Our Search (Long) (Miramar, Sarasota, Bradenton: for sale, real estate, apartments)

[BRUCEN]

[SIZE=3]I found this forum a couple of months ago (unfortunately after we made our Sarasota purchase) and I’ve learned much useful information from it (restaurants, beaches, various area attractions, etc.). I thought I’d share our Sarasota buying experience (sorry it’s so long) in the hopes that it may be useful and/or informative to others. My wife and I are in our mid-50’s with three grown children and have been Rhode Island residents all of our life.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]My wife works in an accounting office in Uxbridge, MA. My wife’s boss has a waterfront place on Siesta Key at the end of Midnight Pass Road and for quite a few years has been telling his employees what a great area Sarasota is and that they should consider buying there especially since prices have gone down so much. As a result, a couple years ago one of my wife’s co-workers bought a Bella Villino condo in Palmer Ranch. About six months later another co-worker also bought a place in Bella Villino. My wife and I became curious about this supposedly great vacation area and we took a trip down here in December of 2008. We immediately liked the weather, the white-sand beaches, the restaurants, St. Armand’s Circle, Ringling Brothers Museum, the bars (the Irish Rover and the Sarasota Brewing Company in particular) etc. and, as a result, we stopped by Michael Saunders Realtors. We informed an agent there that we were just starting to think about possibly looking for a Sarasota condo at the low end of the scale, less than $100,000 and that if we found one we would need to finance it. She showed us a few including Serenade and Bella Villino and on our last day in Sarasota we filled out paperwork to make an offer on a short-sale in Bella Villino. However after we got home we learned that the property we were interested in wouldn’t qualify for federal financing (Freddie Mac/Fannie May) due to insufficient reserves, too many rentals and foreclosures. After this fell through we informed the agent that we would probably be back to look again in April and asked that she keep us informed of properties via email but we never heard from her again.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]Prior to the April trip my wife talked to a banker in Sarasota and she asked him to recommend a real estate agent. He recommended a couple and the first one we called was not very timely in getting back to us. The second one we contacted was Ronnie Caron of Caron Realty. Before we even arrived in Sarasota, Ronnie was calling us and sending us email links to properties she thought we might be interested in. She set up a meeting with Sun Trust for financing but we were told what we already suspected, that it would be difficult to get federally backed financing on mortgage loans for condominiums. We were also told that the down-payment for a condo would be 30% while for a single family home it would be 20%. The banker mentioned North Port as an area where we could get a single family home at a very good price. We spent the next day in North Port where some recently built 2B/2B homes were going for around $80,000 which we thought was a great price. At the end of the day, however, we decided we wanted to be nearer to the beach, preferably Siesta Beach. During the remainder of the week, Ronnie showed us many properties. We did finally find a complex we thought we were interested in, Parkridge on University Parkway. This property was also a short-sale but was supposedly on a list of Fannie May and Freddie Mac properties approved for financing. Unfortunately on our next to last day in Sarasota after getting the financials from the condo association and talking to the management company, we found out that it should not have been on that list as there were too many foreclosures so we were back to square one. Since getting federally backed financing on a condo now seemed like an arduous task, Ronnie showed us some single family homes in Gulfgate on our last day but we were leaning more towards a condo as we would initially be in Sarasota only sporadically every few months. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]Feeling a little depressed we headed back home again and were beginning to wonder if this was going to work out for us. We told Ronnie, however, that we hadn’t given up and, in all likelihood, would probably be back in about a month. Ronnie also didn’t give up. Throughout the next month, she continued sending us email links to various condominiums and single family houses. We also talked on the phone quite a bit. I decided that if we were going to get this done, I needed to do my homework this time. I began compiling a spreadsheet of all the properties Ronnie was sending us, with columns for all of the things that were important to us (whether the property was a condo, a villa or a house, year built, block or wood frame, 1st, 2ndor 3rd floor, miles to Siesta Beach (using MapQuest), monthly fees, asking price, square feet, laundry room or not and misc notes. From RI, I used Google Earth to look at the areas surrounding the condos as I didn’t want one next to a major highway or a Walmart. For this next trip at the end of May, we whittled down our list to the top condos, top villas and top single family houses we were interested in. We emailed this list to Ronnie prior to our arrival and she sent us back a schedule of the days and times she would show us each unit. My wife and I pretty much decided that we either bought something on this trip or we gave up on Sarasota as a vacation home. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]This time we were more fortunate and found a complex we really liked on the second day there. Crooked Creek Condomiums (built 1984) is located in a lush tropical setting at the end of Lockwood Ridge Road (or Beneva Road if you are on the other side of the creek) off of Clark Road bordering the 72 acre Red Bug Slough preserve about 4 ½ miles from Siesta Beach. My wife and I fell in love with the place at first sight as it gives a feeling of remoteness yet is close to everything. When we walked through the complex taking pictures, we were immediately confronted by one of the resident/owners who wanted to know what we were doing there. The residents really look out for each other here. She warmed up to us after I explained that we were looking for a vacation home. We also talked to a couple other owners. Everyone we talked to couldn’t say enough good things about Crooked Creek. One of the resident owners temporarily rented in another complex nearby waiting for a unit to go up for sale in Crooked Creek. [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]The unit we initially looked at in Crooked Creek was a ground floor unit that was recently extensively renovated. It was a little more than we wanted to pay and we didn’t really want a first floor unit. We liked the location of a second floor short-sale unit but unfortunately there was already a low-ball offer on it. Even though there was an offer on it, Ronnie talked the resident into allowing us a quick walk-through. I loved the view of the creek. Ronnie suggested that if we really liked this property that we should make an offer quite a bit higher than the outstanding one. To make a long story short, the transaction took about 90 days to finalize. It did qualify for Freddie Mac/Fannie May financing. We had a bit of an advantage because Ronnie has a very good knowledge of short-sales while the other realtor involved in the first offer did not. However, there were many problems, some major and some minor in those 90 days. When the appraisal came back $14,000 below our offer price, Ronnie worked with the short sale lender to get them to accept the appraisal price as our revised offer. They finally did. The person in whose name the mortgage was taken out and one of the two occupants of the condo died within those 90 days. This created additional difficulties. All hurdles during those 90 days were successfully scaled. We closed in the beginning of September and although we hadn’t planned on doing this, as we thought the unit was in better shape than it was during our one brief walk-through, we had the walls and ceilings painted, new tile floor installed in the living room and rugs in the bedrooms, new air conditioner, water heater and ceiling fans. I don’t think I need to say this but we were very happy with our realtor. Our search for a vacation home in Sarasota was a very frustrating one but my wife and I are very happy in the way it turned out. Hopefully our story might be useful to someone else beginning their search. My one suggestion is "Don't forget to do your homework"![/SIZE]

[BRUCEN]

I'm not quite sure what I did wrong but sorry this is so difficult to read.
Bruce

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by BRUCEN

I'm not quite sure what I did wrong but sorry this is so difficult to read.
Bruce

You copied this directly from Word and onto the forum. If you copy it on to notepad and then paste it onto the forum it won't have all of the issues. Then you just have to put in the spaces for paragraphs. If you still have time to edit this you could try again.

Sounds like you have an excellent Realtor! It seems like you learned a lot from your 1st trip to the area until the time that you made a successful purchase. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Welcome to Sarasota, I'm sure you'll love it

[Peter the Brit]

Ronnie is a great realtor Good Luck

[SoFLGal]

High levels of foreclosures are causing all sorts of problems for condo associations, which are having to slash costs and amenities and often impose assessments on solvent owners to maintain deteriorating infrastructure.

Condo buyers need to find out as much as they can about complexes before they plunk down cash.

I suggested asking the following questions:
• How much money has the complex put into reserves to deal with future infrastructure needs?
• Are there any major repairs that need to be made?
• Have assessments and dues been increasing, and does the complex have plans to do so in the future?
• How many of the units are owned by investors?
• Do any investors control large blocks of units and are there any restrictions on renting?

These are the same questions that a bank will ask to determine whether to lend in a complex.

The continuing foreclosure flood is creating severe financial problems for condominium associations across Florida, and members are complaining that banks and mortgage companies are doing nothing to help.

In fact, condo owners say that many lenders are delaying foreclosures to avoid paying association dues. That is requiring associations to slash costs and cut amenities, and forcing owners to fork over more cash to keep complexes humming.

In something of a Catch-22, the financial problems at condo complexes also are prompting banks to tighten restrictions on lending.

Banks will not lend in complexes that have not set aside 10 percent of their budgets for reserves. They will not lend when more than 50 percent of the units are rented. They also will not lend where a few owners control too many of the units or where too many owners are in default on their mortgages and dues.

Not every condo complex in Southwest Florida is suffering from the crisis to the same degree.

The majority -- as many as 75 percent -- are older, more stable complexes that did not experience a direct blast from the boom-and-bust cycle.

The ones hit hardest were those that came out of the ground from 2004 to 2007, or were converted from apartments during the same period.

These complexes experienced heavy speculative buying during the boom and are now facing the most foreclosures.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...icle/301049999

CONDO CRUNCH
Condominium complexes that drew the most speculators during the boom also suffered the most defaults during the bust.

1. Bermuda on Osprey, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2006
• Total units: 46
• Number of foreclosures: 35
• Ratio: 76%

2. Condominiums at Waterside, Rotunda
• Built or converted:2007
• Total units: 42
• Number of foreclosures:31
• Ratio: 74%

3. Village at Town Park, Lakewood Ranch
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 272
• Number of foreclosures:143
• Ratio: 53%

4. Park View, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 108
• Number of foreclosures: 55
• Ratio: 51%

5. Bella Villino, Palmer Ranch
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 132
• Number of foreclosures: 44
• Ratio: 33%

6. Garden Walk, Bradenton
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 174
• Number of foreclosures: 54
• Ratio: 31%

7. Watercrest, Lakewood Ranch
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 180
• Number of foreclosures: 55
• Ratio: 31%

8. Admiral's Walk, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 249
• Number of foreclosures: 75
• Ratio: 30%

9. Miramar, Lakewood Ranch
• Built or converted: 2004
• Total units: 84
• Number of foreclosures: 25
• Ratio: 30%

10. Laguna at Riviera Dunes, Palmetto
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 168
• Number of foreclosures: 42
• Ratio: 25%

11. Greenbrook Walk, Lakewood Ranch
• Built or converted: 2006
• Total units: 226
• Number of foreclosures: 66
• Ratio: 29%

12. Serenade, Palmer Ranch
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 324
• Number of foreclosures: 82
• Ratio: 25%

13. Parkridge, University Parkway
• Built or converted: 2004
• Total units: 347
• Number of foreclosures: 83
• Ratio: 24%

14. Las Palmas, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 488
• Number of foreclosures: 105
• Ratio: 22%

15. Palms of Cortez, Bradenton
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 450
• Number of foreclosures: 97
• Ratio: 22%

16. Citywalk, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2002
• Total units: 70
• Number of foreclosures: 15
• Ratio: 21%

17. Vintage Grand, Palmer Ranch
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 432
• Number of foreclosures: 68
• Ratio: 16%

18. The Sanctuary, Bradenton
• Built or converted: 2005
• Total units: 274
• Number of foreclosures: 40
• Ratio: 15%

19. Lake Vista, Lakewood Ranch
• Built or converted: 2006
• Total units: 240
• Number of foreclosures: 35
• Ratio: 15%

20. Villagio, Sarasota
• Built or converted: 2004
• Total units: 320
• Number of foreclosures: 42
• Ratio: 13%

SOURCE: Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte county clerks of court