Avoid the Summer Heat. Buy Real Estate in Port Orange Florida!

THE Port Orange Real Estate & Community Event Blog. By Lisa C. Hill, "THE SMART CHOICE!"

I've previously posted many blogs about the beautiful city of Port Orange, which is just south of Daytona Beach, FL. It's so close that many people don't realize it's not part of Daytona Beach. Click here to read about the closeness of the cities in the Daytona Beach area.

If you're not aware of this, August is by far, the hottest month of the year, every year! And trust me. It's HOT! When I have real estate buyers who need to buy real estate in July or August, I actually leave the car and air conditioner running, and bring my spare key in with me. Otherwise, even if we're only in a house or condo for 5 or 10 minutes, by the time we get back in the car, everyone is dripping with sweat. Sound pleasant doesn't it? The good news is, it's only this hot for a short period of time each year AND it usually rains every afternoon, which brings down the temperature. And to compensate for the sudden afternoon downpours, I keep 5 or 6 umbrellas in my car at all times. (I try to cover all the bases.) So if you're planning to buy real estate in the Daytona Beach/Port Orange area, I've got you covered while we're looking =)

On my last post, I announced the good news about a new public swimming pool and mini water park in Daytona Beach. That's fantastic if you buy a house that doesn't have a swimming pool. But there's another option too. Have you considered living in a neighborhood with a community swimming pool? We have MANY neighborhoods like this. In this post, I'm not going to list them all, but I thought I'd draw your attention back to a community I featured a while back. Well, actually it's a master community, with several mini communities within. It's called Countryside, and it's one of the most conveniently located communities in the city of Port Orange. I say it's conveniently located because you can walk to banks, restaurants, doctor's offices, dentists, gyms, lakes, the river, the beach, churches, even a hospital! And to tie it in with this post, Countryside has a community clubhouse, library, tennis courts, and swimming pool. It's an absolutely beautiful community. As a matter of fact, the entire city of Port Orange has a personal motto: "Unique by Choice, Not by Chance". I'll wrap this up by directing you to some of my previous posts about Port Orange. Within these posts, you you'll find links to other posts as well. So with a few extra clicks, you'll be able to learn all about Port Orange and more.

• Port Orange FL: A Great Place to Live
• Plan A Fun Outing in Port Orange
  
• Port Orange FL-Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardening
• Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange

For all your real estate needs, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa C. Hill with Adams Camerron & Co., REALTORS®.

www.PortOrangeRealEstateSales.com

www.UltimateRealEstateBlog.com

Daytona Beach and Volusia County, Commercial Real Estate Changes

THE Daytona Beach Real Estate & Community Event Blog. By Lisa C. Hill, "THE SMART CHOICE!"

If you're a commercial real estate owner in the Daytona Beach area, with real estate to sell, you may or may not be aware of the fact that up until now, the decline in the national real estate market has been primariy limited to the residential market; at least, that's been the case in Volusia county. But as of this year, mostly due to the lack of buyer's ability to get real estate financing, the commercial real estate market is now in decline as well. And with this impact on the commercial market, I believe we're going to see some big changes in the way commercial real estate is marketed and sold. As a side note to those of you who are not aware of it, commercial real estate in Volusia county, up until now, has been marketed very differently than residential real estate.

But for those of you who have commercial real estate to sell, here's a new option to help you with your sale. (Read the rest of this blog about Daytona Beach Commercial Real Estate at www.UltimateRealEstateBlog.com)

Volusia County Real Estate Update: 2nd Quarter 2008

If you're a regular reader of my blogs, you know that for 2007, I did a city-by-city, 2000-2007 real estate report for Volusia County (Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach areas), including graphs of that data. Here are the links to those reports...

Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, Holly Hill, Ormond Beach, Ormond by the Sea, Ponce Inlet, Port Orange, South Daytona, Wilbur by the Sea, Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach.

I also did a combination city-by-city, all-in-one graph for this data. You can view this data in the graph at the right.

I also did a first quarter real estate report for the beginning of 2008.

We've now just ended the 2nd quarter of real estate for 2008, and I am once again preparing the data for the blogs for this time period. As you probably already know, creating the graph with each city's data is quite time consuming.

So this post is to let you know that the 2008 2nd Quarter Real Estate Graph & Details for Volusia County will be posted shortly. I know that blogs are pretty boring when you're just looking at numbers, with no comparison to previous data. But in order to at least provide some information, here is the short list of the 2008, 2nd quarter real estate data for each city in Volusia county. And over the next couple of weeks, I will be providing the in-depth data and personal market knowledge of each city, as I have done in the past. So keep checking back! And I hope this will tide you over in the interim =)

Without further ado, here is the city-by-city preliminary 2nd quarter real estate listing and sales data for Volusia County, 2008... Read the rest of this post and

view the real estate listings vs sales charts here.

If you're interested in buying or selling real estate in Volusia County, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill with Adams Cameron & Co., REALTORS®.

For full real estate listing data, you need the representation of a local REALTOR®. Lisa Hill is the Smart Choice for all of Volusia County.

Real Estate Video for Beautiful 3 bed, 2 bath pool home in Central Florida

Most of you know that I create full video tours for my real estate listings if at all possible, and have been doing so for about two years now. I've never been a fan of virtual tours because of the distortion factor, and could never understand why REALTORS® weren't just video taping their listings. Two years ago, the only place to host the videos was on You Tube (hardly the most professional platform). But now, we have a plethora of choices of professional real estate video hosting sites.

I have to admit, this particular video should have been done weeks ago. But for starters, I had to install a new hard drive on my computer, then get my video editing software up and running again. (It didn't want to cooperate!) But I also added a couple of features to this video that I haven't used before... and no, I'm not talking about accidentally leaving my camera bag on a chair when I was filming. D'oh! (I hate when that happens!) The extras I added were some royalty free sound effects, and it took me a while to find what I wanted. And no, I can't take the credit for this idea. I actually noticed in another real estate video here on Active Rain.

But that's enough of my rambling. Without further ado here's the video for my listing at 1808 Umbrella Tree Drive in Edgewater, FL. I'd love to get your feedback on the sound effects during the outdoor footage. I think this is the longest real estate video I've ever created, but that's because of all the outdoor footage. I rarely have a real estate listing with such a fantastic pool, spa, lanai, tiki bar, and lush landscaping. All that just HAD to be included.

After watching the video, if you need more information, follow the links below the video to read a couple of my previous blogs of this beautiful house.

Ultimate Florida Dream Home

New Smyrna Beach/Edgewater 3/2/2 Pool House for Sale

Move to Central Florida. Look at all these Beautiful MLS Real Estate Listings!

Now, if you have a house or condo for sale or rent, I'd love to help! We're still in a strong buyer's market and the real estate sales are few and far between. The only properties that do sell are the ones that are priced WELL below the competition! Without exception, there have been no other sales in a long time. But there have been rentals. Of course, the rentals still have to be priced competitively, but lately I'm leasing a lot more houses and condos than I'm selling. So if you need the help of a professional REALTOR® to sell or lease your real estate, make a Smart Choice and call Lisa Hill with Adams Cameron & Co., REALTORS®.

Get all your real estate info at www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

Are you Going Green or Wasting Energy? Do you even know?

This post is going to address recycling, the ecosystem, saving energy, and associated "green" topics. Before I get started, I'd like to direct your attention to some of my previous posts of similar nature.

• Florida's Vanishing Wetlands
• Florida's Aquifers (Vanishing Wetlands part 2)
• Protecting Florida's Wetlands

Side note and Segue: As of today, June 14, 2008, I have 115 Active Rain subscribers to my blog, in addition to my clients and future customers who may not be subscribed through Active Rain, but are reading my posts through their computers' bookmarks/favorites...although I only get an average of about 4-10 comments per post, unless it was featured... But I'll get to the point =)

As my regular readers know, I blog about MANY different topics. But what is probably the most important topic I have blogged about is Florida's ecosystem and the associated problems. (And of course, my clients' listings that need to be sold. That's extremely important!) But today I'm going to briefly touch on a subject that is rapidly growing in interest, and that is, "Going Green". I'm afraid that many people have heard the term thrown around quite a bit, but don't really know what it means. Well, the bottom line is, our planet is increasingly entering a more desperate status, and we all need to do our part to preserve it. So how do we do that? Keep reading.

Most of us have been recycling for years. But did you know that there are still parts of the country that have no means to recycle? I'm sorry, but that is completely unacceptable. Recycling is the most basic thing we can all do to keep our planet "green" and healthy.

I recently heard some amazing statistics on the subject of recycling. Did you know...

1. Every time you recycle ONE aluminum can, you save enough energy to run a TV or computer for 3 hours!
2. For every 4 foot stack of newspapers you recycle, you save a 40 foot fir tree.
3. By paying your bills online, you can help to save over 1.6 billion TONS of solid waste every year!

Do you find these statistics as amazing as I do? I think these numbers are almost unbelievable! But moving on... last month, our clothese dryer finally went to the home appliances graveyard. As usual with these types of things, it was unexpected. We had to make some quick decisions! I wanted to make sure we were doing our part to do more to go green, but we didn't have time to do any research. Thankfully, we found a helpful salesman at the Home Depot who was quite knowledgeable about his products. So we are now the proud owners of an high efficiency LG front-loading, Tromm washing machine (we went ahead and replaced the washing machine too), and an LG front-loading XL Load Capacity with NeveRust Stainless Steel Drum. Having our last washer and dryer for 10 years has given us an unbelievalbe comparison of how much quieter the new machines are! And our new LG washer and dryer more than comply with the new Federal Energy Efficiency Requirements. I could go on for quite a while, raving about my new washer and dryer, but I'll nip it in the bud right here and address my last points.

I don't sleep well, and have lately taken up walking in the middle of the night. As soon as I started my late night walking, I noticed how many home owners had left on their outdoor, decorative lighting. My first late-night walk was around midnight. I thought surely, these people weren't leaving their outdoor lighting on all night, but I figured they might be on timers that had not yet turned off. But my late night walking has continued. I have now walked at 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. (My husband says I'm a vampire.) Those same homes have still had their decorative lighting on. Considering I never run into anyone else out at these times, I think it's safe to assume that these decorative lights are not impressing anyone. And I don't work for Florida Power and Light, but exterior lighting that stays on all night, every night, MUST have an impact on the home owner's electric bills. Is it possible that this many people have not heard about "going green"? Or do they just not care? These are probably the same people that never change the temperature of their AC or heat, even when nobody's home. They must be leaving one heck of a carbon footprint!

If you've read or skimmed this post without knowing what the heck I'm talking about, try following the embedded links to learn more about going green, energy efficiency, carbon footprints, recycling, problems with our ecosystem, and what you can do to help save our planet.

Take this quiz to determine your carbon footprint.

If you're interested in buying real estate in the Daytona Beach area and want to buy a home that has been built with all the considerations of "going green", read my post about the beautiful community of Chelsea Place, located in fabulous Ormond Beach, just north of Daytona.

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateVideos.com

Read many more blogs on my primary blog at www.RealEstateBlogConnect.com

If you're looking to buy a house in the Daytona Beach area, but aren't happy with all the Home Owner's Associations (HOA's) and restrictions, then Edgewater is the place for you. Most houses in Edgewater are on large lots with plenty of room for your boat, RV, or whatever you'd like to do.

This house at 2110 Sabal Palm Drive in Edgewater is immaculate and priced to sell! If you're not familiar with Edgewater, it's just south of the Daytona Beach area (just past New Smyrna Beach).

Rent this Outstanding Condo in Daytona Beach-Pool Clubhouse, Tennis, Park

This condominium complex in Holly Hill, just 1 mile from Daytona Beach, is absolutely beautiful and perfectly maintained. Where else can you rent a 1 bedroom condo for only $550 while also having access to the community pool, tennis, clubhouse and serene park right in the center?

Don't hesitate. Make a Smart Choice and call me today! Holly Square Condominiums is a wonderful place to call home!

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

Lisa Hill Daytona Beach real estate top producer

Blogging and Commenting Protocol: Know Your Netiquette!

Lately I've read several blog posts from Active Rain bloggers who are receiving derogatory comments on their posts, and are seeing them on other posts as well. I knew this would eventually happen as the site continues to grow, but I was hoping it would be later, rather than sooner.

The scenario I'm about to share, is not one that I had planned on sharing. However, in light of what seems to be a rampant problem, I'm going to do my best to do it justice and not offend the parties involved... well, actually only one party is aware of this particular problem and that party is the one who consulted me.

Not long ago I had a conversation with a local REALTOR(r), who asked for my opinion on a situation that was brewing between himself and a REALTOR(r) here on Active Rain. (The other AR agent is someone I know only through blogging.) At that time, the agent I know personally, wanted to give this other Rainer a piece of his mind, in comment form. I discouraged him from doing so.

It seems that the agent who contacted me had very carefully worded a disagreeing comment on another agents' post. The local REALTOR(r) who contacted me, felt very strongly about this particular subject because he had just come be from a very specialized convention on the subject. So he disagreed, but he told me that he chose his words very carefully. He was now asking for my opinion because he knows I've been blogging for a long time and that I'm familiar with the "netiquette" in this arena. As it turns out, the other agent deleted his comment, which angered him and he now wanted to give her a piece of his mind.

First, let me explain his line of thinking, since if you only considered his side, sounds very logical and convincing. He felt that it was wrong to give the public the wrong impression of what was going on in the market. He was knowlegeable on this subject and wanted to make sure that consumers were not being misled. The public is already blaming everyone who has anything to do with the real estate industry, for all the problems that are happening in this time of crisis.

That seems pretty logical, doesn't it? Now I know that there are many unethical agents out there who will post anything to get business or points, and don't care if it's true or not. But in this case, I know enough about this other agent to know that was not the intention. It's my belief that the other agent was strictly sharing what was happening in their own neck of the woods. I don't believe there was any intentionally misleading information being given. But even if there was, here's the other side of the coin.

We each have our own blog that we use in hopes of gaining new business. I'd like to believe that most of us do our homework before we post to our blogs, and/or we speak from our own experience. So it's not about whether or not you intentionally hurt someone's feelings by deleting a comment from someone who disagreed with you. It's about being courteous to each other. You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Think of it this way. Would you want to spend an hour (or more) researching and writing a post, just to have another agent come along and possibly make you look bad, by posting a comment that told you you're wrong? I did not read the comment that was posted, so I can't say if there was a "tone" to it or not. I personally am sensitive to "tones". I don't think I'd delete a comment just because another agent disagreed with me. But I would expect them to be respectful of my turf. And I wouldn't take kindly to someone being disrespectful to me, or anyone else who had left a comment on one of my posts.

My mother raised us with the old adage "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all". Now, this is business, so it's not as simple as not gossiping or slandering someone. We really don't want the public to believe erroneous information. I'll refer to my mother once more, since she was big on communication. My mother told us that we could get away with saying almost anything, to anybody, if we said it in the right way.

So keeping in mind what I was taught growing up, if I felt very strongly about something, I might post a comment that disagreed, but unles the other person was a complete idiot (OK. I acknowedge that they do exist.) I would want to leave the person with their dignity intact. So somewhere in my comment, I would leave the other person an "out". Example: If I read a post that I disagreed with, and felt so strongly that I felt obligated to respond with a disagreeable comment, I would probably end the comment with something along the lines of,

• "but you are in a different area, so maybe we're not seeing the same circumstances."
  

Or, I could leave a comment like this.

• "You know, I haven't experienced anything like this in my area. In our area we're experiencing the exact opposite. Isn't it strange how drastically different things can be in different areas?"
  

Or...

• "Yours is the first post I've read that has this information. Where did you find out about it?"
  

I hope you get the idea. It's about being respectful of another person's "space". And for the record, the agent who contacted me, eventually decided to just write his own post on the subject, after he had cooled down ;)

People, let's keep a professional face on our industry. We're not always going to agree. There are now more business models than ever, and there's the ongoing debate of "national vs local brokerages", and then there's the "virtual office vs actual office" debate. And so on, and so on. But unless we want the public to have an even lower opinion of our industry, we need to behave in a professional manner. The key word in my last sentence is actually not "professional". It's "manner". As in, use good "manners". Some people have no class and that's unfortunate. But anyone with enough determination, can at least keep their mouth (or keyboard in this case) shut when necessary. Or we can always agree to disagree. That's usually the best course of action.

If you're a new blogger and are unsure about how to get started with blog writing and commenting, here's some good writing advice... Write better blogs!

Happy Blogging!

Buy Real Estate in Port Orange FL? I've Found Another Great Reason!

I never have to look very far to find something great about Port Orange, which is why so many people choose to buy real estate here. But yesterday, we gained another fantastic reason for people to move to Port Orange FL.

This weekend was graduation weekend for high school seniors all over Volusia county. My daughter was one of those graduating seniors.

Oblige me with a brief history of my daughter's school years in Port Orange. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I'm a Daytona Beach native. You probably also know that the Daytona Beach area actually includes 8 cities... Ormond Beach, Ormond by the Sea, Daytona Beach, Holly Hill, Daytona Beach Shores, Wilbur by the Sea, Ponce Inlet, South Daytona and Port Orange. I've lived in 5 of these cities at one time or another during my life.

Fast forward to 10 years ago. At that time, our family moved from South Daytona to Port Orange and my daughter Brittany began attending Sweetwater Elementary School. Sweetwater Elementary is a fabulous school with many specialized programs for the children, including a computer lab, music lessons and an art program. Brittany even won an award from Art Haus while she was there. She then had the privilege of attending Creekside Middle School in the first year it was built, making her among the first class to attend all of their middle school years at Creekside, beginning at it's inception. She then, after years of anticipation, began high school at the enviable Spruce Creek High School.

At the Spruce Creek High School graduation ceremony, held at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center on Sunday morning, I heard some spectacular news and statistics...

1. Of this year's graduating class, 51% graduated with honors! I thought that was an incredible number! (My daughter graduated Magna Cum Laude- of course I'm bragging!) =D Click here to read about the recent Spruce Creek High School Honor's Banquet.
   
2. SCHS is once again, among the top 100 schools in the nation, by Newsweek.
3. SCHS has the highest attendance rate in Volusia county, averaging over 96%.
4. It's once again, an A rated school!
5. It's ranked 2nd in the state by the Florida High School Athletic Association in the All Sports Category.

I could continue to tout the Spruce Creek High School accolades, but I think you get the idea. Port Orange has fantastic schools, which is a great incentive to buy real estate here.

If you're interested in buying or selling real estate in Port Orange FL, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill for all your real estate needs.

For more information about Port Orange, try some of my previous posts.

• Plan A Fun Outing in Port Orange
• Things to do in Port Orange
• Great Reasons to Move to Port Orange

Buy real estate in Port Orange FL. It's a smart decision!

Another Great Reason to Buy Real Estate in Port Orange, FL

Home buyers who are thinking about moving to Daytona Beach, make sure you don't overlook the beautiful city of Port Orange, just 7 miles south of Daytona. I'm a Daytona Beach native, I've sold real estate in every city in Volusia county, and I personally live in Port Orange. One of the best things about Port Orange is the City Center. I've written several posts about events happening at the Port Orange City Center. The event that most locals are familiar with doesn't happen until October, called Port Orange Family Days. So you'll have to wait a few more months to attend that event. But this weekend, May 18 and again on June 8, there will be Concerts in the Park, at the Kenneth Parker Amphitheater. Both concerts will feature "G and the Boomers" and start at 6:00 p.m. Aside from the great music, one of the best features of the concerts is that they're FREE! If you have questions, or need more information, you can call 386-506-5963.

Read more on: Another Reason to Buy Real Estate in Port Orange, FL

www.PortOrangeRealEstateSales.com