In the summer I visited Florence on the occasion of a romantic wedding held in Fiesole, in an estate that was used as a filming site for the movie ‘A room with a view’.
The city of Florence was built as early as 59 BC, and its flowering began in the 13th century. The houses are old, the palaces, the churches and the public buildings are ancient, yet they have been preserved or preserved in their best. The streets are magical, every house is painted in a different shade of the earth’s colors, flowerpots were placed at the entrances and balconies. The roofs of the houses were cultivated into decorated and inviting areas. Every door is worth a photo, every yard received attention and the public areas were treated as if they were also the private space of the homeowners.
In Tel Aviv there are old buildings, about 80-70 years old, which have not aged with dignity. The facades were neglected by the tenants, balconies were unevenly closed, grills and air conditioning units were hung around the building without thinking about the appearance of the building from the street. Homeowners usually invest attention and money in renovating and nurturing the space of their private apartment, and invest less in the visibility of the public areas of the building.
As a real estate agent, when I’m looking for an apartment in Tel Aviv for my clients, to buy or rent, I check the following points, all of which start with the letter “M” in Hebrew:
Foyer | elevator | balcony | MMD | parking space | air conditioning | and also a storage room is an advantage.
In the new buildings in Israel built after 1991, security rooms were built inside the apartments, instead of the public shelters in the basement of the building. New neighborhoods were built according to environmental planning of the entire neighborhood. In new neighborhoods in Herzliya such as the Western Green Herzliya, the Herzliya Hills neighborhood or the Glil Yam neighborhood, wide streets were planned, with routes for cyclists and walking paths. The electricity grid is buried underground, the street lights are solar powered and are regenerated during daylight hours. Public gardens and playgrounds for children are scattered throughout the neighborhood, and there is also a dog park, for example, or shady places to sit and hang out.
In Florence, I saw that shop and business owners design their shop windows in the best possible way, so that passers-by stop by the shop and look, even if they were not thinking of making a purchase in that particular shop. The designed storefront invites customers to enter the store and possibly make an unplanned purchase. I noticed that not only brand stores such as ‘Tiffany’, ‘Hermes’ or ‘Ferragamo’, for example, invest in the design and positioning of the shop windows, but also small shop owners, businesses that are passed down in the family from generation to generation and continue to produce what they know how to do for years, such as Gloves, bags or various products with the character of Pinocchio for example.
Presenting a property in the best possible way is extremely important when the owner of the property wishes to sell or rent his or her property. I recommend painting the apartment or house, taking care of points that need repair or refreshing, removing unnecessary objects from all surfaces and thoroughly cleaning. Also design the property, set it up, what is called staging, with new bed covers, decorative pillows, ornaments, pots with seasonal flowers and the like.