Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Great Reading.
Every time people go on international vacations—it seems its usually England, France, Italy, Spain or Portugal. Nice—but a bit predictable. My wife, Erin, and I have done all those trips and decided it was time to break out of the “European Knee-Jerk Reflex” and try something else. I’ve never been south of the equator, heard […]
Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Great Reading.
Tennis is part of my DNA. I grew up playing tennis year-round in Buffalo. (Yes, we paid to play indoors half the year.) Played college tennis, country club pro in the summer and have been an announcer for dozens of pro and amateur tennis events up and down the east coast. So you’ll understand why I initially […]
Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Great Reading.
If you have a short attention span, don’t like being around hundreds of people every day but you want to see as much of the world as you can–river cruises may be your answer. We took a 14-day cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest on Avalon Tours. Here are some random thoughts: *It was fascinating to […]
Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Great Reading.
I’m the kind that likes to make the most of vacations, jam as much as I can into one day—and sleep later. After a great week in Park City, Utah, I thought it would have been short-sighted not to spend time in the city in which we flew in and out. So, we saved our […]
Written by Sande Caplin on . Posted in SRQ Scoop.
We wanted to turn the tables on our monthly columnist Ray Collins and find out how a guy who spent 35-years as an award-winning TV newscaster has been able to become an award-winning Realtor in his first full year of buying and selling homes. In 2021, Ray was among the top 1% of his Coldwell […]
Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Businesses.
This month’s column on real estate will take a look at a new hotel in our area in an unprecedented area called the Compass Hotel on Anna Maria Sound. I’ve lived up and down the Gulf Coast for more than 30 years now. I’ve been to all the islands—from Marco on north. But until now […]
Written by Ray Collins on . Posted in Businesses.
It may seem counterintuitive—that in a time of a worldwide pandemic with so much uncertainty, that people are buying and selling real estate as much as they are. Why real estate selling? For one, the lowest interest rates in history, hovering around 3%. One of my colleagues at Coldwell Banker’s downtown Sarasota office, Lynn […]
Written by Christine Baer on . Posted in Great Reading.
Ray Collins doesn’t sit still for long. After a career in television news, he’s now making waves with his high-end videos in the local real estate world, and also running for an elected office in Sarasota County. The Suncoast Post recently caught up with the downtown resident to find out more about why he’s throwing […]
Written by Laura Bell Adams on . Posted in Great Reading.
If you live in Florida, there’s a better than average chance you have bought and/or sold real estate in the past few years. Make no mistake, there is a LOT of coming and going in the Sunshine State, and especially here on the Suncoast. We did a recent ‘search’ and there’s over 5,000 houses and condos for sale right now in Sarasota and Manatee County.
Written by Sande Caplin on . Posted in Great Reading.
When you dream of doing something for your entire life and then you live the Dream… that is Abundance. It’s Christmas Morning. We’re in Tampa. at the airport boarding a plane to Newark, N J. There we will have a five hour layover before we board our plane to Paris. This is a dream coming true – I have dreamed of going to Paris for my entire life – Ray inherited my dream …We’re on our way we’ve finally boarded and we’re comfortable. United Airlines was amazing. They even provided complimentary beer and wine for our long flight. We’re excited and we’re are feeling good.
Written by Sande Caplin on . Posted in Blog.
In 1988, the great late John Waters gave us the campy cult classic movie called “Hairspray”! Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Debbie Harry and Divine! It was the most fun at the movies in the 80’s! It became a Broadway musical written by those White Way wizards, Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman.