All great stories of romance have one thing in common, and that is an unforgettable setting. From the breathtaking beauty of Tara Plantation in Gone with the Wind, to the graceful balcony beneath which Romeo professed his love for Juliet, iconic backdrops have inspired tales of romance for centuries.

Florida's Gulf Coast, with its delicately swaying palms, soothing Bay breezes and sun swept beaches, could easily provide the romantic locale for such tales of passion. And [...]

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Each month at The Saunders Blog, we channel our inner Barbara Walters and pose a series of questions to the agents, staff or management of Michael Saunders & Company. Here, we interview Dina Van Duyne, who this March will be celebrating her 36^th year with the company – that’s almost as long as Michael herself! Officially, Dina is the [...]

No matter how you slice it, 2013 was an exceptional year for Southwest Florida’s housing market.  In fact, the Sarasota Association of Realtors has officially reported its second most productive year ever in terms of the total number of properties sold.  Indeed, were it not for the shortfall in available properties that these many months [...]

• Combined sales of single-family homes and condominiums throughout Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties during the month of December were up nearly 18% compared with November; and by 1.6% compared with last December. • The overall inventory of properties is up by 10.3% compared with a year ago. There is currently a 5.1-month [...]

Living on Florida's Gulf Coast, we are used to seeing the beauty of the natural world all around us. Sometimes though, the beauty of things that you can’t see is what really counts. This past Friday, MSC agents and staff gathered at the [...]

The newest and most overused phrase in the popular lexicon has got to be “polar vortex.”  Loosely defined, a polar vortex is an unusually frigid weather event usually reserved for the much heartier denizens of Canada.   Or so we’ve heard.  But when one of these weather patterns rudely stumbled across the border into the lower [...]