North Port thoughts (Orlando, Lakeland, Sarasota: RV parks, sales, real estate)

[forumcoach]

Hi - We are moving to Florida this fall. We are coming for a week in march to scout a place to call home. We originally were looking at the Sarasota area, but have been searching the housing market and it appears we can get a lot of home and a newer home for our price range of 160-175k in the North Port area. The crime rate also looks better.

From what I have read on this forum a home built from 2003 on will provide cheaper home insurance rates due to building code, is this correct and a big deal?

I am a self employed Master Certified Mobile RV Technician and am wondering if there is a lot of large campgrounds in the area to run my business?

It appears there is on the searches I have run, but I have never spent any time in this area. Drive time wastes alot of time and money in my profession.

We are about 47 years-old and we enjoy the beach, motorcycle riding, walking our dog, and the YMCA for hobby interests.

Any info positive or negative you can share based off of our likes and my career?

Thank you - Ron

[TamRE]

You can find all the things you are looking for in North Port - price of home, close to beach, motorcycle riding, walking your dog, and the YMCA. As far as your career as an RV Technician, I provided a list of RV dealerships in the area in a previous post.

Here is a link to the Southwest Florida Parks and Campgrounds - SouthWest Florida Camping and RV Parks - Florida Campgrounds, Florida State Parks, RV Parks, Florida State Parks, Florida Federal Campgrounds, Florida National Parks, Campgrounds. There are not very many campgrounds in this general area. But there are a lot of people that come from up north that have RVs.

A good resource of information might be to contact the PGI Roadrunners RV Club - http://www.pgica.org/clubs/rvRunner.htm. We know a few people that belong to it.

[forumcoach]

Thank you for the info and links.

Many of the homes we viewed online were empty or had no furniture. Why is there so many empty homes in the area?

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by forumcoach

Thank you for the info and links.

Many of the homes we viewed online were empty or had no furniture. Why is there so many empty homes in the area?

Because the area was the epicenter of the housing meltdown and not all of the foreclosures have been absorbed?

[TamRE]

There are a lot of vacant homes that are not foreclosures too. Some investors purchased and they are reselling or flipping I should say. Some are bank foreclosures. Some are snow birds that no longer come here, for one reason or another moved back up north. Others are trust sales by family members of someone who passed away. Some were rentals and are now being sold. So you can see, there are a variety of reasons that homes are vacant.

[forumcoach]

Thanks and thanks to all that sent me a direct message. I would reply to those with a private thank you, but it seems to limit me one message per 24 hours on here.

What is the difference between Port Charlotte and North Port?
I was looking at homes there last night and they seem to have a good value as well.

[mylittletyguy]

Port Charlotte has it's nice areas, but as a whole I would say that the greater investment potential is in North Port. There are a lot of much older homes in PC as well.

[TamRE]

Originally Posted by forumcoach

Thanks and thanks to all that sent me a direct message. I would reply to those with a private thank you, but it seems to limit me one message per 24 hours on here.

What is the difference between Port Charlotte and North Port?
I was looking at homes there last night and they seem to have a good value as well.

Port Charlotte and North Port are right next to each other. North Port is in Sarasota County and Port Charlotte is in Charlotte County. North Port has more newer homes than Port Charlotte. Port Charlotte is an older town. There is an older section of North Port too, but for the most part there are new homes and newer businesses in North Port. North Port is closer to the beaches. You won't find much difference in your lifestyle with living in either city though. You may find more homes in Port Charlotte with city water than North Port.

[Sunshine Rules]

It appears there is on the searches I have run, but I have never spent any time in this area. Drive time wastes alot of time and money in my profession.

Since you are not familiar first hand with our area and will need to find a location that works for your profession as well, the best suggestion I can make is RENT first. Don't jump into buying a home until you have had more time to learn your way around, especially if you have a job profession that is tied to finding work with RV parks. There are not a lot of those in our area. You may find in your search that something closer to Orlando - Lakeland area would give you more revenue potential for your line of work. I don't know, I am just throwing that up as a suggestion based on the fact that there seems to be a lot of RV parks in the Lakeland - Lake Wales area of central FL (we have friends over that way and visit frequently).


It's really a crap shoot to make a home purchase decision based on 1 or 2 short visits to our area. A neighborhood/ town/ area may look good on paper but living there day to day can be quite different. And once you get to know the area much better you may find that you would have purchased in a different neighborhood, location, even city than what you picked.

For example: I know a couple that lived in Sarasota for 10+ years, then moved to Michigan for almost 6 years. They decided to come back to Sarasota, hated the winters up north. Even though they had lived in Sarasota for a number of years and knew the area, real estate had changed quite a bit while they were gone - some neighborhoods were now more rentals than owners, prices on homes and changed quite a bit during that time period (crashed and then started recovering) a number of brand new subdivisions were now built that hadn't been here before, etc. I suggested they rent for at least 6 months before buying in order to relearn the area and neighborhoods. In the end, this couple thanked me for recommending they rent first because they ended up buying in a totally different area and subdivision from what they had originally told me they wanted before moving back. And, most importantly, they are still very happy with their choice more than a year later.