Englewood Voices
Columns or blogs by Englewood people.
Englewood Edge - Englewood Florida's own online daily newspaper
Welcome to the Edge
We are a local, subscriber-supported news organization.
Feel free to learn more about us, browse our free content,
or become a subscriber for as low as $1.75 a week.
New season, same old story
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
The first day of fall came this week, that was about the only good thing. The stock markets are in pandemonium, the real estate market is on its butt and the jobs market is, by most measures, hovering around 15 percent unemployed, and still about two years from recovery. A friend just told me that liquidity is when you look at your retirement funds and wet your pants
Continue reading this story…6 changes in jobs bill
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
The talking heads on my TV are yelling at each other as I write this. The beautiful women who are in favor of the President’s jobs bill are being laughed at by the handsome men who are against it. The more average looking economists are generally appearing to be thoughtful, and seem to take a middle of the road view, but the President and his jobs bill seems to misunderstand what a small business is.
Information overload
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
This week I have been swamped with good news=-bad news-good news-bad news. My head is swimming with stock market ups and downs, Republican debates, presidential speeches, Red Sox-Rays games, the return of NFL Football and the 48 hours of 9/11 on TV.
OMG, Stop the world — I’m in information overload — I want to get off. Please, forgive me if I’m a little off track.
Suing the banks
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
Over the last 10 years or so the government forced banks to make loans in neighborhoods that they knew were likely to produce buyers with bad credit, but the banks made the loans under threats of “redlining” which carried huge fines for area discrimination.
Scammers
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
This week I spent my time focused on leases. I don’t want to sound like a snob, but leases pay somewhere between $50 and $100 each and so writing a couple of leases can be a thin paycheck week, and it’s a far cry from even a small sale. But here’s what happened, I had two great lease clients who both really wanted to rent a unit that I had showed them — and nothing I tried to sell anyone else stuck — so a couple of leases to clients I enjoyed spending time with is better than a sharp stick in the eye.
I must say that for the moment (at least) I like both of my new lease clients, and am trying to provide each of them a comfortable lease with no downsides to them or the landowners. These are upwardly mobile people, and anxious to move into a home that is nicer than where they have been. Well to be fair, one of them is year ’round and moving up, the other is taking a condo in Sarasota for the winter. But that couple has been wintering on the east coast, so I am thinking they are moving up, too.
And then I found myself in a scam.
It’s really very simple…
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
As I begin to write the column for this week, all the touchstones I usually check are trembling. The market is down again, this time 420 points (it’s OK to call these points dollars) and the president has arrived in Martha’s Vineyard (Massachusetts) for his annual two-week vacation with the family.
Last week he turned 50 and the market presented him with a birthday swing: down 500 points (dollars). I’m not saying he’s the cause of the dumps in our economic world, but he apparently isn’t interested in being the cure. Sure it would be nice if the market cured itself, but it seems like it’s too much trouble for our president to actually take control of the house and senate and try to make the whole system work.
Storm-ready homes
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
Hurricanes and tropical depressions in the Atlantic made last year one of the worst on record, but thankfully our area — the West Coast of Florida — was spared over and over. In all last season there were 21 tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes during the official season from June 1 to Nov. 30.
Builders know that the key to withstanding extreme winds is structural integrity, shape and mass. New construction usually boasts thick concrete walls and reinforced steel foundations with monolithic frames, tied together by straps set into the concrete. Wooden roofs are tied to the CBS walls by steel straps and roofs are then sheathed in a rubber membrane while the windows are made from durable uPVC.
What are CDDs?
Dane Hahn
By Dane Hahn
Real Estate
Last week I was looking for a house for a new client, and, after doing a search of the multiple-listed new homes, we found one he really liked. It’s a duplex and it has everything he hoped for. But it came with something he didn’t want — a CDD. Maybe you know what that is, and maybe not—but read on, I think you will agree it’s something to be aware of and in Florida it may come with your new home.