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Castles in the Sand

Business, Castles in the Sand

All real estate is local

Jan 1, 2025 – Louise Bolger
November 5, 2024
By Louise Bolger

One month and we’re still standing

It’s been a month since Milton disturbed our idyllic lifestyle. The hurricane came in as a strong Category 3 storm, fortunately weakening before making landfall due to an increasing wind shear as it…
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October 30, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Title insurance and storms

Hopefully, Debby with her rain, Helene with her surge and Milton with his wind are in our rearview mirrors by now, not forgotten, but we survived. Next, we can look forward to more mundane real estat…
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October 23, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Sheetrock rocks

There are a lot of things about Hurricane Milton and its aftermath that are new to me and, unfortunately, so many people. I never thought much about sheetrock except what color to paint it, but I’ve…
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October 7, 2024
By Louise Bolger

The epic storm that crept up on us

Hurricane Helene was the second deadliest storm in 55 years, Katrina being the first. Did we expect it? I didn’t, and I think most Florida coastal residents did not fully understand the danger of suc…
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September 23, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Fondly remembering the 80s

If you loved shoulder pads, Cabbage Patch Kids and the Rubik’s Cube, you probably loved the 80s. But one thing not to love about the 80s was the home buying affordable rate, which has just been outdo…
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September 17, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Vintage, or just old?

My mother had a favorite expression regarding fashion. “You need to shop where you won’t see yourself coming and going,” meaning, seek out stores with a unique selection of goods. The same can be sa…
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September 10, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Condominium deconversion

Remember The Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida? Probably haven’t heard that name in a while, but it was the very shocking collapse of the tower with loss of the building and los…
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September 3, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Will declining mortgage rates fix the market?

It may take more than the Federal Reserve throwing us a lower interest rate bone this month to make everyone happy. Nevertheless, when it comes to lower rates, we’ll take what we can get, but will it…
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August 27, 2024
By Louise Bolger

The day has arrived

Starting this month, the rules have changed for governing real estate commissions. We’ve been talking about this since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) voted on this change to the commissio…
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August 20, 2024
By Louise Bolger

Mortgage rate relief?

Aug. 9 was an interesting day. Manatee County was still cleaning up from the flooding and record-breaking rain from Debby and the mortgage rates hit the lowest level in over a year. What’s the connec…
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Upcoming Events

April 9, 2025
11:45 am

The Off-Stage Ladies of the Island Players, April luncheon meeting