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
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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
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
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