Buying Florida Property?

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Can anyone recommend a source for researching buying FL property?
We're getting close to retirement age and thinking of purchasing a small home.
Don't want anything really expensive - just somewhere where we'll be able to spend a few months of the year (we'll keep our "real" home to be near our kids and grandkids) - and possibly rent out when we're not there.
Doesn't have to be in Orlando, but preferably within driving distance - but really we don't want to exclude anything right now.
Just looking for someplace affordable.
TIA

 

[delmar411]

Honestly the market here is going up. We wanted to buy something affordable and were constantly outbid by cash investors. We bid on a ton of homes and finally managed to get a foreclosure vacation house that the listing person had taken horrible pics of so it didn't look appealing at all. We still had to fight with investors for it. It was the most ridiculous thing Ive ever gone through.

My suggestion would be to get the services of a good realtor and have them work with you on areas and affordability. I can message you the name of the realtor we used. She was the 2nd one we had as the first one really wasn't working for us the way we needed her to. I don't get anything for giving you the name (just wanted to make that clear), I just really appreciated that she was upfront and honest about our chances and very aggressive in making housing bids and tracking down the listing realtors.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer all this valuable info!
I would greatly appreciate it if you would PM me the name of your realtor.

At least I have a starting point now.

 

[Sam's_Mom]

We recently purchased a home in the Daytona Beach area--very reasonable price and many homes available to look at. It is about an hour from Orlando and is a good mix of vacation homes and "real homes". I can get you the name of the realtor if you like. She was wonderful---we looked for over a year for the perfect place and she was so patient and good to work with.

 

[lovinpoohbear]

You may want to look @ palm coast. We are on the east coast, about one hour and 20 minutes from Orlando. It's a new city with affordable priced homes. Not sure as to what your budget is... But 150k will get you a nice home.
Www.realtor.com

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would check out www.solivita.com which is an active adult community on the Osceola/Polk County border. One of our clubs is the Solivita Disney Cast and has almost 80 members in the club.

There are quite a few snowbirds who live here part of the year. All of the houses are one-floor single-family with garages. A few of the smaller ones are two houses physically in one structure, but these are all corner houses with the entries on the separate streets.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Thank you all so much - now I've got lots of direction in which to look.
Would love to get in touch w/ your realtor, Sams_Mom.

 

[manning]

Keep in mind sink holes. It can happen anytime and may not for you. But they seem to be on the rise. My Aunt lives in Spring Hill near Brooksville. HS since the early 90s. She, along with others in her community had sink hole coverage cancelled by the insurance company. In her case State Farm.

They are unpredictable. One person was proactive and had his property inspected and got an all clear, then a short time later got a sink hole.

So when you buy make sure you can get coverage. A sink hole is big bucks.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We live in Brevard County, FL and I'd highly recommend our area or Indian River County. It's about an hour's drive to Disney, a little less to Sea World, and it's beautiful. The population is quite stable and not transient like other areas.

I would caution you to maybe purchase something that you WOULD live in more than a few months a year. We have loads of neighbors who started off as "snowbirds" but eventually came to live here most, if not all, of the year. Only one set of neighbors is still about 50/50 snowbird. My folks are snowbirds, but as they are looking to buy instead of to continue renting, my dad is really looking for a 2000+ sq. ft. home now. I think they will be here more than 50% of the time eventually.

 

[JandJ]

If you're buying, make sure the property is not in a flood zone. We're lucky, we are in the highest point in our Florida county, so we don't have to buy flood insurance (as a result our property values are going up, up, up!), but I know folks just 15 minutes from us who are looking at their current $1,000 flood insurance bill going to over $12,000 Selling those homes could be a problem. The prices will have to be dirt cheap but the flood insurance cost could make them out of reach for a lot of buyers.

 

[DVC-Don]

Another recommendation for Solivita in northeast Polk county. It's right next door to Kissimmee in central Florida. It's about a 40 drive to WDW from my house so you are not surrounded by the tourist area, that plus hurricanes are not so much of a worry here like on the coasts.

 

[OKW Lover]

We are currently building a house in Winter Park. When we decided to look for a house in the area we had a few criteria, some of which might be appropriate for you.

• We wanted to be within 30 minutes driving time to WDW. We're considering doing some part-time work there just for the cast discounts and didn't want to have to drive a long way for a short shift.
• We didn't want to be in a "tourist" area. Lots of homes near WDW are in the short term rental market. We didn't want new neighbors every week.
• Some communities have significantly higher taxes than others. We tried to consider that when comparing homes.
• The market has a lot of "short" sales. Be careful with them as the properties are often in poor condition.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

If you're buying, make sure the property is not in a flood zone. We're lucky, we are in the highest point in our Florida county, so we don't have to buy flood insurance (as a result our property values are going up, up, up!), but I know folks just 15 minutes from us who are looking at their current $1,000 flood insurance bill going to over $12,000 Selling those homes could be a problem. The prices will have to be dirt cheap but the flood insurance cost could make them out of reach for a lot of buyers.

Yikes! thanks for that timely advice!

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Keep in mind sink holes. It can happen anytime and may not for you. But they seem to be on the rise. My Aunt lives in Spring Hill near Brooksville. HS since the early 90s. She, along with others in her community had sink hole coverage cancelled by the insurance company. In her case State Farm.

They are unpredictable. One person was proactive and had his property inspected and got an all clear, then a short time later got a sink hole.

So when you buy make sure you can get coverage. A sink hole is big bucks.

Would never have thought of this - thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Another recommendation for Solivita in northeast Polk county. It's right next door to Kissimmee in central Florida. It's about a 40 drive to WDW from my house so you are not surrounded by the tourist area, that plus hurricanes are not so much of a worry here like on the coasts.

Another selling point for Solivita - thank you. I had never heard of this before, so I appreciate all the info.

We are currently building a house in Winter Park. When we decided to look for a house in the area we had a few criteria, some of which might be appropriate for you.

• We wanted to be within 30 minutes driving time to WDW. We're considering doing some part-time work there just for the cast discounts and didn't want to have to drive a long way for a short shift.
• We didn't want to be in a "tourist" area. Lots of homes near WDW are in the short term rental market. We didn't want new neighbors every week.
• Some communities have significantly higher taxes than others. We tried to consider that when comparing homes.
• The market has a lot of "short" sales. Be careful with them as the properties are often in poor condition.

Thank you for taking the time to respond with such detailed info.
We're from the Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY area - so FL is new to us - other than WDW of course; so we need all the help we can get!

 

[reginaastralis]

I think you've gotten a lot of good advice, and I wish I had a realtor to point you to ... but with Florida being so diverse it's hard to pinpoint (I do have a friend who is a realtor if you decide on the Tampa area though ...)

We live just outside of Tampa, and we're about 45 minutes away from Disney. Our home prices are starting to rebound, but there are still really good deals to be had. A few years ago, our house was valued at 140k, it was built in the mid-50's, and is about 1200 sq feet. It's a "typical" starter home. The value is now at $68k. Our across the street neighbor bought a slightly smaller home for $20k out of foreclosure, if that gives you any idea of how bottomed out the market became.

My parents live in Plant City, which is even closer to Disney ... it takes us about 20 minutes to get to their house with traffic, and they have a large 4 bedroom house on an acre of land. They paid around $240k, and there is a home in their neighborhood in foreclosure for $130k. So there are still deals to be had, but cash is king in the area. I had a friend looking for over a year, and they kept getting outbid by cash buyers. They finally decided to build their own home, because it was easier.

About the sink hole issues, because of the water table here in Florida, sinkholes have always been an issue. I live in the town where the man died earlier this year when a sink hole opened up. Such a freak accident does completely get your attention. Obviously, your best bet is to be proactive. Sink hole insurance ... and inspections before you buy will let you know if there is possible sink hole activity. Our neighbor next door had their home shored up from possible sink hole activity ... but that was also because there was a law in place that was recently changed due to all the fraud in people making illegitimate claims.

The flood insurance issue is pretty huge, but they are supposedly working on legislation dealing with the ability for private insurance being able to come in. This would be an issue I'd research and contemplate before I moved to Florida. There are a lot of low lying areas that you wouldn't expect to have a flood issue, until a major rainstorm or Hurricane hits.

Good luck, we're thinking about leaving Florida (well, my boyfriend is, I'd like to stay) ... and I wouldn't want to trade being so close to Disney for anything.

 

[OKW Lover]

Just wanted to add a few other things to consider when making this decision.

• How many bedrooms? Bathrooms? Garage?
• Do you want a house or a condo?
• If you aren't there year round how will you maintain the grounds?
• Are you OK with stairs or do you want everything on one floor?
• Do you want a pool in your backyard or is a community pool good?

 

[kiki02]

Just wanted to add a few other things to consider when making this decision.

• How many bedrooms? Bathrooms? Garage?
• Do you want a house or a condo?
• If you aren't there year round how will you maintain the grounds?
• Are you OK with stairs or do you want everything on one floor?
• Do you want a pool in your backyard or is a community pool good?

Plus these costs: Tax on income, tax of RE (not being a state resident/ no homestead), insurance costs, rising. Assessments, HOA, etc etc etc

 

[ideascubed]

That is where we live, paradise. We are surrounded by multimillion dollar neighborhoods, close to everything, malls, stores, the beach is 5 minutes away. It is a secret neighborhood that is very affordable. It is in palm beach county. We are 2 hours from Disney. But all the pluses of living in paradise makes it worth the drive to Orlando. Happy house hunting!

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Plus these costs: Tax on income, tax of RE (not being a state resident/ no homestead), insurance costs, rising. Assessments, HOA, etc etc etc

No income tax in Florida, but high property taxes. And I don't believe you get Homeowners exemption if not your primary residence.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

No income tax in Florida, but high property taxes. And I don't believe you get Homeowners exemption if not your primary residence.

Uh, my property taxes are so much lower here than they were on my starter home in MA! Our house here is like twice the size and a block from the beach too. I pay $3900 and change a year. Our school is absolutely fantastic too.

Property INSURANCE is high. Maybe that is what you were thinking of???