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Volume
1, Issue 2 - January/February 2002
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  Welcome! Happy New Year to all my friends, clients and future clients. This is the second issue of our newsletter, which will be published every two months. We hope to provide you with the most updated information about our area as well as guest articles and realtor profiles. You can explore past issues by visiting the newsletter archive. The realty company is now home to 18 real estate agents! Each agent brings different area of speciaty knowledge and expertise. For instance, did you know that our agents speak over a dozen languages collectively? Whatever your particular need, we are here to serve you! In our vacation rental division, Carla
Keogh is our seasonal rental manager with over 10 years of
experience in the vacation property business. Carla is very proud
of her work and dedicates her time to give you the optimal service
that you deserve. We In September 2001, we started our annual rentals company and it is growing at a rapid pace. We are proud to introduce Patti Hayes, the vice president of the company. She has more then 10 years experience in the rental businesses and is very dedicated to her profession. All the members of the Carla Bonten team are looking forward to
assisting you with a home or investment property purchase or sale,
helping you book your vacation rental or finding the perfect executive
property rental home. If you would like to be notified of new communiqués monthly, just send your email address to newsletter@carlabontenrealty.com. Don't forget to include your email address! Enjoy! Real Estate Market News
Nationally, despite terrorist attacks, a recession and hard times
on Wall Street, residential real estate did well in 2001. According
to the National Association of Realtors, the national median existing-home
price for 2001 was $146,600, in increase of 5.5 percent over 2000,
and sales in this market were very strong! Our web site offers several FREE & handy tools, such as current mortgage rates (on the lower left of every web page), a mortgage calculator and a real estate glossary. Be sure to take a look at these. Carla Bonten Realty News CarlaBontenRealty.com was awarded sixth place as a 2001 Best Broker Web Site by Florida Realtor Magazine. We're proud of our web site and are always striving to provide more resources and information to you, our web visitors. Be sure to tell your friends about us! Carla Bonten has been named the local ambassador to the Ronald McDonald House of Southwest Florida (RMHofSWF). The RMHofSWF is committed to providing housing assistance to the families of seriously ill children who are seeking medical care. This programs allows families to stay together during these difficult times. Be sure to visit their web site to see how you can help this very important program! Don't miss our fine selection of International properties. From a Swiss chalet apartment to a Costa Rican hacienda - and even a Belgian mansion. Don't miss our exclusive private oceanfront villas in tax-free Cayman Islands!
Are you planning to visit our area or know someone who is? You will want to visit our vacation property rentals web site. Each vacation property is listed complete with photos and a description. And best of all, our vacation properties are all gorgeous! We also have vacation packages to choose from. Let us help you have the vacation of a lifetime. Bonita Springs News An articles in The Naples News reports that tourism in the area is on the upswing. "We're very fortunate here," he said. "The rest of Florida is down 15 percent. We're very pleased with the November numbers. Hotel occupancy for November was off by 5.9 percent compared to the same month in 2000, according to statistics compiled by Research Data Services, a travel consulting firm hired by the county. The same measure had reflected decreases of 9.4 percent in September and 7.2 percent in October, the statistics show. "
"We're still getting a tremendous response from the advertising dollars that have been spent. It should continue as long as necessary. These are investment dollars. As long as that money is creating a positive benefit the program should proceed." — John Albion ------
------ An article at the Lee Island Coast web site states that although Regional SW Florida International Airport traffic was down in September and October, overall for 2001, traffic is still 2.6% ahead of 2000. ------ Need an idea of what dining experiences are in our area? Click here for a list of some of the best! |
Enjoy Our Area!
For the second consecutive year, the Lee Island Coast (identified as the Fort Myers area) has earned a spot on the Top-10 list of U.S. destinations, according to the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA)/Fodor’s Annual Hot Spots Survey for Winter 2002. For complete details, read the full article at the Lee Island Coast Visitor's Bureau web site. Guest Article
Introduction To Computer Security Issues One of the most daunting challenges facing individual and business
computer users today is security. Security breaches can be costly;
repair is expensive and the cost of rebuilding a reputation is often
beyond estimation. The primary categories of security breaches are
viruses, hackers and denial of service (DoS) attacks. In tod Viruses With email use increasing at staggering proportions, old viruses that refuse to go away and new viruses that achieve unprecedented infection rates in short periods of time, it is clear that viruses are an ever-increasing threat. MessageLabs, a leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) specializing in email security, reports that in scans of over 3 million emails per day, they intercepted 3.3 email viruses a minute, or one every 18 seconds, in 2001. This compares with one every three minutes in 2000 and one every hour in 1999. Mark Sunner, MessageLabs Chief Technical Officer, said: "There is no doubt that 2001 is the year of the virus. A massive increase in numbers is one thing, but of more concern is the business impact that they are having. As virus writers get more sophisticated the trouble they are able to cause is much greater. If we thought the scale of LoveBug was bad last year, then 2001 was characterized more by the sheer range and ingenuity of viruses."
Other viruses are more malignant. They "worm" themselves into the critical files that make your computer operate and begin corrupting them. I've had many clients lose every bit of data because of this kind of viral damage. It can be extremely costly! Fortunately, virus detection software is quite sophisticated these days. Top names include Symantec's Norton Antivirus, McAfee Virus Scan and Trend Micro's PC-cillin, just to name a few. My personal preference is Norton AntiVirus because of it's advanced email scanning features for Outlook and Outlook Express & Netscape, and it's ease of updating. Most packages include automatic (online) virus database updating, which is probably the most critical maintenance task you can perform! Symantec is also home to the world-renowned Symantec Antivirus Research Center, which provides 24/7 research information, including virus hoax data, a free, web-based virus scanner, tools to repair virus infections and a plethora of other information. For you Macintosh users, you'll be pleased to know that the Mac to Windows virus ratio is about 1:1500 with known Windows viruses numbering nearly 60,000 as of this writing. Despite the paucity of Mac viruses, they still exist and it is wise to have virus protection in place. Norton AntiVirus has a Mac version and another product, McAfee's Virex, is widely used. Part 2 of this article will cover hackers and hoaxes. Be sure to
look for it in the next issue.
Storybook Ball 2002 - Saturday, March 2, 2002, Ritz-Carlton, Naples. Step into an enchanted setting as we welcome you to the magical story of "Beauty and the Beast". Those attending this black-tie gala will enjoy an evening of fine dining, dancing and the opportunity to bid on fabulous live, silent and Chinese auction items. The entire proceeds from this even go directly to the Ronald McDonald House. Call 437-0202 for invitation information. Caribbean Gardens, the Zoo in Naples, is offering storytime sessions conducted by storytellers from the Collier County Public Libraries at 12:30 p.m. Saturdays through Feb. 23. The sessions take place inside Caribbean Gardens Zoo, 1590 Goodlette-Frank Road N. and cost is included in the zoo admission fee. Information: 262-5409. "Ghost Walks" under cover of darkness at Koreshan
State Historic Site resume Jan. 25 and 26. On each night, guided
walks will begin at 7, Lovers Key State Park is offering bike tours guided by State Park Ranger Matt Kruse through Black Island the first Friday of every month. Join the ranger at 10 a.m. for the three-mile adventure. Supply your own bike if possible; the number of rentals is limited. Reservations are required. The cost is regular park admission: $2 for one person in a car, $4 for two to eight people. Lovers Key/Carl E. Johnson State Park is at 8700 Estero Blvd., Fort Myers Beach. Information: (941) 463-4588. Butterfly Sanctuary and Nature Trail is a nonprofit conservation effort on private property off Vanderbilt Beach Road, featuring a small nature trail filled with butterflies, insects and plants plus an art studio. A small donation is requested to replenish the trail. Guests are welcome by appointment. Information: 354-1098. |
| Next
issue: Real estate news, Area Golfing information, and more wonderful
web sites to visit! |
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represent
approximately 170 seasonal rentals on the beach and our beautiful
golf courses. 
Southwest
Florida is still growing strong! The Bonita Springs-Estero Association
of Realtors notes that a check of the year-end stats from the MLS
for 2001 shows the following: A total of 1,509 resales, an increase
of 18.7% over the previous year. A total of 32 of those sales were
for homes over $1,000,000, and 299 of those sales were for homes
under $100,000. The average price for single family in 2001 was $258,854.
The average price for condo was $214,10
0. There were no notable departures from these trends after 9/11.
Have
you visited our new 
The 
Lover's
Key State Park Opens New Trail
ay's
computer world, being under-informed and vulnerable can be catastrophic. 
Viruses
are most typically spread via email - and most often via email in Microsoft
Outlook or Outlook Express. Viruses can do a great variety of things
to your computer software, but damage is never done to hardware itself.
Some viruses target your email address book, sending out infected emails
to everyone in your address book without your knowledge. Some include
links to pornographic web sites with comments, which, given the fact
that they came from your email address, sound like you endorsed the
pornography. While this generally does not cause direct financial damage
in computer repairs, it's easy to see the how embarrassing this might
be and how it might affect your business reputation. 
7:15,
7:30 and 7:45. Cost is a $5 donation and reservations are required.
The park is at the corner of U.S. 41 and Corkscrew Road in Estero
off Interstate 75, exit 19. Information: 992-0311.