Windermere, Winter Garden

[Rellik01]

Will be selling our home in the NY area and will be moving to Orlando area. Before buying a new home my wife and I would like to rent a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment or house. Since we would like to purchase in the Windermere or Winter Garden areas we feel it would make sense to rent there first. Would someone familiar with this area please advise on the availability of rentals and possible costs. Also we have first and fourth grade boys.

 

[Rellik01]

Forgot to mention that we will be moving around Sept-Oct and would like to spend approx $1000 for rent and approx $500K for purchase.

Thanks again

 

[ducklite]

I think you might be hard pressed to find a home to purchase in that price range in Windemere, you should be able to find something in Winter Garden, but you'll have to be careful because there are some not so good parts of Winter Garden. (I work there) You'll want to be off Maguire Road south of West Colonial (route 50) not north.

FeralPeg lives in Windemere, she might be able to give you more info.

Anne

 

[Rellik01]

I must say that I am a little disappointed in your response. I have been checking on the web and it seems that homes are available in that price range (450-550K). I was interested in the availability of rentals in the area. Would love to hear from someone about the availability of rentals.

Thanks

 

[ducklite]

You might want to look at the apartments off Good Homes Road, which is in the basic area.

So many of the apartments around here are going condo these days that it's getting more and more difficult to find a rental at all, regardless of the area.

Have you looked on www.orlandosentinel.com?

I'm not saying it's impossible to find a home in your range, but finding a home in a decent area is the problem. Windemere is very nice, but homes there are going to be hard to come by in that range. Not impossible, but not a market glut either.

You really need to come down and spend time driving around. And trust me on parts of Winter Garden being bad, my coworker lives there and her next door neighbor was mugged by two guys in broad daylight right outside her apartment last week. We went to McD's for lunch a few weeks ago and ten minutes before we got there there was a carjacking attempt in the parking lot.

Anne

 

[Kitty 34]

You might want to look at the apartments off Good Homes Road, which is in the basic area.

So many of the apartments around here are going condo these days that it's getting more and more difficult to find a rental at all, regardless of the area.

Have you looked on www.orlandosentinel.com?

I'm not saying it's impossible to find a home in your range, but finding a home in a decent area is the problem. Windemere is very nice, but homes there are going to be hard to come by in that range. Not impossible, but not a market glut either.

You really need to come down and spend time driving around. And trust me on parts of Winter Garden being bad, my coworker lives there and her next door neighbor was mugged by two guys in broad daylight right outside her apartment last week. We went to McD's for lunch a few weeks ago and ten minutes before we got there there was a carjacking attempt in the parking lot.

Anne

Wow Anne, I'm glad I read this thread because my DH and I were looking at real estate in Winter Garden. Maybe we will look elsewhere......it's so hard to know what areas are like down there when we're up here in Michigan.

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

Argh... I'm so jealous! DH and I are forever looking at the new construction and resales in Windermere fantasizing about the day we'll move down there! You must keep us all updated, you lucky duck! At least me as I'm living vicariously through you!

 

[ducklite]

Wow Anne, I'm glad I read this thread because my DH and I were looking at real estate in Winter Garden. Maybe we will look elsewhere......it's so hard to know what areas are like down there when we're up here in Michigan.

Like I said, there are SOME good areas of Winter Garden. Basically down Maguire Road South of Route 50 is good. The area south of the 408 is also fine. Basically you want to be south of Route 50 (West Colonial Drive) on the more Western side of town.

You might want to also look in the WEST side of Dr. Phillips, which is technically part of Orlando and butts up against Windemere and WInter Garden. You should be able to find a nice hom in your price range in that area.

But like I said before you HAVE to come down and spend a few days driving around and looking at places, you can not do this from an armchair.

Anne

 

[Rellik01]

Like I said, there are SOME good areas of Winter Garden. Basically down Maguire Road South of Route 50 is good. The area south of the 408 is also fine. Basically you want to be south of Route 50 (West Colonial Drive) on the more Western side of town.

You might want to also look in the WEST side of Dr. Phillips, which is technically part of Orlando and butts up against Windemere and WInter Garden. You should be able to find a nice hom in your price range in that area.

But like I said before you HAVE to come down and spend a few days driving around and looking at places, you can not do this from an armchair.

Anne

As it is very difficult to house shop from here in New York I appreciate all the advice from you folks that live in the area. When we do relocate we will initially rent an apt or house so that we may investigate the area further. We would like to be east of clermont and west of orlando so I guess that means Windermere, Winter Garden and Ocoee as some possibilities.

Many thanks again.

 

[ducklite]

As it is very difficult to house shop from here in New York I appreciate all the advice from you folks that live in the area. When we do relocate we will initially rent an apt or house so that we may investigate the area further. We would like to be east of clermont and west of orlando so I guess that means Windermere, Winter Garden and Ocoee as some possibilities.

Many thanks again.

You ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO BE IN OCOEE!!. I was actually talking to my boss about Ocoee today. He and his wife bought their first home there about 15-20 years ago. They sold it a few years later and moved to another state (having your boss work out of an office 300 miles away has it's advantages ) He was saying that when they were in town a few weeks ago they had driven through their old neighborhood and were SOOOOOOOOO glad they didn't live there anymore. Crime Hills (which is what the section of Orlando officially known as "Pine Hills" is called) has crept into Ocoee, and it's just not a good place. I won't even go to the West Oaks Mall after dark.

I "house shopped" and eventually built my home while living in NJ. We spent 1-3 days of several trips driving around the area. At one point we thought we might be interested in Metrowest, one drive through that area and it's congestion and we scratched that area off the list. We never cared for the Hunters Creek area, it just seemed to lack character. We looked at Celebration, but thought that real estate prices were horribly inflated, and also didn't like the forced socialization.

But it took driving around these areas to make that decision. We also looked in Windemere, Davenport, and Dr. Phillips. I guess my point is that there's going to come a point in time where you will need to book a few days of looking. I can understand the idea of renting first, we thought about that, but we ended up finding our lot and builder before we got to that point.

With kids in school, you would be best off trying to find a place in Windemere. I hear their schools are quite good. Most of the elementary schools in Winter Garden are actually good--the couple that arean't serve neighborhoods that you probably wouldn't be looking in.

Anne

 

[Feralpeg]

The homes in Windermere range from $400k to many millions. There are homes in my neighborhood for rent. In fact, there are several brand new homes (just finished) that were bought for speculation purposes when the home prices were rising so rapidly. Now, they are for sale. The sellers are having a tough time selling them. Things have really slowed down.

I don't know what the rental rate is in the area. If I were you, I'd contact a real estate agent that work with homes in Windermere and ask them for information.

I love my neighborhood. I don't know about the elementary and middle schools. DD was a junior when we moved here. It is a very fast growing area. We are ten minutes from DTD.

 

[torismom]

You ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO BE IN OCOEE!!. I was actually talking to my boss about Ocoee today. He and his wife bought their first home there about 15-20 years ago. They sold it a few years later and moved to another state (having your boss work out of an office 300 miles away has it's advantages ) He was saying that when they were in town a few weeks ago they had driven through their old neighborhood and were SOOOOOOOOO glad they didn't live there anymore. Crime Hills (which is what the section of Orlando officially known as "Pine Hills" is called) has crept into Ocoee, and it's just not a good place. I won't even go to the West Oaks Mall after dark.

I tottally agree with this statement 100%.

There are many great area's here - just check the school systems where you decide to buy if you have children.. Good Luck finding a new home!!

Sorry I cannot help you with rental's