Water bills, or a city gone wild

[London Guy]

Originally Posted by rikoshaprl

If the investor didn't know about the assessments then he is a moron and deserves what he got. You bought here too. You didn't know about trailer parking, paying for city water when you have a well, the costs for the expansion of city water. You made a big mistake buying here. Why not sell and take your losses. You should be able to sell unless you bought in a bad area in the NE section.

I bought a property in SWFL from the UK, sight unseen. There is a wealth of information available on the internet and the realtor, bank people and everyone else we had to deal with were top notch professionals and the whole transaction went through with barely a glitch.

Our eyes were wide open and we knew we're taking a risk. Nevertheless, SWFL is such a great place and the US is such a great country we're not too worried

[rikoshaprl]

I am bullish on America too as long as we don't go the socialist route.

[JohnVosilla]

Originally Posted by equalrightsforeveryone

Here is a little info I found out this weekend about some vacant property (not on a drainage ditch) in the area.
I checked some in my neighborhood, people owned these properties for 12 years. the paid $3100.00 for them in 98 give or take a little.
First of all they have already paid more in taxes then the original purchase price, and are approaching the price the properties are appraised at $7400.00, that's a lot of taxes for a vacant property.
Second with all the impact and water and sewer fee's already in place they owe the city of Cape Coral roughly $17,000.00 for that, now they want to put an other $6000.00 on top of that for water that the property owners don't use and can't use because the properties are vacant.

This is absolutely nuts, Basically this is the story, Come to Cape Coral BUY some investment property for the future it's only $7400.00 for a nice building lot in the City of Cape Coral "THE Venice of SWFL and you will be in hock to the city for 20,000.00 Grand, Plus property taxes.

You have to be totally nuts to buy here. Do Your home work see what you are getting yourself in to..

Don't buy the lots. Buy existing homes way below replacement cost. The fact there aren't large vacant acreage parcels a developer can put a new tract subidivision in place at a cost 40% less than a builder could put up a new home on an individual platted lot with all the costs associated with it is added protection for values appreciating dramatically for the buyers of existing homes down the road..

[equalrightsforeveryone]

Originally Posted by JohnVosilla

Don't buy the lots. Buy existing homes way below replacement cost. The fact there aren't large vacant acreage parcels a developer can put a new tract subidivision in place at a cost 40% less than a builder could put up a new home on an individual platted lot with all the costs associated with it is added protection for values appreciating dramatically for the buyers of existing homes down the road..

Good advice but the conversation is about people being charged for water on their vacant lots

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by equalrightsforeveryone

"The average monthly water and sewer bill is $111.26 and will go to $119.49 next year, City Councilman Kevin McGrail said. Another 8 percent hike in 2012 would raise it to about $129."

Unbelievable.
Talk about sticking it to the citizens of Cape Coral, your friendly Government at work.

You started the thread. I don't see any mention of vacant lots.

[PETER VON]

Originally Posted by equalrightsforeveryone

the fact that a nickel is now worth what a penny used to be is.
It's called inflation, but some people haven't heard of it i guess.
and the cc government is responsible for the mess that is the utility expansion. i think everyone knows this, well almost everyone

in cape coma we have deflation problem. Sister!!

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by PETER VON

in cape coma we have deflation problem. Sister!!

Peter, thank you for saying what I've been thinking every time I hear someone talk about inflation.

A quick little off topic here but people need to understand- housing expenses usually accounts for 50% of someones net income. So in Cape Coral there has been a 60% reduction in the prices of homes, the cost of credit is at historical lows, and property taxes have come down by at least half with the exception of people that were homestead exemption.

We will take this example. the house I purchased was purchased in 2006 for $260k with an 80% 1st of 208k and a 20% 52k. The payments on the 2 mortgages with what the taxes were totaled $1878 monthly expense. At the time I purchased it someone that qualified for a first time home buyers tax credit would have only financed $76,500 and with the reduced taxes the same expenses would be $543 month. That's $1335 less of monthly expenses. And rents are clearly less now than they were 4 yrs ago.

also things like boats were less, the cost of construction was less. I put in a dock and seawall $5,000. less than a quote I got 2yrs ago. Also because of the weak job market I believe a lot of contractors and laborers were being paid less in trying to compete for work.

yes the prices of gas and food have gone up, and the dollar has weakend but not even close to the deflation of overall expenses and wages.

[equalrightsforeveryone]

And they are going to raise the rates again.
What a ripoff. A city should not be in the water business major conflict of interest.
And anti trust issues.

[fiege1224]

I agree the city should never be involved in the capes water. What a screwed up mess. The total corruption in cape coral is unreal for such a small town. I have said before this town would do better without any of them and just let a computer with basic employees pay bills and run the small town.Government=corruption=high cost=Failure at the tax payers expense! There is a town in Ga. now with 2-3 billion in debt on there sewer and water and they are going broke over it. You can't keep jacking up the water bill to make up for this large of a mistake on a small amount of paying customers. Only someone in the government could screw something up so bad you could lose a house or lot over a water bill cost. They should be in jail for this sewer and water mess.

[rikoshaprl]

I think in the long term CC will be better off having planned for the future. Other cities will be scrambling for water and the fix will be much more expensive. The pain in the short term is being caused by the lull in growth but that will change.