Niagara Falls Real Estate & Homes : January 2007

Inspired by Sarah Cooper's post, and Maureen McCabe's New Member MEME,  there are seven beautiful women here at Active Rain that have made the past few weeks better for me personally.   We all started to get to know each other via our posts here at Active Rain, slowly one by one we have picked up the phone and started talking with each other.  That is where the magic all started.  Each conversation got us to know each other a little better, and friendships are blossoming.  

Active Rain is this wonderful community that has made my life a lot easier, and these lovely ladies all get a huge THANK YOU from me:

1. Teri Isner - your kindness and willingness to share inspires me to greatness that I never really saw myself achieving before...
2. Margaret Rome - finally I understand why I am the way I am, and with your gentle encouragement, I remember not to be so tough on myself.  That what is happening has a purpose, there is a lesson in it.
3. Ann Cummings - I am so excited that I am getting to know you -- you are a neat lady!  Your post about hand written notes came at a moment that I was feeling rather unappreciated -- our conversation lifted me even higher!
4. Kristal Kraft - always full of encouragement -- I am a better writer because of you!  You are willing to share and help others grow...
5. Monika McGillicuddy - I appreciate that you are willing to share about training with me... Opportunities are out there to teach, and I look forward to spending some time in the classroom again soon!
6. Laurie Manny - always there to share dinner with me late at night willing to boost me when needed and giving me inspiration that I will get through this moment in time.  Your little victory stories at the end of the day give me hope that things will turn around soon!
7. Chris Elizabeth Griffith - Go Florida, so glad to see you climbing in the ranks!   We have to do lunch sometime soon! 

Outside of my broker's encouragement and that of my friends outside of Real Estate, it is what I have gotten from Active Rain that has made the difference.  It is not just these lovely ladies listed above that have made a difference in my life and business, there are countless others who have inspired me, written a post with a great idea that I have implemented, just appreciated me with a heartfelt comment on a post or brought a smile to my face when needed. 

My life is on track, and moving forward, and if it weren't for these lovely ladies, I doubt that I would be on track.  Each of you have been a great source of encouragement and strength that I can draw upon to know what it is that I need to do.  Each one of you has made an impact on my life that I cannot begin to Thank Active Rain enough for.  You have given the the strength to carry on and keep the faith and the knowledge that what I am doing is the right thing to carry me forward! 

So, each of you I ask, who are the 7 people that have impacted you?  They need to be people here at AR (not just women -- it just so happens my list was all women...) and you did not know before joining Active Rain.  So let them know how they have made a difference in your life...  Tag your post with THANK YOU MEME, so others can read all about who we are grateful for in this wonderful community!

Colleen Kulikowski is your Western New York Real Estate Expert focusing on Buffalo and Niagara Falls neighborhoods of Western New York.  If you are on Twitter, please follow me... If you enjoyed this post by your Buffalo & Niagara Falls Home Sales Expert, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Email Colleen Kulikowski | All posts by Colleen Kulikowski 
(716) 743-5297 Voicemail

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The legislature passed the Property Insurance Reform Bill and it should be signed by the Governor as early as today.  This is great news for Floridians!   Below are some of the details of this comprehensive report:

• Insurance Report Card - requires the Insurance Consumer Advocate to assign a letter grade to insurance companies based on claims payment practices and other company operations;
• Windstorm Insurance Coverage - allows homeowners to exclude windstorm coverage from their policies;
• Deductible Options - eliminates caps on deductibles under certain conditions;
• Contents Coverage - allows policyholder to exclude contents coverage;
• Age of Home - prohibits property insurers from denying coverage based solely on the age of home;
• Cherry Picking - requires insurers that offer homeowners policies in other states and offer auto insurance in Florida to sell homeowners insurance in Florida;
• Low Income Insurance Coverage Assistance - instructs Legislature in 2007 regular session to create a program to help the low income pay insurance premiums;
• Uniform Grading System - requires the state to develop a uniform home grading scale to grade a homes hurricane resistance;
• Panhandle Exemption - eliminates the Panhandle Exemption to the Florida Building Code;
• Citizens Rate Increase - repeals January 1, 2007 rate increase and freezes rates at the December 31, 2006 level;
• Commercial Policies - eliminates the PCJUA and allows Citizens to write statewide commercial insurance policies and Citizens Board to determine policy limits and premiums;
• Citizens Rate Floors - removes requirement that Citizens has to charge the highest rates;
• Non Homestead Property - allows non-homestead properties to be eligible for Citizens coverage;
• Sinkholes - strengthens the definition of sinkholes for claims purposes (final details being written);
• Multi perils - authorizes Citizens to write multi peril policies in the wind pool (will result in direct decrease in premiums for at least 110,000 policy holders) 

Some of the highlights of this bill are:

• Insurance Report Card - requires the Insurance Consumer Advocate to assign a letter grade to insurance companies based on claims payment practices and other company operations;
• Windstorm Insurance Coverage - allows homeowners to exclude windstorm coverage from their policies;
• Deductible Options - eliminates caps on deductibles under certain conditions;
• Contents Coverage - allows policyholder to exclude contents coverage;
• Age of Home - prohibits property insurers from denying coverage based solely on the age of home;
• Cherry Picking - requires insurers that offer homeowners policies in other states and offer auto insurance in Florida to sell homeowners insurance in Florida;
• Low Income Insurance Coverage Assistance - instructs Legislature in 2007 regular session to create a program to help the low income pay insurance premiums;
• Uniform Grading System - requires the state to develop a uniform home grading scale to grade a homes hurricane resistance;
• Panhandle Exemption - eliminates the Panhandle Exemption to the Florida Building Code;
• Citizens Rate Increase - repeals January 1, 2007 rate increase and freezes rates at the December 31, 2006 level;
• Commercial Policies - eliminates the PCJUA and allows Citizens to write statewide commercial insurance policies and Citizens Board to determine policy limits and premiums;
• Citizens Rate Floors - removes requirement that Citizens has to charge the highest rates;
• Non Homestead Property - allows non-homestead properties to be eligible for Citizens coverage;
• Sinkholes - strengthens the definition of sinkholes for claims purposes (final details being written);
• Multi perils - authorizes Citizens to write multi peril policies in the wind pool (will result in direct decrease in premiums for at least 110,000 policy holders).

As indicated previously, the effective dates of provisions of the bill will be aggressive but they will be staggered (some will be effective immediately upon becoming law; others will be effective March 1, June 1, etc...).  Most are indicated in the bill summary.

Angler's Cove - Marco Island, Florida Market Update

Sunsets on Marco Island are wonderful this time of year!  You could be here enjoying them yourself if you owned here on Marco Island!   So here is a great community to think about purchasing in so you too can enjoy the sugar sand beaches of Marco Island!

Since my last Market Update, there have been some changes, and you can see all my previous posts about Angler's Cove including photos and stats here on my BLOG.

Here is what is happening in this Boating community on the Marco River:

• There are 22 Active 1-bedroom units on the market with an average list price of $343,659 and average days on the market of 113.
• There is only one pending 1-bedroom unit at this time, and it was listed at $269,000 and was on the market 55 days when it went pending.
• There has been one closed sale since the beginning of the year, it was listed at $232,000 and sold for $228,500 and was on the Market for 396 days.
• There are 13 2-bedroom units for sale in Angler's Cove with an average list price of $402,969 and 192 days on the Market.  Prices range from $289,000 to $519,000.
• There are no pending or closed 2-bedroom units so far this year.
• The following chart shows the trending of the active listings:

This information is provided by Colleen Kulikowski, Realtor.  Colleen writes about the Florida lifestyle and Real Estate in Western New York.

Celebration Florida Homes  Marco Island Homes

Western New York Real Estate & Mortgage

All statistical information is gathered from the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors.  Information as of January 16, 2006

Welcome to Active Rain Week in Review for January 8-14th!  Wow this is really tough to pick! Which we probably should break this up at some point.  I have a new appreciation for Matt and Caleb and how hard it is to pick featured posts.  I had great hopes of doing something fancy, but I was rather busy showing lots on a Harley between Marco Island, Golden Gate Estates, Immokolee and Everglades City and back-- which only made Monika's post Biker Chick from last week even funnier for me.  Figures that the week that I do the review, I was off the Internet for 2 1/2 of the days.  

Thanks to the lively discussions I thought that I would start with LOCALISM, since it seems to be a lot on our minds this week.  But first -- Hey Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Vermont, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North & South Dakota -- how come no pictures on Localism at the state level (ok, as of Saturday 6pm that is)? ActiveRain gained quiet an endorsement at the Inman BLOG on Tuesday!  This is big news!   And I believe it is the reason we are all excited and writing about it.  Matt wrote about in Cat Out of the Bag which had a healthy amount of discussion.  Others that wrote about Localism:

• Maureen McCabe shared with us Activity at Localism, which she references Susan Marriott's BLOG LOCALISM.COM 
• Chris Tesch wrote a great post about connecting with her local communities by taking pictures and getting to know the condos!
• Laurie Manny was very insightful in her Catch me if you can and Building a Foundation which summed up much of what I believe we are all feeling.
• Cheryl Johnson wrote Another Local Blog outside in
• Diane Rice writes A Little Boost for Active Rain which shows us the new Group (Localism Beta) that John Occhi  created for Localism discussion. 
• Then there was the lively debate that I had with John Occhi  between our two very different posts Colleen - Localism Some Ideas and John - Lets Discuss Localism.  What I cam away from that was wow we both respected the other's opinions, and had a great dialogue, agreeing to disagree!
• Even Len Harley took from our debate and wrote More Categories in Localism. 

Unlike others that have taken on this monumental task, I have decided to venture a little differently in the week in review.  First off this week that we had 683 New Members Join Active Rain (1/7-1/14 - Oops, I added a day in the count)    Wow!  We have come a very long way! 

I joined back in July and still remember the sweat that poured off my forehead after I hit the first Post This BLOG button.  Then the frantic checks to see if any one commented.  It never happened until much later.  I thought it only fitting to take a look at some of the first Blogs of those that joined Active Rain this week. 

First BLOGS was a BLOG I did a while back, so since I am doing the week in review, I thought it only appropriate to share some of the First BLOGs that were written this week (my cutoff was 5:30 Sunday night).  They are in no particular order, and I did not show every first BLOG this week, but I did read all of them (thanks Matt for giving us a way to do this!  It was something that was in my wish list).  So go by and give some encouragement to those that are looking at just breaking 5,000 points as huge:

• Rochell Heininger - Losing My Blogging Virginity
• Dave Hill  - Tips to Make your home show better for an inspection
• John Ziemba - Buying vs. Renting
• Patricia Beck - Thinking of Finishing Your Basement
• Josephine Liascas - Hello from Brooklyn
• Drew Macdonald - Best Golf in Naples
• Ruth Jacobs - Building Your Business
• Coach Karin Hanna - Be The Most Loved Agent
• Joanna Bonicker - New Member Referred by Margaret Rome
• Vince Scuncio - Dirty 11 letter word
• Lucy Kotelnicki  - Fortune Article - MidWest Forecast
• Richard Hoffart - Greetings from WNC
• Karla Bass - Hello From Jupiter Florida
• Ray Cobel - Gold Star - Guerilla Relationship Marketing
• Edith Karoline Jasser - New Construction in Chicago
• Teresa Franco - Welcome to Amarillo Texas
• Paul Higgins - CT State Wide MLS system
• Sandy Pfister - All Real Estate is Local
• Gary Urich - Grand Strand Investments
• Sylvia Wells - What a Great Site!
• Ray Hukill - How About this Weather
• Luke Constantino - My Neighborhood
• Hector Gonzalez Santoni - Tampa Realtors - Online Advertising Opportunities Reaching the Hispanic Population
• Chris McNamara - The Seperation of Title & Escrow
• Andrew King - First Impressions
• Jake Luehrs - Prospecting

Other Articles You Might Want To Read From the Week that caught my attention (and in alphabetical order):

• Blanca Cholewczynski - Welcome Wagon for Newbies -- Excellent Resource for those new to this resource
• Ann Cummings - History & Charm Galore
• Kathy Engel - Delaware is the Best
• Steve Holcomb - Realtor Rainman
• Teri Isner - Interruptions
• Kristal Kraft - The Official Unofficial Guide to Getting involved at AR -- If you are reading this and thinking there is no way I can do this -- your no longer have an excuse -- JUST DO IT! 
• Colleen Kulikowski - Alamode Websites You can get your AR BLOG directly feed per Jeff Belonger "It was after the 7th of January. So, you should have a mention...."
• Jason Price - Would You Sell
• Shannon Sims - From the Mouths of Teenagers
• Lisa Kauffman Tharp - Responsible Staging
• Tim Maitski - My 8x4 Map
• Chris Ward - Property A Limited Resource
• Loreena Yeo - Real Estate Rookie

** 1/16/07 Thanks to Ann Cummings, I missed one that hit me to the very core and felt it important to add to this list:

First Year Review, by C. Mark Willix which also was his first post, not sure when he joined or how I missed this, but it Chronicles his first 125,600 minutes in Real Estate.  Definitely worth checking out!

And to finish off, as I was dancing around the puddle this week, I noted some interesting photos:

	Bill Fletcher - Keller Williams  - if his profile photo is so creative, I can't wait to see him start BLOGGING!
	Andrew King - Photographer - he doesn't do weddings.... I am glad though that he does photograph homes -- check out his BLOG!
	Bonnie Erickson - The Realty Matrix I was eating potato chips as I came across this one!
	Elaine Reese - HER Real Living, Worthington Ohio Just thought that with Active Rain, that this was just too creative!

I hope that you all have a most productive week and that you enjoy my version of the week in review... Ines Hegedus Garcia will be next week's host. 

Colleen Kulikowski is your Western New York Real Estate Expert focusing on Buffalo and Niagara Falls neighborhoods of Western New York.  If you are on Twitter, please follow me... If you enjoyed this post by your Buffalo & Niagara Falls Home Sales Expert, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Email Colleen Kulikowski | All posts by Colleen Kulikowski 
(716) 743-5297 Voicemail

Home  About  Buffalo NY  Niagara Falls NY  Contact Us Sellers  What's My Home Worth?  Buyers  Relocation Guide  Archives  Categories  Glossary  Blogroll

It figures that I will be in Orlando attending the mid-winter meetings of the Florida Association of Realtors the one weekend that there is a lot of fun things to do in Naples and Marco Island! 

So you are visiting and wondering what to do.  Well Naples & Marco Island Florida are full of options next weekend!  So many things are happening next weekend in the Southwest Florida region, so if you are here you should check one of these out!

• The third annual Southwest Florida Birding Festival comes to Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve the 19-21 located at 300 Tower Road (off Collier Blvd) call (239) 417-6310 for more information.
• On both Saturday and Sunday the 20th & 21st there will be Celebrate the Arts at the ARt League of Marco Island located at 1010 Winterberry Drive on Marco Island.  Marco National Juried Fine Art & Craft Show, Antique Car Show, Children's discovery area, Marco Idol Finale Contest, Live entertainment and street performes.  Free Admission and Free parking.  Call (239) 394-4221 or visit their website for additional information.
• RCMA's Gala Concert at the Naples Conservatory will be on the 20th, call (239)596-3520 for more information. 

• Attention Peter Max Fans!  Peter Max will be appearing at the Masterworks Gallery located at 370 12th Avenue South
  in Naples, Saturday, January 20 6-9pm and Sunday, January 21  12noon-3pm.  For details call: 239-261-0370
• Gulf Coast Big Band will be performing on the 21st at Cambier Park - call (239) 213-3058 for more information.

This information is provided by Colleen Kulikowski, Realtor for EliteOne Fine Properties.  If you need more information about the Naples/Marco Island area, please feel free to contact me at (239) 821-3063 or colleen@paradisereport.com.