Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, after Christmas how are you doing today?

Very well, thank you. It's 75 degrees out.

I know, nothing like Erie, Pennsylvania with three feet of snow.

Absolutely. You know, from time to time on REALTALK™ we have done these before and after segments. And we are in a Beachplace, unbelievable Beachplace apartment that you've recently renovated from top to bottom.

We do like to talk about the things that you can do and after 30 years I finally decided to do one myself. One of the most important things that I thought would be making a big difference in the safety of the property plus the beauty of it was these brand new doors.

They're unbelievable.

I mean, they have some weight to them, which is a good thing. They opened up the entire place, because instead of having kind of the built-in hurricane panels that the old ones had. And it is an option for Beachplace residents as it is in many condominiums, a lot of times several owners will get together, 30, 40 to get a discount. And it just makes such a difference in the look and the function of the place.

It truly is floor-to-ceiling walls of glass.

Agreed.

So it turns out there's a lot of fun stuff you can do in the bathroom too.

Absolutely.

So we use these quartz, this is one of the newer quartz lookings for countertops.

It's beautiful.

Opened up the ceiling again, kept the whole space open. And in this particular floorplan, there was this huge waste of space here. So we actually brought this closet out to get a real size master closet. And then we took this cool frosted glass and we're able to give some privacy to the toilet and to the shower.

It's really cool.

Master baths and kitchens, it doesn't matter how big a condominium or a house is, that's what everybody wants to have.

Absolutely.

So the things we focused on, we're trying to make it as open as possible, which is certainly the current style. So like in the kitchen, you know this wall had originally come out.

Right.

This ceiling had come down, this entry wall was much longer also. We raised the ceilings up, because in the old days, I don't know why, I guess the air conditioners were this big. So the ceilings were just always ridiculously dropped.

Right.

Now we're able to get the long, thin vents, and bring everything up to a really nice ceiling height.

Such a difference.

Just opening up this kitchen feel, you know. We extended this countertop out twice as long as it would typically go. We took the flooring and we ran it all the way, it's porcelain 20 by 20 flooring, and took it all the way out to terrace, so your eye just keeps going on and on.

Right out to the water.

You know, these are things that just really make a big difference and make it feel like it's something that's brand new. Of course everything in the kitchen is brand new.

Right.

Kind of cool tile accents, and again with the big window. That was something that you didn't get in the old plan.

Yeah, and we actually have a listing right now that is this floorplan just waiting for someone.

I know, right. It's so much fun to be able to show this because, you know it is virtually original right down to the linoleum in the kitchen.

So, if someone doesn't have the vision, we can show this to them and they will certainly have that vision.

We've got that vision, it will be done for them.

Yeah, thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, hope to see you next time. Be sure to visit us often at LongboatRealEstate.com. See you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Good morning on this gorgeous morning.

This is what we wait for right?

Right.

It's like this everyday, this is how I remember it.

Yeah, you know I often think, how do people discover Longboat Key? What's their first experience here? And a lot of times people are either staying at a hotel or they found a beautiful condominium to rent.

You know in the early, early days, so 70s you know early 80s. A lot of Longboat Key really were rentals, especially in the condominiums. Single-family homes maybe not as much.

Right.

And that was really what you were seeing, was one and two bedrooms, even sometimes a three-bedroom. And you have communities where families have grown up here. I mean, our buyers are the kids of the people who were renting, twenty and thirty years ago. And so it's kind of interesting. We don't really focus on rentals a lot, but when a buyer comes to us and they're looking at a property, very often this millennial and a little bit older buyer might not be ready for a full-time place yet. So they might ask us, you know, "Is renting this place an option?"

Right, it gives them a really good feel for the island and the lifestyle.

And it covers their costs. If you can rent it out for say a February, March, April, or something like that. Then you can kind of wean off the rental as time goes on and you have more time to spend in it.

And lots of choices on Longboat Key as well.

And in very different regulations, say. One of the really nice things about Longboat is, for the most part the rental rules restrict you to one month as a minimum amount of time. So whether it be a Country Club Shores, single-family house or a Beachplace, where we are today, the minimum would be one month.

Right.

Now different communities have even increased that, so if you look to like a Grand Bay or a L'Ambiance, you're gonna be at a three month minimum. So like good news, bad news, that might be maybe the residents feel that that's good, and that will give them fewer tenants. On the other hand, the owner doesn't like that because you have very few people there actually renting for three or more months.

Right.

You have a much bigger pool of people who are looking for a month.

Yeah.

So in a case like a Beachplace, if you're getting ready to get your foot in the market, and you want to have, you know, you want to own a place and be able to rent it out. That one month minimum is really gonna work for you, because either through, you know just the contacts of the people who continuously come back, through one of the island rental companies, or even a service like VRBO or Airbnb, you're gonna be able to get tenants, they're gonna fill it. You could fill it up all year round.

You really could.

The summer time, you know, the rates obvious would be less, but you get a nice Canadian you know coming down, a lot Europeans come here in the summertime.

And in Florida as well, drive market.

Those Florida, right. They want to have a place on the beach for a month. So that's something to think about, rentals.

Yeah, good. Thanks so much for joining us this week on REALTALK™. I hope that you will visit us often at LongboatRealEstate.com. See you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK&trade with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Good morning Roger.

Good morning from Oyster Bay.

Good morning from Oyster Bay, one of Sarasota's most well-established beautiful communities.

This is the first neighborhood I ever lived in when I came here. I remember I lived on Field Road and I've always loved this part of town.

The homes vary in architectural style and they're known for their large lots and all the beautiful landscaping.

I think it's really, somebody asked me the other day they wanted to look at homes, and they said, "We love that Oyster Bay because it feels like a real neighborhood."

Right.

It's got sidewalks, like this is the place you want to bring your kids for trick-or-treating. And then the obvious proximity of the Field Club, which in this particular location where we can walk to the Field Club. And that's one of Sarasota's, maybe oldest clubs.

Right.

I mean, we belong there. It's a fantastic club. It’s got boating, tennis, great dining and just a whole sense of neighborhood camaraderie too. Because a lot of the neighbors belong there as well.

Right, and some of the features we've just talked about are quite evident in the field listing that we have.

Yeah this is actually the Peterson's house, Guy and Cindy Peterson. Guy, of course, one is Sarasota's famed architects.

Right.

And just that one of the things that strikes me the most about this home is the setting that it's in. I mean the home itself is spectacular, of course as you would expect. But just to have this kind of courtyard feel, just a real sense of peace comes over me when I walk in here.

It is beautiful, the fountains, the oaks, the royal palms.

Privacy, and then the location of Oyster Bay being so near everything else. Like you're near the beach, you know, the best school districts, near Pine View School, if your kids go there. So, Oyster Bay is really one of the prime spots, and this is one of the prime listings in them.

It certainly is, we would be very anxious to show it to you. Be sure to visit us at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK&trade. See you next time.

Hi, I'm Max Pettingell and this is my dad, Roger Pettingell, Sarasota's luxury waterfront property specialist. Welcome to this Thanksgiving edition of REALTALK&trade. Hi dad.

Hey Max, how are you today?

Great, how are you?

Good, so you know what this is all about, right?

Yeah, it's pie day.

It is pie day. This is the tenth year in a row that we've given out pies to our friends and customers. We have clients who literally every year, they get together as a family and they decide what kind of pie that they like to have from Yoder's. Do you know what kind of pie we got this year?

Uh, did we get pumpkin pie?

We got a pecan pie, because I chose it. Sometimes if mom chooses it we get the pumpkin, but I got our's there early. Sorry about that whole gluten-free thing.

It's okay.

So Max, also I know at pie day, when we have over a hundred and forty pies that we're giving away today. So we have a lot of people coming in our office that you have an idea for how to raise some money on the side.

Yeah my brother and I, we went snorkeling off Longboat Key Beach and we saw all these sand dollars, and we went like, 20 feet off the shore and saw like almost a hundred sand dollars.

That's a lot of sand dollars.

We ended up with 149 sand dollars that we made into ornaments or just decoration so you can put anywhere around your house and we were selling them for $5 for the large ones, four for the medium and three for small.

So I'm counting on you cleaning up here today.

Yeah.

But is all that money just going to you and Jake?

No, we were gonna make part of our money go to water for South Sudan.

Sudan in Africa?

Yeah.

How did that come about? So our school was reading a book called, The Long Walk to Water. Which is a story about this guy named Salva Dut.

I've heard of him.

And he had to escape the war and when he was about 17, he went to America from a refugee camp. He'd been at three refugee camps before he went to America. And he went to Rochester, New York. And some some people from there adopted him, kind of like.

So he was very lucky, right, to get out of Sudan.

And then did he go back later?

And then he went back when he was 21, and he started building wells and he made his own company called, Water for South Sudan. Which is what we're donating to, where he builds wells for people that don't have clean water.

That's a great cause and I'm really proud of you that you're doing that and not just keeping it for candy and scooters and terrible things like that. So Max, in closing here you know something that you're thankful for this year?

Oh I'm thankful for all of our family, just getting to come together and eat all this great food, having all these pies.

It's gonna be a great Thanksgiving. We wish you a happy Thanksgiving, we're very thankful for the year that we've had that good health and family and friends and food like we always say, it was a great real estate market, we're thankful for that, and happy Thanksgiving.

I'm also thankful for my cousin, is having a baby, his name is Zeidan. And he's very sick, and he has some symptoms that.

He needs heart surgery, right?

And his skin, like comes off when it has pressure. So I really want to pray for him and hope he gets better.

Special shout out to Zeidan and happy Thanksgiving from this edition of REALTALK&trade.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you today?

I'm great. Greetings from Fairway Bay.

You know, this is that time of year, it's like every second is accounted for. You can tell, the fall season is really one of our busiest seasons.

It is.

I mean, people think that it's kind of in this it, we used to call it the shoulder season. That it was kind of going to be slow, especially the closer you get to the holidays. Which is not true at all. I find a lot of buyers are coming and looking for something for season. So these, you know, these are busy times.

They are. There's a lot of variety as far as property types within the Fairway Bay community.

Yeah Fairway Bay is actually one of the communities that I kind of sharpened my teeth on, say. When I came to Arvida, who was the developer here back in 1983, this was the first project that I worked on as a marketing PR guy. Because the townhouse community got this architectural award, it was called the Aurora Award. I still remember this and for being such a spectacular design with the coppertop roofs, and the blue awnings, and the white buildings. And I remember writing as my first press release ever. And we had a press party here in the townhouses. So the community is basically mid-rises and townhouses. And the cool things, we're in a townhouse today, is that you just get this really great sense of spaciousness and like a single-family house.

Plus it's a true three-bedroom.

The three bedrooms are on the corners, they're much harder to come by. All the properties are elevated to of course the most current elevation. And what that means for you is the space underneath the property. So you can, you know, put six cars in here. Sometimes you'll see a ping-pong table down there. It's just very spacious, great storage space. And the cool thing about this is, it comes with a boat dock.

Very cool.

Right, so it really is like zero maintenance for you. You get the space, you can have a boat dock and we're talking a price point of under $800,000 here. So from a value point of view, also pretty good.

Behind the gates of Bay Isles and all that.

Right, you could walk to Publix, you can walk to the club. I mean, I'm sold. Fairway Bay is a good one and this is a really good listing to check out.

We'd like to sell it to you. Let us know if you'd like to see it. Visit us at LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™. See you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay on this beautiful fall day.

Beautiful fall day. You know, we're heading into holiday times.

Holidays?

Yes we are. We've seen some car carriers in the area and just wanted to talk a little bit about business levels, what we've been seeing in the last few weeks.

Yeah it's really interesting. I think you know we even talked about this when we talked with Mike Mailliard after the storm a little bit. Like would there be this hurricane hangover? That was kind of my fear. And yeah, luckily for us hurricanes and things like that a lot of times come in the summertime.

Right.

So I feel like we've really kind of covered that. I think that you know, really it doesn't come up. As you see you know we've had snows in different places up north.

Right.

You know our weather is absolutely stunning and you know that I feel like is just a little blip on the radar. And you know, point in fact, our sales have just been, you know literally through the roof this fall.

It really has.

I mean, and if you look to all of Sarasota in the last year since January. If you look at the three million and over market, because people kind of look to the luxury and ask us you know, what's going on the luxury market there have been 21 sales. But if you look in recent times, there are 15 pending sales and a bunch of those are ours. So I mean that that really speaks to you know where's that you kind of like sometimes people say the smart money.

Right.

Like it's investing heavily in Sarasota waterfront properties and that's good for our market and good for us.

It is and speaking of waterfront properties we're at one of our listings that's going to be coming on shortly and we are, it's going to bring us to three listings on Bird Key with these beautiful open bay views.

I mean this is a thing where the inventory overall in Sarasota waterfront is tightening. So in past times we've had, and what I think has kind of capped some of the pricing frankly is that there's been too much inventory. And we're not seeing that although we're in this little bit of time where we have three great ones and they range from you know something that you might want to tear down, something you might want to fix up. We have you know, 6,000 square feet, you know we have that 9 million double lot home, and we've just got fantastic properties available. For people on Bird Key has been something that people are really gravitating toward as that central location.

Yeah, so 622 South Owl, and 639 and 663 Mourning Dove Drive are where our listings are. We'd love to show them to you. Be sure to get more details at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™. See you next time.

Welcome back to on REALTALK™, I'm Jake Pettingell and I'm here with my dad, Roger Pettingell, Sarasota's luxury waterfront property specialist.

Good morning, Jake.

Hi dad.

How are you today?

Good, how are you?

I noticed you were kind of dressed up, so am I.

Why are you dressed up?

Well, today we're going to the event that mom is in charge of. It's a charity event for Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. And it's a big event. It's at Selby Gardens, there are going to be over 300 people and I got my Sunday best on. Why are you dressed up?

I'm dressed up because at Saint Stephen's today, it's All Saints Day and we're celebrating that in the chapel.

That should be pretty exciting. Do you love going to Saint Stephen's.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I have some really good friends there and you get to learn a lot that you wouldn't learn at other schools.

Saint Stephen's is really one of Sarasota's and Bradenton's finest schools. We have scoured the area to find the best school for our kids. It's a college preparatory school, big sports program. And I know Jake loves going there. So Jake, it's morning, we're getting ready to go to school, it is so dark out. Do you know how that's going to change this weekend?

It's Daylight Savings Time.

Right, do you know anything about Daylight Savings Time? I did a little bit of research for us. So Daylight Savings Time was actually the idea of Benjamin Franklin. Who knew that? But nothing. And the reason that he came up with it, was one of the same reasons why it ended up becoming something that we all, I'll say celebrate, was to save energy. And back in his day it was to save candle wax. So, nobody really caught on to that until the 1900s and the first Daylight Savings Time actually took place in Germany. And that, again, was to save oil, that was the idea. So one of the things about Daylight Savings is to make the idea was to make the most use of the sun. So, what's going to happen is, remember the little moniker that we were studying. How do we remember for Daylight Savings Time? What do you do in the spring?

Fall back?

You're not the first person to be confused by that. It's spring forward and on Sunday we're going to fall back. So on Sunday at two in the morning, everybody set your clocks back and once more we will suffer through Daylight Savings Time. But you get an extra hour of sleep. Does that make you happy?

Yeah.

Thanks for joining us on this special edition of REALTALK™, with my son Jake Pettingell. We'll see you next week.

Even something as simple as having porch furniture, where people can imagine themselves enjoying the lifestyle.

Hi, welcome back to EALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

How are you today in this lovely staged home on Siesta Key?

Staged home on Siesta Key. You know, we have some time to time talked about the support that we provide our sellers in presenting their homes. But I really think that sometimes people don't get the depth of that support and we're in this beautiful home.

And sometimes that'll be even a staged right. Because nobody knows exactly how the market's going to interpret a new property that comes on. So you know, sometimes we'll see how that works and make recommendations. One of the recommendations for this home was that it should be professionally staged. When we first took the listing, the seller's furniture was here so it gave us some scale for our photos. Like it's really hard to photograph an empty house.

Right.

But then they moved up to Ohio and it left us an empty house. And we all kind of thought that given the amazing view that this house has that it would be able to carry it when people came in. But in fact people really have no vision that's, you know, they're like 10 of us. I feel like now after 30 years I have some vision.

Right.

But nobody else, they just can't see it.

So in the kitchen of this home we did a few things to really kind of update it.

Something you know where everything is open, open, open, right. So we have, there were these upper cabinets here, that blocked that amazing view. And they're glass, you could kind of see through it but you still, nothing like the openness. Now this is a very current floor plan again right. Where the kitchen, the dining room and the family room are.

That simple thing just made such a huge impact.

Right and not structural, easy to take out.

Very easy.

I mean something like this, this is a really cool dolphin faucet that came with the house. But when it's empty, it's like, wow, gold faucet! But when you put some gold accents in and around it kind of just brings it all together.

Makes it a more harmonious. Roger, talking a little bit earlier about people having a hard time with vision.

Right, this space upstairs was an amazing space. Like their kids loved it. And when they were here I think there was a pool table here. And I thought that was so obvious, you know amongst the kids room to have this space, what would you do? But people really still didn't get it. So when this was staged, and this was done by Adrian Griffin, and she is really one of our favorites.

Phenomenal, she is.

She just came in here and really took over and did a great job. So she made this little game area. As a matter of fact, on Scrabble, S-O-L-D. That's what we're looking for.

SOLD SIESTA KEY.

But we believe in staging, and this was a great one.

Yeah, it really was. We'd love to show you this transformation. Please give us a call at (941) 387-1840 or visit us at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us this week on EALTALK™.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, we're in the waterfront luxury specialist's favorite kind of house.

We are in the best neighborhood, one of the best neighborhoods, Harbor Acres.

I mean Harbor Acres has classically been a great neighborhood for the physicians early in Sarasota that could go right to the hospital. I mean honestly one of the things that's really driving Harbor Acres now in my mind, is what's driving downtown. It's just everything, the excitement of downtown, the no bridges to downtown, walk to Morton's, bike down to downtown. So I would say it's at its pinnacle of popularity.

And the activities as far as construction in this neighborhood is at a feverish pitch, as it has been for the last couple of years.

Right, I mean I think if you had gone back a couple years you might even say that that would be an annoyance, right. I feel like now, we're toward the end of it.

Right.

Where you can see that now there it's much more homogeneous. You know, going back ten years you might be the only you know new, nice conforming house. But now it's this is more than norm to see that so I think that's a big plus, actually.

And we're in this beautiful new listing, 2015 construction.

This is like our dream, right, to be able to have a house that's new construction, Murray Homes is the builder, which we have sold quite a few Murray Homes.

Great developer.

Always built to the highest level. John Potvin was the architect, also very creative. Worked with sellers, couple sellers that were very instrumental in the property design as well. Everything is very thoughtful here and built to really the highest quality.

There's some really unique features, it's very unexpected. You've got these beautiful polished concrete floors, very unusual right.

Unusual and beautiful, right. And you know, easy on the feet, easy to maintain, easy to design around also. And then, also the pine hardwood floors, those are fantastic.

Gorgeous.

And you've got different spaces, I love that. There's a separate guest house out by the pool, which I love. The pool itself you know, is long enough to have lap swimming. Which it's not one of those cocktail silly pools anymore. There's not a corner that's been cut here. Everything has been done to a plan. And when you look at the stuff, it's really an exciting house. It's very, it's very warm, very charming.

On the water, great boating water on the basin here.

No bridges to the bay or to the Gulf, so that's super easy. And just the location of it. So we're excited about this one. We would love to show it to you. I believe it has its own website.

It does have its own website, 1505HillviewDrive.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Good morning, Roger.

Good morning, what a beautiful place to spend our morning.

Golden Gate Point, one of my favorite spots in Sarasota.

Right, it's just that little pocket of space across from the Ritz-Carlton. When you come over the Ringling Bridge right before town.

Right, 22 acres, which is kind of hard to believe.

And I believe John Ringling was involved in this, a little history lesson.

John Ringling had his hands in just about everything, right. In fact at the time that he owned the property, this parcel was actually known as Cedars Point.

Only from cedar trees, maybe.

Perhaps.

And I think that Owen Burns was involved a little bit too.

He was.

Same guy from Burns Court.

Yep, in fact John Ringling and Owen Burns collaborated on the very first Ringling Causeway.

I know, I think it's funny. Like I always thought that this was the second bridge behind us, but it's actually the third bridge that was built, because they built it themselves and paid for it, right.

They did, four hundred twenty-five thousand, in fact.

Little John Ringling trivia for you this morning. But what Golden Gate Point has turned into now, is this really lovely mixed use of kind of mid-rises. I mean, we really don't have anything here that's very tall.

Right.

Easy access to town. I was actually showing out here yesterday and one of the things that the people commented on was it was being near town but not actually downtown.

Right.

Because in downtown we talk a lot about that urban living, so you're seeing cars and traffic and stuff. I mean, here you're getting these enormous bay views. You can look straight south, a lot of sunset views facing west of course, that it's a peninsula that comes out, so you're both on the west or the east side. But on these west side facings, it really does give you a sense of being in an island setting, but literally walking to town, right.

Definitely, definitely. And a good variety of residences to choose from.

Yeah we have three listings here coincidentally.

We do.

So we have Majestic Bay, that we're right in front of now. And this is, I've always loved this building. Sometimes people call it like a wedding cake. So when you see it from the skyline, looking back you'll see that kind of design. Well, ours is actually a four-bedroom here, which is really nice space.

Beautiful, beautiful.

And then we have ONE88, which is brand new construction. I mean, we're just completed a year ago.

Stunning residence.

We sold one of our Bird Key homeowners a residence there last year and she loved it. And now we have another one listed there. I mean that is brand-new construction, open bay, the newest of everything.

Right.

And then we have a Harbor House. I mean that's kind of a, you know, just get your feet wet with a two-bedroom.

Right.

But these same spectacular views.

Absolutely awesome.

And the funniest thing about this bridge behind us is, people fought this bridge. There were lawsuits, seven years I think. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now it's one of the most coveted views in Sarasota.

It's really an iconic vision of Sarasota.

People pay extra to have this view of the bridge. Which you know, must just kill the people who were fighting it. But to have that under lighting of the bridge, and just the architectural beauty of it. You know, Golden Gate Point is definitely a place to consider.

Yeah, we'd love to show you our listings here and for more information please be sure to visit BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us this week on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, I'm Roger Pettingell, Sarasota's luxury waterfront property specialist. Welcome back to this edition of REALTALK™. Today I thought we'd talk about the two questions that I consistently get asked. Whether it's by email or phone or I see somebody in the street, they always say, "Is this a good time to buy, is this a good time to sell?" Or a variation of that is, "When is the best time to buy or sell?"

So let's start by looking at buying. When would really be the best time to buy? So I have to say to you like, who are you? Are you an investor? So you need to get the very best price, and that's going to be what matters to you the most, right. At the end of the day you're going to be somebody who's either looking for a return, a rental return, or an appreciation return.

So I'm going to talk to you first. So as an investor, I'm gonna say that probably your best opportunity for the least pricing you'll find in our market will be in the dead of summer, probably in September. The only thing about that is you're also probably going to have the least choice. So that means, the low-hanging fruit, the best properties, they're going to be picked off during the season. You're gonna find that a lot of sellers will also be thinking that this isn't the best time to have their property on the market, so you'll have less choice. But those properties that have been on the market all season and languished perhaps through the summer, tends to find sellers who are a little bit more motivated.

If you're just a buyer who's looking for a second home, kind of the classic Sarasota area buyer, may be retiring down here. I mean, I think it's really important to think about lifestyle, right. Like you might not be buying at the you know bottom of a market, but you might also be getting exactly what you want. And I think that what we're finding, more important for a lot of people of over money, is actually time. So is that time that they're gonna have to invest in renovating a property, building a property, or is it really better that they actually get what they want.

I also like to be a buyer in a market that isn't catching a falling knife. I like a stable market myself. You know it gives me comfort at night knowing that what I bought is not going to be continuing declining like if you're a purchaser in 2008 or 2009 say.

So we're coming into a great buying time. We're bringing on a lot of properties ourselves, new listings this time of year. You know maybe now is even a good time before too many people have seen them to start looking. February and March we always have a lot of contracts written, just by the fact that that's when the most people are here in Florida. So if you're a buyer, interest rates continue to be low, stock markets at record highs, we're increasing our inventory. You know, now's the time where I'd really be looking. Unless you're like that investor person we talked about.

So now you're a seller. When is the best time to sell? So again, conditionally upon, you know where are you coming from? Are you kids of a parents that needs to get out of a house, or it's an estate situation? You probably don't have the ability to wait months, or you know, even a year to get to a market where it might be better say. So now is the time for you, always.

If you're a typical seller, just like that typical buyer scenario that we see in Sarasota. You know maybe you're moving into something else, sometimes we see people leaving the area. The best time is really coming in again, right now to be a seller. When you do have those buyers flipping into looking for opportunities to find good inventory out there.

Some people say you know, "Should we wait for February and March?" I don't think so. Last year we sold 25 million in the fall. I mean it was a strong, fall season for us and I don't see any reason why you wouldn't expect that. And you might even argue that as properties are coming on the market, you don't want to wait until every single person put their property on the market, say in February and March with that theory. So now would be a good time to really be thinking about it.

You know, what we're doing is we're listing properties, we're getting them in prime condition, we're using weather like this two photograph amazing properties. And then, you know as the time is right throughout October we're putting them on.

So I hope that helps a little bit. If you'd like to have some private consulting, or buying and selling, give us a call at (941) 387-1840 or check us out online at LongboatRealEstate.com.

Hey Mary Kay, know where we are?

I don't.

We're here in The Landings. And they do actually have things called the tree houses in The Landings.

They do.

This is actually a tree house in this magnificent listing that we do have that has an accompanying tree house, pool, six bedrooms, view of the preserve. I'm telling you, this house is awesome.

It is awesome. It's beautiful, it's very traditional in its styling, but very livable and very comfortable.

And it's also a smart house.

It is, very smart.

It's got that contemporary blend in there. You can run this entire house, probably the lights in the tree house from your phone. And the reason that we are up in the tree house, kind of showing it off is you know, we don't have as many family houses in our repertoire. You know, a lot of times we're dealing with second homes. And this could certainly be a second home for people that have grand kids, but in this perfect school district that you are.

Right.

I mean you're right down the street from Pine View, you have Phillippi Shores across the street. I mean, you're in the heart of everything and so this can be a great, like for-kids house. You know, actually like remember when you grew up and you had a tree house. You can have one again, I'm so excited about it.

I could tell, I can tell. We'd love to show you the main house as well as the tree house, or you can visit us at 1654LandingsBoulevard.com.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™. I'm Roger Pettingell, Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, and today we have a special guest with us, Mike Mailliard with MIC Insurance who we've had before, but what a topical time to talk, right. So, obviously the elephant in the room would be the hurricanes, right. We don't like to talk about things that are negative, but they are things that are reality. So I kind of want to revisit the Hurricane Irma, which was now two weeks ago. Seems like yesterday still.

It does.

One of the things that gave me comfort in the preparation for a Hurricane Irma, which actually you know was pretty scary. If you weren't here it was a scary, stressful time, was knowing that I was covered. I mean I really felt like the insurances that I have through Mike, which are a lot. You know I rely on him as an expert to know that we're fully covered and so, in leaving our house, because Bird Key got evacuated, I knew that I was covered. So, my first question to you Mike is so, how did we do? How did Sarasota, as an area do?

Sarasota did particularly well. I think the turn the storm took into Naples and heading north was a lifesaver for us. Clearly had the storm continued on its path offshore, we would have seen catastrophic damage from Marco Island, all the way through Tampa.

And when we're looking at, you know, that's a great report. And you know, we like to say that there was once talk of folklore of an Indian prayer over the Sarasota area that's kept us safe. You know, I'm willing to buy into that. But still, there were a lot of downed trees. I have friends that didn't have power for 10 days. I presume that there were some damages that were insurable.

There were quite a bit of damages that were insurable. I think the houses in our market took the storm particularly well, with the exception of trees and tree branch damage. In the condo sense, we suffered a great deal of wind-driven rain exposure. So windows that did not break, but water penetrated windows and sliders, damaging the interior finish.

And that's not even at any category, you know anything's different there.

Well now in fairness, the bayside, east-facing condos on the barrier islands took the brunt of the wind and water. And they did have damage.

And how could that have been prevented?

Storm shutters over sliders seem to mitigate the interior water damage. Number two, I think in the future people will be looking at devices such as round tubes filled with absorbent material that they may lay down in their tracks of their sliders and windows. Those are the kind of, I think the water absorbent vehicles would be the least expensive possibility of preventing.

I'm used to people wrapping towels in there.

Well, I think the towels would have been effective. But I think that with the uncertainty of the storm path, people were really forced to make a decision to evacuate quite quickly. So, had the storm been predicted to be hours originally and stayed in that path, I think that people would have had more time to adapt. But I think people kind of ran out of time.

You know, the thing that I understand now is, I'm just gonna look at the cone from now on. If we're in the cone, then I'm, you know, booking a hotel or I'm making a plan to evacuate. Being in the A zone on Bird Key or a barrier island.

Yes.

I'm gonna have a plan, the thing with the water kind of confuses me. Everybody rushing to water, I feel like it's just, you know, almost like a life jacket on a plane. Like, you have to do something. But what I really understood is, people are preparing for the after. They're preparing for not having electric for nine days when they have to boil your water. So I think that I feel people kind of fell down on that preparation a little bit.

Well I think that it's human nature. You know, we had the 04', 05' pattern with more extensive frequency of storms. People after that, for the next five years, were more proactive in protection and preparation. And then we had a period of no storms.

I like that period.

That is human nature. But the thing that I'm really taking away from this storm, is that the improvements in our Florida Building Codes clearly work.

And those would be you know, kinda outline a few of those.

As an example, the roof to wall tie-downs. The requirement to tie the roof to the wall structure. The discounts that are given for the nail patterns underneath the shingles or tile roof, the plywood sheathing attachment. We saw, what I thought was a dramatically less damage on single-family homes in the Marco-Naples area that can only be attributed to a higher level of construction. Homes that are taking a 130-140 mile an hour winds, with virtually no damage.

Can some of the older homes be retrofitted to that?

Clearly, I think they the only thing that you can't retrofit is a hip roof. Meaning that a gable style roof structure allows for uplift. Whereas a hip roof, which is really, in concept like a pyramid with flat surfaces all the way around. That allows the wind to hit the hip, pressing the wind pressure. Instead of tearing the roof off, It's actually holding the roof down. Pressing it down on the house. So a hip roof, masonry home, with hurricane windows, can take a lot of wind in our market.

That's nice to know.

Very impressive, I was very impressed by the ability of our new construction to withstand these wind pressures.

I think that's gonna add value to those homes, as we look to the real estate markets.

Yes newer, and maybe newer is not the word, but protected, tied down.

Elevated.

Elevated. Now let's talk briefly about fear. The one thing that I had a problem with, with the national coverage is they talk about, we're gonna have a surge of six to eight foot above.

They love the surge.

Above dry ground. Well, what they're really talking about is mean, high tide. And mean, high tide in our market is down on the sand.

Okay.

So on Longboat Key, if we have a six-foot tidal surge, I'm not gonna see water on Gulf of Mexico Drive. Okay, we're going for mean, high tide. That's something that we.

What would it take to see it on Gulf of Mexico Drive?

Hmm, eight, nine feet, or above.

So really, one in a thousand, one in 10,000 years.

Dramatic difference, so our barrier islands are set up to take a certain amount of water as a routine course.

Right they're barriers for the city.

Right, we're a barrier for the mainland. But we can we can take water a lot better than a mainland area because of drainage. It's gonna come and go.

Quickly I need to ask you, so after Hurricane Andrew, I remember the insurance industry had a lot of problems because that was a lot of loss at one time. It didn't seem that the market was prepared for it. It's my understanding, I might not, despite what you hear on the news, that the industry over all these years got a lot of financial strength, perhaps by not having a lot of storms in the last ten years.

Well, and it's interesting because the reality is the wind portion of homeowner's policies is really insured through reinsurers. Okay, so your base homeowner's company, the standard admitted Florida carrier is buying reinsurance at a minimum on one storm per year. I really don't deal with those companies, I would prefer to deal with a company with two or more storms per year. Which means that they will pay nothing out of their pockets for this first storm.

Okay.

Okay, they may pay a million or a five million dollar deductible and it's all covered. So I have no concerns about the private industry swallowing this storm. At all, none. Citizens has the bulk of its risk in the Miami area, different package.

But Citizens is the state of Florida's insurance of last resort, right?

The better term to say, it was a company established by the state of Florida, but not backed by the good faith and credit of the state of Florida.

Okay.

It is not backed by the good faith and credit.

But we're not worried about that?

No, no, not a market that I personally deal with, and in our marketplace I would think under 5% of all policies would fall into that category.

Yeah I think everybody's pretty much gotten away from the Citizens model. Yeah, indeed. Well I appreciate, I know that this is a busy time for you, even though we're not, haven't been hit here. Clearly there are claims and there are, I'm sure like I, everybody calling you to make sure that they're fully covered.

We have hundreds of claims, instead of thousands of claims. So it's a great day. Thank goodness. Longboat Key is, and our area, came through this very well.

And I'm gonna say for me, the takeaway from this whole experience. It's a very stressful experience that can be mitigated by having a plan. So you know, we're not through hurricane season yet. It ends at the end of November, actually. Make sure that you have a plan, and make sure you understand what it's gonna look like eleven days without electric, which is possible. And make sure your insurance is up-to-date, and that your coverage is correct. I mean this is the perfect time to reach out to your insurance guy and say, "Hey, what am I covered for?" And if there is a loss, what do I do? That was my big thing, who do I call? You know, what website do I go to fill out my form? Because I know, if I get damaged, so are a lot of other people. And you know, just like every other A personality, I want to be first to get my roof fixed. Thanks a lot, see you next time on REALTALK™.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Hi from The Oaks, Mary Kay.

Hi from The Oaks. We're here at The Oaks Bayside community this morning.

Yeah, we're doing one of our community spotlights today and we've picked The Oaks. We've had several listings here from time to time. We have a great one now. But it's something that it's, I kind of feel like a little bit in that hidden gem category.

I agree.

When we started here thirty years ago, The Oaks was in South Sarasota. You know, but then the Lakewood Ranch was rice fields, right. Celery fields. So it's all changed and now it's actually quite in the heart of things.

It really is.

One of the things I know from our kids like, Pine View School is literally a bike ride away and Pine View a is a place that people come from all over the country to bring their kids to.

Right, so three separate communities here at The Oaks. We have The Oaks Club, we have The Oaks Preserve and we're here at Oaks Bayside, which was actually the first of the three communities to be built.

And as I understand Bertha Palmer was the original owner of all of this land.

One of the first ladies of Sarasota.

Right, I mean, talk about some incredible foresight that she had.

Very much so.

But the homes here are very stately, I like to think of them.

Quite grand, beautiful.

They always reek of quality, like I feel when I see an Oaks home, I can feel that they're well built. They're on large pieces of land. They have minimum square footage that can be built here. They have its kind of commonality within the community of rules of things you know, how you have to have your driveway or roofer things. Not annoyances, but more like things that just keep everything beautiful.

And they also have quite an active club here as well that really complements the lifestyle.

Right, The Oaks has always been known for golf. They have two championship golf courses, both of which have been recently renovated.

They have.

The Oaks clubhouse is spectacular.

Gorgeous.

If you want a wedding site in Sarasota, that is The Oaks clubhouse. They just finished a brand new fitness center, they have Har-Tru courts, and they have a very active tennis program. I know that our kids play against a lot of kids that train down here.

Yeah, great dining options and also very active as far as social activities are concerned as well.

I know, I think these days we get away from a sense of community and if you want a sense of community, you want to be in The Oaks. Quality homes, nice size lots, great location in town, you know easy access to Sarasota, easy access out to 75, the schools, dining, The Oaks is really a great community.

Yeah, we'd love to show you our new listing for more information about this home and other listings Roger has, please be sure to visit us at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us this time on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, and welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you?

I'm good. Can you believe that like, next weekend is Labor Day?

No. The only reason I can believe it is because the boys went back to school.

Right.

But that's the only reason.

Right and it's, you know, sort of the official end of summer, which is normally sort of a slow time for us, but it's been anything but slow for us this year.

This is the busiest summer that I can remember in 30 years of being here.

Right.

And you know, why is that? So if we look at January and February of 2017, typically January is hit or miss but February is always busy. The worst February I've ever seen.

It was.

So you know, when I look back to why that could be, you know we go back to the election, really. You know we thought after there, whoever was picked that there would be some certainty in the market. But it seemed like there was still uncertainty in what was going to happen. And whether you know, you perceive what happened or what's happening is good or bad. People just wanted to know. I think this is my own idea, that the world wasn't gonna fall apart. And then everything was gonna be okay, and it was still gonna be cold in Ohio, and they wanted a place in Florida.

Right.

So come March, you know we've been rolling great since from March, you know, even to now.

We have.

Like I mean we've closed over $70,000,000 ourselves, and that is just a couple million short of what we did all of last year.

Incredible.

So you know, not in a bragging way, but in a you know, how's the market way. Like super strong.

Very.

But if you look forward now, what you know what would we expect for the fall and the last part of 2017. I think it's all gonna be about listings, because as was a national phenomenon last year of less things available for sale, we did not see that. We still had plenty of things for sale last year and honestly I think that added to the pricing pressure. So if you have a lot of choices and people in different circumstances as sellers, you know you're gonna likely get a better price. You're finding now, fewer and fewer properties available, certainly of quality. Certainly anything that's been renovated, which everybody wants or anybody wants things that are new.

No one wants to do the work.

Right.

So if you're a seller, yeah, this is the time. This is the time to really be thinking about putting your place on the market. It hasn't become like, we haven't switched over to a seller's market. It's not that you want to, you know, feel like you're gonna take advantage of a great market, but you are gonna definitely be able to get your place sold at a good market price, a fair market price. You need to still look at things like condition. And that you know, whether maybe some staging needs to happen, or something needs to be updated, or just understand how that's going to play into your value.

Right.

But we're talking to people, you know every day now about really, we want to see that place on the market by October 1st. If not sooner, because where we typically see that slowdown, we haven't seen it as much, although towards the end of August and September is just typically always slow.

Right.

It's hotter here, you know people are getting kind of they're ready for coming down from up north. So, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see September being a little bit slower as usual. But then October, November and December last year, and in the last five years, have always been very strong for us. So I'm looking for that too.

If you're thinking about listing your property for sale we would love to speak to you about it. Please call us at (941) 387-1840. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, and welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Good morning, how are you on the end of summer morning?

The end of summer mornings, fall is right around the corner.

School starts next week.

I know you and Alisa are happy about that.

Bye, bye boys.

Well this morning, you know from time to time we like to do this community spotlights and talk about some of these great neighborhoods in our area and today we're in The Landings.

The Landings, one of the great things about The Landings is location.

Ah, absolutely.

If you want to talk about just being in the heart of everything, I mean you're just south Sarasota enough to be out of the massive downtown, but you know, two miles or five minutes to downtown from here.

Right.

You've got A-plus schools, Phillippi Shores has an elementary school. If you're a smart kid you can go down to Pine View.

 

Yeah.

A hop, skip and a jump.

Yep.

It's right near the Siesta Key beaches, near shopping. It really is, location is everything here.

Yeah, a gated community and a really nice offering a variety of residential communities within The Landings.

Yeah, I mean it really does have something for everybody, right. I think square footage is from 2 to 6,000 square feet, you've got single-family homes, you've got villas, you've got the product they call the tree house, which is really fun here. It's got its own tennis community here.

The Racket Club.

Which is really great. I think in the beginning a lot of people were attracted, specifically for tennis in the day. I mean in the day this was probably considered south. People would be like, "South, at The Landings." And now it's back in the heart of everything.

Yeah, and you've got water around, you've got Philippi Creek, you've got Roberts Bay, you've got open bay, and wonderful amenities at the Racquet Club. They've got a wonderful clubhouse facility, Olympic sized swimming pool, spa, tennis, community rooms.

And I think something that people love about it too, is its secured. So you have a private, guarded, gated entry here. And that in the center of Sarasota is isn't something that you often find.

And there's also a variety of architectural offerings. I mean it's not a cookie-cutter neighborhood, per se.

I did just notice the first tear-down in here. So that's kind of a rejuvenation of a community when you start to see that. When the land value just so outpaces the value of the structure that’s on there, and people want to be in the community enough to tear something down.

So it's starting to happen here at The Landings.

It is. The Landings, it's a good one. And we have a great listing here too. So, if you'd like to hear some more about that, give us a call.

Give us a call or visit us at LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, and welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Good morning Roger.

Hi Mary Kay, I only have a minute, I have to get to an appraisal.

You know when we talk about there are different elements of the overall transaction, and the appraisal when someone is getting a mortgage is a pretty key part of the whole process.

So we could start by saying we don't really like offers with mortgage contingencies.

No we don't.

But every once in a while they do come, and it is something that you know, we have to if a seller is willing to accept. Or if we're working with the buyer, if we have to put in a mortgage contingency. Then the appraisal is a key part of that. And sometimes we just get, because we do get a lot of cash deals, just for people to sleep a little better at night, they'll put in an appraisal contingency. I mean, honestly I think the comparables out there are so easily looked at and analyzed, even by yourself or a realtor, that it's often not necessary, but it comes up.

It does.

So I look at that as when we're representing a seller, a big part of the transaction for us. So in the part where we're getting the buyer to come in and like the property, we're selling them features and benefits and showing them you know why this is house is worth this value. That's the same thing we do with an appraiser. So when I go to meet an appraiser, it's just like I'm having a showing. I mean I have the house cool, in the summer.

Lights on.

I have all the lights on, I have the windows open if that's a possibility, blinds open, just like it's showing. Because I feel like the appraiser needs to see it in the same way that buyer saw it. And they need to understand the benefits, and they need, we bring them comparable sales, we bring them the floor plan of the property, we do everything we can to make their job as easy as possible and to show them, you know why we value that property at that certain amount. And I have to say the only appraisal that we did not have, we don't have that many to be fair because so many cash deals, but when we've had appraisals we've only had one not hit the number this time, this year. And the reason was that the appraiser did not value the second parking space.

I remember that.

And he would not give it a value which we knew to be forty to $50,000. I mean there was a given resale market for parking spaces. So an anomaly like that, I don't know how you get passed. We pointed it out to them when we met them. But in all cases, you know, we are there for the appraisal. That's an important part of the transaction.

It really is, yeah. So if you're thinking of buying or selling this summer we would really love to hear from you, call us at (941) 387-1840 and we'll see you next week on REALTALK™.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you on this nice summer morning?

It's very warm again, huh?

It is. It's not as warm as a lot of places though.

That's very true.

I mean we always should remember that. I mean we get in the low 90s for a longer time.

Right.

But we do have these breezes.

Fall's right around the corner.

And air conditioning.

You know, in the past we've talked about furniture. We've talked about whether or not it's an advantage, if a listing is coming furnished or not furnished. But I thought we’d talked a little bit today about, if you are going to be selling your residence furnished, how to really thoughtfully prepare a furniture inventory.

Right, so furniture can be a blessing or a curse, for sure.

Right.

So we like it when it shows off the property. So anything that can give scale to rooms, or you know something that is a more current look say. Those are the times when we like furniture. We like to include that in a sale if a seller wants to not have that. I would say if the seller wants the furniture, please take it. Because the buyer will never pay you what it will cost you to replace.

Right.

Everybody thinks, everybody's doing a favor with furniture a lot of times. So if you want the furniture, you know we just won't talk about it. One of the things that's really a problem is if we're showing a property and somebody has asked us to sell their place furnished but it's you know, furnished a more of convenience or something. But they're saying, "Oh this furniture is so nice." We're like, oh yeah it's beautiful, it came from Robb & Stucky, and they spent, you know a hundred thousand dollars on it. So then, the offer comes in and they're like we want everything but that fancy, hundred thousand dollar furniture. So we'll take that right off the price. So that can really work against us. So what we like to do is, take furniture, we package it separately. So, this is my druthers, like this is how I most like to do it. Call it, say, you know the property is for sale for a million, and the furniture may be purchased separately for X. Or sometimes we won't even say X. We'll say it may be purchased furnished, separately.

Right.

And then what we always do, is inventory it. So in the very beginning of the listing period, we'll come in and we'll inventory everything that's going to be sold with that property. And why that's so important, is that's the thing that can stick up a deal, many, many times. I had a deal, three million dollar condominium once. And these people came in, and they're like, "Oh, where's the cutting board." And I'm like, what are you talking about? And they're like, well it was in the days of Corian countertops and this was a matching Corian cutting board. You know, they said they want the cutting board because it matches. And it's like, I'll get you one. And they said, "No, it wouldn't be from the same Corian lot." I mean, it got silly like that, right.

It was important to them.

Right. And so we like to have people, know what they're buying, and we like to have sellers know what they're selling. So when we inventory that, we really ask our sellers to be thoughtful, and looking it over when they're signing it because that's something now you're offering for sale. And you'll be contractually bound to that.

And the seller or the buyer will be expecting that as well.

It can, it's an unnecessary reason to have stress in a sale. So, you know one of the reasons we're talking about is, just to continue counseling people about the best way to deal with your furniture. We're here to sell your property, we're happy to help you with the furniture too, but you know the main thing, that's the big asset here, is the property.

And make a transaction overall, just go as easy as possible.

Right, we want everybody to be happy at the end.

We do. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™. We hope that you'll visit us at LongboatRealEstate.com. See you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you on this beautiful summer morning?

I'm a little warm. We're on the water.

It is July and all.

It is, it is. What's to be expected, right.

Well the one nice thing, you know, we say in Florida it does get hot, just like everywhere else but you do have these beautiful bay view breezes. And here we are on Bird Key, so any time you're going to be on the island you're getting it from both sides.

And we have this beautiful new listing, direct bayfront on Bird Key, with gorgeous views of the Intracoastal in the path.

This is on Mourning Dove Drive, which is really. You know, there are three major streets here that are kind of facing to the south and to the city. It's Robin, Meadowlark and Mourning Dove. And Mourning Dove has always been one of my favorites...living here. And what's really cool about this location is, and if you look out here, you're straight into Big Pass.

Oh yeah.

If you're a boater like, no bridges. I mean you're in the Gulf in minutes, like fewer than five. And then that's the bridge going over to Siesta, so you can go up and down the Intracoastal. So super easy access. It's great for paddleboarding, it's great for kayaking, jet ski. So it's all about like water fun. Or like these people, they didn't even have a dock. You can, we have a bid for one, that's you know insignificant. They put in the brand-new seawall, which is what you really want to have. But for them, it was just about views. Views going on forever, really. This house is over six thousand square feet.

It's really incredible space.

So like if you're into, you know family space, you either you have a younger family or your grandparents who can't wait for their grandkids and families to visit. You know, we've got six, possible seven bedrooms here, which we don't see as much anymore. It's just nice to have that space.

Gorgeous pool area. Yeah, really great space.

And you know bayfront living is, it's at a huge premium here in Sarasota. You just don't get it. So that's why we're so excited about this listing.

Can't be duplicated. We'd love to show it to you. Please call us at (941) 387-1840 or visit this residence at 663MourningDoveDrive.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, this is the first day we haven't had rain in what, a week?

I say give us an hour, see what happens.

Well, you know I think it's your fault because you kept saying my yard is green, or my yard is brown, we need rain. Here it is.

Guilty. Well, today we are hosting REALTALK™ at one of the most unique communities in Sarasota, and special, Lido Shores.

I know it's almost, yeah, we talk about like hidden gems.

Yeah.

This is one of those places that very few people even know about. It is bordered on the north by Longboat Key and on the south by St. Armands, more or less. You know, it's a community of 171 home sites, I think?

116.

It shares the beach club, so everybody in here has access to the private beach club that's right on New Pass. And it has some of the most charming cool houses you're ever going to see.

So many of these carry on the modern, modernistic flavor that the Sarasota School of Architecture, which were known for developed in some of the current students of that style have built newer homes in here as well.

And it's not, it's certainly not that Mediterranean look, and it's not that coastal contemporary look. It's cool modern, like it's livable modern, and people have taken, like the home that we have listed here today, they've taken it and really maximized the space, and the uses of it, but still maintain that Sarasota School of Architecture charm.

Yeah, that integrity, lots of clean lines, lots of glass, terrazzo floors.

Yeah, I mean if you can save a terrazzo floor.

You absolutely should.

There's nothing better than that. And then to be able to, like this owner, you know added a three-car garage, right. So it wasn't just the form anymore, it was also the need for function. But to keep it within that same style, is what the whole neighborhood's about. And people here are very interested in architecture. There's a following, there are often architectural tours in the community. I mean, we sold the Fishman's house a couple years ago.

Right.

They used to call it the pink house. A lot of these houses are named.

Great stories.

Very interesting, and just then the typical story of real state, the location, right. So you're this side of the Longboat bridge. So, maybe you miss a little bridge traffic, but you're still, you know five minutes up to Publix. You can walk to St. Armands Circle into town, you have the beach, it really is kind of a have it all community and still a little bit not cookie cutter, not like everybody else.

Absolutely. We would love to show you this really cool house, visit us at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net, or call us at (941) 387-1840. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

And stay dry.

And stay dry.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay how are you this morning in Queens Harbour?

Greetings from Queens Harbour. We've talked about this community in the past, but we've got this great new listing and thought it was worthy of another visit.

It is, come back to Queens Harbour.

Come back to Queens Harbour.

One of the things that's cool about this plan they had, maybe four or five different plans here at Queens Harbour, is this is the courtyard plan. So it has its own little casita guest house, which is really something that everybody likes. Get the guests out there. And the thing that just was Taylor Woodrow was to developer, the people who did the Chunnel, you may remember.

I do.

They also allowed some people to do some customizing. So these people added on, they have a whole little extra office space that you don't typically get. And people, from time to time, maybe even added extra bedrooms and stuff. On this one has plenty of bedroom space as it is.

And wonderful privacy, right here on the Harbourside Golf Course.

I think this is what a lot of people like. You know, they want a single-family experience without the maintenance headache. Right, so here you have somebody that takes care of the landscaping for you, they do pressure washing and painting of the house periodically, and it's just that you get the privacy but not the headache. And that's really what people, especially when they're looking for a second home, that's what they seem to gravitate toward.

And behind the gates of Bay Isles.

Right, I mean so you're not only completely secure, but you've got these great walking paths, you've got Longboat Key Club here. It's really, I mean I've spent a summer in Queens Harbour, was I just remember that I rented a house here and I just loved it. I loved being able to walk around and feel safe, and feel a part of nature too.

Bay Isles Beach Club.

Right, right, right. And right near the marina, and the restaurant there.

Yeah.

It's great, it's a winner, Queens Harbour is a winner.

It's a great new listing, we'd love to show it to you. Please visit us at LongboatRealEstate.com to schedule a showing. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, June market update.

June market update. Summer is here.

It is hard to believe, I mean, when you're in the thick of it, you don't get the speed at which time passes. Maybe it's just the older you get, it passes more. But we're in June already.

Half the year is gone.

Almost, for sales numbers it's not totally there yet.

Right.

But it's, you know we've talked a little bit about how the beginning of the year started out slow, I don't want to harp on that anymore because it's so far in the past. But this, you know, equally to the fact that February was historically slow, May was historically busy.

Unbelievable.

March, April, May: I mean maybe this season is going to start later. I don't know what it means. I really do feel like it's a bigger, global, political uncertainty issue that slowed us down in the beginning. But the continued strength of the stock market, the US dollar is buying a lot for the US consumer, not as much for the international consumer. But it's really, it's been on fire.

The listing activity for this time of year, right?

And the purchasing of those listings.

Correct.

I mean we're over 50 million dollars in sales and we're not even to the end of June yet. So I mean, what's the message for people out there? I think the message is, the inventory got up and so there were a lot of great opportunities out there. You know, that's kind of whittling down. So, if you're thinking that you're a sideline player and it's just going to keep being more and more inventory, and lower prices, and more choice for you, that's not what we're seeing.

No.

So if buying is an option for you, now would be the time. Right. Equally, if selling is an option for you? You know, a lot of times we hold back on some of our listings in the summertime. And I don't know that that's a strategy we're not going to do, it really is property dependent. If you're in a market that's a Sarasota buyer. You know, somebody maybe that has kids, like we just listed a great house in the Landings. Well this is the perfect time for that, right. Because people are looking, you know before the school year starts. You know, if you're a high-end waterfront condominium, one of the things that we do is we kind of hold you in our private inventory. And maybe we don't get you out there on the MLS until October, when the masses are coming for that kind of property. But I also think this private inventory, we had a lot of sales through that last year, where we don't get it on the market, so we don't get it tired. But we have it available for ourselves, or for the Realtors that we know that are looking for things like that. So you know, don't give up on Florida real estate just because it's June, because it's active.

Yeah, we've got a good variety of listings. I hope that you'll visit us often at LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Hi Mary Kay, how are you today?

I'm good, thanks. You know, when people are thinking about securing real estate services, there's lots of choices, right?

There are.

And we wanted to talk a little bit today about what specifically differentiates Coldwell Banker, what we bring to the table?

You know, I think about this and one particular subject came to mind. I mean, we've got amazing marketing, we've talked about our Global Luxury brand, and all the different things we do on a big scale. But when you look down to the Sarasota level, one of the big differentiators I find is that we sell resale properties. So you know, if you came to me and said I want to buy at the VUE, sure I could easily take you there and I've sold plenty of new construction. As a matter of fact, I started in new construction, which was a great basis for what my business has now evolved to. So every once in a while we'll do like the new houses on the Gulf end, or we'll bring customers to some of the new construction. But the things that we're largely listing, those are resale properties.

They are.

And I don't say that as a negative, I just say that is, that's something that we focus on.

And we're pretty good at it too.

Good track record. We know the intricacies of these buildings. We have all the floor plans. You know, I've been selling here for over 30 years.

Right.

So we have all the information, we know what work's been done to the building, we know the nuances, who has a guest suite, who allows animals. You know so for us, we don't sometimes focus on selling a building out, and sometimes do this, and sometimes. Like our focus is residential resales. And I think that's a big differentiator, when you're deciding who you want to sell your property, you want somebody who has that kind of experience, and that's a big differentiator for us.

It really is. And if you're thinking about selling, or buying, I hope that you'll contact us at (941) 387-1840 or LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, we're on top of the world.

We literally are, the 15th and 16th floors of Marina Tower.

I mean this location, it's just sitting here waiting to be this, I mean it's stunning. Like I can't imagine everyday, being able to enjoy this view. I mean, I can see all the way north up the bay. I can see the Ringling Bridge. I'm seeing out the pass. I can see every bridge.

It is spectacular in the true sense of that word and it's absolutely amazing.

And this is daytime.

It is daytime.

Imagine what nighttime looks like.

And it's a penthouse residence. We've touched on this in the past and there's just something really special about penthouses in general.

Right, so I like to think about like why would somebody want a penthouse? Well why wouldn't they?

Hello.

I mean obviously going up higher always gets you a more elevated and a better view. And in a case like this, it's not just the front bay view. You're also looking back to the city, with a beautiful garden patio. And those are things that you can have bigger terraces, you can have these extra patios, of course you have the higher ceilings, right. So there's no height limitations. As a matter of fact, the height here is what?

32 feet.

Right, I mean and that's 32 feet of glass.

Yeah.

So this isn't just any penthouse by the way. This is like a one-of-a-kind in Sarasota penthouse.

It truly is.

But some of the other things, I mean there's a cachet, just to be in the penthouse. People always like that. One reason is, nobody's walking on top of you. There's nobody that's going to be on the next floor. And I think just being able to be in one of the premier buildings in downtown Sarasota.

Location is just killer, right.

And then this, also the way this is oriented, you're getting that southern exposure too. So you get great light. The finishes and features in the penthouse are often, you know at the highest level. And in a case like this one, when these owners bought this, they completely gutted it. And everything in it is just, it's really as beautiful as the view.

It is, it truly is.

You get some extra perks too, like three cars of three parking spaces instead of two.

Highly coveted, those parking spaces.

Exactly, and in a case like Marina Tower, its location affords the real walkability into Sarasota. So there's no crossing over 41. When people talk about, you know, where can I go that I can walk to dinner?

Yeah, it's really the epitome of downtown living.

So you don't get a lot of opportunities for real penthouses. Sometimes they'll call an upper floor, a penthouse. But it really just won't be different. So if you look around, you're not. The pickings are pretty slim and then to find something prime like this, you can tell, I'm excited about this one.

We all are, it's truly a special residence, best experienced firsthand. We'd love to show it to you, be sure to visit us at BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you? We're in in the kitchen today.

We are in the kitchen today.

Cooking up some financial ideas?

Absolutely, you know we find ourselves almost at the end of spring, beginning of summer, and was wondering whether there are some things people should keep in mind when writing offers at this time of year off-season, versus when we are in the height of season.

Yeah, we've seen an interesting trend, right. So we've talked about this a little bit, we started January and February, it was a little bit slower. Now that we're looking back, we're thinking maybe that was just the uncertainty of the election. Like, how is that going to play out in the economy.

Right.

We got into March and people were like, it looks like it's going to be okay. It's still cold in Ohio, I want to buy down here and things were just crazy in March. So we're thinking about as a topic, like how would it be different writing an offer for somebody in that frenzy kind of period of March, versus what's it like coming into the, you know slower, traditionally slower time? Well, for one thing the traditionally slower time actually means there are fewer cars out there. There actually might be fewer showings because maybe. Sometimes we'll just get a showing because it's a cloudy day during season, and people want something to do.

Right.

So I feel like the showings that we have are much more targeted. They're more real showings. You have to also remember we're getting into a lot of online showings, so we can track that. And those showings are actually fairly consistent, from height of season, right on through the year. People who are interested, it doesn't matter where they are. If they're interested in real estate, they can look online.

They're looking.

So I think people get a false sense, and I saw this actually. Toward the end of April, we had one week where we had, like seven different offers.

We did.

Each one lower than the one before it. And the only one that came together was the one who had another offer on it. And those people said, I mean none of. The sellers in our market are value sellers, just like the buyers are value sellers. They're not generally, I don't find, looking to make a killing. They just like to sell their place for the fair market value.

Right.

Which is just what a buyer wants, right. But if you come in 20 percent lower than that, because you're saying, "Well hey, it's April."

Right.

It doesn't get anywhere.

Right.

So what came together was the buyer who said to themselves, "Well, I'm gonna pay fair market. " And that sellers, you know, didn't even play ‘em against each other. He just said, "This is a fair market price." And that was a good sale. So I think it's important to remember so, what things give you leverage, right. Is maybe there's a higher level of inventory out there, so as a buyer maybe that gives you some leverage. If something's been on the market a long time, right. None of us want to have properties on a long time. Sometimes we'll take them off and just reposition them for that.

Right.

But just because you're coming into the summer doesn't mean, you know, get out your pencil super-sharp. Sellers here are still looking for fair market offers. Just like buyers are willing to pay. So that's what I advise.

Yeah, really good things to keep in mind when you're out there looking. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, we hope that you will visit us often at LongboatRealEstate.com. See you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell.

On the beach.

On the beach, luxury waterfront. We're here at the Water Club this morning.

Right, this is a great place. I don't know if you remember, but I was in the original sales team here at the Water Club.

I do remember that.

With Jerry Ansel back in the day. And it was great. One of the cool things about the Water Club, Jerry really wanted to bring over that feel that was exploding in Miami Beach area. So things like private elevators, no more long hallways, no more two bedrooms, no rentals. So he went for luxury. He also wanted kind of that Club feeling experience. So he had these two buildings, and in between them he designed this 18,000 square foot clubhouse.

It's beautiful.

And his idea was, you don't have to join Longboat Key Club to get to know people. Instead of having just these little club rooms that buildings used to have, he wanted that club experience right here. So he made this clubhouse, it's got everything in it, like ping pong, billiards, spa rooms. I mean basically, a place that could be a restaurant. I always thought this would be an amazing place to get married, ever.

Yeah, beautiful. Beautiful facility. And the staff here is great, you've got concierge service in both buildings.

And most of them have been here since the beginning. Like you want to talk about continuity.

Yeah.

If you want to know anything that's gone on here, you can just talk to the concierge.

So helpful, and there's a variety of different floor plans available.

For the most part there are four main floor plans, right. There are some plaza levels that are a little bit different, but for the most part, there are four basic plans. They run from about 2,600, to about 3,800 square feet. And this one that we're standing in right now is in that direct Gulf-front position. It's the Arlington. And the cool thing about it is, straight on southwest exposure.

Beautiful.

The views don't get any better. You're looking all the way down to Lido and Siesta, you look north up the beach, but you get that bonus view, looking back to the city and the bay area, right. So it's got everything, plus it's got the possibility of this plan of being a four-bedroom. Oftentimes, it's shown as a three-bedroom with a extra family suite off the kitchen.

Right, good flexibility.

It's pretty nice. Private elevators. They have great, this one has two parking spaces. Sometimes they have actually garage spaces. In The Water Club with its location, kind of in between Publix and the south end of the key, is like right in that sweet spot.

It really is, it really is. We actually have two listings in The Water Club presently. To get more information about them, we hope you'll visit LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Good morning, Roger.

Good morning, Mary Kay, and we have a guest here.

We have a special guest here, hi Springfield.

This is Springfield, she's a Southeastern Guide Dog breeder. So, how this works is, we're actually hosting her at our house and she was picked as the best of the best. Hey you best, sit. Springfield, sit. Good girl.

Good girl.

So she'll stay with us and when she's ready to have puppies, she'll go back to the school, and have them. And you know, some other amazing dogs like herself will come out, and then she'll come back and stay with us.

You lucked out Springfield, you hit the jackpot, you got a good family.

She likes hanging around the office, too.

Yeah, I'm sure the boys love her.

Yeah, if your around Longboat sometimes, pop in and see us.

She comes to see us occasionally.

She's a little bored already. So we're going to talk about something interesting, like our website, right.

Right, we actually just recently went through a redesign, and a reconfiguration and launched it within the last month, and some really nice visual changes.

Yeah, I mean I've always been a big fan of videos. You know, just like the REALTALK™ videos, of which are all on our site.

They are.

But it opens with a video, which I like. Because I like the movement of it. I really get bored with the static photography in everything we do. So anything that's video, it also does get us more exposure on things like YouTube, which you know Google's very video-driven. That's kind of why we've gone for that. So really that would be an exciting thing for people to have their property. We can do individual properties as videos on the opening screen and we change those out periodically to get more attention for them.

And the content is really very deep too, as well as finding out what new listings we have, but what's going on in other communities, what's selling, how much, how many listings there are, what sold.

Right, we've been doing market analysis for the major communities around town for the last 15 years. Yeah. And every single one of those, month-by-month is posted there.

Really helpful information.

I mean LongboatRealEstate.com, I got that like 24 years ago. So, it's been an ever-evolving website, and we're kind of proud of how it looks now, so give it a try. Yeah, I hope you'll check it out, it's LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining Roger, and Springfield and I, on this week's edition of REALTALK™. See you next time.

Hi, I'm Roger Pettingell, Sarasota's luxury waterfront property specialist. I thought I'd take a few minutes this morning and talk about some of the trends that I see on Longboat Key. It's one of the areas that I've worked, I started up here in 1983. And I've seen a lot of changes to the Key, and sometimes people say, "So hey, you know, what's going on out there?"

You know, back in the 80s, it was kind of a slower key, a lot of the properties were two bedrooms, a lot of rentals and then come the 90s, we saw a lot of the luxury development come in. We saw buildings like L'Ambiance, and the Sanctuary, Grand Bay, Water Club. They all offered things like private elevators and high ceilings. And so, if you kind of work back the numbers with me, we're talking about the late 90s of those times.

And the buyers for those came in, they were the typical buyer that we even still see today. They were in their late 50s and 60s. But now fast-forward, 20, 25 years later, you're seeing a lot of those people changing their lifestyle. So maybe they've decided that they're going to move into town, or they're going to move back up north even with family. And so you're seeing a turnover and I think that's when we look to the increase of inventory out there, that's one of the things we're seeing.

But the vibrancy of Longboat Key hasn't gone anywhere. As a matter of fact, if you look at things like the brand new art center that's coming to the Publix shopping area. It's going to more than double the size of the art center that's on the north end of Longboat Key. That's very exciting. There are two brand new restaurants coming. The Shore on the north end of the key and then that restaurant that's going to take over where Pattigeorge's was by the Columbia guys. And of course the Colony site, that's going to be something that's exciting because that land is so fantastic. It's such a great parcel, we know something great's coming there.

So it's not like the vibrancy of Longboat Key has gone anywhere. As a matter of fact, I think we're ready for a resurgence and I'm excited about it. So if you're interested in looking at property on Longboat Key, give us a look up on LongboatRealEstate.com, a website I've had going for over 20 years.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Greetings from the beach Roger.

Saturday edition.

That's a weekend update.

You know why we're doing a Saturday edition?

Why?

It's April Fools. No, because we've been so busy.

Right, March we just blew it out of the water.

Someone flipped the switch, right?

We have complained on REALTALK™s past about February being disappointing, but March more than made up for it. I think we had 25 million dollars worth of sold or pending.

Just been unbelievable. And we're here at one of our wonderful beach houses. The last time that we were here was last summer. And we were out there somewhere sweating profusely.

That's when it was under construction.

When it was under construction and it’s been completed since the end of last year and what a magnificent property.

Right I mean, and from the kind of furnishing, finishing position, it's been about just a couple weeks. As a matter of fact, so it had a sister property which we put under contract already.

We did.

And when people come in, I mean we wanted just to share it because I don't feel like it's going to last very long, it is so beautiful.

Absolutely, wonderful finishes, built by Mason Martin Builders.

Yeah they've done a terrific job, and just the ability to capture the living on the north end beach, you know where it's just so private and so intimate up here.

And the Gulf vistas here truly stretch on forever.

They do, all the way to Mexico.

Gorgeous sunsets, beautiful terraces, up and down.

And what we're seeing is, you know, we keep talking like people do like new, they also like new and finished. So they are wanting to see what that end product's going to look like. And honestly, I feel like I have pretty good vision. Until this was furnished, I didn't really get it. Like part of the spaces, I couldn't see what the architect was doing. But they've really taken advantage of the great room feeling that everybody says that they want and you know, they're always trying to rip down walls. I mean here, it's already there for you.

And they've kept their finishes, it's a very neutral color palette as well.

Right, this is what people are looking for. Like, you know the neutral backgrounds, the colors of the sea, and the pillows and in the furnishings and things like that, the real wood floors.

Right.

Like it is what you want and it is at a really good value.

Yeah, it's really quite lovely and certainly does not compete with what we see out there.

Right, we're definitely planning on having this being an April sale.

We'd love to show it to you so give us a call at (941) 387-1840, or visit us at LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us on the special weekend edition of REALTALK™.

April Fool's.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Good morning from Sanderling Club.

On Siesta Key.

Sanderling has always been one of my favorite places. It's really like just a hidden gem on Siesta. And you know, it's just past the Point of Rocks.

Right.

You would take the south Siesta Key Bridge, and take a left. You'll find that it's the only gated community here on Siesta Key.

And one of the more older historical neighborhoods.

When was it started?

First homes were built in the mid-1940s. At that point it was just a little over 67 homes and today I believe there's about 106 lots within the community.

And almost all those lots are either on the direct beachfront, on a canal or on a lake or lagoon.

They are, and some very unique amenities to this community as well. They've got a fabulous beach club where there are 25 cabanas.

Didn't like that Paul Rudolph design, right.

Sarasota School of Architecture. They're actually on the Historic Register.

I didn't know that.

Yeah

I know that you can have one as you rent them and then you can decorate them for yourselves, which is really cool. I mean it's a really neat little amenity, especially if you're not on one of the beachfront sites.

Right, and if you happen to be living in one of the homes that does not have boating water, they actually have a bayside club marina, just a little bit south of Stickney Point Bridge, where they have 15 boat slips.

And you can put your own lift on those too, I know.

Yeah.

One of the cool things is there's a really nice diversity of different product for sale in here. So right now, for example, you can go from nine hundred, and ninety-nine thousand, which is a house with a lagoon view, up to 16 million.

Amazing.

And that is, you know, an amazing house on the beach. And there was just a sale here that's pending, 10 million. So some of the most expensive real estate in Sarasota has actually happened right here in The Sanderling Club. It's kind of easy if you have kids down in Pineview.

Right.

Pop them down there, easy in and out of Sarasota.

Good access to 75.

I mean it really is a great community.

And you're a stone's throw from the number one beach in the United States.

Even less than a stone.

We hope you enjoyed this community snapshot of Sanderling Club. For more information about listings here and other real estate in the area, be sure to visit BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us this week on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Good morning, how are you?

I'm great, how are you?

Good, we're kind of in a formal office setting today. I thought we talked about some formal office stuff.

Numbers, mortgages, pluses, minuses.

You know, it's interesting if you go back a couple years, like right after the recession we had, right after 2008 it was kind of slow. But then as 2009, 2010, 10 and 11 started really to move and everything was cash. All the buyers were cash, and we kind of bragged about it. You know, it was like some superiority or something that we were getting these cash buyers. Which is great, right. Interest rates continued to stay low and I think as the stock market recovered and investment managers suggested you know, to be smart to take out two to three percent mortgage and keep your money in the market. Ok, I get all that. So what does that mean to us, as from a Realtor receiving an offer point of view? If I got one side by side, cash versus mortgage. You know, there's always an uncertainty with a mortgage. So you're always gonna go for the cash. And a lot of times people will call up and say, "Well, I'm a cash buyer." I'm like, you know we're kind of used to cash buyers and that sometimes we'll even counter back that we're just not going to accept a mortgage contingency. So I think a buyer thinks that they have greater strength with that cash. Which they kind of do, but it's also kind of what we expect anyway. So we've had a couple deals lately where these mortgages, so with the Dodd-Frank bill came out, you know five years ago and it really tightened up the regulations for mortgages. So it's just not as easy as it used to be.

No.

Which is also good news, right. Because that was part of the reason why we had...

We got in trouble.

The great recession was all this money was just Willy-nilly being lended out. So it's definitely not Willy or nilly any more. So what people are going through, like they used to have this no-doc mortgage. You basically, just show up. You know, you give them, you know, your income statement, they would give you money. So it's far from that anymore. It's at least a 30- day process. So when some mortgage person, or I kind of feel like I don't want to slam a mortgage broker. But you know they might be trying to get your business. And they say, "No problem, 15 days we'll get you approved." You know, unless you've done a lot of preparing for that, it's just not gonna happen. And why that's a big problem, is because you set your dates for that. And you set the seller up for an expectation.

It's a domino effect.

And they come back and you're looking for an extension, you know they're not too happy with you. And if they have somebody else, they're not going to give it to you. So if you're going to get a mortgage, do your homework.

Right.

Even if you're thinking you might buy something next season. You know, start lining that stuff up. And don't go use your credit card and buy a lot of stuff. You know, maybe don't get a new car loan. Whatever, look to the counsel of the mortgage broker.

Right.

They'll give you the path to reach a nice easy approval.

Just makes it easier for everybody in the long run.

It does, and mortgages are a great thing. You know, interest rates are going up. I mean we've talked about this forever. But clearly, you can see a path that they're going to be going up. I don't know whether that, I think up until that five percent rate, people are going really to still be drawn to mortgages. When they get over that, who knows where the markets are, where cash is and what's happening. Mortgages are around forever.

Right.

So just keep that in mind, cash is king, like that best price and best terms.

Right.

But if you're going to bring a mortgage in, make the rest of your offer attractive, and make that something, and show why you're going to get that.

Good information.

Thank you.

Yeah. We're still listing out here in Roger's office, and we hope that you will keep on top of all of our new product by visiting BestSarasotaRealEstate.net. Thanks so much for joining us at REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Good morning Mary Kay, here we are in the sunshine with the birds, it's so beautiful.

It's absolutely gorgeous and it's the first of March.

I know that's funny, like we wait so long for season to come, and then here we are Bam.

Bam.

Here we are in March. We used to think February and March was it, right. Like, then everybody packs up and goes home, especially if there's an early Easter, or Passover, or spring break. And now we pretty much have drug the season out to, I'll even say the end of May.

Right.

So we have a lot of people here who are six-months residents for tax purposes, primarily. So they might even come from October to May. So you know we're not like in the, I would have in the old days said, "You know, 30 days, that's it." But not anymore.

Not anymore.

And we have a little bit later Easter this year, and I thought we'd just sort of get a little update on how 2017 season is shaping up.

You know I would say, I'm gonna. It's always easy to look back. So like, if you ask me, it would be a lot easier if you said, "What was 2016 like?" Right.

I don't ask easy questions.

I never thought about that. Like, last January, super-slow, the stock market was way down, easy to figure that out. Obviously stock market is way up now, right. So we're at record highs in the stock market.

Right.

Dow Industrials. You know, you would think that, that would be a great indicator for us. It seems to even be a tricky indicator. So people, they want to make more money while they're in the stock market. I would argue this to be a perfect time to be diversifying that portfolio.

Right.

Into the real estate realm. A lot of readings I do for national markets, if you go into the California markets. Some a little bit in New York, some of the different cities, California. And then clearly, like a city like Toronto, you put something on. You can get as many as 60 offers in a day.

Wow.

That just makes my head spin to think about that. I'm just looking for like one really good offer, that's all we really mean. We have, I'd say it started out, February started a little bit slower than we're used to.

Right.

Why is that? And I ponder that a lot. I think about the stock market. I think about the weather, which we've had as good as season weather as we ever had.

Like three cool days.

And it's been pretty cold up North. I think they've had really cold but then it, you know, warmed up. So people kind of forget, maybe. I don't know whether they'll think about this as a cold winter, or not. You know, I think the election, we thought that this would add certainty to people's minds. But at the same time, it brought in big change. And I think that there are people sitting on the sideline saying, "You know, what does that change mean for me?"

Right.

So when I'm thinking about owning a second home in Florida. Like, why do I want to wait? I want to enjoy this. I want the tax advantages. I think this year, you have some more opportunity. There's some more good inventory out there for you to choose amongst.

Truly, right

And towards the end of February, last week. We started to see quite a pickup. So, we've had some big sales, we've had some little sales. You know, kind of that mid-range is actually what we're seeing is a little bit slower. I'd say now, like you want to be a buyer, you want to get that. I remember so well after stock market drops, where people would say. They'd walk into an open house and they said, "The money I lost, I could have bought this house." Right, I mean. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but nothing goes straight up.

Right.

Right, be smart, diversify, buy Florida real estate.

And people are still listing, so the inventory is changing constantly as well.

Right, we've got a lot of, you know, renovated places, we've got some great new construction stuff. You know, really you can come down and find something pretty great.

You sure can.

I feel like you're getting, a still a great fair value. Especially when you compare with other Florida markets.

And our inventory is also ever-changing, so please stay up to date by visiting LongboatRealEstate.com often. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™, see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALKplus™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hi Roger.

Mary Kay, talk about luxury, we're in the lap of luxury at the Ritz in downtown Sarasota.

Who doesn't love the Ritz-Carlton lifestyle.

I do. When the Ritz came to Sarasota back in 2001.

Right.

It was really transformative. It was really bringing Sarasota onto the world stage. And I say that because the traveling network of people that go to different Ritz-Carlton's. It really is amazing and what it meant for us, was all these new buyers. And being able to introduce Sarasota to them, through the Ritz was really wonderful.

And the world-class amenities that they brought along with the hotel and the residences are just, you know.

World class.

Such high quality.

Because people would say, "Well, why would you build a Ritz in downtown Sarasota? You know, why not the beach." Well they married that together with the Ritz-Carlton Beach Club. So the member's beach club over on Lido Beach is the perfect amenity, and then they have a fabulous golf course, also. Not to mention a spa, they have great meeting space, and then the very fortunate few, get to live here.

And the location, so close to downtown and all the cultural amenities that we have.

And the services that you get.

Yeah.

But to be able to live so on the upper floors of this building. I don't know that even everybody knows that. Those are all private residences. And they can be one-two bedrooms, or you know, multi four and five-bedroom penthouses. So if you want that Ritz-Carlton lifestyle, you can get it right here in Sarasota. And be in the center of everything. It's as much as you could want. I don't know why anybody would not want to live here.

Who wouldn’t?

I mean, it is the greatest thing ever.

For more information on the Ritz-Carlton lifestyle, and communities, and other communities in our area, I hope that you'll visit us often at LongboatRealEstate.com. Thanks so much for joining us this time on REALTALKplus™, see you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, we're here in the thick of season.

Thick of season and the thick of some construction.

You know, it's funny. Like we always talk about putting your best foot forward when we're trying to sell an individual residence. Well, a lot of the communities on Longboat, in particular, seem to be doing that this season.

Right.

Which yeah, when we're Realtors it's a little annoying for us to have to go by construction guys, but I'll tell you what, it really adds a lot of value. You can completely differentiate between a community that's keeping its common areas up-to-date, or even forward-thinking, versus one that isn't.

And this morning we're here at a new listing that we have at the Promenade, and there's quite a bit of upgrading going on here.

Right, the Promenade has honestly, always been a forward-thinking community and really stayed on the current edge of either the new design trends or, you know, things that are important. So what are they doing here today, like I think the impetus was to upgrade the hallways, right. To make them look more current and the more contemporary look that we're seeing. And while they're doing that, some of the pipes are old, so some of the cast-iron pipes, that was the perfect time to turn them into PVC.

Right.

And they're going to completely redo the lobby. And all this, you can't you can't just click your heels and have it done. It would be so nice if it was just done during the summer and that was that.

Right.

You know it isn't, but we always can tell a new buyer is, all the planning has been done, the work is going to be done by the time you close, it's paid for. The previous seller has already taken care of that for you, so it's really a win-win for a buyer. This is a little bit of a headache for everybody who's here during the time.

Yeah, so they're reinventing themselves. And we're sitting here in a brand-new listing that we have in the community, unit 406.

Right, we have both listings that are available. We have this and 904, which is a penthouse.

Right.

So it's really, very limited inventory for the Promenade. Which I remember being on the tail end of the original sales, back in 1985, I think here. And to have seen the different progressions, this was once, the Promenade was once going to be three buildings, and they were going to all be connected by a common promenade. It turned out that it was just one building, and then the two Water Clubs came in after that sometime. But it made for a community that was very highly amenitized.

Right.

So, these were planned to be amenities for three buildings. So you have this enormous six-acre site, with four tennis courts, parking.

One of the largest pools on Longboat.

Right, it's a great value here at the Promenade. And it's going to be all renovated, so even better, too.

Brand new. We'd love to show you this new listing at the Promenade. If you want to visit us online at Promenade406.com.

Or Promenade904.com. Don't forget, that one is also great.

Or Promenade904.com. So, thanks so much for joining us this week on REALTALK™, and we'll see you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, could it be any more beautiful today. I'm determining that this is the most beautiful day of 2017.

I think I have to agree with you. It's glorious and we're here at Grand Bay.

Right, I mean and if you want to really enjoy beauty and glory, come to Grand Bay. It is. We've done REALTALK™s here before.

We have.

It's really one of our favorite communities. It's certainly our favorite bayfront community for this kind of living, where you can have these beautiful condominiums. Very current, with the private elevators, under- building parking, wide open floor plans, huge panoramic views of the bay and the city. I'm gonna tell you, these are value properties. So if you would look to the pricing that you have at Grand Bay, and compare that to something in town.

Right.

Congested by traffic and horrible things. Now I'm talking bad about downtown. I mean it's just unbelievable. And some of them, like the one that we're in here today is 221 at Grand Bay. So this was in Antigua direct bayfront, it's been completely redone.

Stunning.

And it's what we always talk about, like opening up that kitchen wall, getting those living spaces together, being able to see out. So you have something like that, you have ones that haven't been redone in prime locations, different floors.

Different floor plans.

This is one of the rare opportunities where you actually have a really nice inventory at Grand Bay. So as a buyer, you can come in, you can say, "Do I want to do a renovation myself? Do I want to be in the largest plan? Do I want to be in one of the smaller buildings?" Kind of a starter. You know, we've got a great new one over there too.

We do.

So if you're shopping, and this is February now. It's shopping time.

It's buying time.

Exactly, you've done the shopping, now it's the buying time.

Right.

We know you've been looking online, we can see online that you've been looking. We had pretty good showing activity in January, but kind of typical for a January. You know, lackluster. People go back from the holidays. We know that renters are here. We can start to see them. I'm a little bit afraid to go to Publix for lunch today because I know everybody's gonna be outfitting their places. They arrive in early February. But that's the time. So always know whether it's a good market, bad market. February and March, always the busiest time for contract writing. I'm thinking you should come to Grand Bay and write one.

Absolutely, as Roger mentioned, there's a wide variety of floor plans and price ranges available. We’d love to show them to you, and this new listing in particular if you want to check it out online, GrandBay221.com. Thanks so much for joining us this time on REALTALK™. See you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, how are you doing?

We're out in the yard today.

We are. Why are we out in the yard today?

Well, you know, this is the time of year we like to talk about snowbirds.

We do.

So I thought we would focus on actual snowbirds. And if you look up, you can see there are two, at the moment just one, but this is a pair. I understand American eagles always stay together, they mate for life.

So cool.

And they have this enormous nest, they're perched up in this pine tree, just adjacent to this cool little listing that we have in Buttonwood Harbour.

And I bet they've got a pretty good view from up there as well.

You know, I believe that it's a Gulf-to-bay perch. It does look like they upgraded because a while ago, their last nest I think got hit by lightning.

That's what I heard.

It's terrible, so hopefully they had a great Realtor that found them this. Which is really a perfect little spot. And it's cool, like these are the things that really bring charm to a house, right. It's not just a house in any neighborhood. First of all Buttonwood Cove is really cool because it's right near the beach, it's right near Publix, it's your own house. And you have a three-bedroom house, with its own garage. And for five hundred dollars a year, you have access to the marina, where you can keep your boat.

It's a great little neighborhood, pocketed right off of Gulf of Mexico Drive.

I mean, it's good enough for the eagles, right.

We'd love to show you this new listing, not only the front, not only the house, but also what's going on here in the backyard. Visit us at 604ButtonwoodDrive.com. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™. See you next time.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Mary Kay, welcome to this fun listing on Lido Key.

This is really a fabulous house, right.

Right, clearly an artist lives here. I mean, I don't know how much you can see but it's got a lot of really charming things and right across the street from the beach.

Right, absolutely. You know Sarasota is blessed to have so many beaches and we never really talked about Lido that much before.

I know, we got as far as St. Armands.

And then we kind of stopped.

And then we stopped there because people think St. Armands, let's go to Kilwins, or let's go shopping. But there is a lot more to Lido Key than just St. Armands.

And living on Lido is really an extension of that St. Armands lifestyle, right?

Right, I think you find the a lot of international buyers here. They love that walkability. You know, whether it be to a coffee shop, or restaurants. You know, just walk to the beach, walk to shopping, walk to dining.

Nice mixed use of tourism units, as well as residential communities, sort of in and out, off of Ben Franklin Drive.

And it all is right, and then you also have the Ritz here. So the Ritz Beach Club, which supports the different memberships of the Ritz, as well as the Ritz residences.

And a great history here on Lido. Lido Key opened to the first automobile traffic back in 1926, believe it or not. And shortly thereafter, one of the famous, old famous Sarasota landmarks, the Lido Casino was built back in the 1940s.

That's kind of where the Beach Pavilion is now, right?

It is, but it was not only beaches and swimming pools, but they had a ballroom, and seahorses, that kind of guarded it.

But they actually had horses on the beach. There was a stable on Lido Beach, up until not that long ago. Like 15 years ago, where you could ride horses on the beach.

Yeah, but neat history. Ralph Twitchell actually designed the casino. He was one of the fathers of Sarasota School of Architecture. So really neat history. And this listing actually doesn't sit very far from that site.

Right, where there's actually a swimming pool, still today. Where if you don't want to go to the beach, you can go to the pool. And one of my favorite things about Lido is the kayak trails through the mangroves.

Absolutely.

So you can take your car and drive to the end of Lido, where there's a park.

South Lido Park.

And it's really a great family park with playgrounds, and grills and stuff. But you can unload your kayaks there and go through the mangrove trails and see manatees, and dolphins. It's really one of our favorite things to do.

It really is. So, if you'd like some more information on this new listing on Lido, I hope that you'll call us or visit us online at longboatrealestate.com. We'd love to show it to you. Thanks so much for joining us on REALTALK™. See you next week.

Hi, welcome back to REALTALK™ with Sarasota's luxury waterfront specialist, Roger Pettingell. Hey Roger.

Tech edition.

Tech edition alert. You just got back from Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show.

Right, I'm not a big Vegas fan. I don't like anything unless it's a sure bet. But I gotta tell you I did love this Consumer Electronics Show.

Cool stuff?

Let me just give you a little bit of a flavor. The reason I went out there, was Coldwell Banker was actually a sponsor of part of the show. So this show is two-and-a-half million square feet of display space.

Wow!

So you can imagine, I mean, I had my sneakers on. What Coldwell Banker was doing was sponsoring the Smart Home section. And that in itself was really quite large.

Very cool.

And what you would see in there was doorbells, video doorbells, electronic locks, a lot of motion sensing video cameras, a lot of indoor outdoor cameras. The coolest thing for me though was the companies that were looking to integrate all those together. So at our house we have the smartlock, and we have the Ring doorbell, and we have you know the air conditioning Nest system, but we have to go to three different apps for that. And you know research is showing, and quite obviously so, that people really you know, that's not as fun for them. I think that people are overwhelmed by it, they're worried about that it's not going to be relevant soon enough. So the company that's got all the components that you can put in and out, and all on one app is definitely the way to go, and what we're pitching to our customers to make their homes into Smart Homes, which I think is going to make them more marketable, and for higher prices. I also just love the cool stuff. Like there's the auto-driving car section, which is enormous. And the cool thing I saw, I'm not sure how relevant is to my life, but they're doing like all these things where you even have a spoon that can count your calories. And they have a spoon for handicapped people that keeps it from shaking.

Wow.

I mean but everything out there is just so cutting edge. There were 177,000 people that came. All kinda young, smart, you know like vibrant people with these great ideas, 55,000 of them were from other countries. So just the mixture of ideas and things that were prototypes and stuff you can see. You know, if you catch me out in town ask me about it, I'll give you about an hour speech about it.

We also too, there are some certain criteria that make your home a smart home, and if you're interested in that, we have that on our website, which is longboatrealestate.com.

And I am a Smart Home specialist.

I know you are.

One of the few.

Thanks so much for joining us on this special, tech edition of REALTALK™. See you next time.