Hey everybody!

There’s been a lot of buzz for awhile now promoting sustainable “green” living on Sanibel and Captiva, but no action was really being taken.

Well, it seems that two groups, Benchmark General Contractors and the University of Florida’s School of Architecture, have decided to make this buzz a reality by creating the first sustainable community for coastal living on Sanibel and Captiva Islands.

This 10-acre community of 12 eco-friendly homes, of up to 3,200 sq ft. each, will be known as the “Sea Glass of Sanibel” and will be located just off Periwinkle Way.  You can expect that these homes will have as many of the high-tech amenities that go with green living as possible.

Sea Glass of Sanibel broke ground on January 11 of this year (1-11-2011 at 11:11am) and is scheduled to be completed in early 2012.

You can read a LOT more about it at Sea Glass of Sanibel and they even have a Facebook page where you can follow their progress.

This is a great project for Sanibel and Rob and I are really looking forward to seeing it come to fruition!

That’s it for this week, have a great one,

Sandy and Rob

p.s. SanCap One Source Realty Rocks! Check us out!

Hey all,

Well, homes sales in Florida are on the move, which is good news… but, ironically, the buyers that we are seeing are more foreign than domestic.

Which makes sense, I guess, beings that many foreign tourists that come to vacation in our beautiful state nearly always leave saying that they “would love to own a second home here”.  With prices down about 30%, they are now saying “Why not? Now is the time to buy”.

With Sanibel and Captiva being a little off the beaten path, we don’t see AS many foreigners as, say, Miami, Cape Coral or Naples might, but they do make their way over here every now and then and they definitely like what they see.

This article, “Foreign Buyers Lifting U.S. Home Sales”, references a few more statistics for you regarding this information and I’ve also pasted the chart in that article below for a quick glance and just where these buyers are buying within Florida and all of the United States.

Have a great week ahead,

Sandy and Rob

p.s. SanCap One Source Realty is located on 695 Tarpon Bay Road, Suite 14 – Come see us!

Image Credit to USA Today - Data from Trulia.com

What a GREAT holiday gift!

The SanCap One Source Realty Team has invested in a brand spankin’ new VAN called “Island Home Adventures”, where we take prospective home buyers around to show them the island and the different areas in route to scoping out their new home on Sanibel or Captiva!

This is so exciting and we are having so much fun in seeing our customers’ faces and hearing their awesome feedback after gliding through Sanibel and Captiva in our smooth new wheels!

So, if you happen to see us driving by, be sure to honk and give us a wave, so that we know that you are an avid reader of our blog and that you know the latest and greatest of what’s happening on Sanibel and Captiva…  :)

Have a great, great week!

Sandy and Rob

p.s.  SanCap One Source Beach Homes on Sanibel and Captiva…

Hi all,

Well, in honor of the infamous day of the year that we all shudder at – Tax Day – April 15th… I tracked down some really good information regarding the different tax savings that you can use on your tax reurn in your home buying or home ownership adventures!  :)

Of course, it would always be better to talk to your personal attorney or tax accountant with regards to your specific situation, but for the most part, these are the “down and dirty” formalities:

Owning a Home  - What’s Deductible?

Buying a Home – What’s Deductible?

A big thanks to RealEstateABC.com for compiling these lists for us!

Have a great weekend,

Sandy and Rob

p.s. SanCap One Source Realty awaits you with open arms, come visit our office!

Ok, take it for what it’s worth, but it seems that Barron’s magazine has voted us into the Top 10 locations in the U.S. for building a second home.

It quotes our median home price as being $3.5 million, but that seems a bit high for me, especially working directly with homeowners every day, and the likes of a home in that price range are few and far between.

I’m going to check our MLS numbers this week and update this post with our actual numbers, but I would probably say off the top of my head that our median home price on the Islands is more around $1-$1.5 million of late.  We’ve seen a few for more than that price range, but the median range is probably somewhere in there.

So, I guess we’re in the right spot for the future, if people should want to come and build/invest here…  but, then again, we already knew that, right?  :)

So, have a super weekend and we’ll catch up with you next week!

Sandy and Rob

p.s.  We have deals in ALL price ranges if you stop by our website at SanCap One Source today!

Well, let’s just say that it’s really no surprise that Lee County is experiencing the same thing that the majority of the country is experiencing, and that is a fall in property values across the board.

Depending on where you are in the country these days, with very few exceptions, homeowners are seeing between a 10%-50% drop in the value of their home.

One job that I certainly would not enjoy at this moment is that of a real estate appraiser.  These folks are not looked upon positively by homeowners as they arrive to do their inspections and make their relatively subjective assessments.

However, do keep in mind that they are answering to someone above them, as well, that is giving them the new ranges of home values to base their numbers on relative to the area where the property is located.

Take for example, the article that just came out yesterday regarding Lee County Property Values, which specifically speaks of Lehigh Acres, just inland from Ft. Myers away from the beach.  The homes there are taking a beating, however, we are also here in Lee County and our location is still holding pretty strong!

Yes, we are working with island and beach property homes and investments, but there are beach communities everywhere up and down the east and west coasts that are seeing home values significantly decline, but thank goodness, our investments for clients are still hanging in there!

Bottom line: Call us to list your property IF you need to and definitely call us if you are searching for quality investment opportunities, or just a great second home with some seriously fun island living attached!

That’s it for this week…

Have a great weekend,

Sandy and Rob

p.s. Sanibel Island Real Estate awaits your visit…