Autumn is in full swing, which means the year is drawing to an end. If you're like a lot of homeowners, you started off the year with a long list of home improvement projects, and you didn't complete as many as planned. But have no fear — there's still time to turn things around. Our real estate agents are excited to share some quick home improvement projects you can still complete by the end of the year.
There's still time to update your new home with some quick projects this year. If you're still searching for the perfect home, don't hesitate to contact us. We'll help you find Bradenton homes for sale and Sarasota homes for sale in time for the new year.
Barn doors look lovely in country chic homes and even in some cottage-style houses. They work well as closet doors, pantry doors, and even as laundry room doors. While there are plenty of pre-made barn doors for sale, making your own barn door is a fun project — and a great way to personalize your new home! Follow these steps from our real estate agents to make your own barn door.
With these instructions, you'll have a DIY barn door to be proud of. If you're still looking for the perfect home for your barn door, contact us. We'll help you find incredible Sarasota homes for sale and Bradenton homes for sale in your style.
People often say that the kitchen is the heart of the home. But the pantry is a close contender! As the place where you store your snacks and cooking ingredients, your pantry deserves to be an organized, efficient space. You'll love being able to open the door and find what you need in an instant without having to search multiple shelves. So, how do you go about organizing a pantry? Our real estate agents have broken this task down into seven steps, which are presented below.
If you spend the weekend organizing your pantry, you'll save so much time when you cook and snack later on. Contact us if you're still looking for the perfect home — and pantry — to call your own.
Having a pool gives you a quick, enjoyable way to cool off in the summer. We've seen so many lovely Bradenton homes for sale and Sarasota homes for sale with pools. If you buy a home with a pool, you should know there are plenty of ways to customize your pool and pool area, making it feel more like your own. Here are a few features to think about adding.
With the right features, your pool will become one of your favorite parts of your home. If you're still looking for the perfect Florida home with a pool, our real estate agents can help. Contact us to learn more about our services.
First impressions are everything. This is as true in the world of real estate as in any other. When a potential buyer first walks into a home, the first things they see (and smell) play a huge role in determining their interest. If your home makes a great first impression, you'll have an easier time making a sale — and you'll probably get higher offers, too. After years of experience, our real estate agents know this to be true!
One of the ways you can improve your home's first impression is by steam cleaning the carpets prior to your first showing or open house. Why is steam cleaning so important? Take a look.
Preparing your home for a showing can go a long way toward helping you find the perfect buyer. If you're thinking about selling and are looking for an agent to represent you, feel free to contact us. Our experienced real estate agents can guide you through both the buying and the selling processes and ensure everything goes smoothly.
When you're first settling into a new place, you may not want a lot of projects on your plate, but a few carefully chosen DIY projects can help your new house feel like home. Here are a few quick and relatively easy projects our real estate agents recommend for helping you feel at home.
Little DIY projects like these are a fun way to help you settle in and improve your new home, but it's important to find the right house to start with. Contact us today and let us help you find your dream home.
Living in Southwest Florida means warm sunshine, cool evening breezes, and lots of fresh air. If you're looking for Sarasota homes for sale or Bradenton homes for sale, you hope to find a home with large windows, sliding glass doors, and great outdoor features so you can enjoy everything a Florida lifestyle has to offer.
When warm sunshine starts filtering through your windows, it's time to shake off the winter dust and tackle some deep cleaning chores in your home, including all those dirty windows that you've ignored during the winter. Before spring arrives, our real estate agents recommend some deep cleaning tips for your windows, so you can open them up, let in the breeze, and enjoy the view.
Take a Look at Your Windows
Before you begin, walk around your home and assess your cleaning tasks. You may have hard-to-reach windows that require a ladder or special equipment to get onto the roof. Don't attempt to clean windows, doors, or skylights that may result in a dangerous fall. For hard-to-reach windows, it's best to call a professional window washer who has the right equipment for the job.
If your home has a second story or multiple levels, start cleaning on the highest level and work your way down. This way, you can make sure that all windows get cleaned in an organized manner, and you won't have to backtrack to check for windows you missed.
Gather Your Cleaning Supplies
Whether you have stationary windows or windows that open, you'll need some basic cleaning supplies and a container to carry them around. Look for a plastic tote or sturdy basket with handles that can hold your essential supplies:
A spray glass cleaner, a mixture of mild soapy water, and a mixture of water and white vinegar
A squeegee
A duster and a hand-held vacuum
A synthetic brush or broom
Microfiber or lint-free soft cloths
Paper towels
Stationary Windows
For stationary windows, start by wiping loose dirt from the glass with a soft, dry cloth or duster. Next, use your synthetic brush or hand-held vacuum to remove dirt and debris from the window frame, sills, and tracks. Apply your cleaning solution to the glass, then remove the solution with a squeegee or clean, lint-free cloth. If you use a squeegee, make sure to wipe the squeegee clean with a cloth or paper towel after each swipe on the glass.
Single or Double Hung Windows
Many replacement windows available in today's market come with a convenient tilt-wash or tilt-sash feature that allows you to easily clean the inside and the outside of the window from inside your home. You don't need to go outside and climb a ladder to clean exterior glass. If your single-hung or double-hung windows have a tilt-sash feature, simply unlock the window, release the tilt-sash mechanisms on the top of the window frame, and tilt your window towards you to clean the glass.
Sliding Glass Doors
If you have interior or exterior doors with window panes or sliding glass doors, you can clean the glass with non-abrasive glass cleaners or mild soapy water. You can use a soft cloth on the interior glass, but it's best to clean the exterior glass with paper towels. Exterior glass can get extremely dirty since it's exposed to the elements. You don't want to ruin your cleaning clothes or transfer bacteria from your exterior glass to other indoor surfaces.
If you're thinking about buying a home in Southwest Florida, contact us to view available properties in desired areas that match your lifestyle and financial needs.
Do you feel overwhelmed at the idea of tackling home improvement projects? If you're like most homeowners, you can just walk through your home and see so many tasks awaiting your elbow grease. If you're thinking of listing your home among Sarasota homes for sale, you may want to get a handle on prioritizing projects.
One of the first steps is to decide how you want to categorize your repairs and renovations. You might jot down categories such as these, and then under each one, list projects that fall under that heading:
Here are some additional tips for organizing your thoughts and knowing which projects to tackle first.
Do you need advice on prioritizing your home improvement projects before listing your home among the Bradenton homes for sale? Our real estate agents can help. Contact us today.
Your dream house has a beautiful yard with grass, trees, shrubs, even a flower garden. There are plenty of Sarasota homes for sale that fit the bill. Our real estate agents can help you find the one that meets your needs. Caring for your new lawn, though, is up to you.
One of the most important aspects of lawn care is water - giving the area just enough water, just often enough, without doing it too much or too frequently. To do that, you'll need a sprinkler system that's designed just for your lawn's needs. You can have it professionally installed, but as long as you're reasonably handy, you might prefer to go the DIY route instead and install it yourself. Here are some tips for installing your sprinkler system.
What You'll Need
Before you begin the installation, you need to make sure you have all your tools and materials ready. Here's a list of what you'll need:
What to Do
The first step is to find the pipe that you'll be using as the water source for your sprinkler system. Water will flow from that pipe through all of your PVC pipes and be distributed to your lawn. Check the pressure of that pipe to make sure it's up to the job.
Next, dig trenches around your yard in the pattern in which you want to place your sprinklers. Also, dig one from the water main to where you want to place your valve box, and dig a hole for the valve box. Dig the trenches between four and twelve inches deep. You'll want to rent a trenching machine to help you get them the right width and depth. Then, lay the PVC pipes in the trenches.
This is just the basics. There's a lot more to know about sprinkler installation. Don't attempt to install your own sprinklers unless you know what you're doing or have an expert on hand to help you. If you're unsure, call a professional.
If you're looking for Bradenton homes for sale with great lawns that are perfect for DIY gardening projects like this, contact us! We'll help you find the home of your dreams!
One of the best parts of buying a new house is giving it those personal touches that help turn it into a home. Our estate agents can help you find Bradenton homes for sale, but only you can make that home your own. One simple and rewarding touch you can add to any home is houseplants. What kind should you have, though? Here are a few things to consider when selecting houseplants.
If you've got houseplants inside, you're likely going to want a few outdoors as well. Fortunately, there are plenty of Sarasota homes for sale with big front and backyards, perfect for gardening. Contact us to help you find the space that's right for you!
If you're new to Florida, you might be surprised to learn that yes, we do get the occasional frost here in Sarasota and Manatee Counties in the late winter and early spring. This is just one of the things you need to know as you embark on gardening in your new home, acquired either from Bradenton homes for sale or Sarasota homes for sale. Fortunately, frost is rare and not much of an impediment to producing fabulous flowers, fruits, and vegetables in Florida.
While we suggest Floridians start planting long before National Plant a Flower Day, which is March 12, this national celebration, which promotes looking forward to spring by encouraging flower planting, is a great reason to jump right in.
And the good news is, after mid-February, the chances of a frost damaging seedlings or other plants are very low. So feel free to head to your local garden center and acquire some fabulous flowers to celebrate March 12 with a burst of color in your yard.
But before you start, a little planning is in order. What can you plant in our region of Florida? So many things, from tropicals to perennials, lush annuals, flowering shrubs, and glorious flowering trees. The key is making sure whatever you choose can tolerate our heat and humidity.
What to Plant
The flowering plant palette for Florida is extensive. Among the most common flowering plants, you'll note are these.
Our real estate agents have more tips for how you can improve your property, indoors and out. Contact us today.
Renovations are a great way to keep your home up to date, to add value, and to compete with other Bradenton homes for sale when it comes time. Unfortunately, many homeowners put off updating their homes because of how complicated it is to get work done when you have pets. Here are a few suggestions for keeping your pets safe and minimizing stress so that you can do the work when it's needed.
Keeping your home up-to-date compared to other Sarasota homes for sale is an important part of owning property. If you're ready to list your home for sale, or even if you just have questions about what renovations you'll need to do before selling, contact us today, and one of our agents will help guide you through the process.
If you're currently a homeowner or are planning to purchase one of these Bradenton homes for sale, familiarizing yourself with basic fire prevention tips is one of the most important things you can do to protect your assets. While no one wants to think about losing their home to a fire, knowledge is power when it comes to preventing a disaster. With National Fire Prevention Week starting Sunday, October 4th, it's a great time to review some common fire prevention strategies. Our real estate agents pulled together a quick list of tips to review:
By taking the necessary precautions and educating yourself on fire safety, you can minimize risk and prevent loss from fire. For more tips on fire prevention, visit www.firepreventionweek.org.
While the warm summer weather is perfect for tasty cookouts and swimming, it also brings a variety of pests who want to make your house their new home. Don't let summer bugs distract you from your summer fun.
The good news is you don't need harsh chemicals to get rid of these unwanted pests! Instead, check out these natural remedies for eliminating summer bugs. All of these remedies below are kid and pet-friendly, and they won't cover your home in chemicals.
Ready to sell your home? Contact us today to have our team help list your home among the many wonderful Sarasota and Bradenton homes for sale.
Gardening is one of the most enjoyable, family-fun activities we can think of, and you can even include a science lesson as a bonus! If you're looking at Bradenton homes for sale or Sarasota homes for sale, we can help you find a property that offers possibilities for creating your own vegetable garden. After all, it doesn't take that much land to produce a significant amount of food!
Find just the right Bradenton or Sarasota home to grow your garden. Our real estate agents can help. Contact us today.
The 2020 hurricane system is off to an early start thanks to the appearance of a tropical disturbance in mid-May. There is no time like the present to start preparing your family and your home for hurricane season. Check out these must-do tasks to add to your hurricane prep list.
Our team hopes these tips help your family prepare for this year's hurricane season. Have more questions about life in Southwest Florida and real estate opportunities? Contact us today!
Spring cleaning isn't something we all look forward to, but while we're sticking close to home, this is an excellent opportunity to organize and clean house. To make it more manageable, we advise creating a five-day plan, focusing on a section of the house each day. Set some goals, write them down and check them off. Here are some suggestions that you can adapt as needed.
If your living space is starting to feel a little stale, there are a few things you can do about it.
Our real estate agents know what it takes to successfully stage Bradenton and Sarasota homes for sale, and we can assure you that arranging the furniture appropriately can change the entire look and feel of a room. Here are a few simple furniture changes that you can make to improve your space.
Find the Balance
Interior decorating focuses on striking the right balance. Never is this more important than when it comes to arranging furniture. To avoid rooms feeling lopsided or unsettled, consider both the size and placement of each piece so that you don't end up with all the large or small pieces of furniture bunched together.
Don't Push Furniture Against the Walls
Though it might sound counterintuitive, leaving a few spare inches between your furniture and the wall behind can actually make the room feel bigger. Determining how much space to leave should be dictated by the size of the space, but even in smaller rooms, it's best not to have furniture pushed right up against the walls.
Choose a Focal Point
Some rooms have a natural focal point, like a fireplace or a prominent set of windows. If that's the case, you can arrange the furniture around that point. If not, you can create your own focal point, such as a large coffee table or an entertainment center, and use it as the central focus of the room. Furniture doesn't have to be directly pointed at the focal point, but it should be arranged so that the eye is drawn toward that focal point.
Use the Right Size Area Rugs
Area rugs should generally cover most of the floor, leaving just a bit of extra around the walls. An exception to the rule is if you have hardwood floors you want to show off, but still want a few smaller area rugs to add a splash of color or tie the space together.
Mix Colors and Textures
A lot of your furniture and decor can be arranged by color, but don't forget about texture as well. If you're arranging throw pillows on a sofa, for example, mixing up colors and contrasting textures helps keep the eye interested. You don't want colors to clash with each other, but they shouldn't all be too similar.
Go With the Flow
One of the most important considerations, when you arrange furniture, is the natural flow of traffic through the room. The last thing you want is to have people tripping over furniture. Make sure each piece of furniture has enough space to walk by it if needed, especially between the coffee table and any couches or chairs that may be nearby.
Let There Be Light
Lighting is one of the best tools you have to tie a room together. Use light to your advantage by incorporating a variety of sources, including floor and table lamps as well as ceiling and wall-mounted fixtures. Use natural light as much as possible, with curtains or shades that allow you to control the lighting in each room.
Contact us today to learn more about transforming your living space. We've helped countless families find their dream homes in Florida, and we can't wait to help you find yours!
The return of springtime has our real estate agents thinking about gardening again! Whether you have a huge yard with lots of room for planting, or simply want to try out container gardening on your back patio, you might be surprised how much you can grow.
Did you know that some of the most common fruits, vegetables, and herbs can be regrown from kitchen scraps? It's true! Those kitchen scraps can create a fun project that entertains and educate kids, and gives your old veggies a new lease on life!
Are you wondering which plants can be regrown? You'll be amazed…
Regrowing veggies in your kitchen is fun, but when you're ready to expand your gardening horizons, we're here to help. Our team has helped countless families find beautiful Bradenton homes for sale and Sarasota homes for sale, including houses with ample room for backyard gardening!
Contact us today to learn more about life in the Bradenton and Sarasota areas, and talk to our team about finding your dream home.
Having a home office is becoming a sought-after feature for many home buyers. Whether you're an at-home worker or someone who just needs an occasional space to work on taxes and bills, you can enhance your experience by sprucing up your office space.
Our REALTORS® can help you with advice about what kind of office space might work in your home. In the meantime, here are some clever ways to improve your home office.
Our real estate agents are ready to help you realize the potential of your home office space. Contact us today.
For most of us, our home is our biggest investment. While we do our best to keep it in top shape, it's easy to make small mistakes that can end up costing us big time. This quick read can save you money in the long run. Remember to:
You can protect your home by creating an annual home maintenance checklist to remind yourself to stay on track with home maintenance.
Like it or not, summer is behind us, and cooler weather is headed our way. Luckily, living in Florida means the changes in the seasons aren't nearly as drastic as those experienced by our friends up north. Still, our real estate agents in Bradenton want to make sure you're ready for the change. These are the steps you should take this fall to get your Bradenton home ready for winter.
Contact Wagner Realty today to learn more about adjusting to the changing seasons in Florida, and to find out how we can help you make your dream of living in the Sunshine State a reality. If you're looking for Bradenton homes for sale, our team is here to help.