The Best Backyard Ideas in Florida

In the summertime in the state of Florida, there is only one thing to do: enjoy everything that is outdoors. That includes celebrating in your own backyard. But if you are looking for ways to improve your own backyard, or if you are looking for some of the best backyard ideas around, then you have found the right post. Here is a list of the best backyard ideas in Florida, with a particular emphasis on homes in the Tampa Bay area.

#5) 10628 Pontofino Cir., Trinity

5 Beds | 4 Full Baths | 1 Half Bath
5,739 inside sq. ft. | 1,751 outside sq. ft.
$1,299,000
     
Enter into a custom-built Mediterranean masterpiece home in the heart of the gated Champions Club community. Some of the best backyard ideas in Florida can be found outside of this home. There, a true paradise overlooking the 11th hole of Fox Hollow Golf Course awaits you. Relax in front of the outdoor fireplace, enjoy surround sound music with flat screen TV and built in Viking gas grill.

#4) 1422 Circle Dr., Tarpon Springs

4 Beds | 4 Full Baths | 1 Half Bath
4,177 inside sq. ft. | 1,578 outside sq. ft.
$1,300,000
    
This executive waterfront home sits on approximately 7/10 of an acre estate overlooking the Anclote River with your own private beach. Some of the best backyard ideas in Florida include a beautifully designed Pebble Tec pool with spill over spa. Nestled under large oak trees and a professionally landscaped backyard, this home sits on a peaceful, secluded street.

#3) 10031 Milano Dr., Trinity

5 Beds | 5 Full Baths | 1 Half Bath
6,373 inside sq. ft. | 1,820 outdoor sq. ft.
$2,500,000
   
This St. Tropez model embraces a relaxed elegance, re-defining how luxury feels, lives, and plays. This magnificent Tuscan-inspired estate - surrounded by towering, moss-laden oaks with picturesque grounds, overlooking the Fox Hollow Golf Club's 2nd green - has some of the best backyard ideas in Florida including a lagoon style, Pebble-Tech salt water pool. This pool also boasts a waterfall, a slide, and a gas heated grotto spa. Plus, the outdoor kitchen and fire pit are a first-class.

#2) 16104 Gulf Blvd., Redington Beach

5 Beds | 4 Full Baths | 1 Half Bath
4,781 inside sq. ft. | 2,000+ outside sq. ft.
$2,499,000
     
Upon entering through a private garden, you are greeted with the great room's soaring ceilings with skylight, fireplace and a wall of windows framing the stunning Gulf water view. The backyard feels like a private resort with an amazing pool with built-in table, spa and ample patios leading out to the beach and Gulf beyond. A large lanai transitions from the resort living outside to the elegant living inside. You can’t have a list of homes with the best backyard ideas in Florida without have a beach home on the list!

#1) 11438 Hammock Oaks Ct., Lithia

4 Beds | 5 Full Baths | 3 Half Baths
10,029 inside sq. ft. | 4,107 outside sq. ft.
$2,499,999
    
Explore this showcase residence with over 4,000 square feet of backyard space. It truly is one of the best outdoor spaces in Tampa Bay. The oversized pool deck is the entertainment centerpiece of the residence and features an outdoor kitchen, heated spa, a massive rock waterfall feature, a center island with three mature foxtail palms, a fire ring and fixed torches around the perimeter of the two-story pool enclosure. Above one of the two three-car garages, an office suite accessible by catwalk from the main residence completes the amazing range of offerings of this Mediterranean masterpiece.

I hope you enjoyed this list of the best backyard ideas in Florida. Make sure you share this post across all of the different social media outlets you have. Thanks!

Selling Your Property in Tampa, Florida

Interested in learning more about selling your residential property or vacant residential land in the Tampa Bay area?  Watch this great video to learn more about that process.

4 Key Qualities for Today's Real Estate Agents

The role of a real estate agent in today’s economy is markedly different than the role agents played 30, 20 or even ten years ago.

It is important for all parties involved in a real estate transaction - including buyers, sellers, renters and agents - to understand these significant changes. As a buyer or seller, you do not want to work with an incompetent agent. As a real estate agent, you want to keep your skills useful and up to date to best serve your clients.

So what exactly does it take to make a good real estate agent today? Well, here are the 4 most important qualities in today’s real estate agents.

Be a Transactional Guide

This feature was valuable in an agent 20 years ago, but is just as important - if not more important - today. In years past, agents were gatekeepers of information. Today, that information is readily available through services such as Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. So instead of relying on a wealth of “hidden” information, agents must now serve to interpret this now public information for their clients.

A good transactional guide will advise clients of various mortgage and loan strategies; they will pay careful attention to the specific terms and details of all of your contracts; and they will oversee the various parties and service providers involved in the real estate transaction.

Have a Deep, Local Expertise

In the age of Big Data, there are countless sources of helpful information regarding homes, neighborhoods and cities across the country. The role of a real estate agent is to study and analyze these numbers and present it to the client in a way that reflects their needs and wants.

The website WebMd contains a plethora of information on all issues related to health. However, only a doctor should use this information to diagnose a patient. Similarly, Zillow and Trulia contain a wide range of data on the real estate market but only a real estate agent is best suited to interpret this data for the buyer or seller.

Be a Good Negotiator

Today’s real estate market is competitive. Homes sit on the market for less than a few days before receiving multiple offers. Homes receive offers that are several thousand dollars above asking price. There are fewer qualified home buyers in the market than years past. With such cutthroat conditions for buyers and sellers, how can you navigate these heady waters?

Real estate agents - good ones, anyways - are trained in the art of negotiation. They are sales professionals, and sales professionals understand the nuances of making a good deal. They also know the market better than anyone else, and have hard numbers to back up their art.

Be a Good Marketer

In the old days, a home was sold through the MLS and by placing ads in the newspaper. Today, anyone with Internet access and a Twitter account can be considered a marketer. How can you differentiate your home (or your buying prowess) to potential buyers (and sellers)?

The answer is a real estate agent who understands where buyers and sellers are looking for homes, how they are looking for homes, what type of home features sell a home, and what financial qualifications make a buyer more appealing.

Unlike the travel agents of days past, a good real estate agents will always be in high demand. While purchasing a plane ticket is a relatively frequent, standard, and inexpensive process the purchase or sale of a home is infrequent, contract-based, and often expensive. It is these qualities that make a good real estate agent desirable and it is those four important traits that separate today’s real estate agents from agents long ago.

A Real Estate Improvement Company

The real estate industry has many unique facets and players. But no matter what role you play or how what you do in the real estate market, there is one important goal that everyone should keep in mind.

When you consider real estate, you should consider it as an investment. And when you think of the criteria involved in making a good real estate investment, you must examine and analyze the utility and the value of such an investment.

Another way to look at utility is to look at usage. Is a particular property being used to its highest and best usage in accordance with all local laws and statues? In other words, can I put four different townhouses on this large residential lot on a busy street and receive more income in rent than I would be able to charge if I only had a single-family home on this property?

When we talk about value, we think of cost and we think of price. Can you sell a particular property for a price more than the purchase cost? If so, your property has positive value. If not, you property has decreased in value.

The goal of a real estate improvement company is to maximize both the utility and value of a property. We can do this through investing, managing, developing, and marketing a particular property.

To take our previously stated example of the townhouses, we will take a look at the utility and the value. With regards to utility, we have certainly increased - or improved - its utility. We now house four different families, versus just one previously. When looking at the value, we have increased the net operating income of a property thereby increase its value.

But just how much did we increase the utility and the value? This is where a real estate improvement company will come in hand to determine just how much utility and value this project provided versus other similar (or different) projects.

When looking at a piece of property, think about what the best usage of that property could be. Then, think about if that type of project is feasible on that property. If you have mastered those concepts and kept those goals, you have yourself a real estate improvement company.