Clearwater Beach Vacation Homes Archives

Staging Your Home for Great Photos

Staging for great photos – here’s some great tips for getting the perfect look and making that property shine in photos.

Design for the camera, not for the end user.

When putting together a space, we always think of the camera first. Will this angle look right, will it show off the best feature of the house? Will the light hit these items correctly? The good news is you have a camera in your pocket as you read this. When we stage a house for market, we are constantly taking photographs of it and looking at it through the camera lens. It helps us to see errors in symmetry, lighting, cleanliness, etc.

No more wrinkles.

In real life, wrinkly sheets don’t make a lick of difference. The camera, however, hates wrinkles and makes them look 100 times worse than they really are. Our best advice on this one is to use a professional steamer. The hot steam will take those wrinkles right out and makes the sheets, pillow shams and draperies look perfect in the picture.

Light it up.

Light can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you don’t know how to control it, you are destined to fail. The time of day and weather conditions can make a huge difference on how well your space photographs. If the afternoon sun is blazing into your room throwing harsh shadows all over, the shot is destined to look “blown out” with areas as dark as night and as bright as a nuclear holocaust. To help combat this problem, look for the best time for indirect sunlight outside and inside your space. It is also a great idea to turn on your interior lights and lamps, this will help to even out the lighting in the space.

Fluff the carpet.

So often we see houses photographed with harsh vacuum lines or matted carpet that looks old and tired. The best way to fluff up your tired wall to wall is to use a broom. Running the broom over the top of the carpet in random directions will bring new life to a sagging floor textile.

Look beyond the window.

It’s true enough you are photographing the interiors of your space but the outside of your windows will be seen in the photos. If there are piles of trash covered with blue tarps right outside your window, they are going to come through in the photos. Clean up the areas outside the window and make it visually quiet so it does not draw attention to itself. If the area can’t be cleaned up, consider a frosted film on the window.

Limit the color scheme.

There are neutrals and there are colors. The neutrals are black, white, grey, brown, beige, cream, silver, and sometimes gold. You can put as many different neutrals in a room as you want. They can form a great base for your color. The colors are the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Colors must be used with great restraint. We endeavor to have only one “color story” per room. A color story might be blues or reds or colors of the peacock, or teal and yellow. If you have more than one color story per room, the photographs will start to look chaotic and visually noisy.

Rely on symmetry, repetition, rhythm.

Symmetry, repetition, and rhythm can be found throughout nature and humans find them to be aesthetically pleasing. Symmetry can be found in most animals and insects. Repetition is why we find flowers so pleasing. Rhythm can be found in the ripples of a sand dune. A quick and easy way to make a space more aesthetically pleasing is to use these simple principles of good design.

Look at the problem from a different angle, then design for the best one.

What is the first impression going to be? Design for that view and the rest will fall into place. Figure out where the camera will most likely be and make every decision for the room based on that. Chances are, it will turn out great.

Hire a professional.

Don’t invest the time to decorate and then run through with an iPhone and snap 16 horrible pictures. If you want great photographs, hire a great photographer.

Put down the toilet seat.

No explanation needed.

Get out of the mirror.

Make sure there is no one in the mirror reflecting back with a camera.

Furnish the house, but don’t over decorate the cake.

Empty houses are hard to see. Furniture provides scale, shows use, and adds light to spaces. Without it, the space is just walls, windows, floors, and ceilings. It is important to show how the space is used and how big the space is. Once you have taken care of these items, then stop decorating. There is a point when the decoration is no longer about the house but more so about the decoration. Stop before you get there.

Florida Home to 1 in 4 U.S. International Sales

Profile International Home Buyers 2015

ORLANDO, Fla. – Oct. 9, 2015 – The National Association of Realtors^® (NAR)’ research division just released the Profile of International Home Buyers in Florida 2015 Report, which it creates in cooperation with Florida Realtors.

According to the latest report, international sales are not the exception in Florida, they’re simply a normal part of doing business: A majority of Florida Realtors members (69 percent) say they have international clients. Overall, one in four U.S. international sales take place in The Sunshine State.

For the survey, NAR looked only at clients who are “citizens of another country,” which includes:

Non-resident foreigners with permanent residences outside the U.S. who typically purchase property as an investment or vacations
Resident foreigners who immigrated within the last two years or who hold temporary visas that last longer than six months

Report overview

About 25 percent of foreign home buyers purchasing U.S. property buy in Florida
International unit sales totaled 44,000 properties
As a percentage, international sales made up 12 percent of Florida’s residential market (15 percent a year ago) compared to four percent nationally
The dollar volume of international sales: $23.7 billion
By dollar volume, international sales made up 24 percent of Florida sales (19 percent a year ago), compared to 8 percent nationally
69 percent of Florida’s Realtors have international clients (52 percent a year ago). The U.S. average: 35 percent
31 percent of Florida’s Realtors have more than five international clients (19 percent a year ago). The U.S. average: 15 percent
The latest report saw a significant spike in buyers from Latin America – 56 percent compared to 23 percent one year earlier
Approximately 50 percent of foreign buyers purchased in Miami-Miami Beach (36 percent) and Fort Lauderdale (14 percent)
The average price of property purchased by foreigners: $538,600 ($300,600 in 2014).
63 percent of Realtors said that clients found Florida properties less expensive than comparable ones in their home country (76 percent a year ago)
29 percent of Florida’s Realtors reported an increase in the percentage of their international business (45 percent a year ago). The U.S. average: 13 percent

The complete Profile of International Home Buyers in Florida 2015 Report can be downloaded at Florida Realtors’ website

The survey of Florida Realtors members took place July 7-Aug. 9, 2015; 1,203 Realtors provided information on their client interaction during the 12 months ended June 2015, and on the characteristics of their most recent sale during this period.

Florida Realtors 10/2015

Home Equity: You May Have More Than You Think

CoreLogic recently released their 2015 2nd Quarter Equity Report which revealed that 759,000 properties had regained equity in the last quarter. That means that 91% of all mortgaged properties (approximately 45.9 million) are now in a positive equity position. Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, reported:

“For much of the country, the negative equity epidemic is lifting. The biggest reason for this improvement has been the relentless rise in home prices over the past three years which reflects increasing money flows into housing and a lack of housing stock in many markets.”

Obviously, this is great news for the financial situation of many homeowners.

But, do they realize their equity position has changed?

A recent study by Fannie Mae suggests that many homeowners are unaware that their equity position has changed…in some cases dramatically. For example, their study showed that 23% of Americans still believe their home is in a negative equity position when, in actuality, only 9% of homes are in that position.

The study also revealed that, though 69% of homes had “significant equity” (greater than 20%), only 37% of Americans realize it.

This means that 32% of Americans with a mortgage fail to realize the opportune situation they are in. With a sizeable equity position, many homeowners could easily move into a housing situation that better meets their current needs (moving to a larger home or downsizing).

Fannie Mae spoke out on this issue in their report:

“Homeowners who underestimate their homes’ values not only underestimate their home equity, they also likely underestimate 1) how large a down payment they could make with their home equity, 2) their chances of qualifying for mortgages, and, therefore, 3) their opportunities for selling their current homes and for buying different homes.”

Bottom Line

Every homeowner should be aware of the true equity in their house and also realize the opportunities that go along with it. If you are unsure of the savings you currently have built up in your home, contact a real estate professional to help ascertain that number. You may be surprised.

Keeping Current Matters 10/2015

Tax Planning for Owning a Second Home

Benefits of Owning a Second Home

Learn how mortgage interest, property taxes, rental property and tax-free profit affect your tax return.

If you are considering owning a second home, congratulations! Not only can you look forward to having a place to relax, you also can garner some tax benefits for that place at the beach.

You can use several tax breaks:

Mortgage Interest

If you use the place as a second home — rather than renting it out as a business property — interest on the mortgage is tax deductible just as interest on the mortgage on your first home is. You can write off 100% of the interest you pay on up to $1.1 million of debt secured by your first and second homes that was used to acquire or improve the properties. (That’s a total of $1.1 million of debt, not $1.1 million on each home.) The rules that apply if you rent the place out are discussed later.

Property taxes. You can deduct property taxes on your second home, too. In fact, unlike the mortgage interest rule, you can deduct property taxes paid on any number of homes you own.

If You Rent the Home

Lots of second-home buyers rent their property part of the year to get others to help pay the bills. Very different tax rules apply depending on the breakdown between personal and rental use. If you rent the place out for 14 or fewer days during the year, you can pocket the cash tax-free. Even if you’re charging $10,000 a week, the IRS doesn’t want to hear about it. The house is considered a personal residence, so you deduct mortgage interest and property taxes just as you do for your principal home.

Rent for more than 14 days, though, and you must report all rental income. You also get to deduct rental expenses, and that gets complicated because you need to allocate costs between the time the property is used for personal purposes and the time it is rented.

If you and your family use a beach house for 30 days during the year and it’s rented for 120 days, 80% (120 divided by 150) of your mortgage interest and property taxes, insurance premiums, utilities and other costs would be rental expenses. The entire amount you pay a property manager would be deductible, too. And you could claim depreciation deductions based on 80% of the value of the house. If a house is worth $200,000 (not counting the value of the land) and you’re depreciating 80%, a full year’s depreciation deduction would be $5,800. You can always deduct expenses up to the level of rental income you report.

But what if costs exceed what you take in? Whether a loss can shelter other income depends on two things: how much you use the property yourself and how high your income is.

If you use the place more than 14 days, or more than 10% of the number of days it is rented — whichever is more — it is considered a personal residence and the loss can’t be deducted. (But because it is a personal residence, the interest that doesn’t count as a rental expense — 20% in our example — can be deducted as a personal expense.)

If you limit personal use to 14 days or 10%, the vacation home is considered a business and up to $25,000 in losses might be deductible each year. That’s why lots of vacation homeowners hold down leisure use and spend lots of time “maintaining” the property. Fix-up days don’t count as personal use. The tax savings from the loss (up to $7,000 a year if you’re in the 28% tax bracket) help pay for the vacation home. Unfortunately, holding down personal use means forfeiting the write-off for the portion of mortgage interest that fails to qualify as either a rental or personal-residence expense.

We say such losses might be deductible because real estate losses are considered “passive losses” by the tax law. And, passive losses are generally not deductible. But, there’s an exception that might protect you. If your adjusted gross income (AGI) is less than $100,000, up to $25,000 of such losses can be deducted each year to offset income such as your salary. (AGI is basically income before subtracting your exemptions and deductions.) As income rises between $100,000 and $150,000, however, that $25,000 allowance disappears. Passive losses you can’t deduct can be stored up and used to offset taxable profit when you ultimately sell the vacation house.

Tax-Free Profit

Although the rule that allows home owners to take up to $500,000 of profit tax-free applies only to your principal residence, there is a way to extend the break to your second home: make it your principal residence before you sell. That’s not as wacky as it might sound. Nor is it as lucrative as it used to be.

Some retirees, for example, are selling the big family home and moving full time into what had been their vacation home. Before 2009, this had a very special tax appeal. Once you live in that home for two years, up to $500,000 of profit could be tax free — including appreciation in value during the years it was your second home. (Any profit attributable to depreciation while you rented the place, though, would be taxable. Depreciation reduces your tax basis in the property and therefore increases profit dollar for dollar.)

A few years ago, though, Congress cracked down on this break for taxpayers who covert a second home to a principal residence. A portion of the gain on a subsequent sale of the home is ineligible for the home-sale exclusion of up to $500,000, even if the seller meets the two-year ownership and use tests. The portion of the profit that’s subject to tax is based on the ratio of the time after 2008 when the house was a second home or a rental unit to the total time you owned it.

This can still be a great deal if you’ve owned your second home for many years before the law changed. Let’s say you have owned a vacation home for 18 years and make it your main residence in 2014. Two years later, you sell the place. Since the five years after 2008 the place was your second home (2009 through 2013) is 25% of the 20 years you owned the home, only 20% of the gain is taxed. The rest qualifies for the exclusion of up to $500,000.

Information obtained from Kiplinger.com

This information is for general guidance. The application and impact of laws can vary widely based on the specific facts involved. Accordingly, the information on this Site is provided with the understanding that the authors and publishers are not herein engaged in rendering legal, accounting, tax, or other professional advice and services. As such, it should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional accounting, tax, legal or other competent advisers.

Southwest Florida Buyers Paying Cash

Home buyers in Southwest Florida are still paying with cash at one of the fastest rates in the nation.

Of the 10 metro areas with the highest share of cash purchases in the first quarter, more than half were in Florida, according to real estate analyst Zillow.

Southwest Florida Buyers Paying Cash
“In Florida, cash is king,” Zillow said. ” At the end of the first quarter, seven of the top 10 metros with the highest share of home purchases made in cash were in Florida, up from six at the end of 2014.”

All 10 of the U.S. metro areas with the highest share of cash buyers were east of the Mississippi River, while cash buyers were less common in the western U.S.

“Homes in many eastern markets are generally less expensive than in their western counterparts, which can be conducive to more cash purchases,” Zillow said. “Cash purchases are also more likely to be made by investors and institutional buyers looking to buy many less-expensive homes all at once to convert into rental housing and/or flip as the market improves.”

In addition, the analyst noted, Florida’s judicial foreclosure process can be slow, extending the period when investors are buying discounted homes from lenders as they clear foreclosure.

Florida posted the second-highest share of cash sales in June, at 45.8 percent, behind only New York’s 47 percent, CoreLogic said.

The U.S. rate was 31.3 percent, down from 34 percent over the year.

“The cash sales share peaked in January 2011, when cash transactions made up 46.5 percent of total home sales nationally,” CoreLogic said. “Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. If the cash sales share continues to fall at the same rate it did in June 2015, the share should hit 25 percent by mid-2017.”

Jim Quinn, president of the Port Charlotte-North Port-Punta Gorda Association of Realtors, said cash sales have “consistently” accounted for less than 50 percent of activity this year, with distressed properties representing a smaller segment of sales.

“I would say both of these trends are indicative that more of the buyers are purchasing for personal use as opposed to investment,” he said.

No-financing sales accounted for 43 percent of home deals throughout Florida in August, while the U.S. average was 24.5 percent.

Herald Tribune 10/5/2015

FLORIDA TOURISM HITS RECORD HIGH FOR 2015

Florida tourism is on pace to pass the highly anticipated 100-million visitor mark for 2015, with more than 54.1 million visitors coming to the Sunshine State in the first half of 2015.

New quarterly numbers released Wednesday from Visit Florida, the state’s tourism arm, show a 5.8 increase from last year and the highest amount of visitors of any six months in the state’s history.

In just the second quarter of 2015 ending June 30, 25.8 million visitors came to Florida, an increase of 5.5 percent from the same point in 2014.

With the fifth record-breaking year, the higher tourism is also bringing a record average number of direct travel-related jobs.

In a prepared statement from Gov. Rick Scott, Florida’s tourism industry now employs 1,213,500 people – a number up 4.9 percent from the previous year.

Encouraging tourism helps Florida become the “best place in the world for jobs,” Scott said. “We look forward to exceeding our goal of 100 million visitors to Florida this year.”

Visit Florida also estimates more than 2.7 million overseas visitors, 1.2 million Canadians, and 21.9 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in the second quarter of 2015, a 6.8 percent increase.

Totals for the first half of 2015 show 45.7 million domestic visitors, 5.5 million overseas visitors and 2.9 million Canadians have come to the Sunshine State, an increase of 6.7 percent, 1.7 percent and 1.1 percent respectively. Top U.S. states for Florida tourism are New York (10 percent), Georgia (8 percent), Texas (6 percent) and Illinois (5 percent).

Most international visitors in 2014 came from Canada (4.2 million), followed by the United Kingdom (1.6 million) and Brazil (1.6 million).

Continued growth of tourism, as well as tourism-related jobs, is putting Florida on track for a fifth consecutive record-breaking year, said Visit Florida Board of Directors Chairman John Tomlin. He emphasized the power of tourism as an economic job creator, crediting the vision of Scott, the Legislature and his staff for “world-class strategies and execution.”

As the number of people visiting Florida increases, so does the amount collected in taxes on sales from recreation and related activities. From January through May 2015, the state enjoyed a 9.0 percent increase in tax revenue.

Visit Florida also estimates the average daily room rate (ADR) for the second quarter of 2015 rose 4.7 percent, with occupancy rates for Florida hotels increasing 2.9 percent and the demand for rooms sold grew 4.4 percent compared to the same period last year.

“This continued growth does not happen by accident,” said Visit Florida CEO Will Seccombe, who thanked Scott and the Legislature for their “unparalleled support.”

Tampa Tribune August 19, 2015

Building Boom Clearwater Beach

Building Boom
New hotels will soon transform the southern portion of Clearwater Beach.

All told, the four projects that are expected to be under construction will bring a mix of 1,000 new upscale and mid-scale rooms to the narrow barrier island that lies just northwest of St. Petersburg. Until recently, South Clearwater Beach was mainly dotted with old-style lodges from the 1950s and ’60s.

“It’s huge, because the demand is as high as it has ever been,” said Leroy Bridges, a spokesman for Visit St. Pete/Clearwater. “Adding these rooms and these options is going to help meet that demand.”

Crews are already working on three of the new projects. In January, developers broke ground on the 15-story Wyndham Grand® Resort. Upon completion (slated for 2017) the Wyndham’s 450 rooms will make it the largest hotel on the narrow barrier island.
Further along is Opal Sands, an upscale, 230-room hotel that is also scheduled to open next February. Among the offerings at the 15-story hotel will be a spa and balconies sitting directly over the beach.
Nearby, the 181-room Clearwater Beach Hampton Inn is underway. And those three projects are expected to soon be joined by a 125-room Holiday Inn.

Like many Florida markets, the St. Pete/Clearwater area has enjoyed a boom in visitation over the past several years. Some 3.2 million people spent at least a night in a Pinellas County lodge, campground or motor home park in 2014, according to data from the county’s convention and business bureau, up from just more than 2.5 million in 2010. (Pinellas includes Clearwater and St. Pete)

Robust visitation, though, isn’t the main cause of the Clearwater Beach development boom, said Ed Armstrong, a land-use attorney who has worked on the Opal Sands and Hampton Inn projects. An even bigger incentive has been temporary land-use rules instituted by the city of Clearwater to spur hotel development. In 2009, the town decreed that up to 1,200 midscale hotel units could be developed at triple the usual density per acre; projects such as the Hampton Inn and the Holiday Inn are taking advantage of that rule. Meanwhile, the Wyndham Grand® is taking advantage of a similar such incentive that Clearwater had early targeted toward higher-end hotels.

Upping density allowances changed the financial calculations involved in developing on Clearwater Beach’s expensive waterfront property.

“It drastically altered the economics on Clearwater Beach in a very positive way,” Armstrong said.

Opal Sands Resort

Direct Beachfront with 230 Waterfront Rooms/Suites with Balconies

A refreshing blend of casual beachfront luxury and the lively ambiance of Clearwater Beach, guests will enjoy an array of leisure options. From long walks on pristine white sand beaches and a swim in the Gulf, to pampering spa services and poolside cocktails, this location will offer everything you’ve dreamed of in a luxury resort.

Amenities:

All 230 guest rooms and suites are oceanfront, with private balconies offering spectacular views of the Gulf
Directly on the ocean and beach
Spectacular zero-entry outdoor pool and sun deck
Large fitness center
Full-service spa
Waterfront dining and beach bar
All valet and indoor parking
Retail Shops

Beachfront Wyndham Grand® Resort in Clearwater Beach

Construction of the 450-room Wyndham Grand® Resort Clearwater Beach has begun on South Gulfview Boulevard at the north end of the prominent Beach Walk. Proposed as one of the largest hotel resorts in the area, the hotel is scheduled to open in early 2017. With approximately 24,000 square feet of event space, the resort will also house one of the largest banquet and meeting facilities in Pinellas County.

Services and amenities at Wyndham Grand® Resort will include:

Immediate access to top-rated Clearwater Beach
A large outdoor pool complex
Full-service Spa
Multiple restaurants accessible from Beach Walk

Bay9 News August 2015

Vacation Home Market Booming

MIAMI – The industry is booming as well-to-do people take advantage of gains in their stock-market portfolios, vacation-home experts said at the National Association of Real Estate Editors spring conference.

Numbers compiled by HomeAway, an online marketplace that links vacation-home owners with would-be renters, tell part of the story. Vacation home sales were up 57 percent in 2014 from 2013, surging to their highest level since 2003, according to survey results.

“We have not seen it as hot for new vacation-home developments in years as it is right now,” said panelist Phillip Day of IMI in Greenville, South Carolina. He said the market has an international aspect, as Europeans and South Americans, always looking for a safe haven for their money, are buying vacation homes in the Caribbean for the rental income.

Developers are even helping the buyers get passports, he said.

In Florida, Miami has the nation’s largest traveler demand for vacation rentals, with Fort Myers Beach at No. 7.

“The overall health of the rental market is very, very strong,” Gray said. “Two trends are accelerating: People are buying homes with the intent to rent them from the beginning. Ninety percent of people who are buying vacation homes — and we are seeing the highest numbers of vacation homes we have seen in a long time — plan to rent in the first year. That is great for the vacation-home market.”

It also is good for the vacation-home owner, because it does not take many weeks of rentals to put a serious dent in the annual carrying cost of a vacation property, Gray said. The average second home, when rented, generates $28,000 per year for the owners.

‘A pretty good time to buy’

The average vacation home costs about $150,000 a year, he said, which is below what it was when the market crashed in 2008.

“So, historically speaking, it is still a pretty good time to buy, in most people’s opinion — 85 percent of vacation-home buyers believe it is a good time to buy. Of course, that is a biased sample. But it creates an opportunity for people to buy into a home they might want to retire in down the road.”

The increase in listings indicates that more people are investing in vacation homes. “Although some wealthy second-home buyers don’t rent them out, Gray said, it actually is better to have people in the house rather than have it sit vacant most of the year.”

“If you had a second home and stayed in it six weeks a year, and it is sitting unoccupied for 46 weeks a year, that is not good for the home,” he said. “If people are staying in it and a cleaning crew is coming in after every stay, the home is in a better state of repair than it would be if you just left it there.”

Author and vacation-home investor Chris Cain, who is writing his third book on the subject, said the industry is picking up after “toddling along” since the bust.

Cain called vacation homes “America’s hidden treasure,” because the industry has provided millions of jobs in property management and maintenance. Most vacation home rentals are handled by management companies to reduce the hassle for owner-investors.

And they are not all rich. The median income of a vacation-home buyer in 2014 was $87,000, according to the panelists.

“More supply means more people are finding what they need in a vacation home,” Gray said. “About 84 percent of those people loved their stay and want to come back the next time. It creates a cycle where they tell their friends, and it makes the investment category more mainstream.”

Herald Tribune 6/25/2015