I can,t believe it but I am going to close on my first short sale. This property has been under contract almost 3 months. It has taken this bank all that time to make a decision. If they had taken this much time to check out the buyer they made the loan to this probably would not be a short sale. I have 2 more properties under contract that are short sales and they are dragging along just like the first one. The main problem seems to be that the banks will not make counter offers to these offers. They just sit on the offer and think about it. The owners will pretty much go with the flow but the banks can't make a decision and by the time they do they have lost even more money.Is this the way this is happening all over or am I snake bite.

Went to Destine, Florida last week but more specificly the golf and beach resort of Sandestine. It streches from the Gulf to Bay and has 4 golf courses, white sand beaches, and a village that reminded me of Universal in Orlando. I passed through there 18 months ago and everything in town was for sale and business looked bad. This time very few things for sale and the tourist business was booming. The entire resort was full with virtualy no vacancies. This place holds thousands of people and was in beautiful condition. The golf courses were perfect which is very hard to maintain in a resort like this. The overall area was full of cars and people having a good time. The resturants were jam packed. We had to eat early to get a table without a wait. I saw a report in our newspaper The Palm Beach Post and the same report from the Today Show two weeks ago which said Americans were eating peanut butter and beans and going no where on vacation because we were all broke. I guess the people in Alabama, South Carolina, Louisana, Texas, and Florida didn't get the message because they were all their. After Sandestin we went to Dothan, Alabama to play golf on one of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses. Dothan was the same as Destine very few houses for sale and people playing golf on a Thursday. It was great and the hospitality was superb. After Dothan it was back to Florida and Apalatchicola and oysters at the greatest oyster resturant in Florida, Boss Oyster, it was great. After that, back to Palm Beach Gardens and back to work. Business is still picking up in spite of the news we are getting from the main stream press. My advice is don't listen to it. I am running out of listings and need to get in gear to replentish.

Good luck to every one. It is onward and upward for all of us.

Last week I took a break from Real Estate and Kayaked the Wakiva River north of Orlando. This was about a six hour paddle down river through some of the wildest looking jungle I ever saw. About half way down river the other groups that started out when we did turned back. My wife Virginia and I continued to go to the end. She is a good paddler and has been on many river trips with me in the past but this was kind of scary. There was no one for miles and you couldn't see five feet into the underbrush. We had seen a bear about 300 LBs the day befor and this was giving us some concern. About another mile we saw the greatest of sights. It was a man coming up river fishing for bass in a canoe. We chatted with him for a few minuits then went on feeling much better. We started seeing others coming up river from the place we were heading to. Spotting the bridge over state Rd 46 where I was to call the pick up people a crack of thunder came and then the biggest rain storm I think I ever saw. The wind blew so hard we couldn't paddle forward and the wind blew us off the river and into the trees and branches on the bank. The problem was their was no bank just trees and branches. A little while later two other kayakers blew in with us. Misery loves company now we felt great. After an hour it slowed down enough to continue down river to the end.

This week I have a closing today then tomorrow its off to Sandestin for golf, then on to Dothan, Al for more golf then back to Florida to do a kayac trip down the Crystal River then back home and back to business and golf in South Florida.

The Today Show today was telling everyone who listened this mourning that no one is taking a vacation or has any money to spend and is relagated to eating peanut butter and beans. This is why realtors should not watch this stuff or read newspapers like our Palm Beach Post. Business is improving and their are lots of people taking vacations. See you next week.

I received a reply last week about short sales. This realtor thinks that when the short sale inventory declines the market will get better. The market will get better when these short sale properties become forclousers. Very few short sale offers are being sold and the process takes forever. When the lender gets the property back there will be a big incentive to get rid of it. That is when these properties will help the market. Business is continuing to get better in spite of The Palm Beach Post, $4.00 a gallon gas, a do nothing Congress that refuses to allow oil drilling where the oil is, and last but not least, the threat by our County Commission to raise property taxes by the amount cut by the Legislators and the voters January 1st. At least the tax issue is something the Realtors can do something about. We are bombarding the Commission in mass to not do it because it will stop the increase in business we are experiencing.

On a lighter note my golf team, PGA National beat Jupiter Country Club yesterday in our North Shore summer golf league. We now have 2 wins and a draw. I played with one of the members and as usual when he found out I was in Real Estate he became quite interested. He lives in a golf and waterfront community called Jonathans Landing. Illustrated Properties has an office right in there club house which has been quite successful over the years. 

The South Florida golfer will be going kayaking Down the Wakiva River north of Orlando this week end. This is a spring fed river winding through the woods. They only let 14 boats on at a time and I was lucky enough to get a spot. I will write about it next week.

In the the Northern Palm Beach County area where I sell and list real estate, comprised of about 10 golf course developments of which 2 are waterfront and golf, the sales last month shot up to the best level in the last 6 months. I talked to the showing instruction person who worked this past weekend and she gave out 42 showing instrustions to agents Saturday and Sunday just from our Jupiter office. Fellow Realtors that is a great sign of the times. We have offices scattered over the county including Palm Beach and the same news was true of all. It is hard to get any good news from our local news paper the Palm Beach Post as they seem to have another agenda. Most of the Realtors have stopped advertising in this paper and are are using diferent types of on line advertising. It seems to be much more fruitful and not working against us at the same time. Any comments on the subject would be appreciated.

Golf in South Florida is still great in June. I will be playing Greg Normans private club in Hobe Sound, The Medalist, on Saturday. This will be a real treat for me as I want to start including it in my overall real estate marketing plan as they are now interested in building more and different homes their. Greg Norman origialy was not to interested in developing real estate their. It helps me talk about the property to golfers knowing what the course is like.

Our Summer golf league called The North Shore Golf League has now started. I belong to PGA Nationals team. During the summer we play against 12 other clubs in the Palm Beach County area and one in Hobe Sound which is in Martin County. These are private clubs that I would generaly not get to play on unless I new someone. This league works out great for me because I get to play with strangers who don't live in my neighborhood or city. Just as soon as my opponent finds out that I am in real estate that is then all they want to talk about. I have been in the league for 5 years and don't get to play every week but most weeks. It has been good to me in addition to the golf it has gotten me business 4 out of the 5 years. That is a very good return for my time and I have been able to produce points for the team in about half of the matches I have been in. This is another example of golf in South Florida in the Summer. I just love it.

Ah, the pleasure of calling the club on Tuesday for a Wendesday mourning T-Time. Only in the summer time in South Florida is this possible. I was talking to a fellow golfer from Chicago in the pro shop, at PGA National where I belong and also live, and he asked where were all the people? I told him that they are back in Chicago. He said that I must be right. He is here on business and wanted to get a round in on short notice. We had a threesome so I asked him to join us and he did. May through October at South Florida golf clubs totaly out of phase with the rest of the world above Jacksonville. He said that he has to call 4 days ahead to get T-times at his club in Chicago. He could not believe the facility we have at PGA and the fact that there were so few golfers using it. When I told him we had 1100 members he was flabergasted. Most of them have two or three homes scatered around the country. We had a great time. I gave him a  one of my Illustrated Properties business cards because we talked real estate and golf during the whole round. He still couldn't get over that we had the whole place to ourselves. I have a feeling that I'll be hearing from him in the future. Its a great life, play golf and get real estate prospects, even in the summer in South Florida.