January 11, 2012

New Year, New Ramblings......apologies.....gotta keep this current. I have been busy and I will take that all day long these days!  I do believe things are starting to look up.

 Back in May I gave a snap shot of how 2011 was shaping up in our local real estate market based on MLS sales...... compared with 2010. See Below.

2010 RECAP in MLS Numbers.  This data is pulled straight from our MLS and there are probably some glitches but I think you can get the point.

2010 Residential Solds...399        2011  Res. Solds to May 14, 2011............156

2010 Commercial Solds.....9        2011 Commercial Sold to May 14, 2011.....3

2010 Land Solds............... 81       2011 Land Solds to May 14, 2011 .............35

Here are the final 2011 numbers for the year:

Total Sales Numbers For 2011

2011 Residential Solds  427

2011 Commercial Solds 11

2011 Land Solds  84

Wow, interesting numbers.....many of the land sales were residential lots....for both years. Almost a mirror image of 2010.  I will let you draw your own conclusions from those numbers but what I think should be taken from it is that real estate sales have been steady for the past two years.

Once again this year, like last year, I worked on a property where we made an offer on 70+ acre tract in August of 2010 and wound up actually closing the deal in July of 2011.  You just have to be patient and not be in a hurry.  My Dad, who has been licensed since 1968,  has always told me, "Be patient, I never lost money on a property I did not buy!"   Lot of wisdom there.  Many times we have made offers......does not go anywhere, come back a few months later and submit another, and things start clicking.  We have really seen some great deals this year.  There was a large farm tract with a nice home that sold for what I thought was a good price for the buyer (bank owned) and there was another tract that was over 300 acres with a couple of homes that sold this year that was not a bank owned property, and in my opinion, this was the absolute best deal I had seen go through all year.  There is always going to be another deal!  Just have to do your homework and put in the effort. 

Farm land is still king.  In our market we are seeing prices from $2200 to $3400 per acre for dry farm land with some mixed woods and various improvements.  I would say on average most land tracts over 50 acres have been moving for between $2000 and $3000 an acre.  This would be property with at least some kind of Ag component and some mixed woods on the property.  We have seen some really good deals on recreation property.  I had someone talking with me last week who remarked that they had never seen so many plantations on the market.  Seems like 10 years ago or more when a local plantation came on the market, it was a sealed bid and you could pretty much bank on it that the property would sell.  

Bottom line on real estate.....we still have a world of properties we need to sell.....so do other companies.  I am busy.  Good busy.  I am very thankful for the activity and I thank God every day.

We did not see that many tarpon this year when we went fishing like in years past but we still had a great time.  Colin and I did sight cast to a nice size shark...probably a bull who took our purple toad fly and took off to Cuba before I gave the fly rod to Colin to get a feel for how strong these fish are.  Probably a good think that he broke us off.  The whole family spent a week down at Panacea and Carrabelle this summer where we fished, boated and just had a big old time.  Watched the sun come up one morning over Dog Island with Kayce.....we were hanging on the beach that early morning with the monster ghost crabs.  Good memory. 

My cousin Ivan Crocker took me fishing close to Christmas down at the Aucilla and flat put on a clinic for me on how to catch Trout and Redfish!  We had a big time and I learned a good bit but struggled to put fish in the boat.  I went back a week later with my brother to Ivan's hole and was having a less than fine time watching my brother catch all the fish!  He finally told me that if I insisted on slinging flys, that I take that fly and wipe it on one of those fish in the cooler.  I did that and the game was on!!!!!  I am sure some fly fishing purist may frown on that but I sure had a good time!!!!  I will have to remember that little trick when the fish get lock jaw again.

I go invite earlier this hunting season and shot my fist Pope and Young buck with my Bow.....11 pt......scored 139.   Very thankful for that.  No duck hunting so far this year and really have not seen that many deer.....kind of crazy.  We did walk up on a pack of hogs last Saturday morning that made for some tense moments.  Note to self.....get rid of $1.99 flash light and get a real flash light where you can see wild hogs 20 yards in front of you!!!  We need to do something about those hogs.  I have been hunting with the kids and the son of a family friend and we have had some adventures.  We have been seeing lots of turkeys.

Back to land......real dry.....one of the driest years, winters of record.  People need to realize that when they are looking at property to pay attention to the soil maps.  It may be dry and solid right now but those soil maps will tell the whole story.  This dry winter means it will dry up quick in the spring which means it might be tough to get the right conditions for doing prescribed fires or even getting the permits to do a burn.  I helped a friend burn off a section of woods near the golf course about 3 weeks ago.  Some folks might debate that it is too early to be burning but when you are an absentee owner and your facing a dry spring.....I agreed with my friend you better burn when the conditions are right.  We got a great burn and I think he finished burning his property this past week.  We will probably start burning our tracts in about 2 to 3 weeks.  Prescribed Fire is a science and an art.  There is a course you can take on prescribed fire that is offered by the GA Division of Forestry and offered at most Technical Colleges.  I have never taken the course but I did order the book and read the material.......lot more complicated than you would think....a world of variables to consider when you burn.

Charlotte is being Baptized this weekend.  We are thrilled and excited for her.  On the way back from Tallahassee a month or so back she just spoke up and told us she wanted to make a public profession of faith at church by walking up front and asking to be Baptized.  That is what we do at our church.  We have talked with all our children about Jesus and how he died on the cross for our sins and how He rose on the third day.  They get that and have all prayed to be saved.  It is just special when one of your children speaks up and wants to step out and acknowledge what she believes.  As a parent there is nothing more powerful and lasting that I can give to my children than what we are offered through Jesus.  That's big time!  I can remember when I got Baptized with my dad!

I spent the better part of the day figuring out how to download 2011 High Resolution Sat Photos with my routes and drawings on to my GPS.  Figured it out!  Awesome.....this will completely change how I show property.  I am very excited.  Still some bugs to work out but will field test my new technology tomorrow on a real boogery 200 acre, all wooded tract.......looking for corners with no survey!

Anyway, Happy New Year to all!  Rambled out....will try to update in about a month.  That would be a good resolution....update ramblings once a month!  We shall see.

Keep our President and Our Troops in your prayers.

Dan