Need Advice on The Best Areas In This Area Pretty Please :-) (Cape Coral: for sale, foreclosure)

[happy32]

I am looking for a house for sale that is either 3 bedroom or 4 bedroom / 2 baths ( with a pool hopefully )
We work online so we do not need to find a job outside of the home.

We have school age children and are interested in the area with the best schools, least amount of crime and maybe close to the beach if possible lol

We would greatly appreciate any help or info that you can offer us.

Have a great day
April

[justNancy]

What's your budget? It's difficult to suggest an area without knowing the price of the home you desire to purchase.

[nhkev]

I would guess you would get different answers from different people, kind of like asking people what is the best color. As far as schools, I don't have 1st hand knowledge but most threads say the public schools have school choice which means busing and not neccessarily getting your choice. I've read posts where someone lives 1 block from a school they would like to go to but have to travel many miles and minutes to schools they don't desire. Charter schools seem to have good reputations. I think values are great every area. Think of how you would spend your time when you weren't working and that would probably help gauge the best area for you.

[Karenmimi]

Hi, April,

***MOD CUT*** I know that there are a lot of good deals these days. I also know that South Fort Myers has some nice schools and has some very attractive neighborhoods. As for Fort Myers Beach, the elementary school, Bay Oaks, is highly rated, but homes on Fort Myers Beach, especially large ones, are pricey so it depends on your price range. Cape Coral has some nice large homes with pools at great prices. ***MOD CUT***
Karen

[LewLew]

You can buy our house. We both work from home, and it's been a great home for that. We live in South FT. Myers right on the border of Estero. Great area, near the beach, kayaking, parks, shopping (Coconut POint Mall, the outlets, banks, MDs, home improvement stores, grocers, a farmers market etc.) The Gulf is not even 1/2 a mile in our backyard, but not a beach. (we have to go around to get on the beach) We are a 6 mile drive to the beach, but it takes 15 minutes at best.
Our street is full of kids age 2-14. One of the neighbors has a batting cage and putting course in his backyard, and all the kids go to play with his kids b/c of their stuff. LOL The whole neighborhood is a dead end street and all the homes are custom built on at least 1/4, and some more (like ours) Thus, lots of landscaping and space but fantastic neighbors.
It's a safe street, and is very quiet. Our home is on 1/2 acre and its fenced in. (great for kids and pets)
We have a very large inground pool and pool bath. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, formal living, formal dining, eat in kitchen with bar and island, as well as a huge family room off kitchen with a large stone w/b fireplace. You can see the fireplace from the pool b/c all the sliders in the house open up. (the house is built around the pool), and there are full 8 foot and 10 foot sliders in every room.
We are negotiable on price, and would even rent with option.
The Estero area/South Ft Myers is very up and coming. Very good private schools nearby (our neighbors moved from Naples to our neighborhood b/c the schools were better)
DM me if you want to know location to Google Earth it or whatever.
Good luck.

[Obxnc7]

The public schools offer school choice, so you probably won't get the schoool of your choice unless you apply in the first round, which I believe is going on now. (Craziest thing ever!) You have to go the office in the district where you live...you can't register your children over the phone and put in a choice. You have to have a local address in order to do it. From what I understand, the public school system in in debt up to their ears and are going to be cutting teachers next year, meaning much larger classrooms if I had to guess. Charter schools are OK, but very big and a lot of chaos goes on. We recently pulled our daughter from one due to the fact it was so chaotic, and unsafe, at times, in my opinion. They had an Ok curriculum, though. If you can afford it, check out the many private school possibilities. There are a lot of options in that arena, and some new and upcoming schools are getting rave reviews. We have just put our daughter in a Christian school and are very satisfied. Being a teacher myself, I found their curriculum to be top notch, and she is learning so much. In my opinion, much better that public or charter...and a better crop of teachers and students. South fort Myers is a nice area, Gateway or Paseo either one would be nice. I have heard others talk of an area called Marsh Landing I think in Estero that is pretty nice. Hope this helps...and a warning...finding the right school here can be an absolute nightmare!

[NurseTammy74]

Cape Coral and SW FL is not the place to be. Crimes up, jobs are nil, and cost of living is double. I lived in Cape Coral from 1990-2004 and GOT OUT! This area is a victim of too much too soon and thanks to CNN's Money Mag best 100 towns of the US. This place went from #6 in 2004 to falling off the list in 2008. It's over crowded, the highways are hell and I can name atleast 20 people who have been out of work a yr and have not found anything yet.

Move someplace else. I did after returning to SW FL for a 7 month brief stint and got out again. I won't be back to live and that's sad because I consider it home. The economic crisis is very bad there as opposed to other places.

[Obxnc7]

While I agree that the economy is bad here, it's bad everywhere. Fort Myers is not that bad of a place. Traffic is heavier in the snowbird season, but there are many positives to the area as well. I know many people who have jobs that are secure. It's all opinion.

[NurseTammy74]

Mine might indeed be an opinion but try telling that to the following people who are out of work and can't find anything. Dena out of work 9 months, Kevin G out of work 9 months, Kevin L out of work 5 months, Michele out of work a year, Tammy C out of work 1.5 years, Chris out of work 14 months, Matt hours cut down to parttime, has a $270k mortgage to pay for, Rob out of work a year and his wife Lynn out of work 6 months, and the list goes on and on. These people have families, homes/rent to pay for and are good people. They are looking for work and sometimes they drive 40 miles away for job fairs. So it may indeed be my opinion, but it's their reality. Not to mention my husband lost his job too and after 4 months of looking and struggeling we moved away because we realized that SW FL is a dead end. It wasn't for us, but someone else might like it. Like I mentioned earlier 5 yrs ago it was the place to be, it was nice, and booming. Now it's all going down hill. #1 foreclosure rate in the US us Las Vegas, NV, #2 is Cape Coral, FL. I am a Nurse and when I returned to SW FL and looked for work, there weren't any full time positions to be had. I worked part time and it took me 4 months to land full time. So if they aren't hiring nurses much, you know it's bad. Lee Memorial hospital is having a hiring freeze and they have begun to close wings/floors of the hospital because they don't have the staff to work it and yet aren't able to hire more people.

[tjstrain]

I have a 4 bedroom, 2 bath with a pool in a GREAT quite neighborhood with some kids. Sent you a link to better than 50 pics of it. I'm just now going to put it up for rent. I suggest you rent first before buying. That's what we did 10 years ago when we moved here. But, my home is in the perfect location, Estero. If this house had a pond behind it we would move in there ourselves. Let me know what you think. I'm suppose to sign the rental contract with the renting realtor tomorrow. Send me an e-mail if I've peaked your interest, glad to help in any way I can. TJ
Beware of new invester houses up for rent, Chinese Drywall has been used in the past few years in new construction down here and their now saying that it is making occupants sick, besides eating up the copper metals in AC units and wiring that is in the walls.