Pricing Your Florida Waterfront Home in Today's Market

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:22

That was awesome. It was two hours. Two hours was like, which blink of an eye, it was crazy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:27

Crazy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:41

Right, right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22

Yep. Florida keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:33

Absolutely. So they'll understand. So Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita, Estero, Naples, all of Southwest Florida. Once you get above North Fort Myers, it kind of goes out of our MLS area and it's too far to try to work that market and Southwest Florida and the Florida Keys. So I would say Cape Coral, Fort Myers down to Naples. Um in the Florida Keys, Key Largo to Key West. It's easy peasy. I have a plane we talked about in the first episode. If I'm in Fort Myers, I can fly into Tavernier, I can fly into Summerlin Key, I can fly into Marathon, fly into Key West. I can be there quicker. Let's say I'm in Isla Marada. And I have to drive from Island Rider Show property in Key West, hour and a half, hour and forty minutes, with traffic two hours. I can fly from Fort Myers to Key West in fifty-five minutes. Land. There's a car there and get in the car, show property all day, hop in a plane, fly back to Tavernier, go to my house there, or come back to Fort Myers. So those are the those are the main market. Just remember Key Largo to Key West.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:28

In Southwest Florida, Fort Myers down to Naples.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:35

Marco is a little stretch. We've sold a lot of property there. We will go to Marco if it's like a personal referral or somebody that I know that says, Shane, I really want to buy in Marco. We'll go down there. Maybe it's not a big deal. I know like the back of my hand. I fish that whole entire area. The fishing there's phenomenal by the way. Snook, tarpon, redfish, trout, flounder.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:54

Oops.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:28

Yeah. Born in Miami Raising Kiviscaine and then raised in the Florida Keys. Um nothing like it. We were driving our boats to go to our friends' houses and go to places before driving a car. And the first boat I got was a rowboat. My dad said, When you build up your muscles Gotta row every day after school. We'll buy an outboard motor. So I couldn't pull it. I was I was a skinny little eight, nine-year-old kid. So uh every day after school I get out there and row my boat and row my boat and row my boat and row my boat and One day I said, Dad, I'm ready. That's all right, well. So we bought another boat, had like a nine point nine Evanroot. I mean this is forty -five Oh my gosh, forty-five years ago, over forty-five years ago. Got out there and cranked it up. Ooh, I started the motor. He's like, all right, Shane, your boundaries are from here to here to here. I'm like, all right, Dad. goes don't go outside your boundaries oh no dad never so me my friends let's see that was Scott Alvarez Ricky Alvarez Ronnie Donnie Greg is The people on the keys are gonna see this podcast, know these people. We all grew up together. Yeah. We'd go out in the boat and Ronnie'd say, Hey Shane, let's go fish over there. I'm like, it's out of the boundaries. Come on, man. I'm like, all right, dad'll never know. Well, of course, there's other boaters out there. They'd get home. Hey, Bill, we saw uh, you know, the kids out, you know, on the other side of the intercoastal waterway, other side of Cotton Key or Pigeon Key. Hmm Dad comes home. Shane, where'd you go on the boat today? Oh, I was in my boundaries, Dad. No, you aren't. Tell me one more time. I can see in his eye. He already knew. I'm like Oopsie, better tell the truth, or I'll make my butt whooped. So I'd tell him he's like, Shane, stay in your boundaries. There's a reason for it. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 05:40

Thunderheads, you gotta watch out for that. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:02

The vibe today is consumer confidence is a way up. Everybody feels good about the economy. Inflation is down. This is not political. This is everything I read. I talk to my financial advisors and my people are in the banking business. 100% consumer confidence is up. 100% the market is turning and changing for the better. There's so many positive things out there. And again, this is not political, these are facts. I see it on my end as properties are beginning to sell. Now here's the trick. So many people want to get the pricing from COVID days three, four years ago. Well, you should have sold three, four years ago when you had limited supply. Prices were through the roof People in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, California, Colorado, as examples, were in lockdown. They got sick of being lockdown. They had money. They said, forget this, we're going to Florida. They're open. They would come down and say, Oh my gosh, your property's on the water. They're on sale. I'm like, no, these prices are kinda high actually. they would buy it. And then when that property sold, the neighbor would sell their property maybe 10% more. And then that one would sell 10% more. And then your inventory was almost nil. We had almost nothing to sell. Then the neighbor put theirs on higher, higher. And all of a sudden the prices went up 35%. People were buying them. There was no inventory. When something hit the market, you better buy it and jump on it, full price or above asking price.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:16

Fast forward three years The demand is not here. Those other states I talked about are open. The demand for them coming here is no longer the situation. They're happy where they are. A lot of people who came here to Florida said, Oh my gosh, I didn't realize summers were hot. I didn't realize it rained so much. Oh you have so many bugs. Either you love Florida or you don't. Most people I know love Florida. And some people are fortunate enough to have a winter home down here and then have their summer h home up north. But what we're seeing now, the prices are adjusting down. And I Almost every listing appointment I go on, including one I just left an hour ago, 45 minutes ago, said the same thing. Shane, my neighbor got a million dollars or a 1. 1 for the house next door. I said, yeah, but That was probably a year ago. Well, that was a year and a half ago. I go, the market has changed in a year and a half. It's changed a year. It has changed in the last six months. Prices are adjusting down. Their response is, well, all you realtors say the same thing. I said, no, numbers don't lie. When I go in MLS, I do it every morning, every afternoon, every evening, and I watch and I track What's happening? I watch the price reductions. When I see not one home, not two home, I would say 99. 9 % of every listing out there has had price adjustments. When I hit the sweet listing spot, I see them go pending. And I know all the realtors in Fort Myers. I know all the realtors in the Keys. I mean, I've done this 33 years. We talk. You know, we talk. Hey, how's it going with your listing? No showings. But when we drop the price, showings started happening. People walked in and go Wow, what a cool property. They make an offer. Maybe it's a low offer. Seller doesn't have to take a low offer, but now I see property selling. We had six closings last month in June.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:49

That's the most we've had in a long time. Wow. The market and that included one commercial property, but the market is definitely changing. But if you go back to the original pricing, every one of our listings, we had to adjust the price to be in uh competitive with the other listings. Yeah. If you're priced here, it's not gonna sell. I'm I'm just Numbers don't lie. And again, so many people say, Shane, oh yeah, drop it. It'll sell. It'll sell. You have to watch the market. And one mistake that I think sellers are making. They're chasing the market. They need to adjust the price where it needs to be. If they bought before the pandemic, uh they're golden. They're good. If they bought during they bought up here. They may be stuck with the property for a while. Unless they paid cash and are willing to take a loss to go back up north. Or maybe take the smaller home they bought for the bigger home. Or the bigger home they bought, they don't need that size home 'cause they're here in the wintertime and up north in the summertime.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 09:39

So maybe they want to downsize. But the fact of the matter is The market is good. Properties have to be priced right. When you see properties appreciate, like in 2005, we went through that 35% a year. Come on, guys. That's not even a real thing. And then 2008 came It crashed. So 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12. We were

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:07

I became a short sale expert. Yep. And a foreclosure expert. Had to. My family didn't eat. It was a necessity. Your typical listings weren't selling because all the foreclosures and short sales are priced here. Traditional seller was here because they paid here in 2005, 2006. It's the same thing now with the pandemic. Prices went up crazy. And again, these people that got here from up north said, you're on sale. You can buy a waterfront property for $8. 50. I'm like. Yeah, that's a good price. Oh, that's cheap. Back in Jersey or New York or wherever they came from. That'd be super expensive or California, I'm like They just drove those prices up. So when it went up, I'm gonna throw it random now, 27% or 30% during the COVID period, that wasn't a real market, guys. The demand has tapered off. It just has. The numbers don't lie. It's not Shane making it up. Look at the numbers. This is what I do every day. I mean it's love that. Yeah, it is.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:04

Oh my gosh.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:14

Why are we getting no showings? It was listed with a previous realtor, which I know her. She's awesome. She's really great. Been here forever. I said you're getting no listing because of your price point. You have other options and choices out there. I said you're at 975 right now. You're across the street from the water. You have two boat slips. You have a beautiful unit all remodeled. But your price is too high because buyers have options and you have three other places that are listed in the same community that are 100,000 less, 80,000 less, 50,000 less. You look like you're overpriced, even though he probably has the best unit of the other units that are for sale.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:50

So that's key. If you're not getting showings, but you're marketing it properly, like with me and my team. We spend a bunch of money on homes. com, realtor. com, Zillow. com, all of those and my website and our social media. I spend a buttload of money. And when I tell some of my fellow realtor friends how much money I'm spending every year, like, Shane, that's impossible. No, it's not You have to spend money to make money. I know a mistake that a lot of retor realtors make is maybe they'll sell a property and make X amount of dollars And pay all their bills, but they didn't leave that twenty-five-thirty percent to reinvest back in the business. You have to reinvest back into the business. Um, I'm kind of getting off track here Getting back to these folks, super nice. His wife is on board totally. She sees what's happening. He doesn't want to see it. He's a little older. He's so funny. I'm old school and my wife's younger and da this and that. I said, look, you gotta put an eight in front of it. Nine seventy-five is too much. I said Do 875. Well, that's a hundred thousand dollar drop. My neighbor got, you know, million dollars. I said, yeah, a year and a half ago. That's a year and a half ago. The market has changed. Yeah. A year ago, the market has changed. Six months ago it has changed.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:53

Plung story short before I came to see you, they both talked and said, all right, let's do 875. And I told him I said at 875, that's a avenue to get people in the house. Once you get them in the house, I can sell the property. I can sell the area. I can point your boat lifts out right there. I can bring my boat there, throw them in the boat and say, hey, let's go to Fort Myers Beach. Let's go to Sanibel. Let's go to Cabbage Key To help sell the lifestyle. People come here that are boaters or waterfront people want the waterfront lifestyle So I had some customers out the other day and uh they said, we want to look at property in Fort Myers Beach. I said, yeah, well, let's go by boat. What do you mean? I go, let's take the boat over there because traffic's gonna be horrible. Well as we went from the mainland over to Fort Myers Beach, I call the Sky Bridge. It's not called the Sky Bridge, but from Fort Myers to Fort Myers Beach, stand still traffic. This was an um March, maybe April. Traffic was horrible. They said, I I see what you're saying. I said, Yeah, I live on the water. We want to go to the beach to Sanibel. We don't get in the cars. We get our boats. You want to go to the beach, you go to the boat. You want to go to dinner, you go by a boat So it's it's all part of that lifestyle. But getting back to these folks, it said once I get them in your unit and they look at it and go, Wow, this is really nice. Yeah, let's hop on the boat and I'll show you the lifestyle, show you around by water. You know, there's so many restaurants and bars and fun things to do and the beaches and Bunch Beach, which is kinda it's kinda like a little private beach. You know Bunch Beaches. Yeah. And um you have these little like canals and little like waterways. I take our little boat up in there and it Once they get subjected to that, they're like, wow, this is really cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:23

The rest is a piece of cake.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:27

If they don't like the waterfront, so be it. They don't want the waterfront lifestyle so be. Maybe they're golfers. Maybe they don't want to be that.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:33

But I choose to specialize in waterfront property. Um we mentioned before too last time. When people come down here, they don't have boats. Well what kind of boat should I get? Well, what's your application? What do you mean? I go, you gonna back bay fish? Do you just want to take your boat to Cabbage Key, Barnacle Phil's, Melons, North Captiva? You know, where do you want to go? No, we want to go offshore like you do, like 80 miles out. I said, you need a bigger boat with at least two motors. Yeah. Or three or four motors. So a lot of people who have sold their businesses They've dreamed about coming down here. Well by the 24 foot bay boat and buy the 36 or 39 or 45 foot larger boat with the triples or quads on it. So they can run offshore. They can run to Key West. They can run to Sarasota. It's all in their application what they want.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:16

Well then that comes back to me and saying, all right, well, if you're gonna get two boats, we need to have at least, you know, a hundred linear water f uh feet of water frontage. Yep. Oh, I never thought of that. You gotta have room for two boat lifts. What do I need a boat lift for? Well, you don't want your boat sitting in the water with barnacles, or if you paint the bottom, that's a whole nother

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:32

There's so many things they don't know about, but once they live the lifestyle. A good buddy of mine, Craig, real good buddy from Chicago, he didn't know much about boating down here. Fast story, Craig, I know you're gonna kill me. You're gonna kill me, Craig, I know this. He bought a GoFast Boat twins on it, and uh We made snail trails on the chart platter, little lines on the on the chart platter. And I see now Craig, whatever you do, don't go through this channel at low tide, because you will run aground. I don't think I made it clear enough. So about two weeks later he calls me. fired up furious. I went through that channel we went through and I ran a ground. I bent both my prop shafts and tore up my props. I go, is that near redfish pass on the inside where I said don't go through and it's low tide? He goes, I don't know what the heck low tide is But it cost me fourteen thousand dollars. So point is, Craig, I love you, man. I do. But the point is since that time he's learned. He takes His family out, his friends out, his customers out. When they come down and they're looking to buy waterfront property, even off water, we do off water as well. Call Shane, he knows what he's doing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 18:30

And Craig, we talked the other day, I think he's referred 19 people to me in almost 20 years. It's like but they refer people to me or to my team. So it just

Shane Waterfront Wilson 18:41

It's perpetual. It's the gift that keeps giving because you took care of the people from the start. You educate them, taught them how to fish our waters. He's freshwater. Now he takes his friends and family and grandbabies out fishing. Which is cool. And he teaches them and he sends me pictures. Oh, we got American Reds today, got red group, or you know, they're in season. Whereas when he first came here, he didn't have a clue.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:02

That's true, Craig.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:05

Yeah. But it's just

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:00

Tide went out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:03

No.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:06

What the heck happened? Huh.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:45

it can be an issue. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:59

So if you have the larger boats, probably forty foot and over, a lot of them sit in the water. You paint the bottom. You have a diver who comes once a month, you pay him I think it's $150 a month, and he comes and cleans the bottom. Cleans the drive gear, the rudders, the props. Typically we like to keep our boats on lifts. Get it out of the water. We don't like to paint the bottoms because it slows us down. You might lose two or three miles an hour, which is not a big deal, but We like to go fast. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:22

Yeah, you can have your boat in the water for four or five days, but you need to get it out of the water. Or if you're using it every day, max seven days. If you don't, you get these little worm barnacles that grow on the bottom, they adhere to the bottom. Then you get that grass. It's just a mess. It slows your boat down. Your fuel economy goes to the pooper because you have all that drag now on the bottom of the boat. Um when you do get your boat out of the water on the lift, you need to flush the motors, rinse everything off. The salt is harsh on metal. Yeah. Your outboard motors, uh anything metal on your boat, you want to rinse and flush everything really good. Fresh water from I hear from my friends who or from up north. You pull the boat out, you're done. You don't flush the motor.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:02

You're done. You're done. Yeah. You know, buying corrosion block or WD forty. You know, maybe every once a month go out there and anything metal. Like in the steering apparatus where you have the hydraulic steering, spray it down with WD4 to your corrosion bar.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:14

Keep it lubed up. And that way you don't have rust buildup. It's a lot more maintenance in the salt water than freshwater. But once you get your system down, it's easy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:22

It's a no-brainer. I pull it to my house. Hit the button, lift the boat, hose it off, scrub the inside, flush my motor, rinse it. I'll get my it's called corrosion block. Corrosion block if I know it's gonna sit for a week or two, which hopefully it doesn't sit for that long because I'm gonna use it. But when I come back to the boat, it's ready to go. Also having onboard charging systems. Keep your boat plugged in. Batteries for these boats are expensive. Four, five, six hundred bucks apiece. I just played six of them in my boat. It was expensive. But I got almost seven years out of 'em because I keep 'em on a charge and when they're charged they trickle. If you just don't plug your boat in, shut your battery switches off, and don't keep your batteries charged, you might get three years out of 'em, maybe four. If that 's probably three years. So There's a lot of things to know. I teach my friends and they're just elated. They're saving money. They go out to the boat. It actually starts. That's a big deal. Yeah. Or if you're not gonna use it for a couple of months, hire somebody to go there, drop the boat in the water, start the motors, run the motors, put them in gear, put 'em in reverse. Run the systems, the freshwater pump, the saltwater pumps. Check your bilge pumps, check your float switches. If you don't have time, hire somebody to do it But I do all my own stuff because it's easy. And all my friends do it themselves because I showed them how to do it. Yeah. It's important. Yeah, you don't want to be forty miles offshore. Your bilge pump doesn't work, or your float switch doesn't work. I mean

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:36

We got problems. And you're 40 miles out or 60 miles out or 80 miles out. We got problems.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:41

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 23:57

Battery helps everywhere. Big time, and don't cheap out and get the acid batteries. You pop the things off and you add the water to it. Get this sealed like AGM batteries. Sealed batteries.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:07

They're way better.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:09

Because they don't leach out that acid. Like when you when you charge in your in your um in your boat the batteries that have the little things that pop off you had water. When you're charging, they're releasing little particles of acid In time, I believe, my opinion, it'll damage anything metal in the building.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:25

the sealed batteries, AGM, spend the extra money or the um The gel-filled batteries.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:31

You'll get a lot more life out of them. You'll pay more upfront, but you get more life out of them.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 25:20

Well the thing is, i if you're heading from Fort Myers to the Keys or you're in the Keys in Aldorada and want to go out, you know, thirty miles out on the Gulf Stream, you have one motor, if it fails. You're stuck. You have a problem. Hopefully if you're e-perb hit the button, they'll come get you. Um having twin motors, if one fails, you can always get in on one motor or three motors or four motors. So Not that I haven't taken my little boat, my Murata, um with a single motor, you know, twenty miles out or out in the Gulf twenty-five miles.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 25:49

There's enough boats out there, enough boat traffic. Somebody's gonna see you. Um always have your updated flare kit. Make sure your flares work. Have a working VHF, and if you can, a handheld um sapphone. And what I just got the other day, it's really cool. I bought the um What's Elon Musk's thing? The Starlink. Starlink, yeah. You bought the Starlink Mini. I got all the connections and all that. I'm gonna mount it on the boat so no matter where I am.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:14

Super fast. And people can still reach me. I can still be working. Doing my thing. And if we break down A Coast Guard, I think I'm thirty-five miles out of what I'm doing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:24

Come pick me up. Yeah. So Anytime you're going offshore making a long trip, one of the Bahamas, I would not recommend with a single motor. If you if you break down from like Island Rada to the Bahama Bank, it's like 89 miles. You break down, you got a problem. You get in squalls, you have a bigger problem. At least two motors. And one breaks down, you can get there. Yeah. Same thing coming back. Even if you have three motors, four motors.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:46

Um, I would say more inland with a single motor. Definitely smaller boat. And check the weather before you go boating always. The weather can get nasty out there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:00

Eleven and a half miles. Eleven and a half? Okay.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:03

I'll ride a hump. I'm eleven miles, eleven and a half miles. It's spotty. You go twelve and a half. No cell service

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:10

thirteen. I ran out of gas in the cabo one day. That's a whole another story, but whatever.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:16

It was a three-day fishing trip. Long story short, I calculated fuel to go out to the middle grounds. Went to Tortuga, spent three days fishing in a forty-seven or forty-eight foot cabo. It's got a thousand gallons of fuel. Calculate everything perfect. Forget about my generator, almost two gallons an hour. Running for three days. Craig was with me and some other guys. Craig I'm telling the story. From Chicago. I'm so dumb. So running from Dry Tortuga, it's like 130, 138 miles from there to the headpin of Fort Myers Beach. I'm about twenty miles offshore. Actually I noticed about forty miles offshore. All the tanks are on E. I'm like, hmm. Say, Craig, we're not gonna make it. He goes, Well, what do you mean? I go, I'm gonna run out of gas. I go, go down and hit that generator and shut it off. Not that it's going to make a difference because this boat burns 75 gallons an hour when you're running. It's big, big sport fish. So I get about 18 miles offshore, out of cell service. And uh The motors, you feel and before you run them dry, you don't want to do that. It's bad for the injection systems. Pull the throttles back, actually, pull the throttles back, drop the anchor, and Bernie is with us. Bernie and I think uh Craig's other buddy from Chicago What are we gonna do? We 're out of gas. I go, nothing we can do. I said, Bernie bust out the grill. Craig, get me a beer. Let me get the VHF. I'm gonna call the Coast Card. They'll call Cito. They sent somebody out. Yeah. By the time the guy got out there we had all of our fish cleaned. It took him like four hours to go early. 'Cause they had to come from somewhere, wherever it was. So the fish was clean, had a couple of burgers, gave the guy from Cito a burger. He was so happy in a Coca-Cola. And he pulled us in. We got in like three thirty that morning.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 28:49

So I didn't calculate my fuel burn for my generator. Figured everything else out. Calculate my mileage and all right. I've reserved like, you know, 70 gallons. Huh. I didn't.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:01

There's a lot, but we had a ton of fish. We had American Reds, we had uh Red Grouper, Black Grouper, we had Scamp. Ton of yellowtail, big flag yellowtail. We had a great trip. It was a blast that we ran out of gas. It was an adventure. I mean, I we're 18 miles offshore. The sun goes down. You can kind of see the luminescence of the lights, but whatever.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:30

fish.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:34

panic mode. They were in panic mode. What are we gonna do? I said we're gonna drop the acre. It's only forty-five feet. It's not deep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:45

No, I didn't have a sat phone. VHF radio.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:49

Coast Guard called the uh Sea Tow and Sea Tow came out, or maybe BoatUS, one of the two. And they came out and got us, gave my coordinates on my GPS.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:57

So yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:17

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:59

You want a VHF radio, sat phone if you can.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:02

And buy that um Starlink Mini. It's like 400 bucks. And then the I think it's fifty bucks a month. I haven't turned it on. I literally just got it last week. When you're not using it, you turn off your subscription so they don't keep charging you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:19

That's like a big deal. I mean that's a big deal But have that, and let's say you do run out of gas out there, you still got battery power. And all my boats I have USB, the USB one, the little skinny one, whatever they call it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:32

USB C. So you have that uh you can charge your devices just because you run out of gas, your batteries aren't gonna die right away.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:54

It's out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 31:58

It's a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:01

Yeah. I got so many stories, so many things I've done, but it's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:10

If you think about it. There's a bunch. We were coming back from the Bahamas uh two three years ago. Two boats. The other guy had his boat. He doesn't use his saddle tanks, but he put gas in them this time and they had s debris and sediment. So we're trying to come back from uh Turtle Kay And we're down at the Abacos actually. And uh we left at like nine in the morning trying to get across. Once you cross over, you're good. But if you wait till the afternoon of the summer, you get horrible, horrible storms. was engines kept the the fuel water separators kept getting clogged. His motors had shut off. So after about three times of going back and forth, getting fuel water separators, dumping them out, I said, Danny, Juan, we gotta go. So I think I took f five people on their boat put 'em on mine. So we had nine people on my boat. Instead of ripping out this is bad choice. I when you get on the water like 12 30, 1 o'clock. Bad choice in the summertime trying to cross the Gulf Stream. You're like 90 miles So you get 40 miles out. I'm looking in front of me and it's just turning black. There's lightning here and lightning here and lightning here. And I'm trying to go to Boynton Beach. I'm like, hmm. Only 40 miles out. Got, you know, 55 to go It closes up behind us. Black. Lightning. Thunder. There's water spouts. I got this on video. I wonder if I can share the video on the other. Oh yeah, we'll put it as a B-roll on this. Oh my gosh. It was so freaking rough. It started blowing 20 knots. Seeds pick up five to six. People in the back are laying in these bean bags. We had four or five bean bags. It was miserable. So we're ripping along and thinking, hmm, Poynton Beach, hmm, Palm Beach. Palm Beach kind of cleared up. There was like a little white spot here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:41

I'm like, all right, so I changed my direction, put in GPS, ran towards it. All of a sudden that closes up. I'm like, hmm. Running along, I look at my fuel tank and my oh crud. I have three fuel cells on the boat, 125 gallons, 85 and 85. I ran out of gas, and we're still. 30 aisles offshore. It's rough as can be. It's raining, lightning. I'm like, this isn't good. So everybody in the back had to get up because you have to open the hatches to turn off the main tanks and turn on the auxiliary tanks or the saddle tanks. That was a pain in the butt

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:07

Nobody was seasick though. And uh that's good. Long story short, we're rally twenty-five miles out in West Palm, just it just closes up. Lightning, thunder. I look over here and I see this little like white opening, Boynton Beach, and the night. So I put my GPS. I'm like, we're going. Hang on guys. Full throttle. Last by 18 mile. We ripped and we got kind of beat up a little bit, but I have a contender. It's a strong boat. Got to shore and as soon as we came in the inlet there it's flat calm. That looked like the best feeling ever. It was interesting. My story I Speeded the story up, but it was a lot of people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:48

That's a problem.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:59

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:04

filters clean. Yeah. Or the big thing is if you're not using your saddle tanks. Danny used his metal tank all the time. Okay. He hadn't used them in years. So when you put the fuel on the tanks, all the sediment, all the crap, the condensation, yeah, the corrosion, whatever's in there kept clogging up the fuel water separators. Uh so when you try to run a saddle tank it wouldn't work, he could run the center. But we needed to make sure he had enough fuel to cross all the way.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:32

They're they're below deck. Yeah, they're below deck. So you have a center tank. Most contenders do a center tank, and then you have two saddle tanks. Got it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:39

Extra fuel. So you have range.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:52

Every day. Every day.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 36:38

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:16

It was a lot of questions. Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:25

They could just couldn't grasp how a year ago or year and a half ago their unit was 150,000 more. They couldn't grasp that it's come down that much.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:34

I said, well, backtrack four years ago, three years ago in COVID Prices went up 30, 35 percent. It was silly. It was crazy. I mean it was I feel like we're in 2005 again when prices just kept going, kept going. I knew something was gonna give eventually and it did in 2008 through about 2012. They couldn't grasp it. I said, look, you have about eight, nine months ago, we had a 16-month supply of inventory. Yep. Condos houses, everything. We haven't had that. I don't ever remember having that in 33 years. That's a huge supply of homes. It's down now. A lot of people who want to get this much for their home is they've taken their homes off the market. They're going to wait for the market to come back. I'd be surprised if it comes back anytime soon.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:16

The reason I say that is 2005 when prices were here, people bought. Fast forward twenty years to two thousand twenty-five Those prices are now back where they peaked out in 2005. Now not exactly within five to ten percent. We had the pandemic where everybody freaked out, and I'm not gonna get into all that. Point is prices were driven up. Well now prices are coming back to a normal market, a healthy market. Any real estate broker you talk to in the keys, Fort Myers, I talked to them all. I've done this forever We have a good rapport. We have like a group. We always talk to each other. We're just returning to a normal market.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:50

But people who bought during COVID Or wish they would have sold during COVID and maybe bought here when they bought here. They should have sold here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:59

Not here. But they're still okay. They're still gonna make money. It's not like If they bought during COVID, you may have to wait a while or take a loss. Right. You just don't sell your property. We've seen a lot of homes come off the market. Personally, we had three people take their homes off the market, withdrew them. Not that they were upset. We had showings, but the offers we kept getting were Way lower than what they wanted to get.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:20

Well, fast forward, those offers in retrospect they should have taken because now the market's here. It's okay. They don't have to sell. Our other sellers that we have followed our advice Numbers don't lie. The numbers are here. The numbers are here. We analyze all that stuff. And when they get it listed at the sweet spot, showings are. Oh my gosh, reading all these showings all of a sudden, Shane. Why? Because we adjusted the price to current market value.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:44

And then it goes pending. Then we do contract, do the home inspection, it sells. They take a big fat watt of money and they either go back north. Or maybe they downsize.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:53

Or maybe they sell now to upsize. Something else, an important point today in that listing appointment I was on. I said, you're gonna buy in the upper state of Florida. I've um Nakomas, I forget where they're going. I said things are all relative. I said typically when prices increase, it happens here first, then it trickles to like North Florida. When prices go down it trickles. You think in your mind you're gonna lose a hundred thousand dollars. You're not, because that property you're gonna buy in Nekomas or middle of Florida, I forget where it is. is also adjusting down. It's all relative. So if we get $8. 50 for your property, which is a super nice property, I think it'll sell. I know it'll sell. What a year ago was maybe 700 there is now going to be 550.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:35

They're not losing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:36

And if I put it in that perspective for people who want to sell and buy something else It's the same thing. You're selling for this, but everything else is adjusted down. It's all relative.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:46

You know, it's different if you were selling here and the rest of the world was up here. It doesn't work like that. Yeah. It just doesn't But um that was one of the questions and I think the light bulb went off. I could see in his eyes. He's like, oh, and his wife's like, honey, think about what he just said.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:01

When do we sell for here? Maybe it's not we could have gotten a year ago. But where we're going, they've come down too.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:08

Just as.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:09

What were other questions they had Oh, marketing, you know, about being on the water. I said we do something different. When we get people down, we need to sell them on the lifestyle, the waterfront lifestyle. They want to do what we do. They want to do what they see in our videos, fishing, lobstering. Snorkeling, all that stuff, going to the beaches, backing up to a beach in your boat, throwing out your that's another story you can talk about, putting an anchor out off the bow and put an anchor off the stern. You're from ten feet away to the beach, you get out with your grill and your tent, you set up and you have a barbecue on the beach.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:40

That's the coolest thing. So when these people come to look at this property, they're gonna go, well, how far is Fort Myers Beach? Well let's hop in the boat and go. My boat is right there. Yeah. You want to go to Sanibel? Yeah. You want to go to Cabbage Key, Melons, Barnacle Phil's, whatever it may be. Get him in the boat as part of the lifestyle that they've dreamt about for all these years up north, like my buddy Craig. He dreamt about it for geez. Forty years, thirty-five years about coming to Florida somewhere. I didn't know where he was looking to land. Yeah. He met me here in Southwest Florida. And then he watched You did my website like twenty-five, thirty years ago.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:16

That back then it was awesome. But he watched our boating guide. He'd sit at his shop. He had a snow removal business and watch our videos and our Uh the boat the boating guide.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:26

He goes, I'm gonna do that one day. I'm gonna call that waterfront Wilson guy, and he did.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:30

And fast forward twenty years and he loves it. So A lot of it's the lifestyle. You know, a lot of realtors may sell waterfront property, which is great. Maybe they're not boaters. I don't know. But part of our niche is The waterfront lifestyle, taking people out by boat, showing them the area, selling them on the area like, wow, this is really cool. Yeah. And then helping them buy a boat. They don't have a clue. Most of them don't have a clue. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 43:00

Different. Totally.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:20

ons here and there's a while's right here just coming in they were jumping all over beyond the bridge. Yeah that 's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:33

Nine tons of. Like, how'd you do that? Well, I just love the dolphin call. I don't. I'm just saying like Shane, I go, watch this. We're gonna go up because I can see him. I know what to look for. I see him a half mile up in the channel. I'm like, oh, the dolphins are playing. Hey guys, you want the dolphin to jump behind the boat here? You can do that? Let me call him and hold on. And it starts out as a joke. So I go over there. I slow down. I trim the motors up About 1200, 1500 RPM. It makes the stone of the boat dig, so it makes a huge wake. I go, look off the back of the boat, they'll jump. Nine times out of ten they do. That one time they don't. They start jumping, flipping

Shane Waterfront Wilson 45:12

How did you do that? Anybody can do it. You just gotta look ahead and see the dolphin. And if they don't do it that time, say, oh, they must not be in a playful mood. Well, they're tired today. Yeah. They freak out. It's so cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:07

It stinks, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:12

They'll get it

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:06

A bridge. Nine-foot clearance on a bridge. You're looking at a 35-foot, you're not going to get under the bridge. It's not going to happen. I mean, it's not. They don't understand. I have really good friends. Yes, Jim Michelle, I'm going to mention you and you're going to see this. So gosh, 10, 12 years ago, long time ago, um, had a call from a guy named Jim. I won't say last name, and he goes, hey, he goes, you know, we're looking at houses on your website. Actually the one you did. And uh I'm like, yeah, he goes, Yeah, my wife's picking out these beautiful homes, these big, beautiful front elevations and big high ceilings. I said, give me the address. So I pulled up my computer. It's good, yeah. That's an hour to the river. He goes, Well, what do you mean I go, well, the closer to the river, the higher the prices, but it won't be the big fancy homes, the big front elevations, because the dirt value is much more closer to the river versus driving your boat for an hour. Because I don't understand. I said, hold on. So I set on properties. Calls me next day. He goes, Oh, those are nice houses. And I see it's really quick out to the river, but it has the low ceilings and not the big grand openings. I said, I understand that, but I said, Jim, let me ask a question. How many beers do you want to drink before you get to the river? He started laughing. I never met these people before, Jim Michelle, never. He said, he goes, what do you mean, man? I go, how many beers do you want to drink before you get to the river? He goes, oh, one, maybe two. I go No more than two. You're gonna be sweaty, you're gonna be hot, you're gonna be sunburnt. You need to buy from Del Prado is one of the main you know Del Prado is you need to buy on this side or the south, east, southwest, below like Del Prado, or below um El Dorado.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 48:28

He goes, why? He goes, when you come down here, I'll show you. So I got him down here. They bought a couple houses from me. He was so happy I explained it that way. He didn't understand to ride in your boat idle for an hour, hour and five minutes to get to this big beautiful home when you've been in the boat all day. You're hot, you're sweaty, you're sunburnt, you just want to get home. Hell no. He's like, no. They ended up buying the house from me, this is fourteen, fifteen years ago, something like that. He's a contractor by trade, retired Fix that house up. They made two hundred and fifty grand on that house. Wow. While their next house looking down this beautiful canal, now it's dolled up, decked out the way they want. But he's less than a beer out to the river. He sounds crazy. And he tells that story to everybody. Less than a beer. Everybody. And then some other people, I'll be real quick, is um They fell in love with one of the beautiful homes, high ceilings, beautiful front elevation. And I told her, I won't say her name, but I said, you don't want to buy this house. It takes an hour and five minutes by boat one way to get up. Julie, it doesn't matter. You know, I said, no, you don't understand. It's an hour and five minutes. So I put him in my boat, her and her husband and her son. And we went from Kalusachi River up. It took like an hour. It wasn't an hour and five minutes. It was an hour. Got to the house. And she fell in love with it. Sold him the house and said, Are you sure? No problem. Six months later she called. She goes, Shane, you were right. I go, what? She goes, that boat ride sucks. Her words, not mine.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:49

I go, what do you mean? She goes, we try to go boating three to four times a week. It's new to them. So they're

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:54

She goes, end of the day. We're hot, we're sunburnt, raining, lightning, whatever. And it takes an hour to get back to our house. But I was honest, I told the truth. Yeah. And I explained to her. I even put them in my boat, spent half a day driving them up there Driving them back. It's okay. They love the home. They don't boat as much as they used to, but now they're talking about maybe selling that home, buying something that is one beer away from the river. Yeah. Instead of a six-pack away. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:07

We've done it many times.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:19

That's fun. That's cool. So when we go to the Bahamas, we go probably two, three times every summer. This time we went to Europe, which I'll tell you about that later. Um you leave here, you fuel up, and there's Eight oxygo through. So by the time you get up to the alvaloc, the whole topography, it's the river, these beautiful huge tracts of land, these big beautiful homes on the river. You'll go through probably three more locks, I think a total of four on this side. You get to the uh Lake Okeechobee. It's that big lake in the middle. There's a thing called a rim canal. So we'll hop in the rim canal. We'll come over to Roland Martin's. It's like a little hole in the wall, bar slash restaurant, eat there, get back in the boats, and I think we've got three more locks, maybe four more, to the St. Lucie River. So basically Clusachee River is here, Lake Okeechobee, Roland Martins is here. The famous freshwater fishing dude.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:07

Um and then you get in St. Lucie River and take it here to Pirates Cove Marina. We'll dock there, have dinner, fuel up, ice up, and then make our crossing to the Bahamas. We've done that numerous times. That is a fun trip. It's a long trip. It's an all-day deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:32

Parkway, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:48

Yeah, inboard outboard

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:49

Yeah. Big mistake.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:55

You want an outboard motor, yeah. Outboard motor, not IOs.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:08

Ching.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:11

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:11

easy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:33

Florida Power Light. It's a consistent eighty eight degrees year round. So in the wintertime when the water's cold. All the manatees will go up there and hang up because of the warm water. They have a manatee park there too.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:44

a slow zone, you have to go slow between there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:55

Between eight and five. If you're there at five oh one, you're stuck between the two locks. They leave. And they made it clear when I was coming back one day and I called them. I said, Hey, I'm running behind. You know, I may not be there by five. She goes, We'll be closed. You'll have to go to hotel or figure it out. They close at five.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:10

So we throttled up, burned a bunch of fuel, ran extra fast, they get there and got there like at four forty five.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:18

I think it's either seven to five or eight to five.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:25

Oh, it's a blast.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:40

Get the bears, clean the fish out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:43

Pull the grill out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 55:34

It's really pretty.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 55:58

Way different.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:11

Like Mosquito Lagoon, all that you can run the inside. You have the barrier islands, you run the inside. Yeah, like here. Sanibel, Captiva, North Captiva, Kia Costa. If it's super rough on the Gulf, we run the inside and go to the beach on the back

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:51

That's a big, big deal, big deal. So Southwest Florida and the Florida Keys. If you're getting that wind blowing out of that north-northeast and it's blowing hard off the Atlantic. If we run the bayside the whole way if it's blown opposite direction and it's a rough on the bay, I run the ocean side. We take a trip from Isla Morata to Key West of my little boat every year, the twenty-four. my wife and I do. We're gonna bring some other people this year.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 57:12

And um about halfway down to Bay Honda, it got super rough on the golf side. I'm like, do I really want to go up Bay Honda channel around Sawyer Key, Pass Content Keys to Snipe 's key? I'm like I'm not gonna get beat up. It was like threes. I mean it was rough in a twenty four foot boat. I said, Okay, we're gonna take the oceanside. She goes, The ocean, I go, trust me. Oceanside since the wind was coming this direction. We had maybe less than one foot, and I was running like fifty minutes out of the way. And all the way into Key West Arbor, got to um the galley and checked into our hotel room, had a blast. And that's awesome. Oh i W the best time and the way the wind was coming the next day, fueled up the boat, got some ice and drinks and beer, whatever, went over here to a place called Man Key, Woman Key. I forget the name of this island. You get the Marquesas, but we're on the backside and it's shallow the whole way. It's rough over here. It's shallow here. Too rough to go over to Dry Tortugas, because that's like another thirty, thirty-eight, about thirty-six miles But it's kind of 24, 25 is like open water. But you can have the best time because you have the option to go on either side.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:20

Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:30

Three foot C

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:32

that's kinda rough.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:34

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:39

Also depends on the kind of boat. Like we have a twenty four foot Island Router Boatworks. Great boat, solid. Kevlar Hall. It is solid. I mean I can run two foot, two and a half foot. Slower, but if it's one foot or less, I'm running forty-five, forty-eight miles an hour. I want to get where I'm going. And on the way to Key West, we'll stop at a bunch of different restaurants and bars just to kind of check it out and make footage and shoot, you know, content. But if you have a smaller boat, like a flats boat, like at a lake and bay, that's made for speed and calm water. That's twenty foot.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:05

I have a 31 T contender, which if it's Threes, fours, you're good. You just trim the motors down and hit it and go. So it doesn't matter which side you go up in the bigger. And that's got twin motors on it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:15

The depends how rough it is for the application. You want to use it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:20

It's a whole nother aspect.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:32

Seasick, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:37

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:46

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 59:51

Drive the boat, look at the horizon. Do not sit down. Do not look down. Do not go in the cabin. You're gonna throw

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:07

Calm.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:19

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:30

Midlands. Middle grounds.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:34

That's a fishing spot. That's a fishing sp way offshore off Southwest Florida. That's Prime pristine, say hundred fifty miles. Okay.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:44

hundred and fifty miles. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:47

Yeah, like we go out there, we'll go out there and fish and just drift or throw an anchor out. We'll come back to where maybe two hundred foot, hundred and fifty foot, and you anchor, but you stay the night in the boat or like in the cabo, the trip I've landed for three days, we went out and fished. Went down to dry Tortugas, anchored up on the fort, went out and fished, came back, anchored out, went out and fished, came home and ran out of gas.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:09

We burned a lot of fuel.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:17

No.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:19

No cell service.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:24

Kinda sorta. Just make sure you have enough gas. Don't do it like I did.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:40

Contaminant sediment. Yeah. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:07

Play it out in your head. You gotta have a vision in your head. Okay.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:15

Yeah. Totally. How did I even do that? I'm like, Shane, really? Craig's like, how can you do that? I go, I don't know. Bernie's like, are we gonna be okay? And then uh Eddie, Eddie's with us, are we gonna be okay? I said, we're in 45 foot of water. Land is somewhere over there 18 miles away. We're fine Oh call the coast guard. We're fine. I mean we're in a forty-eight-foot sportfish. Got three state rooms, two heads in it. I mean it's big salon. Uh but when you're out of fuel generator, it doesn't work. Then air conditionings don't work. So but

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:02:42

sort of problems, yeah. So it's it's the you you just gotta plan out and think ahead. Like if I'm going from Islamorada to Key West, I always fuel up. I want to have plenty of fuel in the bigger boat. And uh plenty of ice. Yeah. And then you go to Marquesas, fish a little bit, I'll cross over to the fort, anchor in the harbor overnight. And then we take day trips out fishing. You gotta be outside the park. It's another thing too. Do not fish in the park. You fish in the park, you get a ticket, they could take your boat from you. That's a whole nother ball of wax.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:12

when you say park, it's a it's a national park. So for Jefferson is a national park.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:21

Key West is here, it's almost due west, like right here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:25

Sixty-seven miles from Key West. So it's it's an easy run. But you have that last twenty-eight, thirty miles where it's just open water where it can get rough. Like Rebecca Scholes is down here, you got Marquesis here. But once you get to the fort, it can be a foot shallow with a reef and it could be twenty feet deep. Once you get up on that ridge. And as you're kind of picking your way through the reef, you gotta be real careful getting to the fork. There's a lot of shallow spots that come up to literally twelve inches, two feet. But it's got you know. And then if you go to the fort, we have another spot we go to is Loggerhead Key. It's the most beautiful white sand beach you've ever Seeing it is

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:01

beautiful. So you have to type to buoy. It's funny we type to the same buoy every year. It's the only one there actually There's the same coral head and the same lobster lives in that spot. No, he's huge. You can't take it's a no-take zone. You take, you take that lobster, you're going to jail, you're losing your boat. His legs are like this long. They're fat. He's almost like deformed. His legs are so long, but he lives under the coral head. I've been going there for thirty-five years. Probably the last ten years, he's there every year. Same lobster. No, you can't tell me I should have called him Fred. Shoulda. Fred the lobster. Larry the lobster. But it's awesome. You get in the water and you have to paddle to shore or swim to shore with your mask and snorkel.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:41

They're a hogfish. this big. They're a mutton snapper that big. And they just look at you like, you can't touch me. They know. Like they come right up to you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:48

It is beautiful. And then there's a clipper ship, which is about a quarter mile off the Wow, that'd be like Southwest Corner that sank in the eighteen hundreds. So Anna and I went there two years ago. I did a big video on it and we scuba dived this clipper ship No takes on. It is the coolest thing ever. It's like 15 to 20 feet of water. You see the masts laying on the bow pulpit thing. I mean it's It is freaking cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:13

I got it. I got it. I got it all. I got underwater stuff. I got make sure. Cool stuff.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:19

Just send me an email, tell me what I gotta get you, and I'll get it because I got it all later.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:23

Yeah. It's pretty cool. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:41

yeah. Yeah. Not as much as I used to, but Wade and I, my son, and our friend Mark. I won't say his last name. We used to spear fish a lot out here, but the visibility is horrible. So if we're in forty-five, fifty foot, got tanks on, Wade has a gun, I have a gun, Mark has a gun. You'll go down probably the first forty feet, thirty-five feet. It's just murky. You can't see your hand in front of you. But when you get about ten feet off the bottom, it's a silt layer It's clear. So we get on our rock piles and we'll spear hogfish, uh black grouper, red grouper, big mangrove snapper. I was out there one time with Oh, they're huge. Because nobody most people don't spearfish. We were out there one time with uh Mark and Jeff, Chad, Wade. Who's with this? Was it Brad? I don't remember. Anyway, we're trying to find a rock pile and you could see it on the bottom recorder, but every time we'd go over it and try to drop down, we couldn't find it. I said, guys, I'm gonna I'm gonna go down there. Threw a tank on, got my spear gun. I went to the bottom All sand. I'm like, I know there's a ledge here somewhere. And about twenty feet away, I see all these snapper little groupers swimming towards me. I'm like, hmm There's a ledge over there. You can't see it, but the fish are coming from somewhere. Yeah. Well the snapper like topography. They like ledges. They like structure, rocks. Grouper love ledges. I'm like, hmm. I'm watching my bubbles and you can kind of hear the boat he's just idling around while I'm down there. So I start swimming this way about 20, 25 feet, and it comes into my vision, this huge ledge. It was like Maybe two feet off the bottom. Yeah. And it went as long as I could see. Red grouper, gag grouper, scamp grouper, mangrove snapper. I went to shoot this one snapper and it's like uh we call Swiss cheese bottom where there's holes in the rock. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:18

The snapper would go under the ledge. I'd go to shoot him like, damn it. He'd stick his head up and I'd say, Oh, there he is. So I'd come on top of the rock and he'd go back in the Swiss cheese. So I'd go back and I got a tank on. I got probably forty minutes of bottom time. And I see him and he sees me and he goes back up like hmm I said I got an idea. So I left my gun right here and it's a fluke. I hit him. I went up top so he could see me. The ledge is here. My gun's still down there. He goes back down. I just pulled the trigger. Got him. Mangrove snapper. He must have been like nine pounds. He was Huge. Huge. But the point is when you get to the bottom, even though you may be marking bottom, we couldn't see it until all these little fish started swimming towards me. I'm like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:58

I swam to it. And we marked it up. Marking means when you get on top. When I came up, I came straight up on the ledge. I think the boat was like 40 feet away. I'm like, Mark, come here and mark this. So he came right next to me. Marked on the GPS.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:20

Well not listening really to bubbles, but watching my bubbles. If we had a strong current, the bubbles would be Going like this.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:27

And then listening to where the boat was versus where I'm swimming to. I know the boat was still in close proximity because Well the currents there weren't bad, but there's areas you can go like the Clipper ship. It's like a four knot current. And I had to fight hard to get to the bottom. And I look up and you can see the bubbles and we're on the bottom. And I mean it was hard to get back to the boat. Yeah. So sometimes like when she got tired, I would look at her and go, Anne, means boat. She's like, so I'm like, grab her tank and I'm like, I think I can make it, man. I think I can make it. And you can see the line where the boat's tied to the buoy. I'm like, I know I can make it. I'm dragging her along and she's doing great. She's awesome. But it was a workout. It was a big workout.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:18

Yeah

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:22

There are free divers that go down 20, 30 meters, yeah. I can go safely 25-30 foot and actually have some bottom time, swim around and come back up. When I was little, I say fifty, sixty foot, but I'm fifty-seven years old. But what we do is you'll swim along the top. I'll see a coral head or I'll see ledges and I'll swim down and just kind of swim parallel to the ground.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:39

And you have a water column here, and I can see the fish off in the distance. So I'll just work my way up with a pole spear. Just work my way up. And sometimes they'll come up to you to investigate you like a hogfish. He'll come right up and turn sideways and look at you. It's like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:09:52

Easy to shoot. The grouper or finicky, mutton snapper are the worst because they don't they always stay, it seems, like eight, ten feet away from you. Uh unless you're really, really good or the fish is not that smart. But in the keys you can sight fish or sight spear fish. If you can see the fish, they can see you. Here off of uh Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, Sanibel, the water's murky err, but the fish don't see the people as often as they do in the keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:17

The ones in the keys are more spooky. Let's I go down to like uh Marquesas. Marquesas, there's a great coral heads there. I mean great and you can spear fish there. They see a moderate amount of people. The keys like Alamrada, Lower Mat, they see a lot of people. The fish out here in the Gulf. What is that? Oops. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:38

So you have Key West here, man Key, Woman Key, a bunch of other keys. I can't think of the names. Marquesas is a huge island. Right here. It's great for fishing. Bonefish. Um 35.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:53

On the way to the fort.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:55

So you get the Marquesas and then it's about twenty I think it's about twenty eight miles from Marquesas to the fort. You got Rebecca Scholes down here and that's where I say it gets deeper, it's like a hundred and twenty foot. It's not nothing like a cotton shelf. Yeah. Not like the Atlantic. I go out of my house in the Keys and you go twenty miles out, you're in 1500 foot of water. You go 30 miles out, you're in 2800, 30 miles.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:17

No, you're not you're not touching the bottom there. No, no. It's just two different things. The fishing style is different. You know, the fish in the keys can see your leader You gotta lose the lighter leader. The fish up here, when the water's marky, they don't see the leader. They smell the bait. They can't really see. It's two different techniques. Here I use shorter leaders. And the keys I use longer leaders to keep that weight away from the bait so it doesn't spook the fish.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:40

Just totally different techniques.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:43

A lot of ninjury.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:00

Oh yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:02

It's not hard Well

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:11

Okay, so also something you made me think of in the keys, when you get into the water and you notice you got a one or two knot current, like you're sitting still and you're moving one or two knots or three knots and you're in twenty foot of water. Always swim up current. Fight it first. Do not let the current take you out and you realize you're a mile from the boat and you gotta swim a mile back to the boat or half a mile, you probably won't make it. And that's when you need to start yelling, screaming and you know, waving your pole spear or your spear gun, hey, come pick me up.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:37

That happens a lot. That's a that's a serious problem. All seriousness. Yeah. Swim into the current. You're gonna get winded quicker. But you know what? When your legs cramp up or you can't breathe or you're out of breath, stop swimming. It'll drift right back to the boat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:50

that's a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:53

That's a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:54

That is a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:01

swim away first. No. If you're not a good swimmer, don't.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:10

they don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:26

it doesn't go.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:27

It doesn't go. Doesn't always have a a snorkel buddy. Have somebody with you, and especially when you're scuba diving, always have a partner. Never scuba dive by yourself. Just don't do it, stum.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:36

But if your leg cramps up, or like that day Anne and I are off the Clipper ship down in Fort Jefferson. She could have made it back to the boat, but I saw her struggling and she's strong, man. Like she's super strong. She's fit in shape, like she's a machine. Just grab the tank and I'm thinking like okay, it's not that far. The buoy's there. And once I got to that buoy rope, pulled her to it and we pulled ourselves up the buoy, got in the boat, she's like, Shane, I go, I know. Yeah. I should have swam up current, but the buoy's here and the shipwreck is back here, so you have to go with the current.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:18

The way the market is today, you have to be priced at market value. If you're overpriced, you're not going to get showings. No showings You gotta get people in the property like this one. They overlook this long expansive canal. The back is the mangroves with like a creek. You gotta get them in the house to see it. If you're overpriced, they're not gonna come in there. There's too much inventory.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:37

If you're not serious about selling or need to sell, then take it off the market. Wait. Wait for some of the inventory to come off.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:43

If you do want to sell because you want to buy something else like these folks. We need to price it realistically. I mean, they were at 975 a few days ago before it expired. We're going to 875. We still may have to adjust it, but let me track the market. Let me watch all my Analytics, I call it. I can see when people click on it. I can see when people take the detailed view. I can see when they click as my favorite. I can see if it's a returning customer or a new customer looking at it. I see all that stuff because I pay a buttload of money People would be sick if you know which money I spend. But I need to see this to educate my people. Knowledge is power. Don't just put it on the MLS and sit back. That those days are gone. You have to market properties. You gotta be very, very, very Ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. Well, that's why we're doing this. Social media, Facebook.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:31

It is huge, and you have to stay in constant communication with your seller. And the biggest thing too They mentioned that this other realtor didn't stay in communication with them. You gotta talk to your sellers once a week, man. Every week they get an email from me with all the different stats and analytics. And I'll call 'em or some of the want to be texted. Some say Shane, don't call me. Just let me know when you have a buyer. I've got some people in the keys. Don't call a shame when you got a buyer on the way here. Actually I have a showing tomorrow in Alamrada, which I'll be flying down tomorrow morning.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:57

but I want to be there for that showing. It's a three million dollar house. It you know it deserves it But the point is, I know I went off track here. Oh, having it priced right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:07

In proper marketing. Having relationships with all these other realtors out here. I've been here 33 years. And the keys of my whole life. I know probably 90% of the realtors, when they show the house, give me honest feedback so I can tell my seller. I need to know, is it overpriced? Is it condition? Is it location? Tell me. So my seller doesn't hear me telling them it's overpriced and your carpet's dated and your kitchen's dated your bathrooms. If they have ten, eleven showings, they all say the same thing. They look at me and go, Shane, do you think we're overpriced?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:39

Yeah. I mean but sometimes they need somebody else on the outside to tell them.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:44

Communication is Huge. Don't go dark on your sellers when you have their

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:09

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:28

I ask.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:29

I just ask them.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:30

You're gonna be communicated by telephone, by text, by email, you want me not to call you? Look Shane, I'm so busy call me when we get an offer. If somebody has a question, you don't have the answer, call me. Shane, can you know text me every couple days? Let me know how we're doing Yeah. I send all feedback to our sellers too, so they can see the feedback. It's not just Shane saying this. This is another realtor and a ready, willing, able buyer because most smart realtors don't put people in the car not ready to buy. Yeah. They don't have they don't have proof of funds or pre-quall letter. They don't do it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:17:56

When I was a new realtor thirty three years ago, you were breathing, man, and you could, you know, uh Yeah, I put you in the car and we even looked at property. Find out they couldn't afford to buy a house. They had a bankruptcy. They had no income or whatever, no tax returns.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:09

Big mistakes in the beginning. But any business you make mistakes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:42

Yeah. I hate to admit Just all the people out there, but I don't really read books and it's terrible. So all my really successful friends read a lot and they're really successful. I'm super successful, but I think it's on a different plane because

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:02

I'm the walking book and people I get calls, texts all the time in the keys. Hey man, it's blowing out of the gulf. Where can we go on the bayside to get Lunch, fish, stakes, wherever. Hey, where can we go on the oceanside? Hey, what reef should we go to today? In Fort Myers, hey Shane, it's real rough in the Gulf. Where can we go It's just all up here. Yeah. I live, I think what a lot of people read. Like my buddy Craig reads. Yeah, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:24

What's the book they sell at Doc Ford's? Um, Randy. White?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:32

twenty-five books of the lifestyle living here and growing up and all this stuff. And Craig has read every book cover to cover, some twice. He goes, you're that guy, Shane. He goes, you need to write books. I go, I don't want to write books. I like to sell real estate.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:48

Oh.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:53

Everything.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:19

I got a bunch.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:24

a gazillion places.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:34

Doc Fords. Hello. Doc Fords has that. In the red sauce, I forget what they call it. Not it's not bank show, but Doc Ford's Dixie Fish House. Um Naughty Mermaid. I mean

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:51

So Naughty Mermaid, I'm thinking, is over at uh Tarpon Point in the room. I have all these different places like you're running through my brain. You've got Cape Harbour, you got uh Naughty Mermaid, which is fun. Another restaurant went to for breakfast the other day. You've got Marker 92. If you come down on the back side of Fort Myers Beach, you've got uh Dock Fords, you've got uh Parrot Key. Yeah. You know that Parrot Key is, you've got uh Oh my gosh, what's it called? It used to be called Snook Bite. It's called um Oh my gosh. The restaurant got destroyed on the beach and they moved in right behind the Publix, that big marina.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:23

have really good food there. Uh nervous Nelli 's never fails. I mean that place is awesome. Yep. Go to Ugly's upstairs, the bar upstairs called Uglies. Go to Matanzas next door. And the funny thing about that is you can take your boat, dock it, have lunch, or have dinner. Get out and walk around. I call it Main Street, it's not Main Street. Go by the uh smoking oyster house, what they call it? Uh smoking They just open it back up. You've got uh another restaurant here, you've got the names aren't coming to me. There's so many cool things to do. Yeah. Or I made a video of this too. I'll send it to you. You can use it somewhere.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:56

We had dinner at Nervous Nelly's Walk down what I call Main Street, which is not to time.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:08

Not even that. Half mile.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:11

Yes. There's a dude there on a unicycle throwing swords and juggling all this stuff and the kids were loving it and the grandkids loved it. It was like the coolest thing. Then we went back, hopped in the boat. As I'm leaving the boat, I'm looking at the traffic on the bridge. I'm like, yeah, I'm going home by boat and they're stuck in traffic It's just the coolest thing. There are a gazillion places to go to. I don't know if Grandma Dots is open. That's on Sanibel.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:33

Yep. Barnacle Phills, which is now called that's on North Cap Diva, which is now called um wins something or you got melons on the left or you got cabbage key or millers marina.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:54

Gasparella.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:55

Boca Grand. Miller's Marine, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:04

Gasparilla Island. It's connected by that one bridge and you've got the restaurant there, Miller 's Marina, you go on the marina there, you've got another Marina um What's the name of it?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:57

You've got a ton. So when you pull out of the house, um you come right out. We've got, oh my gosh, we've got Hog Heaven right there. You've got it's called Three Waters, which was Holiday Isle. They've got the tiki bar, another restaurant, a restaurant up front, um, Wahoos. Oh my gosh, there's a ton of places. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:20

Joe's.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:21

Yeah, Bayside. So Papa Joe's just open it was open for like seventy years. The building fell apart, they condemned it Friend of ours bought the dirt, bought the dirt here for parking and built a new Papa Joe's. Everybody goes for sunset. It's the Bayside. And the way it's laid up is that different times of year that the sun tracks. And you have the view from here to here. No matter what time you have, an amazing sunset, a big, huge second floor. When we fly down there, I'll take you there. We'll love it. We'll hop on the boat. And we only go there by boat. We don't deal with the traffic. It is so much fun. The food is outstanding. It is By far, probably one of the best plays. We were just there this last weekend. And actually backing up to what we said before, yeah. We took uh three couples down there with us for Fourth of July. As soon as they all got in town, we hopped on the boat, went everywhere by boat. The traffic was backed up for hours. Like they got stuck in it. We don't want to get back on the road and well, we're going out to dinner at so-and-so. So we'd hop in the boat. We probably went to Eight or nine different bars, restaurants. Loreleye is fun too. That's a blast. We went to dinner one night at Pierre's. Actually had drinks there. Went next door to Maratha Bay. Pulled up in the boat. Went home that night by a boat. Meanwhile, traffic is backed up on US one far as you can see. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:37

traffic.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:38

Boat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:58

A little a bow right, like a bow right. Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:25

Pain in the book.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:44

Tavernier.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:49

Easy peasy

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:53

Page Field, right?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:57

That's the big jets, yeah. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:06

Okay, there's old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots because they're all dead. They are. My instructor taught me that and some other some other pilots.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:30

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:55

crazy last night. It was crazy. It was crazy. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:59

The thing is too, whether you're you're you're Boating or flying either way is one of my ways I con my wife and let me get a different airplane. Had the first airplane perfectly 182 Cessna, the fixed gear, and uh the plane I have now is a it's called a retractable gear turbocharged I said, Anne, you know, if we lose the motor and we go down on a fixed gear, you know, w when you hit the water, the plane could flip over. Well you didn't tell me that. I said, Yeah, I don't have a glass cockpit. She goes, What's that? I have the old steam gauges. We need to get a you know, step up airplane. Why? I go, well you know it's about our safety. Whatever Shane, just get whatever. She's really cool. So I sold my other plane, bought this plane now. I have two screens, touch screens. I see the weather. I can see that little yellow dot turn to red, turn to purple, and grow I know I can go around it or go around it if there's two of them. Try not to go between them unless you at least

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:51

grow together.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:58

get closer, you'll see an anvil form. And anvil can spit out hail. Hail will bring down jetliners, so you don't do that. So always be watching. We're flying. We took off out of here. It's like a year ago in the summertime. It's probably 11 o'clock. We're flying down. I'm looking And I see the red grow, grow, grow. And it was just a big wall of red. I'm like, and let's land in Everglades. We've landed Everglades. And I went upstairs, talked to the guy, Dennis. I think his name was Dennis.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:29:22

show me your radar. It's getting bigger and bigger. I said, I'm out of here. Got in the plane, flew back to Fort Myers, put it in the hangar, locked it up. We drove to the Keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:29:30

I don't fly in bad or marginal way. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. And now it's funny because I can kind of read the weather. I know there's way smarter people, but I can look at a little storm cell and then I can look out through the screen, the windshield of the plane. And you see these long, big, long tubes, that's tornadotic activity. Those are cumulus nimbus clouds. And then they start growing and get bigger and bigger. And then when you look at the bottom, When the rain comes out, you have 150, 200 mile an hour downdrafts, then you have up drafts. You fly your plane through, your plane gets chopped in half. It rips your wings off. You don't have a chance. You don't ever, ever fly into those ever. Jetliners, it'll take them down. That's why when you're on a commercial flight and all of a sudden detour, you got bad weather here, they will fly around it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:15

It's you know,

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:21

That's correct.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:02

Driving

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:20

Oh I will. He's huge. Fred. Fred the lobster. He is huge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:41

He goes, two. You're overpriced. People aren't even coming to see it. If you're overpriced, you have nobody to negotiate with. Get it priced at market value where it needs to be to get people in the door. You get people in the door. Wass is really pretty. Yeah, look at the view here. Your two boat lifts are there. You got the creek here, your kayaks are there, you can kayak out here and covered a bunch of beach Then you're selling the lifestyle, but until you get it in the property, you can't sell the property.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:11

So yeah, a year ago could've got a million or a year and a half a million for it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:14

Those days are gone, guys. You should have sold a year ago. It just is what it is. If you talk to any realtor today that actually has real estate as in their career, not just part-time where they sell one house.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:27

We have a lot of realtors who just can't make And I and I feel bad for them. They're good people. They just can't make it. I've done this 33 years. We built an amazing book in business. I've made a religion out of it to take X amount of dollars out of every fee we earn and I put it back into marketing, advertising, social media. mailings. I mean one mailing is thirty three hundred dollars. One mailing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:48

Two mailings, that's almost seven thousand bucks. What is that? Sixty six hundred dollars. It's a lot. But It's kind of like you go into Publix and you buy the food off the shelf and Publix makes a hundred bucks. So Publix goes and spends all that money. No, they keep $50 to buy New supplies, restock the shelves. The other twenty-five percent goes to insurance, building, electric, the other twenty-five goes to retirement accounts, four one K's, you know, paying your employees. You've got to put money back in your business. You have an auto parts store. You can't make a hundred dollars And not replace the parts you just sold.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:33:19

Real estate is the same. And I tell I try to help so many realtors. I want to see them succeed. You've got to invest in yourself. This is your business. Nobody's going to do it for you. You could have big brokerage houses. Yeah, they might give you business cards, a couple sign panels, whatever. You've got to reinvest in yourself. You cannot rely on that brokerage to send you all your business. You can't rely on one source. I rely on a gazillion sources, personal referrals, social media. Uh homes. com, realtor. com, all those things I rely on that, plus again, past clients, customers, because I take care of them. Communication. They get a Christmas card every year for 33 Oh my gosh. It's almost 33 years. They feel like part of the family. They are part of my family.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:05

And now my kids are having kids. Or Sarah is. I have four grandbabies now.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:11

Literally.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:14

Yeah. Well one day they will, but the thing is that they're part of the family. So when I talk to them from, oh we saw Sears new baby, where you saw this, we saw Jane do this or Riley do that. It's like a big family. I love all my people. I do. I would never do anybody wrong. I just I'm not capable of it. I don't know why, but I'm just not. It just serves well. And something else too for people who want to be realtors out there, we get so many new agents that say they want to do like nine to five. You know, after five I'm done, I've got this, I've got that. You'll never make it. You can't start at nine in the morning. I'm up at 4:30, 5 o'clock every day, planning my day, planning my week, knowing what the priority stuff, my A-list, B list, C list, things that are gonna help my people come first. Then maybe the marketing, and then maybe Just the stuff that's involved in the business. But this is a career, guys. It's seven days a week. I don't know any different. That's all I've ever done. So if you think you're gonna work Monday through Friday, nine to five, it doesn't work that way. I talk to most of my clients after seven o'clock at night, but it's okay. That's what I do.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:18

I mean, that's I d if I'm having dinner with Anne or the kids or grandkids I'll see the call. I'm with my family. I'll call you back shortly. Yeah, both of us.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:30

But you've got to know. And so many realtors want to be realtors say, well, I'm not working weekends Well you're not gonna make it. You're not you will not make it. I don't know any different after 33 years. This is just what I do. I like helping people. It's not a big deal, you know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:43

I'll be out in the boat with people showing a property. I always respond to my people, and that's why I bought that um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:49

Starlink. I'm in the Bahamas, man I'll respond, yeah. If I'm in dry toward, I'll respond. Can't help you now, but I'll I'll you know have so and so reach out to you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:36:02

Real estate has transitioned and evolved a lot. It's not like it used to be.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:36:06

It's totally different now. Totally different. And I know years ago they said, oh, Zillow truly is going to take over the market. And Everything's gonna go through them. No. Real estate is a people business. Yeah. Find somebody you like, know, and trust that's gonna look out for your best interest. Not look at that commission check thinking I'm gonna make five grand if I sell that house. Hell no Take care of the people, the money will follow. And I see so many realtors get in the business, say, oh, you make all this money, da-da-da. They're out of the business in a year. They're done. It's over. People sense that. If that purchase for that buyer is not the right one, that buyer knows that realtor is trying to get a commission. That's wrong. If it's the wrong house and it's a million bucks, I'll tell you flat out, look. That's not the right house for you. Your big boat you plan on getting into yours, you'll be sitting on the bottom here. That house won't work because of this or because of that. You don't want to be on that house because all the sargasm we washes up on the beach between June, July, August, September. You're gonna hate the smell These are things I don't care if the sale falls apart, but they're loyal to me because I told the truth. And then when the right property comes along, what do you think? I would do it. They have faith and confidence in me. I tell the truth.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:08

This isn't rocket science.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:18

That's awesome.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:41

the money comes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:59

It's a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:40

Fine tune.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:47

No. Go out of business.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:54

They're the dangerous ones that aren't up to up to uh um code, not code. They're up to the current laws Things are always changing. If you get a part-timer, doesn't know about this, doesn't know about that, you can get yourself in trouble.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39:20

Oopsie.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:40:43

You know, find out who's running it. Is it a professional management company or just a bunch of homeowners? That could be an issue. Where they're voting on stuff that the other homeowners didn't want to do, but they wanted it, so they voted it in. I mean,

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:40:55

Yeah, there's a lot of variables. There's so many variables.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:40:58

Lots.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:41:11

Palmetto Point. Palmetto Point, Channel River.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:41:42

Mm-hmm.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:03

specializing. Or

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:37

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:10

Correct.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:16

like, it's not worth it. It's not worth it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:45

That's funny what you just said. So we picked up a great couple, husband, wife. He likes big boats. He was working with the realtor and the keys. He drove his boat from Fort Myers down to the Keys to pull into this basin, this marina where these condos were, and he pulls in and somebody came out on who. You can't have that boat near it's too big. He goes, look, it's only 39 feet. He goes, our max is 34. And the realtor comes walking up because they came by boat. The realtor met him there. I'm not saying any names. He goes, you can't have that big boat in here. The realtor is, what do you mean? He goes, it's right in the HOA uh the rules and regulations. Thirty-four or thirty-five is max. His was thirty-nine He got so mad. I mean he burnt probably 150 gallons on fuel getting there to go look at this condo. He was going to buy it for sure. They wanted it. His wife loved it. His boat wouldn't fit in the marina. Long story short, personal referral. Who gave that referral to me? Said, look, call Shane. He knows the keys. He's born and raised there. I called and he told me the name of the community. I won't say it on air. I go, yeah, your Mac 's there. It's like 35 feet. He goes, Well, how did you know that? I said, because I know. I mean this I'm a voter, I know. They fired that realtor, felt bad for that person, hired me, I sold him a I almost said a bad word, a killer house on Duck Key, three million plus. I mean killer house, and then we're selling them another house.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:02

Which is really high and I'm gonna sell the other house for him, all because of the knowledge that I had. And when I talked on the phone, he goes, Well, how did you know my boat wouldn't fit? Because I know I am from the keys. I know I mean, there's size limits of certain marinas or or certain HOAs or kind of complexes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:23

Don't work that way.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:26

And the draft. Some things on the ocean side are shallow getting in. When you're looking at the basin and the keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:32

It's eight or nine or ten feet deep. But what you don't think about when you get out of the basin coming back to the coral ledge, it comes up to three foot. You're not getting your forty-foot intrepid in there or your contender. Ain't gonna happen. You gotta watch out for that. There's a neighborhood called um Oh my gosh. Um Indian Waterways where I was raised in the keys. So it's fine in Dandy and the canals are super deep. They're like 10 feet, 15, 20 feet deep. But when you come out towards the mouth of the canal, where our friends live over here, and I got friends who live here actually It comes up to about five and a f six foot. So people when they're looking at that go, oh, ten foot. Yeah, we got plenty of water here. No, you can't get your boat in there It doesn't you're not gonna be able to do it. Or another Venetian Shores, the canals there a hundred feet wide, super deep. They're twenty-five, thirty feet deep. What you don't know, and maybe some realtors don't know, is When you come out to the ledge here on Snake Creek, it comes back up to about eight feet, maybe seven feet. Not that you're gonna have that big of a boat in there, but that could be a problem. Yeah. Or near Tavernier Creek. It is shallow. The canals are super deep. So when somebody's looking at a house, oh yeah, my oh, draft not a problem. No. When you come out of the canal. And it comes up to about four and a half foot, you got a problem. You're not getting your big boat in there. I couldn't get the 48 cabo in there. I could get it into Venetian Shores, couldn't get into it to um Indian waterways.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:47:00

That's what I do. A lot of these areas I fished. I fished these whole areas my whole life.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:47:08

everything. It's all up here. Certain areas on the ocean. Well shame we found this house Yeah, but you can't put a dock there. Why not? I said your average mean um water depth is too shallow. You know, it's gotta be I think in now the rule is average mean depth of four foot. You can't put a dock there. Yeah, we love the house. So you can't put a dock there. You can put observation pier. What's the difference? Well that's fifty foot with a terminal platform on the end, maybe with a cheeky hut. But technically you can't park a boat there. Oh, that won't work. I said, no, it won't work. But yet if you go a mile down the road, you can put in a pier a hundred feet out and be in six foot of water. You can go another hundred foot down the road ocean side and you can go out literally three hundred yards and be in two feet of water. There's there's just so much to know that people don't know and if they don't understand, I say top in the boat. Why are we taking a little boat because it's shallow over there? Oh, why don't we take your big boat? I said I can't get it in there, it's too shallow.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:47:59

but the it's a learning curve.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:48:33

There's other hazards. It's shallow.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:48:44

Me and Gary and Craig. And Eddie, we were in Tortugas fishing one time and we're coming off the uh the southeast side and you can see the coral reef comes up and he goes, Shane, you're gonna hit bottom. I said, We're not gonna hit bottom. And I'm driving his boat, not mine I go we're not gonna hit bottom. But knowing like when you're the Bahamas, everything looks super shallow, even though it's deeper because the water's so crystal clear.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:49:06

We went ripping across it and I remember I'll never forget. Gary said, Shane, how did you know we weren't gonna hit bottom? I said, because number one, I don't want to wreck Craig's boat. Number two, I can Tell you I've done this long enough I can tell how deep it is. Because but how did you know? I said, I don't know. I just, you know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:49:21

Intuitive.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:49:37

I made mistakes, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:50:04

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:50:36

like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:50:39

Yeah. Stop at Cabbage Key, get a Cabbage Creeper, stop at Tween Waters, get a get a Rum Runner or a Pina Colada or whatever. Lunch too, you gotta eat. You gotta hydrate. There's so many places to start.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:51:10

I just made a great video, I'm gonna send it to you. Okay. Still gotta edit a little bit. Going into landings Nine times out of ten you go to the restaurants on the water, they'll have a dock master. Cabbage Key has a dockmaster.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:51:22

when you pull up there, you call them on the BHF radio, or if you're close enough, you holler at him He's the boss, that's his marina. So you do what he says. And I'll pull in there and I'll be like, all right, I'm in the forty-two today. I think I'm gonna park there. He's like, no, no, come around this other side. I'm like, don't argue with him. He's the dogmaster. And if you piss him off, can I say that? If you make him angry, he'll tell you to leave. No, he's what you want, man. But he'll come around and he'll you know Driving skill. I said, expert, what do you want? And he goes, back it in right there. I'm like, okay. Back it right in. But listen to what they say at um Doc Fords. There's a lady there, uh there was a lady named uh Doc Debbie. Debbie the Doctor or whatever. Her name was Debbie. Super nice lady. She always thought you come in here and do this and the and I always tell people, and this is in the video, we'll somehow incorporate and all this I shot the other day at the landings.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:52:09

My dad taught me when I was little. He goes, son, how hard do you want to hit the dock? I go, well, dad, I don't want to hit the dock. He goes, Well, how hard do you want to hit it? I go, I don't want to hit it hard. He goes, come in slow. When you're coming into the dock, just go nice and slow. Don't get nervous. I see so many people pull up to the dock and boats hitting the dock, bouncing off other boats.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:52:28

I see it all the time. The dock master is there to help you. If you're not sure Just put it in gear, put it in gear. Throw the rope to them, but before you throw the rope, make sure it's tied to the boat. I see that all the time too. No, I see it all the time. This isn't my other view.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:52:47

Shoot. But you come up and they'll tie you off. They'll tell you what to do and guide you in. I mean it's it's it's not hard.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:52:55

I've seen it all, man. I've spent thousands of hours in the water. I've seen it all. But to answer your question, almost any marina you go to, there's a dock master that'll help you and tip them good. Because when you come back that next weekend, they'll remember the boat. Maybe not you, they'll remember the boat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:53:10

When I go to some areas that I always take customers to, I always tip the Doc Master really well.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:53:16

This is a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:53:17

Don't give him a dollar. Don't give five bucks. Give him twenty bucks. People say that's a lot of money. No, it's not. When he makes you look like an expert, When you're a good captain or not a great captain, I remember that. And you he will tell you forward, reverse, you

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:53:31

Throw me the rope. You look like the master freaking captain ever, and he knows there's a twenty spot or forty spot, and sometimes if I have eight or nine people on the boat I'll give him a 20 and Frank will give him a 20. So it'll make 60 bucks, but you know what? It's worth it. Because when he sees us, you get you're the center of attention. He will take good care of you. Hundred percent.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:53:55

VHF radio.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:54:08

Yeah. I mean they know the boat now. It's gonna be W'd on the side. I mean they know the boat. Like when there other people are coming in and they call on the VHF radio, whether it's channel eleven, channel seven, eight, whatever. Voting skill. Pretty good. Novice, uh Freedom Boat Club. I was in the keys with my friends on the sky. Oh my gosh. Real fast, and this is taking forever.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:54:32

Freedom.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:54:36

Very

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:54:39

Yes. This last weekend it's uh Sunday. We're at the local sandbar in the Keys off of Hog Heaven And I see this boat going back and forth, back and forth, and this lady's on the bow and she's got the anchor untied and they got a kid swinging from like the hard top and those little swings. It must be like fourteen months old and two other kids and I'm watching this guy back and forth, back and forth, and I see this other black boat kind of back in. He was struggling, man. So I watched him. My boat's here. I'm watching so they don't smash into my boat. I mean, I want to help, but so he finally gets it, drops his power pole. Dude goes back and forth. I go, hey, are you do you want to come in here? Yeah, but it's tight, man. I go Just back and I'll help you. Oh, thanks, man. I'm Freedom Book Club. He started laughing. I go, got it. I said, do me a favor, man. I said, put your bow out there. And whatever his wife's name, I forget what her name was. Throw the anchor out, but it's too far. I said, No, it's not. Chop the anchor. And then you back your boat down. When I tell you to kill your motor, that means shut your key off. Claire? Okay, I don't get chopped up. So his wife throws out the anchor, backs the boat up, I go kill the boat, he kills it. I grab the st the transom of the boat and I pull him in. I go Trim your motor up because it's broken. I go, that's the thing that makes your motor grub down. He goes, it's broken. I go, they let you rent a boat today or take this boat out and the trim doesn't work. Yeah. I go, do you have a like a push pole? Any kind of stern anchor? I don't know. I'm like, dude, before I leave my dock, I know I got my main anchor, my stern anchor. I've also got a spike I use.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:56:00

He did have a stern anchor.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:56:02

And when I got done helping him, he goes, dude, thank you so much. He goes, my wife, I got a whatever, 12 month old, my two other kids, three and five, whatever, he goes Thanks, bro. He goes, you made me look good. I said, no, you made you look good. You just listen to what I said. But it can be dangerous. It can be so dangerous. I mean Anyway, we see that all the time.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:56:32

100%. Everyone was so happy. He was so happy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:57:07

Help somebody else.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:57:22

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:57:33

It's a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:04

We always help.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:17

Yeah Oh yeah, I've seen a million times.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:21

No.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:26

So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:30

slow down.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:58:40

A good thing to hit what you just said. Yeah. The overhelper. Anybody who knows me, my nickname is the overhelper. I'm always helping somebody doing something. That's one of the takeaways. And now that we've dialogued for two hours, how long we're talking, I guess I do have a lot of knowledge up here. I didn't know I had, I just thought everybody knew what I knew, but I guess

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:59:01

Don't

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:59:15

Nothing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:59:22

Buttonwood Bay, yeah. I know exactly where I was going.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:00:09

More W's confuse people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:00:11

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:00:17

A lot of good stuff, realizing that I have all this knowledge in my brain, but I just assume everybody knows it. But I guess people don't know it. So in my mind, all these things you pulled out of me, I'm like How do you remember that? It's 45 years ago, 50 years ago. How do you know that? How do you I can envision in my mind I had a really good friend of ours. Um Hope and Dean, they wanted to go to the Bahamas to Bimini.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:00:39

Basically went down on my boat, got my chart platter, videotaped like five videos on the chart plotter showing him where to go, where to stop for fuel, where to stop for food, what bar to stop at. And he's from Ohio. He's got this badass butt. It's a Nortec quad five hundred. That's can I say badass? And he did exactly. Fort Myers went down Went around here, went through Hawks Channel, came out, came out at Snake Creek, fueled up, iced up, ran across the Bimini, went through customs, the customs building, right where I said it was. Yeah. They spent a couple days there fishing, ran back and came back and came back. Like I stayed in contact with them, but he said. Everything you said was spot on. He goes, You made me look good in front of his wife. But it's just cool to have the knowledge. I can remember everything.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:02:02

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:02:12

Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:02:43

Remember that?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:02:50

Oh, absolutely.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:02:58

texting agent. That was a big deal.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:03:28

crazy?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:03:49

Oh.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:03:51

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:04:47

Love what I do. It's a blast. Like helping people. I'm the overhelper. I just want to help people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:04:53

I mean, you're traveling along the road. Somebody's broke down. We pull over. Somebody's Broke down their boat, we pull it. Help people. But it goes hand in hand with what I do because I want people to make the right choice. Yep. Whatever they buy, whatever they sell. If it's not right for them, I'm gonna tell you this is not the right choice.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:05:09

Now look at me. You want to make a commission to me? I'm like, yeah, but this isn't the right property.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:05:13

Well, we want to sell. I wouldn't do that. I'd fix that first, do that, or upgrade that. Yeah. Then you get more money for it

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:05:43

Waterfront wisdom. Uh Tw 's. Shane, Waterfront Wisdom.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:05:49

It's just here. And part of my ADD, I'm woo! I'm always going 20 different directions, but I know what's happening at all times.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:05:56

And they thought I was a bad kid when I was little too. I just had ADD.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:06:12

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:06:19

Huge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:06:28

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:06:37

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:06:55

Final note.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:07:00

ShanewaterfrontWilson. com for Southwest Florida and ShanewaterfrontWilson Team. com for the Florida Keys.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:07:10

Woo! Oh