Daytona Beach 2 bedroom Riverfton Condo

This direct riverfront condo with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths has just been reduced to the same price as the other units that are NOT on the river! This is a superb opportunity to live on the Intracoastal for less than $200,000!. Asking price is now $194,900. Don't hesitate! I just sold another unit in this same complex for almost this same price and it had no river view at all, unless you went all the way to the edge of the porch!

Daytona Beach Real Estate Buyers and Sellers, here's another reason to live here!

A few days ago, during the course of one of my typical real estate days: show houses, go to condo project office, run errands, eat, etc., (I had to type "eat". Now I'm hungry!) ... I decided to stop by the Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park in South Daytona to call a few clients and enjoy the view while doing so. That's one of the perks of being a real estate agent. I can work from wherever I want to work =) And this gorgeous park is located directly on the Halifax River/Intracoastal Waterway.

As I made my phone calls, I got out of the car and started wandering around the park and noticed quite a few things have changed since the last time I visited there. Some of the updates, I was already aware of, like the new bathroom facilities and children's play area. But those are the things I noticed just from driving by. But as I was walking around I noticed a new boat ramp! Awesome! And there are plenty of extra long parking spaces, to accommodate your vehicle and boat trailer too!

Then I decided to take some pictures of the river, from the dock, where you'll always find people fishing. There was only one couple there on that day, and since I was on the phone, I didn't get a chance to ask if the fish were biting. Although I doubt it, since just a few yards away, several young girls were excitedly screaming and frolicking in the shallow water. I asked them what the were finding and was informed that there were tiny baby crabs under all the rocks. I wanted to kick off my shoes and join them! No, I'm not kidding. That is totally something I would do! As a matter of fact, when my daughter was much younger, we had one of her birthday parties in this riverfront, South Daytona park. They have picnic areas and pavilions for cookouts and parties.

And then I found something really cool! They now have a canoe and kayak launch! I'm sure there are more in the area, but this is the first one I've seen.

So if you're interested in buying or selling real estate in South Daytona, FL, make a Smart Choice and call me today. I'm a Daytona Beach native, selling real estate all over Volusia County. And if you already live here, the Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park in South Daytona is a great place to spend some time!

All about Lisa Hill.

View Daytona area MLS real estate listings.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500: Remembering NASCAR's 1st Woman Driver

NASCAR’s First Woman Driver: In doing my research for this blog, I was surprised to discover that women had been competing in Daytona Beach racing since the 1940's, when it was held ON Daytona Beach.

But one woman stands out from all the rest; Janet Guthrie. Talk about an overachiever! Janet was a pilot, a flight instructor, an aerospace engineer, a technical editor, passed the first round of eliminations for NASA's Scientist-Astronaut program, and had 13 years of experience on sports car road racing circuits, while building and maintaining her own cars, all before 1976, when she was invited to test a car for the Indianapolis 500.

Janet Guthrie was the first woman to win a starting spot in the Daytona 500, in 1977, once it had moved to it's new, official race track. She was in 8th place, when 10 laps from the end, her engine went bad. She finished in 12th place, and won Top Rookie. That same year, she won the North Atlantic Road Racing Champion title. In 1978, she finished in 9th place in the Indianapolis 500. But sponsorships and funding were hard to find for a woman at that time, even after placing in the top 10 in a number of races.

According to Janet, as can be expected, many of the men from the “good ole boys” club were not willing to accept a woman on their turf. But as Janet accumulated years of experience under her belt and gained experience on major tracks, including the Brickyard at Indianapolis she felt that most of the tension between her and the men eventually abated. But, Janet always felt that one driver never accepted her; Richard Petty. However, she actually qualified ahead of Richard at Talladega one time. In Janet’s words, “I thought that was just delicious. I really enjoyed it.” On the flip side, some of the men were more welcoming. Janet says that Donnie Allison was very kind and helpful. And Buddy Baker offered some helpful advice.

Janet continued to look for funding, and continued racing, and placing well. But was never able to make it to victory lane, primarily because she didn’t have a fast enough car. Janet raced in the Daytona 500 one more time, but did not have nice things to say about her crew chief that year.

According to the Daytona Beach News Journal, Janet raced a total of 4 years in NASCAR. She started 33 races and finished in the top 10, 5 times and earned $78,309 over those 4 years. Her helmet and driver’s suit are now on display in the Smithsonian Institution and she was one of the first woman athletes inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Since Janet, only one other woman, Shawna Robinson has driven in the 500, which is NASCAR’s premier event. And Guthrie’s record still holds.

Janet is now living in Aspen, CO and says she only follows NASCAR races now, if a woman is competing.

(Sources for this post are The Daytona Beach News Journal, Janet Guthrie's web site, Wikipedia and Nascar.com. I'm citing all references because I ran into quite a few contradictory dates and statistics.) But you can buy Janet's autobiography, "Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle" and get the facts straight from her!

If you're in Daytona Beach for NASCAR, Bike Week, or any other special event. You should consider buying real estate for the time you spend here, I'm a Daytona Beach native and would love to help! Make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill today!

Volusia County Real Estate Sales: 2007 year in review

I finally finished every city in east Volusia county for my 2007 real estate sales, year in review. Whew! So here is the final compilation of all that data and the charts.To read the first post in the series, which was for Daytona Beach, and contains the most physical information about our market, read Daytona Beach Real Estate: 2007 year in review.

To view each individual real estate chart for Daytona Beach Shores, South Daytona, Ormond Beach, Ormond by the Sea, Port Orange, Ponce Inlet, Wilbur by the Sea, Holly Hill, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Oak Hill, click anywhere in the afore-mentioned cities. It will take you to the Edgewater post, which was the last in the series, so it contains links to all the previous posts.

Now for the combination of the data for all of east Volusia County.

And there you have it. This post concludes my 2007 real estate year-in-review series.

If you’re interested in buying or selling real estate in any of these cities, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill for all your real estate needs!

Adams Cameron & Co., Realtors - 1100 Dunlawton Ave., Port Orange, FL 32127 386-761-6100

All charts in this series were created and are copyrighted by Lisa Hill

Being Sensitive to your client’s needs: A REALTORS® Perspective

Many years ago, when I first started selling houses, I was working with a lady who told me she was deathly afraid of cats. Since one of the houses we were going to see was my own listing, I knew the owner had cats. So I told my buyer that I would go inside first and check to see if they were inside or not. (They had a kitty door.)So I went in and looked around and didn’t see either of the cats, anywhere. I even looked under the beds, in the closets and on top of the refrigerator. I covered the entire house… No cats.

I then opened the front door and told the buyer that the cats must be outside because I didn’t see either one of them anywhere in the house, and the buyer apprehensively came inside. She started going from room to room and was slowly relaxing.

She then entered the master bedroom ahead of me and 2 seconds later came running past me and ran straight out the front door and refused to come back in. I was standing there looking perplexed until I spotted, calm as can be, one of the cats, sitting on the master bathroom counter, contentedly licking his paw. *sigh*

Click here to read the rest of this real estate post.

Real Estate is Great in 2008!

Read this entire post at Real Estate is Great in 2008!

On January 2, I received a call from one of my real estate sellers, who has a house for sale in Port Orange. He was just wishing me a happy new year (don't you just love nice sellers?) and letting me know they may be reducing the price in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted on that one!

And today I got a call from a client who I sold an ocean front house in Ponce Inlet several years ago. He had received the Christmas card I had sent, so he too, was just wishing me a happy new year and touching base. He was also letting me know that he had filed the company info of my 2007 brokerage change in his contact manager for whenever they're ready to sell in the future.

I'm hoping these are all signs of many more good things to come in 2008. I've worked with some really great clients over the years (obviously) and hopefully, this year I'll work with many more.

Make a Smart Choice today and call Lisa Hill for all your real estate needs!

Subscribe to this blog, or check back frequently so you don't miss the next installment of my series on Florida's Vanishing Wetlands.

AND more importantly, I'll be blogging an annual update for EVERY city in East Volusia County over the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned!

(All photos taken and copyrighted by Lisa Hill)

Real Estate for Sale - Daytona-Beach, FL 32114 - Real Estate Video Tour

REALTOR Safety Awareness-Real Estate Buyers, You Should Read This Too!

I was recently reminded of an incident that happened to a REALTOR® friend of mine, a few years ago. This incident was the type of horror story we all fear.

My friend received a call from a potential buyer who had to catch a flight out of town later that morning and he needed to leave by 9:00 a.m. He was anxious to see a model in a development my REALTOR® friend was representing and the only time he was available was early in the morning. So my friend scheduled an appointment to meet this potential buyer at one of the models at 7:30 a.m.

When she arrived at the model, the buyer was waiting and they proceeded to go inside the house. A few minutes later, another vehicle arrived with a couple in it. The potential buyer told my REALTOR® friend that these were friends of his and they all proceeded to view the house.

Then they got to the master bedroom. At this point, the original potential buyer pulled a gun out of a briefcase, then used garbage bag ties on my REALTOR® friend, and put her in the closet of the master bedroom.

Read the rest of this post about REALTOR® Safety Awareness-Real Estate Buyers, You Should Read This Too!

Take a Real Estate Survey

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Daytona Beach River Front Condo For Sale

Daytona Beach Real Estate- Direct Intracoastal River Front Condo For Sale

The Glamorous Real Estate Life

Realtors live such glamorous lives. At least that's what many people think. How about a reality check?