Florida retirement

[AFD]

OK, take it easy on my here. I'm not near retirement but I am near retirement home purchasing.
I'm just in the looking phases of searching right now and the property would be investment for years and eventually a retirement home but I want to cut down my searching from thousands of miles away but without knowing the area aside from my visits (very few) I'm asking for help.
I don't think having my boat in the backyard is all that critical but I am not opposed to it either but I would like to be very, very close to a marina for the social atmosphere associated with boating. The appeal of being able to take a golf cart or bicycle to a marina/Yacht Club sound like fun to me, not having to hop in car/truck and drive somewhere is exactly what I'm looking for for my later years. Going to the Bahamas will be on my list but that doesn't exclude gulf Coast living because ofor the available canal access. I want a neighborhood but want some privacy not 5feet from a neighbor.
Where do you Florida boaters live, pros/cons? Do you know of neighborhoods/towns that you wish you bought in? I'm looking for around 300k for investment and I do want water front but wouldn't have a problem only having shallow access for a rib or something if I was very close to a good marina that would house my retirement boat.
Just asking for a little help narrowing down my searches so I don't waste trips looking at areas that don't have what I want. I'm not ready to contact Realtors but I am ready to plan a trip to investigate parts of the state for potential.
Thanks for your help everyone

 

[scoflaw]

After a lot of looking, I bought a 3/2 2 car garage, pool , dock with lift on a canal in cape coral fl. Paid 275 K
Prices have gone up since that purchase 3 years ago. One thing for sure, you not going to find a water home for 300k that isn't 20' from the guy next door. But...bushes are cheap and grow fast.

After Irma blows through, there will be a lot of damaged homes for sale.

 

[Jeremygavin]

I am in real estate and I own 23 rentals, I am not adding many properties to my rental portfolio right now. It is a much better market to flip in because values are so high and it is a sellers market. If you don't want to move in now then Now is not the right time to buy, even if you plan on renting. Home values in Florida have gone past what they were at the height of the market. The best thing to do is sit tight until the next real estate downturn (there will be one, there always is) and then buy the property much lower than you can buy it for now. In the meantime you can save the money you would have put towards the house so that when you are ready to buy you have a much larger down payment or can pay cash and then you will be in a much better equity position. Florida usually crashed harder than the average so in a downturn you can get great value for your dollar down there.

 

[AFD]

I am in real estate and I own 23 rentals, I am not adding many properties to my rental portfolio right now. It is a much better market to flip in because values are so high and it is a sellers market. If you don't want to move in now then Now is not the right time to buy, even if you plan on renting. Home values in Florida have gone past what they were at the height of the market. The best thing to do is sit tight until the next real estate downturn (there will be one, there always is) and then buy the property much lower than you can buy it for now. In the meantime you can save the money you would have put towards the house so that when you are ready to buy you have a much larger down payment or can pay cash and then you will be in a much better equity position. Florida usually crashed harder than the average so in a downturn you can get great value for your dollar down there.

Excellent info thank you. I'm not looking to buy now though. I'm in research mode for parts of Florida. I have family in ft Lauderdale in a condo right by shooters on the intercoms talk and the neighborhood just isn't the same anymore, plus it's way too (over)populated for me.
I would need a yard, small one, and minimum 20' from neighbors more preferred obviously. What I am looking for is the areas to really start looking at. I find canal side homes but either huge money or low bridges. Low bridges would be fine if there was a yacht club or marina right down the street. I find myself just gazing at Google maps for hours overwhelmed.
I missed out on buying 3 lots in Punta Gorda a few years ago that are 10x the price right now.

 

[ThorSen]

. . . I find myself just gazing at Google maps for hours overwhelmed.
I missed out on buying 3 lots in Punta Gorda a few years ago that are 10x the price right now.

Just a word of well intended caution: "Regret" (i.e., a missed deal in past) can make a (very) dangerous partner when making (almost any) buying decision but, none more so than in real estate!

Excellent question beginning this thread (I predict a high "viewing" count, based on thread title alone); and, lots of good info thus far.

Your sentence about staring at Google maps unendingly strikes a chord with my wife and I, though; the decrease in how "lost" we were turned out to be in direct correlation to how DEFINED our lists of Goals, needs and wants became.

Based on our experience, commit your Goals and wants to writing and then combine the research you're already doing and your chances of making the long term "right" for you purchase go up exponentially!

(Congratulations for reaching this point, btw!)

 

[AFD]

Thanks for the concern. I am very cautious with real estate decisions and something didn't "feel right" about the deal. Turned out I was wrong and it would have made us a bucket of money but, you win some you lose some. It won't make us any more carefree with a purchase in the future.
I'm really looking for pros/cons of specific areas from people with much more experience than I.

 

[ThorSen]

Roger that and kudos for starting your research so early. We embarked on our search for our retirement investment more than 3 years BEFORE I "pulled the plug" and boy oh boy did that advance investment of time and energy ever pay off treble, in dividends!

We came close to settling on the Gulf Coast, south of Tampa but, that was long before we joined the Sea Ray fraternity and we since opted for wintering a couple of the colder months out of each year, there along "the Golden Coast" instead of making it an all year round thing.

The climate and pace of the panhandle area (Panama City, Ft. Walton, etc.) is very much to our liking as well albeit, a bit more removed from reaching the Caribbean, perhaps too far to be practical.

BEST o' SUCCESS and again, Congratulations! ;-)

 

[rcknecht]

After Sandy, property values in my area of NJ (water front) dropped like a rock... Perhaps there will be some deals after Irma... If I were looking to move to Florida, I would look for a deal in about in early November...

 

[carterchapman]

In addition to Google, we enjoyed looking at zillow.com - it shows previous sale prices and trends...

Seems like, in general, folks from your coast (the NE) like SE FL and folks from the midwest migrate to SW FL...must have something to do with I-95 and I-75 (LOL!).

We REALLY enjoyed our first winter in Ft. Myers (condo)/Cape Coral (boat). It was a great pick for our liking (YMMV...). Glad we were not there for the past week though! Waiting for power to come back on so we can fly down and empty the fridge and check on things...

 

[paulswagelock]

We are in our early 50's and thinking on retiring in 5 years. We also started looking at condos and homes on the west coast of Florida, Bonita/Ft Meyers Beach/ Paseo etc. What we are struggling with is the kids will likely be northerners, so we probably need a residence north and south. So, which one is 'home', how big should they be, etc. Also, my passion is boating, but if I can do it 7 days a week once retired, do I need a boat at both places, do I need waterfront property? Maybe once it is available everyday, I do not need it year round. So many things to think through.
We are all over the place with size, budget, even rent versus own.

 

[ThorSen]

...
We are all over the place with size, budget, even rent versus own.

THAT described US, to a "tee" ... and then we witnessed a couple friends and family members drift into much, much less than what it turned out they were actually after (individually as well as couples).

One or two of the aforementioned "outcomes" were significant enough (even stark) economically as well as lacking in overall quality of life to be very, very sobering for us. (Some of our acquaintances moved to places you read about in 'Money' mag and USN&WorldReport as the "Top 10 Places" (both internationally as well as CONUS) but, what they did and did not find there was largely a result of their quite unintentionally and unwittingly putting the cart before the horse.)

That is when the Admiral and I made a pact of sorts:

We each "went into our own corner" so to speak for a month to 6 weeks (IIRC, perhaps a couple or several months, I do recall it was for quite a while) and actually WROTE ON A PIECE OF PAPER what each of our wants, desires, and goals were for our "ideal" retirement. (Some skeptics may be thinking, "How hokey," right about now; however; I can attest it is anything but!)

Neither of us shared or revealed to the other what each of us was writing (which turned out to be good as we later learned we had both gone back and "revised" items several times, sometimes pretty significantly)

This was not a "smooth" process; each of us had to remind and chide the other ("How're you doing on your retirement goals?") (a lot! ;-) but, we got it done and, then came the day we sat down and handed the other our respective "wish list."

THAT was an eye opener and quickly it became evident (there still is no doubt) we NEVER would've gleaned as much from each other or ourselves had we try to do the list "together."

Long story short, those two lists (each started out a full, full page long!) served as the basis for our forming our ultimate, combined list. Then came the prioritizing (really moreso than 'negotiating,' I mean heck, stuff one of us wrote turned out to be something the other desired and hadn't even thought to include on our individual list!)

Man, once we got to this point -- and each WROTE out our own copy of our combined list out, things LITERALLY just started falling into place!

All the forgoing occurred at least 5 years before I was able to retire after a 30-year career and put us smack in the drivers seat to crunch numbers and really, truly find a stellar locale, neighborhood and real estate deal. What our experience turned out to be was that, all the time and energy we could've spent "looking around" (because we weren't truly sure what a detailed picture of our "ideal" retirement would look like) we were able to focus into finding, literally, a million dollar deal for 54-cents on the dollar.

And, it came to us (every bit as much as we "found it", again, that crazy hand-writing of Goals!) 3 years before I retired so, we were able to secure the deal ahead of "waiting to see what interest rates will be, 3 years hence." (Full Disclosure: interest rates in the Spring of 2017 were still roughly what they were in Spring of 2014 but, that was just not a gamble we thought it in our best interests to take...)

Each of us agrees it is highly improbable we would have landed as content (and financially secure) as we have, had we not tapped into this exercise of hand-writing out deeply contemplated goals.

So much so I rarely miss a chance to share the experience with others, when the topic of "looking where to retire to," comes up!

Best o' Success and Congratulations on reaching this hard won point!

 

[Escape22]

I had the hots back in 2010 crash era, then cooled off.

Not vouching for this guy, but had this site bookmarked and just stumbled upon it yesterday again cleaning out bookmarks...

http://www.topwaterfrontdeals.com/index.html

We kind of would like to end up on a northern WI medium size lake
and then rent in FL for winters.

 

[ThorSen]

That's a pretty neat site and reminds me the crucial role Lakehouse.com played in us hitting our bulls eye!

WI during the warmer parts of the year and FLA during the cooler --- now, that sounds like a plan;

we thought we were dead set on buying along the Gulf Coast but Navy pilot friends convinced us to visit them around Tampa anytime 'tween June and September and that heat and humidity changed our minds about year 'round there real quick!

Friends swear the panhandle up round Tallahassee isn't "as bad" but,

we've found 3 seasons in the mountains (freshwater) and Jan-Mar visiting Fla relatives (and breaking clay targets!) in winter is the ticket for us!

(Well intended side note: Due to rising costs of insurance statewide, many of my uncles, aunts and cousins have moved from Fla to Upstate SC (Lake Keowee, etc.) and northern Georgia (Lake Hartwell, etc.)

-- ain't no place "perfekt" and it does my heart good to see anyone (i.e, original poster) asking good questions rather than blindly movin' in a direction that "feels" forward!

Now, I'm going back to that site you linked to see if they list any winter rentals!!!!! ;-)

 

[Escape22]

I lived in FL 79-82 for 4ys, Dallas 83 for 1, and back up to beer town

 

[Escape22]

That's a pretty neat site and reminds me the crucial role Lakehouse.com played in us hitting our bulls eye!

WI during the warmer parts of the year and FLA during the cooler --- now, that sounds like a plan;

we thought we were dead set on buying along the Gulf Coast but Navy pilot friends convinced us to visit them around Tampa anytime 'tween June and September and that heat and humidity changed our minds about year 'round there real quick!

Friends swear the panhandle up round Tallahassee isn't "as bad" but,

we've found 3 seasons in the mountains (freshwater) and Jan-Mar visiting Fla relatives (and breaking clay targets!) in winter is the ticket for us!

(Well intended side note: Due to rising costs of insurance statewide, many of my uncles, aunts and cousins have moved from Fla to Upstate SC (Lake Keowee, etc.) and northern Georgia (Lake Hartwell, etc.)

-- ain't no place "perfekt" and it does my heart good to see anyone (i.e, original poster) asking good questions rather than blindly movin' in a direction that "feels" forward!

Now, I'm going back to that site you linked to see if they list any winter rentals!!!!! ;-)

http://johndee.com/


this is Great watch it ! haha

 

[Escape22]

no bugs

 

[skunkman]

I have a house on a canal on Long Boat Key and love it. Before my lift went in I had the boat stored at a marina a couple of miles away. I can tell you, having the boat in your back yard makes it so much easier to get out and go. Stocking the boat, getting stuff and people on and off etc is so much better. Long Boat Key is also very close to Tampa if a major airport is important in your decision process. They also have a fair number of flights out of Sarasota. The house across the canal from me is always rented on a weekly basis - the house is old single story but clean and comfortable. The owner must be doing very well with a cost to revenue ratio. I'm certain the rental has significant positive cash flow even if it is fully mortgaged.

Good luck with what ever you choose

 

[MikeBravo]

I'm a Realtor in Treasure Island, FL near St. Pete. For a $300,000 investment you may be able to find a small house on a canal in Cape Coral area, but that market is coming back fast. Irma may have a negative impact for awhile. You will not get 20 foot clearance from your next door neighbor unless you move to a more rural area and then you will have to drive a distance to a marina. Look on Realtor.com, it is more inclusive of properties and more accurate than Zillow or Trulia. If you decide in the future that Southwest Florida is the area you want to look at PM me and I will provide you with the name of an excellent Realtor in that area. Good luck on your search.