Remember landlines and answering machines?  They’ve gone the way of Betamax and the dodo, but lots of listing agents cling to them like life buoys  adrift in a sea of 21^st century technology.

These days, just as many deals are closed on the darker side of 9-5, and “office hours” is now an irrelevant phrase.  The mobile office … open all day and all night. Your listing agent should be like a Denny’s or 7/11 … open 24/7/365… and always with a fresh pot of coffee on.

After all, selling your house is the biggest transaction you’re likely to ever make. You need a listing agent you can rely on. Like a doctor, always on call. And now that these calls come in so many different ways, make sure your listing agent has a website with clear contact info, including email address and mobile phone/pager/Blackberry number.

And … of course … a blog.

Don’t just hire your friend…

Because the real estate market in Jupiter is ready to bust loose. Top down, wind in its hair, bugs in its teeth. Make sure you have a Jupiter listing agent who won’t be asleep at the wheel when the deal’s ready to break.

The U.S. News & World Report offers  “7 Ways to Avoid a Crummy Real Estate Agent.”  Read it, ingest it, follow it … because I couldn’t have said it better myself.

And that’s not because I’m a bad writer … that’s up to you WaveReviews readers to decide … but because I’m focused on being the best Jupiter listing agent I can be.

So call me. Or email me. Or text me. Choose your own gadget. Just don’t try telepathy … I’m not quite there yet.

But I’m working on it … because if telepathy will help me sell your home, I’m willing to give it a shot.  Make sure you choose a Jupiter listing agent who will do the same.

You’re about to experience that “aha!” moment…that frozen moment in time when you just know you’ve absolutely made the right choice.

This San Palermo townhouse has everything – including a very affordable $289K price tag that puts you front and center in the Abacoa lifestyle without breaking the bank.     And for that price?  You get a one-of-a-kind exclusive, one of the few townhomes facing the sparkling lake with gorgeous Valencia on the other side.

The quality is superb and how could it not be – it’s built with DiVosta Homes’ legendary attention to quality “built-solid” construction and detail and it’s rich with all the amenities you’d expect from this wildly popular builder.

One moment, this home your relaxing sanctuary, a great full-time home or staycation – with a spacious open-air balcony off the master bedroom to catch the tropical breezes from the lake.  The bright sunlight streams through the bedroom windows including a fourth lake-facing bedroom – there are four lavish bedrooms and 3 full baths in all.

The next moment, everything bursts into life in the Great Room with its high ceilings and the spacious dining area – great to entertain family and friends.  Add in a fully-appointed kitchen, a spacious back patio leading to your own full two-car garage and lush landscaping, and you’ve found yourself a place to call “home.”

With a location that’s close to glistening beaches, outstanding schools and I-95, the only thing missing from this home is the hustle-and-bustle aggravation of the locale you’ve left behind.

So go ahead, don’t hold out – take your place at 145 Rivinia Drive – where you know you belong.

There was nothing safe or sane about the Revolutionary War for Independence. It was a bloody, risky business, but well worth the price. Our celebrations of that event, however, run from the beautiful to the tragic.

At Roger Dean Stadium in Abacoa Town Center, the emphasis will be on safety and beauty…as glorious fireworks displays will be set off after the baseball games on July 3^rd and 4^th. That’s a smart place for kids to view them. And similar organized displays will be going on at locations up and down the coast. Romantic, exciting, holiday flares will light up the night sky.  Hot dogs and burgers will vie with watermelon, corn on the cob and ice cream for appetite appeal. And a great time will be had by almost all.

But even as the fun continues, emergency sirens will blare and emergency rooms fill up with people who make poor holiday choices… mishandling their own fireworks or driving lit up. And while I’m sure our founding fathers would be thrilled with our remembrance, I doubt they’d find that prospect worth celebrating.

So as my husband Dane and I wish you all a happy, yummy, family fourth…we also wish you careful handling of the holiday and all that goes with it.

Everyone has them. Those moments when something strikes you a certain way, alters your perception, changes the outcome.

Take Florida summer rains, for example.  They’re particularly impressive. The sheer heaviness of them. The electrical violence of lightening streaks and thunder booms that stun any new transplant. Dangerous. Dramatic. Run-for-cover rain that makes you pull off the Turnpike, duck off the golf course, head for shore in a small boat. Deluges that turn everything even greener. Refill our water supply. Refuel our ecosystems. And give everyone the chance to hide inside, snuggle up, take time out.

Summer rains in Florida offer a dramatic change of perspective. And if you’re looking for a new home, they make you pause…and consider things like hurricane glass. Lots that won’t flood. Landscaping that’s safe. Not getting soaked financially. Finding a Realtor that won’t leave you high and dry.

Yes, watching a summer storm will send your thoughts racing. And if they happen to run to real estate, turn on your computer and give me a click call. That single action could be a watershed moment that alters more than your perspective.

What constitutes “home” is a very personal thing … quite different for everyone. Home might be a place your grandparents lavished you with love …  or where you grew up under your parents’ watchful eyes … or where you first lived as a grown-up. For everyone, the idea of “home” is quite different … and rarely consciously expressed.

You walk into an open house and you can appreciate all the amenities … the coffered ceilings, granite counter-tops, wood floors, huge master suite, double shower. And they attract the rational you. But it’s the sun streaming through the French doors, or the view of a park, or an inherent sense of sophistication that makes it feel “just right.”

Home is either evocative of a place you felt comfortable and loved. Or  representative of how you want to see yourself. You know it when you see it … but you can’t always say why. And it’s that intangible something that makes you say ‘wow.”  It makes you fall in love enough to buy.

A Realtor^® can and should dress up a home, present it in its best light, market its best features. But in most cases it’s more about the Realtor^® taking the time to understand the buyer and match him or her up with the right property than it is about the property itself.

Bottom line … it’s often psychology that makes the sale … not the “sell.”

Remember a time when life was filled with magic with one wondrous experience after the other?  It’s time to set sail on that adventure once again – and we’re ready to give you the key.  This 146 Santiago Drive address in the highly desirable Valencia at Abacoa master planned community is the perfect home for today—plenty of space without being overwhelming.

You’re going to love this Mediterranean style home from the moment you step across the romantic arched porch, all the while admiring the artistic details draped with bright bougainvillea.  Inside the home, high ceilings, plenty of curved Moorish style windows, and open balconies and loggias capture the tropical breezes.  This house is designed for real indoor-outdoor living!

During sunny days (and there are LOTS of them), sip your iced tea or lemonade within your covered brick lanai and take a dip in your perfectly private lap pool.  When it’s time to go indoors, gather together in the expansive Great Room to watch the evening news (including the latest northern weather disaster or Miami traffic jam) or play a fast-paced board game.

Want to step inside for a midday snack?  The Euro kitchen is beautifully appointed with plenty of cabinet space and sunny bay windows.   And before you step through the lanai again, you might even want to play a game of billiards with a room that’s perfect for your pool table or an arts and crafts display.

Then, after a fun-filled day, enjoy your well-deserved sleep in the enlarged master bedroom suite with his-and-her closets and an expansive master bath.  There’s lots of sleeping areas on the second level for your entire family – including those inevitable guests from up north – 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bedrooms in all.

This gorgeous home 3307 sqft is a steal for $735,000.  So grab it up now…and you can toast with your neighbors who probably paid far, far more for their own homes of quiet sophistication.

One of the main reasons I moved north to Jupiter, FL from Miami was the pure ease of living. Less congestion. More manageable environment. Really laid-back atmosphere.  And when I think of easy living, I just naturally think of brunch.

Now, there are places, like Washington D.C., where brunch is a serious event. So serious it has spawned the verb ”to brunch.” 

Jupiter is just the contrary.  Here you can put on your flip-flops and your jeans and head over to the Hurricane Café for a more than respectable Eggs Benedict … the Juno Beach Café for fluffy blueberry pancakes … or bask in the beachy ambiance of the Loggerhead Café while you munch on a ginger-spiced French toast with almonds.  Or you  can go completely native at The Seagull with fried eggs, home fries and a mug of java.  Or stop by TooJay’s for the proverbial lox, eggs and onions.

No verbs. No formalities. Just lazy Sunday fare at good local restaurants that reinforce a good decision.  Jupiter isn’t just a place to live.  It’s a way to life. And it feels great.

T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month … but T.S. Eliot forgot what it was like to live in New England during a late March snowstorm.  March 21st was the official first day of spring, but those of you up north would never know it.

There really is no reason to spend another winter shivering in the sub-zero weather, scraping snow off your windshield, and dealing with all the wind chills and potholes, Next winter you can laugh at the threatening weather from your own sunny Abacoa® home in Jupiter, Florida.

Here you can get reacquainted with your old friend – THE SUN.  Or you can enjoy all the green areas, lakes, parks and pristine beaches, take advantage of the glorious shopping on Worth Avenue, or simply revel in the laid-back living and Mediterranean-style architecture that makes Jupiter one of the very best places to live and love life.

And what a perfect time to buy!  The Wall Street Journal just cited the Palm Beach area – including “over the moat” in Jupiter – as one of the 10 best places for a second home. Median prices have plunged 11 percent from their peak. It doesn’t get better than this!

Why not give yourself a break during the long hard winters?  When Bob Marley wrote about three little birds pitched by his doorstep, he sure wasn’t shivering through a Nor’easter in Boston or a blustery blizzard in Chicago.  Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens are the kind of places where “everything’s gonna be all right” … especially with home prices near their all-time low.

Maybe you’ll fly north for the summer too. After all, it has a lot to offer. Just remember that when fall turns to winter, there’s a better way of life. The little birds fly south to their second homes. Why shouldn’t you?

If you’re shopping for a home in an upscale neighborhood like Valencia at Abacoa (Jupiter, FL), you’ll find a number of sophisticated architectural details are part of the package. You don’t have to know their names to appreciate their charm … but it doesn’t hurt. So here are a couple of terms it pays to be familiar with…because you’ll be probably be paying for them!

Porte-cochere … a protective porch

If you drive up to a house and find yourself parked under an overhang or archway in front of the garage, you are passing through the porte-cochere. This French term translates as coach gate or carriage porch. It is always a porch at a main or secondary entrance to a building, through which a car can pass, so the occupants can get out under cover, protected from the weather, before the car pulls into the garage. While it is not to be confused with a carport, it can function as one, providing additional parking under cover.

Coffered ceiling… added dimensionality

In architecture a coffer is a panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling. The stone coffers of the ancient Greek and Romans are the earliest surviving examples, but a seventh-century BCE Etruscan chamber tomb reproduces a ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels. Old idea…great look!

Cupola …tower of light

This is a small, dome-like structure on top of the roof, like a crown. The word comes from Italian, indicating a vault that resembles an upside down cup. Cupolas in more modern houses can appear in the center of the house above a large staircase, where they add elegance, light and air.

Butler’s pantry … charming convenience

The traditional location for a butler’s pantry is in a short hallway between the kitchen and the dining room. Its purpose is to allow easy access to glassware and silver … and to provide a surface to set out appetizers, drinks, or dessert. Butler’s pantries, or china pantries, were built in English or American homes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Delightfully convenient, they are making a big comeback.

Think AIR TRAVEL and the first thing that’s likely to come to mind is unending hassles and delays. That’s why a recent survey of passengers flying in and out of Palm Beach International Airport – a stone’s throw away from Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens – is bound to make you sit up and take notice.

The airport ranked seventh in customer satisfaction among 24 of North America’s smallest airports according to the study by J.D. Power and Associates.  And that’s a good thing if you’re interested in Jupiter real estate or are actively seeking Jupiter homes for sale.

Some of the most prized Jupiter real estate – such as Valencia at Abacoa®, the only custom home community in Abacoa — is located just 20 miles north of Palm Beach International Airport.  In no time, you could shed your everyday cares at the stunning Valencia at Abacoa community — combining old world grace and Mediterranean styling, curved Moorish style roofs and open loggias to capture cool tropical breezes.  Surrounded by green areas, lakes, parks, and pristine beaches, it’s the perfect place to live and love life.

Jupiter is easy to get to…hard to leave.

The ease of the airport – which fared highest in the study’s airport accessibility category– makes it a breeze for buyers like you to check out Jupiter homes for sale.  In as little as 15 minutes, you can whisk yourself from Palm Beach International to your new Valencia at Abacoa second home or Admirals Cove weekend getaway retreat.  So you have more time in the bright Florida sun and less time dealing with stressful travel.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!

With one of the country’s finest small airports, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens neighborhoods known for style and sophistication, well-maintained property values and sparkling lakes, the only thing missing from the equation is the right Jupiter Realtor®.  That’s me.   So go ahead…let me put you in a Jupiter, Florida state of mind. After all, if even our airport is designed to eliminate stress, imagine what the finest houses this side of paradise will do for you!