Any Floridians in the house...?

Mesh

paulo
I'm looking into buying a property in FL,  the kind of thing that can be a holiday home, but also rented out, but know the square root of diddly squat at the moment about the stuff that they don't tell you in the property ads..... is it a good time, taxes/hidden costs, areas to avoid, what "short" sale means, what does "pending" mean, so on and so on ?
If anyone can point me in the direction of some info that isn't from the biased point of view of someone trying to sell something that would be much appreciated.

I just bought a home (about 8 months ago here in FL) and it was a long tiring experience, but worth the time we put in it. Generally speaking, the best time to buy is after summer as most people like to move during the hot summer months and pirces tend to be much higher. So, between Sept. & Feb. are usually the "off peak" months.
 
Fortunately we had a very honest, ethical, and morally sound realtor to help us......he even went as far as reducing his commission percentage in order for us to get a potential home, but the house didn't work out......our realtor's intentions were certainly present. We actually had gone trhough 2 other realtors before getting refered to him. Anyway, the point is that it was (for once) nice to have someone batting on our side than for anyone else.
 
I would avoid short sales as they're very time consuming for the deals to go through and sometimes after months & months, the deal can just fall off. Usually the bank & owner of the property have to accept offer. A "traditional" sale is the quickest sale as you're dealing directly with the owner and/or his realtor. The prices are also slightly higher in a traditional sale, but everything is negotiable and you'll get a quicker outcome.
 
Pending means that house has a potential buyer who has put an offer on the table and generally the sale goes through (unless there's something found during the inspection process).
 
As far as taxes are concerned, look for house that have "Homestead Exemption". Those homes can reduce the tax liability quite a bit (I just filed for mine and is going through the process).
 
You might find some really good deals on a "Foreclosed home" (homes that were reposessed by the bank as the owner didn't pay the mortgage). Generally, these homes get into a multiple offer situation as you'll have to offer the closest to what the bank is asking and hope they accept your offer. The banks don't like to hold on to these forclosures as they want to get it off their books ASAP. I've been told that banks have more of an urgency during the end of the year (12/31).  
 
Good luck Paulo with vacation home and if you do need a good realtor, I can highly recommend the guy I used.
    

craigb
Florida??!

Mesh
No worries Paulo, I'm in the Orlando area. I was actually quite Blessed and lucky to have some very good people working for me (as buying homes and all the complicated lingo that goes with it is just Greek to me). I still keep in touch with my realtor and lender.
 
You can PM me anytime and I'd be glad to help or at least get you in contact with someone who knows what they're talking about.