Is a Gate Guarded Neighborhood for You?

Many years ago, while serving in the Army overseas, I was required to meet a senior military officer in his compound.  To get in, I had to go through three check points, all manned by soldiers with loaded machine guns.  I remember commenting that the compound seemed incredibly secure.  My host laughed and said something to the effect that anyone intent on doing him harm, who was a professional, could get to him.  The check points were only to scare off amateurs.

I kind of feel this way about some neighborhoods with gates.  I live in one and it's awesome at keeping out teenagers, door to door salesmen and people that drive trucks.  SIDEBAR: I'm kidding about trucks, because I drive one - but you get the idea.  A gate discourages disorderly conduct.  Which is probably all you want, unless you have teenagers.  Then their friends might have trouble visiting, and that's no good.

So, if you are considering a gated neighborhood try getting in unannouced and see if you would like being on the other side of the gate.  I do, but it's not for everyone.  I'd write more on the subject but I'm having a dinner party tonight and have to deliver a typed guest list to the gaurd house prior to the first guest arriving.

Seriously.

Think about it.

You're welcome

©Florida's Lifestyle Living

Afraid of Hurricanes?

Obviously, since I've never been to California the idea of an earthquake really sounds scary.  I figure if I ever bought a place out there, the day after I closed on it, the earth would open up and swallow it.  With me inside.  I'm not dumb.

But since I consider myself a real Floridian, I'm not afraid of Hurricanes.  I've had cocktails during every storm that I've ever been in the middle of, and in fact, was enjoying a fine glass of champagne the year one of the storms sucked a window out of my house.  By the way, total damage for the window problem was 75 dollars.

The thing is people are afraid of what they don't know.  Storms aren't scary, heck you can even leave your boat in the water provided you were smart and bought your boat's home (and your home for that matter) with storms in mind.  That's my recommendation for real estate buying and life.  There are going to be risks, prepare for them then put them out of your mind.

                                Example of hurricane safe location for you and your boat.


Your welcome.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living

Pet Friendly Neighborhoods

As you may know, I live with the worst dog in the world.  I mean I love her, but she has attacked every dog she has ever met and been in three real dog fights since I moved into my new home.  I've only been here 6 months.  That's a whole bunch of trouble in only 180 days.  Trust me.  For real, the worst dog in the world attacked the 14 year old Corgie, my 85 year old neighbor owns!

The day I moved in. 

Attacked!  At any rate, the last place I lived had a no pet policy, so I was expecting the police to serve me some type of warrant, or a Sherriff to arrest me the day after the Corgie incident.  But, instead, my neighbor apoligized to me because she thought the worst dog in the world must have been stressed out because of the move and felt threatened by her acient Corgie!

Really?

That's what you get from a place that's super dog friendly!  So, the next time you are thinking about buying a house and wonder how forgiving the neighbors would be about your misbehaving pooch, stop by and I'll let you borrow the worst dog in the world.

(FYI - I wouldn't actually let you borrow the worst dog in the world, because I love her, that's just an example of how to proceed when looking for a good dog neighborhood).

Your welcome.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living

Private Pools vs Community Ones......

Okay, I admit it I'm a total pool snob.  Yeah, my pool is relatively small and not super deep, but I've never lived in a home with a pool all to myself and it makes me feel like a big-shot to have one.  I'm obnoxious at parties and bore everyone within ear shot about how my salt water pool is vastly superior to any of those "chlorine jobs".  And I promise you, you don't want to get me started on my solar panels.  Even I know I'm "too much" when that conversation starts.

So it comes as a surprise to me when someone doesn't want/have a pool.  I mean this is Florida, why don't you want to hang out by your pool every day and have cocktails like me?  Well, the only thing I can think of is the hard work and expense that owning a pool means to the homeowner.  And I'm not just talking about up keep.  Expensive moving parts also break and every 7 to 10 years you need to resurface the pool which can be a big "too do".

Which leads me to community pools.  My community has two of them.  A  lagoon pool for everyone's use and a lap pool strictly for exercise.  Many people have fun at those pools and save themselves the hassle and expense of having a private pool at their own home.  You just need to decide which lifestyle is best for you.

Me?  I use the community pools and my own, because like I said, I'm kinda a big-shot.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living    

Location, location, location?

People that know about property will often say to you that all that really matters is location.  That's probably true in every state in the Union except Florida.  In the suburbs of Chicago for example, your commute may be the biggest deciding factor in how happy you are with your new home.  So yeah, in Chicago location is the one thing that matters.

The rules in Florida are different.

Kind of.......

There are so many different lifestyles in Florida, that the lifestyle itself can be more important than the location.  In my neighborhood for example, my friend Sam moved here because the tennis courts in our community are unparalleled, plus he wanted to be within 15 minutes of Siesta Beach.  (Quick sidebar: I think Sam has sort of figured out life.)  While my neighbors across the street wanted to live in a "cement poured walls" structure with a barrel tile roof built after 2001, for hurricane safety sake.  So the location itself wasn't the draw but what the location meant to them was.  Makes a ton of sense to me.

So take a minute and decide what is important to you.  Be it safety, activity, good schools, access to area amenities or in my case, an awesome house, super close to the spot that I keep my boat.  I bought a place on a creek and keep my boat there and can't stand the thought of being more than 15 minutes to "splash". (Splash is the term the forklift team uses when they take a boat out of our rack-o-minium and deposit it in the water.)    

So next time you are looking for a place please think "Lifestyle" before "location", but only if you are in Florida.

You're welcome.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living

Clean Your Dirty House!!

Look, I know you think your house looks good and is clean.......  however, you're wrong.  Way, way wrong and I'm hear to tell you, you really need to clean your house.

I actually started thinking about this blog yesterday when I was showing a buyer a house and he couldn't believe how disgusting the house was from a cleanliness perspective.  Granted the place was messy and had teenagers, but it was fairly clean unfortunately it was also massively disorganized and looked dirty. 

That's all that matters.  If a place looks dirty, people assume it is dirty and don't want to live there.  Or buy there.  Ever.  You see, you never know what some people consider clean.  They might look behind toilets, in cabinets and under beds.  You need to clean scrub and disinfect every square inch of your house, if you are hoping to sell or even lease it in this market.

Because if you don't the people working with me already have and they are making your house look like a pig sty.  So.....

Thank you.

© Floridas Lifetsyle Living

Is a 'Golf' Neighborhood right for you?

I admit that I am a little bit 'hyper' or what my family might describe as having more "energy than brains" I use this to explain why I don't play golf.  

At all.

So I naturally have never lived in a Golf Neighborhood, which in retrospect might be a huge mistake.  I mean have you ever been in a well maintained golf community?  It's all beautiful trees, green grass and glorious water features.  If the place is well maintained, you feel like a kid driving into Disney World for the first time.

Nothing could be better.  Also, in the part of Florida where I live, there are these golf neighborhoods that simply have multimillion dollar homes, affordable maintenance free villas or some hybrid between the two.  In fact, if you're from Boston or Chicago, I'll take you past Pudge Fisk's mansion then we can look at homes in the area, so you could eventually run into him at the club and ask him about the home run in game six.

Just don't tell Pudge we're friends, because he's super tired of telling that story and I ask him about it every chance I get.  Which reminds me, I'm off to the club - for lunch.

I'll tell Pudge you said 'hi'.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living

Best Halloween Neighborhoods.........

I grew up elsewhere, and although Halloween was celebrated, once some of the bad gangs who carried glass marble slingshots moved in, we didn't really trick-o-treat much.  In fact, now I live behind a gate, that's guarded and everyone who enters is videotaped.  It's really the only way to live - for me.

But this weekend I did see a great neighborhood to trick-o-treat in!  Seriously, the houses were all big and had porches while the yards all had great big scary trees.  In fact, there was a great big mansion at the end of it that would make the White House look modest and the security team at the gate suggested that I not hang around for long.  All this and there was no gate to enter the neighborhood!!

Seriously?

I mean that's the thing about where I live in Florida.  There are twenty million dollar houses that you can just drive up to and people like me that have more security than brains.  I mean you can live any way you want, nearly on any budget.  I've been to John Gotti's house on Casey Key, one of our barrier islands, and it was a big understated cottage.  Nice.

I guess, when you think about it the place that is your home needs to be safe for you and your family and we all have different ideas about what 'safe' means.  One man's gate guarded neighborhood is another man's prison.  But, I think, If you're safe and with your family, nothing else really matters.

Finally, to be on the safe side this Halloween, call before you come over to see me, because I need to call you into my gatehouse.

You're welcome.

© Florida's Lifestyle Living

Is Sarasota, Florida better than Rockford, Illinois?

Look, I grew up in Boston and considered anything west of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Indian Territory (with the exception of Los Angeles).  So I haven't been really clear on which of those square big states in the middle of the country are any good.  I mean, I have opinions about everything in real estate - including where I don't want to live (California).  So to be truthful, I always thought that Chicago or it's subburbs would be cool if, it was on the Ocean.

And recently, I've heard a great deal about Rockford, Illinois.  By the way, if you grew up in Boston you may not be aware that most people (for some reason) don't pronounce the "s" in Illinois.

At any rate, as much as people I respect rave about this fine city, I feel compelled to point one thing out.  IT SNOWS THERE!!  Like seriously, we all live in Florida because of the weather, not in spite of it.  Plus we have dolphins, manatees and every sport fish you can imagine on the planet.  And the Gulf of Mexico almost reaches 90 degrees in the summer.  So there's really no comparison. 

At all.

But okay, I'll come to Rockford in the Summer to sightsee and spend a day or two in Chicago.  But I'll only stay in homes with air conditioning, and I'm not sure if that's the norm there.........

Wish me luck.

Florida Lifestyle Living ©

Marina Living

Way back when I started my career in banking and was on an internal audit team, I remember that anytime a branch was inspected, they would fail.  Spectacularly!  I once saw a branch manager accidentally, lock his assistant in a vault, call 911 and hit a silent alarm in under 3 minutes.  It was funny and sad at the same time.

I was remembering this when I was viewing a marina home that I had always dreamed of living in.  The home was affordable, was on the marina and had it's own boat slip!  It was a three story hurricane resistant castle that I couldn't wait to live in!  Until a 38' Donzi Racing Boat pulled into the Marina to fuel up.  Some engine problem required the pilot to rev the engine and the smell of gas was nauseating.  Not only that, but the fuel station was directly across from what would have been my front door.

Gross.

I know conventional wisdom suggests that you visit the neighborhood you are interested in, several times during the day to see if you would like it there.  This is much more important in a marina, especially if you are near the fueling station.  You should probably spend 24 hours in the marina, on a weekend.  At least.

You're welcome.

© Florida Lifestyle Living
 

Say "Hi" to your new neighbors!

I grew up in a place where everyone, knew everyone.  Not in the Mayberry sort of way, it was just generations of families had lived in the same place, so I knew which of Tony's sister's husbands were good guys and which weren't.  People would also know everything about the kids in the neighborhood.  Parents I didn't speak to would ask my parents about my homework.

I thought every place was like this until I lived in Washington, D.C.  Very few people are from there, and every four or eight years 100,000 people move out and 100,000+ move in.  It seemed crazy to me, but prepared me for Florida. 

No one is from here.

I just moved into a new house and was surprised that people didn't come over to say 'hi' or complain about my dog.  I would have been happy with either.  I have had to introduce myself to everyone in the neighborhood, except the couple that wanted to fix me up with their son's girlfriend (story for another blog).  Anyway, the people I've met are all nice and apoligized for not coming over to welcome me when I moved in.  It's too bad they didn't, because that would have been a nice gesture and made me more excited to live in my neighborhood.

So today, why not stroll over to that house where people have been living and introduced yourself?  Or complain about their dog?  Either way, it'll be a good time.

Probably.

© Florida Lifestyle Living 

Alligators Are Fun From a Distance

I almost jumped through my television a few weeks ago, when I was watching HGTV.  I love the House Hunters show and even tape it (geek).  This particular episode was fun, because it was in Florida and the people were looking at homes and condos in various neighborhoods.  Well, at the first stop the wife turns to the realtor and asks if there are any alligators in the lake, behind the house.  He replied "probably not".

WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!

Look, every single body of water in Florida has alligators!  EVERY ONE!  In bad storms they can even get swept out to the ocean (although the salt bothers them and they become lackadaisical in it).  But every lake, pond, stream, creek and large puddle has AT LEAST one alligator.  They fear humans and stay away, unless someone has fed them and occasionally they mistake dogs for deer and attack. 

But, they are just to be treated with respect, given distance and left alone.  They are there, but won't bother you unless you bother them.  Usually.  Or you are walking a dog.  Seriously, the rule of thumb is that alligators are in the water, and they won't bother you unless you (or your neighbors) have fed them.

So yes, new Florida resident, you do have alligators in your backyard!  But they where here first and will keep to themselves for the most part.  I mean there's one behind my house I've named Alex and he knows when my dog is outside.  Somehow.  So I just always make sure I go outside with my dog to protect her.  I know that Alex the Alligator is afraid of me and that will keep both Luci and I safe.

I hope.

© Florida Lifestyle Living

"Fly In" Neighborhoods

Look, when I reached a certain age, I was required to obtain a private pilots license.  Well, required is kind of a strong word.  You know, because when any guy gets to that age he has to do something like that, and since I already lived in Florida and owned a convertible - it was the natural choice.

I wasn't, however; prepared for how much I loved flying and how it suddenly took over my life (until the incident on SRQ's runway 14 (which I still not discuss)). Anyway, I found myself looking for a place to live where I could keep my plane in my garage and fly whenever I wanted.  To be clear, it's not just the John Travolta's of the world that can afford these places, and there's a great one right in Sarasota.

Except it's also an equestrian neighborhood.

Seriously?!?!  You expect me to pull my new plane out of my garage (hanger) and taxi through the subdivision while risking running into a 1,200lb, four legged beast who might get spooked and make a decision that I find regrettable?  Are you kidding me?

I love animals - really I do.  I rescued my dog and am active in an animal non profit but the thought of a horse on my taxiway FREAKS ME OUT!!!  Can you imagine landing at an airport and seeing cows grazing on the infield?  NO!!!

I mean let's keep horses in the country and planes at the airport.  It's just good common sense - not to mention the visual I have of walking my dog after dinner and having her chase a horse onto a runway.  Like for real - it would keep me up at night.  So let's try to have subdisvions that are only for one interest and not combind them.

Ever.

You're welcome.

© Florida Lifestyle Living

River Life

I grew up in New England where lifestyle choices are much more limited than they are in Florida.  Typically you can live in a starter home, neighborhood, or mansion.  That's it.  When my friend Michelle, moved to Florida and announced she was going to be living in a double wide trailer I wanted to visit because I had never seen a trailer before (unless it was at a campground).

Michelle's "trailer" turned out to be a manufactured home, on Indian River with a protected boat dock in her backyard!  I couldn't believe anyone as young as she was was living on the water and keeping her boat in her back yard!  I was so jealous!!  She has a maintenance free place to live, a boating lifestyle and was still able to keep her primary residence up north because her Florida home was so reasonable. 

When people from up north ask me how Florida Lifestyle Living can be any different than it is up north.  I usually take them to visit Michelle.  And we make a day of it.

You're welcome.

© Florida Lifestyle Living