HED: Possible options when personal circumstances change desire to sell
Dear Mr. Feichthaler:
I recently entered into a contract to sell my home which my husband and I have lived in for over 25 years. We had planned to move to Wisconsin to be near our grandkids. Just two days after signing the contract, I found out that my family is relocating to Florida, so they will be a lot closer. We don’t want to leave. My husband has a heart condition, and his doctor advises against moving out of the house because it would be very stressful to him. Is an opinion from the doctor enough to get out of the contract?
Sincerely, Anita B.
Eric P. Feichthaler
Real Estate Law
Dear Anita:
That must be wonderful news to have your family moving down to sunny Florida. With this change, the question is what can be done to stay in your home? Florida courts have a strong predisposition to honor contracts. Your husband and you signed a contract to sell the house to the new buyers. Every piece of Florida real estate is considered unique, so if you decided not to sell and you were under contract, the buyers could sue you for specific performance. This means that the court could order your home sold to the buyers pursuant to the contract. Almost all Florida real estate contracts also have a prevailing party attorney’s fee clause, which provides that the winning party will have their costs paid by the losing party. This amount could easily be 5 figures if this issue were to go to trial.
Although health issues may be compelling to a jury, legally these issues may not be sufficient to terminate the contract. In Florida, even when one of the selling parties passes away during the contract period, the contract could still be valid and enforceable.
There are two ways to avoid litigation. First, determine whether the buyer has fulfilled their obligations under the contract. For instance, if they failed to make the initial deposit in a timely manner, you may be able to terminate the contract. If the buyers have completed all terms of the agreement, then your best option may be to explain the situation to the buyers. Under the circumstances, they may agree to terminate the agreement and find another property. If they still want to go forward, you could offer them monetary compensation for their trouble and costs.
There are potentially other defenses to this matter, so it may benefit you to seek an attorney to advise you further, based on your specific facts and circumstances. In the meantime, enjoy the fact your family will be closer soon.
Eric P. Feichthaler has lived in Cape Coral for over 37 years and graduated from Mariner High School in Cape Coral. After completing law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he returned to Cape Coral to practice law and raise a family. He served as mayor of Cape Coral from 2005-2008, and continues his service to the community through the Cape Coral Caring Center, and Cape Coral Kiwanis where he serves as president. He has been married to his wife, Mary, for 24 years, and they have four children. He earned his board certification in Real Estate Law from the Florida Bar, and primarily practices in real estate law and wills and trusts. He is AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell for professional ethics and legal ability, and is a Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator. He can be reached at eric@capecoralattorney .com, or 239-542-4733. This article is general in nature and not intended as legal advice to anyone. Individuals should seek legal counsel before acting on any matter of legal rights and obligations.
Home renovation projects are significant undertakings. Some projects are simple and do not require residents to adjust much, if at all. But larger projects can take several weeks or even months, and such renovations pose a unique challenge, particularly for homeowners who have young children.
Children are curious by nature, and that curiosity can be dangerous during home renovations. Homeowners preparing to renovate their homes can keep these safety strategies in mind to protect their children during the project.
· Let contractors know there are children in the house. Keeping kids safe can be a collective effort that involves homeowners and the contractors working in their homes. On the day contractors arrive, remind the project leader there are kids in the house and request that he or she let staff know there will be curious youngsters around. Contractors can seal off rooms being worked on at the start of each day, and then do so again before leaving for the night. Many contractors have children of their own at home, so if they know youngsters are in the house they might be especially mindful of safety and less likely to leave tools or potentially harmful debris out overnight.
· Inform children certain areas are now off limits. Parents can inform and routinely remind children that spaces being renovated are off limits until the project is complete. Explain why it’s important that everyone in the house, including adults, must respect this rule. Of course, kids don’t always listen to Mom and Dad, so this step likely won’t
continues on Page 3
Article
PROPERTY TRANSFERS
Source: Lee County Property Appraiser
Is it a slow motion trainwreck or a Perfect Storm?
It was almost exactly one year ago in this column that we were commenting on a local television news report about the Cape Coral real estate market that was titled, “The Perfect Storm: 4,000+ Cape Coral Homes On Sale In March” (2024). At that time, we said we agreed with a lot of the information in the story, although in our humble opinion, we did not think we had reached the type of market dynamics that would qualify as something quite as devastating as a “Perfect Storm.” At least not yet. Now here we are a year later and we are being bombarded by dire headline media warnings about the future of the Florida housing market just about everywhere we look. So one year later we thought we would dive back into the numbers for what we will call our perfect storm update and try to separate the wheat from the chaff by answering the question, are we in a slow motion trainwreck or a perfect storm?
Similar to the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” one’s perception of the local real estate market is likely shaped through personal experience. To that point, we are borrowing a famous saying attributed to former President Harry S. Truman when he described the difference between a recession and a depression based on whether your neighbor loses their job or if you lose your job. To wit, one might consider that when your neighbor has to slash the price of their home to get it sold, it’s a recession. When you have to slash the price on your home to get it sold, it’s a depression. In either case, there continues to be a lot of price slashing going on as noted in a May 4, 2025, Realtor.com article by Snejana Farberov, titled, “Sellers in Sun Belt Cities Are Slashing Home Prices the Most – and the Majority of Cuts Are in Florida.” In the article Farberov noted that, “Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering Florida’s cooling housing market, which has been due to a combination of oversupply and plunging demand, cities across the Sunshine State accounted for more than half of the U.S. metros with the most price cuts.” She stated that, “Roughly 1 in 3 listed homes in North Port and Tampa came with price cuts in April, followed by Cape Coral, with over 28%, and Jacksonville, with more than 27.5%.” Phoenix, AZ, topped the list, with Cape Coral in the fourth spot nationally for April price reductions.
Over the past several years, we have provided numerous examples in this column of “listings gone wrong,” both locally and nationally. When it comes to sellers listing their home for sale it has pretty much been a case of “show me the Realtor, and I’ll find you the price reductions,” as virtually every Realtor that does any level of business has some recent listing skeletons in their closet. In some of these cases of overpricing a home it is the Realtor telling the seller what the seller wants to hear, instead of the truth, in order to beat out other Realtors for the listing. In other cases it is the seller insisting their home is worth that much more than other homes. And in some situations, there was “current” market data to justify a particular list price, but home values and sales prices continued to deteriorate as more new listings came onto the market, suddenly making that home overpriced with a now obsolete list price. In all cases, no matter what any Realtor or homeowner/ seller believes, the true market value of a home ends up being what a willing and able buyer will pay a willing and able seller. And unfortunately for a lot of sellers, that amount is tending to be a lot lower than they expected.
which could lead to more downward pressure on home values and sales prices. As a quick point of reference, from the approximate market peak back in 2006 to the market bottom in 2010, the median sales price for Cape Coral single-family homes went down by a whopping 59.7% and it took another 10 years after that for the market to regain the 2006 highs. That is the textbook definition of a Perfect Storm, when there is outright “fear in the streets,” versus today when we are seeing the outright frustration of sellers and Realtors experiencing a slow motion trainwreck, while a number of buyers are finding some good values in the market.
To further illustrate what is going on in the market and to give sellers a clear picture of what they are likely to encounter, we often need to dig down below the headlines and the surface numbers. A case in point is the recent widely reported story about a Naples home sale that smashed the Florida record high sales price, while also notching the honor of being the second-highest home sales price in U.S. history, selling for $225 million. This incredible property was initially listed for sale at $295 million back in February 2024, so it ended up selling for $70 million, or 23.7%, less than its initial list price. Welcome to the current market.
Getting back to Cape Coral, as of this Tuesday, May 6, there were 3,321 active listings in the MLS for single-family homes at list prices ranging from $189,999 to $6.985 million, while the median list price came in at $485,000. The seasonal peak for active listings this year was back on Feb. 24 with a total of 3,520 homes on the market through a Realtor. One-third of the current active home listings in the Cape are listed at $400,000 and under, including 172 homes priced below $300,000. There are currently a total of 349 homes listed at $1 million and above in the Cape. One year ago on May 7, 2024, there were 2,791 homes listed for sale in the Cape with the median list price at $499,000.
As of this Tuesday, May 6, the number of pending home sales in the Cape is indicating our “season” is continuing, as there are 753 homes under contract with buyers at prices ranging from $159,900 to $4.759 million. The median pending home sales price came in at $375,000 and 58.7% of the pending sales are priced at $400,000 and under, including 128 homes priced below $300,000. A total of 31 homes are pending at $1 million and above. One year ago on May 7, 2024, there were 843 pending sales in the pipeline, so although the pending sales numbers have been holding up nicely in 2025, we are still lagging behind last year’s numbers. The median pending sales price was $399,999 a year ago.
The sales data for this article was obtained from the Florida Realtors Multiple Listing Service Matrix for Lee County, Fla., as of May 6, 2025, unless otherwise noted. It was compiled by Bob and Geri Quinn and it includes information specifically for Cape Coral single-family homes, and does not include condominiums, short sales or foreclosures. The data and statistics are believed to be reliable, however, they could be updated and revised periodically, and are subject to change without notice. The Quinns are a husband and wife real estate team with the RE/MAX Realty Team office in Cape Coral. They have lived in Cape Coral for over 45 years. Geri has been a full-time Realtor since 2005, and Bob joined with Geri as a full-time Realtor in 2014. Their real estate practice is mainly focused on Cape Coral residential property and vacant lots.
Deciphering whether we are witnessing a slow motion trainwreck or a “Perfect Storm” in the real estate market is not as easy as it looks. There certainly seems to be some “weather patterns” forming in the housing market that suggest a Perfect Storm is not out of the question, but just because listings are tending to come onto the market overpriced, it does not necessarily translate into the definition of a Perfect Storm. For example, during the month of April, the median list price for Cape Coral single-family homes ranged from $484,900 to $489,900 and the preliminary April median sales price dropped to $375,000. So, as the crow flies, homes in the Cape were being sold for about 23% less than their list prices in April. Some sellers fared much better than this, while others fared much worse. Again, for whatever reason it was done, substantially overpricing a home to the current market does not make it a Perfect Storm when a seller then has to slash their list price to attract a buyer.
To further this point, the all-time single month record high median sales price in the overall Cape Coral single-family home market was $470,000 in April 2022, so our median sales price is currently down 20% from the record high. By most reasonable definitions, this type of price decline would qualify as a “bear market,” and not a Perfect Storm. At the same time, this April’s median sales price of $375,000 is still 50% above the $250,000 posted in April 2020, before our market went completely wild to the upside during the post-COVID market boom. So one could make the argument that our market is still significantly “overvalued,”
