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Location: Sarasota/ Bradenton - University Pkwy area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by keeganski
Hi Guys
It may sound a silly question?
we have been looking at properties online, sfh and condo
when it says hoa fees is that yearly /monthly?
and taxes i guess is yearly
what other fees would you normally have to pay ,besides the obvious water gas electricity bill?
cheers
Pete
The condo fees are usually listed as monthly, although some are paid quarterly. Property taxes are paid once a year.
If a single family home is within a neighborhood with a mandatory homeowners association, there will be HOA fees. Most are paid either on an annual or quarterly basis. The more community amenities a neighborhood has, often the higher the HOA fees. Some in our area run $800 or more a quarter. So be sure to ask about HOA fees on single family homes
Another expense of ownership is your hazard insurance on the property. For a condo, unit owners are responsible for the interior of the unit, condo association maintains insurance on the building exteriors. For both single family homes and condos, insurance is, in general, more expensive on older buildings. If the roof on a single family home is older than 15 years of age, you can expect to pay a higher insurance premium until the roof is replaced, plus some insurance companies will not insure your home if you have a roof age beyond the 15 year cut off. I have been told by several insurance agents that this applies to tile roofs as well as shingle roofs, even though a tile roof has a much longer life expectancy than a shingle roof.
An older home can qualify for various discounts if the electrical, plumbing, AC and roof have been updated/replaced. To qualify for the discounts you have to have a Wind Mitigation inspection completed by an appropriately licensed inspector, who reports the findings on a specific form to the insurance company.
Other thngs insurance companies take into consideration besides age of the home: type of roof (hip roof is best), how the roof is tied on, if the home has hurricane shutters or impact resistant glass, the type of garage door (is it reinforced), if the home is block or frame construction. There are other factors, but those the some of the main ones.
If you are looking at properties on the bay or on a barrier island such as Siesta Key, wind zones are another insurance factor. There are wind zone maps that showed the designated wind zone areas.
Flood insurance coverage for homes and condos within designated flood zones can also be an expense you will want to consider, especially if the property was built pre-FIRM (ie before 1974). Insurance rates on some of the older condo buildings on the keys have been escalating due to changes in the national flood insurance program that have gone into effect. There are several previous threads here on this forum about the topic of the changes to the flood insurance program. Anyone considering buying a property in a designated flood zone should contact an insurance agent before signing offers to see what they can expect in the way of flood insurance rates. Even if a property qualifiies for "grandfathering" under the revised flood insurance program, rates can go up each year by a specific percentage until they reach full "market" rates.
For anyone looking at condos in our area, I always recommend getting a copy of the most recent budget befrore you make an offer on a specific condo. Knowing the Reserves of a condo community is important information as that is the money being set aside for major repairs and renovations into the future. If there are not sufficient funds in the reserve accounts, the unit owners may face special assessments in the future to take care of those big ticket repair items. It also makes sense to get copies of at least the past 3 Board meetings to see what is being discussed. That is how I found out a particular condo community in Palmer Ranch is having unexpected water leakage issues around window frames and issues with exterior stucco on some buildings.
Your questions are not silly, buyers should calculate the cost of ownership after the purchase, not just the purchase price when looking at properties.
The UK winter months would be the same as the US winter months. In that time, Sarasota is flooded with people who come here to escape the cold. There are many entertainment events during that time. Opera and several zillion live theatre events. There is also a non stop marathon of events at the Van Wezel. If those sort of things would be of interest to you, you might like to live close to downtown. Right downtown is pricy but there are affordable places near by.
The major grocery store chain is Publix and every neighborhood has one. If you are interested in health food, the Whole Food store is downtown along with a weekly farmers market.
Other concentrations of shopping are around the new mall that just opened at University and I 75. Those are national clothes stores. That area is sort of the new downtown. Lots of new construction out that way.
I kind of like Gulf Gate and Palmer Ranch. There are numerous interesting restaurants. There are a couple of reasonable size shopping areas. Costco is nearby if you want to buy mass quantities of something at dirt cheap prices. The south bridge to Siesta Island is there. It is a nice affordable part of town. There are areas that have easy fishing without a boat.
You might want to decide if golf, tennis, or a community pool is important to you.
Venice Island is charming.
Sarasota is small. You can get almost anywhere in 30 minutes by car. The walking neighborhoods are more limited.
We looked from Bradenton to Englewood. We looked at the newer developments in our price range in Bradenton and they were too far from the beach. Sarasota is lovely, but was quite crowded (traffic) in season- we were there in March. There's only a couple of bridges to get from Osprey to the beach and they get backed up in season. We weren't interested in the two newer communities in Nokomis/North Venice.
That brought us down to Venice and Englewood. We liked the vibe of Venice with it's town and communities. Englewood seemed more laid back. Not many communities with amenities, mostly stand alone houses. We did not go as far as the Rotunda because our realtor originally had a house there and she moved to Venice. Said the house didn't appreciate very much the years she was there. Don't remember how long she was there but it was more than just a couple of years.
We're really happy in Venice. We're in a gated community (that's another decision you'll have to make) and we can get to the beach in 20-25 minutes- in season. We chose a gated community not for the gate but we wanted the community amenities. Our community is half families with kids and half retirees. Most of the retirees are on the younger side of 65.
Oh, I forgot Lakewood Ranch. We looked at the new construction in Lakewood Ranch. My husband fell in love with LW. It is absolutely beautiful and has the cutest downtown. I thought it was still a little too far from the beach and had more expensive HOA and CDD fees than comparable properties in Venice or Englewood. Since we're retirees we weren't interested in the schools.
Hope that helps a little bit to start your search.
Last edited by macrodome2; 10-24-2014 at 04:48 PM..
we would ideally like to be in a similar spot,
we dont need schools etc,
to be honest when we talk about stuff like what is available in a gated community, yes we would like a c/pool but we would never have the need for tennis courts soccer pitches etc
,
so again we need to look for a g/c that fills our needs and not items that we would be contributing to ,that we would never use, if you understand where im coming from,
we would ideally like to be in a similar spot,
we dont need schools etc,
to be honest when we talk about stuff like what is available in a gated community, yes we would like a c/pool but we would never have the need for tennis courts soccer pitches etc
,
so again we need to look for a g/c that fills our needs and not items that we would be contributing to ,that we would never use, if you understand where im coming from,
i wonder if there are such places ?
a g/c for retired folk like us lol
keep the info coming folks
cheers
Pete
From our experience most all of the gated communities come with a basic set of amenities that include tennis courts, a pool, and a community center- some with fitness equipment. From there you can get expanded amenities which would include a pool upgrade (from basic rectangle to more resort like), golf course, walking trails, dog park, boat/canoe launch, fields for soccer and baseball, basketball courts, etc. You'll just have to figure out what you want.
There are also 55+ communities that may appeal to you. Venetian Falls in Venice is one that has lovely pools (yes, there are multiples), a bocce court and a large clubhouse. We did not want to be in an age restricted community so we did not look at any houses there, but from photos, driving through and looking over the gate at the pool- the pool was to die for. Other communities with great pools include, Stoneybrook, IslandWalk, Sawgrass, and Venetia. The pool at Grand Palm looks good, but when we went over there we discovered the deepest part was 4.5 feet. We prefer deeper water. The pools at Gran Paradiso and Sarasota National have yet to be built, but look fabulous in the pictures. If either is of interest- be sure to find out how deep they intend to make them.
Come down and take a look so you can decide on the area you want, then you can look at specific communities. On our first trip to the Venice area, we ended up renting in Bradenton for a month and checked out Bradenton down to Venice. Venice is only 30 minutes from Bradenton.
Most rentals are 3 month seasonal, but you can find some one month rentals. Englewood is not as restrictive and you can actually find rentals by the week. Reason for this is HOA rules, and there are many houses for rent in Englewood that are not in an HOA. You can check out the entire area that I listed staying in any of the locations, but if you stay on the ends- Englewood or Bradenton, I would suggest sticking to one area each day- do Lakewood Ranch or Venice on separate days, don't try to do both in one day.
As with any real estate, the main issue is location, location, location and in FL that means being as close to the beach as possible. You shouldn't have any trouble being within easy drive or biking distance from a beach with your budget if you are looking for a vacation condo.
We are looking in Sarasota also - and think that we may consider one of the units in a building called Broadway Promenade near downtown. As with any real estate, it has pluses and minuses, but I heard many of the units are owned by folks from your side of the pond.
Pros
Location within walking distance of many things - including the boat ramp, a couple parts, downtown and more. A supermarket is actually right on the same property.
Prices are very low compared to most of Sarasota.
Pool and lots of other common areas
Fairly new construction
Cons
The area is "up and coming" - in transition from open lots and some former shacks, etc. to a more "new urbanism" type of place with a combination of housing - some high rise, some low rise, some townhouse and some upgraded or newer smaller single houses.
Schools are poor quality- which should not matter to most retirees.
Anyway, I don't want to give away too many secrets!
The prices are low for various reasons. First, the building was finished just when the Great Recession hit, so resales were difficult initially (they are selling now). Also, the views from many units are fairly urban, with some facing the supermarket, others a quieter parking lot, etc.
They also had some units which had the infamous "chinese drywall" - these units had to be ripped down to the studs and redone. They are all fixed now.
Prices are 175K (1 bedroom) to 330K (2 and 3 bedroom).
We are going to look at a couple units next week and try to make a final decision as to whether to buy.
Oh, rental is only possible for 3+ months and only a certain percentage of the units can be rented at one time, so it's probably safe not to figure on rental income.
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