Good stuff guys!
Silver, my Wife and I are headed to Naples this March to look around there. Can you suggest some areas to check out?
We also are looking at purchasing RE in Fla. We came close last Fall but our 2nd offer was not accepted so we let them keep it. It's still for sale 3 months later. This was in the Daytona area.
How do you compare Naples with other FLa cities, pro/con?
Railton
My preference is to be quite far south as we usually go down right after Christmas and the weather can be quite cool in the northern part of the state. In the past we stayed in Palm Beach and in Naples. I like a place that is within a reasonable drive from an airport with frequent flights from the north.
Palm Beach was great at first, but it got really built up over the years. Naples was out of the question until they built the new airport (RSW) south of Fort Myers. We have been going there for the last 8 years or so.
Naples reminds me of the Palm Beach area of 20 years ago or so as traffic is still reasonable. The town of Naples itself is very high end real estate. Our place is in Estero which is 10 minutes north of Naples along Tamiami trail and is an area that has had rapid growth in the last decade, but has great shopping and restaurants and is only 15 minutes from the beach. I checked and we are 17 feet above sea level so the storm surge from a hurricane should not be a concern.
In the Naples area, I would be careful with Fort Myers, avoid Lehigh Acres and focus on Bonita Springs, Estero or Naples which has the highest prices. Fort Myers Beach is ok and it has some mid rise ocean front condos in it but is very exposed to hurricanes as it is a barrier island.
A friend of mine bought in this area last year and I got the name of his agent from him as he was impressed with him. I wanted somebody who would do what I asked and not try to sell me something. I told him that I wanted to steal a place - not buy one at normal prices.
I started my search by watching the real estate channel, which then got me looking at MLS listings online. When I saw that prices were close to what I was willing to pay, I contacted the agent and the hunt was on.
Our property was a foreclosure owned by CitiBank. The listing came up and they would not accept offers until the fifth day. There were multiple offers, and we bid a bit over asking price with no conditions and a thirty day closing. I was amazed that I didn't have to make a deposit with the offer and only provided an email from my bank stating that I sufficient funds to close. I put up a 15% deposit as soon as they accepted the deal. In my opinion the market is still in distress down there and it will take a year or more to to stabilize so there is no big hurry to make a deal.
PM me if you want the agent's contact info or have other questions.