Radio House Talk: There Is No Buying Season, and Your Local MLS Is Missing Homes

Send us Fan Mail There is no magic “season” for buying a house in Southwest Florida. Snowbirds bring more buyers, and they also bring more sellers. Some years, August and September have closed more homes than March and April. This episode is Steve Martin Smith’s guest spot on Radio House Talk with Tim Kerfin of Kerfin Inspections on WENG, alongside local agents and regulars talking through what actually moves a deal. You will hear why “marry the house, date the rate” is still the right advice after two years of people waiting for a drop that did not come. Rent paid while you wait is someone else’s mortgage. The time to buy is when you need a house, want a house, and can buy a house. Steve also walks through why a local MLS is not the whole market. Florida has multiple MLSs. A Miami brokerage can list a home in Englewood and it never shows up in the portal your agent set up. Homes.com pulls feeds from all of them, shows the listing agent instead of selling that click, and displays Matterport tours and agent remarks that Zillow and Realtor.com often bury or resell. Then the money part. On a recent closing over $600,000, the buyer paid Steve directly instead of rolling his fee into the price. The purchase price dropped, title costs and taxes dropped with it, and the buyer came out ahead. Most big brokerages do not want that conversation. From the seller’s side, a lower price also means less tax and a smaller listing fee. Also in this episode: Charlotte County inventory sitting over 12,000 homes, why a family friend who sells one or two houses a year is a bad hire, and four turnkey furnished options from Slice of Florida Realty, including a Grand Palm villa, the Sea Turtle Cottage on Venice Island, and a non-HOA pool home in Venice East in the Wellen Park school district around $400,000. Search Real Estate Agent Man on any podcast app, or visit SliceOfFlorida.com. Call Slice of Florida Realty at (941) 894-9800. Slice of Florida Realty Jingle Steve Martin Smith is a Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker and the owner of Slice of Florida Realty in Sarasota County Florida.