Florida Dream Home: Hidden Waterfront Paradise

So if you've dreamed about owning the perfect Florida boathouse, but are concerned about being completely exposed to hurricanes and the crazy insurance costs, this video's gonna be for you. I'm gonna take you on a tour of one of Tampa Bay's best under-the-radar boating communities, located right on the Manatee River. It's just a short boat ride from Anna Maria Island, Egmont Key, and Fort DeSoto Park to name a few. And if we've never met before, my name is Juan Alcala. We make videos that are all things Tampa Bay, what it's like to live here, what it's like to work here, what it's like to play here, the food, the dining, the outdoors, the beaches, and the sunshine. A little over six and a half years ago, my wife Kate and I packed up everything we own, including our family of five, sold everything, and moved 1,200 miles south here to the Tampa Bay area, and have been loving it ever since. We've also helped over 150 families relocate and do the same thing. And a lot of them want to be on the water, but they might have concerns about hurricanes, weather, those types of things. So I know the suspense is probably driving you crazy by now and you're thinking, Juan, just tell us where it is. Tidewater Preserve is in Bradenton, Florida. And this community offers a ton of amenities. I'm gonna take you all around here today. This is one of those very unique communities that I really enjoy being able to share with clients. And I know the homeowners here absolutely loved their time in this home. We're gonna take you out to a specific property today. You're gonna see what this community has to offer. Not only just the amenities, not only just the neighborhood driving, but you're gonna see inside of a house. What can you expect for your money in a community like this? And you're also gonna see how this is different from living directly on the coast, but with all the benefits. So you get a lot of the pros without hardly any of the cons, and we're gonna get deep into that today. So let's talk about some of the amenities before I get you out to this community and just give you kind of like a 30,000 foot view of this community. I love it. It comes with a marina and a motorized boat lift. There are marina slips available, which is awesome. If you don't wanna park the boat in your backyard, but you know, why would you not want to? This is, but it's your dream, right? It comes with a tennis complex. It also has a riverfront walk. You'll have access to the clubhouse, the fitness center, a playground, a resort style pool. There are two pools, as a matter of fact, one of them is right down the street from the house, along with a dog park and walking trails. Another thing I know you're gonna love about this community is its proximity to all of the surrounding areas. I mean, you're less than 30 minutes to downtown Sarasota, 35 minutes to downtown St. Pete. You're 10 minutes away from Costco, 10 minutes away from the highway, three to five minutes to your Publix right at the end of your neighborhood. And that's just to name a few. If you're gonna go to Lakewood Ranch, you're talking about 20 minutes. You know, you've got all the things you could ever ask for within a 30 to 50 minute drive, give or take. If you wanna go to Tampa International Airport, depending on traffic, that could take you up to 50, 55 minutes. But you also have SRQ, Sarasota Airport, which is only 20 minutes from the house. So you've got a lot of flexibility, not including, obviously, all of the wonderful things you can do on your boat. So whether you wanna drive, whether you wanna hop on a bike, ride around the area, or get in your car and hop over to Costco because you need to load up, you've got everything at your fingertips within minutes. And before we jump into this incredible house, I wanted to share some specs with you. This is a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath with a study, two-car garage, private pool with an outdoor kitchenette and covered lanai. It's 2,333 square feet, all-block construction, single-story, built in 2014, and it has a concrete tile roof. This thing is built to last. Now let's get inside this property and check it out. Now I'm so excited to show you this house because as a child, I only could have dreamt of living in a home like this. And I think you guys are gonna find that, you know, luxury comes in a lot of, you know, packages. Sometimes it can be a big, huge home. Other times it can be small, quaint, and accommodating. But the thing that I equate luxury with is how does it make me feel? And this home gives me all of those vibes. And to be able to grab a property like this that's on the water, that gives me access to put a boat dock in my backyard, to not only that, but to have a lagoon in my backyard, also that has access to the Manatee River, that has access to the Gulf of America. That's pretty exciting. I can't wait to take you guys in here. Let's go check it out. All right, so as you come in this house, I mean, you are immediately greeted by this huge open foyer, if you will, or foyer. Ceilings are probably 12, 13 feet high. And it just gives you a really nice sense of warmth in how quickly this home opens up is something that I'm really excited to show you guys today because like I was saying outside, like there's different houses, but most importantly, how do they make you feel, right? Four walls and a roof is very easy to get anywhere in this country. But when you walk into a house, you want it to feel like a home. You want it to feel like a space where you can see yourself living. More importantly, where you can see yourself making memories and that's what you guys are gonna discover today. Okay, first things first, let's head over to the right here. This is the home office here. Love a great formal study. You got the French doors that open up in here. I love the built-ins. There's something about this space. It's really warm with natural light, but not overwhelming. The way it sits here at the house between the plantation shutters and just the warm floors that they have all throughout the house here, it really gives just that sense of like, man, this is a great, comfortable space to work. And for a lot of people, this is super important because a lot of our clients, and maybe that's you, work from home and that makes life a lot less complicated for most people. Love the art all the way through this house. You come through the hallway here to the guest suite. As we pass the laundry room here, you do have a sink here, wash basin, so you can go ahead and clean that up. Plenty of cabinetry and storage up top, as you can see there. You got the cabinets and that leads out to the two-car garage. Also have the board and batten over here with some coat hooks, which is great. So as we walk into the guest room, again, tall ceilings. We're 10-foot ceilings throughout. Just really, really nice space. And you can tell here, the homeowners really took time to decorate this house to make it feel warm and inviting. And this space is another one. You do have carpet in the bedrooms here and it just gives a great sense of hominess, if you will. And that takes you into the main bathroom in the house, which, again, nice warm space. You've got the quartz countertops here, real wood cabinetry in the home, and then the walk-in shower here to the left. Great tile work. Love the little window above the shower there. That's something that's an attention to detail that a lot of people miss, but really, really nice main bathroom here in the house. And then that takes us over to the third bedroom, which again, is carpeted here. And they've got it lined up here like another home office. As you can see, again, a lot of people get to work from home. It's a great space, but you got enough room for a sofa, an L-shaped desk, which is fantastic as well. Again, plantation shutters all the way through the home here and I really like the wallpaper, how they've made it look like brick, which is really cool. And then that takes us through another hallway here. Got closets here on the right-hand side, which are great. Again, I love the hardwood floors. Look at the sunlight splashing off of that. Just, again, the warmth is fantastic. And then, of course, the decor in the house really matches it. That takes us over to the powder room, coat closet area, plantation shutters, as usual. Again, looks great. What a just fantastic way to walk in and be greeted in your new home here. And now we're gonna go check out the area of the house that really makes people want to stay here. Okay, so here we go into the main living area and this place is enormous. Not only do we have the really high ceilings as discussed, but they're also a trade, which is just a really nice formal touch here. Gives a little sense of luxury, which I'm a huge fan of. Just makes it feel warm and inviting overall. Great decorations in this house through and through. Again, the floor, humongous sectional sofa here. There's enough room for a dance, literally, in this space. But the other thing that I love about this is they have taken the formal dining here and turned it into a sitting room, which is, I don't know about you guys, but that's how our family would use a space like this. As much as I really appreciate a big dining table, we've hardly ever used those. But I love a great place to sit down, grab a cup of coffee, hang out, talk with the family, have a cocktail, whatever it is you're doing. And then they made this great wall of art behind it. It's all backlit. It just looks fantastic. It's just a really, really nice spot. And that takes us into the kitchen area here, which I'm gonna show you shortly. All right, now, as we come into this kitchen, I mean, I just love the way that this is laid out and it's gonna take us to, obviously, the outdoor space, which is gonna blow your guys' mind. Can't wait to show you that. But you've got this great oversized island here, stainless steel appliances, deep double sink right here in the center, which, again, overlooks everything that's happening in the main living space. And again, huge television. That's probably 70 inches at least. Big L couch like we showed. You got the pantry there with eight foot doors, which is fantastic. Stainless steel appliances. Again, all the cabinetry on the other side, white, gorgeous, love that. And then you've got this almost butler pantry style with the built-ins. They made it a coffee bar, the wine bar. You've got some plates and some decor over here, which is just awesome. And then that leads us to the breakfast nook. And I know this is where a lot of people eat. They'll either eat here or they'll end up eating here with their family. We've got three kids. I know Kate and I would spend a ton of time right around this island here, just making sure that we enjoyed our time together. Another thing to take note of in this home is they do have a gas stove. And the cooktops in Florida, a lot of them are electric. So having a gas cooktop is awesome. And a gas oven, it's fantastic to be able to have that. And then that leads us back into the main living space. And I'm gonna show you that later, so make sure you guys stick around for that. But I wanna give you this big shot here of the living room. You can see the formal dining that they had turned into the sitting area back there. And then this is the shot of the kitchen here, looking straight at it, which I think is fantastic. But that's gonna lead us over to our master suite. So this room is beautiful. They updated the flooring here with a little bit lighter color than the remainder of the house. Both floors are great, but it just gives it a little brighter feeling when you walk into the room. Overall, huge king-size bed. I believe that's a Cali King. The nightstands are probably 32 inches at least across, so just for context. And so you can get a sense of how big this space actually is, but that overlooks your screen and lanai and pool area there as well. Again, plantation shutters all the way through the home. There's this huge oversized dresser here, which is just absolutely gorgeous. And then that leads us into our en suite here. His and her sink, of course. Love it. Big, huge space. Full-length mirror, as you can see. Soaker tub, for those people who really enjoy those. I know we still have clients that want a real soaker tub. Not everybody does, but I know that some people still love it. And of course, you still get the walk-in shower as well, which is fantastic. Really good size too. I mean, there's more than enough room in this walk-in shower here. You do have a little bench where you can sit. Or for the ladies, I know they like to put their legs up there when they're shaving and doing their thing. There is a water closet directly across, and it is exactly what you think it is. And then big closet here as well. Take you guys in. They're in the middle of packing. It's huge, man. This closet's enormous. I know sometimes it's hard to get a sense for the space with the camera lenses the way they are, but it's a really big walk-in closet. More than enough room for all of her stuff. Or his, depending on who takes more space in the master bedroom in the closet area. But again, just a beautiful space here. And now I'm gonna take you guys out to the space, which is the reason that most people are gonna wanna buy a property like this. If you look over here, you've got these big, huge, oversized door walls, which I believe are eight feet. They may even be nine feet tall, but there's three of them, and it's pocket style. So as you come up, you can push it back, move this all the way back. It really opens up the house. And I'll take a step back and show you what that looks like right now too. So you can see. Now, during the winter, you're gonna wanna make this an additional living space. In the summer, it gets warm. You're gonna have a hard time keeping up with those utility bills. If you wanna try to cool this space down, but four or five months out of the year, you're gonna be able to open this house wide open and then go out here and really enjoy this outdoor space, which is absolutely incredible. I'm gonna go take you guys to see this right now. Love this space here. You do have, of course, paper patio. The surround here is all paper. You do have a wonderful pool with the sun shelf on it there. So if you wanna put the Adirondack chairs there, soak up the sun, you can do that. It's a little bit overcast today in general, so you can kinda get a sense for what's going on out here. Seating area there as well. It's completely screened in. Got the extra shade up top there, so you can really enjoy it. And this lagoon out here, out back. And as I wrapped up today, I realized that I forgot to mention that the homeowners already have approval for their own private dock here, and they've already went out and got a bid. So if you wanna check that information out, I'll make sure I include that down below as well. Let's get back to the home tour. This outdoor space is phenomenal, okay? So let me start over here. I'm gonna take you so you can check out the outdoor kitchen. It is built in, so you do have the grill, which is great, stainless steel. Got some ceramics there as well. And then over here, you have the built-in refrigerator, beverage fridge, counter space up here. They got a cutting board up there. It's decorated well. It is already prepped for hurricane shutters here. As close as we are to the Gulf and the Manatee River, it is important to make sure you have those things in place. But y'all, look at this space. I mean, what a killer space. You got seating here, seating here, seating over there, seating over here. And we do have a full water feature that is typically running as well. So it's just a great spot to come hang out. And again, it opens back up into this beautiful home here. And y'all, opportunities like this don't come on the market every day. And if you're into water living, if you wanna be on the water, if you wanna have a boat in the water, this is going to be the property for you. It is already done. Come in, put your touches on it. But it is beautifully appointed already. Homeowners have done such a good job of taking just wonderful care of this home. It's almost 2,400 square feet, three bedrooms, two and a half baths. Like I said, it is just incredible. So I hope you enjoyed touring this community and this house as much as I enjoyed showing it to you. If you want the details of this home, you'll find a link to the actual property website down below. It'll feature the price, all of the HOA details, everything you're gonna wanna know. And it's pretty reasonable on the HOA for what you get, which I think is absolutely incredible. And if you'd like to schedule a private tour or if you have any questions about living in Bradenton at all, do not hesitate to reach out to me and my team. You'll see my contact information listed down below, including a link to my calendar so you can schedule a time that is most convenient for you. Happy to pop on Zoom, show you the property, unpack Bradenton, show you all the pros and cons of living here in this beautiful area. And as always, until next time, go out and live that Tampa life.