All Blog Entries by Joseph Epifanio

Everyone has heard the saying First Impressions Count!  They count for lots of things, from first dates to the first day at school, the first interview!  Why, because if the person you are trying to impress will have other options, they will normally go for the one that makes the best impression first. 

Selling your home is the same, if you have inadequate photos of your home for sale online, then customers will likely skip over them to look at the flashy photos of a home that actually may not be as good as yours. 

When selling your Naples home, there are a couple of things you really should insist on, one of these is the use of a professional photographer!  A good Realtor® already knows this and has one waiting in the wings, if a prospective…

Named as the happiest and healthiest place to live for the second year, Naples has a lot to offer. We have stunning white sand beaches, blue skies and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but there is a lot more to Naples than that. There are many other reasons people come to call Naples their hometown, but is it a good place to move to with young children?

Finding a home close to a good school is one of the most important criteria used by families when looking for a new home, education is and always will be extremely important.  Buying a house on the wrong street can make all the difference in the world when it comes to trying to get into the right school, even if you do not have children if you are buying a family home, then the resale value of…

One of the delights of living in Naples is the knowledge that our world renown beach is one of the many nursery beaches of the Loggerhead Sea Turtle. Almost all of the sea turtles that nest in the United States use Florida as a nesting site with only ten percent of turtles using beaches in other states to make their nests.  The Loggerhead is the most common but is still an endangered species, the Green, Leather Back, Hawksbill and Keeps Ridley turtle can also be found on Florida beaches but they are rare with all four classed as threatened species and protected by law. 

Each year between May and August, sea turtles make their journey over the beach hauling themselves across the sand to find a safe place to dig their nests. They lay around 100 eggs…

Moving home is one of the most stressful things we do, it has a huge impact on our well being and our ability to concentrate on normal things.  When you decide to move to a new home, you instantly emerge into a whirlwind of emotions, thoughts, and actions that do not exist in your normal life. 

Actually making the decision in the first place is huge, sometimes the move to Naples is corporate which helps with the stress level.  But for most of us, moving is something we do throughout our lives on our own for various reasons,  from renting our first condo with a group of friends to buying your first home to accommodate a growing family, new jobs, new opportunities.  There is a myriad of reasons for packing up our belongings and starting again in a new…

As a Realtor having a website is really important, having one that produces leads is even more important.  

For a while now I have been talking to my clients asking not just obvious things such as “where did you get my name?”  or “how did you find us”.  But more trying to find out what made them stay with us to search for their new home in Naples and trying to find out from those who did not, why they left and looked elsewhere.  Most of this research was done with our real estate website in mind. 

Interestingly, color has a lot to do with first impressions, especially on a website, how long they stay on it and on whether or not they will come back. Colors have hidden meaning and provoke thoughts and actions that you may not instantly be aware of.…

Remember when if you wanted to view a home you would go to the local Real Estate agency and talk to someone behind a desk! (Showing my age here!)  Actually it really was not that long ago. Before the digital age, homes for sale were presented on a paper listing flyer showing a quick overview of what the home had to offer, if you wanted to see the property, then you would pick up your phone, which in all probability was not a mobile one and call the Realtor to make an appointment to go and look.There were no virtual tours, no youtube to take a quick peek inside, no internet to help you with your decision, all you had to rely on was the word of the Realtor and his or her local knowledge.

Here in Naples Florida, we get a huge amount of retirees most of…

We are now going into our 3rd month of 2017, last year, predictions were made as to what would happen with a new President 2017.  Certainly down here in Naples there appeared to be somewhat of a slow down in the final months of 2016 in an air of uncertainty.  We now have a new government and overall the promises of our new President are good for sales with restrictions being lifted off businesses.

No doubt that 2016 was a rocky year, it mostly is just before an election, but Zillow stated that home prices increased overall by 4.8 percent in 2016, they further predicted that 2017 home prices would likely increase by 3.6 percent, a little less than 2016 but still on a steady rise since the market of 2006.

Changes in the Real Estate Market in Naples…

If Real Estate is your passion and is also what makes your daily bread, then when my Real Estate Advisors tell me that there is a large number of homes available on the MLS inventory and that sales are slowing down, it makes sense to look more closely at the figures right?

But figures can be elusive, manipulated and pretty much made to say what you want them to say.  So I decided to take another tack, yes it would appear that there is a large number of existing homes on the market for sale. So why are they not selling? I took a look at the latest figures from Collier County, particularly at new construction and new communities. As a town, Naples is growing, anyone driving around would be able to see the huge amount of new construction that is taking…

I know this is supposed to be a Real Estate blog, in which I should be doing my best to attract clients and show you all how great I am at Real Estate. However, sometimes the people of Naples come together and remind me of why I first wanted to make my home in Naples in the first place.

Each year, a wonderful community project takes place, right downtown in Cambier Park.  I had originally gone downtown to view ‘Chalk’ which takes place on the street, right outside my office. The blacktop is covered by chalk pictures, produced by both professional and budding artists of all ages.  After walking the length of 5th Avenue South, I decided to take the back way through the park to avoid the crowds.  That is when I discovered Empty Bowls!

The Empty Bowls…

Sitting on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, dazzling white sand between your toes, tropical warm Gulf waters, nothing to worry about except choosing a restaurant for dinner, or wondering if you want to come back in the evening to watch the sun go down.

The reasons for moving to Florida, or buying a second home there are many, but the scenario above is probably one of the most common.  Visitors from all over the world visit Naples, stay for a vacation, then decide they want to keep coming back, so they call a Realtor and before you know it they have their own little piece of paradise to return to year, after year, after year. 

Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want a property in Naples, voted one of the happiest and healthiest places to live…