The Map above shows the areas that are represented in the real estate data and statistics below
Data Source ► MyFloridaRegional MLS
Click here for a ‘no strings,’ customized, free market report for your area or neighborhood!
January 25, 2012
January 17, 2012
Make 2012 the Year of the Home Sale
Homes for sale inventory levels in Manatee County have seen more than a 30% decline, year over year, from December 2010 to December 2011.
This presents home owners who are contemplating a home sale a fantastic window of opportunity to get your home on the market for sale before the possibility of home inventory levels rising again due to the release of foreclosure properties that have been held back and delayed by the banks.
Use the form below these helpful articles to contact The Serena Group for a free evaluation of your home and personal home selling circumstances… we’re here for you!
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How to Use Comparable Sales to Price Your Home
Before you put your home up for sale, use the right comparable sales to find the perfect price. Read
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Keep Your Home Sale from Falling Apart
After finding a buyer, all you have to do to make it to closing is to avoid these five traps. Read
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7 Tips for Staging Your Home
Make your home warm and inviting to boost your home’s value and speed up the sale process. Read
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Find the Best Agent to Sell Your House
Ask detailed questions about their experience and skills to help you find the right agent for your home sale. Read
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5 Tips to Prepare Your Home for Sale
Working to get your home ship-shape for showings will increase its value and shorten your sales time. Read
December 28, 2011
Smart Ideas For Organizing Your Home To Welcome In The New Year
With a brand new year upon us, many of us will be rethinking, regrouping, and reorganizing our lives in preparation for what lies ahead in 2012.
Below are a few ideas for making the most of your ‘at home’ spaces. Creating a calm, clutter-free, and organized home is a fine way to pave the way for a happy and productive New Year.
From our family to yours…. We wish you a very happy and warm new year,
full of joy, happiness and success. Happy New Year!
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Small Home Storage: Maximize Your Storage Space
Your small home has more storage space than you think. For relatively little money but a lot of common sense and ingenuity, there’s space to be found. Read
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Low-Cost Kitchen Storage: Cheap Stress Reduction
Low-cost storage strategies bring calm to your kitchen, banishing stress-inducing clutter and leaving the space orderly. Read
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Under-Stairs Storage Stomps Out Clutter
Sweep out the dust bunnies. Clear away the clutter. Time to put wasted space beneath the staircase to work with customized storage solutions. Read
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Laundry Room Storage: 5 Naked Truths
Unless you do your laundry in the buff, it’s one chore that’s never really done. Follow these laundry room storage ideas, however, and you can breeze through your dirty duds in no time. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
December 22, 2011
The Serena Group, Real Estate News for Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida
Our own, Steve Georgie, in the Bradenton Herald news today.
Steve Georgie, The Serena Group
His photographer ‘extraordinaire?’ Why, that would be Bob Serena… of course!
Bob Serena, The Serena Group
But seriously speaking, our team of 7 full time real estate agents, sharing 80+ years of real estate expertise, are ready to assist you with your plans to buy or sell your home.
Contact us today to get started! Direct Phone or Text: 941.928.1248 or use the form below.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! 
December 8, 2011
Holiday Decorating Tips for Home Owners and Home Sellers
Holiday Decorating Tips for Home Owners and Home Sellers
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
FROM THE SERENA GROUP!
The Family That Welcomes You Home................... for the Holidays!
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7 Ways to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas
With a few conscious choices, your merry Christmas can also be an eco-friendly Christmas. Read
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Real Christmas Trees vs. Fake Christmas Trees: Which are Greener?
How do real Christmas trees and fake Christmas trees stack up when it comes to the environment and cost? We’ve got the dirt. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
December 4, 2011
November 28, 2011
5 Reasons for a Mortgage Refinance Other Than Lowering Your Payment
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5 Reasons for a Mortgage Refinance Other Than Lowering Your Payment
There’s more to a mortgage refinance than lowering your monthly payments. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
November 23, 2011
Bradenton, Sarasota, Real Estate News and Updates
NOVEMBER – 2011 Newsletter Housing Trends eNewsletter
Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter, presented by The Serena Group. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general.
The Serena Group, Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau and Realtor.org reports, videos, key market indicators and real estate sales statistics, a video message by a nationally recognized economist, maps, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, plus local neighborhood information and more.
Please click here to view our NOVEMBER – 2011 Newsletter Housing Trends eNewsletter.
If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the Home Evaluator link for a free evaluation report, or contact our team leader, Bob Serena, anytime, at: 941.928.1248.
We’re Here for You!
November 17, 2011
Bradenton, Manatee County, Real Estate and Homes for Sale
LOW MAINTENANCE BEAUTY
IN FABULOUS, WELL LOCATED, GATED COMMUNITY!
Click on photo for more information
| $200,000 |
| Single Family Home |
| Main Features |
| 4 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 1 Partial Bathroom Interior: 2,261 sqft Lot: 0.20 acre(s) |
| Location |
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4308 Windsor Lane East
Bradenton, FL 34203 USA |
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Keller Williams Realty of Manatee
(941) 928-1248
info@TheSerenaGroup.com
http://www.TheSerenaGroup.com
(941) 928-1248
info@TheSerenaGroup.com
http://www.TheSerenaGroup.com
Listed by: Keller Williams Realty of Manatee
Nearby properties for salehttp://goo.gl/DXMq9 |
November 11, 2011
Real Estate, Market, Report, Data, and Statistics – for November 2011
Real Estate, Market, Report, Data, and Statistics – for November 2011
November 2011 Market Update
While home sales in September were down slightly from a relatively strong month in August, they were up from a year ago, giving encouraging signs of a strengthening market and potential for stabilizing, if not appreciating, home prices. These signs include an increasing demand, shown by the number of people shopping for homes, and the decreasing inventory of homes for sale, in conjunction with some of the lowest levels of new housing construction since the 1960s when the Beatles first came to the United States.
Of the 3.48 million homes sold in September, 32% were first-time home buyers. With more and more people entering the market, the persisting obstacle for most is still the restrictive lending environment. In a plea to banks and policy makers, NAR President Ron Phipps said, “We need to remove the roadblocks to a housing recovery—not place more obstacles in the way of financially qualified buyers.”
With an increasing demand and shrinking inventory, it is hoped that banks will begin to see the market potential and start to lend to otherwise creditworthy home shoppers, opening the road to a more rapid recovery. While consumer confidence still remains at all-time lows, retail spending increased 1.1% last month, a positive sign of growth fueled by the approaching holiday season, which could propel the U.S. into a promising new year.
This Month’s Video
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Mortgage rates were down again, from 4.35% in September of last year to 4.11% this September. While the Federal Reserve continues to put downward pressure on interest rates to spur sales, Congress’s recent action to lower loan limits has further tightened lending among banks. This had the biggest impact in the Western states, which experienced an 8.8% drop in sales. This was mainly due to the concentration of more expensive properties in California, where buyers rushed to purchase properties in August before loans limits dropped on the October 1 deadline.
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Home prices were down, with a 3.5% drop in September compared to a year ago. The national median price for homes in September was $165,400, with distressed properties, foreclosures, and short sales still accounting for 30% of sales. This is a great opportunity for those potential buyers still thinking about purchasing a home, especially as the housing industry begins to show increasing signs of stability.
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With stronger sales than a year ago, the amount of homes for sale was reduced to 3.48 million units, or an 8.5-month supply at the current sales volume. With the lowest new housing construction in almost fifty years, the inventory of homes on the market is projected to continue to decline, which is a positive sign that prices could begin to climb again.
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Green Your Home Did you know that the housing and building industry accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s energy and raw material consumption? Our ability to “green our homes” truly has the ability to change the world. The principles of green are really about understanding priorities for a well-lived life—living healthy, being smart with money, and acting more sustainably.
We typically spend more than 80% of our nonworking or commuting hours inside our homes. Because we spend so much of our lives inside, it only makes sense we make a healthy inside zone the first priority. Here are a few DIY tips from Green Your Home to get you started:
1. Cross-Ventilate. An average adult takes in more than 14,000 breaths—or about 3,000 gallons of air—a day! Surprisingly, you are more likely to breathe polluted air inside your home than outside—even in cities like Los Angeles, which aren’t known for air quality. Opening one window won’t cut it… you need cross-ventilation so the breeze actually blows though your home, taking the pollutions back out with it. Open a front door and a back door, or one window upstairs and one downstairs.
2. Lighten Up. Simply swapping out the five most commonly used incandescent bulbs for CFLs or LEDs in your home can save you $60 to $100 a year. Combined with well-designed artificial lighting, natural lighting is also a great way to boost efficiency.
3. Low Flow. American families use about 400 gallons of water a day, and 70% of that is used inside the home. The majority is used in the bathroom: the average person flushes the toilet 2,500 times a year. Transform your home’s toilet from water-waster to water-miser for cheap. Place a brick or 2-liter plastic bottle filled with water into your toilet’s tank. The volume of these objects means less water will be needed to fill your tank—you’ve just created your own low-flow toilet. Also, be sure and have a leaky or running toilet fixed by a plumbing professional immediately.
For more tips, buy your copy of Green Your Home now at www.kellerink.com/greenyourhome
Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.
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Brought to you by KW Research. For additional graphs and details, please see the This Month in Real Estate PowerPoint Report.
The opinions expressed in This Month in Real Estate are intended to supplement opinions on real estate expressed by local and national media, local real estate agents and other expert sources. You should not treat any opinion expressed on This Month in
Real Estate as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of
opinion. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of information,
and provides said information without warranties of any kind. All information presented herein is intended and should be used for
educational purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as investment advice. You should always conduct your own research
and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. All investments involve some degree of risk.
Keller Williams Realty, Inc., will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in This Month
in Real Estate.
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