Cape San Blas Real Estate Blog

School’s back in session so the beaches are quieter but as far as sales are concerned it seems a lot of people have enrolled in Real Estate Investing 101 as we had a banner week with three more sales and three new contracts.  With just two new listings our inventory remains essentially unchanged, down just one, closing the week at 401, with the MLS showing 155 homes and 246 lots for sale in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market. Only six sellers decided to try lowering their prices. Let’s take a look at what people are buying.

The banks are generating most of our business lately, and two of our sales and two of our new contracts were bank-owned properties.  Our first sale takes us to one of the northernmost subdivisions on the Cape, Sunset Pointe, where this interior bank-owned lot listed for $44,500 sold for just $38,000. That’s a 10-cents on the dollar sale having last sold in September 2006 for $355,000.  The county’s going to have to start moving these assessments downward as they had it at $50,000.

  Our second sale takes us a couple hundred feet south of Scallop Cove where this high and dry first tier lot overlooking St. Joe Bay sold for $72,000, well below its list price of $99,000, and a smidgen below the assessed value of $77,000.   It’s one of four lots carved out of a 100′ wide parent tract that sold for $310,000 in early 2004.  Each of the four lot owners share an impressively well-built dock for easy access to fun on St. Joe Bay.

We’ll head on out to the C-30 Corridor for our third and final sale of the week which takes us over to a mini-subdivision called Stillwater almost all the way out to the Franklin County line. It’s our second bank-owned sale of the week which last sold in early 2005 for $118,214, just a little above the bank’s list price of $21,500, and about 5-cents on the dollar for the $6,500 it sold for on Friday.  Your read that right – no typo – $6,500.  Unbelievable. The county on this one is WAY off, having it at $55,000.

The first of our three new contracts is back on the Cape in Seagrass where this bank-owned quarter-acre first tier lot which sold in early 2004 for $225,000 goes under contract with a list price of $140,000, below the assessed value of $170,000. This is a significant listing in that another first tier lot a little bit further south in Ocean Haven sold just several months ago for $160,000.

Our second contract is on a sprawling 3,888 square foot, 6-bedroom, 4-bath home with 50′ of waterfront listed for $849,900.  That lot alone sold for $1,044,000 in late 2008. Those owners were in the process of building a home when the property went to the bank, and they sold the unfinished house in June of 2009 for a mere $303,000.  The current owners finished the home beautifully and they now have a contract on it.

Our third and final new contract finds us back out on C-30 once again at Stillwater where yet another bank-owned property went under contract with a low list price of $13,500. The lot previously sold for $113,000 but is currently assessed for $55,000. There are no contingencies to be met and the projected closing date is September 21.

Only two new listings so no Pick of the Week there, but among our six new price tags I do have a Pick of the Week, and it’s a house on the Cape with million dollar views for just a fraction of the cost.

This is a 1,073 square foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath home with unobstructed gulf views which although it is not technically gulf front, you can see from the odd shape of the lot it’s not likely the beach will shift in such a way as to provide ample room for a home to be built in front of it.

In the spirit of full disclosure this is one of my listings, and this week we lowered the price from $399,000 to $377,000.  If you’ve thought you couldn’t afford a home on the beach this one could be just what you’ve been wishing for. The owners have never rented it, using it only as a family retreat, and they have taken very good care of it. It’s being sold completely furnished, too.

That about does it for this week. As you can see there are some terrific values out there. If you’re interested in shopping or thinking of selling, I’d love to hear from you. Try me on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . I love hearing from my readers. I hope you have a terrific afternoon, and thanks so much for taking a few minutes to stop by today.

Had a really full day yesterday showing property to several parties all day long and into the evening hours but it ended with writing an offer and getting verbal acceptance so that always makes the day feel worthwhile. Unfortunately, overnight, my buyers suffered an early onset of buyers remorse and this morning called and said they had concluded they really aren’t ready to commit to managing a second home, and so withdrew. Better now than after the contract is signed and everyone’s headed to the closing table.  It’s the nature of this business, long hours and zero compensation unless you successfully manage a transaction all the way to closing.

Several agents did just that this week as we had a total of three closings. I had a lot of good company as far as writing new contracts as none were completed. Just a handful of new listings, seven in all, and even fewer price changes, only five. Not surprisingly, our MLS inventory of active listings remains virtually unchanged at 402, with 155 homes and 247 lots listed for sale in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market. Let’s see what generated paychecks for a few lucky folks.

The first of our three sales is a bank-owned gulf-front home on Cape San Blas, located almost directly across the street from Scallop Cove. It’s a large 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 2,475 square foot beach home built in 2001 which needed some TLC despite its relatively young age. She first sold in late 2002 for $749,000 but a mortgage for $946,000 was taken out in 2005. The owners started trying to sell it in early 2006 when they listed it for $1.89M but found no takers, and eventually the bank ended up with it. They listed for $428,868 and sold it Tuesday for $410,000 cash.  

Here’s a sale that went quickly as it was featured as my New Listing Pick of the Week just a short while ago. It’s a bank-owned interior lot in the Jubilation development on the south side of the Cape which the bank tossed on the market with a red-meat price tag of merely $39,000.  That had the predictable effect of inciting an absolute feeding frenzy and they were soon juggling mulitple offers. One lucky winner emerged from the heap victorious on Monday and took the title for $50,000 even.  Well done, especially considering it sold in mid-2004 for $273,000, and even the county thought it should go for more like $85,000.

Our third and final sale was a short sale on a lovely first tier home out along C-30 on which the price tag had been lowered to an unbelievable $300,000. This is a lot of house for that price. It is a 4-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 1,884 square foot high-end home with a pleasing floor plan, large decks on both levels, and wonderful gulf views as you can see in this photo.

Not too shabby. It was built as a spec home in 2008 when it debuted with a $739,900 price tag but just missed the market for attracting a buyer.  The county now has it assessed at $240,349 which is pretty darn close to the $285,000 it sold for on Friday.

There are several attractively priced lots among our seven new listings, but no one clear winner towers over the rest so I’ll move on to our price changes where I’m going with this 50′ wide gulf front lot up in Secluded Dunes as my Price Change Pick of the Week as it now touts a new price tag of just $279,000. This lot has a fascinating history in that when I went back and looked at the history of sales, I saw that between 1994 and 2005 it basically had doubled in value every three years. In ’94 it sold for $125,000. In ’97 it went for $249,000. In 2000 it sold again for $465,000, and then again in ’03 for $973,000. That’s pretty good work if you can get it, “earning” roughly $170,000 just for signing a note and making mortgage payments. No wonder people were going nuts. Its last sale in 2005 was at the two-year mark from its previous sale when it went for $$1.362M, so it was still tracking to be close to doubling in that 3-year span even then. Only problem was there was no one waiting in line to be next by the time it got to that price. If past is prelude, then this property’s now listed at 1997 prices.  The county has it at roughly 1995 prices, having it assessed at just $177,030.

That’s wrap for this week. So glad you took time to stop by. I’m enjoying hearing from so many of my readers, and if you have questions on either buying or selling coastal property, I’d love to hear from you. You can always call me on my cell, 850-227-5197 or send me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com.  Thanks for checking out my blog today.

I hate to miss my Saturday deadline but business is good and there are only so many hours in a day.  I had back-to-back-to-back showing appointments on Saturday, and wrote one new contract, so it looks like I’ll be doing the update on Sunday this week. Lots to share with you so I hope you’ll stop back and check it out.

Our summer season slows down as the kids here and in Georgia head back to school, so it was a fairly quiet week with just two sales and one new contract,  five new listings and eight price changes.

Now onto our two sales, both of which are on the Cape, and we’ll start on the south side and then head north. First up is a bank-owned gulf front lot on Louisiana Lane which is in a beachfront micro-subdivision seaward of Surfside Estates on the south side of the Cape. This 50′ wide by 497′ deep half-acre lot last sold as recently as April 2007 for $400,000. The sellers lost it to the bank who put it on the market in June for $228,450, but soon after dropped that to $184,950, well below the county’s assessment of $235,000.  On Wednesday, some savvy buyer snapped it up for $165,000, exactly $3,300 per waterfront foot, which is roughly what similar lots in in the nearby South beach subdivision sold for in 1999-2000.

  Our second sale was a roadfront lot in the Ocean Haven Subdivision on the Cape. This one-third acre, 66′ by 215′ second tier lot last sold in January 2004 for $235,000 and was put back on the market four years later in January 2008 with a $250,000 price tag. Never got a taker and the listing expired with a list price of $119,000. This week a buyer went to closing with a check for just $80,000 – exactly the amount the county has it assessed for.

Our one and only new contract is on a beautiful gulf front lot in Secluded Dunes up by the State Park.  Isn’t that an amazing view?  It also has an amazing history. The sellers paid $1,362,500 for it in March 2005 and put it back on the market the following spring for $1.695M but that bus was long gone by then. Fast forward to today to find that list price has fallen back to earth to $289,900. Amazing as that seems, the county thinks that’s to high, and has it at $203,000. Wow. It’s a lovely property, with 58′ of waterfront. There are no contingencies to be met so maybe we’ll see this one going to closing pretty soon.

Compared to some of the eye-popping opportunties we’ve seen this summer, I’m not finding anything among this week’s crop of new listings or price changes worth grabbing a megaphone and shouting about, so we’ll keep the Picks of the Week on the shelf until next Saturday.   I’ll keep you posted if something surfaces in the interim that I think you need to take a look at quickly.

If you’re interested in finding out more about other properties for sale or if you’re considering selling, let’s talk. Give me a call on my cell, 850-227-5197, or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . Have a great afternoon and thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule today to stop by.

I have great motivation to focus and get my work done quickly this morning as the sooner I finish here the sooner I can get on over to the Florida Scallop and Music Festival happening all this weeekend on the waterfront in Port St. Joe.  Always a good time. It shouldn’t take long as we don’t have a lot to cover today since it was a fairly quiet week with only one sale and one new contract, five new listings and six price changes. A lot of listings expired without being renewed, though, so our inventory took a nice healthy dip, down 14 from last week, closing at an even 400,  with 160 homes and 240 lots listed for sale in the MLS in the Cape San Blas, Indian Pass and C-30 Corridor market.

More action at Ovation as our solo sale was this lot with unobstructed bay views which the developer had listed for $125,000, exactly what it sold for on Tuesday.  I think the county is way off on their valuation of this property with their assessed value of $65,000. This lot has gorgeous views, access to high-end amenities, bay and gulf access, tennis . . . in short, it’s a total package.

Our one new contract is a bit unusual in that it’s a bank-owned property with an unfinished 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 1,792 square foot house transported to a first tier lot in Gulf Pines out along the C-30 Corridor.  The lot alone sold for $600,000 in June 2005, and now the lot with the house-in-progress is listed by the bank for a mere $290,000. The buyers who paid that $600K put it back on the market exactly one year later in June 2006 with a $739,000 price tag but the music had long stopped by then. There are contingencies on the contract so no disclosed projected closing date yet.

I swear I have no affiliation with Ovation but I do love the place as you’ve no doubt figured out by now but there are fabulous values here on quality homesites.  When I looked at our crop of five new listings this second tier gulf side Ovation lot scored my New Listing Pick of the Week easily, entering the competition as a short sale with a give-away price tag of just $109,900, below the county’s assessed value of $115,000.  Another second tier lot on this same street sold earlier just this year for $130,000.

No problem selecting a Price Change Pick of the Week this week either from our six price changes - gotta love this 50′ wide gulf-front piece of paradise on Indian Pass which has been whittled all the way down from its original $249,000 to a scant $219,000.  To sweeten the temptation even more, the seller is offering generous financing terms, as in with 15-20% down the interest rate is negotiable, 5-year balloon, with 30-year amortization.  With 20% down at 5 1/2% that would be less than a thousand a month.

I told you this would be a whirlwind wrap up. Now it’s time to head out for some great music and scallops. If you’re in the area this weekend treat yourself to a good time and stop by the festival for awhile.  If you’re interested in checking out some real estate while you’re here, by all means give me a call on my cell at 850-227-5197 or shoot me an email to sherri@sherridodsworth.com . Love hearing from my readers and helping so many of them buy and sell property. Whatever your plans, have a great time, be safe, and thanks for taking time to stop by today.