It’s Susan and The SanibelSusan Team reporting that it has been another busy week on Sanibel. Glorious weather, more real estate showings, and sales activity, plus traffic traffic traffic.

This is the view from the Mariner Pointe condo that closed on Tues (SanibelSusan’s sale)

One of the lessons learned this week is that I may need to change my tune about open houses not being productive for the property being featured. During the 3-hour open house held last Saturday at our Sanibel Lake Estates home listing, there were three showings. One turned into an offer. Turns out, before the day was done, I received two offers. It is always great to get them and it can be especially good for a seller when there are multiples; but it can be a bit disheartening too, as someone always loses out.

View from Kings Crown #104

It was not the only instance of multiple bids this week. Plenty of sales activity has been and continues to be reported. In addition to the Roseate home sale, I put a Kings Crown condo under contract, then this morning put a Sanibel Center home under contract, while this afternoon our 2-bedroom condo listing at Mariner Pointe #812 sold.

Four sales in a week make us and our clients happy!

It’s not just our office that is getting sales as the weekly report of the listing action reported in the Sanibel and Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service below shows. It follows a few news items. We hope the momentum continues. Tomorrow is expected to the biggest check-out/check-in day of the year, so new prospective buyers will be arriving.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of REALTORS® February Membership Meeting

There was standing room only yesterday morning at our Realtors® monthly membership meeting. In addition to chatter about the increased sales activity, a short educational program was presented about Island Landscaping and Native Vegetation. Presenters were SCCF (Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation) Education Director, Kristie Anders, and Becca Grotrian from the Native Plant Nursery.

For years in cooperation with our local Association of REALTORS®, SCCF has offered a welcome package for new island owners. It includes an introductory free 1-year SCCF membership and a property visit by one of SCCF’s Native Plant Nursery specialists, like Becca.

If you too are wondering how you can reduce landscaping and water costs, aid the environment and critters, and want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, here are a few of the tidbits I learned from their “show and tell”:

• Coral bean – looks like a Charlie Brown tree when it blooms, because it has no leaves then, but the rose-colored tubular blooms attract hummingbirds.
• Gammagrass – is well suited to banks & steep slopes. A good choice along the side of a lake/river/bayou for alligator diversion.
• Joewood – the official tree of Sanibel is slow growing (10-15′) & has small white fragrant blooms, butterflies love it & it’s on the endangered species list.

• Firebush – fun colorful & showy shrub blooms for months & attracts both birds & butterflies. Hummingbirds especially love this plant too.

• Mimosa – often used as a grass replacement/ground cover, has pinky puffy flowers & acts as a host for sulphur butterflies.

• Spiderwort – often used as ground cover has a small blue flower.
• Simpson’s stopper – has small flowers & an orange fruit that birds love.

• Coontie – ground cover that will eventually clump to 3’x3′, it’s a cycad, an ancient plant, with cones both male & female. Birds & small animals like the seeds, & is a host for the atala butterfly, also called arrowroot & Seminole bread because early settlers extracted their edible starch.
• Buccaneer palm – on the endangered list, grows to 10-15′.

• Caroline jessamine vine – has yellow blooms in the winter & grows to 20′.

More info on SCCF’s website: http://sccf.org.

Sanibel Presidents’ Week Traffic

Here’s my traffic story of the week. On the Monday holiday, Periwinkle Way in front of SanibelSusan Realty was blocked in both directions starting mid-afternoon. By 6 p.m. when I was ready to go home and it still was blocked both ways, I decided to be resourceful and head west, thinking I could travel Tarpon Bay Road as a way to get to the Gulf Drives – so I could eventually head east via what we call “the back way”. This time, it didn’t work as when I got to Tarpon Bay Road, it was blocked in both directions too.

My next idea was to take the path of least resistance and to go even further west, by traveling Tarpon Bay Road to San-Cap Road, then to Rabbit Road and West Gulf Drive. That entire trip took an hour. As the cars crawled down Tarpon Bay Road passing the post office, up ahead along the side of the road I spied Matt Asen, owner of The Timbers and The Sanibel Grill. He was standing at the restaurant entrance waving a cardboard sign that said “Beat the Rush Hour Traffic, Come in For Happy Hour”. Since the cars weren’t moving much, that sign may not have been very effective, but it sure gave me a laugh. A little traffic is a small price to pay for the extra business and wonderful weather we enjoyed here this week.

Sanibel & Captiva Islands Multiple Listing Service Activity February 14-21

Sanibel
CONDOS
2 new listings: Loggerhead Cay #474 2/2 $490K, Loggerhead Cay #373 2/2 $559K.
7 price changes: Blind Pass #E206 2/2.5 now $464.9K, Sunset South #1C 2/2 now $474K, Sundial #O302 2/2 now $699K, Shell island Beach Club #5D 2/2 now $775K, Pine Cove #1A 2/2 now $779K, Sundial #E208 2/2 now $799K, Anglers Key #201 3/3 $1.699M.
8 new sales: Sundial #G105 1/1 listed for $319K, Seawind #109 2/2.5 listed for $399K, Mariner Pointe #812 2/2 listed for $459K (our listing), Sunset South #6A 2/2 listed for $520K, Heron at The Sanctuary #2B 3/3.5 listed for $625K, Nutmeg Village #105 2/2 listed for $689.9K, Kings Crown #104 2/2 listed for $895K (our buyer), Plantation Village #A112 3/2 listed for $1.1M.
4 closed sales: Seashells #21 2/2 $316,356; Mariner Pointe #112 2/2 $535K (our sale); Sunset South #14A 2/2 $710K; Bougainvillea #4 3/3 $937.5K.

HOMES
6 new listings: 2079 Wild Lime Dr 3/2 $535K, 696 Sea Oats Dr 3/2 $575K, 706 Emeril Ct 3/2 $679.9K, 5690 Pine Tree Dr 3/2 $839.9K, 5743 Baltusrol Ct 3/3.5 $1.475M, 4265 West Gulf Dr 3/4.5 $4.495M.
9 price changes: 1596 Bunting Ln 2/2 now $409K, 1890 Farm Trl 3/2 now $449K, 1364 Jamaica Dr 2/2 now $499.9K, 778 Cardium St 3/3 now $525K, 590 Lake Murex Cir 2/2 now $699K, 497 Lake Murex Cir 4/3 now $759K, 475 Sea Oats Dr 3/3 now $835K, 1130 Seagrape Ln 4/3 now $839K, 800 Birdie View Pt 3/3.5 now $1.099M.
11 new sales: 966 Fitzhugh St 2/1 listed for $333K (our sale), 1960 Roseate Ln 3/2 listed for $449K (our listing), 4546 Waters Edge Ln 3/2 listed for $499K, 421 Lake Murex Cir 3/2 listed for $569K, 1787 Serenity Ln 3/2 listed for $$579K, 977 Black Skimmer Way 3/2 listed for $599.9K, 706 Emeril Ct 3/2 listed for $679.9K, 1306 Par View Dr 3/3.5 listed for $799K. 231 Daniel Dr 3/2.5 listed for $998.5K, 988 Whelk Dr 3/2.5 listed for $1.095M, 1480 Angel Dr 3/3 listed for $1.545M.
3 closed sales: 696 Durion Ct 3/2.5 $565K, 991 Whelk Dr 4/3 $1.05M, 2380 Troon Ct 4/5 $1.75M.

LOTS
3 new listings: 861 Birdie View Pt $369K, 4363 Gulf Pines Dr $389.9K, 6159 Starling Way $589.9K.
1 price change: 6081 Henderson Rd now $199.9K.
No new sales.
1 closed sale: 3351 Saint Kilda Rd $349,555.

Captiva
CONDOS
No new listings.
1 price change: Beach Homes #6 3/3 now $1.895M.
1 new sale: Bayside Villas #5136 1/2 listed for $295K.
No closed sales.

HOMES
No new listings.
2 price changes: 15127 Captiva Dr 8/8 now $1.595M, 1114 Schefflera Ct 4/3.5 now $1.849M.
1 new sale: 11527 Andy Rosse Ln 4/4 listed for $2.695M.
3 closed sales: 11515 Laika Ln 4/4.5 $2.05M, 1133 Longifolia Ct 3/3 $3.487.5M, 15017 Binder Dr 3/3.5 $3.4M.

LOTS
Nothing to report.

This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Association of Realtors or its Multiple Listing Service. Neither the association nor its MLS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market. The information provided represents the general real estate activity in the community and does not imply that SanibelSusan Realty Associates is participating or participated in these transactions. If your property currently is listed with another broker, this is not intended as a solicitation of that listing.

Here’s to another busy weekend of real estate sales & sunny weather on Sanibel!

Weekend wishes to all…SanibelSusan