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Louise Bolger

Louise Bolger

August 17, 2017
Louise Bolger is The Sun’s Real Estate columnist.
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April 12, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Locked up in paradise

As I write this, outside is the first non-perfect spring Florida day in about three weeks. It just makes me more thankful for living in paradise even if we’re locked down. You can still walk out your…
April 5, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Home is where the disinfectant is

By now you should be getting to know your house really well, its assets and its defects, and it sounds like you’ll have a lot more time to make those assessments. Point is your home is you and your f…
March 30, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

April real estate fools

Well here we are; it’s April 1st, April Fools’ Day, and most of us are camping out in our homes while some of the best spring weather is outside our doors. Fortunately, this is Florida and you can st…
March 22, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Just tell me what you want

Remember the movie, “What Women Want” with Mel Gibson about 20 years ago? He suddenly acquired the ability to read women’s minds, not men’s minds, just women. There are real estate professionals out…
March 16, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Million-dollar homes and curb appeal

Three months pass by really quickly. Just think about where you were three months ago mid-December; wrapping Christmas gifts, planning a New Year’s Eve party, getting your heating system checked for…
March 9, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Real estate in the time of coronavirus

Last week I wrote about a seller’s market, which we are in at this moment in time. I cautioned about sellers not getting too smug about the value of their property, and how markets can turn on a dime…
March 2, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Seller’s market?

We’re in a seller’s market, words that every homeowner wants to hear. But even a seller’s market needs to be handled with care and respected; it can turn on a dime on so many factors, quickly depleti…
February 25, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Florida’s in the tax driver’s seat

It’s almost tax time again so why not talk again about Florida’s advantageous tax position and the influx of new residents. I like to tie in our growing population with real estate sales statistics s…
February 17, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

The greying of the mortgage market

As we age, there are physical restrictions on what we can achieve. Tennis may be more difficult, so we switch to pickleball; jogging is a knee killer but walking works; sleeping eight hours straight…
February 11, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Credit scores have new meaning

Just when you think your credit score is safe, you get pulled back in and find out you may not be as safe as you thought. If you have anxiety about your creditworthiness you have yet another reason t…
February 3, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Let’s all just take a breath

How would you feel lounging on your deck overlooking the shining waters of the Gulf of Mexico and reading this headline: “As seas rise, your coastal home in Florida could lose value by 15% by 2030?”…
January 27, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Broken record analysis

It seems like every other week or so I’m writing about the influx of new residents to Florida from high tax areas of the country. Forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but I’m not the only one…
January 21, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

What does a mortgage broker do?

I’ve talked many times in this space about getting a mortgage for a home and how it is one of the most stressful aspects of purchasing. Many people don’t have the time to contact numerous lenders and…
January 14, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Real estate winter

It’s winter in southwest Florida and although we talk a lot about beach, road and Publix congestion, we really do love visitors to the Island. We, of course, would love them even more if the visitors…
January 7, 2020
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Is Anna Maria Island still Old Florida?

There’s no doubt how much Anna Maria Island has changed over the past 25 years since I found the Island. One might say it’s gone from shabby chic to polished coastal, but has it also gone from Old Fl…