Do Rising Interest Rates Hurt Sellers or Buyers?

The truth is they hurt both, but they hurt sellers even more.  When rates rise 1% they rob home buyers of about 10% purchasing power.  This means that if a buyer qualified for a $200,000 mortgage they would only qualify for a $180,000 mortgage if rates rose by 1%.

This limits the available pool of buyers for the sellers and usually dampers home prices.  The double whammy is that the seller is usually going to purchase another home when they sell.  It may take longer to sell their existing home due to limited buyer pool, and all the while rates are rising.  Unless the home they're purchasing decreases substantially, which never seems to happen on the home you want, it will cost the seller more to purchase the next home.

The only caveat to this is if the seller is paying cash for their next home.

You can read more about this topic and complete article as it appears in the Fort Myers News Press. Rising Interest Rates a Double Whammy for SW Florida Home Sellers

Aren't all Realtors the same?  That may be the perception of many, but the truth is there is a big difference in skill levels and the services provided by Realtors and knowing the difference could save you thousands.

We wrote an article on this over on our Fort Myers Real Estate and Homes For Sale Blog about how choosing the wrong Realtor could cost you thousands when selling your home.

Sellers are happy to learn that hiring the Ellis Team at RE/MAX actually puts more money in their pocket at closing.

There are three main reasons why we're able to do this.  The first is marketing.  Nobody markets the way the Ellis Team does,  We'll be happy to sit down and show you and we think you'll see the difference pretty quickly.

Secondly, negotiation is huge.  When you ask an agent how they're a better negotiator you might want a better answer than to just say the price is firm.  Ask Sande or Brett how they negotiate on your behalf.

Next is the Secret Sauce.  The Ellis Team has been selling real estate for many years, and with that comes experience.  We talk to the top agents around the country and identify what works and what doesn't.  We've created a system so effective and unique you really need to see it.

Call Sande or Brett for an interview and we'll be glad to show you how we can sell your home for Top Dollar and sell it faster.  We can't tell you the Secret Sauce, but we can get your home sold and you into your next home.

239-489-4042

List of Questions to ask a realtor Before Signing Any Listing Agreement

Search the SW Florida MLS

Official sales prices should be released later today on sales prices for the SW Florida real estate market.

Preliminary numbers are out and it looks like median prices rose 13.95 while averages sales prices for single family homes rose 15.07%

This is encouraging news for sellers.  The complete article on SW Florida Real Estate Price Gains can be found here.

Inventory levels have been low and with high demand and low interest rates we can't really see an end to these prices.  We have end users.  The single family home inventory levels are tight and the rental market is even tighter, so buyers and renters have few choices.

We've been hard at work adding SW Florida property search updates.

We just added a Naples Real Estate Search

We added Miromar Lakes Real Estate Search in Estero

We added Marina Bay new homes in Fort Myers

We added Botanica Lakes Fort Myers

We added Gulf Harbour Waterfront Community in Fort Myers

We're adding more pages and areas all the time so check back often.  Of course you can setup your own searches.  If you have any troubles we're always here to help.

Don't forget our other website for more Lee County information

New and Update Pages July 1-2015

We just updated our Bonita Springs page

We updated the Cape Coral page

We added Riva Del Lago to our Waterfront High Rise Condominiums

We added The Brooks to the Bonita Springs page

We'll begin working on updating our Estero page and adding more communities.  If you'd like to see your community added simply comment and we'll work on getting that added as soon as possible.

Keep in mind even if your community isn't added yet you can search for any community and save your search.  The system will alert you of any new listing that enter the market in that search and of any price changes.  It's an excellent way to keep up on things in your area.  You can setup multiple searches too in case you're thinking about buying on one area and maybe selling in another, or perhaps you have your eye on 3 or 4 different areas and you want to separate the searches.

Good luck and we look forward to updating the site soon.  We'll have an other market update about prices  coming soon on our Main Blog

Southwest Florida Real Estate News June 26, 2015

Here are some stories that caught our eye or will impact real estate buyers and sellers.

Gulf Coast Hospital expanison is expected to be completed by 2020 and will double the size of the current hospital. This could have an impact on the Daniels Corridor real estate market.

Welcome to Our SW Florida Real Estate Blog

Leecountyonline.com is our new real estate search site for SW Florida.  Our official Lee County Real Estate Blog is hosted on another Blog.  We haven't decided whether to post regularly over here or keep the official markets stats and news article over on our other established Blog.

Since www.leecountyonline.com is primarily a home and condo search site and neighborhood resource we may post neighborhood news and MLS type information over here, so you may wish to bookmark our other site to keep up to date on overall market statistics for the Lee County real estate market.