Anna Maria Island real estate property is unique. Find out about building, buying, renting and selling on a Florida Gulf Coast barrier island, with the best Old Florida atmosphere and friendly natives.
Why buy when you can settle into a charming island rental as if it were your own home? People love to spend part of winter on Anna Maria Island. Many who fall in love with this beautiful island immediately buy one of the small homes, fix it up, then spend part of the year here when it gets cold everywhere else. But in the current economic conditions, it could make a lot more sense to take a close look at staying in one of the island rental properties that are available and postpone buying anything.
An island rental is often just a home somebody else bought when they fell in love with Anna Maria Island. Maybe they bought it a little too quickly. Then rising property taxes, or financial problems from other sources led the owner to need to rent the property to help defray the cost. Many of the island rental properties have been beautifully improved, with all the amenities of a tropical retreat. A spacious interior with nice finishes and tropical furnishings often opens out to a private swimming pool and beautiful island landscaping. It doesn’t take long to settle into such a place and feel at home.
Growing flowers year round is so easy on Anna Maria Island that, even without a highly qualified landscape expert, nursery, or landscaping service, it’s still possible to enjoy blossoms throughout the year. As somebody who has very limited interest in spending the day doing the work of a landscaper, I have found some plants that give color in the yard with almost no effort, and almost no fertilizer or extra watering.
The bougainvillea that was already on our property has continued to provide color throughout the year, with almost no care. Every once in awhile, a caterpillar of some sort eats some of the leaves. I used to spray pesticide when this happened, but more recently I haven’t worried about it, and the plant seems to survive and periodically bloom, even with no treatment. Having grown bougainvillea years ago as a house plant, I already knew that they prefer to dry out between waterings, and I’m very glad to oblige by letting only the natural rainfall water the plant. Even during droughts, I have not watered our bougainvillea. I have fertilized it several times in the course of ten years, watering it then to soak the minerals into the ground. The blossoms on the plant come and go, and it’s particularly beautiful in mid winter, in cooler temperatures, as seen in the photo.
Anna Maria Island has a lot of little old houses with little old windows. I live in one of them. The windows are the old jalousie style, which crank open like blinds, in horizontal sections. The seals on the metal frames around these old windows are poor. The fit of the window sections into the frame is not always tight. In one case, I’ve even used tape to cover a gap between the window and window frame. The glass is thin and weak. It’s time for new windows!
Jalousie awning window and Bermuda shutter
Ideally, my new windows would meet the standards of the Miami-Dade building code, which is the gold standard for all windows in hurricane territory. They would pass the large missile test, namely, they would not shatter if a six-foot-long two-by-four hit the window at 34 miles per hour. And they would pass the small missile test, enduring ten ball bearings hitting the window repeatedly at 50 miles an hour.
It may sound surprising, but legal proceedings are not out of the question between neighbors on Anna Maria Island. Maybe it’s precisely because we expect life to be perfect and peaceful here that we become irritated when somebody intrudes on our own personal concept of what paradise is supposed to be. So we may be more likely to get on the phone and call a lawyer to help us defend our idealized vision of the good life. If we lived in a city, we might be more likely to tolerate nuisance, because it would be more expected. Our dream is not being ruined.
Disputes arise over many of the symbols of the good life. One neighbor might be annoyed with another for putting in a swimming pool, creating added noise and activity just feet away from what used to be a serenely quiet back yard. There may be a discussion but it’s not likely that a discussion will prevent somebody who wants to put in a pool from doing so. Anyway, it’s their right as long as they follow local ordinances. Angry exchanges across the fence may follow. And the neighbor dismayed by the changes in the neighbor’s yard might go so far as to call a lawyer to see if there is any legal recourse.
On Anna Maria Island, when you see an empty lot with new construction about to begin, you know the new building will tower over the traditional Old Florida one-story homes in the neighborhood. Why? It’s the law, to some degree, at least. In 1975 FEMA made it mandatory that all new construction place the first living level at a certain specified number of feet above sea level, which means either having to raise the lot with a huge amount of fill, or building the living space on a second and, possibly, third floor. This coincided with the start of government involvement in flood insurance programs. When the government starts ‘taking care’ of you, it starts telling you how to do things.
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