What's Sarasota really like? Possible Relocation From Austin (Orlando, Clearwater: new home, employment)

[SFBayBoomer]

mysafefloridahome.com is not a working website:

"The domain mysafefloridahome.com may be for sale. Click here to inquire about this domain."

[beach43ofus]

I met with an insurance agent prior to shopping for homes here to learn how to minimize my homeowner premium. I used that information, and wound up buying the perfect home from a risk perspective. I shopped it around at 3 Insurance brokers.

My annual homeowners insurance (including flood) will be .0029 times the homes purchase price. Our coverage is considered to be typical except we carry the highest deductibles available.

If I backed out the $450 I'm going to pay for flood coverge (I'm in the highest & dryest rated zone) the cost would be within $100 of what I paid in Georgia. It's reasonable if you can do it the way I'm doing it. I had to make some sacrifices in choosing the location, but 8 miles to the beach is fine by me.

[Sunshine Rules]

Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer

mysafefloridahome.com is not a working website:

"The domain mysafefloridahome.com may be for sale. Click here to inquire about this domain."

They changed the site's name: My Safe Florida Home Hurricane Inspection Info

However, I noticed that they also refer back to the mysafefloridahome site in a couple of places on this page.

[APAL62]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I met with an insurance agent prior to shopping for homes here to learn how to minimize my homeowner premium. I used that information, and wound up buying the perfect home from a risk perspective. I shopped it around at 3 Insurance brokers.

My annual homeowners insurance (including flood) will be .0029 times the homes purchase price. Our coverage is considered to be typical except we carry the highest deductibles available.

If I backed out the $450 I'm going to pay for flood coverge (I'm in the highest & dryest rated zone) the cost would be within $100 of what I paid in Georgia. It's reasonable if you can do it the way I'm doing it. I had to make some sacrifices in choosing the location, but 8 miles to the beach is fine by me.

Very interesting, where do you live "I'm in the highest & dryest rated zone"?

[beach43ofus]

I'll be ~8 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and 3+ miles from any naturally occurring body of water. There are many places like that in Sarasota County. Our new home is in the best flood zone designation for this area. I think FEMA says 1 flood for every 300 years, or something like that.

If you go to the FEMA web site, you can download a grid map (I think they call if Firm map) for the area you are searching.
Enter an address or zip code so you dont download the entire map as the file is huge for the whole State.

The map has different shading for different flood zone areas. You can read on their web site how they describe each zone, and what they think the flood risks are for each zone. I entered the address for each home I had interest in before I went to look at it, or even spent much time looking at the listing on the common Real Estate web sites.

When I found a home that met my search criteria, the next thing I did was determine its flood zone designation, and if it was in the best zone, I'd click on the listing's map, enlarge, and switch from map view to Earth view to see which direction the rear of the home faced (West was a no go for me), and what was around it. If it was adjacent to bare land, I'd pass it by unless I was certain the bare land was clearly residential single family. If it passed these tests, I'd investigate it further.

If I had used a Realtor, I'd instruct them to only show me homes in the #1 best flood zone designated area, and homes that the rear faces South, or North, and homes surrounded by other like homes. The common Real Estate web sites I used wouldn't display this data, so I had to do it myself. I'm not sure if Realtor's can sort the MLS for flood zone designation, and direction facing, or not. I suspect they can. There's many Realtors on this forum, so perhaps one can chime in.

You make $ on a home when you buy it, not when you sell it, so you must be smart about setting up your search criteria.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

I am in a flood zone but there are many homes closer to the Gulf than me that are not in flood zones - its also about the elevation of your home - I was told by a realtor that there are homes on Venice Island that are not in a flood zone.

[beach43ofus]

Yes, there are always exceptions, but generally speaking, the further you are away from the Gulf of Mexico and any naturally occurring bodies of water, the lower the flood risk.

Imho, nobody should make an offer to buy a home without going to the FEMA web site and entering the address, or for new builds, looking at the firm grid box to determine the flood status of the property.

Heck, I did this before I'd even go look at a property. Why waste time looking at flood-prone propertys that will cost a lot to insure.

I'm not surprised that there are high-dry areas on Venice Island because its not a nature-made island, but instead a man-made island. They dug a long huge ditch around a land mass in 1964-67, and Venice "Island" was born.

[Sunshine Rules]

Flood zones are obviously influenced by elevations, but there's also watersheds and drainage basins. Sarasota county has a number of those, covering thousands of acres. I can show you streets in some neighborhoods that are in flood zone A because of the drainage basins, yet the homes are nowhere near any obvious bodies of water.

Then there are those 15 - 20 inch rains over a couple of days that happen once in a great while. Then just about everyone's streets become flooded.

One suggestions I have for buyers concerned about drainage is, beyond looking at the designated flood zone, look carefully at the house on the property in relation to neighboring homes/lots. Are they on the same level, or does a neighboring home sit on a slightly higher elevation? If so, you could still have flooding issues if it rains hard. This is especially noticeable in neighborhoods such as the Arlington Park area, where builders are tearing down vintage homes to build $800k new construction. They often bring in fill dirt to give the new home a higher elevation. The city does have other drainage requirements for the lots that is supposed to prevent runoff to the lower sitting neighboring homes, but those often do not work when we got the gully washer rains.


As to real estate agents being able to search the MLS for listings by flood designation, that can be done. Flood zones are one of the required fields. Searching for homes by direction they are facing is more difficult as that is not a required field and agents therefore often leave it blank. Your agent would have to do additional research using the maps feature for each property you are interested in.

[APAL62]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I'll be ~8 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and 3+ miles from any naturally occurring body of water. There are many places like that in Sarasota County. Our new home is in the best flood zone designation for this area. I think FEMA says 1 flood for every 300 years, or something like that.

If you go to the FEMA web site, you can download a grid map (I think they call if Firm map) for the area you are searching.
Enter an address or zip code so you dont download the entire map as the file is huge for the whole State.

The map has different shading for different flood zone areas. You can read on their web site how they describe each zone, and what they think the flood risks are for each zone. I entered the address for each home I had interest in before I went to look at it, or even spent much time looking at the listing on the common Real Estate web sites.

When I found a home that met my search criteria, the next thing I did was determine its flood zone designation, and if it was in the best zone, I'd click on the listing's map, enlarge, and switch from map view to Earth view to see which direction the rear of the home faced (West was a no go for me), and what was around it. If it was adjacent to bare land, I'd pass it by unless I was certain the bare land was clearly residential single family. If it passed these tests, I'd investigate it further.

If I had used a Realtor, I'd instruct them to only show me homes in the #1 best flood zone designated area, and homes that the rear faces South, or North, and homes surrounded by other like homes. The common Real Estate web sites I used wouldn't display this data, so I had to do it myself. I'm not sure if Realtor's can sort the MLS for flood zone designation, and direction facing, or not. I suspect they can. There's many Realtors on this forum, so perhaps one can chime in.

You make $ on a home when you buy it, not when you sell it, so you must be smart about setting up your search criteria.

Thank you very much for your answer!!! You save my time to search! THANKS!

[APAL62]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

Flood zones are obviously influenced by elevations, but there's also watersheds and drainage basins. Sarasota county has a number of those, covering thousands of acres. I can show you streets in some neighborhoods that are in flood zone A because of the drainage basins, yet the homes are nowhere near any obvious bodies of water.

Then there are those 15 - 20 inch rains over a couple of days that happen once in a great while. Then just about everyone's streets become flooded.

The agent told us that the Palm Ranch was built on the marshes, and near the lakes, which means the flood zone. Is it true? And another question is my father (he is 55 years old) and my mother (52), they want to move too to Sarasota(full time residents). Where better place of living for them? (They are still young and active), and no small children. My father wants to look for a job in Sarasota a house and pet sitter (Property watching, pet and animal care, collect mail, care of HVAC and everything about home). Now he works a maintenance at the school. How do you think?