Woodfield Country Club membership initiation fee update

Per Woodfield CC:

The Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee and Finance Committee both unanimously recommended that the Board increase the Initiation Fee from $20,000 to $30,000, effective October 1, 2016. The Board unanimously approved this recommendation at its meeting on Thursday, May 19. 

Woodfield is joining the party with other Boca Raton/Delray Beach Country Clubs raising their initiation fees.  The next strategic move on part of a Club is to reduce the equity refund.  Right now the least expensive equity is Sports at Woodfield CC which runs $38,000.  The refund at this time is 25%, which has been lowered from 50% in August 2014.  

Moves like this sometimes help increase sales because the least expensive buy in option is $20,000 initiation + $38,000 equity = $58,000.  Come Oct 1,  2016, the buy in jumps up to $68,000 for the same fabulous country club lifestyle.

More than 1000 Kids call Woodfield Country Club home

Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton published that more than 1,000 kids call Woodfield CC home:

http://www.woodfield.org/family-and-kids

Woodfield really does cater toward the young.  I have 2 children myself and have taken advantage of the facilities meant for our kids:

-Social Events:  parties, story telling, character dinners, youth nights, scavenger hunts, etc….

-Just for Teens:  video game trucks, pool parties, video arcade, etc…

-Juniors Golf, Tennis and Fitness programs

-Juniors Dining

-Juniors Spa & Salon

-Kid's Korner:  after school actives, dance, sports, arts & crafts

-Winter, Spring and Summer Camps

and let's not forget about Woodfield's current renovation about to open within weeks (for our kids)

-new Kids Korner (brand new Clubhouse just for kids)

-Interactive Waterpark and Dry Playground right outside Kids Korner

For anyone who is not familiar with me, my name is Craig Greenberg.  I am a realtor who lives in Woodfield Country as well as an investor who fixes up homes meant for young families.  My website can be found here:  www.wfccsales.com

When I say my home renovations are meant for young families, I am fixing up homes that usually have at least 5 bedrooms (for growing families) and  a 3 car garage.  Even if you don't have 3 cars, that extra garage bay comes in quite handy when you have to store years and years worth of toys your kids (or you) can't part with yet… or an armada of bikes, mopeds, scooters, etc….  Trust me, a 3 car garage is a must. 

Our decor is along the line of Transitional and Modern, something like GL Homes is doing with The Bridges and 7 Bridges..  We don't go too far overboard where we make a home feel 'cold' if it's too modern, but we make sure we are not considered Traditional.  If you are in the market for a luxury home and want to be in Woodfield, please feel free to contact me:

Craig Greenberg

Craig@WFCCsales.com

561-376-8540

Woodfield Country Club "New" Gym

Woodfield Country Club

New Fitness Centers Opens | Boca Raton, FL

The city of Boca Raton granted Woodfield CC a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy to open the Fitness Center early on October 5th.  The remainder of the Cascades complex is set to open November 9th.  This includes the Spa, Blendz Café and the lower level Fitness Studio.

Per Woodfield Country Club:

Blendz - In addition to the traditional morning offerings like bagels, fruit and coffee, Blendz will now feature complimentary oatmeal. New items like Greek yogurt, cappuccino and espresso will be available for a charge. 

Salon - The Salon will feature a brand new makeup display filled with Babor makeup products as well as an expanded Boutique complete with fresh lines of retail goods.  

Fitness Studio - The new studio will be utilized for our gentle class formats such as Yoga and Pilates. It will also function as additional space for Small Group Training and expanded functional training. 

So far my expectations for the gym have been exceeded.  There is more than enough cardio equipment to handle peak hours of training.  Treadmills, Ellipticals (both Precor and True Fitness), Octane Fitness lateral ellipticals, traditional stair masters, the difficult stair masters like walking up a flight of stairs (aka the Gauntlet), fan bikes, upright Life Cycles, and recumbent True bikes.  I might be missing some cardio equipment, but if you like variety with cardio machines, Woodfield has it's members covered.

The fitness center also has a spinning room, upstairs private studio for training and classes as well as the upcoming downstairs fitness studio which was touched upon earlier.

As for strength training, the fitness center is well equipped.  I have been strength training for a good 25 years now, and even competed in bodybuilding shows when I was in college (and won the 21 and under), I can be a bit of a snob when it comes gyms.  I grew up on Long Island and trained with pro bodybuilders from Jimmy "the bull" Pellechia at Gold's Gym in Northport to Jimmy Quinn at Worlds Gym in New York City, and now Dareem Charles at my other Boca Gym, BusyBody, the type and variety of equipment will determine the crowd the gym draws.

There is a plethora of Cybex Eagle NX and Cybex Prestige machines that cover all body parts.  Legs are well equipped with lying leg curls and seated leg curls for hams, leg extensions for quads, glute blaster for the rump, adductor and abductor combo machine and a leg press.  There is also a smith machine and power rack for those that prefer free weights as well as a Cybex leg press.  Not a fan of the Cybex leg press as that is where my only training injury came from when I had 990lbs on the machine and my knee gave out.  Sounded like a 5 year old jumping on bubble wrap.  Gave me a limp for a few years but I have recovered

New to the gym are the Hoist Fitness line of machines.  I think there are 4:  chest, shoulders, back and biceps.  I like these machines.  They are very smooth and hit the muscle groups even better than Hammer strength machines (in my opinion).   The trainers in the gym tell me 30% of the resistance comes from your own body weight.  That's good because it's hard to find enough plates to load on these machines.

Before we get into free weights, there is a variety of other strength training apparatus.  There is the heavy bag for boxers, good selection of medicine balls, rubber band training and TRX tension training. Woodfield finally put a dedicated stretching area for people to stretch out of the way and also train abs. It is located in the old Blendz café.  The unusual thing about this area is the fish bowl off of the upper lobby - see below photo:

This may give some people apprehension about using the area located right in front of the window.  Then again, attention seekers might flock to train in this area as well.  Depends if your glass is half full or not.

On to the free weights.  The floor has great sound suppression, so if you drop a dumbbell, whether 5 lbs or 120 lbs, the floor absorbs the noise.  This is a big plus since the spa is located beneath the gym and won't disrupt those trying to relax.  Smart move.  As you guess, the gym is equipped with dumbbells from 5 lbs to 120 lbs.  I am probably one of 5 people in the entire Club that actually use the 120's.  There are preset barbells from 30 lbs to 120 lbs.  I have heard that 120 lbs barbell is about to be removed in lieu of it's 20 lbs counter part.  Makes sense and not a big loss.  If someone really  needs a 120 lbs barbell, there are more than enough plates in the gym to accomplish that with a barbell.

The free weight area is big and small at the same time. Woodfield dedicated a decent portion of the gym to free weights, but it should have been bigger.  If there are 3 people in this area at the same time, it feels claustrophobic.  Not good.  This is why I start my training at 6:15AM in the morning to avoid the crowds that show up at 8AM after they had bagels and coffee at Blendz café.  There is a Smith Machine, Power rack, 1 flat bench, 1 incline bench, a preacher curl bench, 1 seated calf raise and a variety of benches (3 incline/flat benches, 1 decline and 1 chair) that can be used with dumbbells or the smith machine, power rack or cables.  The gym finally has a cable cross over machine which has a connected lat pull down, cable row and assisted pull up and dip machine.  The gym permanently affixed the lat pull down handle and cable row handle to the machines, making less variety for back training.  The only reason right now why i keep my separate gym membership at BusyBody is for back.

Per Woodfield, Coming Soon!

• High-impact wall in the Functional Training area. 

• Water station near cardio machines.

• Gatorade, water bottles and protein bars will return to Cascades when the new Blendz Café opens.

• Junior Certification Program Wristband Policy - a new policy that will require certified Juniors to wear designated colored wristbands while using the Fitness Center. Stay tuned for further details.

• Fitness Studio - Woodfield's new first floor Fitness Studio will open soon and will provide additional space for gentle class formats and expanded functional training. 

• AudioFetch - a new feature that will allow you to wirelessly sync your smartphone audio to TVs anywhere on the Fitness Floor.

• Performance IQ - state-of-the-art training program that wirelessly connects heart rate monitors and cardio equipment to allow real time display of performance metrics. Performance IQ and heart rate monitoring will be featured in select cycle classes beginning November 2.

I am a big fan of Woodfield and am very excited for everything coming up.  The gym is a great introduction into what Woodfield has put into this 2 year renovation coined the Long Range Plan (LRP).  Can't wait to see the remainder of Cascades on Nov 9th and ultimately the pool area, poolside restaurant and kid center in the Spring of 2016.  This is a world class facility that is attracting young families in Boca Raton and I look to do my part to bring younger members into the Club now that the renovations are finally being unveiled.

If you see me in the gym, please feel free to say "Hi!"  I tend to keep my headphones on and remained focused so I can get in and out of the gym quickly to get back to my family and so I can work on selling more homes within the Club and Boca Raton area.  Definitely come up and introduce yourself.  Just don't do it while I'm pressing the 120 lbs dumbbells :-)

This is not an official Woodfield marketing piece and all photos are property of Craig Greenberg, Woodfield Country Club resident and realtor.

Craig Greenberg, realtor®
561-376-8540
Craig@WFCCsales.comWFCCsales.com

all rights reserved - copyright 2015©

Mold Inspections

We sell a lot of real estate in Florida, especially Boca Raton and Delray Beach.   

Whenever we represent the buyer, we always suggest three inspections: 

• Home

• Pest/Termite

• Mold 

Mold inspections have become more prevalent lately as part of a buyer’s overall due diligence (DD) on a property.  Whether you’re using a standard contract where the seller is obligated to repair items up to 1.5% of the purchase price (PP) for warranted items and/or 1.5% of the PP for wood destroying organisms (WDO) or an as-is contract where you have a kick out clause for the buyer if the Buyer does not approve of the property after inspecting it, a mold inspection should always be done. 

If you chose not to inspect within your inspection period, it will then become your buyer’s problem if and when he goes to resell and their buyer opts to do a  mold inspection.  We have run across two types of inspections – full inspections where the inspector takes air samples, interstitial samples and surface samples to detect for mold.  This is the desired inspection because if the air samples show elevated signs of mold, the interstitial samples and surface samples will help located the source. 

The other type of inspection, which I find instigates problems without a solution, is just taking air samples.  I have seen home inspectors whipping out the air sample machine taking multiple samples in different rooms/areas of the home.  The  problem with this method is IF elevated levels of mold are found, the inspector will only tell you in which room or area of the home the elevated levels are found, but won’t tell you the source.  In Palm Beach County, Florida, the buyer pays for inspections.  When a buyer uses this method of mold inspection, he now shifts the financial burden on the Seller to locate where the mold is coming from.  Your buyer might lose the property if their inspector does not give a protocol on what to remediate.  This is definitely a grey area that could kill a deal.  The buyer might feel they gave their inspection to the seller, but the seller is given a vague report, how do you proceed from here?  If the seller choses to proceed, then the Seller can hire a full service mold inspector to locate the source.  Full service inspectors in this part of Florida are in the $500 to $1000 range.   It's at this point any future reinspection costs are the responsibility of the buyer.

I highly suggest having a mold inspection if you are representing the Buyer, and more importantly to save time, stress and possibly keeping the deal together, use a full service mold inspection company and not only take air samples.  This is all my opinion and it is up to you buyer in the end what option they choose, if they do so.

Any questions, please feel free to call or email

Craig Greenberg

Realtor

(561) 376-8540 cell

Craig@wfccsales.com

Woodfield Country Club Real Estate

Out with the old, In with the new

Out with the Old, In with the New

If it were not for innovation, things would remain copacetic. Out with the old, in with the new.  What a timeless expression of progress.  An expression of "lets move forward."  Without it, we'd all be using AOL mail vs. Gmail.  We'd have to carry a phone, camera, calculator, compass, video recorder, voice recorder, moblie internet device, etc.... and now even a wallet, instead of one smart phone.  We'd all look like Fred Flintstone running ourselves ragged vs. driving a Prius.  What I am getting at is change is good.  Change is what helps get us to the next level.  In real estate, sometimes it's the agent that needs to change.

It's one thing if your realtor is making progress.  In that situation, change is not necessary.  When change is necessary is if and, I'd hate to think, when a consistent agent becomes stale.  Yes, just like a listing can become stale, so can a hotshot agent.  Whether we are dealing with mega-successful trader who can go from hot to cold, the same can happen to a realtor.

In the Boca Raton country club markets where I focus, Woodfield Country Club and The Polo Club, there are some listings that have been on the market for years, and with the same agent.  I can understand loyalty, which is hard to come by in real estate, but as a Seller, if my super listing agent has not been able to sell my home in one to two years, it's time to move on. 

It's time to think outside the box.  It's time for change.   Going from the well-known listing agent to listing agent seems like the right thing to do, but sometimes you need to think more creative than that.  Super listing agents tend to have 30 to 50 listings at a time.  It's almost like having to throw a dart at dartboard to chose which homes to advertise.  Typically it's the people who complain the most that we try to appease.  Do you really want to find yourself in this situation?  A bulls-eye on a dartboard?  If your home is listed with a top agent, I'm curious to know if your agent is showing up to accommodate showings or if they are sending one of their assistants to meet prospective buyers and/or realtors.  If you insist on using a super agent with too many listings, make sure you include a clause in your exclusive listing agreement that your 'super agent' be present at all showings.

If you are thinking about Buying or Selling  in Boca Raton country clubs, please feel free to contact me.  I will let you know about the latest innovations and creative marketing I will be using on our side to find the right home of your dream and fill you in on the strategy

Craig Greenberg, realtor

(561) 376-8540 cell

craig@wfccsales.com

Boca Raton Country Club membership fees

Boca Raton Country Club

Membership Fees

If you have ever lived or visited Boca Raton, Florida, you will know on every other street corner is a country club, specifically golf & tennis clubs.  Here we are going to get into the annual expenses to keep up a home in one of these clubs.  Below are some nice charts that will give you a good overview of annual expenses:

First and foremost, all the Club require a social membership.  Memberships are purchased directly through the Club and are not transferred from seller to buyer.  This update is not covering the initial buy in (initiation fees, equity, bond requirement, etc...) as that requires an entire update of it's own, this post will just cover annual expenses;  dues, assessments/capital charges, food and beverage

Social Membership

 

Sports Membership

 

Full Membership

 It's important to note each Club defines Social, Sports and Full Membership differently.  Not all are treated the same.  Not all Clubs offer a base social membership alone.  Some Club might offer Social memberships to grandfathered in members, whereas new members might not be able to chose a social membership.  Buyers, especially snowflakes, prefer social memberships because the annual expenses are the least.  Once we add in Sports (aka Tennis and/or limited golf) or Full (social, golf, tennis), the annual dues jump.  Sports typically don't increase the dues that much, whereas you will definitely notice the difference annually with a golf membership.

It's also important to note these charts just cover "master" association.  Within each Club (development), there are subdivisions that manage themselves.  You will incur either additional monthly, quarterly and/or annual assessments from these various subdivisions.   These could include things like common area maintenance, landscaping, pool service, cable, security, pressure cleaning, painting, insurance (condos),trash removal, irrigation maintenance, etc.... There is no rhyme or reason between various subdivisions and what each offers it's residents. The best is to speak directly with a contact at the management company and ask for all the things covered in writing.

How to sell your own home as the owner/agent

How to sell your own home

I have been involved with Real Estate in Southeast Florida for over 10 years now.  Since 2005 I have been teamed up with one of Florida's, if not the United State's, top sales agents.  Our typical production per year ranges anywhere from $25 million to the $40 million zone, usually landing in the high $30 million area.  I'm not talking about overall brokerage sales like Coldwell Banker, I am talking about an individual agent.  We have closed in excess of 600 buyers and sellers within this time and I have seen my fair share of showings.  I have managed handling in excess of 50 active listings at any given time while juggling our pending and closed transactions.  I wear many hats and am in the position to give good insight into how to sell your own home.

This isn't another FSBO canned message where I am trying to convince you to use a Realtor, but rather what happens when you are the listing agent for your own home.  One of the top rules for a successful showing is to get the owners out of the house.  A buyer won't emotionally connect to a home so long as the owner is there.  If you have ever shown a home where the seller is home, the homeowner either decides to hijack the showing blowing any chance of a deal or they make their presence known, either awkwardly sitting in a room so they are still visible or in stalker mode following you around a house.

Fortunately in real estate, you can't force a buyer to like a house.  Within the first minute of a buyer being in a home, you will know if they are interested or not.  Just like in card playing, everyone has a tell.  Either there is a real smile, a fake smile, or a stoic "I don't want to appear to excited."  If a buyer comes in the home rolling their eyes, arms crossed, you are not going to persuade them to like the home.  They either decided the lot is wrong, the curb appeal isn't what they want, the front door is on the side of home, it's a 2 story not a 1 story (or vice versa), they don't care for the style, etc… it could be any one or number of reasons.

Sometimes the buyer is honest when they don't like the home and leave within the first 30 seconds, even when finding out the listing agent is the homeowner.  This is the ideal buyer because a) they don't want to waste their time and b) they don't want to waste anyone else's' time.  I so much appreciate this.  As an agent, if you have ever shown a listing and you know without a doubt the buyer hates the home, yet the buyer decides to still see the home and take their time, it's worse then fingernails down a chalkboard.  It's one thing if the buyer says "hey this isn't for me, but let me take a quick look anyways," vs.  the buyer that wants to prove something.

There are times the buyer comes in with an open mind and these are the few that you can try to convince your listing is the best, but it's this buyer that is probably seeing too many homes and won't remember one from the next or will become so confused they will never pull the trigger to buy.

One of the worst things is when the buyer's agent comes in and starts rattling off negative features right away.  I feel these are the agents that are looking to prove their worth to the buyer before giving them a chance to see if they like the house or not.  Why not start with the positives and see if your buyer likes the house?  If you notice the buyer connect with the property, then gently (and not like a school teacher)  let them know about things you might be concerned with as their agent.

Now that I have digressed long enough giving some insight into what listing agents try to cope with, it's time to get into selling your own home when you are the listing agent as well (owner/agent).  For showings, I prefer listing agent accompany vs. putting the home on a lockbox.  Lockbox homes vs. having a listing agent present gives a different sense that the property is more valuable instead of giving out random agents (and possibly their buyers) access to your property.

You always have to note if you are the owner/agent on the MLS in the special terms section.  Also, the MLS usually asks for owner's name.  I used to put my name, but find using 'withheld' is better option so long as you note you are the owner/agent.  The worst thing that usually happens on a showing as the owner/agent is when the selling agent right off the bat says "and this is the owner, who is also the agent."  That one line kills that majority of showings, so you have to work around that.  Do you hijack the showing making the buyer feel awkward?  Do you stalk the buyer and their agent?  Do you get out of sight?  What do you do?

Firstly, I notice buyers don't focus no matter if I am in sight or not.  To help buyers focus, you need to get your 'Marketing 101" textbook out and instantly give a property flyer.  Not a 8.5 x 11" MLS printout, yet a professionally designed flyer on heavy card stock on the largest size you can afford to do.  If you are the owner/agent, do not put your contact info on this.  Why?  Because the buyer's agent will instantly take it away from the buyer because they do not want you putting your contact information in the hands of the buyer.  I always make sure to say, "this is an unbranded marketing piece I have on this listing."  Unbranded instantly tells the other agent there is zero contact info on their.  Make sure to hand the flyer to the agent first so they give their blessing to the buyer that it's OK.  This will help focus the buyer.  Also, at the end of the day, if the buyer still has all their MLS spec sheets, the heavy card stock will stand out among the other listings which might help the buyer remember your listing.

Secondly, what do you with yourself?  Do you hang out with the buyer and their agent?  Do you disappear?  I always find being courteous is the best way to deal with this.  After handing the flyer to the agent, if they have not said the killer "and this is the owner/agent," I tend to stick around.  If the "owner/agent" line is used, I ask the buyer if they prefer to look on their own or if they prefer a tour.  This is where you have to watch body language and see what the buyer is really saying because this is somewhat confrontational if the buyer knows you are the seller.  Is the buyer just being polite by telling you to show the house but want you to go far, far away?  Does the buyer really want a tour by the owner, but says 'we'll look on our own?"  Sometimes what they say is what they want and other times you have to assist as best as possible to understand what they want.  Based on the response, I act accordingly.  This comes from repetition.  Not just repetition of showing your own home, but showing other listings.  That is why I digressed above to give some insight into what we deal with as listing agents and especially how we deal with showing a home when the owner is present during a showing.

Lastly, if the buyer is interested, they will schedule a second showing or submit an offer.  The most difficult question that arises on a showing as the owner/agent is "why are you selling."  This is where you have to make sure to push your property yet not give the feeling you will be hard to negotiate with.  The truth is always best, but make sure not to scare away potential buyers.  If the property wasn't for them, you will probably get that feeling during the showing.  Following up with the other agent can help adjust your current listing.  Is the price right?  Are you marketing the house properly?  Are you reaching the right audience?  Is there anything you can do to your home that will make it sell faster?  Always listen, take note and implement the proper action.