real estate listings (Tampa, Sarasota, University: for sale, condo, how much)

[109freqflyer]

Hello everyone. I just found these forums. Can anyone tell me if there is a good real estate search engine. The old realtor.com worked well you could look for gated community, waterfront, etc and the new is very limited. I am not sure what area we would like to be in. But I do have some basic requirements. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Big House]

Originally Posted by 109freqflyer

Hello everyone. I just found these forums. Can anyone tell me if there is a good real estate search engine. The old realtor.com worked well you could look for gated community, waterfront, etc and the new is very limited. I am not sure what area we would like to be in. But I do have some basic requirements. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the board, you will find a lot of helpful people here that will give you some great information!

There are a number of places to search for listings. I don't have the url for the florida mls, but someone will post it soon.

You can go to zillow.com. They show a lot of the houses for sale that are on the market, and have a neat maping system so you can see where the houses are. The MLS system is better, but the best thing by far is to let your real estate agent know what you want. They have access to the best system, and it sorts it much better, and they can give you groups of houses to look at in a 10th of the time that you would search out for your self.

I have a few questions that will help you get good information.

Where are you from?
Where are you looking to relocate? Are you looking to buy or rent?
How much are you budgeting for the purchase?
Do you work? Need to continue to work, or retired?
Are schools important? And, do you have school age kids?
Do you have pets? Dogs, or cats?
Do you like to go to the beach, how important is beach proximity?
Do you fish? how important is gulf access?
Do you golf?, kayak?, swim? play tennis? bike? have other interests?
Do you like night life? restaurants?
Do you like smaller towns, or small cities like Sarasota?
How big a house do you want? _ Beds, _ baths, ___SF
Do you want a pool and lanai?
Do you want a single family house or a condo?
Are you married?
And! Most importantly do you enjoy a good beer?

Good Luck with your relocation, hope everything goes well. Planning ahead is the most cost effective thing you can do! Coming here and asking questions can be helpful and amusing.

[snivlem]

myfloridahomesmls.com

[d4g4m]

I second the site myfloridahomesmls.com no connection to RE firms, no ads, user friendly with map search.

[mr&mrssunshine]

and shout loudly - SoFlgal -where are you ??

[Peter the Brit]

Tie it down to an area then look for a good buyers agent who works that area.

[109freqflyer]

Where are you from?
Where are you looking to relocate? Are you looking to buy or rent?
How much are you budgeting for the purchase?
Do you work? Need to continue to work, or retired?
Are schools important? And, do you have school age kids?
Do you have pets? Dogs, or cats?
Do you like to go to the beach, how important is beach proximity?
Do you fish? how important is gulf access?
Do you golf?, kayak?, swim? play tennis? bike? have other interests?
Do you like night life? restaurants?
Do you like smaller towns, or small cities like Sarasota?
How big a house do you want? _ Beds, _ baths, ___SF
Do you want a pool and lanai?
Do you want a single family house or a condo?
Are you married?
And! Most importantly do you enjoy a good beer?

OK thanks for the replies. First let me say that my wife and I are big time planners so were actually about 24 months from moving, and I know
that the market will change during this time. If we hold out the 24 months we can semi-retire. My wife is in the Financial/legal field and should be able to find something in Sarasota. Everybody has to pay taxes and their are always divorces going on. I will need to Travel to St Petersburg 2-3 times per week with an occasional trip to to Tampa.

We will be relocating from the DFW area
We are not sure where we are thinking University Park LWR but we may want Sarasota schools???
We would like a ranch home 3-4bdrms 2.5-3 baths gated community good schools close to the water or Marina with reasonable rates (34ft express cruiser) Under 400,000 (could go higher but that would cut into our play money.

Two kids now 7 and 11 both girls Competitive Cheerleading, swimming and soccer.
The beach is nice but with the boat as long as I have access to deep water I'll be happy.

We are more into the laid back type restaraunts. On the beach cold beer and good seafood.

We like the size of Sarasota and Knowing that Tampa is close by for that large downtown feel is great.

And Yes cold beer and Texas Margaritas get me through many Friday nights.

Thanks all
Rob

[Peter the Brit]

The age of your kids, location of work drives me to advise LWR area and in particular for a ranch home with land Panther Ridge.
Schools do seem to be better in the Sarasota County area so also look at Myakka Ranches and Saddle Creek east of the I 75 on Clark Road. If Pine View School is in your plans the you could also look at Mission Valley in Nokomis (one acre lots).
Plenty of choices and all near the I-75 for commuting.
I worked for several years as a paralegal and can tell you most attorneys are base downtown Sarasota again a short commute from all these areas.
Maybe look at schools first and then it may all fall into place

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by mr&mrssunshine

and shout loudly - SoFlgal -where are you ??

Hey I'm here now Been out all day today and just checking CD. LWR might me a good option if you are going to be traveling to the St Pete area. If you are looking into the Sarasota schools here's a list in order of how the state of Florida ranks them. Going from best score to least:

Elementary schools
Pine View Elementary
Southside Elementary
Bay Haven School
Venice Elementary
Ashton Elementary
Cranberry Elementary
Taylor Ranch Elementary
Sarasota Suncoast Academy
Lakeview Elementary
Gulf Gate Elementary
Tatum Ridge Elementary
Laurel Nokomis
Garden Elementary
Fruitville Elementary
Philippi Shores Elementary
Englewood Elementary
Toledo Blade Elementary
Wilkinson Elementary
LaMarque Elementary
Brentwood Elementary
Island Village Montessori Elementary
Imagine School North Port
Glen Allen Elementary
Gocio Elementary
Alta Vista Elementary
Tuttle Elementary
Booker Elementary

Middle Schools
Pine View Middle
Sarasota Middle
Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences
Island Village Montessori Middle
Woodland Middle
Venice Middle
McIntosh Middle
Brookside Middle
Heron Creek Middle
Student Leadership Academy
Booker Middle

High Schools
Pine View High
Sarasota Polytechnical High School
Riverview High
Venice High
Sarasota Military Academy
Sarasota High
Booker High
North Port High

Greatschools.com is a good place see what people have to say about the various schools in the area. I believe the schools for Lakewood Ranch are Braden River Elementary and Middle and Lakewood Ranch High.

MyFloridaMLS.com is absolutely the best way to search for listings. If you are using Realtor.com or other sites out there most/many do not update on a regular basis so often times when you find a listing that interests you, it already has a contract on it.

A few other areas that are in close proximity to I-75 for commuting are Tara Preserve, University Place, Mote Ranch, River Place, Rosedale, Meadows & River Club.
If you're fine with not being really close to I-75 but would like to be a bit closer to the beaches you might want to investigate Palmer Ranch-Turtle Rock, Deer Creek, Huntington Pointe, Stonebridge and The Hamptons. Southside Village might also be worth investigating.

Good luck with your search!

[YeahMon]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

MyFloridaMLS.com is absolutely the best way to search for listings.

Says the domain is for sale. They must've moved out. LOL