Contributed by Angie’s List

Staging a home for sale used to be considered a luxury. Now, many real estate agents consider it a necessity. The continuing slump in housing has given buyers plenty of options — making it increasingly important to have your house looking its most dapper.

Follow these tips:

1. Screen appeal trumps curb appeal. Nearly 90 percent of homebuyers now research homes online, according to realty industry research. So it’s important that the house be staged and looking its best before the photos are taken to post online.

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The Aurora Awards are presented each year to builders, developers, architects, planners, interior merchandisers, landscape architects and other disciplines actively involved in projects in a 12-state southeastern region plus the Caribbean who have demonstrated building and design excellence.

This year’s winners were selected from among 80 categories by a panel of industry experts and were honored at the 30th Annual Aurora Awards gala on Aug. 1 during the Southeast Building Conference in Orlando.

The program is affiliated with the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) and the Southeast Building Conference (SEBC), one of two regional trade shows recognized by and affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

Area 2009 Aurora Award winners are:

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MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICES • AUGUST 9, 2009  News Press

Borrowers are waiting an unusually long time to close on mortgage refinance loans because thinly staffed banks can’t handle surges in volume when rates dip, mortgage experts say.

Also, lenders are giving applications closer scrutiny and requiring more documentation of income and assets to avoid repeating past mistakes. That has further crimped the pipeline, as have new appraisal rules that add a layer of red tape for many loans.

The upshot is that refinancing deals that used to take no more than a month now can take two or three, depending on the lender. The largest lenders – such as Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. – have been among the slowest, brokers say.

That means borrowers are continuing to pay at the higher rate for months more than they thought they would have to. And while they wait, some are even losing their “locked in” rates as the 30- and 45-day guarantees expire.

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Nabor Naples Area News

Report Shows 15-Month Inventory Trend Line Continuing To Decrease

NAPLES, Fla.-July 17, 2009- Naples area market activity continued to improve in June, closing out the second quarter of 2009 with encouraging signs for a good summer of housing sales, according to a report released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR), which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island).

Inventory decreased 14 percent to 9,681 in the second quarter of 2009 compared to 11,211 in the first quarter of 2009. “Inventory and the average days on the market continue to decline as the Naples housing market continues to show signs of improvement,” acknowledged John Steinwand, President of Naples Realty Services.

The average days on the market decreased 19 percent to 161 in the second quarter of 2009 compared to 198 in the second quarter of 2008.

“Pending and closed sales increased in every geographic area in the second quarter of 2009 as homebuyers see the value in all of Naples areas and are taking advantage of the favorable environment,” stated Bill Poteet, President of Poteet Properties.

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By LAURA LAYDEN Naples News

MARCO ISLAND — A Marco Island businessman is giving new meaning to the word freebie.

For three days, he ran this advertisement in the Naples Daily News under free merchandise: “Free empty house on Marco. You remove from lot.”

He’s gotten dozens of calls, but no takers yet. While the home is free, it could be quite costly and complicated to move.

The offer comes from Bill Schmitz, who originally planned to renovate the 1,500-square-foot home, which has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

After getting caught up in permitting, he decided to try giving the house away.  First, he started the job without permits. It led to a stop work order.  After applying for permits, he learned the home had to be his primary residence if he was going to renovate it as an unlicensed contractor. He then found out he wouldn’t be able to sell the home right away after he completed the work as the “owner-builder.”

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By TARA E. McLAUGHLIN Naples News

A commercial project that drew complaints from surrounding residents is before another Bonita Springs panel Friday.

Owners of three land parcels at Bonita Beach Road and West Brook Drive would like to rezone the approximately 1 acre to commercial planned development from agricultural.

James and Karysia Demarest’s property, referred to as the Brookside development, would then be converted into 15,000 square feet of retail and office space.

The Bonita Springs zoning board will hear the request Friday morning.  But the property’s neighbors in Brookside Estates have spoken out against the project.  “It would drastically change the character of our neighborhood,” said Debra Giambo. “The main concern is that we all bought our homes in here believing this was a residential area.”

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By QUENTIN ROUX Naples News

Leading by example, a family new to Marco has revitalized their neighborhood by sprucing up a near-derelict foreclosure home they bought in 2008.

And, the Martinez family — of 960 Beaver Court — hopes their efforts will spread across the length and breadth of the island.

“If the banks that own foreclosures could be pressured to do the same,” Xiomara Martinez said, “it could benefit the whole community and the real estate market on the island.”

It’s taken the family about seven months so far to revitalize the house and property, and in that time neighbors have responded with projects of their own.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • AUGUST 4, 2009

Pending U.S. home sales rose in June for the fifth straight month, another encouraging sign of life for the embattled U.S. housing market, the National Association of Realtors reported today.

For June, the Realtors group said its pending home sales index rose 3.6 percent to 94.6, from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was July 2003.

The results were far better than analysts expected. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index to come in at 91.2.

The report tracks signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes and is considered a barometer for future home sales. Typically there is a one- to two- month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.

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The pace of new-home starts in subdivisions in Lee County fell to 116 in the second quarter of 2009 — the slowest in more than a decade, according to statistics released today by housing data company MetroStudy.

There were 139 starts in the first quarter, the release states.

Meanwhile, the level of move-ins in subdivisions fell from 626 in the first quarter to 219 in the second. That was also the slowest pace in more than a decade.

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How do short sales and foreclosures affect taxable values for those homes and their neighbors? What about the impact of derelict homes on neighbors? Why is the decline in values in Lee County double that of Collier? How soon will the real estate market rebound? Ken Wilkinson, the property appraiser for Lee County for the past 29 year, is this week’s guest on the “One on One with Jeff Lytle” news program. The Comcast production is now available at naplesnews.com/oneonone Archived videos and transcripts of past programs are there too. Lytle is editorial editor of the Daily News. The interview with Wilkinson was taped at Comcast studios in East Naples on Wednesday, July 22.

Here is the edited transcript of the interview:

One on One for Sunday, July 26, 2009: Here is an edited transcript of highlights from the program with Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson:

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