Marc Rasmussen's Blog: All Categories

Thinking about buying a beachfront getaway? Take a look at Longboat Key off the coast of Sarasota. This eleven mile long barrier island is a fabulous place to getaway from it all. Like the rest of the country, prices on Longboat Key real estate have adjusted. Three years ago you would be hard pressed to find a beach front condo on Longboat Key for less than $500,000. Today there are over 200 of them for sale. 33 have sold so far this year.

I just finished my Longboat Key condo page on my website. This is a great place to start if you want the headache free lifestyle of a condo. No need to mow the yard, clean the pool, trim the bushes, pull weeds or clean out the storm gutters. Here you can sit on the beach, get your feet wet in the Gulf of Mexico…

Thinking about purchasing a vacation spot on the beach? Take a look at Siesta Key, Florida. This 8 mile long island sits off the coast of Sarasota, Florida. The island has an old Florida, non-pretentious feel to it. The three beaches are Turtle beach, Siesta beach and Crescent beach. Siesta Key beach is consistently rated one of the pretties beaches in America. The powdery white quartz sand feels great on the feet. It stays cool even in the summer heat.

Siesta Key is very convenient to everything in Sarasota. From the island you can reach downtown Sarasota, shopping, dining, entertainment, golf, schools and interstate-75 within minutes.

Visit my Siesta Key condo page to view some of the nicest places on the island.

You can find a little bit of…

Looking for a great family neighborhood in Sarasota, Florida? Take a stroll through Lakes Estates. I make a point to show this neighborhood when I have a buyer within this neighborhoods price range. The neighborhood offers lush, mature trees and landscaping that not only comes in handy during the hotter summer months but is great to look at and enjoy on your back lanai. Conveniently located to just about everything in Sarasota, Lakes Estates is only minutes to beaches, restaurants, shopping, churches and interstate 75.

On October 2nd, 2008 my client just puchased this home for $512,000 (public record and I asked their permission to post this). This home in Lakes Estates offers 3 bedrooms, a den, office, 2.5 baths, a lake view, swimming pool, remodeled…

Looking for a beach getaway to take the family? Think about a trip to Siesta Key, Florida. This 8 mile long barrier island is located just off the coast of Sarasota, Florida. It is easy to catch a flight to Tampa Bay and then drive about 90 minutes to Siesta Key. You can even fly right into Sarasota International Airport and be on Siesta Key beach within about 15 minutes.

Want to take a short vacation? Take a look at Palm Bay Club on Siesta Key. This is a great beachfront condo complex that allows short term rentals. Come for a week or long weekend and enjoy some time catching rays and frolicking in the aqua blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Is a week not enough time? Thats ok, spend a month at the popular Peppertree condos. This a gulf to bay complex…

A few months ago Dr. Beach came out with "America's Top 10 Beaches" of 2008. Number 3 on the list was Siesta Key beach in Sarasota, Florida.

Dr. Beach is also known as Dr. Stephen Leatherman, Director of Florida International Univertsity's Laboratory of Coastal Research. He has selected the annual top 10 Beaches since 1991. 50 criteria are used to judge the beaches, including sand and water quality, as well as facilities and environmental management.

Siesta Key truly is a very pretty beach. The beach is very wide with sand that is the powdery, sugary white sand that feels good under your feet. Many of our second home buyers are people who have been vacation on Siesta Key for many years.

2008 Top 10 Beaches

1. Caladesi Island State Park,…

If you work with prospects that come to you from out of town here are 8 questions that you might find useful. Usually, out of town buyers are made of people relocating and those looking for a 2nd or vacation home. I work the Sarasota real estate market and have been using these questions on many of the vacation home prospects. 

•1.      Have you been to [city] before? 

If the prospect has never been to your town before chances are that they need to be sold on the town before they can be sold a property. I am much happier to work with someone that has been to Sarasota many times versus someone who has never been there. However, all is not lost with someone who has never been to your city before. It generally just means that they will require more time.…

Here is my previous post - http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/marc-rasmussen/5139/show/. In a nutshell, I made the goal about a month ago to get my newest sarasota real estate website on the first page of Google for 'sarasota real estate'. I have not been working on it as diligently as I could have. I have been busy selling real estate (knock on wood). I ran into a string of buyers that were ready to do something now. That seems to be rare in this market. My partner and I have 8 deals pending.

I have noticed some movement with my site. It is strange. One day I will be on the first page and then I trade places with another site that was not previously on the first page. Then we rotate. We have rotated several times now. It looks like Google is…

Accountability can be a good thing. I figure if that I post my goal here in front of everyone it will give me more motivation to accomplish it. It is like telling everyone that you are on a diet.

Goal:

To get my new website - Sarasota real estate on the first page of Google for 'sarasota real estate' by the 4th quarter of 2008. I will mostly stick to the basics in my efforts to get there. You know, the stuff we talk about about on the REW forums and blogs.

The Competition:

Below are the top 10 sites as of today. Google has been moving these around a lot lately.

1. www.thesarasotamls(dot)com - Great site. ;-)  Lots of content with a nice IDX. Tough competition. I don't really want to beat this site.

2. michaelsaunders(dot)com - Very authoritative.…