Transcript
Lex Nepomuceno: Keys to Tampa Radio with Lex Napomacino. A listing shows you the house. This hour is the life around it. The town, the neighbors, the everyday stuff a photo leaves out.
Lex Nepomuceno: Now, here's your host, Lex Nepomuceno. Good morning, this is Lex Nepomuceno of Keys to Tampa Radio. um i'm here joined today as always always by dj northrup and this morning we're headed to pinellas county specifically safety harbor dunedin
Lex Nepomuceno: and Palm Harbor, three towns side by side, and each one feels a little bit different. And special guest, focus guest today is Kelsey Ward of Solden Company, who joins us in studio to walk through all three. And so before I wanted to get into it, ah folks have asked me, hey, why did you do?
Lex Nepomuceno: why did you do why are you doing this show and so uh I wanted to go a little bit into that. When someone um chooses a home, they care more about the yard and the kitchen. Those are important things, of course. But they also care about the neighbors, the kids, where kids can play and where their pets are.
Lex Nepomuceno: and traffic, parking, coffee shops, pizza places. These are all important things. A listing can't typically show that. And one of the things as somebody who's moved down here to the Tampa Bay area, one of the things I've noticed of all these little communities, Safety Harbor.
Lex Nepomuceno: Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, that list goes on and on. Every community has their own personality. And there's nothing down here in the radio world or even the podcast world or TV that really... Focuses on each one of these things in depth and radio is such a great way to talk about this stuff in depth And so we we're really blessed to have today
Lex Nepomuceno: ah Kelsey Ward, who basically is the team leader of Solden Company, brokered by Southern Life Realty. Kelsey started her real estate career here in 2017 as an investor.
Lex Nepomuceno: Now her focus is on helping her clients buy and sell. with strategy. Welcome Kelsey to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Why don't you tell us a little bit more? I mean, I got the little thing there, but how did you get into first the investment side and then they tell us about the transition from the investor into the professional real estate side of your career? Yeah, so in 2017, I got introduced to flipping.
Lex Nepomuceno: And it was a great time to be in that segment of the market. And I really, really enjoyed the fact that I was taking. ah something that was previously discarded and creating a new wonderful home for somebody else to move into. So from 2017 through 2021, I was flipping. um just small scale i was you know a new mom at the time also so really was just interested in how can i work really really hard on a project
Lex Nepomuceno: buy myself some time to stay home with my daughter and then you know wash rinse repeat you know a couple times a year so 2017 through 2021 was doing that. And then as we all know, the market took a pretty big hockey stick up.
Lex Nepomuceno: margins got pretty tight um finding a property ah you know that you could profit off of was you know hard to come by so um I wrapped up my last flip in 2021. and decided to get my license from there. It took me a little bit of time to actually go through with it all and get my license. Everyone likes to tell you it's a bad idea to get into real estate.
Lex Nepomuceno: So, yeah, from there I, you know, started working on the. residential sales side. So, um you know, one of my favorite shows, I think a lot of folks favorite show is. house hunters. And there's also the the flipping shows with the the Property Brothers and some of those things.
Lex Nepomuceno: Tell us that the real -life flipper versus the ones that are that we see on TV. i mean Yeah, I learned very quickly it's not like that at all by any means.
Lex Nepomuceno: um my motto was always it's not if something goes wrong in the project it's when because something will go wrong you know if you're opening up walls if you're getting into you know uh you know pulling out kitchen cabinets you're always going to find some unexpected surprise behind that so um yeah there's a lot more work that goes into it than i think people realize whether it's coordinating with vendors or
Lex Nepomuceno: finding good vendors you know who do quality work and show up on time and all of those things. um I was blessed to have a really great agent. She's actually the one that inspired me to get into the business. but somebody that I could depend on and trust when it came to the numbers and the comps and the pricing. and just the location in general. so Yeah, a little a little bit different than what we see on HGTV.
Lex Nepomuceno: Well, we're very blessed today to have basically the two of the top realtors in the market here. You're a top 2 % in the country. from what I see on your website, which is incredibly impressive. And DJ has sold 100 properties in three years or since January 24. Yeah, yeah. so yeah but but it not that Not that you're counting. No, no, no, no. who would do that but yeah I was going to ask a question, though, if you don't mind. Yeah. um So.
Lex Nepomuceno: How do you know this literally just came up? that's showing on. on Sunday. Yeah on Sunday. ah I was out on a showing and it was ah it was a flip which also that's another side question should we call it something else does flip have a negative connotation if i'm with a buyer and we're going through a rehabbed house should we Should we not say, oh, this is a flip house? Yeah, I think renovation comes across a little a little better. I think you know industry jargon, oh, I flip this, flip that, you know when you're talking amongst professionals. um
Lex Nepomuceno: and And yeah, I do think, unfortunately, across the board. buyers get a little hesitant when they know it was a renovated home or you know the So it to speak. Yeah. um But as long as you do your due diligence and it's not somebody that ignored the fact that the AC is not working and that the roof needs to be repaired and all those things. and they just put
Lex Nepomuceno: you know gray paint lvp floor and granite countertops and call it a day right you know if you can get past those those things and make sure it's a sound purchase right which was really the the real question so when we were in the house the buyers were like, well, how do we know? how How do we know if this is a good flip or not? How do we know if this is lipstick on a pig? Or if they really took the time and, you know, like I said, dug into the walls, found out it it's it's got old. cloth wiring and did something about that or what have you. So how does
Lex Nepomuceno: What's something a buyer or a buyer's agent, one walking through, obviously we're going to have an inspection, right? But even inspections aren't invasive. The inspector is not going to take the cover plate off the electrical.
Lex Nepomuceno: bo Well, he'll take it off the electrical panel, but he's not going to take a receptacle off the wall and see if there's cloth wiring behind there. So how does... How does... ah What should a buyer and a buyer's agent?
Lex Nepomuceno: No, from your experience as a flipper. What should they look for? what what What did you want to make sure people knew about yours? since you did high quality flips. as opposed to the guy like you just said around the block who just threw in some some new new LVP.
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, I mean, i you know, outside of an inspection beforehand, when I'm working with a buyer personally, I'm always...
Lex Nepomuceno: trying to look at any permit data, anything I can find. Obviously, you know, any disclosures. Unfortunately, in Florida, you know, they do get to say that they've never occ occupied the property and call it a day. So some of them do that. But also when I'm representing a company or someone who's flipping a property, I really encourage them to disclose as much as possible just to increase that transparency. Because we know that people are hesitant when it comes to that, you know, it doesn't make anybody feel good when
Lex Nepomuceno: they know that you've been in the property, you've rehabbed the whole thing, but then you throw your hands in the air and say, Oh, I don't know anything about it. You know? So even for my own clients on. On the sales side, I really encourage them to complete the disclosure to the best of your ability. We'll still note that you've never occupied the property. But just anything to increase that transparency on the sell side and then, like I said, on the buy side. trying to look at permits look at disclosures if we can and then you know, just.
Lex Nepomuceno: doing a good thorough thorough walk through before inspection because you don't want to see somebody throw away a couple hundred dollars just to Find out something that could have been blatantly obvious, you know, we missed the stains on the ceiling you know something silly like that how How long is that how long is a good flip take when you when you when I'm looking at the history We walk into a house and say oh this was a flipped house and I look back and so the last sale was
Lex Nepomuceno: 66 days ago. and They flipped this pretty quick. Yeah, no, I really think it depends on a couple different factors, the size of the home, right? You know, what actually needs to be done to it? Or did they just inherit the property or, you know, get it on a wholesale deal, and it was not in too bad of shape. So the condition, the size.
Lex Nepomuceno: um even like the macroeconomic factors what's going on at the supply chain like are they able to get materials pretty quickly and easily so it goes into a lot of different things i mean I flipped on a small scale so we could turn a property around in a month and a half. Really? Yeah. and so
Lex Nepomuceno: I don't know, I work with clients now where it's maybe two, three month project. okay I don't think timing is necessarily a factor. Yeah, I mean it it is but it doesn't it's not the determining point of you know bad work all right so i should advise clients if they look at that and they say oh my gosh
Lex Nepomuceno: They turned this house around in less than three months. It's just something I think to know, yeah right? But it doesn't necessarily mean it was you know shoddy work or unpermitted work or what have you. Correct. But you know we do see some of that bad work. It's always disappointing. you know As someone who used to do it, I always felt like... My name is going on.
Lex Nepomuceno: yeah at the end of the day, you know, and I want to be able to feel good about the product that I'm delivering to somebody. I'm not a builder, but you know, kind of like that same mindset of a builder is they want their customer to be happy. uh and you know real estate is can be a litigious world out there. You never want someone to come back.
Lex Nepomuceno: of that so the um one of the things that you talk about is you help clients buy and sell with strategy. Can you go a little bit into some of your principles and some of that strategy that you help them walk through?
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, so I think the... biggest point right now is on the sell side of things because the market has shifted so much over the past several years. honestly, even the last six months. so um When a...
Lex Nepomuceno: customer comes to me a client comes to me and and they want to sell with strategy We're going through. not only just the the pricing dynamics of the current market, but where their home fits in within their neighborhood. what our strategy is going to be to launch it. Because to be honest, the strategy that I used to launch a new listing with. a year and a half ago. It's not the same strategy I'm using today, right? So where it used to be that I could launch a home on a Thursday.
Lex Nepomuceno: ja do showings on you know friday open house saturday get a couple contracts by sunday you know highest and best by Monday and wrap it up. It's not you know, working that way anymore. So just.
Lex Nepomuceno: recognizing the market dynamics and being able to shift our strategy depending on the time of year the home. you know the marketplace in general How much does that strategy shift when they're looking at different neighborhoods in different areas? So, you know, obviously there might be a different dynamic in. If you're showing people properties in the center of Dunedin versus the outskirts of Palm Harbor.
Lex Nepomuceno: Sure. Yeah. You know, Dunedin has always been highly desirable. I think it depends a lot on the amount of inventory that's on the market. uh lifestyle plays plays a big factor.
Lex Nepomuceno: and And yeah, I think especially you know if I compare it to even like Safety Harbor, inventory is so restricted there. It's it's highly desirable. We can get a little more aggressive with pricing versus. maybe the outskirts of palm harbor um you know where There's a lot of, you know. Just.
Lex Nepomuceno: residential neighborhoods and not a lot of desirability. Well, it sounds like Pinellas County as a whole is... kind of tight already you can't too You can't do too much development here. I mean, Pasco is a little bit different. when you go Our guest last week, we focused on Pasco. But Pinellas, there's not much room for...
Lex Nepomuceno: new builds, right? No, there's not. and ah I would say at least half of the builders that I talked to they are finding homes knocking them down. and then rebuilding um i have a listing over in palm harbor It's got a vacant lot next to it. And we just had someone interested in. purchasing just so that they could knock down.
Lex Nepomuceno: buy the lot next to it, build there too. So, you know, opportunities for. new development are very limited here you know so they're special when you can find them I had had had a client last year in downtown Dunedin. a little off of Broadway, down there by the ballpark.
Lex Nepomuceno: And it was a. a house that had a double lot. Yeah. My buyer wanted to build a new house on that lot. and the seller would not sell just the lot. We had to buy the whole thing.
Lex Nepomuceno: Split it. resell the existing house and then she built her house next to it so land is and land is hard to come by in that area of dunedin it's about 300 000 is kind of the magic number that if uh if a developer can find you know an old 1952 two bedroom, one bath.
Lex Nepomuceno: um you know, in any of those streets, you know, Orangewood, and anything, you know. north of north of Union, south of Main Street. Um, that they can get for $300 ,000. They'll buy it, knock down the house, and start but and build something. And usually those will sell for over a million.
Lex Nepomuceno: oh yeah so it's an it's interesting uh area if for you go down through that area because you'll you'll go by you know like i said yeah 1100 square foot two better in one bath house then boom four bedroom, three bath, million dollar house right next to it. Yeah. And and I think over time, right, that'll start to become more common. It'll be every two houses, every other house. And over time, you know, those those blanks will just kind of fill in. We actually closed on ah a good amount of land on Monday off Lake Tarpon.
Lex Nepomuceno: uh But even then we we were listed for close to a year for that property because it was so unique. You know, it's hard to find. three acres in pinellas county let alone palm harbor uh and unfortunately you know a lot of it was conservation. You couldn't subdivide it because every builder that came through was like, can we subdivide? You know, they're thinking of how many houses can I fit on here?
Lex Nepomuceno: And then when you when you go to the custom you know buyer who wants to build custom There's a lot of risks and costs associated with that that are constantly changing just with the way the economy is right now.
Lex Nepomuceno: Well, we're going to take a break now, and then we'll be when we come back, we're going to talk about Dunedin. That's where I live. And so I'm really interested in that topic. See you in a few minutes.
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Lex Nepomuceno: Equal housing lender. not a commitment to lend. subject to credit approval and program guidelines. Not all applicants will qualify. You've seen the photos. You've seen the price. But a house listing can't tell you what a neighborhood feels like. Keys to Tampa Radio can. Wednesday at 9 a .m., Lex Napalmesino takes you into one Tampa Bay town at a time. Real neighborhoods. Honest talk about living here, schools, parks.
Lex Nepomuceno: business climate, and the everyday stuff that decides if a place is right for you. Keys to Tampa Radio, Wednesdays at 9 a .m. right here on the Tantalk Radio Network. This is the Tantalk Radio Network.
Lex Nepomuceno: welcome back this is lex nepomuceno joined by dj northrup and kelsey ward our special guest today
Lex Nepomuceno: And we were just talking about Kelsey's amazing career, going from an investor to a real estate professional. And today we're focusing on three particular specific neighborhoods, Dunedin, Safety Harbor, and Palm Harbor. And we're going to start the conversation with Dunedin, which is my home. my home now and so uh and i love it and so why don't we start with um kelsey you know and then dj uh what are some of the things why would somebody pick Dunedin over some of these other places.
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, I think Dunedin's got a lot of charm and a lot of character. Something that really stands out to me about Dunedin is how active the community is, right? So you've got the Pinellas Trail. that cuts right through the city it's a great place for people to just hop on, whether they want to you know ride their bike, rollerblade, run, walk. It's just a really active place. there's I know there's run clubs down here or in Dunedin. you know just you've got the
Lex Nepomuceno: waterfront community so people taking their jet skis out taking their boats out For me, I just love seeing how vibrant. that side of things are. Yeah. Well, yeah, so it's interesting because my my office, Homefront Realty, is right in downtown Dunedin, right off Douglas. and so
Lex Nepomuceno: People who come into the office, they're already here. They're looking for Dunedin. So I get a lot of people who have they've come down, they've stayed at an Airbnb. Actually, the Yellow House in town is owned by Homefront Realty. And so they have a lot of Airbnbs there. And then they come over to the office and people just fall in love. I have some people under contract right now coming up from West Palm Beach. And they I didn't realize when I met them in an open house that I was doing, that was their first time in Dunedin.
Lex Nepomuceno: Three weeks later, we're under contract on a house that they're buying in Dunedin.
Lex Nepomuceno: probably half of the searches I set up for buyers. is golf cart. to downtown Dunedin. so you have some people and i've got some buyers right now i'm actually taking them on uh showing after the after the show today They want to be super close to downtown. They're like walk to downtown. to need so So it's really just like based on that. alone i'd say it's downtown people love downtown Dunedin they love the shops they love the the breweries the restaurants the you know Yeah.
Lex Nepomuceno: the It just... it's It's great. and I love it. I drive through it every single day to get to work. My drive from up by Honeymoon Island, I drive right down along the water. to the office every day um and it's just It's like. You pinch yourself.
Lex Nepomuceno: I live and work in paradise. if the yeah um Coming to the radio station this morning. i I live in Dunedin and so I could either go on the 19 and go south and just ah to Go off courtyard and head down to the station or you go down curlew and then you go through the causeway there and then you take that nice Waterfront.
Lex Nepomuceno: drive it's my favorite drive yeah and it yeah it doesn't add much to the to the drive it adds like two minutes and you have all these coffee shops along the way so well then that would allow at a lot more than two minutes but uh but it's just uh surreal it's like wow this is i live here you know Oh, sure. I joke about it all the time because I still go down to, ah you know, I would say outside of downtown. the Dunedin Causeway is just such another great.
Lex Nepomuceno: perk of living there. I go to the causeway for sunset. I don't know, two or three times a week. And I've lived here my whole life. yeah And I always you know share it on social media. And every time I share it, I say it never gets old. It's pinched me. like How lucky are we that we live here in this beautiful place? and you know we get to live where people vacation truly yeah we we walk the the causeway because i'm up
Lex Nepomuceno: off of Curlew, just on the Palm Harbor side. But we walk across and get Dunkin' Donuts coffee and keep walking and come out and come back. We do that. a couple times a week in the morning. So I miss you. You're in the evening. I'm in the morning. yeah Both are beautiful. yeah For families looking at moving into the area, what are some of the characteristics that Dunedin offers? It doesn't matter, young or any family that's moving down here. What are some of the amenities, the advantages? of a place like Dunedin over some other places.
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, you know, I'm a mom, and I think back to when we were in the days of going to the park all the time. Even though that I live in Palm Harbor, we would drive over to Dunedin because they've got great parks and great community centers and, you know, even...
Lex Nepomuceno: summers, we would do summer camps at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. So between parks for the kids, whether it's Weaver Park. um just you know some of the parks down by the marina or the summer camps offered at Dunedin Fine Arts Center. There's just so many resources and things available for families in the community.
Lex Nepomuceno: Right. Now, when you're um do you have any recent listings that you'd like to talk about? the Any open houses coming up in Dunedin that you want to? Shine a light on
Lex Nepomuceno: I'm trying to think. I don't have anything active or recent in Dunedin at the moment. I've been more more so in Palm Harbor this year. Yeah, so um schools. And the other thing, too, that attracted us to Dunedin was that the the access to the different schools. You have all these charter schools. You have private schools. You have some good public schools. And it just seemed like that there was a there was no shortage of choices for families coming in here.
Lex Nepomuceno: And now the other thing too that... kind of took me by surprise but a really good way was the golf cart community um what do people need to be aware of if they're looking at hey i want to go into a golf cart community what are some of the myths associated with it and what are some of the what are some of the things that people need to think about because because golf carts aren't cheap i was looking at one
Lex Nepomuceno: like 6 ,000 bucks. And I think that's cheap, right? Oh, yes. 6 ,000 is pretty cheap for a golf cart. yeah yeah I mean, they'll run you up to 16, 20, depending how much you want to trick it out. But, yeah you know, it's funny because you mentioned earlier about, you know, people loving the golf cart community.
Lex Nepomuceno: Whenever I've worked with a... a buyer in Dunedin and we go into a home that there's a golf cart in the garage the first question is always does it come can i can i buy that as well right and then same thing on the sell side when i've worked with sellers who are maybe moving out of the dunedin area they're always like i would like to sell my golf cart you know to the next person because it is such a great community for that.
Lex Nepomuceno: um You know, I don't know as far as any myths. i do you Oh, sure. Well, I mean, I suppose and just because. Yeah. So like I have so many people looking at golf cart and it's focused on golf carts. Funny what you just said about the golf cart. Cause I have one under contract now it's a listing on Lexington and. um we sold the golf cart we had we did that we're we had multiple offers on that on that one and the he had a list of furniture he wanted to sell including the golf cart
Lex Nepomuceno: and similar offers between two people and he went with the gal who who was buying the golf cart. I think it's something that will sweeten the deal. I really do. It did. It did. But, you know, so so as far as a golf cart goes, so i've I've taken a couple different clients just recently where we've we went from the house and we drove 25 miles an hour through town.
Lex Nepomuceno: back to downtown. just to see because i wonder how long it could take me to drive from because the golf cart zone in dunedin actually is pretty big you can get all the way up to curlew and all the way out to the to the cr1 you get on the other side of the cr1 if you cross there's a couple places where you can cross it so that you know the city has an interactive map actually you can go online and look at the interactive map and see where that zone is and then
Lex Nepomuceno: and then really if you have a street legal golf cart you can go anywhere that's under 35 i think you take a street legal on the cr1 or what have you but just your average regular old golf cart that probably doesn't go any faster than 30 miles an hour Most of the city you can get through town from all the way up from of the golf cart or even over by the the practice fields.
Lex Nepomuceno: for the Blue Jays on the other side of the CR1. So back to the strategy question. You have a buyer an interested interested buyer and say, yeah I've heard a lot of good things about Dunedin. um What would be your advice to that buyer?
Lex Nepomuceno: uh looking at dunedin specifically If they're looking to buy the strategy. Yeah. um Really, it's by house -by -house basis. you know this isn't I wouldn't say it's not a blanket. buyer's market it's not a blanket seller's market it's really a house by house market. uh so really taking that into account you know i think a lot of people hear these headlines or see these headlines on the news and newspaper and and they they want to maybe lowball
Lex Nepomuceno: or let's let's do a lowball offer uh so just ah you know i'm thinking of an example of it strategy where you know if you submit a lowball offer the chances of the seller even wanting to entertain it are pretty low, especially in Dunedin because it is so desirable. So it's really about looking at the numbers, looking at the data, seeing. How aggressive can we get with your offer while still you know being in the game and not you know being almost insulting to to a seller?
Lex Nepomuceno: And yeah, taking all of that into account, you know. Days on Market. Have they done price reductions? ah What are the comparables around them? you know What's the competition? and And really taking all of that into account. Yeah, I've noticed, especially in Dunedin, sellers are really fickle. They're not going to lower their price much.
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, prices have held up, honestly. You know, even though even with rates going up, prices... they they haven't tanked i think a lot of people were kind of hoping that that would happen and that they would slide into the market a little bit easier but I think it just goes to show the strength of these cities that, you know, and and I think a lot of sellers are in a good position to write where they maybe have.
Lex Nepomuceno: a hundred percent equity in their home you know and then they don't have to sell or maybe they've got a very low rate and they're not in a position where they have to let that go. um So. Yeah, balances things out a little bit.
Lex Nepomuceno: all right now shifting to palm uh palm harbor uh And a little bit, it's right next to Dunedin. ah What are some of the advantages of Palm Harbor? I mean, and what are some of the contrasts between Palm Harbor and Dunedin? Because they're so they're literally right next to each other. so How would you describe that? I think you're gonna lose a little bit of entertainment. when you go to
Lex Nepomuceno: i hate to say that because i'm born and raised in palm harbor and i love palm harbor but in contrast to Dunedin that has so many restaurants and things to do and and and things like that Palm Harbor um you know has a little bit less of that. Our downtown area is not as vibrant. It's kind of like Blink. blink and you'll miss it kind of situation. but um I had dinner in downtown Palm Harbor last night. Yeah. Yeah. I had friends that moved from Chicago and I said ah something about.
Lex Nepomuceno: downtown palm harbor and they were like where Where? I didn't even know you had a downtown. It's there, and it's got some great restaurants. um But it doesn't have, I don't think, the same contrast.
Lex Nepomuceno: and need But as far as perks go, I think it's a great place to raise a family. There's a lot of parks and recreation there for the kids. uh And it's a little bit quieter than Dunedin. I've noticed the homes are a little bit bigger too.
Lex Nepomuceno: Sure, yeah, a little a little newer. yeah yeah and uh yeah yeah i've got i've got a client we just we just translated just funny you see they started as golf cart to downtown and then we started going out skirts a little more because what they really wanted was a little more house a little higher ceilings, you know, vaulted ceilings. A lot of Dunedin is that old, you know, like I was saying before, you know, 1950, 2 -1, maybe had a one -car garage. It's now been converted into an ensuite, so now it's a 3 -2.
Lex Nepomuceno: with no garage. um but still it's got the low ceilings and all that there's some stuff you can find some things in the need of course that are newer um but when you go up to palm harbor you get things were built in the 80s 90s 2000s and they have that they're more modern design and you know more vaulted ceilings a little bit more land so you know i tell people and you know kelsey obviously lives there born and raised there i i just from the talking with clients about what's the difference you know i'll say you know
Lex Nepomuceno: It's almost like almost like going to the suburbs in a way. You know you get a little further out and you know the lot the lots get a little bigger, the house gets a little bigger for your money. But you've got to drive back into the all the fun things you just said you love about Dunedin. I do. I do think that's the that's kind of like the...
Lex Nepomuceno: the line that people walk of like but we want this lifestyle, but we want this style home. I've got a similar buyer. like they They've got ah quite a few kiddos. They need four bedrooms, two, maybe three car garage. And that's just harder to find in Dunedin, but they love that lifestyle. so it's kind of helping them make that decision of like okay we we drive into Dunedin for the weekend. But, you know, we live here every single day, raise our kids here. urine.
Lex Nepomuceno: all the things And heck, it's such a good such a short drive. and yeah And from any of those places, you know. palm harbor tarpon springs the need you get to Clearwater Beach if you want to do a beach day. and you know You go out to Honeymoon Island, of course, but if you want to go to the crazy...
Lex Nepomuceno: hustle and bustle of Clearwater Beach, you could do that in a 20 minute drive. so Do you have some recent properties in the in the Palm Harbor area that you'd like to talk about? Yeah, I've got this great little listing ah in Ozona right off Tampa Road, and it's so close to the Ozona Brewery, the Ozona Pig, you know, the couple of little great restaurants that are tucked back in there.
Lex Nepomuceno: it's It's currently an an active Airbnb, so it's a great spot for somebody that wants to pick up an investment property over there. uh and you know Palm Harbor has grown so much over the last five years. even in terms of just population. You know, it's a busier place these days.
Lex Nepomuceno: But I find Ozona is still one of the quieter little pockets is still a little bit of a hidden gem. uh in palm harbor so it's a really great house over there Now, Airbnb, I notice, um you know look at other properties around the country and even here.
Lex Nepomuceno: I noticed that there's more restrictions depending on the HOA on. availability of short -term rentals.
Lex Nepomuceno: How does that play into a community like Palm Harbor? Is it is it still wide open or are you really encumbered by HOAs? I guess it depends on the HOA, right? Yeah, so for this particular home, there is no HOA. So it's an unincorporated Palm Harbor, which means you know they're allowed to Airbnb or short -term rental that property. ah But yeah, I think case -by -case basis, different HOAs will have different policies for... how long you can rent it out. I guess that would be if you're looking to establish an Airbnb or a short -term rental business, Palm Harbor has less restrictions than Dunedin. That's our one little feather in our cap here. So, yeah.
Lex Nepomuceno: ah You have yeah the unique perspective as being an investor before going into this as as a real estate professional. as As potential investors look at the market of...
Lex Nepomuceno: palm harbor and for the rest of the pinellas county for that matter and they wanted to get an airbnb and i'm saying saying this selfishly because i have in -laws here that came in this past week and uh his brother would be interested in maybe Getting an Airbnb down here and so What do you tell folks like that? is it really if is it is it Is it going down? Is that market going down? Is it still vibrant here? What should we look out for?
Lex Nepomuceno: I'll say I don't have a pulse on the Airbnb market as a whole. hole. uh i've bought and sold several of them with clients over the past year And everybody that I have worked with has been extremely successful with it. you know Even up to a million dollars. I had someone buy an Airbnb last year on the water in Tampa.
Lex Nepomuceno: for 1 .2 million dollars and they're the first airbnb luxe in tampa and They're constantly booked. It's a great location, less than 10 minutes from the airport. um a little bit closer here in Clearwater. I had another seller last year. ah
Lex Nepomuceno: Cash flowed great. She was booked. all the time She was just too busy. which is a great problem to have you know she just wanted to let it go and uh somebody else bought it was able to assume all those bookings but I would say from the buy side, you know, really do your homework, really do your due diligence. um
Lex Nepomuceno: Make sure that the books are adding up to you know what they say they are. Request all the documentation so you know really what you're getting and and make sure you're assuming the the future bookings as well. um i did another one earlier this year in palm harbor it was a duplex so somebody got to buy two doors, you know, and start cash flowing immediately. So really just doing your homework. um I said I don't have a pulse on the market. all. I don't know if I've just been lucky and I've had you know some some great people who are constantly busy. but
Lex Nepomuceno: Now kind of taking it a little bit more macro um with with palm harbor and dunedin specifically because they're on the gulf side Everybody's aware about the the hurricanes. and the really savaged the area a couple of years ago.
Lex Nepomuceno: How has that impacted those particular markets, and have they completely recovered? Because I noticed I went down to Dunedin this past weekend, and you still notice that they haven't finished the pier yet, right? They're still working on it. There's still reminiscences of...
Lex Nepomuceno: the damage that was done before even with some homes i mean a lot of the construction down there especially downtown den they were really impacted how is that translated into the local markets I think buyers are still hesitant. okay yeah you know and i I...
Lex Nepomuceno: you know most of my buyers want to buy in flood zone x they want to stay away from ae um yeah not only You know, it used to be before the storms. Well, we want to stay away from, you know, flood zones because we don't want the extra insurance costs.
Lex Nepomuceno: What? Those are still there, right? But now it's coupled with we don't want the insurance cost and we don't want the actual risk because they've seen it happen. So I don't think it's recovered fully. I think there's so still some hesitation.
Lex Nepomuceno: uh but i think People are starting to open up back to it And I think also just. doing your homework on it ah again. i had a buyer who wanted to be in flood zone x uh we found her a great home it was in flood zone ae but then doing a little digging doing a little research we found that it was just recently rezoned to AE.
Lex Nepomuceno: it had never actually flooded before there was no damage during the storm so even though she carries that flood zone title uh it was previously x for you know 100 years however long and then recently got switched over so they're more open to things like that i think you know
Lex Nepomuceno: yeah find elevation certificates make a big deal too when we find something for someone that's in the flood zone but they've got an elevation certificate that says the house is 15 feet up and they're like oh okay then um let me ask about a zona though so a zona is pretty low so you're listing there is it is it in the ae it is yeah yeah and they had no flooding no flooding yeah yeah yeah so i've told people this and i Maybe you shouldn't say this on the radio because I'm not a thousand percent.
Lex Nepomuceno: Sure, it's true. but i From what I understand. Nobody. In. the Well. If you were in the AE. uh when the big one came which was milton right Milton was the one that actually gave it the storm surge. Helene was the next one that...
Lex Nepomuceno: savaged North Carolina whenever with rain, right? So the storm surge that hurt us. um Nobody who wasn't in the AE got flooded. So if you're an X or X500, you didn't get flooded, despite the fact that it was... a historic storm surge and not everybody in AE got flooded. So just because you were in the AE didn't mean you automatically flooded.
Lex Nepomuceno: ah despite being. air quote historic storm surge. so somebody can fact check that out there but i think i did end up having and no and i agree with you we saw homes even in clearwater where you know the entire street flooded and then the one that was just on the
Lex Nepomuceno: tippy top of the hill you know maybe just truly at that point a foot foot and a half difference was fine and you know so it's sad to see a whole street wiped out and someone else do okay but there there was definitely occurrences of that i i did have seller uh in flood zone x who flooded um And I think it was due to backed up storm drains. So, unfortunately. Was that on the next one? Was that on Helene, though, from the freshwater? It might have been.
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, I think, yeah. i think i cause i do know some some instances of that exactly you said storm drains because everybody had. you know, gutted the house and all this. Yep. crap if we say crap on the radio was out was out on the sidewalk and uh and then it got whooshed into the storm drains and then some people you know then but anyway but as far as storm surge you know goes on these because that's what people are looking at when we're talking about showing a house in a zona for instance right and say oh it floods down there you have to take a look at
Lex Nepomuceno: who really flooded and who who didn't. right All right, well, we're going to take another break. And we'll be back to you in about two minutes.
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Lex Nepomuceno: Welcome back. I'm here with DJ Northrop and Kelsey Ward. Two amazing real estate professionals. And Kelsey, you are a top 2 % in the United States, not just the area. So that's an impressive.
Lex Nepomuceno: Feet. And we were just talking offline here. about some of the things that people are using to decide on questions to ask and houses if they're looking for houses and we were talking about ai and chat gpt i what What are your thoughts on...
Lex Nepomuceno: People using ChatGPT to... Decide whether or not to pursue a home or to what what questions to ask you in buying a home. Yeah i I don't want to deny the fact that. the the resource is great it's a great tool it can provide a lot but it can't provide everything right and You know, I think. probably it It's right 90 % of the time let's say But. that ten percent of the time
Lex Nepomuceno: is when you have to have some expertise to call it out on when it's not right so if you're a buyer or even a seller and you're talking to chat gpt about your transaction maybe it's going to give you 90 truth but if you don't know how when to call it on that 10 you could start making costly mistakes or ah lose out on properties that otherwise would have been a great purchase um And so it's it's kind of a funny place to be in a... time in society where you're trusting a robot so to speak versus a human who's guiding you along the way uh and so yeah that's we've had some interesting experiences over the past year
Lex Nepomuceno: DJ, have we run into anything? chapter to just and Kelsey and I were just talking off offline about about that. i saw yeah i had some a buyer last last year that is beautiful beautiful property just a few blocks off the the water off of bay shore um just south of union so it's technically clear water address but my gosh i mean just minutes back up into downtown dunedin um just fantastic anyway is x500
Lex Nepomuceno: so you know the the first three houses could flood but she wasn't going to and anyway she stuck that into and we'd already had the uh we got quotes on the insurance and and all that and Everything was looking great.
Lex Nepomuceno: uh but during the inspection period she chat gpt'd something and it came back with it told her that She was elevated flood risk and that she would have a hard time getting financing and all this crazy stuff. It literally told everything it told her was untrue.
Lex Nepomuceno: literally everything i told her was untrue so we had to try to unwind all that you know with with years of experience so that's where you run into you know there's the relationship business right you know so you have to does does somebody trust you Trust your experience. Trust your...
Lex Nepomuceno: We've been in this situation before. Here, I know the insurance guy. Let's talk to him about flood insurance, how it works, X500 versus AE, as opposed to... you know. Well, I'm going to bag on Zillow if that's okay with you guys. Is that okay? You guys want to bag on Zillow? So Zillow sends out a lead. You meet a person, right? And you're just a door opener. Okay. They don't know you. They don't know all of your experience. You've built no rapport, no relationship with them.
Lex Nepomuceno: with them and they don't have a relationship with you and so situations like this come up and you try to tell them chat GPT is wrong, and you sound like a used car salesman who's just trying to sell them a house. Right?
Lex Nepomuceno: all right so it's a it's interesting it's it's interesting time obviously the resource for um AI is fantastic. it's It's helped with a lot of things. And and it'll catch up.
Lex Nepomuceno: but at the moment at the moment we've just had a few a few interesting exchanges with with with but buyers and sellers who. are not getting the right information from it. And one thing to keep in mind is ChatGPT is not... um is not uh um bound by fair housing ah laws and things that realtors are and so so things like fake information all those things that uh
Lex Nepomuceno: People forget that chat gpt especially still it it aims to please and if it doesn't if it can't find an answer it's going to please you by providing any answer that will please you. And so so they still have a lot of work to do in regards to that. So I don't think ah realtors have anything to worry about with chat GPT anytime soon. You know, I see it across the industry, right? So we've run into it as realtors with our clients.
Lex Nepomuceno: ah But even when I speak to home inspectors. When I speak to lenders, when I speak to insurance, they're getting. list of crazy questions as well ah from maybe first -time buyers it's like what where did this question even come from or it's like you know maybe you've got 20 years in the business and you've never even heard of this new question that a first -time home buyer is asking and you're like
Lex Nepomuceno: Where is this even coming from? And eventually you you pick it up pretty quick that you know it's coming from ChatGPT. But I do agree with you that it is a relationship -based business. It'll always be that way. i just met a buyer at a open house a couple weeks ago the first thing they said was well chat gpt said this and this and this We had a five -minute conversation. Now we're working together on finding them their house. because It can't do the whole process for you. right right Now we're going to shift some time to Safety Harbor.
Lex Nepomuceno: Now, Safety Harbor. i've ive visited kind of the main town there near the you know the water because it's It's a nice little town there, but but I have yet to explore the rest of it. So, Kelsey, do you have any um ah recent listings there that you can talk about or just talk about the area in general?
Lex Nepomuceno: Yeah, i've I've got a listing that's coming soon. And it's a great location. I don't know if you're familiar on on Main Street and Safety Harbor. There's a wonderful western restaurant called Water Oak. And there's quite a few shops over there. and this I timed it. I walked kind of like your your golf cart clients. I walked down the street to see how far of a walk it is. and is
Lex Nepomuceno: Truly a two -minute walk. you know If I was better at baseball, I could throw probably throw a baseball and hit it. So great, great home over there. it's a you know 1950s bungalow and true safety character charm uh so so yeah i love that downtown area and and you can short -term rental there as well it's a very restricted compared to palm harbor and you know even dunedin has a little short -term rental area but it's a fantastic market inventory is just
Lex Nepomuceno: always tight there. I think even... At the million plus price point, Safety Harbor has. half as many listings compared to Palm Harbor and Dunedin.
Lex Nepomuceno: just because it's so restricted. Yeah, I've noticed some huge homes in there. This is these mansion type houses and uh they also found this regular housing there So how is that for for families looking at entering in the community when you have all these big houses and they're right next to a a regular sized house? and As a buyer what what do they go through in terms of making that decision?
Lex Nepomuceno: I don't know that ah it necessarily affects families as much. um i think if anything the current residents aren't a huge fan of the new developments going in there but i think at the end of the day you always want to see your community grow and thrive and and expand and build so um yeah i don't know One of the things I did notice is there's there seems to be a nice... um
Lex Nepomuceno: correlation between the business community and the residents there. that They're really nicely integrated. You can walk to a restaurant and all of a sudden you're in a nice little residential area. And then of course the water's all over the place there. So um describe that in terms of when when looking for a house and then a proximity to a business, there's that line where, okay, it's great to be able to walk to the coffee shop.
Lex Nepomuceno: But then there's the line also where you're too close to the grocery store. How does one navigate that that decision? I don't know, when it comes to Safety Harbor, I think all my people want to be as close as they can to that main street. They they would live on that main street if they could, because it's so, it's...
Lex Nepomuceno: it's smaller than Dunedin so it's a little quieter you don't have that too overwhelming hustle and bustle of a downtown uh and it's it's really quaint you know but i like that you mentioned uh the local businesses because i always think of uh dunedin safety harbor and st pete and the way that they really
Lex Nepomuceno: honor and support the local businesses not only just as a city but even business to business everyone kind of looks out for each other because they recognize that you know, if we do well, we all do well together. So I love the community aspect there, the way that they all root for each other. and the way that you know those three cities in general are such a proponent of small businesses and protecting them.
Lex Nepomuceno: that's great It brings a ah great little, you know. quatness to the community. ah if If somebody was looking at the the three neighborhoods we've looked at today. um what would be
Lex Nepomuceno: The big differentiator is like, okay, well, why would one look at Safety Harbor over the other two great communities, Palm Harbor and Dunedin? What separates it versus the others? I think the location of Safety Harbor, really, if you need to jet down to St. Pete, if you need to jet over to Tampa, if you like going to Clearwater Beach, it's just so accessible.
Lex Nepomuceno: uh you know right there on mcmullen booth and very easy to get to things so i think the location is really a great perk of living in Safety Harbor.
Lex Nepomuceno: uh you know outside of the downtown area and all the little things that they offer that's a great point um ah The. ah and Anything else, DJ? Yeah, I was just going to say, and Kelsey touched on it too. that You know, if you leave downtown Dunedin.
Lex Nepomuceno: to like towards Countryside Mall. it becomes um a main street becomes like a four -lane or a six -lane road really quick you don't have that in safety harbor safety harbor stays quaint the whole town is just you know a little cute so so back to that walking distance right you're not going to walk to uh i mean even the starbucks is is is is down in the uh down by the water uh down there right so you're you're i don't know i think it's more sleepy community Sleepy is a great word to describe it. yeah
Lex Nepomuceno: I was sleepy. Okay. But but in ah in a nice way. It reminds me of almost like a town you'd see up north in like Rhode Island or something like that. Exactly. Got an East Coast feel. Exactly. But to your point, still just.
Lex Nepomuceno: minutes to anywhere, minutes to anywhere. Yeah. so putting on your your prognostication hat and and looking at pinellas county as kind of as a whole with these three neighborhoods kind of paving the way what do you see growth wise and development wise from the uh From the moving forward in the next ah three to five years.
Lex Nepomuceno: Well, there's limited space for huge developments as far as neighborhoods. We've got in Palm Harbor the Toll Brothers development that's going in there. I think that's the last big chunk of land we really have left. But as far as new residential, it's really you know where builders can find space. There's some pockets over in the Crystal Beach area in Turtle Beach where builders are building. um
Lex Nepomuceno: downtown areas where they can find old homes that are you know ready to be moved on to the next chapter and demolished but uh Yeah, I'm excited to see see the growth in general.
Lex Nepomuceno: Right. where we can fit it in yeah Okay. open houses any open houses coming up I actually... have any open houses this is weekend it's i think the first weekend uh in about nine months so forma We have a few minutes left here. So kind of wrapping in it up here, Kelsey.
Lex Nepomuceno: You've been great. And why don't you tell us a little bit about. you know, your overall outlook for this, this this community and and what are some of the things that uh you know people who are living here and and myself included now and uh to just uh look forward to because there's so many events that are happening there's a Dunedin ah um festival that happens every every weekend um how does one really take advantage of living in this area
Lex Nepomuceno: yeah well we're starting to coast into these really beautiful months and it's i would say one of the main perks of living in florida is being able to enjoy the outdoors as much as we can year round and as we coast into this beautiful weather you know take advantage of all the events at your local chambers, all of the ah you know street parties that they put on downtown.
Lex Nepomuceno: Safety Harbor does Third Friday. Every Third Friday, they have a huge block party. Dunedin has their Saturday morning markets every weekend. So really just getting outside, getting involved with your community and taking advantage of it. Right. Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for being with us today. And DJ, thank you always. and and that And that brings us to a close of Keys to Tampa Radio for this week.
Lex Nepomuceno: and Next week we'll be talking about Amendment 3. So looking forward to looking at both sides of the issue. And so until then. Thank you for joining us.
