Tampa Talk Live! | What's New & Happening In Tampa Bay?

What is up, y'all? Happy Tuesday. We're finally back. I've missed our Tuesday nights. Me too. I've missed our Tuesday nights as well. And welcome, for those of you in the viewing audience, welcome to Tampa Talk Tuesday. We're excited to see y'all. Excuse my chair. This thing is squeaking beyond belief. I'm going to throw it out the window when we're done. But welcome to Tampa Talk Tuesday. This is your channel to come talk all things Tampa Bay and Sarasota. We're going to talk about what is happening. It is obviously holiday season coming upon us. We're going to let you guys know what is happening out and around town. I'm excited to share that stuff, but I'm also excited to be with my just incredible guest here. We've got Ms. Marsha Railton. Good evening, Marsha. Good evening, everybody. Happy to be here. And we are happy to have you, of course. We've got Stacy Amon with us as well. What's up, guys? Hello, everyone. I made it. Yes, you did, baby. Were you running and gunning today? Well, we had a power surge. Oh. And so my computer had to reboot. Ah, okay. So that's what took me to the very minute. Power surges can throw you out of whack for sure. But welcome to the viewing audience as well. And if this is your first time here, we just want to say this is it. We welcome open dialogue. All right? So we're going to talk about all the things that are happening in Tampa Bay, but if you're local, let us know where you're watching from. As a matter of fact, wherever you are watching from in this country, because a majority of the people who actually watch this aren't local, let us know where you're watching from. We'd love to know who you are, where you're watching, tuning in at. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to add those to the conversation as well. People love to go back and read those. I get messages in my Instagram DM from these lives and people really get a lot out of it. So your contributions matter. Even though you may not be in front of the screen and have a microphone in front of you, trust me, your voice is heard. So we welcome that. And we've never met before. My name is Juan Alcala. I am the team leader here with the True Living Group and along with Stacey and Marsha, we help people just like you buy, sell, relocate and invest here in the greater Tampa Bay area. And we make videos that are all thanks Tampa Bay. And that's what we're doing tonight. We're going to talk all the things that are happening in the area. So we're happy to have you guys. Thanks for joining the conversation this evening. So I have my guitar in hand. I was fiddling around. Marsha said that this guitar is pretty. So thank you, Marsha. It's a blue guitar like that before. It's very pretty. Yeah, it's got a little metallic flake in it. You know, it's got the tortoise pick guard on it. I'm a big fan. This is a G&L T style guitar for anybody who doesn't know or is inquiring behind me. I've got a 1993 Fender Photo Flame, Japanese made, incredible guitar. And I've got some more hiding on the floor. We don't need to get in all that. But people ask all the time, like, we'll get on these Zoom calls and people jump in the car. They're like, Juan, we saw your guitars. What do you play? So just figured I'd share that with you. I've also got a Deluxe Reverb for anybody wondering what amplifier I play through. So that's there as well. And I'm just answering the questions that I know that people always want to know. So we're going to talk about guitars. We're going to talk about alligators and hurricanes and insurance, because that's all anybody ever wants to know when they talk about floor lights. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I have to say, Juan, I had dinner last night with a couple of our clients, and they were bragging about how awesome you were. They joined your church or joined you at church service on Sunday, and they said you were a rock star. Oh, that is very kind of them. Yes, I'm blessed enough to be able to serve the Lord with my gifts, and I'm grateful for it. I felt like I had one of the worst Sundays I've had in a long time because I haven't played in like six weeks. And whenever you're not active, just like anything else, y'all, like if you don't do something all the time, it doesn't necessarily always come natural. And I hadn't been on stage in six weeks, and they put a microphone in front of my face. So that's even more scary, right? I can do it here because I don't have to sing to y'all, but when you have to get up on stage, it just becomes a different game. But that is very kind. So Dom and Steph, if you guys are watching, I appreciate you. You're amazing. We have the best clients and friends, most importantly. Man, we're so spoiled. So thank you for trusting us, y'all, and excited to get into this night, right? So ladies, I want to kick this off, and I'll let you take us where we need to go. I know we've got a lot of stuff going on with the holidays up and coming. We're going to talk about what's happening down in Sarasota Bradenton tonight. We're going to talk about what's happening up in Pasco County. We're definitely going to talk about what's happening in Tampa proper, some of the beaches. As we get closer to the holiday season, we'll really kind of dial you guys in. I'm going to go out to Snowcat Ridge, which is the only alpine ski area in all of Tampa Bay, and I'm going to do a real steal out there for you guys. What is up Stephen Pope? Stephen's the man. Brother, I appreciate you more than you know, man. So thank you. And Kevin, thanks for chiming in as well. For those of you who want to see some faces, Stephen is incredible. And just to share with you guys, let me put it this way. If it wasn't for Stephen and what he does, I wouldn't be able to make as much video content as we do. So thank you. Shout out, brother. I appreciate you on that. And Kevin has been a faithful viewer since day one of us getting this up and running. So shout out to you, Kevin. I appreciate it. And the emails, my friend. So thank you. Bye Kevin. Ladies. All right. I'm going to do a coin toss tonight because last time we started, I'm pretty sure it was Marsha. I always tend to get this wrong. So I'm going to lead up to you. I don't remember. So that was so long ago since we got it live. I'm going to flip my pick. Okay. So one side doesn't have anything on it. The other does. Marsha, you get to call heads or tails and heads is going to be the one with the tortoise on it. Tortoise. All right. We're throwing it up. It is tails. So Stacy's going to go first tonight. Stacy. Sorry. All right. Well, up here in Wesley Chapel, guess what? We are getting- Can I play some background tracks for you? Sure. I'm getting down to business. Please do. Sorry for the interruption. It's up to you. Go ahead. Can I keep going now? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So we are getting a fourth hospital, or I guess it's not official yet. I guess they are proposing John Hopkins facility is what comes out of Wesley Chapel. So it'll be kind of up there off 54 and I-75. It's north of State Road 54 and east of I-75. They are proposing a 356,000 square feet hospital to be a part of the Wildcat Bales development, which is going to be the connected city. Are part of the connected, gosh, I can't talk tonight. Connected city planning zone. So it'll be on the northeast corner of McKendree and overpass road over there by Epperson. Right over by Epperson. Yeah. So for those of you who aren't familiar with the area, I'll pull up the map here in a second. Let me ditch the guitar and make sure that I'm on the same page as y'all. Just like to let people know that we're real, right? I thought you were going to sing. No, we're not doing that tonight. So Epperson Lagoon, if you've not watched any of our YouTube videos regarding Wesley Chapel, go check that out. You can see what that community is all about. But also I just want to communicate about all children's because this hospital is near and dear to my heart for a couple of reasons. We, first of all, both of my babies, my oldest were NICU babies. The one, my second son spent extended time in the hospital. He was, he was preemie, four pounds, nine ounces, like did the whole thing. So children's hospitals are near and dear to my heart. They may be to yours as well. But all children's in St. Pete, John Hopkins down there, a homeschool family that we are very close with their son had some, some medical issues and needed literally needed brain surgery a year ago. And they were wonderful. And this young man is thriving today, you know, so to be able to have medical care at this caliber in the area is so important for so many families. And I don't want to lose sight of this. So Stacy, thank you for bringing this to our attention, right? Even though it hasn't been built, trust me, if you live anywhere in the region, you want to be an advocate for this, right? Because this, we need, you know, every area can use more hospitals with this level of service and care, but it's just a wonderful experience. And fun fact, when you go to the John Hopkins hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, downtown St. Pete, there is a restaurant in the bottom of that. And you all know, I'm not going to let food just go by the wayside, right? I know what everybody's thinking right now. They're like, what do you mean? Well, there's a, there's a restaurant, trust me. It's called the library. When you get a chance, look it up. I'll probably pull up the link before we're done. They have some of the best brunch, but I'm telling you right now, their dinner is incredible, right? You need to get on reservations, get on a waitlist because Friday, Saturday, that place is packed. I'm telling you right now, it's an unbelievable experience. Go check out the library at St. Petersburg, sorry, at John Hopkins. Hopefully you don't have to attend the hospital. You're just hanging out at the restaurant. It's awesome, but this is a great share, Stacey. So thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Cool. All right. And then we have some fun holiday activities coming up. Tampa's Pirate Water Taxi will be hosting its River of Lights cruise starting on November 26th. Yarrr. And it is a commute. I caught it. I caught it. I'm so proud of myself right now. Oh my goodness. All right. So yeah, it's a commute between Tampa Heights and Water Street, and it's going to take you a tour of the holiday lights, decorations, and they're going to have festive storytelling along the Hillsborough River, and they may have a special guest. Oh, that sounds fun. Now that is getting fancy. Now what, I mean, are you allowed to share with special guests per se? I mean, are you gatekeeping right now, Stacey? What's happening? It may be a Santa's helper. Oh, very nice. Very nice. I dig that. So for perspective, let me share on the map really quick so everybody can see this. What you're looking at right now is the Tampa River headed from the north side of Tampa and Tampa Heights where Stacey was talking about. Let me pull up the pin so y'all can see this. Here's Tampa Heights. But you can take the water taxi from, I'm assuming it's leaving from Waterworks Park, right near Armature Works. And we talked about Armature Works a ton of times before. That is going to be right here. And we walk the river walk there all the time. Kate and I do date night at Armature Works. We'll go to the river walk, which is great. And then what she's talking about, I was going from there down to Water Street, which is going to be down around here, this area. Okay. And that's a 45 minute cruise. And for adults, it's $35 and children is 25. Awesome. And this is cool that seeing the tree out there. I love this time of year that we're going to talk about the tree lighting at Armature Works here in a minute. So y'all are going to see that too. I had that on my agenda tonight, so that fits together perfectly. So that's a great spot. And this is fun, y'all. If you're not from Florida and you come down, first of all, winter is, the holidays can be a little weird, especially if you're from places where you have snow, right? Ladies, do you remember your first Florida Christmas where you were like, it was just a whole, when are things turning brown? Yeah. I think mine was like 80 degrees. It was unusually warm. They don't, they don't turn brown. You just got a different shade of green. And it's this, if you're used to that lifestyle, for those of you who aren't, you're from Arizona or Texas, you're like, it doesn't snow. We don't care about that. But if you're from the North, like we all were, Stacy's from Indiana, Marsha was from Northern Michigan, and then she moved to Atlanta. So she made a little bit of an adjustment before she came down. And then I'm from Detroit, Michigan. It is definitely different. It's hard to kind of wrap your mind around because you're used to these seasonal changes, but I'll tell you what, it's a lot funner. I was going to say, we went home for Christmas, I think the first or second year, and it was like negative one degrees. And we're like, okay, we're fine with the 80 degree Christmas. I agree. It's much funner when you can be outside and enjoying the activities. And again, that's what Florida Living is all about. It's about lifestyle and being outside and being active. So I love it. Charles says, we're from Maryland, where John Hopkins started. It's a phenomenal hospital. We agree. We agree. So shout out to John Hopkins. That's great. And the continued legacy of the hospital. We appreciate that. But the water taxi, I have not rode this yet, Stacey, but we're making a point to do that this year. Cool. It'll be fun. Yeah, it will be. Maybe I can gather some little kids and go. Or maybe I can go with you. I don't think it'll be fun if you're not going with little kids. I was going to say, he doesn't have to gather any kids. I'd have to gather some. I'm sure they'd be happy to go for a second spin, Stacey. We can arrange for that. I may take them. I may take you up on that. Okay. We can do that for you. You and Kate can go on a date night and we'll go on the cruise. Now you're speaking our language. Yeah. All right. Well, this isn't holiday related, but this Friday at the crate, they are keeping it country. They are going to have a live DJ and do a line dancing lessons. And they're going to start doing this every third Friday from seven to 10. Oh, here it is. Yeah. That's something I love to do. I'm not any good at it, but I love doing line dancing. And it takes me three quarters of the song before I catch on to what I'm supposed to be doing. But I think it's so much fun. Yeah. It's been a long time for me, but yeah, I love, I always loved the line dance. And for perspective, for those of you who don't know what the crate is, it is a great outdoor shopping venue, family fun. They've got all kinds of activities. Shopping, these were shipping carts that they've turned into small boutique um, shops, local shops, eateries, there's restaurants, um, uh, the bacon boss, which you can see hiding in this guy's corner. I can spot that a mile away by the way. Um, bacon boss, and they've got a, um, just a really fam, uh, fun family atmosphere. Plenty of things to do for everyone. I mean, this lady's hanging and dancing on stuff. So like really cool spot right off of I-75 and Wesley chapel on the North side up there. This is a whole experience unto itself. So another night out there to go hang out and here you go. You can see the, uh, the artists on stage there. I think this is great. Yeah. And then while we're at the crates, I'll go ahead and tell you about some of their holiday activities they have scheduled. Um, on November 25th, they're going to start the holiday movies under the stars. Awesome. So it starts at six o'clock PM each Saturday, and they are going to be showing movies, uh, deck the halls, Shrek the halls, how the Grinch stole Christmas and jingle all the way. That's fantastic. I love it. And the, the outdoor movies during the holiday, this is one of the things that we actually love to do with the kids. So Stacy, that's really cool. So if you're in the greater, uh, Wesley chapel area, Odessa, San Antonio, land of lakes, or just Northern Tampa, y'all get over there. These things like it's a blast to do this kind of stuff. Kids love it. Parents get a little bit of time off. There's plenty of things going on for everybody to do. This stuff is awesome. Yeah. I remember doing that when, um, my kids were little, but we lived up North and they would, um, cram us into the elementary school gym. They would bring their sleeping bags and we do the movies, but it would be so much more fun if it was outside. Yeah. And I'll throw the link to this, um, everything that we put up this evening. We'll add that to our, the YouTube description. So whether you're watching this on Facebook or where else, um, just head over to the living in Tampa YouTube channel. Um, and you can grab any of the links that we show on these screens we put in the descriptions afterwards. So you have access to those, so you can just pop right in there. Here's the calendar of events. It's really cool. Um, definitely encourage you to check that out. Uh, definitely, uh, worth visiting these locations that we're discussing. So it's great stuff, Stacey. Oh, and I have one more holiday events, um, at the shops at Wiregrass. They are going to start their, uh, symphony and lights and they, um, actually start at every hour on the hour. Um, I think it's just like a 30 minute light show in the center of the mall. Yep. It's really cool. And we've done video on shops at Wiregrass too. Great outdoor mall. Um, definitely worth a visit. Uh, toast is in front of that. Also a really nice restaurant. The living room is over there too, ladies, where you had lunch there. That was a really nice, it's a great place. The decor, it definitely leaned more towards, um, for the ladies, but the food was delicious. So can't complain on that end. The decor was more for women, I would say. They knew who their target audience was. Let's be real. Yeah. They knew who that was. Let's check in with, uh, who's watching with us this evening. Thanks guys. And, uh, we welcome the conversation. So whether you're, you know, checking in on Facebook or anywhere else, feel free to connect. We got Gary Ruth checking in from Pennsylvania. What's up PA. We got PA in the house. Um, let's see here. Uh, Michael Lean. Yeah. Michael Lean. I should've put my glasses on. Forgive me. Military here from NWI station in Texas. Most of my career. Um, is that Northwest Illinois? I just want to make sure I got that correct. Um, I know the weather here is in Tampa, but we'd love to say your quality of life overall happiness has improved since living there. Despite, yeah, I agree. 100% the coast of living. Um, thanks y'all for doing this live. You are welcome. And thank you for watching and, and contributing to the conversation. We appreciate that. So quality of life has definitely ratcheted ladies. Is it fair to say that we all have a better quality of life now that we've made the decision to move? Much better. Yep. Well, it is year round, which makes it one, you know, that's, that's the thing I think is the year around sunshine. Um, it's great time. And I did, when I first moved down here, I did think I was going to miss winter weather, but we were just talking about it last night, the way people decorate and there's so many Christmasy or wintry things to do that. You, I have so much fun here. I don't want to go North anymore for Christmas. I agree. Yeah. I don't miss the snow. We have family up North and they're always trying to like the wife and I are trying to manage the splitting time. So we don't want to go up there. I feel you on it. So definitely there in the summer. Yeah, definitely agree. Come here in the winter so you can celebrate Christmas and be outside or be at the beach or, you know, it's just amazing. I remember our first Christmas. We, my family tried to make a snowman out of sand, which they were very unsuccessful at it, but there's a lot more to it than you would think. Yep. Absolutely. We got Zachary here. So watching from Seattle. What's up Seattle? I'm so excited to be moving to Brandon at the end of the year. Well, we're excited for you, my man. Yeah. Congratulations on making that move. I'm excited for you as well. It's going to be a big shift. I know in the Pacific Northwest there, you guys don't see nearly as much sun as we do. So that's going to be an adjustment for you for sure. But Hey, a beautiful area up there too. And like I said, we're excited to have you. Michael Lane says, make sure I got your name pronounced correctly. If I don't DM me on Instagram, send me a voice memo and make sure I get it right next time. Northwest Indiana. Okay, cool. We, we did have it correct. That's good. All right. Awesome. Cool. I love that. Marsha talk to me what's happening down in Bradenton, Sarasota area in your neck of the woods. Well, I went to a seminar for realtors last week, put on by Lakewood ranch, and it was awesome. They gave us updates on things that are going to be happening there. And I'll share them along the way during our weekly Tuesday nights, but they were telling us the fight. They take a lot of they make it a point to understand why people are moving to Lakewood ranch and what they want when they get there. So they cater to that. And I think it's really great that they take that into account on how they build out the community, but they were telling us the five top reasons of why people move there. And they, none of it was a surprise people retiring people buying a second home, which I'm helping a couple couples do that right now, looking for the second home down in Florida, get out of my couples are from Pennsylvania in Maryland. So helping people do that. And they love having that second place to come to and enjoy the summer or the winter, but in Florida, a couple other reasons that they're moving up. So they're moving from maybe a home that doesn't have the amenities that Lakewood ranch has, or the school system that Lakewood ranch has the fourth type of person moving in our renters. So they've been renting in that area and then finally have the opportunity to buy. And the first fifth one is job relocation. And we know someone Stephanie and Dom is a good example of that or who just moved to the area for jobs. So top, those are the top five reasons for Lakewood ranch. Usually the retiree and second homes is the top two. And that's the people probably that I helped the most. Yeah. And great community down there to y'all. Interesting thing about Lakewood ranch. It's, you know, it's off the beaten path. You know, Sarasota was the draw or, you know, that's what built the area. Right. And then, you know, it, your, your landlocked, cause you've only got three sides to sell, so to speak, or to inhabit, because you got the Gulf of Mexico on the other side. So you got to start going somewhere and they started, you know, the suburban sprawl brand Brandon Bradenton started to grow. And then they were just looking for other areas in Manatee and Sarasota counties and Lakewood ranch kind of became the, the it, you know, it's been the number one master plan community for five years running. I mean, it's incredible. It, it, it is very nice. They've done it really well. You know, it's a, if you were going to go build a new community and really think through things, they've just done a really good job. It's been under the stewardship of one family for, for quite some time. They started building it out in like the 19 mid 1990s. And it's just grown tremendously and lots of great things. There's always something to do. The thing I found interesting about those communities is how well they're tuned into their, to their residents. It's not like living in other places where it's just like, this is what we do when you come. No, they go out to the community and say, what do you want? And then they bring it to them. And that is like, if I could say anything for Lakewood ranch as a community, that is the thing that I noticed more than anything else. Yeah. That's what I noticed at the seminar too. I was surprised at how much detail they had on people moving to the area. And it kinda, when you mentioned Johns Hopkins hospital, it kinda, if you think about moving to a neighborhood and compare it to a hospital, like a general hospital versus a specialty hospital, that's kinda like the neighborhood. When you think of Lakewood ranch, they have thought everything out. What kind of neighborhoods they're going to have, who they're going to appeal to, what, what would be the perfect life for those people? They're thinking it all out ahead of time. And it's, it is a fabulous community and I'm very happy to be involved with it and sharing with people moving to the area. So one of the new communities that I went to last week, that's just getting started is Emerald landing. It is right next to Waterside, which is the newest part of Lakewood ranch on the Southern side. So it's in Sarasota County. It's right on the Lake. It's Kingfisher Lake. And Juan, I don't know if you got a chance, I sent you on the site map, but if you could just even show there where it is on Kingfisher Lake. Yeah. So I want to pull this stuff up. You got, look, look how much water is in Lakewood ranch for that. Everybody like the let me draw the red dots a little bit. Right. So coming down the highway here, this is Lakewood ranch. Hopefully y'all can see this. But look how much water. I mean, there's all kinds of water here and the Lake there is incredible. It's a great spot. You pull that up, Marsha. Okay. Waterside is their newest town center in Lakewood ranch. They have three in the community and Waterside has restaurants and shops. Everything's very new. It's kind of nautical, but urban feeling. And that's where they have their farmers markets. They have live music there on Friday and Saturday nights. It's just kind of a really cool place to hang out. And you can go to dinner and walk around that live music is free. So after dinner, you can walk, they have sofas and the fire pits and all that right there on the Lake. It's beautiful. And the new newest community that's going up is called Emerald landing. It's by David weekly. They're going to have, I think it's going to be about 200 homes and they're going to have single family and townhouses. The single family start around the high five hundreds and then the townhouses start in the high three hundreds. I thought it was cool because the townhouses, they're going to have two story and three story. So I think that in they're facing Kingfisher Lake and over on the other side is Waterside. So your view is going to be spectacular. I think it's going to be a really cool community. They're going to have a resort style pool with pergolas and cabanas. They're going to have a lawn area and pickleball courts. They're going to have a dog park and they also have a boat dock, which will lead over to Waterside. So that boat dock that you're seeing on the screen will have a taxi service that comes and brings you back and forth from Waterside. So you can drive over there. You can walk or ride your bike. There's trails and sidewalks that go over there, or you can even take the water taxi. So it's going to be pretty cool. They do have HOAs going to range from 250 to 400. And then the CDDs are from 1800 to 2500. When I went over to the model the other day, they were supposed to open it, but when they had the movers move all the furniture and they did quite a bit of damage, denting the walls and stuff. So they were picking up that and getting it cleaned up and they're going to have the single family home models open soon. And then there's also starting on those three-story townhouses. Yep. So here's a Google image for everyone watching right now of the lake here itself. So this Kingfisher Lake, here's Waterside place over here. All right. And if you've seen, we've done videos on this area here. Great spot. Good Liquid Brewing Company, Core Steakhouse, all this stuff. You got Lakehouse Cove on the other side. Boathouse at Lakehouse Cove, all of this in here. MI Homes, the whole lake is surrounded by properties, but it's not overwhelming. I think they did a really good job of not making it so dense that it just feels obnoxious. It's like the appropriate amount of homes. Like Marcia said, it's very well thought through. And different types of homes, everything from condos and condos and townhouses. They have villas, they have large homes. It's just a great selection for people. It really is. Here's a photo of the farmer's market going on down there. They've done a great job. I know I'm waxing poetically. I don't even live there and I love it. Every time I go, I'm like, this is incredible. I know why people stay here. It makes all the sense in the world to me. I'm on that team. I want to get to a couple questions because Michelan is helping. She's got some great questions and I want to make sure we get those answered. You're saying it correct. Awesome. Appreciate that. We got that. Sorry for asking all the questions here. What areas would you say are best for people who have several specialty doctors they need to see? You asked about military families, right? Yes. I want to make sure I got that right. Military families stationed at MacDell. Yes. I would say that the area overall is very, look, I'm grateful for the servicemen and women. You know you got fans here. We serve a lot of military families that relocate to the area because of MacDell Air Force Base. And for anyone watching this that wasn't aware, in South Tampa, MacDell Air Force Base, the Coast Guard is over there as well. We need them. We love them. We need them. We're grateful to have them. So defense is a part of our industry here. We've also got the harbor out there. So military families mean a lot to the community here. We've got Raytheon and a bunch of other military contract, Honeywell, military contractors in the area. So it's definitely favorable. You got two really good VA hospitals as well. The VA hospital in St. Pete. And then there's one up in Tampa near the university as well. I think that's Harvey. Haley. Haley Veterans Hospital up there. The one in St. Pete is excellent. I took my dad there when he was here last Christmas. So my dad is an Air Force vet. I'm an Air Force brat myself. So we're grateful. Thank you for your service regardless of what anybody else thinks. So we appreciate that. Cool. What else in Lakewood Ranch, Marsha? Oh, that was all that I had for tonight. And I thought the urban feel of Emerald Landing is something that makes it more different than the other homes. There's a lot of ranch style homes in our area, mainly because we have so many people that are retiring or downsizing. So ranch style is very popular, but there's a lot of two-story in those three-story and two-story townhouses. They're big townhouses. They're like over 2000 square feet. But for people that like an urban feel or are used to that, I think it's a really cool vibe there. Not only urban, but kind of nautical. So I liked it a lot. I'm going to be a video, or I hope we're going to be doing a video together, Juan, in that community. So I want to share this with the audience right now, just give perspective. First of all, you want Marsha's help down here, FYI. There's a lot to know and a lot going on all the time. I love this here, Marsha. It tells you the different villages. So in Lakewood Ranch, they call them villages, the communities, if you will. So they call them villages in Lakewood Ranch. It's not the villages. So please do not confuse the two. You think they're different. That is up near Ocala. That's a whole different ballgame. I just want to make it clear one more time. Lakewood Ranch has villages in it. It is not the villages. If you're looking for that help, we're not up there. Different lifestyle altogether. So we just want to make sure we're on the page. But I want to share this site with you because I think it's awesome. Marsha, you're talking about these different styles. I love this because it tells you the different villages and the average cost of the HOAs and the home types and amenities that are in these villages. This is a great, great resource. And to take that one step farther, one something that Lakewood Ranch does and what I do with all my clients is arrange a visit to the Welcome Center. It's like a 20 to 30 minute overview of what Lakewood Ranch has to offer. And it gives everybody like their bearings of where you're at. We don't realize when nowadays when we get in our car with clients and everything is on a GPS, they have no idea unless we sit down and show them a map of where things are and where they're at and where the stores are going to be and all that. And I feel like when you go to Lakewood Ranch, they have a huge map on the wall and they hand you a map so you can see physically where everything is and where you would want to be. So I love it. I feel really grateful that I get to help people find their homes there, but they give all kinds of tools for you to find the place that's best for you. Yep, absolutely. And y'all, I just want to make mention of this too. These two ladies every single week get together with the new construction communities in the areas that they serve. So Stacy's up in Wesley Chapel and Pasco County and Northern Hillsborough County and Marsha, the same thing. So she's down in Sarasota and Manatee. And then she's up in Southern Hillsborough County as well, the greater Tampa Bay area. And they're in touch with the new construction communities, letting us know what specials are working. Because these builders right now, they're handing out holiday deals, y'all. The last few months has been really tough because interest rates have been so high. So they're reaching out to us right now with really, really good incentives for new construction homes. So do not lose sight of that. If you do not have to live in Tampa proper, you can go out to San Antonio, Wesley Chapel, Odessa on the north side, and you can go to Parrish, Guayamama, Lakewood Ranch on the south side and really have access to some great opportunities and new construction. All right. So don't lose sight of that. Reach out to the ladies directly. Both of their Instagram handles are right below their names. So if you want to contact them directly, that way you can reach out to us at the team. All of our contact information is listed down below, y'all. So you have access to that too. Okay. So just want to share that with you. You're looking to make that move, relocate, do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to help you. Okay. So I wanted to do that. What do we got here? You are welcome, by the way. We love this. In case you had noticed, we love serving the community here. So that's good. Roman says, do you cover Plant City, Lakeland? Yes, we absolutely do. We've helped clients move to Plant City and what's the aisles? I'm trying to remember the community up there that we put them in. Northport Isle, great community up there. And then Stacey's got a house she's selling in Lakeland. She helped the client move in and she's helping them move out. We absolutely serve that, Roman. Reach out to us if you need it. We got your back, brother. No problem. So thanks for watching and thanks for contributing, most importantly. So I got a couple things I want to share with y'all, too, since we're talking about the holidays. I know it's a bit early, but it's good to know about the things that matter or that you can plug into for the holidays. So this is Armature Works, where Stacey was talking about that water taxi. That water taxi literally is just to the south of this property. It's in its backyard. When you walk out and you see this tree, you're actually looking at the Tampa River. So when you walk out of this building, you're looking at the tree in the Tampa River, and that's where that water taxi sit is. It sits right there. It loads up, docks, everything comes from right there. But they do a free holiday tree lighting down there. We, of course, get our cheesy photo in front of this every single year. We love Armature Works. Full of restaurants, and they've got a cocktail lounge right in the middle of it. They do weddings there as well. Beautiful venue. This used to be the old Tampa street car warehouse. So all the street cars would come back. They would be serviced overnight, taken care of, and they'd go back out. This is such a cool historic venue, and it is a great location. It's got an incredible steakhouse called Steel Bok. Yes, I can tell you all about the steaks there too, if you want to know. Kate and I love to go here for date night. I've taken the girls down there on daddy-daughter date night. They do all kinds of events, movie on the lawn. We've got Rudy coming up here. They usually do Elf every year. We're definitely going on Elf night because you can't go wrong. And they do yoga during the day. They've got live bands on the weekend. They do car shows, as you can see here as well. Always something going on. The Heights Market at night. It's a cool venue. It's something worth checking out. So that's one thing I would do. Secondly, we've got the Holiday Harbor Tree Lighting. This is a whole event, and it takes place at Curtis Hickson Park. So you can go down. There's actually a Christmas parade in Tampa. It starts near the University of Tampa and goes along Howard Franklin over the bridge, and the tree lighting ceremony takes place. And I heard, Stacy, that Santa's Helper is showing up in that event too. So yeah, definitely something to come check out there. Beautiful area. We did family photos down at Curtis Hickson Park. It's an experience. The University of Tampa is your backdrop, and you can see the beautiful minarets down there. It's just gorgeous. Your son just did photos down there, correct me if I'm wrong. Yes. Yep. And my daughter got engaged down there too. At Curtis Hickson? Yeah. Yeah. That's very cool. That's very cool. And for those of you who don't know, downtown Tampa is not huge. It's a big little city is what I tell everybody. That's the best way I can explain it. We've got beautiful high-rise buildings, but we're not New York, right? That's not what we do down here. But we've got gorgeous architecture down there, and then you can go down to Sparkman's Wharf, hang out for the evening. Curtis Hickson Park, you can go up to Armature Works. You can go to Water Street and do all the bars and restaurants down there. Tampa is happening, y'all. It's happening. We didn't even get over to the beach. We're going to do more of that in the next couple of weeks because you know we have the holiday boat parade, right? So the boats all get lit up. I know Marcia's and her family are boaters as well. They do the whole boat parade thing, and I think I've seen photos of Stephen. Was he dressed up as Santa? Am I making that up? Did I see that before? No, he drove the boat, but we had Santa on our boat for the boat parade in our community. And we won, by the way, as the best decorated boat. I had nothing to do with it, which is shocking. Stephen did an awesome job. Even better, right? That you didn't have to do the work. I love it. Yeah, I loved it. That's the way to go. Well, talking about just briefly, y'all, we're going to just chime into real estate really quickly, just in general, and we'll wrap up for the evening here. But just talking about what's been happening, interest rates were 8% for almost two months straight. They really took a dip over the last week, which is nice. We're still holding firm and steady in terms of pricing. Things have slowed down just in terms of sales. That's happened across the United States. But here in Tampa, we had been bucking that trend for almost a year. And I just want to make this point quickly, because I'm going to call this out, and I'm going to do a whole show on this. But for the last two years, people have been screaming from the mountain how real estate was going to crash. And if you followed me at all, you know I've been on here saying the fundamentals behind that just don't work. It's not about being right. It's just about looking at the information and saying, that doesn't make sense. Well, we're about to come into the close of 2023 here. And the people who've been telling you not to do something have missed out on another 6% or 7% of real estate growth in a very tough economy, in a very tough housing market. And Tampa has still grown. Are we seeing our challenges? For sure. Are things slowing down? Are you going to see more price reductions? Yep. If you go back and look at every single year in real estate, from September through January, you will see price reductions start to increase because less people move during that time, all over the country. Here in Tampa, we were up 6.5% last month. I'll pull the charts and we'll do a Tampa market update here. I just wanted to generally talk about this. But why I'm bringing this to the table is because there is opportunity right now. There are properties that have been sitting on the market for way longer than they've experienced in the last four years. It's making sellers take reductions. Anybody who hasn't invested into their property, those are the people that are going to have to take less money in this market. Great properties that have been renovated, rehabbed, and in good areas, they sell in any market. Even back in 08, 09, when things weren't selling, those houses still were. So just keep that in perspective. But if you are looking for opportunity, less competition, there is that as long as you're looking at properties that may not be perfect. If you want the 10, you got to pay 10 prices. If you want the eight, you might be able to get them for sevens. That's what we're seeing in this market. I guess that's a better way to articulate it. If you want a six, you might be able to get that for a five or a four price right now. But, oh, wait, this is not. Please don't call us with, I want to write $100,000 offer less than anything because that's not reality. And still a great opportunity here. Inventories are still way lower than they should be on average. And that's what's really putting pressure on the market in general. So people just don't want to sell when they have 2.5% interest rates. And can you blame them? I know I can't. I know I can't. So it's something to keep in mind when we talk about that. I can pull up the average mortgage prices through the roof. That's the biggest thing that's holding people back. Affordability has become a challenge, but cash purchases are starting to go up again when they were going down. And for us here in the greater Tampa Bay area, if you're watching somewhere else, here's what I want you to know. Our season is about to occur. And for those of you who don't understand what that means, season is when our part-time residents finally make it back to Florida. And the vacationers come. And that typically happens, it starts to happen around this time for Thanksgiving. We're already starting to see more in New York and Pennsylvania and Indiana and Chicago. Those license plates are starting to come in. But that influx really begins after the new year. Because people finish the holidays with their family and then they make the jump down here. And usually the second week of January, our real estate starts to crank up. And I remember when we were back home in Detroit, we didn't start selling houses again until the thaw, which was usually around April. But our thaw occurs around January 10th when all the snowbirds come back. All right. So I just want to give you guys some perspective. Now is a great time to negotiate some good deals. Like I said, both on new construction and on resale that's been sitting. Okay. So if you're considering it, reach out to the team. We got your back. All of our contact information is listed down below. We love doing this. I'm going to do a full real estate breakdown at the last Tuesday of every month moving forward. Okay. And the reason we're doing that is because our data comes to us the last week of the month because they have to let everything settle and close and get recorded at the county before they give us all the information. We still have access to partials. We're pretty close. At the beginning of the month, we'll be pretty close, but we get dialed in at the end. And during that live too, we'll talk about some of these deals. Okay. So Stacy and Marsha are working with these new construction. We'll talk about some of those deals specifically in those communities that we think are the best opportunities for people to buy in right now. And if you're local and you're considering selling, reach out to the team as well. We got your back there too. Anything you need real estate related, we got you. In the state of Florida, we don't sell everywhere, but we can connect you to great agents. And we've got a great referral network everywhere in the country. Okay. So we're very spoiled in that respect. You, because you're a great audience and because you have trusted us over the last two years. I was looking at our Zoom calls ladies today. We've had over 250 Zoom calls with people just like you who are considering relocating the area in the last two years. That's insane. That's awesome. That doesn't even include the phone calls. All right. That's the Zoom calls So if you're looking to schedule one with us, that is in the description and the YouTube channel, don't hesitate to reach out there. I had a great evening. Ladies, thank you for bringing everything to the table. Any final words here? Stacy, what's the game plan for this coming week? What are you excited to be digging into? Well, I have some people coming in town, so I'm excited to show them around Tampa and Wesley Chapel. That's right. Stacy is going to be on the beach this week. I know she's excited for that. She's a beach lover. Well, I am going a wedding dress shopping in Tampa this weekend, so wish me luck there. We will. We will pray for you. We will pray for you. That is awesome. Marcia, what about you? What are you getting into this week? What kind of trouble are you stirring up? I have clients in town that purchased or put an offer and it got accepted, so the wife has seen it. Yay. The wife had seen it and the husband had not, so they flew down today and he's checking out the golf course tomorrow to make sure that's acceptable to him. If so, we have an inspection on Thursday. I'm taking on another gentleman tomorrow looking for hopefully going to make an offer on a villa tomorrow. He's down to two choices, so I got that going on. Then Thursday, I have a closing, so I got lots going on this week. Then my family and I are packing up the vehicle on Saturday to head up to Atlanta for Thanksgiving to spend time with our family there, so I got lots to look forward to. That's awesome. We will not have you for next Tuesday is what you're telling me. Oh, I can probably do it from Atlanta. You do not have to do that. When we know why everybody's not here next week, Stacey, we have a very clean picture. We're understanding where the audience went. That's great. Well, that's fantastic, guys. My son started flag football, which is a whole nother experience to be out in Florida in the middle of the night doing flag football and having no snow there. I'm very grateful. I was in the marching band all through high school. I hated freezing. I couldn't wait for the season to end. It's fun to be out there doing that for sure. Then we do have Thanksgiving coming up next week, which is awesome. The Lions are actually ... Listen, I have suffered through that for ... This will be my 46th anniversary of suffering through the Lions. They're terrible getting it done, but they're winning right now, so shout out to the Lions. We'll be eating lots of turkey, of course, and just really enjoying ... Oh, one last thing before we wrap up, y'all. I do want to share one event that I think you guys will want to know about. Let me dig this up. I almost forgot. There is a special event coming up. I'm excited for this. Sharing it now. Don't go anywhere. You want to know. Trust me. You want to know about this. I almost forgot. I want to give these guys a shout out. They're the man. This is where we'll be. You want to know what we're doing this week? You can come see me here with my kids and my family. This coming Saturday, the 18th, there is a barbecue festival going on. It's called Barbecue Love. Doing a giveaway, all kinds of stuff. Check it out. If you've watched the channel, you know that we love the brisket shop over in West Tampa there. Danny Hernandez, who you can see on the screen here, just one of the most humble, gracious ... This thing's not going to come up now, is it? Humble, gracious, just wonderful human beings, and his brisket ... I'm telling you right now, it stacks up with anywhere in the country. It is so good and make you want to slap your mama, but they're doing a whole event here in Tampa. Lots of barbecue, master barbecue guys from all over the country. It's going to be food. It's going to be brews. It's going to be love. It's going to be Tampa. What better thing to do on a Saturday than to go eat and have a merry time? Oh, I hate we're going to miss it. What's that? I hate we're going to miss it. Can you tell us the name of the restaurant and the address, because it's so little, it's hard to see it. Well, yes, I will. I was going to read that right now. It's not happening at ... The brisket shop is the name of the restaurant, y'all. There's only one in Tampa, so you can look that up, but that's not where it's taking place. It's taking place at Perry Harvey Senior Park. That's where it's happening. Tickets are $65 to $129. That's what it says here. They've got everything, ribs, brisket, all the things. I've talked to you before, they've got the brisket croquettes. Oh my goodness. Oh, they're so good. This brisket is just unbelievable. His smoked turkey, I'm telling you right now, we asked him to smoke us a turkey for Thanksgiving because it's so good. Danny's the man. Go check this event out. I will put this in there just so you guys have all of the information you need, but check it out. It's called Barbecue Love Fest. If you need to just Google it because you don't want to wait for me to put the links up, Barbecue Love Fest in Tampa from 11 to 6 on November 18th. Go check out Danny. It's going to be amazing. You want to check this out, you will not be disappointed. I will be there gaining weight. If you need to find me, I'm the guy that's getting rounder by the minute. Okay. That's where we'll be. We'll do a check-in from there for sure just to share with the community. This is a go. Regardless of whether you go to Love Fest or not, go to the brisket shop. It is unbelievable. Great experience. The hospitality is literally an 11. You will not be disappointed. With that, we appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for supporting this channel. Thank you for being part of our lives. Marsha and Stacey and myself, we have made relationships, made friends, and have been blessed through your trust, through just serving families and helping them relocate to the area or selling the area here has brought us so much just love and joy. We're grateful for it coming into this season here. We just want to say God bless. You guys have a great evening. Take care. We'll see you on the flip side, y'all. Good night. Good night.