6 Tips for Selling Your South Florida Home This Summer

By Meredith Hale

Summer is sizzling in South Florida, and despite conventional wisdom about the best time to sell a home, there's no time like the present. Summer is still a good time to sell and to play to your home's strength. Here are six tips to sell your home this summer in South Florida.

1. Put Outdoor Areas in the Spotlight

In summer we gravitate to our pools, lawn chairs, and grills. This is your yard’s time to shine. Tidy up your deck, polish the patio chairs, and get the outdoor kitchen looking its best.

No deck? No problem. Create the illusion of an outdoor room by arranging furniture in a way that invites visitors to pull up a seat and chill out.

Make any necessary repairs to siding, windows, screens, and doors. Refresh any peeling paint, and use the power-washer to clean up sidewalks, patios, and pavers. Clean the windows inside and out. Throw out outdoor furniture that has seen better days. Consider framing your walkways, driveways, and flower gardens with some lighting.

2. Put Landscaping in Order

Your lawn and landscape need to look luscious to bring buyers to your home. Make sure your lawn game is on point months before you list your home. This includes fertilization, proper watering, as well as aeration, and reseeding any bald spots. Ideally, your lawn will be looking tip-top by the end of spring and from there you simply need to practice solid maintenance. Add some colorful potted flowers at the entry and making sure your flower beds are healthy and full. Remember, curb appeal matters and can add 3%-5% value to your home.

3. Keep the Pool Pristine

During the long, sultry days of summer, pools are catnip to homebuyers. Make sure the pool is sparkling before any showings, and curate a sitting area next to the pool that entices potential buyers to sit down for a minute.

4. Play a Gracious Host

It’s summer, and hot, so add some personal touches to help visitors viewing your home linger a little longer. Leave a pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator for the real estate agent to bring out to the deck or pool and set it up on a table. Invite viewers to have a seat and relax with a refreshment.

5. Show Off Your Climate Control

You’ve got a killer HVAC system, and it will play a starring role in the daytime drama of summer home showings. Visitors may love the pool and patio, but when they step inside to cool comfort, they will love your home even more for the sweet relief it offers. Change your AC filters and make sure your system maintenance is up to date. Want to get trendy? Install a smart climate control system. Then you can let buyers know that while driving home from work, they can use their smartphones to drop the temperature to “ahhh.”

6. Offer Flexible Showing Hours

Remember that your potential buyers may be from out of state or even international. Their time may be limited as they see multiple properties while trying to enjoy a bit of vacation. Local buyers may be trying to squeeze in viewings after work and may have to drive a while to get to you. Twilight hours extend until nearly 9 p.m., so if you can allow later showings, you can get more eyes on your property during somewhat cooler temperatures.

Summer is a prime time to sell your home in Florida. Just a little due diligence and you can whistle a cool tune all the way to the bank, just in time for autumn.

Meredith Hale is a gardening and landscape writer, and design addict. She has coordinated the design on many house flipping projects, admitting that her favorite part is creating inspired outdoor spaces.

How to Stage Your Beachfront Outdoor Living Space

John Williams

Selling your beachfront home can be hard when the market is flooded with a lot of different types of properties. Some offer access and views of the beach while others offer true beachfront access. Knowing how to stage your outdoor living space is important to show potential buyers what kind of life they can have after purchasing your home. Consider these ways to stage your beachfront outdoor living space in order to entice an offer.

Show the Lifestyle

Potential buyers want to purchase a beachfront property in order to have an entirely different lifestyle than what they currently have. Make sure that they understand the fun and benefits that a beachfront home can offer. Create little areas of your outdoor living space that subtly point towards all of the potential fun on the beach. This could include a tub of well-used sand castle buckets and shovels as well as a basket full of clean towels. Additional ways to incorporate beach fun into your outdoor space are to include a small rack of firewood and s’more ingredients to hint to romantic beachfront fires overlooking the sunset.

Include Plenty of Seating

Those looking to purchase a beachfront home will want to see an outdoor living space that has invested in seating options. Part of living right on the beach is enjoying the view and the sun from the luxury of your own backyard. Make sure to stage your outdoor living space with high-end outdoor furniture pieces that will weather nicely as well as provide a lot of extra comfort. Consider rolling the cost of these pieces into the price of your home to help potential buyers truly envision themselves in your home.

Include two seats at a very minimum with more seating options being preferred by many buyers. Mix up the kind of seating to give potential buyers the feeling that they could invite over friends and family to enjoy the beach with them.

Add Organization

An important part of any outdoor living space is to make sure that the space feels well put together. The beach offers many great aspects but also requires a lot of extra items like towels, shoes, and plenty of sand. Make sure to have distinct areas within the outdoor space where these items are stored to create order to the space. Installing plenty of hooks for wet towels as well as an area for sandy shoes to stay are a good thing to do when staging a beachfront home. If you have some time before showing off your home, add an outdoor water feature to wash off sandy toes or even an outdoor shower to ensure that sand doesn’t become a problem indoors.

Use Native Plants

Adding plants to your beachfront outdoor living space is an important part of adding to the natural beauty that is already abundant. Choose low maintenance native plants that will fare well in the conditions of your area. Plants that can tolerate salty conditions, like Beach Rose, Yucca, and Sumac, are all good choices for the salty beach air. Fill in bare areas of your outdoor living space with planter boxes of native plants as well as line the edge of your property with plants in order to define where your private property starts.

Being in Florida, you may want to consider using bug repelling plants to help ward away pesky insects. It is also quite important to incorporate plants along the outside edge of your living space to provide an important element of privacy.

Staging the outdoor spaces of your beachfront property are essential to receiving offers on your home. Potential buyers want the lifestyle of the beach and will be spending plenty of time outdoors. Making sure that the outdoor portions of your home are in great condition will help show potential homeowners what they can look forward to after purchasing your home. Consider all of these tips on how to stage your beachfront outdoor living space in order to quickly get an offer on your home.

John Williams is an outdoor living expert and explorer, and writer for LawnStarter. When he’s not traveling to nature’s most well-known beauty spots, he tends to the greenery surrounding his home.

Beachfront has enjoyed a busy summer, unlike others, there is quickly becoming less difference between high season and summer in terms of real estate sales. We have noticed an influx of Miami Beach sellers moving to Coconut Grove or Coral Gables to take advantage of the private schools and we would like to offer some of our picks for best neighborhoods if you are looking to send your children to some of the premier private schools including St. Stephens, Ransom Everglades, Carollton, and Miami Country Day. If you are looking to relocate for schools, contact a member of Beachfront Today!

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Coral Gables Homes

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Gables Estates Homes

Brickell is one of Miami's leading neighborhoods for new development and luxury condominium living. Located just South of Downtown, Brickell is admidst the city's financial district and is just south of Downtown. It is fifteen minutes from South Beach and fifteen minutes from Coconut Grove and offers some of the most cutting edge dining in the city. Many young professionals choose to live in Brickell and it has a thriving pedestrian community. Some of the most important new developments in Miami are in the Brickell neighborhood. There are currently 14 new developments that range in starting price.

One of the most exciting new developments is the Brickell Flatiron and Beachfront is pleased to visit and explore this new property and offer our insights. Brickell Flatiron is located at 1001 South Miami Ave and is developed by Ugo Columbo. It will have 552 residences within 65 floors. It is modeled after the Flatiron in New York and is completely cutting edge. In terms of amenities, it offers a rooftop pool, spa, and fitness center, combining the latest therapeutic services and sauna facilities with the highest grade of exercise equipment and specialty rooms. It has a focus on awareness and has Wi-FI throughout the building including outdoor amenities thanks in part to a fiber optic building backbone. It has integrated digital concierge service and twenty four hour surveillance nad valet. Residence features include miele applliance packages, italian custom Snaidero cabinetry, Bosch washers and driers, eliptical balconies, high ceilings, custom italian doors, and enhanced soundproofing. Residences are available in 8 diffferent floorplans. For more information on Brickell Flatiron, please contact a member of Beachfront Today!

The National Association of Realtors announced that pending home sales have reached a nine year high last month rising .9% to 112.6. This indice increase over ten percent tin the past year and it is just below the height in April 2006. At Beachfront, we have noticed this trend and, in Miami, the market has made an incredible and substantial come back especially in terms of luxury condominiums and single family homes, and Miami preconstruction. The inventory has continued to decline and remains tight despite over 60 new residential developments in construction, and more homes on the market.

Nationally, the gains in sales and homes on the market is attributed to increases in employment and relatively low mortgage rates that still exist. The stronger economy is no doubt a driving force in the local growth however the influx of foreign buyers and domestic buyers looking to take advantage of favorable tax structures in Florida, have made the Miami market expand at a remarkable pace. Beachfront has grown with this trend and now has over 1700 agents and is ranked the #1 with the Miami Board of Realtors by Market Share. In 2014 we have proudly sold over $1 billion in inventory. If you are looking to join beachfront or if you are looking to buy or sell Miami real estate contact us today!

Phil Collins acquired Jennifer Lopez’s former home for $33 million. The buyer agent, Mathieu Rochette made an interesting distinction that we telling in our luxury home buyers as well, "The recent sales of celebrity homes and the perceived Celebrity exodus, is really misleading. IN fact, my representation of Phil Collins in acquiring Jennifer Lopez's former home and sales of football stars Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda, show that a different more discreet form of celebrity is moving to Miami” I find that the new type of resident is often a financial executive or entrepreneur. Celebrities may be leaving, however it is only since their homes are being priced favorably for more wealth.

The home is a twelve thousand plus square foot home sitting on two hundred feet of waterfront on the Biscayne Bay. It is a Mediterranean style home that was purchased from Jennifer Lopez in 2005 for $13.9 million and the recent seller spent three years renovating the home before selling. The interiors and European contemporary in style and has a number of upgrades affording privacy and with more than an acre lot, it is massive for Miami. If you are looking to buy or sell Miami estates, please contact a membef of Beachfront Realty today. We have a number of listings in premier areas such as Pinetree Drive and Bal Harbour. Contact a member of Beachfront Realty today!

Miami is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the nation and we are pleased to showcase a 16479 NE 30 Ave in North Miami Beach, just listed for $9.9 million. It is more a mansion or estate than home with seven beds and seven baths, with 12,058 square feet of interior space on a 22,610 square foot lot. It is a Mediterranean style home that over looks Maule Lake and is across from Oleta River State Park. It has multiple balconies and a large pool to take in these stunning sunset views.

The interior of the home features marble floors oversize great room and a chef ready kitchen. Other amenities include maids quarters, master bedroom upstaiers, spa, BBQ, and a two car garage. Every detail of the home is customized and is in move in ready condition. A home of this size in Miami Beach would easily sell for upwards of $15 million, however buyers will appreciate it being more set back, while also very close to Bal Harbour and Aventura. For more information on this home and others from Beachfront, contact us today!

Beachfront is pleased to offer 587 Ocean Boulevard to the Miami Real Estate Marketplace. This single family home has four beds and two and one half baths and is located directly on the beach in guard gated Golden Beach. It is a 50’s style ranch house that could be either renovated or built on new with an incredible location. Rarely are lots available in Golden Beach and this has incredible appointment. It already has an inground swimming pool and infrastructure for a substantial upgrade.

Golden Beach is located just north of Sunny Isles Beach and South of Hollywood and has all single family homes in the multi million dollar range. The value of these homes does not fluctuate and it is in the heart of booming South Florida. The neighborhood is quiet and very family friendly with its’ own police department for security. The Aventura Mall and Bal Harbour Shoppes are equidistant as are the Miami International Airport and the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. For more information about this listing please contact Beachfront today!

It was just reported that the home price growth in South Florida is third in the nation for growth. Preceding South Florida are Denver and San Francisco, but only slightly. Miami single family home prices rose 9.2 percent over the past year, and Denver rose by 10%. The strong economy nationally and the growing local economy with the help of steady foreign investment have made a veritable boom town out of all Miami.

Not only are the resales in limited supply but the preconstructions are selling out at record prices. Faena House is nearly sold out and with each day new construction projects such as Pearl House are announced. Some areas with the most development are Bay Harbor Islands and Brickell, however Sunny Isles and Coconut Grove are also witnessed huge amounts of new development. The condos that are being developed are beyond luxurious and are fetching multi million dollar prices. For more information contact a member of our team today!