These Ranch Style Homes Sure Look Familiar

Tallahassee REALTOR Defines Ranch Styles Homes to Buyers

I hear so many people, even people in the real estate field, incorrectly stating what is a ranch style home. I want to make some clarifications, as the ranch style home is an American icon, and covers the land, from coast to coast.

Here in Tallahassee, Florida, and all throughout northwest Florida, there are many, many ranch style homes in all sizes.

A ranch style home must be rectangular shape, but can be a rectangle in U-shape form, a rectangle in L-Shape form, with an attached  garage or attached carport on one side. Size is irrelevant to ranch homes, as I have seen ranch style homes as small as 1000 square feet to spacious horizontal structures over 3000 square feet.

Ranch styles homes are focused on the horizontal, not the vertical, like other architectural types of homes, such as colonials, traditional, cape cods, and contemporaries. Ranch style homes are lower lying to the earth, and can harmoniously fit in well with the local environment, such as our Tallahassee, Florida environment with its many evergreen trees: the pines. 

Every ranch home must have either a low-pitch, gable roof, or a flat roof. This is where people sometimes make the big blunder. Drive through most any established neighborhood in Tallahassee, Florida, and you will see true ranch style homes. A home may be a ranch in every way, but the roof is not a low-pitch gable roof. With a ranch style home, the roof and the rectangular shape are the two fundamental characteristics. You can almost be certain that if the home’s roof is low-pitch gable, on a rectanglar body, the home is probably a ranch style home, especially in Tallahassee, and surrounding area.

Ranch style homes are not fancy, sophisticated, elegant on the outside. Rather, they are simple structures, and may or may not have a front porch, covered or uncovered. Ranches do have a back porch, patio or deck, which fits in with the tradition of ranches, in which family, and neighbors got together and grilled in the backyard, and lived in the yard more. I grew up in ranch homes, and can attest to that fact. We always congregated in the back yard, played badmitten, grilled burgers, and hot dogs, and overly used our lounge chairs. The backyard served an important role of getting together.

Now, for the indoors. My buyers say they want an open floor plan, but how many people realize that it was the ranch style home from the early 50’s that popularized the open floor plan. Ranch homes opened up the home for countless numbers of young Americans looking for their first home. Today, almost every home, with almost every architectural style, has an open floor plan, and that is an important feature for most everybody it seems. That kitchen, looking out onto the living room, or family room, and dining area, so entertaining is more comfortable, and people can feel more together. Also, an open floor plan usually allows for more light coming in, and people today expect a lot of light in their homes. Truly the homes of today, are even more open than many of the early ranch style homes.

Another fact about the interior of ranch homes is that there is a hallway with the bedrooms and baths starting from the foyer, and the foyer is the channel to the two segments of the home. Opposite of the hallways or at a 90 degree angle to it is the open floor living, entertaining and kitchen area, and sometimes the master bedroom and master bath are on the opposite end of the home from the other bedrooms, or in other cases, could also be down the same hallway starting from the foyer. There is order in ranch style homes, and you usually know where you are going.

Sometimes these homes have built-ins. Today, the built in entertainment center, book shelves, so forth, also come from the early ranch style home days.

Ranch homes often have a fireplace, often brick, or stone, but not always. Traditional ranch style homes used natural materials representing the local environment. Fitting in with nature has always been a theme for ranch style homes.

We owe so much to the ranch style home. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to have lived most of my life in this kind of dwelling. I will forever love ranch, and especially the era that surrounds the emergence and popularity of ranch, as I came from the baby boomer period.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Boulevard, Suite B103
Blog: http://KennethFach.wordpress.com
Cell 850-339-5753

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Why This Tallahassee REALTOR Likes Ranch Style Homes

There are a number of reasons why I am attracted to ranch style homes. Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, is filled with these ranch homes. They come in many individual forms, all sizes, and are either u-shaped, L-shaped, or just a rectangle. All over the United States there are many differents types of ranch style homes to choose from. They are a dominant feature in American real estate.

Ranch style homes were built in abundance during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s and lost  popularity in the 80’s and 90’s due to buyers tired of seeing them everywhere, and also because of the easy money available to buy the verticle McMansions, which home builders were building all over. Now, ranch homes are back in demand, and have always been an important part of the real estate market, in Tallahassee and elsewhere, since those early days of the 50’s. There are a number of reasons why:

Ranch style homes were typically, and still are, more affordable than the other architectural types, such as, colonials, traditionals, and contemporaries. Ranch homes are basically simple, rectangular structures, easier to build, lower to the earth, with the focus on horizontal space, not verticle space, and traditionally, use local building materials. They made the open floor plan popular, and many of todays new homes, that are not characterized as ranch style homes, incorporate elements of ranch homes, such as the open floor plan, that buyers usually want in a home. Also, the homes are functional, and make good use of horizontal space. Some come with built in book shelves, and built in window seating areas, as well as other built-ins. These are features that Frank Lloyde Wright made popular in his homes. Many ranch homes come with front and back yards that are bigger than yards in many new home developments. The traditional ranch style homes were made for families: master bedroom on one end, and the childrens’ rooms down the hall. There was a since of order in the homes. Hallway leading to bedrooms and baths start at the Foyer.  You knew where the dwellers sleep, and where they visit, and eat. A patio is tied to the back of the home, with door leading to the patio, or deck, so the family can get together outdoors and visit, or invite neighbors over. New technology of the time was tried out in these ranch homes. Dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators, first came into ranch style homes. The television era began with the ranch homes.

Too me, ranch styles homes are more than a type of architecture. They represent an important part of American history, a time when the technological age was emerging, and American society became mobile, thanks to the car culture. These homes were the first to have attached garages. Today, we all seem to want a home with a garage. Our whole way of life it seems, was made in the ranch homes. I remember those neighborhood barbecues, friends, neighbors and relatives coming over. The smell of hamburgers, steaks, chicken on the grill. People lived more in their backyards. People experimented more with gardening. Many of the garden magazines were born, or made popular in that period of time. There was greater community spirit. People had more time for each other and for family. Only one spouse had to work. Children were free to roam the community without parental worries. Yes, those were the days that characterize the era of ranch style homes. Ranch represents the unity, uniqueness, and simplicity of American lifestyle.

I can help you fit your lifestyle to a ranch style home. I am in the business of studying ranch homes, and where the best real estate deals are.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Boulevard, Suite B103
Blog: http://KennethFach.wordpress.com
Cell 850-339-5753

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Tallahassee Ranch Style Home Basics

The ranch style home, with its low pitch, gable roof, typically fits in very well with the environment, and in its pure form, uses natural, and local materials. Tallahassee, Florida, has many ranch styles homes, and many of these are currently for sale. Ranch style homes are inside Tallahassee, and outside the city. In fact, ranch style homes are all over America, and have been since the 1940’s.

What is a ranch style home? This is a genuinely all-American architectural home style which was popular with the jet set generation of the post World War Two era. Soldiers came home from the war needing homes. Ranch style homes were built in great quantity and filled up suburbia as communities started to grow outward. With the automobile boom, people could live further from the town center, and commute long distances. Many ranch homes were built on big yards, at least big, relative to the yards offered by many of today’s new subdivisions. The ranch home was the perfect answer to a growing young family, and the need for a decent place to live. They were easy to build, and very affordable, and typically still are.

A ranch style home is a horizontal, low-lying, rectangular structure, which can be U shape, or L shape rectangular. The garage is an important part of the design, although, not all ranch style homes have garages. Later, split level, or raised ranch style homes became popular, allowing for more space within the home. However, there were always more one story ranches.

With a typical ranch style home, getting onto the roof to rake the leaves is no difficult task, since the roof is close to the earth, and the roof’s gable is low-pitched. I know it is easy to get on and off the roof. I did plenty of that when I was a teen growing up in a ranch style home. I just needed a small ladded, with just a few steps, and I was on the roof doing my regular task of sweeping, and raking the pine needles from the many pine trees that circled our Milton, Florida ranch style home.

The exterior of a ranch style home is simple. Here in Tallahassee, I see much creativity to bring interest to the facade of these kind of homes. People decorate the front with flowers, well kept shrubs, planters, mini waterfalls, sitting area, and rock garden. It is amazing what color and beauty you can bring to a simple, unadorned exterior.

The interior of ranch styles homes had open floor plans. In fact, the ranches made popular the open floor plan, and teh abundance of incoming light. The kitchen, dining, and living room were an open unit, with the master bedroom on one side of the open floor plan, and the smaller bedrooms off the hallway on the other end of the rectangular structure. These homes usually had a hallway.

Many of the features that homebuyers like today, open floor plan, spacious yard, big windows, or a lot of windows, brick or stone fireplace hearth, backyard patio or deck, separation of master bedroom from other bedrooms, built-in shelves, or cabinets, and natural materials, wood, brick, stone, all were made popular by the ranch style homes.

I suppose I love the ranch style home because I grew up in this kind of home. My friends lived in this style of architecture. I have more experience with ranchers. In fact, I am the self-designated, ranch style home specialist of Tallahassee, Florida. If you want to know more about ranch homes, or how to buy one, please contact me. Just remember one thing, there is always an abundance of ranch homes in northwest Florida, and in most places in America. The ranch remains an important home style, and most homes built today, in other architectural styles, traditional, contemporary, and other styles, contain elements characterizing ranch style homes.

Contact me for assitance with getting you into a Tallahassee ranch home. I can tell you where the best deals for ranch style home are in the neighborhoods of Tallahassee, and Leon County, Florida.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR, ePRO
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Blvd, Suite B103
Tallahassee, FL 32303
Cell 850-339-5753   Blog http://KennethFach.wordpress.com 
Web http://KennethFach.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Oak Valley and Russell’s Pond subdivisions in northwest Tallahassee with nice homes

Off of N Monroe, or Hwy 27, in northwest Leon County, just outside ot Tallahassee, Florida, sit two single family home subdivisions: Oak Valley and Russell’s Pond. Most of the homes were build after 1990. The homes are very affordable, have three bedrooms and two baths, nice yards, front and back, and a pond in the community.

Most of the homes in these two subdivisions, are contemporary in style, with or without ranch style home features, but there are some small ranch style homes as well.  Some homes have brick exterior, some vinyl siding, and some wood, or hardie board. Although, the homes are relatively small, (most under 1500 square feet of heating and cooling space), they come with popular features that so many buyers like: walk-in closets, cathedral, or vaulted ceilings, open floor plans, ceiling fans, and some with fenced in back yards, not to mention all the many other characteristics.

Both neighborhoods are close to several parks, both with recreational facilities, and a playground. One of the parks is situated on Lake Jackson, which is one of the biggest lakes, among the many lakes in Leon County, Florida. This park has bike trails, hiking trails, a boardwalk along the lake, with a view of a lake ecosystem, and there are picnic pavilions with grills, for big groups, as well as small groups. One of Tallahassee’s and Leon County’s newest schools, Canopy Oaks Elementary School, with just down the road. There is a new athletic community park next to this school, with soccer, tennis, running, and baseball facilities. Canopy Oaks Elementary is a very good school, but I am partial, my son attends there, and is a happy Cardinal. The school’s website is, http://www.canopyoaks.leon.k12.fl.us/ 

Russell’s Pond subdivision has 141 homes.
There are 9 homes currently listed with real estate companies, with the average price of $149,633. Since January, 1 home sold, and the sold price was, $145,000.

Oak Valley subdivision has 159 single family homes. There are 5 homes currently on the market with real estate companies. The average home price is, $167,00. Since January, 1 home sold, and for the price of $145,000.

As a real estate agent, I always like talking homes and neighborhoods with people. If you would like to know about other neighborhoods in and around Tallahassee, Florida, please let me know. If you are from Tallahassee, Leon County, and have information about neighborhoods, that you would like me to post, please tell me. I am always looking to learn more about the many neighborhoods from people who have lived there man years, or from the birth of neighborhood.

Please read my other real estate blog posts on this site, and don’t forget to leave a comment. Blogging is sharing ideas, and learning from one another.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR, ePRO
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Blvd., Suite B103
Tallahassee, FL 32309
Cell 850-339-5753, Web http://KennethFach.com
Blog http://KennethFach.wordpress.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

A Lovely Tallahassee Ranch style Home For Sale

Homebuyers: Looking for the right place to call home? Make a wish come true.
Remodeled ranch style home in desireable Eastgate neighborhood, in Tallahassee, Florida.  3/2, nice fenced back yard.
Offered at $189,900.  Seller willing to assist with closing costs for
Buyer.  

There are many more ranch style homes available as well. Get back into a ranch.

Call Ken Fach, REALTOR, 850-339-5753  http://KennethFach.com
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor, 1607 Village Square Boulevard, Suite B 103
Tallahassee, Florida

Each office is independently owned and operated.