By Scott Gaertner
Those of you who enjoy HGTV, Joanna Gaines or house flipping shows now have a new local show that is a must-see.
It seems like all I’ve been yammering about here the last six months is how crazy the real estate market is. Time for a change of pace and a little fun. If you’re anything like me, you have probably already binge-watched all the great content available on cable. Want to watch a genius home designer transform a Scottsdale North home? Well, we have a show for you!
Here is the backstory: About three years ago I helped an HGTV personality and brilliant home designer named Jeffrey Florentine buy a home in Scottsdale North. If I am being honest, the transaction was a little bumpy because he and I had different investment philosophies. I have always been a big “location, location, location” guy. One of my mantras over the last 30 years has been, “I don’t care so much about the inside because I can fix that if I want to. I can’t fix the location.” Jeffrey strongly believed that the home having “great bones” was much more important. By that he meant that a home with a great floorplan that he can improve and update would outweigh any locational deficiencies. As you might guess, him being the client, and his strong convictions, won out and he bought the home.
The finished product was staggeringly different than anything I could ever have envisioned. The photos honestly don’t do the home justice, but they should give you a hint of the transformation. It was absolutely stunning and unrecognizable from the home he purchased. When he sold the home it set a record for price in the community in spite of the inferior location. Jeffrey taught an old dog a new trick with that transaction, so when he called me this year with a new project, I was all in.
He explained that his new design TV show had been canceled due to the pandemic, and he had decided that his new goal was to “bring the soul back to Desert Mountain.” For those of you unfamiliar with it, Desert Mountain is an amazing golf and lifestyle community built around seven golf courses in Scottsdale North. I worked in sales there back in the late 1980s when it was just three golf courses and a bunch of custom lots. The problem today is that since folks don’t love remodel projects, a number of those homes built back then have great bones, but they need new life brought into them. Jeffrey lives in and loves Desert Mountain, and his passion is reviving homes just like these.
We decided that there were probably a lot of folks out there like me that didn’t understand what a world-class designer can do for a home. We figured the best way to help people learn as I did was to completely reinvent a home and video the entire process. That is what I am inviting you to watch. You’ll watch from start to finish and everything in between. We think hearing Jeffrey’s initial vision and watching his masterpiece come together will be entertaining and enlightening. The home should be complete this month and we’ll have a drawing so some of you can come to the reveal party when we unveil the finished product to the world!
The property is located on Loving Tree Lane in the heart of Desert Mountain a couple of blocks down the street from the extraordinary fitness center. You can follow Jeffrey as he puts the pulse back into the home at RevivingLovingTree.com. I hope you enjoy watching him work as much as I have.
Scott Gaertner is an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Northeast, who for the past 25+ years has helped more people to find their lifestyle niche in the Scottsdale North area than anyone else. He also contributes his thoughts on lifestyle interests in the area.
