NEVER JUDGE A BOOK (HOUSE) BY ITS COVER!!!

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of showing a wonderful home in Pelican Bay to clients who specifically flew in from Marblehead, Massachusetts, (and just for the day I might add,) to see it. It actually was the third time that I had been in it and with each time, there was something new to learn about. There isn’t anything typical about this home, except the price $1,745,000, which puts it in the low end of the higher end homes in Naples, Florida. (I don’t want to sound as if I’m sticking my nose in the air, but there are so many in this price range that it isn’t funny.)

The home is a very special home, four bedrooms and four baths, with wonderful spaces both inside and out. You have to like a house with a Southwestern flair, for it has Mexican Tile throughout its 4,700 under air, and definitely is far different from the Naples norm of Tuscan or Mediterranean. The home has high ceilings and angled walls, with a tremendous amount of high windows and light. The outside pool and spa area lends itself to outdoor entertaining. It is completely walled around the whole home, giving it huge privacy. It is a house where you close your eyes and envision some great parties going in any season.

The home has been on the market for well over a year and has recently been reduced for the third time to the price it is now at, which begs the question, why hasn’t it sold because it is such a great house. The answer comes in two forms, first certainly not everyone likes Southwestern, although Pat and I would move in in a heartbeat, if we could.

But I think that the overall reason the home hasn’t sold is primarily because very few people can envision what is behind those walls, and therefore, if their realtor told them to do a drive-by, they would totally not get it because of how it is structured and a perceived lack of ‘curb appeal’. Pat and I got it immediately, when we first drove by, because we look for homes like that, and yet I’ll bet that many, many people, including realtors, have missed it.

The moral: You damn sure can’t judge this home by its cover!!!