Just Sold! 17112 Newport Club Dr in Newport Bay CLub in Boca!

Karen Rothstein found her buyer this fabulous deal on a singled story 3 bedroom, 2 bath pool home built in 1989 in a fantastic neighborhood in Boca Raton. Karen’s buyer purchased this 1868 square foot home with gorgeous views of the lake and pool for only $410,000 (asking price was $435,000 ~ reduced from $479,000). The seller paid $355,000 for this home in 2003. This contemporary home had a brand new roof, an updated bathroom, and numerous other upgrades. Newport Bay Club is a fantastic non-equity top tennis community. Located on Jog Rd in the “Millionaire’s Row” of Boca, Newport Bay is a gated community with tennis, pool, clubhouse, and fabulous exercise facilities. Newport Bay is known as a top tennis community with a wonderful…

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Should I buy or rent my Boca Raton FL home?

The latest rent ratios were released by Moody’s and can be seen in this New York Times article, giving support to the argument that in South Florida at least it is looking like it is more worthwhile to buy than to rent in today’s market of depressed home prices.

The rent ratio is the purchase price of the property divided by the annual cost of renting that property. The premise is that if the ratio is more than 20 (as in New York City for example), it is a better economic decision to rent. When the ratio is less than 15, the advantage tilts to owning. Between 15 and 20 is up in the air, but of course these ratios do not take into consideration potential price appreciation.

Because of the low prices and amazing opportunities in the Boca…

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Palm Beach County Property Tax 2010 notices mailed this week~ Important Info about appealing your taxes!

Beginning Monday, August 23, 2010, the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office mailed the proposed property taxes for 2010. In the notice, there is a breakdown of millage rates , the property’s assessed and taxable values (as of January 1, 2010), and any exemptions applied. Read your notice closely. Although unfortunately millage rates have gone up in most areas, the values have declined. (example: I am an owner of Boca Raton Real Estate. My market value declined 10%, however my tax bill increased because the local taxing authorities increased their millage rate.) If you disagree with the value, or an exemption has not been applied, you have between now and September 16, 2010 to file a petition. With property values plummeting in the area, many…

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Lockbox vs Agent Accompany showings: Which is better for the Seller?

Please allow me to vent. I was just scheduling some showings to take a buyer out to see some two bedroom condos in Regency in Boca Pointe. I have a listing there, which she saw online,  but she also wanted to see some other condos as well as mine. Four in total. Mine is easy to show. I have a key, plus it is on a supra lockbox for the convenience of co-operating Realtors. All the others required appointments with the listing agents. So I figured out the schedule, which is very dependent upon the promptness of the buyer client, and called the brokers to schedule the appointments. On two there was no problem. On the third, I caught the agent and his partner-wife on vacation. He said, “OH we are out of town for the week, sorry we can’t show it”. I was…

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Just Sold in Courtside of Broken Sound Country Club ~ This was a Short Sale

I just sold this gorgeous courtyard home in the Courtside subdivision of Broken Sound Country Club. For those of you who don't know the lingo, a Courtyard Home is one in which the swimming pool and patio are in the front of the house. You usually enter through the entrance doors into a courtyard and then the front door of the house is through the courtyard. Many courtyard homes in Boca Raton have detached guest houses as well.

This stunning home in Broken Sound Club has four bedrooms and four baths in the main house, in addition to a one bedroom suite guest houses. It has beautiful Brazilian wood floors throughout, and over 3400 square feet in total. 

Broken Sound Club is an equity country club in a fabulous central Boca Raton location. 

This was…

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Just Sold 4740 South Ocean Blvd ~ Braemar Isle Condo Highland Beach

This fabulous condo in Braemar Isles in Boca Highlands was just sold by my buyer's specialist Karen Rothstein. It is a ninth floor condo with fabulous intracoastal views. Stunning, completely redone including brand new kitchen, baths, state of the art stainless appliances, toto toilets, and so much more including an absolutely stunning panoramic intracoastal view pictured above.

Boca Highlands is a gated waterfront community with a private beach club, tennis, swimming pools, fitness center, and marina located on the Intracoastal waterway in Highland Beach.

We sold this condo to our happy client in April 2010 for a great price of $428,000. It was listed for $499,900 in December 2009. The previous sale was $695,000 in December 2006.

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Short Sale Myth #1: Boca Raton Short Sales Do Not Get Approved

With short sales making up over twenty percent of all Boca Raton real estate listings, and over thirty percent of those listings under $400,000, it is time to answer some commonly held questions and misperceptions about short sales.

SHORT SALE MYTH #1: Short sales take 9-12 months and do not get approved.

This is the most difficult part of a short sale process for both buyers and sellers. The lenders are slammed with files and do not always respond promptly. And it is true that the lender will not look at a file without an executed purchase contract. However, I am finding that the process is becoming more streamlined and it is possible to get a response in a more timely manner. The average process is as follows:  Once there is an executed contract…

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Just Sold 4301 N Ocean Blvd - Sea Ranch Club of Boca Raton

I just sold this fabulous condo in Sea Ranch! It is on the tenth floor of the "A" building, with fabulous ocean and intracoastal views from every room!

This condo is two bedrooms, two baths, and over 1900 square feet under A/C. The Boca Raton condo was originally listed in November of 2009 for $629,000 and then subsequently reduced to $585,000. My client picked up this great unit for $530,000!

Sea Ranch is a wonderful guard gated oceanfront community in Boca Raton with four towers, pools, tennis courts, exercise facilities, a marina and private beach access.

Our buyer clients are still getting great deals on Boca Raton Condos as well as all Boca Raton Real Estate.

Besides Sea Ranch, other popular buildings include Toscana and Marbella.

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Karen Rothstein's first Blog Post- About finding a good Boca Raton real estate deal

‘IF YOU CAN FIND ME A “GREAT DEAL” PLEASE LET ME KNOW…THAT’S WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR!”

This is probably the most frequent request I hear when working with a buyer looking for Boca Raton real estate.  Of course I haven’t met anyone who has said, “price doesn’t matter”. The truth of the matter is really quite simple. It’s all inventory whether it is a Boca Raton short sale, Boca Raton Foreclosure or a regular deal (an arm's length transaction between a motivated buyer and seller). What is different about each one of those sales is the process that you undertake to purchase the home.

Yes, it is important to know the difference between a short sale and a foreclosure because since the process is different, a short sale or foreclosure may not be a viable…

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The Boca Raton Real Estate Market continues to be a strong Buyer's Market

I have been spending some time examining the Boca Raton real estate market and the underlying statistics of what is happening in our area. I think it's important to discuss the market in terms of price bands, as we have a wide range of inventory and price ranges in our local market. As an example, I have analyzed the current situation for single family homes in Boca Raton, in various price ranges. Check out this chart below:

What is most interesting to me is that the number of months of inventory for homes priced between $750,000 and $999,999 is a whopping 92 months! Only two homes in this price range sold in February 2010 out of 193 listings! Not that it's so great for homes over a million, but they are actually faring better, with 45 months supply.…

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