One sure sign that the snowbirds are landing is the arrival of those massive auto carriers, unloading a Bentley here, a Mercedes there. And you have to wonder, why go to so much trouble every year.

A second home makes for a far smoother landing.

You can have a car garaged and ready when you get to town. Have all your own furniture and dishes, your Florida clothes, everything that makes for comfortable living in place and ready for your return.

No more renting a place or trucking a car. No packing for the season. Have all the creature comforts, a smart tax shelter, a terrific winter shelter all in one. 

What better time to buy!

N. Palm Beach County  Real Estate prices are finally bottoming out. There are lots of great homes for sale, deeply discounted … while there are actually very few rentals.  Mortgage rates are down. And the start of an upward trend is probably just another year or two away.

Your second home may very well begin to appreciate not long after you buy. But you need to catch the bottom of this bell curve before it starts to cycle back up. So why wait. Turn this economic downturn to a real advantage.

Invest in your life in South Florida.

Enjoy Florida on your own terms, your own turf. You’ll have the weather you want, the proximity you need. With direct flights to the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. Short hops to anywhere on the East Coast. And the luxury of Palm Beach, the action of Miami, the ease of the Keys all so close by. Land in Jupiter. Buy it now!

Until recently anyone who wanted information on homes in Valencia at Abacoa went to ValenciaAtAbacoa.com for front views (elevations), floor plans and builder information on each home model available in the Valencia development. Then the development sold out and the site developers let that website become inactive. I thought that was a real shame, since it provides such important information for prospective buyers of resales in that neighborhood. So I took matters into my own hands. 

Since I live in Valencia, know the area so well, and have sold and listed so many homes there, I recently acquired that website and reactivated it. It’s up and running again for your convenience and mine. So you can once again go to ValenciaAtAbacoa.com for information on all the homes there … including which ones are currently up for sale. Now, how great is that!

If it floats…

It’s not remotely surprising that the Jupiter inlet and Intercoastal Waterway are a huge draw for serious boat people. What kind of boat you have is rather immaterial. It could be a ketch or a yawl, a sloop, a schooner, a motor launch or just a big-ass yacht. Regardless, if it floats, point it toward Jupiter and launch a whole new lifestyle.

Moor it in Jupiter.

The Jupiter Yacht Club was made for you! A glorious condo complex with both intercoastal and ocean water views, charming shops, little restaurants, boat slips practically at your door. It really doesn’t get any better.

You’re just minutes from Juno Beach pier and a terrific beach where you can bike ride, jog or just walk at daybreak. There are plenty of marine supply and yacht brokerage businesses in the area. Lots of great restaurants where you can dock and dine. Boat festivals and boating events all season…in fact. all year.

It’s simply the best of Florida.

With none of the nuttiness of Miami, and still just a short cruise to the Keys, the Bahamas, and the Jimmy Buffet islands beyond! Jupiter is a great place to slip your sloop.  And a wonderful place to live and love life.

Where the sky’s so dark, the stars don’t just twinkle. They pop. And the moon seems to hang in mid-air, almost close enough to touch. So oversized, you expect to see the Dreamworks® logo… And the waves keep rolling gently in.

If all that sounds just a bit too picturesque, you haven’t explored the Jupiter atmosphere. Where you can live your life in flip-flops. Dine alfresco nearly every night. Sip a martini or a brew. Sail the intercoastal or bike along the beach. Scout the local art fairs that spring up on weekends. Alternate between the Food Shack and Kee Grille, depending on your mood.

Jupiter is a small town with a sophisticated soul. At any given time or place you’re just as likely to see a family outing, a retired couple, singles of any particular age. It’s easy living. Close proximity. Great shopping. Fine dining. Live music. Excellent education. And as Scripps® will attest, a smart place to do business.

And right now, thanks to factors well outside its sphere, Jupiter is a great place to buy property. The real estate market here has never been better or more accessible for all kinds of buyers, all kinds of homes. Condos. Townhouses. Estates. Gated communities. Vacation homes. Rental properties.

You can take my word for it. I’ve lived here for the past 6 years. And the only way to explore the atmosphere in Jupiter is to move here. An hour from Miami. A million miles from everything you want to leave behind. 

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 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. 

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.

So when you want the best… choose your gadget.  Just don’t try telepathy… Even I’m not quite there yet!

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.

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 Royal Cafe 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.