Has anyone recently bought a property in Florida. My Wife & I want to buy 1 to rent. Any advice?

We have already done alot of research but since i just found this website i thouht i would see if i could get the ';true'; story of how it breaks down.Has anyone recently bought a property in Florida. My Wife %26amp; I want to buy 1 to rent. Any advice?
The American property market is not doing very well by all accounts, furthermore Florida (and America in general) is declining as a holiday destination - in the face of various things including cheaper fares elsewhere and tighter security checks in airports.





Not wanting to spread doom and gloom on your plan - but you need to be aware of these things when calculating your retnal / equity returns as you figure out how practical / affordable it is.Has anyone recently bought a property in Florida. My Wife %26amp; I want to buy 1 to rent. Any advice?
Oh my darlings, we bought a property in Florida. I told my hubby to do it or else, LOL. But he love me and likes to make me happy. I wanted the property, but it had to be right on the Intracoastal because I love fishing and wanted to be able to fish from outside my back door. We found a great property and bought it.





Without going into details with where, how, why or when, but it's been severely damaged once and totally wrecked once by hurricanes in the last eight years. But this is just the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.





However, as a rental income opportunity, as long as you are fully aware of the risks, and insure properly, (If possible,) it is just about as good as it gets, as long as you do not want to occupy the premises during the winter period when rents are at a premium because of the snow birds. (Those you live in the northern states, like NY State, who want to get away from the winter. There, the winters are not like the winters in UK. They have serious winters, minus 15 not being unusual, whereas, we never get that kind of cold.





The rents at that time of year are at a premium.





Also there are properties on communities that have a rental programme, these are really worth looking at. They will guarantee you an annual rent. What you have to do is agree to let them take control of the rentals of your property at their discretion. You yourself can keep a period, say 4 weeks in the year, when it is available for you to use for vacation.





The plus side is, you will get a lesser rent per week or month, but are guaranteed the rent for 11 months so you know exactly how much you have coming in. Or take a chance, and hope the agent you use will get enough lettings to cover your costs. The lesser rent using the guaranteed method is offset by the fact that it is fully rented when you are not there, or get the rent anyway.





Hey, listen, forget the hurricanes. Go for it but be sure to cover yourselves. I could direct you to lots of websites as other answers will do, but it is best to take time and do lots of searches and research. If someone says to you, hey this is a great website, go here, you do not know if they have a vested interest so be careful.





Apart from the probs we had because of the hurricanes, it is the best thing we ever did. I can't wait until december to be back there again, have a barbecue on Xmas day, and catch some amazing fish from the fishing dock outside my back door. I go out and fish when the kids and hubby are asleep in the early hours. I love my fishing. We live in Spain now, and I always can't wait for out trips to Florida.





Be real careful, investigate, and then enjoy.





I've just read re your comment about Central Florida and Disney. Buy on the coast my darlings, you get the best of both worlds, and once you have done the theme park thing so many times, you have had enough, but never enough of the beach, right? Same for holiday makers and winter renters, they want the coast. Don't fall into the Disney trap, and have tenants during the English school holidays.





Kiss Kiss
gettng good tenants is the key.i ask every one who applies to me the same 2 questions.


number of current land lord and the number of previous land lord.


i call them both and ask same question, ';would you rent to this person again?';


i don't put too much credence on what the current ll says. they will lie to keep a good tenant, and lie to get rid of a bad one.





i rent solely on what the previous ll says, and have never been burned.;





DO NOT rent to someone just because you need a tenant.





IT IS FAR BETTER TOO LOSE A MONTHS RENT THAN GET A BAD RENTER. a bad renter will cost you far more in the long run than just 1 months rent.





i have owned rentals, and rented rooms. this is the voice of sorry, bad and miserable experiences.





this deserves a best answer award.
never buy it from a known person
i am a RE broker. I can advise you.


I am not seeking your biz.
The main thrust of your question is about New Property Taxes. This is somewhat inaccurate.





Certainly there's debate in th Florida Senate (State Govt) which will lead to a probable lowering of current property taxes. A referendum is scheduled for Jan 29th next but there's no plan to reduce or change foreign investors / owners property taxation.





Think you're mixing this with the Inland Revenue in the UK and their scheduled attack on tax evasion mostly in France, Spain and elswhere in Europe. The US system for claiming taxation from foreign owners is usually covered under a Tax Treaty between UK %26amp; USA which leaves little or no tax owing in the UK.
Rent a property there yourself to see how you like the area. There are way more rentals in some areas of Florida right now than there are tenants. Visit the community you're interested in and talk to the neighbors. Don't ever do anything without looking at the property first.