The Match Game

With the spring thaw suddenly melting mountains of snow into rivers of slush, winter has finally loosened its icy grip across a broad swath of the Midwest, Rockies, Canada and the Northeast. As a result, spring in Southwest Florida always experiences a noteworthy bump in the number of buyers who have sworn an oath to never spend another winter shoveling snow or chipping away at the ice beneath it.   For many, it is finally time to make good on their annual vow to purchase a home in Florida before the next winter’s onslaught begins.  Typically, their shopping starts now and lasts all summer long. Admittedly, year-round sunshine and beautiful beaches are a huge part of why most of us came to Florida in the first place.  But if these were the only reasons, then just about any coastal town in peninsular Florida would be an acceptable choice. Instead, people choose to live in the Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte Counties area because its award winning beaches and dependably warm weather are just the beginning of an extraordinary lifestyle that is truly second to no other region of Florida. In naming Sarasota a “Dream Town,” in its March 2015 issue, Coastal Living Magazine summed up the area’s lifestyle appeal in these words: “Sometimes you give up big-city pleasures to enjoy life by the sea. But here on a gracefully curving bay south of Tampa, there's been no such sacrifice. The remarkable reality—and surprise—of Sarasota is the pairing of a thriving arts and culture scene with world-class beaches; a combination that's made all the sweeter by the local, laid-back Gulf vibe.” Lifestyle. Lifestyle. Lifestyle.   In Southwest Florida it rightfully takes its place alongside “location, location, location” as a top consideration when home buyers begin debating where to live and what to purchase.  For unlike markets with fewer options, the Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte Counties region offers a smorgasbord of living styles geared to the region’s outstanding climate, its Gulf Coast location; and amazing plethora of recreational and cultural pastimes. Thus, when a whole new version of michaelsaunders.com debuted last fall it broke the mold by empowering buyers to explore properties that fit into twelve of the most popular local lifestyle options.  Included among them are On the Beach, Arts & Culture, Golf & Tennis, Island Life, City Life, Campus Life and Country Life. Every property listed in our market areas fits into at least one of these lifestyle categories, which are then brought to life using high-resolution photography to depict how real people live, work and play in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties.    The site also functions with ease on all of today’s most popular electronic devices, including smart phones, tablets and laptops. In the months since we reintroduced the site, we have also learned through your feedback that buyers also wish to explore the various different neighborhoods that comprise our three-county market area.  As a direct response, the site recently introduced a new neighborhood feature, where you can select specific neighborhoods; then explore them at length through videos, photos and mapping.  You will also discover relevant points of interest, preview properties that are currently listed for sale; as well as properties that have recently been sold in the neighborhood. To easily gather hyper-local information about Southwest Florida and its various lifestyle and neighborhood possibilities—amid a searchable collection of ALL the properties currently listed on the region’s Multiple Listing Service—is what you told us you wanted.  As such, matching you with the exact home that will best fulfill your lifestyle and purchasing goals is the whole point behind the new and always-evolving www.michaelsaunders.com.