We locked ourselves away in a cabin in the woods, free from distraction, so we could focus on searching for Florida houses. Our third day was spent looking at new home buiilders.
It can take six to eight months to build a house, which means: if we want to move into the house at the end of June? We need to lock in the new house in the November/December time frame. That gives us three months to make a decision.
To get started, I opened Google Maps and searched for new home construction. That showed me all the different home builders in the areas we are looking at. Then, I went through each new home builder one at a time. I looked at their home designs and prices to see if they had anything we would be interested in. If I found something, I circled them on the map. If I didn't find anything, I crossed them off.
When I visit a new home construction site, I go straight for the plans. The plans usually have prices and square footage. I quickly learned that we weren't happy with any house that had under 2700 sqft, so, I was able to discard those. The way to get the most house for the money is to buy a two story rectangle. While I did look at the one story houses, most of those were too much money versus their two story counterparts.
Builders list the plans with the price as "Starting at....". That starting at price is really the base bottom. A decent lot up charge, for example, could add up to $45,000 to the price of the house! Then, there are options (like... do you want a window in the bedroom?). Finally, there is the design center cost. If you want tile floors instead of vinyl, for example, the price is going to jump.
One of our requirements is the house must have a pool, after all, what is the point of going to Florida if you don't have a pool? I understand that after a few years in Florida, pools loose their magic for most people, and the cost and work of having a pool become too much of a hassle. Nevertheless, we want to start with a pool. The problem, however, is none of the new home builders are putting in pools. That means pools get built by another company after the house is built, and they cost $50K-$60K. When we look at the price of new construction, we have to immediately add $60,000 for the pool. And that puts most of the new construction prices outside of our budget.
Adding a pool to a new construction house is not a financially wise decision. A pool depreciates 50% immediately because the next person to buy your house isn't going to pay a lot extra for that pool. That is one of the reasons why buying an existing house with a pool is a better choice.
After a lot of searching, we found two builders with designs and prices we liked. One is way out in the middle of no where in Haines City in a community called Highland Meadows. The other is in Lakeside Community in Apopka, although, that has very small rooms compared to what we are used to. Another location, called John's Landing, had an interesting design that we could compromise on if necessary.
We had many questions about Lakeside, so, our real estate agent went right out to tour the community (which was impressive!). For example, we didn't like the fact the living room's ceiling was two stories tall. Yes, we like that, but in a house that is constrained for square footage - that seems like a waste. Unfortunately, there is no option to build out the second floor overtop of the living room. The community has a $107/mo HOA fee, versus Highland Meadows that has a $100/year HOA fee.
From a price point-of-view, Highland Meadows was the best. The house is cheap enough for us to afford a pool and some simple upgrades. From a location point-of-view, Apopka is the best because we have friends there, and, it is only 15 minutes to Maitland where most of my job opportunities would be. If I had to commute to work from Haines City, I would probably add a never ending $350/mo+ car payment to the budget. So, better house? Or better location?
The search for new houses concluded our three day virtual house hunting tour looking for our Florida house. We learned a lot, we established some leads, and we made some progress. Probably the most important thing we learned was to take most of our "must haves" and move them to optional (the must haves that are on my list, not the ones one my wife's).
The next step in our Florida House search is to visit Florida in November and continue the search in person.
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