Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Thinking About a Second Home or Retirement Home in Florida?

Thinking About a Second Home or Retirement Home in Florida?
Let me share with you where the last 2 couples I worked with started looking, and eventually ended up buying.
Clients #1 from Michigan, retiring soon and decided now is the time to buy. They have been looking online for a year or so and noticed that all the “good ones” were getting snapped up! Plus with rates so low (even though they could buy cash) it is a great time to lock in their rate. I had set them up with a Listing Book account that kept them up on current inventory. Many internet sites are simply not updated frequently enough. They had picked out quite a few properties they wanted to see and bought their plane tickets to come down for a week to find that home! We started out looking at resales in a 55 and over community. A water view was very important to them. What we found in their price range was older construction needing updating. They like an open plan, so some would require removing walls. Then we looked in the “any age” communities and found some that were newer, but still needed some work. I called ahead to many of the new home builders in the area (yes, they are building here again!) to find out what they had in inventory that was on a pond or lake. We found a few, but none of them were “the one” for one reason or the other….view not as pretty as they would like, too small, didn’t care for floor plan…. Finally, they had decided to build a home from scratch. After some back and forth on price, they were ready to go to contract when a home with the floor plan they wanted to build came back on the market when the family that had it built no longer qualified (their credit score dipped). Since I have a good relationship with the builder’s salesperson, she called me as soon as she found out that home was coming back to them. My buyers secured that home for $35,000 less than it was under contract for with the previous buyers! And the view from this home is gorgeous! 4 bedrooms 2 & ½ baths, granite throughout, 2600 sq ft for $174k!! This was such fun for me to help them get this great deal.
Clients #2 from Ohio, retiring in a year, came down just to look on a long weekend. They said if they found something too good to pass up they would buy now. I showed them what their money would buy in a resale, then took them to several new home builders. We have a nice selection of new homes in the Southshore area. They wanted a pool, or at least a community with a pool. What we found for them was a 2100 sq ft home on a large lot with an oversized 2 car garage (2 & ½ car) with tile everywhere except the bedrooms, granite in the kitchen, and a TILE ROOF, on a pond (where the white pelicans gather) for $183k in an upscale community with some awesome amenities. They are going to rent the home for a year until they are ready to move in. Again….FUN!
So come on down so I can have some more fun helping YOU find that great deal and secure your first home, second home, or retirement home while the prices and rates are low! Word is, in one nearby new home community the next lots the builders are going to purchase are going to be $20,000 more each. They will have to pass that on to the buyers. So don’t delay….come on down today!

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