Soon to be homeless

[dmc]

We have been thinking of selling our house and downsizing. We initially planned on buying a place here, and another one in South Florida, or South Texas. I wasn't sure how long it would take to sell our house so I stuck a for sale by owner sign out in the yard. A younger couple with 3 kids bought it the first weekend. Closing is May 15th.

We have been giving most of our furniture away, and donating a lot of other stuff. We are going to put the rest into storage and live out of a suitcase for a while. Ive rented a townhouse in a place called Burnt Store Marina, Punta Gorda fl. We plan on living somewhere in that area and will be looking for a place down there.

I think we have decided to just buy a nice home down there, I want a home on a canal so I have gulf access, and wait and see about buying something up here. I'm pretty sure I don't want to deal with two homes, we can just stay in hotels if we want to come visit.

I'm flying down, Ive rented a hangar at the local airport, and the wife is driving her car down. I'll have to leave the Boxster in storage. Its going to be a pain with only one car, I may have to rent one, I'll have to see how thing work out.

So does anyone have any recommendations for the area? Somewhere between Naples and Venice is what we are thinking. We may also take a look at Marco Island, but Ive never been there.

This is the first time we can actually live anywhere we want. We have no jobs to worry about. We may even change our minds about Florida. We have only been there in the winter. My only requirement is no more cold, and the wife requires a pool.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Have you thought about the lower deserts of Arizona? Still not too expensive overall once you get out of the Phoenix area and very rarely cold. Just an idea. Rob

[Float On]

Englewood is the area we're looking at, we always stayed there during the week at a friend's house and then would run around for art shows from Tampa to Naples, Ft Myer, Sarasota, Bonita Springs, Marco Island, Punta Gorda. Englewood is a quiet area with easy access to beaches, canals, and highway (I don't care for the Rotunda area).

[Float On]

DH reminded me that Boca Grande is nice, Marco Island is not his favorite but we both love Venice Beach.

[iris lilies]

I am sorry that you won't be paying taxes in my state. :( We needed your big bucks.

So, enjoy Florida!

[dmc]

We thought about Arizona, but its to far from the beach. And we miss seeing the greenery.

Don't worry iris, I may not be paying any state taxes, but I'll probably still be able to vote for a few years. My son moved to Chicago years ago and still got voter id cards here.

We liked Venice Beach and have not ruled that out. We saw a crappy old block home on the beach for sale. Only 1.75million, we may have to move a block or two away. We didn't spend much time in Englewood, just drove through. Did not make it to Rotunda. We are looking hard at Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, but plan to spend a few months down there and then decide.

[flowerseverywhere]

Check out hurricane insurance, it can be very costly, and make sure you spend some time during the snowbird season, especially January to March. Some areas can be crazy. Also, this is a red state with different laws like easy to get concealed carry permits and no car inspection. They do honor their veterans with tax breaks. Also lots of religion. We love it here but there is some adjustment.

[dmc]

Check out hurricane insurance, it can be very costly, and make sure you spend some time during the snowbird season, especially January to March. Some areas can be crazy. Also, this is a red state with different laws like easy to get concealed carry permits and no car inspection. They do honor their veterans with tax breaks. Also lots of religion. We love it here but there is some adjustment.

I will check out the hurricane insurance. And we have been down there in January thru March. And I'm good with everything else, though I'm not that religious, it doesn't bother me.

[rodeosweetheart]

I was going to say watch the hurricane insurance, too, and watch for flood zone rating on the property you are looking at. I would not do beachfront for that reason. Our old house was up on a foundation--very high up, and that helped. Floodgates help, too. FEMA just redid the maps, so it's kind of a crap shoot right now, and it may be hard to get the info. But we were warned in SC that ours might go from 2200 a year to 5000 a year--on a 65000 house. So it's a real concern.

[Spartana]

Congrat DMC - I'm soon to be homeless too most likely but will travel for a while before I settle down somewhere permanently. Good luck! No advice on Florida but I do like the Naples area and was stationed in Key West for a year and that was very cool duty - except during hurricanes :-)!

[dmc]

I was going to say watch the hurricane insurance, too, and watch for flood zone rating on the property you are looking at. I would not do beachfront for that reason. Our old house was up on a foundation--very high up, and that helped. Floodgates help, too. FEMA just redid the maps, so it's kind of a crap shoot right now, and it may be hard to get the info. But we were warned in SC that ours might go from 2200 a year to 5000 a year--on a 65000 house. So it's a real concern.

We pay flood insurance here, I'm close to the Mississippi River. But it's only 360 for 250000, the max that FEMA will go. It's all due to the elevation, I had the home built and had thousand of tons of rock hauled in, then topped it off with dirt that was dredged from the harbor.

Most of the homes we are looking at are built to the current standards, my friend has a nice home and only pays 600 there. But it's mainly based on the elevation and I'll defiantly check. I know some just don't have flood insurance. I've gone without it in the past myself.

[dmc]

Most of the beech front homes cost at least a million more that we want to spend. So we are looking at homes on the canals. We can the take a boat or car to the beach if we wanted. I'm more interested in golfing than hanging around the beach anyway.

[dmc]

Congrat DMC - I'm soon to be homeless too most likely but will travel for a while before I settle down somewhere permanently. Good luck! No advice on Florida but I do like the Naples area and was stationed in Key West for a year and that was very cool duty - except during hurricanes :-)!

Naples is a area we plan to look at. I enjoy visiting Key West, I don't think I would want to live there.

Have fun in your travels. I would consider hitting the road for a while in a motor home, but not the wife.

[Selah]

Yes, do pay attention to hurricane insurance AND flood zone insurance. When I lived in Boca Raton, FL, a few years ago, there was some problem with people whose properties got suddenly blacklisted by the insurance companies for flood insurance. Their homes became uninsurable, which meant that not only did they have to go without insurance, but also it made their homes "un-mortgageable" for potential buyers, as the banks would refuse to underwrite loans for them. Other home owners were stuck paying massive and unaffordable insurance bills to obtain coverage by the few remaining companies who didn't blacklist the area.

Another thing to watch out for is to avoid buying a property with its own well, but it near an expanding city. A friend of mine bought a property near Delray Beach, FL, having bought her place only after having seen in writing by the city council that they would "never" join the city water system. Unfortunately, "they" changed their minds, and everyone in her neighborhood is now having to fork out more than $10K per home to pay for getting hooked up to the city water supply, plus losing some of their old trees that have been removed during construction of the sewer system. Caveat emptor...Florida likes to play fast and loose with the law!

[rodeosweetheart]

Maybe the hurricanes inspire the religiosity, lol

[dmc]

We have tornado's pretty frequently here, and hail, and you never know when the New Madrid fault is going to have a big one again. It seems like with hurricanes you have some advance warning. I'm not going to be one of those that hangs around. And hurricane season will probably be the time of year we would be vacationing up north anyway. I'll let the insurance man worry about the house.

My Dad had a place down there for 30 yrs, he just went down for the winter. He never had insurance on his place, he figured the land wouldn't blow away and he could always rebuild the house. I don't think he ever had a problem that insurance would have paid.

[Spartana]

Have you thought of renting a place for awhile in different areas before buying? I occasionally rent off season vacation homes by the month at GREATLY reduced costs. You can usually get some pretty nice places that are fully furnished and include all utilities in Florida if you wait until mid-April. It would give you a chance to live comfortably while checking out various areas before taking the home buying plunge.