FRONT PORCH

When Ed and Jennifer Martin decided to relocate from North Carolina to Sarasota County, FL, they had one mission in mind: to find a family-friendly community featuring a wealth of resort-style amenities. A gated neighborhood where kids had something fun to do every single day of the year.

The Martins found their new Florida home at Grand Palm by Neal Communities and they are gracious enough to share their story with us.

Follow along with their journey to see how exciting building a new FL home can be.

Get to Know the Martin Family

Ed is an instructor at a nuclear power plant and Jennifer owns & operates her own commercial cleaning and maintenance company. They’ve got five kids, four girls and one boy. The eldest is in college and the younger children are in first, third, fifth and seventh grade.

They’re super excited about finally getting into a brand-new Florida home – and the reason is simple:

“In the past, we’ve always purchased and remodeled pre-existing homes. We’re thrilled about our new construction home because we don’t have to remodel it to get it how we want it. After remodeling four homes ourselves, it’s a huge blessing for us to get to move into a beautiful home that is just right from day one!”

Settling on Venice, FL Real Estate

While living in North Carolina, the Martins did a lot of online research into the SW Florida real estate market. They watched YouTube videos and took virtual tours of several different communities.

They had a number of places in southern Sarasota County they wanted to check out – but one master-planned community in Venice, FL caught their eye. “We were always drawn to Grand Palm because it looked like the perfect place for our family.”

Why Grand Palm?

The Martin family had experienced private community living before but their old community had more basic facilities. They quickly fell in love with the enormous community pool that serves as a main focal point of Grand Palm.

“It’s really well thought-out. There are two separate pools inside the fenced in pool area. One is a kid-friendly design with a beach entry and a water slide where the kids can splash and play and not disturb the adults that don’t want to get splashed. The other pool is the quieter grown-up pool. The whole area is designed with both kids and adults in mind.”

They mentioned over and over again how Grand Palm was so kid-friendly. The Martin kids are over the moon at having so many fun activities available right inside the community. Sports courts, Adventure Lake, miles of bike trails, fishing, kayaking and more.

Next Step – Choosing a Floor Plan

For the Martins, settling on a new home community in Venice, Florida was easy. It was love at first sight.

But choosing from nearly 20 different floor plan options wasn’t quite so simple. Originally, they wanted to purchase a move-in ready home – but unable to find an existing property that exactly matched their needs, they opted to take the new build route.

In our next post, we’ll walk you through Ed and Jennifer’s thought process when selecting floor plans. From their top priorities, to the options and upgrades they chose to spend extra on. Stay tuned to watch the Martin’s new home dreams come true.