Some Like It Hot

Last day of June 2019 and the Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral MLS is showing 56 condo and townhome units as closed in June in the two cities. As always we'll get a few more reported in the coming days. It's a healthy number, but shows an imbalance between demand and supply. With 232 units for sale this morning that works out to a four month supply.

The price range of sold units is closer to our usual range after the multiple high dollar closings at the new Flores de la Costa last month. Median price for condo units closed in June was $280,000. Six units in the month sold for more than $300 a foot, all but one of them direct ocean, new or furnished with garages. The one outlier was a small, 1st floor Spanish Main weekly rental 2/2 that commanded a remarkable $380,000. Oceanfront units sold as cheaply as $220 per foot but the majority clustered in the $250 to $300 per foot range. Those at the high end of the range were usually remodeled and with garages, often sold furnished. Exactly half of the sold condos sold for cash, no mortgage. Almost a third sold in the first week on the market.

Fourteen single family homes closed in the month, all but one in Cocoa Beach. Prices ranged from $775,000 for a nicely remodeled two story, five bedroom Cocoa Beach pool home on a wide canal intersection with a dock and lift to $274,900 for a small 3/2 south of downtown Cocoa Beach a block from the ocean.

Man, it's been hot. It's hard to enjoy the cheap summer green fees at the Cocoa Beach Country Club when all you can think about is avoiding heat stroke. Then there's the lightning. As I mentioned last post, be aware of approaching thunderstorms. They move in quickly this time of year, usually in late afternoon and are almost always accompanied by a lot of lightning. Get off the beach before the storm arrives. If you leave any gear on the beach be prepared for the winds to have rearranged or removed it. 

Pros of being a young, single male veterinarian: Lots of female attention
Cons of being a young, single male veterinarian: Most of that attention comes from women very, very high up on the Cat Lady Scale seeking a medical sugar daddy for their cat harem. __Bill W

Sweetened or not?

The photo is of a mark left on a green a couple of weeks ago at the Cocoa Beach Country Club when lightning struck the flag stick. Please take lightning seriously, folks. Our afternoon thunderstorms can move in quickly and the lightning strikes often occur far away from the clouds. Don't take chances.

One of my relatives asked for a contract review on the sale of their home in another city. Imagine my surprise at seeing "$395 transaction fee to be paid by the seller" written into the contract by the buyer's agent. Aren't they being paid commission already? Yes, in this case the buyer's broker was being paid $14,000, but the agent felt compelled to try and squeeze an extra $395 on top of that. She should be ashamed. "But, wait" I can hear her saying. "We have to pay our transaction coordinator and provide her office space." I get it. However, $14,000 will easily pay expenses and leave a healthy chunk to be split between the broker and the agent. "But", she says, "my broker charges me a transaction fee of $395." OK. Maybe that's why they offered you a more attractive commission split when you joined their office. Do the right thing, pay the $395 out of the commission and stop trying to rob people. I was faced with this exact scenario when my previous brokerage was bought and the new brokers mandated a transaction fee. Many agents, myself included, refused to pass that fee on to our clients but, disturbingly, many others thought it perfectly acceptable to have their clients pay it. That particular broker cleverly called the junk fee a "Regulatory Compliance Fee" which they hoped would eliminate client protests. A transaction fee charged by the broker to the agent can be an entirely legitimate fee TO. THE. AGENT. There are very few circumstances that would justify passing that fee along to a client. Unless there are unusual circumstances justifying the fee, I would encourage anyone whose agent has tried to charge them a transaction fee to immediately find a new agent. Asking for a transaction fee is all the evidence necessary (in most transactions) to demonstrate that the agent is not working in their client's best interest. This stuff really bothers me.

For those that haven't read any of my blathering about brokers stealing from their clients, here's a good one from five years ago, Robberies Update

"Profit is sweet even if it comes from deception."  __Sophocles

Blastoff

First off let me apologize for the infrequency of posts recently. Those of you with elderly parents and caregiving responsibilities can understand the demands we are often faced with. Sometimes jobs and careers are forced to a back burner. Both of us are back in Cocoa Beach full time now and I am able to return to regular posting. Feel free to contact me with any Cocoa Beach area real estate questions or comments.

The statue of the spaceman surfer is by Henry Lund and is installed at the new downtown Cocoa Beach parking garage. It's a timely departure from the abundant, well-worn t-shirt images we're used to seeing with a shuttle blasting off in the background while surfers and pelicans glide across waves in the foreground.

Our inventory has contracted a bit with 252 existing condo and townhome units and 60 single family homes for sale this morning in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. The Cocoa Beach MLS is showing 24 homes closed in the month of May at prices between $192,500 for a 1000 foot fixer-upper to $825,000 for an 18 year old direct river 4/4 beauty in Sunset Cove.

There were 62 condo units closed in the month. Sales spanned a range from $90,000 for a tiny 1/1 in Cape Canaveral to $955,000 for a brand-new top floor(5th) SE corner direct ocean Flores de la Costa in north Cocoa Beach. That particular new building, the only new oceanfront construction in Cocoa Beach in quite some time, began closing pre-construction contracts this month after getting their CO. Side view 2/2 units in the building closed for as little as $350,000. The building has a two week minimum rental period so rental potential there is high especially as it's the only new vacation rental in the city. There are a few units still available if anyone would like info.

Love bugs are finished (hopefully) until the next hatching in August and the heat has settled in. Those of us on the coast have been enjoying the sea breeze which has kept us about ten degrees cooler than Orlando and the interior most afternoons. That's one of the reasons we live here, right?

If anyone needs a tough, experienced buyer's agent in the Cocoa Beach area, now that  I'm back full time, I am able to take on a few new clients. Those of you who were looking at properties back during snowbird season without finding anything may want to consider resuming the search during the summer season when you'll have less competition.

When you're in Cocoa Beach this summer, enjoy yourselves and remember, sunscreen and hydration. The 4th Street Filling Station is a must visit for good food and a crazy beer selection. Outdoor dining under the old oak trees and very kid-friendly.

"Good decisions come from experience...and experience mostly comes from from bad decisions." _(From restroom stall at "Airport Diner")