbox one house over.

Someone Has To Buy Those Homes

How does one eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time.

There were so many distressed properties on the market at one time that is was almost insurmountable to believe that it could ever be behind us.

In a market full of short sales and foreclosures there is a flip side to all of the hardship that has been going on. The enormous pain and suffering that comes from short sales or foreclosure sells more ad time than the stories of the people who are quietly purchasing the distressed real estate.

Most of the time, the general public doesn’t hear about the silent little victories that happen every day. All of those tiny bites off of the elephant are actually beginning to add up.

I found a comment online the other day from a young woman named Michele sharing the joys of fixing up her first home. It read in part:

We were outside staining the front deck, heard a honk and a woman says, "I just wanted to tell you how amazing the house looks, it’s come a long way!" Little does that woman know she made my day. I can’t wait to post the "after" pictures. About only two weeks until it’s all done!

I’ll spare you the darling emoticon hearts at the end of the paragraph that only made it that much cuter to read someone’s excitement for daring to take a bite of the elephant and becoming a first time home owner.

Real estate is selling and it’s not just investors out there taking another swipe at making a quick buck.

For every person with a hard luck story or who was just a crappy gambler who doubled down when they should have folded there is someone, like Michele, who is jumping into the real estate game and helping to clean up the mess.

There are every day, regular home buyers who muster the credit and the courage to take their shot at home ownership now that it has become affordable for them. Lucky for the rest of us who live here, they’re absorbing the excess real estate and brave enough to take on beat up properties that would otherwise be an eyesore.

Home ownership isn’t a tragedy for everyone. There are plenty of people carefully investing in their future and just beginning their lives. They aren’t rejoicing in someone else’s loss, they’re simply making their own way and making room for their adopted pets, maybe a baby or two down the road and, as fringe benefit to the rest of us, they’re rebuilding communities that have seen more than their share of struggles.

The rest of the home owners and residents in the vicinity really should be grateful that they’ve chose to invest in southwest Florida and do a large part to help the area stabilize. They’re providing a service we desperately need and a means to an end of the distressed real estate market.

It probably wouldn’t hurt one bit if more of us shouted “good job” from the street when we drove by or at the very least welcomed them to the neighborhood they’re helping to revitalize. If you’re really lucky your new neighbors just might invite you over for some elephant.

Don’t forget to bring your tools.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.