Looking to Retire on the Gulf Coast of Florida (Port Charlotte: condo, homes)

[Old Gal]

Thanks, hopefully by the time we get down there I will remember this if we get a home with a pool.

[wpc691]

Originally Posted by Harbor Hopper

Lies. Unless they A) have no pool to run, and B) keep the house at 85 degrees all summer

Just out of curiosity, I went back and averaged our FPL bills for the past 12 mos - 200 bucks on the nose; not 175, but pretty close. Specs: 3100sf, back faces E-SE, 16x46 pool w heat pump 84 deg year round no cover. Biggest factors that help are: 1) the house is divided roughly in 2, with a separate air conditioner on each side; we keep "our side" at 79, and the "guest side" at 83 unless we have company. 2) Fans in every room always on make 79 very comfortable (just our opinion of course). 3) three windows and doorway on front of house have electric hurricane shutters - at about 3PM in the summer, we put the window shutters all the way down, and the door about 1/3 down; it makes a huge difference. 4) we have windows on opposite walls in the garage; we leave them open a little so when it cools down in the evening, the cross breeze pulls the heat out of the garage so there's less soakback into the house. During those 12 mos, the highest bill was this past Dec when we had 13 guests for 2 weeks - $346; the lowest was $146. I guess my point of view is affected by suffering with nosebleed electric bills in SoCal, but I'm pretty happy with my power bills....water is another matter.

[Big House]

Originally Posted by Old Gal

Now that the subject of a pool heater has been brought up. I 've looked at a few listings with pools just how expensive is it to a keep a pool heater going in the cooler months in this area or should I even bother?

I have an electric heat pump pool heater. I use it when I have company, or when I plan to swim a bunch. It is cost effective to have a pool cover to hold the warm during colder nights. Ours can run an extra $200 per month during the colder weather in January and February. If people aren't coming during those months - I just turn it off.

Other things that will effect the heat you need is whether your pool is facing west (gets more heat, or south west). Easterly and Northerly facing pools do not get as much sun. Our pool is on the East side of the house, which is great in the summertime, when the afternoon sun can be brutal.

[K9Veteran]

HELLO FELLOW TEXANS !

TAMRE and SoFLGal, yes PLEASE keep the info coming ! This is great stuff !

We are also from the Dallas area and are looking at condo´s in the Punta Gorda metro area. Our budget is maxed at $90-95K so I don´t think a house is in the cards. But we will be paying CASH ! We are on a fixed income so FEES, Taxes and Insurance are really important. Only down side to the Condo / Townhome route is no garage.

The two things that want to make my head explode are the wide range in costs for the HOA´s and home owners insurance. It is SO HARD to try and find a property you like and quickly determine the insurance costs. As others have said, you must also look at EACH HOA and find out if they have a good reserve fund, pending litigation etc. Insurance might be cheap on the east side of the street and expensive on the west side of the road 100yds away for the same type property.

A WORD OF WARNING, check and double check the HOA restrictions. We found one condo that prohibits motorcycles and pickup trucks. Now I get it, not wanting a Harley racking the pipes at 3am, but a pickup? So if you have a $40K 4 dr Ford F-150, you can´t park it in the complex. Go figure !

Anyway, great stuff, stay in touch and maybe after we all find a place, we can get together and hunt down the best Tex-Mex place in the County - LOL

THANKS !

[JERSEY MAN]

You have to realize with condo and townhouse living comes a ton of rules and regulations. I think the rational behind the no pickup trucks was not having WORK trucks on site with a bunch of equipment and/or garbage in the bed of the pickup. The motorcycle thing is pretty self explanatory, someones bedroom can be about 10 feet next to where someone is parking a bike at 2AM coming home from a bar or work. Theres pet size restrictions or no pets at all. Many condo buyers make the mistake of buying and than when the buy they say these rules aren't for us. Just a bit of a FYI.

[Restrain]

You can get a home in that price range ,especially when you consider the HOA costs per month for a condo.

[K9Veteran]

RESTRAIN, If we could get a HOME for 90K, I would love to know where ! If anyone wants to send me a private message, we would like to keep our options open. Part of us prefers a HOUSE, but we were not able to find anything.

JERSEY MAN, Yes, that is one downside, all the ¨Rules¨.

THANKS !

[K9Veteran]

WOW, I just off the phone with USAA about home owners insurance. They said they WOULD NOT WRITE ANY POLICIES in Florida on any property built before 2002. Talk about getting the wind taken out of my sails ! This means every condo we have looked at is a problem since they are all build before 2000.

How the heck does anyone get AFFORDABLE home owners insurance in FLorida ?

[Big House]

Originally Posted by K9Veteran

RESTRAIN, If we could get a HOME for 90K, I would love to know where ! If anyone wants to send me a private message, we would like to keep our options open. Part of us prefers a HOUSE, but we were not able to find anything.

JERSEY MAN, Yes, that is one downside, all the ¨Rules¨.

THANKS !

You can find some in North Port.

[nphomeowner]

Prices in north port are going up. I'm sure the realtors can chime in if I'm wrong but we have one foreclosure with an asking price of I think 123 and two just sold for in the 150 range.