I was referred to a potential home buyer in Destin, Florida.  He was in the construction business and had just been working in our area for a few months, coming here from another state. I could tell that English was his second language, and I listened carefully.  He told me that he had never bought a home before, but had found one online in Destin that he wanted to see. I looked it up and it was already under contract. Then, I asked him if he had been pre-qualified for a mortgage loan.  There can be stricter loan requirements for self-employed persons, and I was concerned that his local work history may not be sufficient to get approved.

He told me he had money saved up, emergency funds that he could spend.  He mentioned the full amount could be used.  Giving me pause, I said without thinking, “Do you want to spend your entire emergency funds?”

That’s when the spark of trust lit up. He responded, “I like you.” I was taken aback and said “What?”  He said, “I really like you”.  He didn’t have to explain why.

A few days later, he told me he had decided to rent first. Honestly, I was glad. My intuition told me it was the right thing to do in his situation. I didn’t make the sale. But I earned someone’s trust, and more importantly, I helped him.

It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells short sale, pre-foreclosure, REO and traditional real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.

For the first few weeks of the Florida Stay-at-Home order, I paid a lot attention to others’ social distancing behavior. After all, I was doing the right thing. My husband and I decided we would be prudent. We limit our time out of the house. We wear masks if we have to go to the store. We avoid crowded aisles. We don’t socialize. We use hand sanitizer,  we disinfect food packages. At my Destin real estate office, I’ve removed the candy jar. I sanitize the doors and banisters. I’ve had to gently tell others to back away six feet.  I had listened to the CDC guidelines and modified my behavior.  But, why hadn’t others?

There was “civil disobedience” everywhere. I went to Walmart and noticed people crowding aisles, few wearing masks. I saw customers walking in and out of a convenience store while I was pumping gas, and counted 11 people going in, not one with a face covering.  Then there’s Lowe’s – now that was a party.  First, we could barely find a parking spot.   Nonplussed, I observed multiple people crammed in a car, father, mother and three children, all getting out and going inside the store, hand-in-hand.  (I don’t think you’d see that on a normal day.) I sat and waited for my husband to go in (just one of us at a time means less chance of exposure) and marveled at the jubilant throngs.  It was like the mall at Christmas.

Social distancing on walks? Unless that was a couple I saw with their 45 year old kid, there was no social distancing.  Walking side-by-side, baby cart by baby cart.  Not in family units. A local neighborhood even had a food truck come and they posted pictures online. All were pleasantly three feet apart.  They couldn’t wait to schedule the next one. And a Yappy hour on a cul-de-sac for all the dogs to play (with their owners). The neighbor kids, too.  They go from house to house, in each other’s driveways with their bikes. Then they go home to their individual households. No virus-carrying there.

This was getting on my nerves.

For the first few weeks, I was upset. “Harrumph! How can they be ignoring social distancing guidelines?”  Didn’t people get it? Didn’t they understand that even showing no symptoms, they may still be infected and cause asymptomatic spread of the virus? They would not just be protecting themselves, they would be protecting others if they were careful, stayed six feet apart, wore a mask, did not socialize in groups, and did not allow kids to have play-dates, as recommended by the CDC. But they didn’t.

Then I gave up.

I realized that I cannot control others’ behavior. I can observe it, I can be curious, I can even expect it. But, I cannot let it bother me.

The only behavior I can control is my own. I will proceed accordingly.

 

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells short sale, pre-foreclosure, REO and traditional real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.

This site, Wendy Rulnick or Rulnick Realty, Inc. is not providing legal or tax advice. The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is recommended that sellers considering a short sale should consult an independent legal and tax advisor for more information.

There is a new Florida real estate form pertaining to the COVID-19 crisis.  It is an acknowledgment that asks for affirmation from prospect, buyer, seller, tenant, and landlord that they are aware of the Coronavirus risks that may arise from in-person real estate showings.  Specifically, the document asks them to minimize health risks to themselves and others, and to acknowledge that they are not aware of any issues that would pose such a risk.  Further, the form states that buyers, sellers, and others will follow the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines.  It also asks the parties to alert others if they subsequently become aware of new information that may have posed a danger, and to assume all risks from in-person access to Florida real estate.

The new Florida COVID-19 acknowledgment is the second form created for use by Florida Realtors, in addition to the COVID-19 contract addendum.  Here is the new COVID-19 In-Person Access Acknowledgment form in its entirety.

Florida Real Estate COVID-1… by Wendy Rulnick on Scribd

 

If you find that during or after the COVID-19 crisis, you must sell your Emerald Coast real estate, consider your options, whether traditional sale or short sale.

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells short sale, pre-foreclosure, REO and traditional real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.

This site, Wendy Rulnick or Rulnick Realty, Inc. is not providing legal or tax advice. The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is recommended that sellers considering a short sale should consult an independent legal and tax advisor for more information.

Real estate sales on the Emerald Coast of Florida have decreased since the COVID-19 crisis began.

Looking at the entire region, including Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Miramar Beach, Freeport, Niceville, Point Washington and DeFuniak Springs, pending sales of real estate have decreased from 790 units to 446 total units from the first two weeks of March 2020 to the first two weeks of April 2020.  That’s a drop of 43% in the number of houses, condos, town homes and lots going under contract.

Individual Pending Sales by area from the period of March 1 – March 15 as compared to the period between April 1 – April 15 were as follows:

Destin Pending Sales dropped from 51 to 22  ( -56%).

Niceville Pending Sales dropped from 57 to 38  ( – 33%).

Fort Walton Beach Pending Sales dropped from 123 to 82 ( – 33%).

Miramar Beach Pending Sales dropped from  67 to 25  (- 62%).

Santa Rosa Beach, North of Hwy 98, Pending Sales dropped from 37 to 19 (- 48%).

Crestview Pending Sales dropped from 120 to 75 (- 37%).

30-A South Walton, South of Hwy 98 Pending Sales dropped from 102 to 34 (- 66%).

Decidedly, the Coronavirus economic effect has had an impact on Emerald Coast real estate.

 

If you find that during or after the COVID-19 crisis, you must sell your Emerald Coast real estate, consider your options. Let me know if you have any questions about real estate, whether traditional or short sale.

It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells short sale, pre-foreclosure, REO and traditional real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.

This site, Wendy Rulnick or Rulnick Realty, Inc. is not providing legal or tax advice. The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is recommended that sellers considering a short sale should consult an independent legal and tax advisor for more information.

Statistics source is Emerald Coast Association of Realtors.

I am a little behind the times, given that a lot of people have been cleaning and organizing since the inception of the Florida Stay-at-Home order. After three weeks, it finally got to me. It has been a time of accounting and personal reflection, and it manifested in ordering and upgrading. What do we really need? What services do we really use? What stuff is necessary?

Long overdue was the cleaning out of my storage unit in Destin. I had this unit for 25 years, from when I first relocated to Florida.  It morphed from the original junk I moved here from Connecticut, into a packed repository of real estate signs, office furniture, and files, until twelve years ago, when I built my current office.  I hadn’t been to the unit in that many years, but I was still paying the bill. I finally said “enough” and brought my husband with me to look, grab what I wanted (my mother’s original china collection), and have Junk-A-Way take the rest. I didn’t even know if the rolling door would open.

Well, it did. The first horrifying thing that happened when we opened it, after the musty folders tumbled off a filing cabinet to the ground, was the “hand”.  I am not making this up. It was one of those Halloween hands that is on top of a candy jar that scares you when reaching in. It was green. And it was covered in cobwebs.

That aside, it was an adventure getting into the unit.  At 10′ x 10′, it was packed with old desks, shelving units, filing cabinets, printers, computers, boxes of files, giant real estate signs, and my grandmother’s piano. What I really wanted was far in the back. My mother’s china. I had pined for that for years. My poor husband had to move box after box outside the unit, until we were far enough in to find boxes labeled “china”.  Other treasures that I didn’t expect, including an old coin collection, a hunting bow, racquetball racquets, and an old recording of me on a newscast, was a box of photos from my real estate days in Connecticut. Oh, the perm.

So, the cleaning, ordering and upgrading continues. Since then, I’ve gone through drawers of jewelry rarely worn, with boxes ready to give a friend to re-purpose. I’ve organized my office, throwing out junk. I’ve cancelled services that were add-ons that I didn’t really need.  And I lowered my cable bill. I didn’t realize I was paying for a long abandoned phone number, snuck onto page four of the fine print, for years. I am not done. Are you?

It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells traditional real estate and short sales in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin,  Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.

The signs above are posted at my Destin, Florida real estate office. “No Admittance if You Are Sick” and “Maintain Social Distance” (with a lovely picture of an alligator to indicate how far). Am I paranoid? Maybe. But I don’t think so. Even though Florida real estate is a deemed an essential service, I usually don’t have walk-in customers. I have a few tenants who don’t, either, but this acts as a reminder, just in case the errant person comes in. Oh, there are warning signs posted on the front door, too.

Nowadays, we normally only get the poor UPS delivery man.  At least previously, he had been able to take a chocolate from my candy jar to reward him for his labors.  I used to have it on the front desk filled with miniature Hershey bars, Snickers, and M&M’s. I removed it after realizing that lots of hands rummaged through.  Unclean hands.  Virus hands. Now on the front desk, instead, there is a box of Clorox wipes that reminds me to clean off the front door handle and to run it up the banister to the second floor.  You see, somebody else uses that banister.

When all this started, I provided a bottle of hand sanitizer in the office bathroom, so thoughtful.  After a week or so, I ended up bringing it into my personal office, for fear it would be taken. It was only a two ounce bottle. I thought about that over a weekend with some guilt.

I also locked up the 40 toilet paper rolls that were in the supply closet for anyone to take. I realized that might become important when the most-discussed topic of conversation had become “toilet paper”, even with casual acquaintances.  I packaged them up into two large bags and hid them away. I came into the office to do it when no one else was here, and I did it fast.

 

It’s Wendy… It’s Sold!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, Rulnick Realty, Inc.
Call 850-259-0422
Email Wendy: itswendy@rulnickrealty.com

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, sells traditional and short sale real estate in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Miramar Beach, Crestview, Sandestin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Bluewater Bay, Navarre, Florida.