Moving (possibly) to Flori-DUH - advice?

[Blackadar]

Without getting into too much personal detail, I may be moving the family to Florida very soon. The area we would be moving to is anything from Tampa (Brandon area) to as far South as Port Charlotte. That's about a 100 mile swath on the west coast of Florida. Other areas are not an option.

I fly every week to various job sites, so airport access is important. Tampa is easily the biggest airport which helps me, but further south is actually better for personal reasons. School systems (Elementary through High Schools) are *very* important. I don't like being house poor, so my limit is $180,000. I could afford more, but I won't want to. I'm pretty experienced in the act of moving, so I have that process down pat. But what I don't know are all the areas and any weird things I need to watch out for. So if you know the area and have any thoughts, please post 'em or PM me.

Thanks!

[nilodor]

It's crazy how some places you can get a house for 180K and here you could get a trailer by an industrial park.

[Dutch]

I will PM you tonight when I get home. I know this area pretty well.

[Marc Vaughan]

I'm not in that part of Florida - but as far as school go generally in Florida I've found both very good and very poor ... often within a few miles of each other.

The best school my kids have ever attended was a public school in Florida (Rockledge High School - specifically the Cambridge Program within it, the mainstream programs aren't a patch on their special stream).

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

But what I don't know are all the areas and any weird things I need to watch out for. So if you know the area and have any thoughts, please post 'em or PM me.

Thanks!

Buy a gun and brush up on the ins-and-outs of the "Stand Your Ground" law.

I'm not even really kidding. Given that people are using it as a defense for shooting unarmed people at gas stations over the music the other people are playing, it's seriously sensible.

[sterlingice]

Learn about your new neighbors:

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[ShaneTheMaster]

If you want easy airport access, I would not move to Brandon. I would look into Citrus Park or South Tampa (if you can afford it).

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by ShaneTheMaster

If you want easy airport access, I would not move to Brandon. I would look into Citrus Park or South Tampa (if you can afford it).

No way to afford South Tampa. I'm not paying $275k for a house to be 10 minutes closer to the airport. I don't like being house poor. Plus, my commute to and from the airport is once a week, so 45 minutes isn't that big of a deal. I'm not doing it every day.

Originally Posted by MikeD

I will PM you tonight when I get home. I know this area pretty well.

Thanks.

[gstelmack]

All my information is now almost 20 years out-of-date, but I grew up in Venice in Sarasota county. We used to fly in and out of Sarasota airport all the time, but I don't know how well it has kept up with the times.

[CU Tiger]

Would Naples/Fort Myers be too far.


Could be doable there and have friends in the area who are really big on the schools. (No empirical data, just anecdotal)

They are in the Bonita Springs area and its nice. Housing prices seem to be comparable to Charlotte.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Would Naples/Fort Myers be too far.


Could be doable there and have friends in the area who are really big on the schools. (No empirical data, just anecdotal)

They are in the Bonita Springs area and its nice. Housing prices seem to be comparable to Charlotte.

Yeah, because it limits the airport access. At least if I'm in Port Charlotte (furthest point south I'm looking) I can get to 3 airports in an hour and a half. That's my limit.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by ShaneTheMaster

If you want easy airport access, I would not move to Brandon. I would look into Citrus Park or South Tampa (if you can afford it).

Brandon to the Tampa Airport is about 25 minutes if you take the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway to the I-4. Goes straight through town for a huge time savings (in the old days you had to take I-75 to I-4 which was out of the way. All bets are off if you hit the I-4 (or I-275) during rush hour. It will cost you $2.50 each way.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Buy a gun and brush up on the ins-and-outs of the "Stand Your Ground" law.

I'm not even really kidding. Given that people are using it as a defense for shooting unarmed people at gas stations over the music the other people are playing, it's seriously sensible.

DONT buy a gun and live life sensibly, it won't be an issue .. and frankly if it is then you're screwed anyway.

(exactly the same as any incident involving someone who is mad as a hatter and happens to have a hand gun ... anyone shooting someone because of the music they're playing is frankly insane)

Also bear in mind most criminals in Florida are easily caught due to their stupidity ... for instance:

Florida Man stops to pay road toll during high speed chase

[Lathum]

Florida is probably number one in my list of states I would never want to live in.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Florida is probably number one in my list of states I would never want to live in.

That's nice, thank you for your contribution to this thread.

[Subby]

mattufford 1:15pm via Echofon
#Florida RT @UPROXX: Watch A Topless Woman In A Thong Go On A Rampage Inside A McDonalds, Then Stop To Chug Ice Cream
bit.ly/1itn81j

That's all I got.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Subby

mattufford 1:15pm via Echofon
#Florida RT @UPROXX: Watch A Topless Woman In A Thong Go On A Rampage Inside A McDonalds, Then Stop To Chug Ice Cream
bit.ly/1itn81j

That's all I got.

I didn't know my wife had already moved there...

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

All my information is now almost 20 years out-of-date, but I grew up in Venice in Sarasota county. We used to fly in and out of Sarasota airport all the time, but I don't know how well it has kept up with the times.

I lived in Bradenton, just North of Sarasota (in fact, shares the Airport name)...it's for the most part more affordable than Sarasota, but definately not as upscale...

It's closer to Tampa airport too though...

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Breeze

I lived in Bradenton, just North of Sarasota (in fact, shares the Airport name)...it's for the most part more affordable than Sarasota, but definately not as upscale...

It's closer to Tampa airport too though...

There is an AMAZING little seafood dive joint in Bradenton. I had a customer who I did a few jobs for in Bradneton and they would always take me to this little hole in the wall ...you could see the free way from the parking lot but getting to this place involved several back roads and a trip through a gas station parking lot...anyway..if you end up down there look this place up and grub down its worth it. lol

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Learn about your new neighbors:

Florida Man (_FloridaMan) on Twitter

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More detail

Florida Man!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Much as I love a good jorts joke & have been unimpressed by parts of north Florida on more than one occasion it only seems fair to point out that only 35% of the state's residents were actually born there. To some extent I'd say the issues aren't entirely the state's fault.

[stevew]

Is that topless video a work? Screams of a planted viral skit.

[corbes]

I like the Sarasota area. Don't know the age and interests of your family but I've had pretty good success finding things for my kids to do there. Myakka State Park is a great resource.

[Blackadar]

House is sold house is sold house is sold house is sold house is sold house is sold!!!!

Oh happy day!

Technically it's not "sold", just under contract. We still have the inspections (don't anticipate anything) and the appraisal (this should be easy - we priced it under comps) to go. But our house is under contract. WooT! We close on June 2nd because I need time to go to FL and buy a house.

I think we've settled on the North Port, FL area almost by default. The other area I wanted to look at -Valrico / Riverview / Fishhawk - I can't find a Realtor who wants to sell me a house! So North Port (or maybe Port Charlotte) it is.

[corbes]

Congratulations!

We vacationed a few times in Englewood. Stump Pass State Park is a nice public beach access area and if I recall correctly Don Pedro State Park is as well. And as I mentioned above, for more state-parky activities, great canoeing and birdwatching and what not, Myakka.

[Blackadar]

Things are going well.

Our house sold in 5 days. The inspection report only found 2 dinky things to repair, which is an amazingly small number. Then again, we keep our house in good condition.

So we went down to FL last week and met the realtor at 10:00 AM on Thursday. We had already done a ton of advance work online, so we had a pretty solid list of houses including a clear favorite (the cheapest one, believe it or not). We saw about 10-12 houses in 5 hours and everyone loved the favorite. So we went back to the Realtor's office and started to write the offer. I don't screw around when I want something, so I told my realtor to offer full price. He starts to write up the contract and then says "let's move this along" and picks up the phone to call the listing agent.

She's literally at the home of the sellers presenting an offer they've verbally agreed to! They're literally less than 5 minutes from signing the offer. But mine is better - full price, conventional loan, no contingencies - and so they decide to take mine. STOLE THE HOUSE! We got the inspection the next day and that went well too.

Closing on my old house: June 2
Closing on my new house: June 11

The hard work ain't over, but at least we're moving along.

[DaddyTorgo]

Nice Blacky!!

[Buccaneer]

Good luck on your move.

[Blackadar]

House #1 closing is today. So far it's been fun. HUD statement was wrong because the $600 in due diligence money that was supposed to be sent to me right after accepting the offer was never sent by their agent. She just kept the check and never sent it along. Everyone assumed that I already had it. If I hadn't caught that one, I would have never received it.

The repair list that we sent a month ago for the new homeowners wasn't forwarded to them by their agent and now they're refusing to do any of the repairs. It's probably about $500 - $1,000 worth of work. I could walk away from the house free-and-clear, but everything's already on the fucking moving truck. So I'm going to have to eat it. Yay me.

Does anyone wonder why I fucking hate real estate agents?

Looking over the HUD on the new house, it appears that it's off by almost $3k at closing (too high) and $300/mo. I spoke with my lender and they said whoops, that's not right. Yeah, thanks guys. I swear I'm going to sue these people to pay for the blood pressure meds I'm going to need because of this shit.

[henry296]

At least you should ask for the money for the repairs that aren't done.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by henry296

At least you should ask for the money for the repairs that aren't done.

Yep. Either the seller should eat that $1,000 or else that'd be coming off the commission to the realtors or they could all go fuck themselves in my book. matter of principle - you shouldn't be paying for someone else's fuck-up.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by henry296

At least you should ask for the money for the repairs that aren't done.

I tried that. They won't do it and I can't make them do it. Yeah, I could try to demand the agents pay for it, but if they don't want to there's nothing I can do besides walk away and submit a formal complaint against their agent. Which I may do anyway after the closing. But for now I'm stuck with the bill. In the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Yeah, I could try to demand the agents pay for it, but if they don't want to there's nothing I can do besides walk away and submit a formal complaint against their agent.

I'm the tiniest bit lost in which agent screwed up what but that thing about holding the earnest money instead of passing it along is, IIRC, a pretty big no-no.

That's definitely worth a formal complaint, as well as the complete fail on the repair items. If it's the same agent, perhaps the first could be leveraged against the second (as in, I'm going to report the entire enchilada unless you make good on at least the second screw up)

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I tried that. They won't do it and I can't make them do it. Yeah, I could try to demand the agents pay for it, but if they don't want to there's nothing I can do besides walk away and submit a formal complaint against their agent. Which I may do anyway after the closing. But for now I'm stuck with the bill. In the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.

Was it stated in the REPC? If so they have to, if not you are right, not obligated to do it.

Was it your agent that held the earnest money or their agent didn't pass it along to yours?

One is illegal, the other may be held into escrow until the sale falls through or the deal is completed.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Was it stated in the REPC? If so they have to, if not you are right, not obligated to do it.

Home purchases are generally bought AS-IS with the right of the buyer to walk away if there are problems with inspections. There's nothing that forces the seller to make the repairs. Often they will agree to, but in this case they didn't get the repair list as the seller's agent (their agent) says she didn't get it. Which is bullshit, because I was copied on the email and she's received everything else at that email address.

So when we asked, she claimed to have not received it and then asked for it again. The sellers were blindsided by this and that's probably why they don't want to pay it. Had she sent it when it was originally sent to her, they probably would have done it.

I'm filing a UCF (Florida complaint form) against that agent but it won't get my money back.

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Was it your agent that held the earnest money or their agent didn't pass it along to yours?

One is illegal, the other may be held into escrow until the sale falls through or the deal is completed.

Their agent and yes, it was illegal. North Carolina is a little weird in that there's earnest money (applied when the house closes) as well as due diligence (DD) money (which is what the seller gets in return for the right of the buyer to get a contract on and inspect the house). Earnest money is applied at the closing, DD money is supposed to be sent to the seller immediately after signing the sale paperwork. It wasn't ever sent to us. Nice, huh?

[DaddyTorgo]

That's where you leverage the illegality of your agent to get them to play hardball with the seller's agent and either she forks over the $1000 or the two of them split it or else you report his ass/take him to small claims court/whatever.

[DaddyTorgo]

I mean I get that in the grand scheme of a large house purchase that $1,000 isn't THAT much money, but still...it's the principle of the thing in some sense.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

That's where you leverage the illegality of your agent to get them to play hardball with the seller's agent and either she forks over the $1000 or the two of them split it or else you report his ass/take him to small claims court/whatever.

Different agent. Let me try to clear this up:

I'm SELLING a house in NC. The agent for the BUYERS didn't send me the DD money. This is the $600 mistake that I found and I'm getting back but only because I look at everything and have a Finance degree.

I'm BUYING a house in FL. The agent for the SELLERS didn't send them the repair list. This is the $1000 mistake that I'm eating because I don't have much of an option.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Different agent. Let me try to clear this up:

I'm SELLING a house in NC. The agent for the BUYERS didn't send me the DD money. This is the $600 mistake that I found and I'm getting back but only because I look at everything and have a Finance degree.

I'm BUYING a house in FL. The agent for the SELLERS didn't send them the repair list. This is the $1000 mistake that I'm eating because I don't have much of an option.

Gotcha. Knew they were 2 different agents, didn't realize it was the 2 different transactions.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Gotcha. Knew they were 2 different agents, didn't realize it was the 2 different transactions.

No wonder I hate agents, eh?

[CU Tiger]

I would at least call the bluff on the Florida agent.

"Look I really hadn't planned on that $1,000 extra expense. Plus another house my wife actually likes more came up last week and we are having a touch of buyer's remorse already. $1,000 is really a tipping point here. Either get them to eat the repairs, you pay it out of your commissin or I wuld like out of my contract."

Do that by phone. They cant break the contract without written follow up but it will get her jumping. At that point it becomes basic math...minimum the agent is getting 3%...well a 50% split of 3% if their broker takes half or 1.5%...as long as the house is more than $80,000 then they still win to pay you $1,000.

Its the seller's agent's screw up I would at least make them squirm. But I am a SOB like that

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I would at least call the bluff on the Florida agent.

"Look I really hadn't planned on that $1,000 extra expense. Plus another house my wife actually likes more came up last week and we are having a touch of buyer's remorse already. $1,000 is really a tipping point here. Either get them to eat the repairs, you pay it out of your commissin or I wuld like out of my contract."

Do that by phone. They cant break the contract without written follow up but it will get her jumping. At that point it becomes basic math...minimum the agent is getting 3%...well a 50% split of 3% if their broker takes half or 1.5%...as long as the house is more than $80,000 then they still win to pay you $1,000.

Its the seller's agent's screw up I would at least make them squirm. But I am a SOB like that

Yeah

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I tried that. They won't do it and I can't make them do it. Yeah, I could try to demand the agents pay for it, but if they don't want to there's nothing I can do besides walk away and submit a formal complaint against their agent. Which I may do anyway after the closing. But for now I'm stuck with the bill. In the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.

Small claims court against the agent?

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Small claims court against the agent?

She doesn't have a fiduciary responsibility to me and I can't prove that the homeowners would have paid for the repairs had she done her job.

Also note that home prices have risen 9% already this year in North Port. So walking away actually costs me money because a comparable house - if I could even find one - would cost me more.

[CU Tiger]

FWIW I wasnt advising to walk away, mearly to bluff that you are willing to.

And 3% of 9% is a couple hundred dollars per $100k. Not worth an agent going through the process of finding another buyer.

But I hate RE agents mostly and wil squeeze them for sport alone.

[PilotMan]

I think you're making the right choice. It's may not be the best, but it's the most pragmatic considering everything involved.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

FWIW I wasnt advising to walk away, mearly to bluff that you are willing to.

And 3% of 9% is a couple hundred dollars per $100k. Not worth an agent going through the process of finding another buyer.

But I hate RE agents mostly and wil squeeze them for sport alone.

Oh, I hate RE agents with a passion. In this particular case, I'm just not holding good enough cards to even bluff. With the closing 3 days away, my house in NC sold and my stuff on a moving truck, I have no leverage whatsoever.