Market Update, Survey Results and New Advanced MLS Tools

I have a LOT to go over with you this month but it’s going to be brief because I’ve been working day and night lately and am ready to go relax for just a little bit.

You’ve probably already noticed a major change in this site.  I redesigned it from the bottom up and used the information from the surveys last month to make sure it provided pretty much everything you asked for.  And yes, I did all the design and layout work myself (but I did get help on the image at the top and suggestions on backgrounds and such – thanks Laura).  After I go over the market update for last month’s sales I’ll let you know about all the great new advanced MLS search tools you now can use.

August is typically a month that is close to the same as July in sales – and this year was no different.   But the trends I’ve been discussing the last several months have continued and August was the 8th straight month with sales above the same month in the last 4 years and the 9th straight month with sales above the same month in the previous 3 years.  So the stability in the recovery in this local market is continuing.

(Based on information from:  1) PRO/Suncoast MLS for the period of Jan 2007 to May 2011 and from 2) MFRMLS for the period May 2011 thru the end of August 2011)

Last month I had a survey up on the site to get feedback on what you wanted in my new site and the answers were very helpful.  (There was also a gift card give-away to 2 people for participating in the survey and the winners will be announced in next month’s newsletter.)

One of the questions on the survey was “Which of the following would you use if available?” and the answers were:  Map Search, Listings by City or Community, Foreclosures Search, Sold Listings, Price History, Walk Score and Mobile Access.  The top 2 answers were Map Search and Price History.

The good news is that all these are now part of this new site with the exception of Listings by Community and Mobile Access which will be added in the near future.

I think when you see all the tools you now have that you can use when searching for properties and the wealth of information that wasn’t available to you before, you’ll probably be as excited as I am about all this.

I don’t want to keep you any longer because I want you to be able to start to check out what is available to you now and I’d love to hear what you think about all this once you’ve had a chance to play around with the new tools.  If you want to see what is available here now, I’ve put together a brief Video that you can watch which will go over these new tools and how to use them.

Hope you like the new site and find the new tools useful and that I’ll be seeing you here soon.

Sincerely,
Ron