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I have found a few on Craigslist. I was thinking that if I was going to rent from an owner, after I had the terms negotiated, I would ask for their credit report. I don't think its an unreasonable request given the circumstances in today's market.
Check out the elementary schools in Plantation. They are very hit and miss, Central Park Elem. is one of the best in the county, Tropical is above average but the rest are below average. Sunrise should be consistently fine for elementary, as long as you are relatively far west.
I suspect that the schools will really not be an issue as we will more than likely go the private school route. So that should open more options for us!
Under $1200, preferably under $1100 for 2 or 3 bedrooms. I am fine with a condo/townhome if it is kid friendly and pug friendly! I am not concerned about schools beyond elementary. I was contemplating an inexpensive mobile home in a nice community (buy not rent) because it seems to give us more options. I would appreciate any suggestion because internet shopping is great for books but not so great for real estate.
Whatever you do, I strongly suggest you do NOT consider buying a mobile home for so many reasons. First and foremost, many are available because the land underneath them has already been sold, and sellers are desperate to get out of them with any money. Davie has/had a moratorium on some of the previously sold land so that owners could figure out a plan to find other low cost housing. Of course, there isn't any, so it's a bad situation all-around.
Secondly, even if you thoroughly researched the community itself, it would only take you one hurricane season with a couple of hurricane warnings and expensive mandatory evacuations to convince you that this was a bad idea. And, if you are directly affected, you'll have the worst damage of anyone. I can't even begin to think what the insurance story would be here either...
Thirdly, if living in the same town as a housing project has you nervous, why would you want to live in South Florida's equivalent of a project itself? Many are rentals and unless you're eligible to live in a 55+ community, I'd stay far, far away.
Btw, I just took a look for 3 BR townhouses on realtor.com in the general zips of the western suburbs, and I had a tough time finding any for less than $1400-1600/month. Something else to keep in mind....the two bedroom apartment rentals are at $1100, 1 bedrooms at $900...
Also, Runningwithscissors can tell some nightmare stories about renting through Craigslist - owners who rent out the same unit numerous times, non-working appliances, etc If you do go the private route, try to get a "real" realtor, who is reimbursed by the landlord, and do a quick background check on bcpa.net to see if there are any property tax bills in arrears.
Ok I am not going to say where MY neighborhoods are. But I will say, if I were to wait it out down here and remain in Broward. Rio Vista and Victoria park would be on the short list for darn sure. But again these are not my top picks but top five easily. I will also say, that area (rio vista) before you get to the finger islands is in DEEP doo doo. The for sale signs over there are every other house EASILY. I can imagine a lot of those people are probably over extended. My wife took a picture while we were on a photo shoot outing in Rio Vista with a row of for sale signs. I think next week we might take another trip there to see if anything has moved. I highly doubt it though, things are just getting worse.
Start thinking seriously about interest rates - they are up over a half a point in the last 6 weeks, and inflation will push them up further in the next few months unless Bernanke feels he has to lower them again in order to save the entire banking system - he so does not want to do this (he would be sacrificing the dollar). I stress to you, this is the time. Do not wait any longer. Sellers are desperate, interest rates are lower than they will be again in *years* - if you are going to buy here, now is the time. Rio Vista would be a great place to grab something (I'll give on Sailboat Bend, if it'll get you to buy something!) Those values will rise faster than the suburbs out west....Take it from a getting to be old-timer who has been watching real estate intently since early 70's Manhattan...the time is now. Low ball, low ball, low ball...use BCPA.net to check how deep in debt the owners are - you can see when they got in and how much they paid...
Also, Runningwithscissors can tell some nightmare stories about renting through Craigslist - owners who rent out the same unit numerous times, non-working appliances, etc If you do go the private route, try to get a "real" realtor, who is reimbursed by the landlord, and do a quick background check on bcpa.net to see if there are any property tax bills in arrears.
Yup. my little buddy on Craigs List rented me a DUPLEX ON HOLLYWOOD BEACH WITH WASHER AND DRYER 1200.00 (using emphasis hoping that this post shows up on google lol).... when he already had tenants. And misrepresented several "facts" about it, and violated the landlord tenant statute several ways. I'm out the $2400 because he's an experienced scam artist who has been in court 140 times on the Broward docket. He has several liens against him that will never get paid. He has the property in a corp name, too, he knows what he's doing. I had a detective spend a day on him and there was nothing he could do. I spent months trying to find a rental and I was looking in the 1600 range at that. He loves the scam. He called me several times to laugh about how I'd never win in court since it's his hobby.
This was in February and had nothing to do with the housing crisis, the housing crisis has made things even worse. You hear stories all the time.
My son in the past few years has had several bad rentals back to back, mold appear on ceilings, all appliances broken without recourse (lease does not stipulate working appliances), townhouses with the owner claiming "misplaced" keys to the garage where he couldnt use it for months, and his last rental the landlord was evicted in month 9. Unfortunately, all of these were through an agent too. He's in a single in historic West Palm Beach now and so far so good. The one "good" rental he had in Mainlands Tamarac had a lady from South America as the owner and you could never find her and he never got his deposit back. THEN she had the nerve to claim damages just before the time expired and she already had a new tenant in the place. She claimed she was "on vacation" out of the country. It's never ending.
Part of a background check can be using the Broward court system online services , my guy has five pages of dispositions on there. Most of his dockets were for removal of tenant actions.
He's slick. In one scenario, he rents you a duplex and it's already rented then he sues you in court without your knowledge to evict you and you never got the keys LOL. Then you get the judgement against you and of course you never know about it. The courts think you just didn't show up for the hearing.
I met a lady who this happened to who ended up taking him to court and got a judgment against him instead. She gave him two months rent without any lease and never got keys. Instead of just walking away, she pursued it by going to the property and knocking on the doors and found the existing tenants who gave her a copy of their leases. I also met other victims there's like a little club of grievants who can do nothing to him now.
He falsified her signature on a lease that never existed and took her to court and she really had no idea. She went to court for her money back and he produced this bogus lease not knowing that she already had the two tenant's leases in her possession. The judge did nothing about that fraud part since it's criminal. The lady is foreign and scared to go further with the cops. She has a judgment from her case and nothing will ever happen there are several people ahead of her including the State of Texas for unpaid student loans. This applies to him AND his imo fake gypsy wife, also with several pages of court dockets. I saw the other people's dockets on the website with judgments and liens against him so I know they are telling the truth. The website is annoying you have to look at each case individually and they are not in any order so you can't just look by current time periods.
He has a several current open cases, one with a lady asking as the plaintiff for 2500 in damages from last month. I JUST WISH I didn't move to Indian River county I'd attend all the hearings and still plan to do something when I get settled. I just moved here in May even though I signed my lease for the current house I'm in for March.
I keep watching the court site to make sure he doesn't sue me without MY knowledge. Part of the problem is that by statute you can sue to evict in five days of late rent, so he LOVES going to court. I'm sure the judges think he's the victim LOL. He's there all the time.
www.BrowardClerk.org: Public Search (http://www.clerk-17th-flcourts.org/bccoc2/pubsearch/public_search.asp - broken link)
Renting in south Florida can be a nightmare procede with caution.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 07-23-2008 at 04:37 AM..
Start thinking seriously about interest rates - they are up over a half a point in the last 6 weeks, and inflation will push them up further in the next few months unless Bernanke feels he has to lower them again in order to save the entire banking system - he so does not want to do this (he would be sacrificing the dollar). I stress to you, this is the time. Do not wait any longer. Sellers are desperate, interest rates are lower than they will be again in *years* - if you are going to buy here, now is the time. Rio Vista would be a great place to grab something (I'll give on Sailboat Bend, if it'll get you to buy something!) Those values will rise faster than the suburbs out west....Take it from a getting to be old-timer who has been watching real estate intently since early 70's Manhattan...the time is now. Low ball, low ball, low ball...use BCPA.net to check how deep in debt the owners are - you can see when they got in and how much they paid...
I wont be buying until a few years. I won't go into why though, don't want to veer this thread off topic. I am not a old timer but I do have a degree in economics.
Here are some issues with Sailboat Bend and also Rio Vista...First, there is a broad range of home prices, values, and gentrification depending on location. There are some great new builds and renovations - but, they are expensive and may be down the street from a sketchy park or unstable cluster of housing. Also, check out the sex offender listing for the area and crime statistics. As someone above said, there is a lot going on. It is a hot area in many ways, great location, close to so much, etc...I don't think its the best place for families - unless you have tons of money and can afford a mini-mansion with gated grounds, private school tuition, taxes, and INSURANCE in that area. Did you check out what your insurance would be down there? Also, spend some time down there at night and drive around.
Here are some issues with Sailboat Bend and also Rio Vista...First, there is a broad range of home prices, values, and gentrification depending on location. There are some great new builds and renovations - but, they are expensive and may be down the street from a sketchy park or unstable cluster of housing. Also, check out the sex offender listing for the area and crime statistics. As someone above said, there is a lot going on. It is a hot area in many ways, great location, close to so much, etc...I don't think its the best place for families - unless you have tons of money and can afford a mini-mansion with gated grounds, private school tuition, taxes, and INSURANCE in that area. Did you check out what your insurance would be down there? Also, spend some time down there at night and drive around.
Yep, pretty much. I didn't drive around at night though. I walked around at night. As I said before it looks great driving through in a car. but living there or getting out and actually walking the streets is a different story. Also, my family friend told me about the sex offenders which I didn't believe. My wife looked it up online and sure enough, they have a disproportionate share of them down there. One of my friends who lived there called that area "rich meets poor".
The same is true for Vic Park, where I am holed-up renting until Wild Style gives the forum readership the buy sign. But the mix and match effect has been my observation of just about every regentrifying area in any city that I've lived. It has its advantages though....I need only walk a couple of blocks from the chaise lounges at poolside to the crack house....how much better can it get?
I think the folks with kids might as well erase anything east of University off their maps because they are sure to spot the random 6-foot thug on the 16-inch bike anywhere east of there.
The same is true for Vic Park, where I am holed-up renting until Wild Style gives the forum readership the buy sign. But the mix and match effect has been my observation of just about every regentrifying area in any city that I've lived. It has its advantages though....I need only walk a couple of blocks from the chaise lounges at poolside to the crack house....how much better can it get?
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LMAO
TTYTT, I think it would be a great idea for a consortium of friends to all buy in the same area at the same time to speed up the regentrifying. Problem is human dynamics suck and you can't count on things working out.
Lemme know if you guys are interested when the time come. Wild Style can have his pick of the litter lol.
BTW, the mix and match effect is alive and well in Indian River county 'cept there is no regentrification...more like reverse regentrification whereby a bunch of prop owners are giving up their properties to renters of a lower caliber.
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