Southwest Florida Waterfront Neighborhoods: Gulf Harbour, McGregor Isles, Cape Harbour & More

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:13

Not at all.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:33

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:36

little guy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:45

Oh my gosh. I was probably six years old on my first boat as a rowboat. Yeah. Yeah. Dad's like, you know, we're in the Florida Keys and he goes, You go between this boundary that boundary and I'll go past the intercoastal waterway. And I had to go after school every day and row my boat to build my muscles to pull start my nine horsepower Evinrude.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01

That was a big deal back then. So uh I think about a year every day after school, man, I'd row and I'd row on the weekends trying to build my muscles and build my muscles and eat lots of food so I can get strong to pull start that. Evinrude boat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12

So uh finally got one day, got strong enough, pulled that in that nine horsepower, Evinrude boat, nine point nine Evinrude horsepower, probably nineteen seventy something. And uh had a little glass bottom boat, and uh dad would say, you know Again, your boundaries are intercoastal waterway to that dock to that dock. Well, of course, me and Scotty and Ricky, like, let's go a little bit further. Yeah, yeah, we'll go further. Yeah, yeah, we'll go further. And of course, people would be out in their boats and say, hey Bill, Bammy, we saw Shane out in the boat today. He did. Where was he? He was between such and such. No, no, he's way down by Bigeon Key Yeah, I'd get home. My dad's like Shane, where'd you go today? Oh dad, I stayed my boundaries. He goes, You did? I could tell he knew I was lying. He would whoop my butt. I'm like, no sir, I went to Pigeon Key or I went past the intercoastal or whatever it was. He's like Shane There's a reason we have rules. You break down, you're stuck. I go, no dad, I have my rows. I can row back to shore. He's like, Shane, just be quiet.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:08

Always, man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:26

You gotta push it. It wasn't even

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:37

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:43

That's correct.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 04:15

Absolutely.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 04:23

Yeah, I mean being raised on the water in the Keys as a kid, it's just a waterfront lifestyle. I love being on the water. I love having my boat in the backyard. I love fishing, snorkeling, diving Voting, exploring, going to the beaches. I like taking people on the boat. When we were little, I'd my little whaler. I'd take all my friends out on the boat. Like it was like the coolest thing In the keys, we take the boat out and go lobster and come back and sell the lobster to my parents and all my parents' friends and make money to buy our gas for the boat, to buy our Coca-Cola and our Reese 's peanut butter cups at Tavernier Creek Marina. I mean this is forty-five Oh my god, four almost fifty years ago. That's crazy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 04:57

And then Southwest Florida came here uh after graduated high school, went to um community college here and Got my real estate license and said that's what I want to do. My mom's a realtor, my dad's a realtor, grandma grandpa realtor developers, uncle's a realtor and it's just in my blood. Then I remember grandpa taught me something when I was little. He goes, you know, whatever you choose to do, Shane, do something you love.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 05:18

You'll never work a day in your life. I'm like, well, what does that mean? He goes, you'll see. Well, I love real estate. I love helping people. I love boating, fishing, diving, exploring in the boat. Um It all comes together and then I awoke up years ago. This is gosh 30 years ago over 30 years ago Shane Waterfront Wilson thinking well that's kinda dorky. I'm like so I asked a couple friends like no it's not dude that's badass. You are waterfront Everywhere I go in the keys, yeah, in here, everybody's not hi Shane, it's hey waterfront, what's up? Hey Waterfront. Yeah. We pull up in the boat. The contenders right behind us has a big W down the side. I'll pull up to restaurants Hey, waterfront. Hey, you're that waterfront guy. Or I'll be in the bay boat. We're fishing in uh Shell Creek and I pull up in my boat says Shane Waterfront Wilson on the side and he goes Hey Shane, how you doing? Oh, I'm doing great. How you doing, man? Great. My wife's like, who is that? I don't know. She goes, Hey man, I got extra greenies. Greenies, like little baits, greenbacks, white baits. He goes, You want my extra? I'm like, Yeah. We were going up to the fish in Little Shell Creek and uh He gave me his big up, dude man, you're awesome. I'm like, thank you. So he pulled away. I'm always like, who was I? I go, I don't know. I I mean I don't know. But I think it goes back to taking care of people. Yep Always putting people first. People talk. You go to a restaurant and have a bad meal, they'll tell a hundred people. If you go to a restaurant and have a great meal, they might tell ten people. He took really good care of my grandma and grandpa or he took good care of mom and dad or my kids. Something interesting too that has evolved being in real estate so long. I'm helping my kids' friends buy properties. My kids' friends are in their 20s. One grew up and I can say their names.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:59

They just bought their first commercial building. I have another kid who just bought his first residential house. He's living in his house. I just sold another house to another kid. I call them kids. They're in their twenties, but they're successful. And it's just cool to be in my profession to be able to help the Grandma, grandpa's, the moms, dads, and helping these kids. They still call me Mr. Shane. I'm like, don't call me Mr. Shane. I'm Shane. You have your own home now. You own your own business. You don't need to Okay, Mr. Shane. I'm like, no You're killing me.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:25

You've graduated. So the cool thing is doing it for so long, we're helping the third generation of people obtain the dream.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:34

That's so much fun, man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:52

Hundred percent. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:27

No

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:41

It's what the buyer's application is. Are they coming down here? And it also depends on the means. Do they have the money to buy Gulf Front? Do they have money to buy maybe a bay front which's protected? Or maybe they have the means to buy a canal front home. So many times I'll have people say, hey, we're coming down to buy a place. We looked in Cape Coral, you know, online. But the homes you're sending us are like these smaller front elevations. They're the same price for these other homes they're seeing that are beautiful, these big high front elevations, gorgeous, you know, new homes. I'm like, yeah, I go How far away from the river do you want to be? They go, what do you mean? I go, well the nice, super nice homes, the beautiful front elevations that are a year, two years old are an hour ride, hour and twenty-minute ride in a canal. that leads the saltwater to the river, or do you want to be a five minute boat ride? The houses are gonna be not as magnificent as say the homes that are the hour boat ride. Reason being is the dirt. The closer you are to the river which leads to the Gulf It's way more money. If you buy a lot that's maybe an hour away, the dirt is a lot less, but you can build a magnificent home. So they're seeing this. So I had good friends of mine, Jim and Michelle. I know you're gonna see this and yes, I'm gonna say this Jim called one day and I'm sending him properties and Michelle's like Jimmy I don't like the home Shane's sending us. I want the big pretty front elevation, the high, beautiful homes. I go, Jim, look, man, here's the deal How many beers do you want to drink before you get to the river? He goes, what? I go, how many beers you want to drink? You'll vouch for me, won't you? How many beers do you want to drink before you get to the river? He goes, I don't know, one or two. I go, good. The homes Michelle's pulling up are an hour up the canal system.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:14

Andy have bridges. He goes, What do you mean bridges? I go, you have bridges that are eight and a half foot clearance mean low tide. He goes, What does that mean? I go, well, not low tide, not high tide, it's a mean tide. Yeah The boat you're talking about getting won't fit under the bridges. I never thought about that. Long story short, they came down, met him. We're best of friends today. They do all kinds of fun stuff with us. He bought a house on a basin, literally two minutes out to the river He thanks me to this day and he tells the story to this day about this realtory call and he's like, how many beers you want to drink before you get to the river He tells I mean I met so many people say, oh, you know Jimmy Michelle. I'm like, yeah. Because he told the story about the beers. I'm like, oh Jeff, come on, man. Fast forward, they sold the home about three and a half, four years later. He remodeled the whole thing He sold the home for almost twice what he paid for it. So they're super ecstatic because we got him a great value when they bought it. They sold it. Then they bought another home. Same thing. He's maybe three minutes out to the river. So There's so many variables if you're buying in Cape, buying in Fort Myers. What size boat do you want to get?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:11

Do you want to get a fifty-footer, a sportfish, a cabin cruiser? You're not coming into my neighborhood. You can't get in here. It's too shallow. You'd want to go to town on the river or palmetto point. Are you a back bay fisherman? Do you have a bay boat? I can name fifteen different neighborhoods that you can get your boat into where the bigger boats won't go. Or you could be somebody like me, which people don't understand. I have two boats. I have the big boat for offshore and taking family out large groups of people Or the small boat where I can run skinny. Skinny means super shallow water to go snook fishing, trout fishing, redfish. Or if I w want to run offshore, you gotta take The big boat that's sitting right there. Yep. So those people need more water frontage. They'll see a beautiful home, they say, oh my gosh, it's in a price point. Yeah, but you have forty foot of frontage and you want two boats, it's not gonna work. They don't th Think about that. Yeah. I need to know what is your application. Are you hardcore fishermen? You can be offshore fishermen. Do you like to run to the keys a lot in your boat? I need to know the information. So I can give them a an accurate solution.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 12:13

So there's so many variables there. Um it

Shane Waterfront Wilson 12:19

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 12:59

They don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:48

That's really important. So the old corrugated seawalls, you may have seen 'em where you have the seawall cap. They're corrugated. They kinda go like this, those are the old asbestos seawalls. They're they're failing. They have failed. If you have that, no you're gonna have to replace that seawall. It's not, you know, if I gotta replace it, it's when That's a big deal. Or the old panels. The panels now are thirty-five, forty years old, like in Town and River, McGregor Isles, Palmer Point. If you go to the property, you see the seawall leaning out There's a problem. Static pressure behind it. If you see the seawall cap cracking, yeah, that's a problem. If you see the rebar busting through the concrete, that's called spalling. When the the rebar rusts, it expands, it pops the concrete. That's a problem. Always have a seawall inspection done. Yeah. Because it could be I think the price can now seven hundred bucks a linear foot to like eleven hundred a linear foot.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:38

Like for one foot. If you have eighty feet, do the math. Yeah. Um now since the demand isn't here, back when we had the hurricane several years ago, I think there was oh my gosh Several thousand seawalls have failed. We had all that rain, so all that static pressure, the hydro pressure, I guess you call it, pushing on it, then the hurricane came, the water went out, the seawalls fell in. Yeah. That was horrible. I mean it damaged thousands of homes throughout Lee County. Um that's a big deal too. And then also your depth. How deep is it at your seawall? Is it super shallow? So if you want to put a boat lift in And the cradle goes and hits the bottom and your boat's still a foot out of the water, that's not gonna work. Yeah, they make special cradles that are angled to 45, which you can put in. There 's just so many variables. I need to know what kind of boating you want to do.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 15:22

And if it's skinny one day and you want to go out in your little boat, not a problem. There are days with my boat, the tide gets so low, I have to take my boat off the lift, park it on the other side of my dock Knowing that on the super low tides, it's gonna hit bottom. My boat's still out of the water. Yeah. You're not going anywhere.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 15:37

So that's important.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 15:54

Ask me. Yeah. Tell me tell me what you want. What do you want to do? If you want to go offshore, you're getting a bigger boat with twins, triples, quads, quints, you know What is your application? Yeah. Most of our people who buy in the water have two boats. They have a big one for offshore and family or a smaller bay boat. I need to know what your application is. I need to know If you're going into Whiskey Creek, you're not gonna get a big boat in there. Number one, you have a bridge. Number two, it gets kind of shallow, even though they're dredging it right now. The average mean depth of five foot, I think it is.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:47

No.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:52

That's correct.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:58

So as long as I've been here and my father in law was born and raised here. He's been here seventy-eight years, seventy-nine years. We've never seen a flood like Ian. That was like a freak storm. It was a massive storm. It positioned itself here where it's pushing all that water up the river. It just sat on us and sat on us and sat on us. The water had nowhere to go but up. So we had lots of flooding during Ian. Um Helene wasn't as bad. Milton wasn't as bad. Hurricane Charlie, they were predicting an 18-foot tidal surge back in 2004.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:31

We never forgot it. The water came up to our seawall, just to the cab. Yeah. And went right back down.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:37

small storm.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:41

My opinion, this is my opinion, I don't think we're gonna get hit with a storm like that again. I we've paid our dues. We've been really lucky this year. I know a lot of people coming down now are saying any home that flooded, we don't want to see it. I think that's a big mistake. You have a thing called flood insurance.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:56

You're ruling out a lot of really good homes that haven't flooded since they were built forty, fifty, sixty years ago. Yeah. Our quadplex we own near the beach. It hasn't flooded in sixty-one years. It flooded during Ian. Mm-hmm. Am I gonna sell it? No. I mean, when Ian came through here, we're about a half inch, maybe an inch of water from coming into my home. Does that mean I'm gonna sell? No. I love this lifestyle.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 18:17

So It's hard to say. If somebody sees a home they really, really love, knowing it's flooded once, I would still buy it. Yeah, flood insurance. Yeah. Could we get another storm? Yeah. Are we gonna get storms like everybody predicts? I don't see it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 18:30

And I'm no I'm gonna upset a lot of people when I say this. There's so many people out there think the sea levels are rising. That's a bunch of baloney. Okay, I've been in my house for twenty-three years. That water gets no higher than it did twenty-three years ago and no lower. My house and the keys. That water gets no higher and no lower than it has since I was raised in the Keys fifty-seven years ago. It doesn't. So all this baloney about the sea levels are rising, oh well Miami's flooding, that's because they built in every square inch of Miami. The water has nowhere to go when it rains. So it looks like it's flooding.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:13

It's not. So I know a lot of people are gonna argue this factor you're crazy. We know what I've been here twenty-three years, I've been in the keys fifty-seven years. The water gets no higher than it always has. We just had a king tide. It was super high. It's been like that since I was a little boy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:30

It just has. So I guess getting back to your original question, um It's all about your application. You know, maybe you're not comfortable knowing it may flood one time. Well you know what, we need to sell you a higher home, higher elevation, maybe in Palmetto Point, Town and River where the base elevation's higher and then the houses are built another Three or four feet. So you're nine feet above sea level.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:53

construction, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:07

Yeah, so here's part of the problem. Insurance has gotten pretty high. Wind insurance, hazard insurance, and flood insurance is still.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:16

You've got to have them if you're getting a mortgage. So what we need to do is make sure that when you're buying a home, yeah, you can afford that five hundred thousand million dollar, two million dollar home. That's fine and dandy. You can make the payment. But when you throw in wind insurance hazard insurance and flood insurance, it just threw your debt ratio off. So maybe you could afford a million dollar house or eight hundred thousand or a five million dollar house. Yeah. But you throw in all the insurances, it throws the debt ratio off A lot of people with a higher end clients we deal with, when they buy a home, they opt out of the flood. They don't have flood insurance. They don't have land. They're willing to take the risk. Instead of paying $25,000 or $20,000 a year, $30,000 a year They'll mitigate themselves. In ten years they would have spent what would that be uh two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You can do a lot with two hundred and fifty grand, you know, as far as flooding goes. So Insurance is a problem. We're still working on it. Um rates have come down some, flood insurance has come down some, but they still need to work on it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:23

You want to have hazard in case it catches fire and liability. In case somebody falls and hurts and breaks their neck or breaks a leg, they don't see you. So hazard and liability are the key ones that my high-end people, they self it's called self-insuring

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:34

In the keys, majority of my high end peop high end people who pay cash self-insure. And that's fine. They're saving twenty, thirty grand a year, forty grand a year.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:42

Ten years that's almost half a million bucks.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:45

It's a lot of money.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:55

So homestead exemption is very important. When you Live in your home as your primary residence. That's where you live. I think it's six months in a day, something like that. Yep. You won't apply

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:05

Correct, in a given year. It has to be your primary residence, you can apply for homestead exemption. It gives you a fifty thousand dollar uh um discount off the assessed value of the home Number two, it fixes your property taxes. They can only go up three percent per year as long as you have that as your primary residence. So if you buy a house, a lot of these folks who bought their homes twenty-five, thirty years ago, their taxes are maybe 3,000 a year when that home sells, that 3,000 years going to go up to like 12,000 a year. Um example, and I'll give my personal information. I don't mind. My property taxes here are like $4,300 a year. Yeah. But I've had homestead on it for $23,000, going on 24 years. If somebody, if I sold it, somebody bought it, I think your taxes would be about $12,000, $13,000 a year. It just is.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:05

hands.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:17

Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:19

Yeah. That's That's crazy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:26

They assessed it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:53

Yeah, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:10

we talked about.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:20

Summertime when it's hot. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:41

share? You know it's interesting because you have to know your market. You have to know the waterfront. Um we just sold a house in Cape Coral, closed on it last week He's never seen the house. Everything's been done by video. Everything was video. Pictures. Did the home inspection sent him videos of the issues we had got them all fixed He just shipped down a boat. I just delivered it for him yesterday. And no, I don't do this normally. I did it for this guy 'cause he's in Canada and he wasn't gonna be here. So he had it shipped from, I think, Canada. I just did it yesterday actually. Um to um Marine Max over here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 25:14

Yeah, Deep Lagoon. Yeah. So I went over there, hopped on the boat, and of course, as soon as I turned the battery switches on, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. I'm like, hmm. So my buddies with me slayed, I guess slayed. Something's wrong, I guess I know. Sounds like a high water alarm. So it's a cat hull. We open up the port hatch and it's got like thirteen inches of water in it. It's floating in the water, sitting in the water. I'm like, yeah, that's a problem. So I go up and I hit the build switch, bilge pump switch, kicks on, pumps the water out. The float switch in there wasn't working. So every time it rained it'd fill with water. So it could have been a problem Yeah. Had they left the battery switches on, the dock hands walking in the docks would have heard the beeping, but they shut the battery switches off, which bad choice. And it's plugged in full time. Long story short Brought the boat to his house yesterday. I told him it'd take about thirty minutes from the mouth of the canal to your house and he's okay with that. He's not an avid boater. He's gonna a moderate boater.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:01

From the time I got to the headpin, got to a south, it was twenty-eight minutes. Wow. Yeah, so the point is I'm telling the truth. Some people don't want to travel 28 minutes Now this boat has a big hard top. It's thirty two feet long. It's got twin three hundreds on it. I mean it's it's plush. I mean the boat's pretty badass. It's really badass. Yeah, like I was jumping out

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:21

This is my job.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:33

No ra raving fan. But the boat had to be brought there yesterday because right now as we speak, they probably went there. They're putting the new bunks on the boat. Oh the boat had to be there. He's in Canada. He couldn't be here to do it. Yeah. I said I'll bring it for you, no big deal. Which I don't mind doing that. So my wife took me to the marina, hopped on the boat, and then she picked me up at the house. But I guess the point is you need to know and I see this all the time when people buy homes and I'll hear after the fact, you know it took an hour and fifteen minutes to get out, or it took an hour to get out Our realtor never told us that. I don't think the realtor is being malicious. I don't think the realtor knew.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:09

They're not boaters, and that's fine, but

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:14

You gotta map it or you have to actually travel in your boat. About five years ago I sold a house It's about an hour and five minutes up the canal to their home. And I'm not gonna say names, you know who you are. And she goes, I love this house, the front elevation, the vaulted ceilings, it's a newer home. It's like five years old. I said, All right, well you know it's about an hour out to the river. But it doesn't matter. I said, Yeah, but It's gonna matter. Doesn't matter, Shane. I go But it's gonna matter. I said, tell you what, let's hop in my boat. I'll take the time. Her husband, her and her son got in the boat, actually their daughter. We went from the headpen going in the canal, up and around, went under one bridge. It took an hour and five minutes to get to their house. Got to the house. Of course she's just in La Land. I know you know who you are. She's looking at the house. Oh my, I love this house. And her husband looks at me and goes, dude, that's on a boat ride. I said yeah When you've been out in the sun all day, you're sweating your booty off, and now you get to ride an hour and five minutes in a boat. Yeah. It's not going to be fun and you're sunburnt. And the boat you have now doesn't have a hard top. You're exposed to the weather. Dude But to make his wife happy, got the house. Eighteen months later she calls, Hey Shane, you're right. I go, What w about what? That boat ride She goes, it sucks. She goes an hour and five minutes. Every time you want to go out, come back. That's two hours and ten minutes out of your day when you have an eight hour day to go in the boat or ten hours or six hours. She goes we're thinking about selling but buying closer to the water. Fast forward five years now. She still loves the house more than she loves the boat ride. They're not boating as much as they would have if they were closer.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 28:41

That's doesn't make him happy the husband.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 28:44

The wife's happy she loves the house. So they've had to compromise, which is totally fine. I'm not saying I told you so at all, but we took the time because I care. We went in by boat And went up there to show them how long it took. Not just me saying, hey, it's an hour up there, it'll be fine. No, it's not.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:03

Hundred percent.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:07

To back up.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:49

So Deep Lagoon Marina, Punta Rassa, you can keep your boat in a dry storage in a big boat barn. Um Marine Max they don't have the enclosed storage. It's still good though, but they would rather pick up the phone call, gas up my boat, throw some sandwiches on it, ice up the cooler, put some waters in there. They'll do it for you. Um, they like that. When they get back, they pull up to the dock, thank you so much to get in the car drive away. The guys at the marina will pull the boat out, flush the motor, wash the boat. you know, empty the cooler out, clean everything up. There's a fee of course. Yep. And put the boat away. They don't want to deal with it. And that's okay. And that's fine. Yep. That's one type of boating. So people think that Shane you just sell waterfront homes. No, we sell homes all over Lee County, Collier County, Naples. You don't have to live on the water, but you can keep your boat at a marina.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:39

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:52

That's a big deal back then.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:24

So in Cape Coral there's a lot of condos there where you can buy the condo, you have a deeded slip Maybe the max length boat is 25 foot or 30 foot. My other buddy, the guy from Chicago, we sold him a condo where he had a deeded slip he put in a lift. So when he'd come down, the boat is on the lift in his backyard. He goes, you know what we're gonna make the full time move here. So he talked to his wife and I sold him a lot. They built a house over in Cape. 300 foot wide canal. It's beautiful.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:48

But his boat is behind the house. But there are condos that have uh like Tarpon Point Marina

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:53

Beautiful upscale, gorgeous there like you feel like a millionaire when you're there. They have slips that you can lease, you can put a boat lift in, but when you leave the boat slip has or the boat lift has to stay With the right. Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:06

But you can do that. I mean, uh they've got uh Cape Harbour, they've got uh they just took the locks out over at um Rum Runners. The locks are gone. Okay. They talked about it for fifty years, they finally did it. They finally did it They're gone. Like they're out. So all those people who live here who used to have to go through the lock on weekends, their property values just went way high. That's a big deal. Um there's other options like McGregor Isles. I'm literally when I get in my boat, I'm literally three minutes I'm in the river. Yeah. Town and River is another neighborhood, deed restricted.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:34

It could be thirty seconds after the river or max maybe five minutes. Yeah. Drive fifteen, thirty minutes, forty-five minutes an hour. It's a lot closer. And again, to be on the Fort Myers side probably command a little higher price than say Cape Coral side. Um it's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:00

Georgetown.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:02

Before

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:11

Yeah, yeah, Georgetown.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:14

Georgetown has Again, if you want to buy a house off the water, you buy it off the water, but you can keep your boat on the trailer. They have their own boat ramp in the neighborhood.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:25

It is a big deal. And then they have seven slips, which are never full. They're by Lawless Reed, I think 48 hours you can keep your boat there. I've seen boats there for months at a time because they don't it's not full.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:36

So they can go out in the river, have fun, go out in the golf, come back, tie up in the dock. And then their house is right there. They can take their golf cart or their car or walk to it. That's a big deal. Some of the other neighborhoods, um just down over here, they also have the canals that come right up to McGregor. Like their house may be here, they're one house off So that's a good thing. But they don't have like a boat ramp or a marina. Right. They would have the boat back there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:21

We've traveled that a million times. Calusahatchie River's here. You take it up across the state. You got Lake Okeechobee. You got Roland Martins. We stopped there for lunch, get a couple beers. Go in the St. Lucie River To the other side, St. Lucie Inlet. We'll stay there at like Pirates Cove Marina. It's a really cool marina hotel. Oh that's cool. Across to the Bahamas. So the one day you go through about seven locks, eight locks, seven or eight locks to get across.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:42

It is a fun, fun trip.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:47

Before five o'clock, they will not stay a minute later, guys. If you're not too late, they're like, nope. No, you're stuck in. So then you have a problem So you gotta get there before five o'clock, not five oh one.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:59

You have to have a plan.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:01

And plan the plan and be on schedule.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:09

Yeah, Roll and Martin. They've got a marina there, they've got a little hotel there. Yeah. It's cool, very nostalgic, very rustic, but it's cool. Yeah. It's fun.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:30

Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Larry.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:55

Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 36:20

I just bought the Starlink. How's that working out? Oh my gosh. Okay, you gotta get a Starlink mini I have a mount on this boat, I have a mount on the other boat, I have a mount on my friend's boat. It's either magnetic or you can screw it in with these suction cups. You pump little things. We left here, went to dry Tortugas, 136 miles that way. Dry Tortugas, Fort Jefferson

Shane Waterfront Wilson 36:44

No. The phone. Like I'm talking on the phone on my cell phone. And I had Anne, Lewis, and Christy. We're all doing business on our phones and talking on our phones like it was nothing 60 miles out. Got to the fort. Kinda sucked a little bit because we're still working, but At least we're there, I'm not sitting here, which this isn't so bad. I mean it's not.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:03

Oh yeah. And then from there we're going from George Portuguese, went to Key West for a couple days. Same thing. I mean you have a big dead spot. It's 67 miles. We're texting, calling, talking, and then about maybe a month before that I went with some friends in their boat here. They've got a Nortec with quads. You probably saw the video And we cruise at 75, 80, 85 when it's calm out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:24

Quad four fifties, that's a lot. And we're Communicating, he's talking to his office, she's talking to her family, I'm talking to the kids, talking to customers, and we're forty miles out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:34

It's the coolest thing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:55

It's faster than mine one here. I was sending videos of the of the fort, like minute and a half videos, and it was like my

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:01

Didn't it go through? I get a text, dude, that's so cool. I'm like, how'd it go through so fast?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:49

You need two motors, man. If you lose a motor, you're out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. You're in the middle of nowhere. Now that we have the um Starlink Mini, I can call for help. I have an ePERB that goes everywhere when I fly, I have my e-perb or in the boat. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:02

Eperb is this little tiny thing you carry with you. It's a personal e-perb, and let's say you sink or your boat breaks down, you push a button, it notifies the Coast Guard, they send a chopper out to make sure you're okay. Gotcha. Okay.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:14

Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:26

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:44

That's right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:59

whatever fishing, skiing, hydro sliding, I mean w whatever you want to do. Yeah. So a big

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:19

Yeah, I mean a lot of my friends go out twenty, thirty miles with single motor because you have technology now. They have the spot, the spot little thing you can text, hey I'm broken down, here I am, hit a button. It's different. Five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago, it wasn't smart to run way off short single motor. Yep. Although we did it all the time, they've had a problem. Thank you God. It's just not a as wise of an idea. But having twins triples if you're making a long trip. You know, going to the Bahamas, try to travel with another boat if you can. Yep. Which we've made the crossing a million times just with one boat. But like I said, technology today, you're gonna be fine.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:24

Yeah, we enjoy that. Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:01

removing the lock is a big deal because that was a problem. On the weekends people going out, you'd have a line of boats, it'd take an hour plus to get out. Oh in the afternoon coming in when everybody's coming in. you'd get stuck at the lock. You could put three or four, maybe five boats, depending on size, in the lock, because it would open, close, open the other side, which is totally silly because you have all these mangroves here When the high tide comes in the salt water comes to the freshwater.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:25

It was getting mixed up anyway. It made no sense why they had it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:29

Cape Harbour has condos, single family homes, gated communities, um a lot of newer homes there. They call that the southwest part of Cape Coral. It's beautiful. It's really pretty. Now we'll probably take more people that are now who are more avid voters now that the lock is gone. But until they took it out a year ago or ten months ago. I would tell people, look, if you're an avid boater, here's what's gonna happen and I'd take them to Rum Runners for lunch and we'd sit there having lunch and they'd see a line of boats.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:56

Oh my gosh, Shane, I would have killed you if you didn't tell me that. And they would have killed me. You're trying to get in thunderstorms and lightning storms coming in, you're stuck in your boat. That's a problem. That's a big problem. So that's beautiful there. You also have a place called Tarpon Point. They have condos, timeshares, and single-family homes there. Gated

Shane Waterfront Wilson 43:14

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. They've got um at uh Tarpon Point 1234, I think five restaurants there on site now. And uh Cape Harbour has um one, two, three Johnny Longboards, uh Fathoms, and used to be called Rum Runners. I think it's still Rum Runners.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 43:33

Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And on Tuesday nights they have live music in that little in front of Johnny Longboards, that little open area. It's really cool. So we'll take customers or friends, family there by boat, dock up at the marina, walk across the street, yeah, and enjoy. Have a great night. Hop in the boat and just idle back and

Shane Waterfront Wilson 43:55

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:06

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:36

that's a big deal. That is a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:43

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 45:24

and that's huge what you're saying. So selling real estate here for thirty-three years, we're seeing that. They come down Craig, my buddy Craig, I'm talking about you. It was a condo Yeah. He wanted to be able to lock the door and leave and have his boat on the lift. Yeah. And you know, way back when we didn't have as much going on, you know, he'd be like, Shane, take the boat out, go run the boat. So I'd go run the boat for him. Number one, it helped me out 'cause I got another boat to use. Number two, it didn't sit there and rot, I call it. Or the battle was really dead. Then Craig goes, you know what, we're gonna come down he has five kids. We're gonna come down more often. So he did what you just said. We sold the condo, built a beautiful home. And then he said, you know, Shane, I want to be on the Fort Myers side. He just chose it because he wanted to be there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:02

So he bought another lot. I sold him a lot and built a big, beautiful home there. So that's exactly what you're describing. A lot of people will Start with the condos, maybe a boat slip, maybe a marina, then they'll buy a condo that maybe has a slip out pack and then they'll sell that and buy a home on the water where they found their boat sitting right out back. Yep. Conversely, as I'm dealing with 33 years of doing this here. People said, Shane, you know we've been boating for thirty, forty years. We're ready to get off the water. We want to cash out. We want to get a condo. And oops, and half of the other time be up north with the kids and the grandkids. Yeah. So I'm selling these million dollar properties, they're buying a three or four hundred thousand dollar condo where they can lock the door and leave.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:40

Then they spend six months up north, kinda like Ann's mom and dad. They've been up there six months to see the grandkids. They have nine or ten.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:46

I don't know how many Gary sue. Nine or ten grandkids. But a lot, but they've been gone, so they're splitting their time. So To your point, it it's conversely also goes both ways. Yeah. And after you've been doing it so long, they just call you because we love our people. They become our friends. Yep. We get repeat customers. Yeah. They refer everybody they know to us.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:06

They know they're in great hands.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:13

Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:02

just lakes, not access.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:05

they say waterfront and people get confused. They say well Shane, I saw this really great house. The home is beautiful. My life loves it. Oh yeah, you have no boat access. Well no, no, it's on a canal. I go, Yeah, but you have no golf access. No, but it's on a canal, Shane. I said But you have no access to the golf. What do you mean?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:25

And they say, well, why is it so cheap? Because you don't have golf access. That's a big deal. Or I'll get the phone call, similar to Jim and Michelle You know, Shane, this house is in our price point. It is beautiful. My wife loves it. Yeah, that's uh and I'll look at the map. That's about an hour and five minutes, hour and fifteen minutes out, and you have two bridges to go under and the bridge that's over here, say on El Dorado's, you know, nine foot Nine foot five at average mean tide, meaning average tide. Well my boat won't fit into that. I said I know, that's why we need to be on this side of the bridge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:54

Very important. And there has been cases where and the realtors just didn't know where people bought homes. And then they brought their boat and they couldn't get their boat to the bridge. Or maybe they got their boat in at a low tide, not thinking about tides, because I found this, I learned this over thirty years. You people from up north that are come from lakes, you don't have tides. My buddy, Craig, I know he threw you into the bus last time.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:18

Oh my gosh. They couldn't get the boat out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:22

So then you get a phone call from so and so, hey my friend can't get his boat out. He got it in. I don't get it. I go, we have tides here. They could be 12 inches, 18 inches Three feet.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:32

Like right now. Right now. Well the tide's down now. We had a super high tide this morning. Like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:38

Well it wasn't a king tide. That was four days ago. It was just super high But it's that time of year it happens. And now the tide's going out. Yeah. When you have a super low tide, you get under the bridge, great. You want to take the family out and you happen to have a king tide or a super high tide, you can't nope there's a bridge

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:54

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:59

Emerald Cove is condos. I think it's condos and they have canals behind them, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:09

doesn't know access.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:17

They're not golf access to get you out, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:31

Sandoval, no, not

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:38

Freshwater lakes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:41

Those are Gulf Axis, but you're way far up there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:54

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:30

I think there's six or seven slips in the neighborhood, but they also have a boat ramp in the neighborhood. Yeah. So the cool thing is that you can keep your boat next to your house on the trailer in your neighborhood, put in, bring your truck and trailer back to your house, keep your boat at the dock and go out and have fun, but you're not paying 800,000 million dollars. You might pay five hundred thousand, five fifty, but you still have access to the river, which gives you access to the Gulf. Yep. Which is really cool. So Like I said before, we don't sell just waterfront property. If you have a boat and you're tired of trailering it down to Punta Rassa or trailer to Cape Coral boat ramp, There are other options. Yeah, totally. It's a big deal. And

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:18

Very cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:40

That's right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:56

That's a cool place to live because you have the Whiskey Creek Country Club there Yep. You can take your golf carts from your house to Whiske Whiskey Creek Country Club. And then some of the homes on the right hand side that do have golf access. You have one bridge to go under, I think it's a thirteen foot five clearance, which most boats will get under that fine. So you have the best of both worlds, the golf course, you have Publix, which is over here, you have the high school, elementary school, elementary school, and you're out in ten minutes Maybe fifteen minutes, unless you live real close, like towards the mouth of the river. Yeah. Two seconds out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:30

Old Whiskey Creek, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:41

Town and River is a deed restricted neighborhood. Super nice neighborhood. They have about I think seven or eight homeowner associations within town and river. So each one has their own little rules, regulations. They're pretty much all the same. You have deep water, deed restricted. The homes in there over the last oh gosh starting out seven, eight years ago they started scraping the old homes that were built in the seventies and they're building McMansions.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:04

McMansions. So everything on the river, in Town and River are big, beautiful homes and they probably have about nine or ten new homes going up right now as we speak. A lot of people up north, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, California, Colorado They came here during COVID and said, You guys are on sale. These are cheap. I'm like, no, these aren't cheap. This is market. Well, back home this would have been four million. Yeah, but it's not here. Exactly. Well now they've made this their primary and permanent residence. Yeah. Sold their homes up there. Um not being political, I'm just telling you what's happening. These are the facts. They're getting out of there, they're coming here realizing we didn't know Fort Myers had this. Southwest Florida is gorgeous. The beaches, the shopping, the restaurants, the lifestyle, they're digging it. And then when their friends come down We like this. Well then call our friend Shane. He's our realtor.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 55:04

On North Town

Shane Waterfront Wilson 55:31

It's a lot lower you five hundred, five fifty, six hundred

Shane Waterfront Wilson 55:39

Landings is super cool. Great neighborhood. So you've got a marina, fuel docks, restaurants. It's a protected marina, like it's inside of a a big harbor. The thing about the landings is if you're a golfer, tennis player, uh pickleball, racquetball, paying the fees every month is worth it. You can't get five different memberships at five different areas for what you're gonna be paying inside of there. Gated community, your minutes of the public 's shopping. Amazing restaurants. It is a cool neighborhood. You've got single family homes, single family homes on the river. You've got condos there, like Steamboat Bend, then you've got the attached villa type homes. It is a cool place. The grounds w when you drive in it, the grounds are you think this is tropical? It is beautiful in there. I mean it is beautiful. And um actually when away my son's friends live there and uh they live in the um the Ariel building, the big tall high-rise.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:33

Love it. Well he built his own house. His mom and dad live there. But It is it's just a beautiful, beautiful community. Really nice.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:44

Okay, so Palmetto Point, smaller. So you've got McGregor Isles where I live, been here twenty-three years, and then the step up would be Town and River. The step up will be Palmetto Point. You have more higher end homes there than you do Town and River, and definitely more than we do um Bucrear Isles. When the homes in there were built in the late sixties, seventies and eighties In the boom in 2004-2005, they were scraping these homes that were 30, 40 years old and building McManchions. And it was marketed as the yachting community. Why? Because you've got deep water. Yeah. You've got a big turning basin at the end. So they've got ninety hundred footers that go in there. If they're coming down the main canal, you can't turn there, but you go to the end. I sold a big beautiful home to some friends. Actually sold it to them and sold it for them a big turning basin so you can turn the boat around and come back out. Wow. But there's homes in there that's good to know. Five million, six million. Yeah. Um there's one in there I think just sold for six five. But that's most of the homes are newer and the ones that are older are getting scraped. Yep. Because the dirt value was so valuable in there. Yeah. That's where my buddy lives actually. He scraped the house. No, actually that was a vacant lot. He built on the vacant lot.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 57:51

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:03

So how'd that work? So in Gulf Harbour they have a hundred and eighty slip marina there. The accommodate boats up to 115 feet, I think.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:11

Galway Ford keeps her big boat there. It's uh I forget the name of it. I just saw my key west actually when it's there. Um It's a hundred and eighty-six slip marina, I believe it is. Okay. You can purchase a boat slip separate from your home. So I sold a lot of homes in Gulf Harbour and they wanted to have the boat boating lifestyle, but maybe not be on the water. So what you do is you buy a boat slip, you keep your boat there, you pay I think you pay taxes, I know the maintenance fee. um whatever the cost are, I don't remember what they are now. Yeah. To have their boat. You can get a 30 foot slip, a fifty foot, a seventy foot, a hundred foot slip. Those are the ones on the end. Cool thing about that too is you've got where you come into Gulf Harbour, you've got a um I call it a feeder canal, where it's always flushing itself. So it's not stagnant. The water's pretty clean in there, which is a big deal. Some harbors you go into the water doesn't really move.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:04

Not River Ben River side that developer went belly up like thirty years ago. Um homes in there, four hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, then you step up to the seven, eight hundred thousand, then the multi-million dollar homes. Yeah The ones on the river started like four million, they go up to I think one just sold for seven five. But you've got the best of both worlds. Eighteen Holgolf course, which is Beautiful. Yep. They have the fitness center, the foo-foo center where the girls can go the facials, the massages, and all that. It is a beautiful, beautiful community if you like that gated style. upscale community. Yeah. I've sold a lot of property in there. It's it's beautiful. It's really beautiful.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:40

total lifestyle.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:42

Oh my gosh, Johnny Brown's is amazing. I mean it's yeah, it's really good. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:51

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:06

Iona, the Iona area. Iona? Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:17

Cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:22

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:37

outboard, sorry.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:01

It's not really it's like a traditional neighborhood, but on the water Yeah. Some of the canals which were dredged out, in your coastal estates, they dredge them out. Um you could some of the riverfront homes there you can go out a hundred feet on the pier and only be in two feet of water. Yeah. So it 's kinda touch and go. Um, when you get into Eastern Shores, the canals are probably four and a half, five foot. The problem is when you get out of the canal, unless they've dredged out and I'm not aware of it. It gets shallower because the sand and silt washes in.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:39

mouth of the canal. Going into the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:54

Point is a great neighborhood. Um it's called Paul Makers, Deep Water, homes in there. Um Starting probably 800 for a scraper, 750, 800. Scraper means that you're gonna scrape the home, build a new home. There's a lot of new there's one, two, three I think five new homes going up in there now. Wow. Deep water. Cool thing about that is um there was a guy who used to own Cellular One, the cellular company, this is thirty years ago. had a hundred foot yacht he'd bring in there. It's like ninety-five foot and he could come and go out the main channel through Shell Creek.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:24

If you go in the opposite way that takes you out like closer to like Punta Rassa It's a windy mangrove channel. Fishing in there is outstanding by the way. Snook, redfish, trout, outstanding. Current's always ripping through. You can take your 35, 38 foot boats and smaller. through the other way. Instead of having to go out the long way through the slow zone, you go out the back way. Great neighborhood. Uh we have some dear friends who live there, Todd and Angie, and uh I've sold them this house, then we sold that house and he bought the house next door, remodeled that. But I sold them a house like um another neighbor to talk about is um Siesta Isles, near Fort Myers Beach. You know what that is? Yeah. Yeah. Great neighborhood, close to the beach. Um deep water access which is really important for the big boats. There's a lot of bigger sport fish, cabin cruisers, because they can come and go and they're literally three minutes to the beach. Like you're right there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:13

So uh Palma Cruise is great, uh Siesta Isles. Again, it depends on what your application is. Do you want to live further upriver? Go to the restaurants and bars on the river? Do you want to be closer to the beach so you can get out to the Gulf quicker? Yeah. What do you want? What is your application? Tell me and I'll take you to those neighborhoods. Yeah. I need to know your price point. Sometimes people have champagne tasting a beer budget. Which is fine. It's okay, but we're not gonna be buying a house that is gonna be this McMansion. On a direct access bay that's five billion bucks and they want to buy it for million five. It doesn't

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:03

Yes and no, because on Fort Myers Beach you can buy homes for six hundred seven hundred thousand on the water on a canal, but you've got to go out behind the beach of the intercoastal out through the Yes and no. The newer homes that are there that are built super high that don't flood, yeah, those are way expensive. Because you're on the beach, you're on the water, and you have new construction. Yeah. They're not gonna flood because I think they're built at thirteen, fifteen feet above sea level. Something like that.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:49

It's right there near the restaurants. Here's the problem with that. It's not even a problem. In season, traffic gets unbearable on Fort Myers Beach. People who live on the beach have to time it. Morning, afternoon, you have to time it right. Most people who live on the beach are boaters, live on the water with their boat in the backyard. Yep. Then you time, like when you go show the property there in season, you've got to do it early in the morning. Late in the afternoon getting on when the sunset goes, people getting off the island. So you've got to time it right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:29

This side.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:30

So they can take their car, their apart, hop in the boat, go tool around, do whatever, come back, hop in the car and leave. Yeah. So there's pros and cons.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:51

Bonita Bay is beautiful. They have homes that are on the water, they have marina there, you can keep your boat at. It is it's high end, like super high end. high maintenance fees and that's okay. Some people want that. They want the gated community. Yep. They want that lifestyle, kind of like the Gulf Harbour people or Cape Harbour or um Tarpon Point. That's the lifestyle they choose. They have the means to do it and that's what they want. Yeah. And when I deal with that Price point client, they're very laser focused. Shane, this is what we want. We don't want to see that. We don't want to see this. We know what we want. I love working with those people. They know what they want. I'll go out and preview a dozen homes. Based on what they've told me and some of them are repeat customers, we'll pick out three of the best. We'll look at it. Yep. You got a Shane, this is it. Okay Send me proof of funds, okay. Tell call their financial advisor. Send Shane proof of funds for X amount of dollars. Okay. I love working with those people. They're they know what they want.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:47

They are very focused.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:54

Condo, attached villa homes, detached villa homes, large, magnificent homes. Um if you go down to I call the boat park and get on the boat, they'll take you out to Fort Myers Beach with a shuttle. Yeah. It's Bonita Bay is amazing. Very, very cool place. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:11

Yeah, it's inside, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:15

they have several communities within BiniBuzz. Very cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:24

West Bay Club is the um they also have I call the boat park where you can go down to the marina put your boat in. Or hop on the shuttle, it takes you out to the beach. West Bay Club is beautiful. Really?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:44

Yeah. Um Island Park Woodlands is north of Bonita. Um they got hit pretty hard in the flood, they're a low lying area, but you can have your boat in the backyard. You go out through I call Mu Loch Creek, some people call it Mulloch Creek. I call it Mu Loch. Muellow Creek. Oh ten mile canal Mulah Creek, but it's real windy to get out real shallow. So you have to have a bay boat or a flats boat. Yeah. Anna and I were doing some video shoots down there and there's this guy coming in. I told my wife I was at hunting. It's super shallow and rocky over there. He's gonna hit. How do you know? I go, I hope he doesn't. I don't wish it on anybody. He's in a lake and bay. Got the motor trim down. You see the boat go boom boom the motor boom boom boom. You can see Starwood puts it neutral. I'm like, oh no. I said, sir, jack your motor up. What? Jack your motor up, trim it up. Come this way. Cause I'm I'm 75 feet here and he's along that ledge and it's real rocky in there. Yeah. Much creek, Mullah Creek, whatever you guys call it. And uh I felt horrible. I know he tore up his gear case in his prop. I felt horrible.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:51

That goes to being, what is your application? You can't get big boats back in there. Yep. I mean I've got a buddy has twins, but he has to go out on a an average mean tide or high tide. But you have to know it. Low tide ain't gonna happen. That's it. And when you get out into Estero Bay there, there's oyster bars everywhere. So you have to know where you're going. Stay in the channel. That's how you're gonna damage your boat. So but these are things you learn over thirty-five years of boating here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:37

Point Royale.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:54

Tin City.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:59

Totally different than Fort Myers, different than Bonita, very high end.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:07

Before the dustback. Yeah. Yeah. I mean if you're at Port Royal, I mean they're buying homes to scrape for fifteen million, twenty million, twenty five million. One of the most expensive home in the United States right now is 285 million in Naples. And he has this massive amount of waterfront. I think it's like 800 linear feet on the on the beach. And he's got two or three houses on it. He built it for his kids, and I guess he's selling, but It's not uncommon for homes there to sell twenty, thirty, forty million bucks, fifty million bucks. It's it's it's a spit in the bucket. When I go down there in the boat, we go all everywhere by boat. To see these yachts behind these homes, they've got deep water These boats are two million, five million, ten million, fifteen million dollar boats. It's like going in Fort Lauderdale on the canals there. It is insane. Yeah. But

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:14

You have to um I mean

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:02

They're real quick access, yeah. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:12

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:19

Oh Moody, Moody River.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:08

Yeah. First most important thing is I'm not drinking five beers on the way out. The customers are. I'm not drinking five beers. I don't drink without customers on a boat. I just don't But it's kind of interesting ever since Jim Michelle i it hit home. He's told so many people about the ah beer, maybe two beers out to the river. They get it now. And when their friends come down, they're able to explain it. So There's just so many variables, but I've done this for so long. And yeah, you can be a great realtor but not understand the waterfront. Yep. You know, understand tides, understand how long it takes to get out, understand the Bridges that are in the way. Not that the other people are bad realtors. They're great realtors. They don't know because they're not boaters. I live, eat, and breed this stuff, man. I mean, yeah. I love going on the water. It can be crappy out on the boat. It can be beautiful out. I mean it's You gotta know both aspects of it. So the hobby is part of the business. That makes sense.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:01

And I love selling real estate. It's just it's fun. I love the relationshipships we make. And then the relationships I make off of those people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:17

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:22

five Ps? The five Ps I have?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:25

Prior preparation prevents poor performance.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:35

taught me that. I go, what?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:38

He's the best man. He's the best father-in-law ever. He is the most giving, caring guy. Him and Skippy both.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:44

Yeah, so that's my ex-wife's father and her stepfather. Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:55

Twenty-five years ago. How long it was? That's how I met you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:06

Huge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:10

Bob Wade.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:12

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:23

there's paddle boarding. I mean we own a property near um Siesta Isles or in Siesta Isles If you love the kayak, love the paddleboard, there's these mangrove trails, miles of them, where you can paddle on a kayak and a paddleboard and see all kinds of cool wildlife. You don't have to be a powerboater The mangrove channel lets you out to Bunch Beach, which is a beautiful white sand beach. Hardly anybody ever there because they'd have to walk about two miles from where the public park is. You know what I'm talking about. It is beautiful. So you don't have to have a power boat. Paddleboard. My wife and I go to our duplex when it's not rented out. We have four, three. We have four kayaks there, three paddleboards. We'll get in it with our grandbabies and just paddle down the trails. It's just it's peaceful, it's fun. Like this time of year we like doing it. The bugs aren't as bad. There's just so much to do here. And again, if you're not a boat or don't want to be, it's okay. We'll sell you a house off water. At least you're near the beaches. You can go to a boat rental place, rent a boat if you want to. Then what happens we find three to five years, six years, seven years like Shane. What's up? We're gonna sell the house. We want to be on the water. We want to do what you're doing because we watch you on film all the time. We want to go out in the boat and go fishing. Yeah. We want to go in the boat and go to dinner by boat or breakfast by boat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:33

That's what they do.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:34

It's so cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:54

Goodland. Goodland. If you go to Goodland, so go past um Key Waden Island and go in this it's a deep channel. To uh Goodland Marina and Goodland Island. They have the best seafood, fresh seafood caught right out front. Yeah. I mean it's so cool. They used to have the dome houses down there

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:10

they got wiped out in Hurricane the last one. But they were there for

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:16

Dome houses Yes, it'll come up. It's so cool. And then from the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:22

And then from there you're you're close to the keys. Yeah. You get in the intercoastal waterway, you head down. It'll dump you off in Marathon or if you want to go to Key West or go marathon up the inner coastal to Isla Marata. Yes. That's the path I take. Fort Myers, head down, come back around them. My house is right here. Or Key West or Marathon.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:58

Yeah, Marco is a little bit more.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:02

Basically.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:07

Marco Island is It's very seasonal. In season it's packed. Out of season I think you have maybe not even half the homeowners live there. Yeah. But when you go on Marco Island, the beaches are beautiful. The restaurants are great. It's almost like every home is on the water there. Yeah. Fishing there is outstanding. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:37

Good starting spot, you know w what does that feel like for you? Yeah, it's a good starting spot because you're closer to Key West, closer to the Keys You can fuel up ice up and go just about wherever you want to go.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:46

Fort Myers is up here, it's longer. But down here to Key West, Isla Morata, it just much closer. Much closer.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:58

We ate there. Did you? It was me, Anne, my wife Anne, Wade and Parker, and we're bringing the cowboy to Key West. We take it there for two months every year during the summertime. And uh We got down there and watching the radar and there's lightning storms and thunder and it's just getting thicker and thicker. So I pull out of side of Naples Bay and I wait. I'm waiting. I'm like, all right, so the storms blow by and uh Like yeah, I think we can make it. The wind's starting to pick up and I start heading out do I mean right to key west from there. We got about twelve miles out It got so freaking rough. Ten footers. I mean we had I'm in a 48-foot sport fish up on the flybridge, and with me, the kids are down below sleeping, how they slept through it. I have no idea. The waves are crashing over the bow, seaweeds hitting the eyes on glass. I mean, stuff's flying everywhere. I'm like, yeah, this is a bad choice. Now we're like twenty-one miles out, maybe twenty-two miles. I look to my left and we have these two big VH fat VHF antennas. One of them came unlatched. It's flopping. I'm thinking, all right, dollar signs. That's a $2,500 antenna. I said, Anne, come here. I said, keep the boat into the waves. You're not going out there. I go, Anne I'm not spending 2500 bucks. So it wasn't a smart move. I did it. Went outside, resecured it, attached it. I said, Anne, she's green by this point. She's not feeling good. I said, we're going back in. We went into Marco Island to a place called Rose Marine Ironically, that's where we bought the boat like four years before that. They did the marine survey. So we put by the time we got in it was dark and we pull in. It was like 8:30, 9 o'clock at night. And um You know, we tie up to the dock next morning and come to come out and knock on the door. Well, what are you doing? I say I'm Shane Wilson.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:29

He goes, We don't have a reservation. I go, Yeah. I got stuck in that storm. He goes, Oh, I go, I remember you. I forget the guy's name now. Yeah. Jimmy or Jim or James. You did the marine survey on this boat. Remember? I know this he didn't remember me, but he knew the boat. Yeah. So anyway, I said what I he goes, You know what, man, you're safe, you got out of the storm, go. So we left that morning, made it to Key West in like three hours. I mean

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:52

The timing and the thing is too is that if you're ever out in the boat and you think the weather is bad, when you're thinking it's bad, get back to the shore. Yep. Don't do it. It's not worth it. I've been out in horrible weather. I've gotten stuck in horrible storms. Yeah. Now I know. Yeah. It's just not a good thing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:25

Property taxes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:28

Homestead exemption is important.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:34

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:56

Highest point of Lee County.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:18

Cabbage Key, Crapper Cabbage Creepers are great. You've had those.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:23

There's several other places to go to. Mainstay is uh another restaurant on North Captiva. Uh you've got melons you can go to. These are on barrier islands. And when you pull up, you're on island time. It's really cool. The cool thing about where we are, if it's rough on the Gulf side, you take Pine Island Sound, you're protected in the intercoastal waterway.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:42

Yes, yes. If the wind's not windy or coming out of the east, run the outside. The outside. You go through Boca Grand Pass, Boca Grand Island, you've got Kaya Costa. North Captiva, Captiva. These beaches, you've got 30, 40 miles of beautiful white sand beaches. You can back up anywhere there. Put your bow anchor out Put the stern of your boat up to the beach, put a stern anchor out. You can literally walk off your boat from here to those banana trees and you're on the beach.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:10

It is beautiful. And it's not like Miami Beach or Miami where you have a thousand boats The next boat might be three hundred feet away, a thousand feet away. I mean it's you have to do it. We need to shoot some footage of that to show these people so they can see how cool it is. It's just amazing. And then I want to get up in the plane too, and we need to fly over these areas we're talking about. I want These folks to pinch me a

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:32

To see what I know. Like in my mind I have it. You know in your mind. Oh yeah. They don't know

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:39

And the cool thing about him, he has a flight simulator. He loves flying his flight simulator. So we're gonna go and the real plane, and you're gonna be like, dude, I'm gonna say here, take the wheel. You're like, whoa, I'm flying a plane. This is way cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:51

Dude, it's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:02

I'm stoked. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:08

you're able to pull all this information out of my brain. Like I don't know I have all this up here until you start asking these questions and I it's like I just started vomiting all this amazing information I live it thinking that everybody knows about it and you keep telling me off camera no they don't know about it. That's why we're doing this to teach him about the waterfront lifestyle, the lifestyle we live So many people and I hear the story over and over, they spend thirty, forty, fifty years building their companies up north. They come here to sell their companies, not knowing when they came down, like what they wanted to do, but then they see our podcast or the videos we've done.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:41

Greg Mazzola. I want to do what you do, Shane. Yep. And now all these other people are doing what we do. It's like you teach a man the fish, he can feed himself for life. You give a man a fish, he eats the fish, and it's gone. Yep It's the same thing. I can teach all these people what we do. Then they share it with their family and friends. And now that I made maybe one family happy, they're making all these people super happy because they're teaching them the lifestyle. It's not rocket science. So I guess the point is you have a way of asking questions. I have all this information you just

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:07

Look, no sweat at all. No sweat. We're my back. Under the tiki hut. Under the tiki hut.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:15

We got we got one two

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:06

Oh gosh, the franja panties. Those little franja panties. Oh, see those are good. Like pink flowers over there, they smell so good. the little white flowers, what are they called? The um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:17

Yeah, hibiscus is a beautiful flower. It didn't have a uh scent to plumaria. Those are nicer is called oh my gosh, what's it called I can't think of the name of it, but you'll be walking it's like you'll smell it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:50

I knew that was a thing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:54

Yeah, I know. I didn't know I still learned something. I'm gonna go there with Lakes Park, do my walk. I'm gonna smell

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:01

Yeah, it hit the workout stations. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:20

Yeah. Rockin' and roll, man. You're able to pull the stuff out. You you're organized where you plant it all. It's all a mess in my head, but if you ask me, I can find that file up here somewhere.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:33

Absolutely.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:34

Have a great day. See ya. Take care. Thank you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:38

You nailed it. You nailed it, bro. You nailed it. No, but you were asking the right questions. You know? Dude, that was good stuff. That was really good. That's a lot of information.