Broker's Corner with Tanya Chappell January 2021

I took a short road trip to Colorado a few weekends ago and the weather didn't feel much different than the weather I'd left in Florida. The words short Road Trip and Colorado aren't typically in the same sentence, but we did it! It was a fantastic and much-needed Sisters Adventure to pick up My older Sisters Motorhome and bring it back to Florida. She had to leave it on her last trip for some repairs after a horrifying experience of a road hazard that almost sent her over a bridge. 

My middle sister and I, "the baby" went along for moral support, reminiscing about childhood days growing up and the adventure of a road trip. I have to say the trip definitely hit all of those buttons. It started with Dealing with the RV repair company that had the motorhome for six months but waited until the day we got there to finish its repairs, to tears from roaring laughter and some from sheer terror!  

Turns out my older sister and I share a phobia of bridges but with much different aspects. she has "the call of the Abyss" meaning she has the urge to drive right off the bridge. I have the opposite which I'm sure is the more common, and that is the fear of NOT wanting to drive off the bridge. Together we were quite the pair sitting upfront in that big windshield with nothing but glass as a barrier between us and the road, cars, semis going over "Sky Bridges" with nothing but a concrete wall as a shoulder. Honestly, there aren't many things that scare me, but this was terrifying. Both of us chanting "White line! white line! just look at the white line!" over and over again with the middle sister cracking up laughing at us!

Of course, she's the one that routed us along the road around Dallas that had the "sky bridges" even though she swore there wouldn't be any! It did save 45 minutes but took a few years off my life in the process! Once we got past that dramatic event driving at night became a breeze and we made it home a full day early.

It'd been a tough few year for us gals with losing our brother and our mom, so the trip was definitely what the doctor ordered. We plan to do an annual trip moving forward. Time slips by so fast and I don't want to miss the opportunity to create more memories with these two awesome women.

With the tension filled election and Holidays finally over it's nice to be focused on moving forward in the new year. You can see in our feature article that we are still dealing with eviction moratoriums but there's expected to be some relief for landlords and tenants while the money lasts so be sure to look to our guide if your one of the unfortunate folks having difficulties in that area. 

For our office, January is about preparing for taxes and end year reporting for our owners and vendors as well as planning for the Spring Real Estate market where we tend to have a lot of tenants renewing leases or looking into buying. Being we start the renewal process 5 months out we are going to be looking at all the leases that will end by May and decide on rent increases contacting those tenants to see if they will be renewing. For homes and condos near the university students start shopping in January so we do ask tenants in those properties to commit earlier than normal.

It will be interesting to see how the condo market near UF fares this year with COVID-19. I do believe that segment of the market has been experiencing higher vacancy rates being a lot of students have gone to online learning. However, I hear Biden is wanting to get all schools reopened and even commended Florida for having schools open. Our kids need to be in school, parents need to be able to go to work knowing their kids are in a safe and productive learning environment. 

I have seen at least 6 big apartment /condominium communities completed over the last year. We will be keeping an eye on how their occupancy rates do this year. The single-family home market is still booming. I see random homes and duplexes being built all over High Springs and Alachua. I am ready to jump on that bandwagon too! Once we finish the renovation on the vacation rental, we are doing here on the Suwannee we plan to build a home or duplex for our next project. I have mixed emotion about renting short term versus long term. I'll have to see how it goes for this one. I don't relish the idea of more turnover during the year, but I like the opportunity for more income! Who wouldn't? We will give it a go I and if we don't like it, we can always do it long term. I've read so many articles about how well the vacation market is doing now that people can work and school from anywhere. I'll keep you posted on how it goes! 

After the cool days it was nice to warm it up a bit in Beautiful Tampa Bay! One of my best buds has a house on the Bay so we had a little girls day out on the boat hitting some of the favorite beachy spots along the way. It is nice to be in sunny Florida where warmer weather is just a few hours south on almost any given day!!

Stay safe and be well!! 

 
Psssssttttt!!!
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