Cape Coral's underdeveloped lots and vacant acreage are the specialty of Henry Albrecht and Gulf Gateway Realty, where he is the broker-owner.

How's Business:

Picking up, for me. But I am lucky because I have th ability to speak German and that represents a niche market. So I'm advertising myself as a German-speaking, American Realtor who has living in Southwest Florida for 14 years. I know the Germans are paying attention the exchange rate, coupled with paying attention to our falling prices. We have 40-80% drop in value for different segments of the real estate market. So it's really a combination of our dropping values and the exchange rate that is making this winter more attractive Europeans to come over here and buy now. I think that the bottom of the market is either here or we're really close to it. But only hindsight will tell us when the bottom was, just as hindsight told us when the peak was.

What's the agency doing to cope in this depressed market?

There are a couple of key steps I have an advertisement running, in German, in the in-flight magazines in all the direct flits between Germany and Ft. Myers. In the seat pockets in front of them is a magazine called Discover Florida, I have a half-page, full color ad....advertising the fact that it's a buyers market and that there are some very good deals out there.

What challenges are you facing with sellers?

Realizing that their property is not as valuable as it once was and trying to find those sellers that are more motivated to sell. Getting them to accept that buyers are not willing to pay as much as before. I have no problems with seller that want to hang onto their property for 10 years and have the financial wherewithal to do so. But as Realtors, we can't be taking these properties and putting them on the market in hopes of finding buyers who will overpay, in this market.

Your take on predication downturn may last several more years?

I don't' fell that way. I think that for the rest of the country, maybe. But I think our market has shown it outperforms the national average, so I think we'll bounce back faster. And that's mainly on the strength of the waterfront property that we have here. I see lots that were selling for half a million dollars, and I just sold one for $99,000. That's really a steep fall in a short amount of time and it(the market)really doesn't have much more to give back. I think we've adjusted a great deal and that people are starting to take notice. Times change and the way business is conducted has changed considerably. Business cycles that in the past, might have taken three, five, or seven years, are shortened because of the way information is shared. With Realtor.com, homes.com, the search engines Goggle and Yahoo!, more people are using the computer and being Internet savvy. And then there are Realtor-sponsored Web-sites, from the National Association of Realtors and the Florida Associate of Realtors. People can educate themselves, More readily , on buying selling area estate More than they eve could.

If not real estate, what would your career be?

I came out of the University of Missouri with a four-year degree in Business Management and moved to Florida nd got right into real estate, which is a 100% commission job. I've never done anything else, so I couldn't' imagine doing anything else. But what I think I'm good at is sales and marketing, so I'd probably be selling the sun and fun of Florida.



For those of you that don't know...Henry is my Broker and I hope this helps you figure out what makes the Company I work for Unique. We're ready to help you and can provide points of difference as we represent you in real estate transactions!



Gulf Gateway Realty Inc.

326 S.E. 47th St, Cape Coral, FL 33904

Tel: 239-691-4321 or Tel: 239.425.8652

Fax: 239.425.8653

Lehigh home lot sales, Cape Coral FL homes for sale, Fort Myers waterfront condos, Cape Coral realestate

__________________
Paige A. Rausch
Cellular: 239-691-4321
paigerausch@earthlink.net
http://activerain.com/astepahead

I have been thinking for sometime about this increasing number of foreign investors in our market. The cause we all know is the falling dollar value, however, this is thought of as good for our business but would this in any way affect the country?