a real estate merry-go-round

We first visited Sanibel in 2001 and stayed for a couple of nights with our friends Gayle and George.  G&G had been long-time Sanibel seasonal residents, and they were just the right people to introduce us to the island.  They showed us around, from the Lighthouse to Captiva, and we loved what we saw.  We were used to visiting my Dad on the east coast of Florida, where his lifestyle was much more formal than we enjoyed.  Sanibel, we were pleased to learn, was all about being casual and comfortable, but restaurants still served superb food and the shopping was as sophisticated as you wanted.

The next year we decided to visit the Keys, as we had heard they also had a low-key lifestyle.  We soon learned that the Keys are all about fishing (and eating fish, which I don't) and the beaches are rocky, with only a few sandy strips sprinkled throughout.  We did enjoy a lovely lunch on Little Palm Island, and our day trip to Key West was eye-opening, but getting stuck on the Seven Mile Bridge for 4 hours, due to a car bombing, made us realize the Keys were not for us.

As 2003 was approaching, we decided to return to Sanibel for a couple of weeks.  I went online and found a rental agency's website that was full of possibilities.  I had 3 must-have requirements for a rental condo:

1. A view of the water
2. An elevator
3. A BBQ grill

I found a 2-bedroom condo on the top (third) floor of a complex that had 3 buildings with 12 condos in each.  These 36 units shared 3 tennis courts, 4 gas grills and a swimming pool.  All units looked out onto the beach.  It sounded like heaven and we booked it. 

For the next 7 years, we and our family enjoyed staying in that condo, which I found just by chance.  And we got to know 2 other couples on the same floor who rented year after year at the same time as we did.  It was like returning home each winter.

In the fall of 2009, we received a phone call from our Sanibel neighbors in the adjoining 3-bedroom condo.  They told us that they would not be returning in the winter for health reasons, and that they wanted us to have first refusal on renting their larger unit, now that our family was expanding.  We gratefully took them up on their offer and we have been happily enjoying the larger unit for 4 years.

We also have gotten to know the owner of this condo, who is a friend of a friend of my aunt and uncle.  The small world including both Sanibel and Rochester continues to amaze me.  When we received a phone call from Micki in October, telling us she had had an unsolicited purchase offer from someone totally out of the blue, our hearts sank.  She kindly gave us the opportunity to match his offer, and had we accepted, it would have been ours.  But we decided we did not want to own long-distance, hurricane-susceptible property, and would continue to rent. 

We checked in a couple of weeks ago to begin our fourth year in this unit.  And when we went to renew for next year (required on Sanibel within 72 hours of checking in or the unit goes back into the rental pool), we learned that the new owner was going to take the unit for himself during our February/March rental period.  We were up the creek without a paddle and quickly contacted our longtime rental agent.

She worked with us to find another spot and came up with an identical 3-bedroom unit in another building of the same complex that we called home.  We took a look at it, signed on the dotted line and paid our deposit.  Three days later the agent called to say that the owner of that unit ALSO wants to have his unit available for his own use next winter.  Once again, we were homeless.

After a few days, our agent called again to say she had a unit in another complex that she thought we would like.  To make sure we didn't get burned again, she had already called the owner to make sure it would be available for us and that he didn't want to use it himself during our time frame.  He said it could be ours if we wanted it and FINALLY, the real estate merry-go-round started to slow down.

Today we went over to check it out, and we fell in love.  It has a view of the water, an elevator and a BBQ grill. It also is a one-building complex that has only 6 units total, 2 to a floor.  It's three bedrooms, 2 baths and has lanais on three sides.  The amount of light coming into the living spaces is wonderful.  There's a dining table for 6, a kitchen table for 4, 4 stools at the kitchen counter and a table on the lanai with room for 4.  We could feed an army!

We returned the borrowed key, signed on the dotted line and transferred our deposit to this new unit.

If we can't be in our familiar home away from home, this new place is a wonderful replacement.  Finally, our ride on the real estate merry-go-round has come to a stop and we're happily looking forward to staying in our new spot next winter.