Watson Realty

The Cottages at Winding Creek

New Condos Selling at 40% below original builders prices

$109,900 to $129,900

The original builder was foreclosed on and a new builder has taken over this complex. These condos were built in 2006 to 2007 but the interiors were not finished. A new builder has acquired the complex and is now completing the units. The first phase has already sold out and the next phase opens on June 16th. Prices are already increasing. The four floor plans vary from a 1,407 sq ft one level 2/2 at $109,900 to a two story two story 3 Bedroom, 21/2 Bath 1,680 sq ft unit at $129,900. All have a one car garage. The complex has a community swimming pool and is located just 4 miles from Crescent Beach, seven miles to downtown St Augustine, and 10 miles to St Augustine beach. It is within 5 miles of the major shopping and medical facilities on US1. There is a brand new Food Lion shopping center one block away and a Publix shopping center is two miles away.

Contact me for more details. Glenn Weilbacher, Realtor  888-236-2579  Local 904-794-9609 E-Mail

 

For More Information Click Here

 

Creating a Neighborhood Photo Tour

In my previous post I described my success with neighborhood photo tours and our members raved about the concept. The neighborhood tours compelled site visitors to return to the site frequesntly to view the tours. The concept truely captured visitors with 90% of visitors saving the site in their favorite places.

The following has been developed over a period of time while I collected more than 1,400 neighborhood photos. Each step contributes to the efficiency of the process. From the settings on your camera to the methods for identifying the photos I have created a process that minimizes the time required.

It typically requires about 15 minutes to photograph a subdivision. At first I had a problem photographing more than one subdivision at a time because I couldn't separate the individual subdivisions. I then bought several more cards for my camera so I could put one subdivision on each card. The cards are not expensive.

1) On your camera there are multiple setting for resolution. You want a setting that will produce photo images that are 1200 pixels wide. This will produce photos that will fill the screen on most computers. It will also minimize the file size. Photograph a subdivision and then remove the card and label it with the subdivision name. Insert a new card.

2) When uploading the photos to your hard drive first create folders with the the name of the subdivisions. Then upload the photos into the appropriate folder.

3) If you are having your webmaster create the tour pages you can burn a CD with the subdivision folders and mail the CD to him. This makes it simple for your webmaster to load the photos onto his hard drive. If you are creating the pages yourself make a template page for the tours so that you don't have to remake this for each neighborhood.

4) The photos should be compressed utilizing jpeg compression to a file size around 150KB. Using your webpage editing software set the thumbnail size to 250 pixels wide and upload the photos in rows three photos wide.

Page One Position on Search Engines

The response from our website visitors is fantastic but even better has been the response from the search engines. We now have more than 50 page one positions under the names of the neighborhoods or subdivisions. In the process of creating the pages we utilized some simple SEO techniques to earn high search results. We put the name of the subdivision in the title meta tag as well as the description, The public page has a header with the subdivision name and we used the html header codes <h1> and <h2> to emphasize these phrases. In order to push the pages higher on the search results we created additional pages with commentary about the neighborhood and placed text hyperlinks on the primary neighborhood page.

Look at these pages to see examples of the keywording and the linked pages

St Augustine Shores Homes      Moultrie Creek Homes    Oakbrook Homes

This approach to SEO employs the long tail keyword concept. People are searching by subdivision name and these visitors represent high quality traffic.

If you have questions just e-mail me.

 

30 to 50 Return Visitors Each Day

Without realizing what I was doing my St Augustine real estate website has turned out to be very sticky. Several months after launching the site my stats were showing that the "page view count" was four to five times the visitors count and the number of returning visitors was more than the unique visitors.

This was great! I was getting 30 to 50 people returning to my website every day. But why? In developing the site concept I wanted to include content that home buyers wanted to see. It took a month of discussions with other Realtors to determine what I had to do. Most home buyers want access to the MLS home listings and I already had that planned. I built a list of suggestions from my Realtor clients and found that the most popular answer was.... buyers wanted to know about the neighborhoods. They would find a listing they liked and they wanted to know about the neighborhood. I had included neighborhood information in earlier websites but those pages did not attract many page views. So, people did not want to read a lot of commentary about neighborhoods. I decided to try something different. Utiliziing my digital camera I started collecting photos of neighborhoods (subdivisions). I took photos looking down the streets and photos of homes throughout the neighborhood. I created the equivilant of a drive through. With these photos I created individual neighborhood tours with a short description of the neighborhood.

I have only recently noticed a one line statistic in my site stats. It shows the percentage of site visitors who save the site in their favorite places. Since the first month this percentage has averaged 90%. Incredible!! On some days it is over 100% meaning that some site visitors are saving multiple individual pages to their favorite places.

I sell St Augustine Florida real estate. Visit my website at http://st-augustine-homesearch.com

This is a computer produced image of the new bridge. The final road work and landscaping is being completed now. First opened in 1927 the original bridge cost one million dollars. The new 82 million dollar bridge is a replica of the original. This includes duplicating the original lights. Here is a photo of the original.

In order to facilitate the construction a temporary bridge was built alongside the old bridge. This bridge is now being dis-assembled and will be utilized on another project up north. It will be several months until everything is completed.

The Internet and Social Media will Allow the People To Govern

The Internet is facilitating the ability of "We The People" to control our government. Via social media people from all across the country are able to make their wishes known. The Obama campaign made use of the Internet to capture votes and was an important contributor to President Obama's election. Now we are starting to use this media to bring about changes in our government.

Tea and coffee parties are the start. We can reach out as individuals and build groups. Groups will become crowds and crowds will become powerful forces to create change in Washington DC.

Do you know that if you serve one term in Congress you are paid your congressional salary for the rest of your life? Did you know that our Congressmen and Senators have the best health insurance plan available paid for by our taxes?

Obama ran on a platform of change. But, I don't think he thought it would be the change that is about to happen. It is time for us to use our votes to tell OUR government what we want.

 

St Augustine Equestrian Property
3 Bedroom, 21/2 Bath, 2,980 Sq Ft Home with pool, 15 Acres  $597,500

A horse lovers dream!!! This 15 acre horse farm offers a 10-stall horse barn, tack room, feed room, a 60' round pen for training, multiple fenced-in pastures, wash rack, hay barn, utility barn and so much more. The house has 3BR/3.5BA, sunken living room with fireplace, an office/den and a spacious kitchen with stainless steel appliances. Also included is a screened pool, a huge deck and a 3 car garage. This property is fully fenced and ready for your horses.

Other Equestrian Properties

 

29+Acres, 4 Bedroom home, complete professional equestrian facility $1,999,900  #111088

3 Acre Equestrian Property in River Oaks, 100 acres of trails, 4 bedroom home,  $1,750,000.  #101032

7.5 acre Equestrian Property with four stall stable, three bedroom home $495,000 #111822

19 Acre Horse farm with 12 Stall Stable, 4 bedroom home $685,000  #117892

3.9 Acre Equestrian Property in Whitelock Farms, stables, 4 bedroom home  $848,000  #118436

For More Info Click Here

Southern Antebellum Home
Four bedrooms, four full baths, 4,170 sq ft  Five plus acres
Priced at $399,900

Living Room:	17 x 17	Dining Room:	17 x 17	Kitchen:	17 x 17
Family Room:	17 x 15	Master Bedroom:	17 x 16	Bedroom 2:	15 x 17
Bedroom 3:	14 x 14	Bedroom 4:	14 x 14
Laundry Room:	10 x 6	Library	18 X 16
Porch/Deck:	17x10

Southern Antebellum Home straight out of the history books, with the original charm and grace.

Careful remodeling has brought this southern antebellum home to today's standards. The main hallway with chandeliers welcomes you to the formal Dining Room and Living Room  heart pine floors and large windows. There is crown molding throughout the house and both first and second floor ceilings are 10'7". Beyond is the updated kitchen and a wonderful wood paneled library. The living room has a fireplace that has been converted to gas. It has the original mantel with lintel trim and a marble fascia. An additional fireplace is in one of the 2nd floor bedrooms and there was another fireplace in the second bedroom on the 2nd floor. This can be redone. There are two master suites up & down. . At the rear is a patio and a garden. The home has been remodeled yet, there are some projects to be finished. There is an attached two car garage that has been converted into a workshop but could changed back into a garage. There is also a guest house that has barn wood flooring, a screened front porch, a living room, one bedroom, a eat-in kitchen and a full bath. This guest house is ready for restoration. Six acres total with fenced Bermuda grass pasture, three stall stable w/ tack room and two other storage buildings add to the list of facilities on the property. Located in the quaint, historic town of Ridge Spring (founded 250 years ago) outside of Aiken, South Carolina. Within walking distance of everything. George Washington's troops are believed to have camped on this property.

For Details Click Here

St Augustine Equestrian Center

A great location just five minutes from the I95 Interstate and presently operated as a boarding facility, this equestrian center could be a training center or riding academy. The location, just minutes from the World Golf Village and it's related subdivisions is very accessible to a large area of the St Augustine, St Johns County and Jacksonville markets.  It is an hour to the Ocala area and three hours to West Palm and Wellington. Built in 2001 to current codes, it is situated on 17.5 acres. The 7,000 sq ft barn has 18 12 X 12 stalls with ceiling fans and a larger birthing stall. The main aisle and cross aisles are wide with good air flow. There is an attractive office, rest rooms, a shower and laundry, a feed room, a facility tack room as well as individual air conditioned tack storage closets for each stall. There is a hay barn and an additional storage barn. A arena is lighted and there is a separate arena for hunters and jumpers. There are multiple paddocks and pastures as well as a circle pen. A inside wash down area and an outside area both have hot and cold water. This St Augustine Equestrian Center is a great opportunity.

Seller financing available to qualified a buyer.     $999,000.

 

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Fun in The Sun

 

The ultimate in vacation homes. Escape to the Bahamas. We have a Realtor on Long Island in the Bahamas. He has building lots and vacation homes availaable for those seeking something different than Florida. Long Island is at the southern end of the Bahamas chain and is untouched by the crowds. This is truely an island to escape to!!

Call me for further Information
Glenn Weilbacher
888-236-2579

A Cold Winter in Florida

The sunshine state is experiencing the coldest winter in may years. Growers are struggling to save the citrus crop as record cold has visited the state. I myself have been using bed sheet tents and heat lamps to protect the plants in my flower garden.

We have lost hundreds of Manatees as they are warm water mammals. They are often found near the warm water outlets from power stations but this winter they are really struggling to survive. The friendly Manatees are often browsing in the creeks and canals off the Intracoastal. They are gentle creatures that will come right up to humans. I have had Manatees come up alongside my boat and drink the fresh water draining off the decks when I was washing the boat.

Here in St Augustine we have had a record low of 24 degrees. I have friends in Georgia and South Carolina who are digging out from under snow today.

I certainly expect to see a busy tourist vacation season this Spring as Northerners seek to escape the winter weather in the Northeast. In another four weeks the temperatures will be in the 70's and 80's. We are certainly looking forward to it.