Chicago and Southern Illinois Real Estate Happenings

This wonderful home is in Remington Subdivision, a gated, golf course community.

It has many exceptional features:

• Built in 2002
• Over 1800 square feet of living space
• A two car garage with automatic door opener
• The home was painted with Tex-Coat, a sealer paint that
  insulates the home and protects it for many, many years. You
  will not have to worry about stains or painting for a LONG time. Your
  home will stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter,
  saving on heating and air conditioning bills.
• The community has a clubhouse and a community pool for your enjoyment.

Here are some more pictures and here is the Virtual Tour of the home.

If you want to see MORE pictures of this and other fantastic homes that are part of
central Florida real estate for sale, just click on the links in this post or go to our website at:

www.OrlandoRE.net

This home is offered at $258,000. No reasonable offer will be refused.

Brought to you by:
Alexander Harb, PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

(Marketed with Permission.)

This picture above is the crew we had for Crispers Restaurant at the American Cancer Societies
"Walk for a Cure" in Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando, Florida.

We had a great time talking about what it will be like if a cure is found for this dreaded disease.

There were THOUSANDS of people there at the event, with a CROWD clapping
at the end for the participants who walked the 5 Kilometers for the cause!

Lots of smiles were everywhere!

Walked the entire route;
talked about various things,
and visited a vetrinary agency tagging the Lake Eola ducks so they could help them live better.

There was a general feeling of love, caring and support in the whole event!

If you ever have time to do something like this, I encourage you to get involved.

My brother attended the University of Buffalo to help find a cure for bone cancer.

He majored in Bio-physics... his labratory classes were focased on sending an electrical charge through bone and trying to get it to regenerate.

After he left college, another student followed his work and a cure was found for certain types of bone cancer.

I am proud of what my brother accomplished!

The sky was overcast, yet it did not rain.... and the cloudiness did NOT dampen the mood 
of the crowd; we even had a band to play music to keep our spirits up!

Crispers, Mystic Dunes Golf Club, Siemens, The Bond

Foundation, The Cancer Institute, Pathology Specialitst,

Suntrust Bank, The Womans Center for Radiology, Allstate

Insurance, Bard Systems, Best Buy, The Bogainvillea

Clinique, the Breast Care Center, CNA, Winn Dixie,

Westgate Resorts Brighthouse Cable TV, Channel 13 and

MIX 105.1 were all sponsers for this wonderful event!

The Lake Eola Park is truely a fantastic place to have this event:

The park is emaculately kept!

Landscaped lawns, trees trimmed, ducks and other water fowl looked after.... AWESOME!

Many, many people had a great time -- added to because this park is kept spotless and is in excellent condition.

All the footpaths were pressure washed.... Nothing was left undone!

My boss Nancy is a cancer survivor.

She wanted to do this walk, even though she said she could only go so fast.

What a trooper!!

As you can see, we ALL had a great time having fun!

Humbry, one of our group, slipped and fell, but was not hurt!

He just layed there for a little while laughing at the top of his lungs as I got my camara out for this picture!

All in all, we had a GREAT time supporting a cure for cancer!

This fun and inspiring post is brought to you by:
Alexander Harb, PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

According to the Florida Board of Realtors®, things are still
slowing down out there.

• In the Orlando Metropolitan area, only 1,049 homes changed hands last month, compared to last years 2,015 homes; that is a 48% drop from the previous year.

The median home price fell in central Florida 12% from
$265,000 to $233,800. Buyers are going to have a GREAT
time when things get better out there!

Condo sales were even worse: A 64% slide from the year before.

• Statewide, sales fell 38% from the year before.

Meanwhile -- all is NOT bad in the central Florida real estate market:

• Low mortgage rates, strong employment and strong demographics
  have helped the central Florida area real estate market.
• "Conventional loans - the vast majority of
  available financing - are available to creditworthy borrowers. Buyers in
  most areas who do their homework will recognize that housing remains a good
  long-term investment." said NAR Senior Economist Lawrence Yun.

Here is the breakdown from year to year...see for yourself how YOUR area is doing:

Florida Sales Report - August 2007
                        Single-Family, Existing Homes

                                Realtor Sales          Median Sales Price
    Statewide &
    Metropolitan Statistical
     Areas
    (MSAs)
                             August           August   %      August    August    %
                              2007    2006   Chge     2007      2006    Chge

    STATEWIDE* (1)                11,279  15,252  -26    $231,900  $246,800   -6

    STATEWIDE-YEAR-TO-DATE 95,155 132,588  -28    $238,800  $249,300   -4

    Daytona Beach                       596     710  -16    $201,900  $213,400   -5
     Fort Lauderdale                             538      702   -23     $368,800   $362,800     2
    Fort Myers-Cape Coral             520     691  -25    $250,800  $264,100   -5
     Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie           287       387  -26    $214,200    $251,900  -15
    Fort Walton Beach                   219     255  -14    $227,300  $229,200   -1
     Gainesville                                       236       293  -19    $218,000    $215,300    1
    Jacksonville                         1,067   1,490 -28    $196,700  $208,400   -6
      Lakeland-Winter Haven              314       465  -32    $170,900    $179,000   -5
    Melbourne-Titusville-Palm
     Bay                                      430     571  -25    $202,800  $220,300   -8
     Miami                                                385       695  -45     $392,900   $378,800     4
    Naples-Marco Island* (2)           35      32    9     $507,900  $530,400   -4
     Ocala                                                 219      410   -47     $154,400   $169,600   -9
    Orlando                               1,472  2,221  -34    $249,300  $261,000   -4
     Panama City                                    131       135   -3      $199,300    $187,500    6
    Pensacola                               417     426   -2    $168,400  $169,500   -1
     Punta Gorda                                     223      274   -19     $186,500   $210,400  -11
    Sarasota-Bradenton                  687     791  -13    $273,500  $308,100  -11
     Tallahassee                                       432       543   -20    $177,600    $176,700    1
    Tampa-St. Petersburg-
     Clearwater (3)                      2,154   3,029  -29    $214,100  $232,400   -8
     West Palm Beach-Boca Raton     568       655   -13     $366,200   $386,000   -5

As I said before: It is going to be a slow landing rather than a crash......
Of course it also depends on WHERE you are in Florida also. certain
areas are going to be hit harder than others.

This informational post is brought to you by:
Alexander Harb,PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

Information was taken from:
The Florida Association of Realtors® and
Yahoo® News

This wonderful home in Bristol Estates has just about everything you could want in a home.

The Address is:
16036 Bristol Lake Circle in Orlando, Florida.

It is a 4 bedroom / 4 bathroom home of block / stucco construction.

This fantastic home is being offered for $394,900.00

Here is just a sampling of what you will find in this excellent property:

I think this small offering of pictures helps you get the idea.

Here is the link to a Virtual Tour of the home.

If you want to see MORE Central Florida Real Estate, visit my website.

This home has a LOT to offer:

• It is in a Gated Community
• Vaulted ceilings throughout
• An Alarm System
• Custom countertops in the kitchen
• A Storage system through the whole house
  to keep you organized
• Hurricane Shutters
• 4 zone A/C - Heat
• 3 car garage with door opener(s)
• Custom finished floors
• Surround Sound system for entertaining
• And MUCH MORE!

This exquizite home is brought to you by:
Alexander Harb, PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

 (Marketed with Permission)

When you talk to people about real estate, do you understand you are being "Mystery Shopped"?

A Mystery Shopper evaluates your performance based on certain criteria.

A lot of companies will let you become a Mystery Shopper if you sign up with them or pay a fee to sign up.

I work at Crispers Restaurant in Hunters Creek, Florida. They sell hot and cold sandwiches,
salads, soups and other things people love to get when out for lunch. The service time is
7 minutes or less -- so that means you can get a nice lunch in just a snap of your fingers.

Last week we were Mystery Shopped. The person who did it was not known to us
(They like it that way). We were evaluated in several areas:

• Knowledge of how to get to the store if the person called on the phone.
• Hospitality
• Quality of food ordered
• Did they get the order right?
• Speed of service (Within the 7 minute time frame)
• Cleanliness of the restaurant
• Notable efforts of the staff going above and beyond expectations

Our store scored a 101.3% on our Mystery Shop evaluation!!

Everything we did was top notch!

I am the lobby person who makes sure the order is done
correctly and the food is taken to the customers table.

As a matter of course I ALWAYS greet every customer cheerfully
and I visit each table at least 2 times to make sure everything
is alright and to see if the customer wants refills on thier beverages
or not.

On the Mystery Shopper Evaluation report, the customer said he/she
was greeted by me when they came into the store, plus I visited them
after I delivered their food another 3 times to make sure everything
was fine and to check to see if they wanted refills on their drinks.
They put those actions in the "Going Above and Beyond" catagory.

We got an EXTRA 5 points on our evaluation because of that!!

Now, I am asking YOU, real estate professional:

• Do you go "Above and Beyond" in your client service?
• Do you do a Proper CMA on a prospective clients home for sale?
• Do you make sure buyers are approved for a loan on
  the price of the home they are looking at?
• Are you entirely truthful about everything?

Those are things The Knights Team ALWAYS does when
servicing central Florida real estate clients.

Everything we do should make our prospective clients
feel at ease when they evaluate if they want to work with us.

This little "Horn Tooting Post" was brought to you by:

Alexander Harb, PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

(Thanks to mavnjess for his picture of an
"award for excellence" courtesy of Flicker.com
and scottclark23 for the pic of a DMV
evaluation form)