Chicago and Southern Illinois Real Estate Happenings

This is a wonderful home in a well established subdivision priced at just $245,000.

• This home has a newer Air Conditioning unit, Roof, Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher,
  Garbage Disposal, and some newer plumbing.
• It is near majoy highways and has great schools.

A Virtual Tour and more information about this great Casselberry home can be found on my
central Florida real estate website.

Just a peak at the landscaping tells you this is a home that was well taken care of by its owners.

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

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

(Marketed with Permission)

The Florida real estate market is coming in for a landing just like I told you a while back......not a crash and burn...

Here are the facts:

• Sales of pre-existing homes in July 2007 were at 11,674 right in line with pre boom years,
  if just a little low.
• In June 2007, the median national sales price for a home was $230,300, which is UP .1
  percent from the previous year. How's THEM apples??
• "Existing-home sales should be relatively stable over the next few months, holding in a
  modest range, with some pent-up demand growing from buyers who've been on the sidelines,"
  says NAR Senior Economist Lawrence Yun. Even though he said that sales could be temporarily affected
  by recent mortgage industry disruptions, Yun added that the "fundamental momentum clearly
  suggests stabilizing price trends in many local markets."

Here are the Florida statewide sales statistics by area....... 

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

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

    STATEWIDE* (1)                   11,674   15,378  -24   $237,500  $250,400   -5
    STATEWIDE-YEAR-TO-DATE    83,876  117,336  -29   $239,700  $249,600   -4

    Daytona Beach (2)                  529       706      -25   $203,800  $214,400   -5
    Fort Lauderdale                      559        721     -22   $373,700  $380,400   -2
    Fort Myers-Cape Coral             426        694     -39   $246,100  $264,600   -7
    Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie          371        400       -7   $231,300  $259,000  -11
    Fort Walton Beach                   257        257       -     $228,800  $244,400   -6
    Gainesville                             319        299        7   $199,200   $219,800   -9
    Jacksonville                         1,160     1,492     -22   $198,000   $211,300   -6
    Lakeland-Winter Haven            253       419     -40    $172,600  $178,500   -3
    Melbourne-Titusville-Palm
     Bay                                       458       540     -15    $195,800  $219,500  -11
    Miami                                     505       673     -25    $377,400  $382,200   -1
    Naples-Marco Island* (3)            26        26      -       $540,900  $527,800    2
    Ocala                                      236      525      -55   $166,500  $177,200   -6
    Orlando                                1,484    2,281     -35    $258,000  $266,800   -3
    Panama City                            136       153     -11    $216,000  $229,200   -6
    Pensacola                                427       432       -1   $173,600  $169,200    3
    Punta Gorda                             185       286     -35   $179,600  $226,200  -21
    Sarasota-Bradenton                   711       739      -4   $277,700  $315,400  -12
    Tallahassee                              402       467     -14   $167,600  $172,800   -3
    Tampa-St. Petersburg-
     Clearwater (4)                        2,068    2,871     -28   $215,600  $232,200   -7
    West Palm Beach-Boca Raton      605       714     -15   $372,200  $390,100   -5

    (1) *Statewide figure includes data from the Naples Area Board of Realtors
        and Association of Real Estate Professionals.
    (2) Data from the New Smyrna Beach Board of Realtors is not available.
    (3) *Data is only from the Marco Island Association of Realtors.
    (4) Data from the Hernando County Association of Realtors now included in
        the totals from 2006 and 2007.

• As you can see MOST area sales are down less than 25% compared to last year.
• Most sales prices are down MUCH LESS than 10%.

So, when everybody starts to talk about all the DOOM and GLOOM in the real estate market,
You have the facts now..... TELL THEM!!!

This good factual news about Florida statewide real estate trends is brought to you by:

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

Beach and Luxury Real Estate
 

New home sales were UP in July nationally. 
How happy about THAT are you?

• Sales of new homes were up 2.8 percent.
• Orders for big ticket items (refridgerators, washers,
  dryers etc.) were up 5.9 percent!
• Sales in the west nationally were up a staggering 22.4 percent!
• The southern United States did not do as well, increasing sales by only .6 percent.
• Sales fell 24.3 percent in the northeast sector of the nation....
• The midwest area saw sales down only .9 percent.

Now -- Didn't I tell everyone that things were NOT that bad out there?

Here is a link to one of my posts about that fact.
I posted this on 6/28/2007, before the stats came out !

Lets ALL go have fun, serve our clients and find MORE out there!

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

Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

A married team of "so called builders" is going behind bars in central Florida.

John and Deanna Barrington have been convicted in federal court on fraud charges, and tax evasion.

John will be dressed in prison overalls for a term of 14.5 years and his wife will don a fashionable womens prison outfit for 2.5 years for her part in the scheme.

These two swindled untold millions of dollars from unsuspecting would be home buyers. About 75 victims and their families are affected by these two people; the millions they have taken from the purchasers might never be found (I am sure the money is in some Swiss bank account somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean).

Barrington had legally changed his name from John Stuart Jakows to conceal his criminal history before launching his home-building scheme. "He ddeserved a stiff sentence."Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg told the judge on Monday.

Handberg also said that, in Barrington's pre-sentence report, "his own mom called him a con man."

When yer OWN mom comes out against you -- YOU'VE got problems!!

This central Florida real estate news is brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

Over 2/3rds of homeowners in central Florida agree that NOW is the best time to buy a home.

This information was NOT from overzealous real estate agents.

• 70 percent of polled homeowners believe the value of thier properties
  will reamin the same in the next year.

• "The good news is that, amid proliferating news stories about an
  underperforming national real estate market, Florida homeowners
  remain optimistic about the value of their homes and are encouraged
  by the growing buyer's market," said Charles J. Kovaleski, president
  and CEO of Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund.

The results of this poll of 1,415 home owners in Florida gives me encoragment!

Are YOU ready to buy a home in central Florida?

• Up to $60,000 in FREE money can be yours to pay for closing costs and
  a downpayment on the purchase of a 1st time home, all courtesy of the Government.
• There are LOTS of first time home buyer incentives in Florida, along with home
  builder deals. And that makes for great opportunities for you!
• Even if you have credit issues, NOW is the time to start taking care of
  them so you will be in a position to make a strong offer when you are
  ready to find the home you and your family will fall in love with.
• I have trained, ethical, excellent professional loan officers in my sales
  team that will walk you through any credit problems you may have. We
  will get your credit score as high as possible so your interest rate and
  terms will be the most favorable!

 This central Florida real estate news was brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

 How many in coming links do you have to your real estate website?

• These are not reciprocal links (They want a link to their site when they give you one of theirs).
• They are NOT part of a link farm or organized effort to aquire links.
• These are ONE WAY IN BOUND links to YOUR site from other relevent real estate sites and directories.

At last check today, my central Florida real restate website had over 820 in bound links coming to it.

• These links are from webmasters who see the local, fresh, updated real estate information on my site and see the website as a relevant site to link to.
• They did not ask to link to me and I do NOT ask that they do, that would slow down the process.
• I did not join a link farm to promote my website to anyone; they found my site in organic searches in YAHOO, GOOGLE and MSN and a several other related search engines.

What did I do to get all these in bound links?

1. I optimized my websoite for 3 key phrases I target my clients for. I made the site specifically for THOSE types of clients I want to work with. My site is focused and relevant.
2. I made sure there was and is all the time: relevant and updated local information abotu the local real estate market in central Florida.
3. I update my website about once per month -- my blog updates every time I post in the Active Rain Real Estate Network, so that is covered. All in all, the site is updated several times per month and search engines LOVE that!
4. THAT IS IT!

• Do You think this is hard to do?
• Can you do BETTER than I am doing?
• Does this cost anything except time and effort?

The answers are:

• NO
• YES!
• NO

Here is a small bunch of neat FREE sites to help you with finding out if you are on target with your website building efforts:

• Finding out your Google Page Rank
• Getting your Yahoo and Google ranking for your site.
• Getting to know what Google ranks your site higher for.
• Overture keyword selector tool...seeing what keywords get searched the MOST!
• Counting the number of in bound links to your site.
• SEO chat -- a GREAT place to get more insight and cool tools for your site.
• Site Report Card -- A place to find broken links and other small stuff that hurt your ranking.
• Website Grader -- see how your website stacks up against your competition.

I wish you the best in your real estate website building efforts!

If you have any questions, please do NOT hesitate to comment below or send me an e-mail.

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

There has been a 49% jump in foreclosures for the first half of this year, as compared to last year in the central Florida area..

• There was one filing for every 98 homes according to statistics.
• There was a 60% increase in foreclosures compared to the last 6 months.
• Out of the largest 100 cities in the Nation, Orlando ranked 33rd for the amount of foreclosures filed.

From what the media is saying things are going to get worse before they get better...... I have seen some really GREAT posts about re-financings and help for those caught up in this sub prime mess.

Of course this is somewhat a stirring of the pot to sell newspapers by the media...they LOVE to make bad things appear WORSE than they are.... it is called sensationalizing the news.....

I want to offer some great help to those who might need central Florida real estate solutions to their problems.

Here is a partial list of highly ethical and straight shooting mortgage companies I would recommend if you need more info and maybe some counsel about the pros and cons of refinancing before things get totally out of hand.

• Jason Price with Knightlines Mortgage
• Mike Mapes -- Mortgage Banker
• Brian Brady -- World Wide Credit Corp.
• George Souto -- McCue Mortgage

There are MORE great mortgage companies in the Active Rain Network, but these four organizations are represented by professionals I would do business with and some of them I DO business with on an ongoing basis.

I hope you will avail yourself of this great resource, if you need it.

Brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Group Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

This exquisite home in Windermere is just a sample of the listings we have at our
central Florida real estate website. It is being offered at $935,000.00.

The building nestles on just over a third of an acre of landscaped lawn, trees and shrubs
in a Cul-De-Sac.

The home includes a surround sound entertainment system, separate game room with its
own wet bar and ice maker, an in-ground, screened in pool with a hot tub/jacuzzi and
so much more!

Hardwood, tiled and carpeted floors, vaulted ceilings, zoned air conditioning and heat, an
owned alarm system.... there is too much in this fine home to mention.

The Virtual Tour of this home includes 35 pictures of this wonderfully made, exceptionally
kept home.

If you want the very, very best that the "Sunshine State" has to offer, give us a call and
we will gladly give you a tour of this finely crafted home.

Our central Florida real estate website has homes like this one at nearly one million dollars
all the way to homes for less than $100,000.

We do not serve just the wealthy, we serve anyone who has a central Florida real estate need.

We specialize in first time home buyers, investors, sellers, and people relocating to the Sunshine State.

Brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

(Marketed with Permission)

 The central Florida commercial real estate scene is helping and cushioning the residential slump we are having right now.

The Orlando area remains a hot spot for commercial development. The central Florida area leads the state of Florida for the number and value of retail outlets opening in this past first half of 2007.

• A total of 45 transactions totaling over $840 million dollars took place in the first half of this year.
• The volume of deals is nearly double what the first half of last years volume was for the area.
• Orlando area R.O.I sits at just under 5.9 percent which means investors are willing to take a little less profit going in to get deals done in this area.
• The anticipated population growth plus high occupancy rates and rental stability have fueled this influx of investors.

All in all a strong look at the retail sector for the central Florida commercial real estate scene.

Brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

You CANNOT get a home this wonderful because this one was JUST completed spring 2007!

Travertine floors..... crown molding in EVERY room......

Stainless steel appliances, a pull out storage system in the kitchen, butler pantry
in the dining room....AND MORE!!

Here is a Virtual Tour of the home...it is AMAZING...but the pictures cannot do the
home justice; you have to see it for yourself!!

This home is right near historic Winter Park.....with it's shops and ambiance....
If you want to see the price of this wonderful home and get in touch with me
just click where you see central Florida real estate.

This amazing home is brought to you by:

Alexander Harb PSEM®, E-Agent®
The Knights Team Sales Leader
Beach and Luxury Realty Inc.

(Marketed with Permission)