Spend the Summer on Block Island

Get ready, summer is just around the corner! Have you started thinking about booking your summer vacation yet? If you’re like us out here on Block Island, chances are you have already begun your research. Starting in early January the phone calls and emails began flowing in with rental requests for the hottest weeks in July and August. This year Lila Delman Block Island has a great selection of Block Island summer vacation rentals.

If you’re not familiar with Block Island it is located 12 miles off of Rhode Island’s south coast and is easily accessed by ferries from Rhode Island (Point Judith), Montauk and New London; there is even a state airport for small aircraft. For those wishing to bring a vehicle over to Block Island you can make a ferry reservation out of Point Judith. To preview the schedule and make a reservation please visit www.blockislandferry.com. New England Airlines also offers daily direct flights year round to Block Island which leave from the Westerly airport and take 12 short minutes. They even offer private charter flights! For additional information please visit http://www.block-island.com/nea/.

Block Island is a fantastic place to spend your summer vacation, with 17 miles of white sandy beaches and crystal blue water it is the ideal beach vacation destination. Hiking the greenway trails, sight seeing from the Mohegan Bluffs, browsing the boutique style shops, the happening night life and the tasty dining experiences are just a few things to do while visiting Block Island. For more information on Block Island activities please visit: http://www.blockislandinfo.com/ViewPage.aspx?SectionID=10.

With all the beautiful sites to see and fun activities to do, one can see why Block Island is a great place to spend your summer vacation. The Nature Conservancy has called Block Island “One of the 12 last greatest places in the Western Hemisphere”. It is commonly referred to as “The Bermuda of the North”.

To book your Block Island summer vacation rental please call Lila Delman Real Estate on Block Island at 401-466-8777 or email BIRentals@LilaDelman.com

Boston Homes Featured Properties - February 3, 2012

Newport, RI

Portsmouth, RI

Narragansett, RI

Jamestown, RI

How To Be Top by Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty

As we enter a New Year Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes a look at what may lie ahead for the real estate market.

Although mature real estate brokers and agents are apt to say that they have seen it all before, this time it is different.  No one has seen this market under this set of national and international financial conditions before.  But what is rather refreshing is that the uncertainty now cuts down the speculation aspect of a home purchase and strips the requirement to buy down to the real and age-old essentials.  This makes for easier choices.

Le Corbusier, the pioneering architect, stated that, “The requirements for a house should be to provide a shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive”.  He didn’t add that a home should also provide its owner with an investment return of seven per cent year-on-year.

For the first time since, perhaps, the 1960s property investment can take more of a back seat in the home buying mindset and, instead, fundamental life requirements can come back to the fore.  Of course with other financial instruments providing so little in the way of return, real estate is a natural arena in which to invest.  But with little or no indication about if or when the market will return in any zest we are left with simpler decisions and choices - does a home suit our requirements in size, location, style and price?

It is although our needs have been simplified in the way they may have been fifty years ago.  With less frenzy and greater choice, for a while at least, this may be a very good time to choose a primary or secondary home for all the very best lifestyle reasons.

We quickly learn to expect that there is an investment opportunity to be gained from property purchase in a rising market.  But we are rather slow to appreciate the reverse is likely in a poor market and/or in particularly adverse economic circumstances as we have now.

2011 was a hard year in property and this year may not be much better. We may have new US, Russian and French presidents, more ructions in Europe and the Middle East, and greater privations at home before we see greater improvement. But still there is a reassuring level of market activity that has more to do with need than discretion.  This is the market we have and this is the market we have to deal with – and deal with it we will.

But real estate buyers and sellers should not be deterred.  Indeed they should be encouraged as the more life there is in the real estate market the more life there is in the economy.  But those still insisting on the sort of financial profit they may have achieved several years ago should perhaps think again and get real. It will be the enlightened that get to the top of the property class in 2012, not those in denial.

ProJo Featured Properties January 29, 2012

Newport Gracious 6 bedroom Colonial Revival built by Horan Building Co.  Sun-lit living spaces, gourmet kitchen, custom high-end finishes, coffered ceilings and wainscotting throughout.  High efficiency design and construction.  Walk to town amenities.  $2,495,000  848-2101  More Information

Bristol "Stone Harbour" Waterfront luxury Penthouse Condo with extensive waterviews.  Gourmet kitchen, hardwood floors, high ceilings, luxurious master suite with waterviews.  2 additional bedrooms, den/media room and library.  $1,450,000  848-2101  More Information

Narragansett Oceanfront 4 bedroom, 4 bath home on almost 5 acres in a private gated compound.  Incredible views of the  crashing waves, Beavertail Lighthouse and the ocean.  260 ft. of frontage.  $3,500,000  789-6666  More Information

Wall Street Journal Featured Properties January 27, 2012

Newport, RI "Plaisance"
$7,950,000  401-848-2101

Newport, RI "Seabeach"
$4,990,000  401-284-4820

South Kingstown, RI "Long Pond Farm"
$6,700,000  401-789-6666

Barrington, RI Waterfront
$4,994,000  401-789-6666

Little Compton, RI "Sakonnet Vineyards"
$8,900,000  401-848-2101

Narragansett, RI Waterfront
$2,750,000  401-789-6666

Girl Scout Cookies

It’s Girl Scout cookie time!  My daughters look forward to this exciting and fun activity each year as being a part of the Girl Scouts.  As much as we enjoy ordering (and receiving!) our favorite kinds of cookies, there are also great benefits for the Girl Scouts organization.  Each Girl Scout starts out by setting a personal goal for the number of boxes she wishes to sell.  After deciding who she will market the cookies to, and taking the cookie orders, the Girl Scout then organizes and sends in her order.  Later, when the girls receive the boxes of cookies from the distributor, they deliver them to their appropriate customers. The girls are responsible for accurately collecting and managing the money that is due from their customers and returning it to their troop leader, the girls are then awarded a prize determined by their level of sales.  This is a great lesson for our children about goal setting, responsibility, taking charge, and developing an understanding of some of the components that might go into running their own business some day. The girl’s troop also benefits, as a small portion of their sales is donated to the troop. You go girls J!

Boston Homes Featured Properties

Oceanfront 150′ of coastline, recently renovated, 3 bedroom suites, wraparound mahogany decks. Exceptional beach & boating steps away.  $2,500,000  401-789-6666More Information

Waterfront Post & Beam. Gourmet kitchen, family room with fireplace. Stunning views. Over an acre of meticulous grounds. $1,565,000 401-348-1999 More Information

1928 Neo-Georgian beautifully renovated, 7 bedrooms. Minutes to Brown, downtown Providence. 1 hour to Boston $2,495,000 401-274-1644 More Information

Castle Hill. Newly constructed with oceanviews, wrap-around porch and luxurious master with fireplace. Deeded access to private sandy beach steps away. $3,350,000 401-848-2101 More Information

“Autumn House” Charming updated 5 bedroom in Shoreby Hill. Stroll to Jamestown harbor & village. Beautiful grounds & pool. $1,595,000 401-423-3440 More Information

Waterview 5 bedroom Shingle-Style within Carnegie Abbey Club. Pool & cabana. Golf, tennis and equestrian. $3,995,900 401-848-2101 More Information

Revisiting "Attachments" - A "My Rhode Island Summer Story Contest 2010" Finalist

In the Spring of 2010 Lila Delman Real Estate ran a story contest on Facebook entitled "My Rhode Island Summer".  Below is one of the finalists' essays, Attachments.  May it keep you warm on this winter day.

Attachments

By Mary Stoner

Photo by Coleen Huggins Bonnell

All of my childhood, gray-mist memories include one common facet, the sea. I was born on an island which made escaping the water impossible. I wiled away the summers of my youth on Easton’s Beach where I swam through the white foam surf and dug thorny creatures from the wet sand. Daily I ran along the cliff walk, a winding path that follows the Atlantic’s rocky coast, and I was married in a small, Victorian chapel that sends evening shadows across Narraganset Bay. Yet only recently have I begun to understand the importance of my communion with the salt sea, and why I am drawn to it like a helpless ship to a lodestone rock.

I share a strange relationship with the ocean. It is an umbilical connection that cannot be broken. If I stay away too long, the cord snaps me back forcing a sort of jealous baptism by salt. This summer, the bond between us tightened. Through an inexplicable series of sensory fragments, I became keenly aware of the depth of the sea’s continued influence on my life. . . .
This summer I became aware of my children’s attachment to the sea. As they stood on the shore half naked and “brown as berries” under a haze-covered sun, they shed their anxieties and turned tall, tan, and wiser. They kicked through the hot-cold, coarse sand and shivered at the tangy taste of warm salt on their arms. They drifted about as aimlessly as the transparent jelly fish that rainbowed the ocean’s surface. . . .

This summer I became more aware of the sea’s very essence. I watched tons of slimy, green-black lobsters gurgle and bubble in chaotic unity on the docks. Fishermen anchored close by carelessly strung bait by jabbing sharp stringers through yellow cod eyes that turned to tears. Snails, bloated pink and pebbly, jutted from glassy brown shells. All of these pierced my senses while the sea shimmered beneath weathered slats. . . .

This summer I became painfully aware of my own dormant emotions. I dared to swim back . . . . Undulating gently on a board rippled thick with wax, I faced an “ancient god” of the sea. (What mystical powers dawn’s soft swells have!) We tried in tandem to remember a rhythm long forgotten, but the sea smoothed its skirts and ignored us. Those strange kisses, once childhood memories, are now forbidden pleasures. We laughed until liquid crimson lined the horizon. . . . “Red at night, [my] delight”. . . .
Summer’s fresh images have not yet slipped into sweet, sea-infused memories, and I feel the need to return. I understand now that the sea is the salt of my blood. Though I try, I cannot shake this awareness, and the cord chokes tears into my eyes.