As boaters are well aware, local knowledge is a key ingredient to a safe journey. And that’s also true for real estate—local knowledge (product knowledge + market knowledge) is key for our customers’ “safe journey” in a property transaction. Because much of our business involves waterfront properties, a boat outing often is part of our job, either conducting research or showing properties. But it can’t be called “work” in the Webster dictionary sense of the word.

Recently we held one of our team meetings on the water, at our other “office”, a 31’ express cruiser. (Pictured below: Shane with our Yorkie Dutch and Mark at the helm… looks like they are working hard, yes?).

One of our objectives for this meeting was to learn more about a couple of the canal systems that lead into the Rubicon canal, one of the most beautiful canals in Cape Coral. The Rubicon is about 220 feet wide and curves and meanders through the Southeast part of the Cape.

We were previewing waterfront properties for two clients interested in purchasing Gulf Access homes in the Southeast area. We checked bridge heights, depths, and trip duration for various homes. We had pre-screened the properties based on price, square footage, age, and other features, but we wanted a close-up look before showing the properties to our clients. After the trip, we eliminated some of the properties due to location, condition of the structure, or absent property features such as pool, dock, or lift.

At the end of the day we had a dynamite short list of properties that we knew our clients would want to see. It was a tough, brutal day at the office.

About a week ago, we moved to a different brokerage based in Cape Coral.

A small brokerage consisting of about 40 agents, we chose Gulf Coast Realty for several reasons. One, the owner/brokers, BJ Combs and Cathy Carr, are very active in the day to day operations, which we think is important for driving an organization forward.

Combined BJ and Cathy have over 40 years of experience in SouthWest Florida real estate, expertise that we believe will directly benefit our clients. 

A particular draw for us is their experience and vast network in the commercial real estate market. From hotels, to golf courses, to retail, office complexes, and large multifamily apartments, they’ve been there and done that.

We also wanted an organization that is more nimble, adaptive to changing markets, decisive, strategically and tactically creative, and of course, customer focused. And last but certainly not least, we chose an organization with a healthy and productive culture—people truly working together to serve customers, be ahead of market trends, address challenges, and contribute to each other’s success, while having fun along the way. Visit SageRealtor.com to learn more about us.