[Janet2007]

Hi,
I have just joined the forum. We are interested in buying a property in Florida, Sarasota and need to know what costs are involved ie property tax etc. We live in UK. Here we pay a purchase tax of 1%, 2% or 4% depending on the purchase price of the property. Then we also pay solicitor fees, search fees etc of £1000 up wards depending of the value of the property.

When we own a property we pay council tax (our is £1600 per annum approx)

Can anyone give me a run down of how and what we would pay to buy and also ongoing cost. We are trying to get our budget sorted to see what price range we can afford in Florida.

Many thanks Janet

[bale002]

For annual property tax, estimate 2% of the purchase price, so a house with a $400,000 buy price should have an annual property tax of around $8,000 at least for the first year. After that, if you qualify for a homestead exemption, you can deduct $25,000 from the purchase price (maybe $40,000 as of 2008) and the annual increase cannot exceed 3%. If not, you are at the mercy of market conditions and the county property tax assessor's office.

Don't forget that if you have a mortgage, you will most likely be required to have homeowner's insurance, including wind storm (hurricane). Very roughly, you can also estimate 2% of purchase price annually, though this may vary significantly depending on many variables. If you buy outright, you may opt out.

Maybe others can provide detailed information on title search and property registration fees.

[Fleurdelis]

Hi, Janet

We recently sold a house in Florida, so I looked back at my HUD-1 (a standard government form used at real estate closings to detail all the closing costs). Our place sold for about $280,000, and our buyers paid a total of about $2500 dollars for processing fees, title search, and transfer taxes/recording charges. In addition, they paid about $7000 to their lender in connection with getting a mortgage (roughly half of which was escrow for taxes & insurance).

We (the sellers) actually paid most of the cost of their title insurance and transfer taxes (as is common in Florida residential real estate sales). Our portion of these charges totaled about $3500.

You're not required to have a lawyer represent you at closing. Our buyers didn't, but some people do. If you buy outright (without a mortgage), you also don't have to get title insurance (although I'd strongly recommend that you do).

Once you own the house, you'll have to pay yearly property taxes and insurance. These can vary somewhat by county in Florida, but the previous poster's estimate of roughly 2% for each is probably accurate. Once you decide on a property, you can look up the property appraiser website for the county where it's located. They usually have an online "property tax estimator" that you can use to calculate what your taxes will be. You can also contact a few insurance agents to get an estimate on homeowner's insurance. Be aware in this regard that, in many parts of the state (especially coastal areas), the only insurer writing policies is Citizen's (the state-backed "insurer of last resort.")

Good luck with your property search. The dollar is weak against the pound at the moment, so you have a favorable exchange rate on your side.