Author: moving2florida

Our visit to that development was near the end of our time in Florida. The salesman let my wife and I walk some of the homes that were near completion, including one with the floor plan I liked. As much as I didn’t want to be in a development that property had a lot going for it, and it would be much less expensive than custom building on a lot. It backed to a pond (++), and it was a large lot (++). It was a corner lot but the side street dead ended at the property line (++). The area behind it is several privately held lots with homes on them. If those owners hadn’t sold to the developer by now they probably weren’t going to. That’s a good thing.

This property was a real possibility. It would be much less expensive than a custom build on an unimproved lot. Just one problem, someone already had a deposit on it. But the salesman thought the original buyers might be having some kind of issues. They may have to wave their contract. We decided to leave a check for a deposit in case things went our way. They did. We bought the house.

Not planning on buying anything on that trip I made two big mistakes. Not coming with a buyer’s agent for representation. And thinking I wouldn’t need a home inspection for new construction. The buyer’s agent gets paid by the seller so it doesn’t cost you anything, and you’re working with a licensed professional who is supposed to be on your side. And I was excited about the property, and I was just plain naïve about the quality of production built new homes in Florida. I dedicated a separate page just to the issues I found later after buying the property. Click here.

I spent hours on the real estate websites looking at many different locations and lot sizes, and checking satellite views of the surrounding areas. I looked at websites of builders in the area, emailed a couple, and had a few phone calls. I even got in touch with an independent home design firm, but that turned out to be an expensive proposition when considering a moderately priced project. If I was to build, it would have to be the custom home builders design, maybe with some tweaks.

It was a two day trip. Most of the first day and part of the second day was going to be looking at lots from the northeast of Orlando down to the southeast of the city. Part of the second day was reserved for moderately priced new home developments. The Orlando metro area is constantly expanding outwards. Most of the new construction was southeast of the airport as far down as the Saint Cloud area.

Seeing what the big developers were doing in home design was part of the trip. I wanted to looks at styles, floor plan features, and design cues before I started working with a builder. I had already looked at a lot of different development’s floor plans online as part of figuring out what I wanted in a home. Most of the moderately priced designs no longer have a powder room for guests. I just think it is awkward to let someone into my personal space to make a nature call. And the yards seemed to be very small. You could stand on the property line and spit on your neighbor’s house. So there wasn’t much I was interested in.

Those kinds of surveys start at around $2,000 or $3,000. They look for what can be classified as wetlands which most available raw land in Florida will have to some degree. That doesn’t necessarily mean standing or flowing water. In part they consider elevation and depressions in the ground, and plant and soil types to decide what is classified as wetlands

If some of the ground to be cleared and leveled is deemed to be wetlands you have to pay mitigation fees. I was told that at the time they were $15,000 per 1/4 acre. Not cheap if you are looking at half an acre or more. So you should absolutely get the environmental survey done before signing an agreement of sale, or at least have a contingency in the agreement to give you an out if it’s going to cost too much to develop the ground.

The bottom line is for one potential building lot you’re going to spend a couple thousand dollars before you even know if you want to buy the lot. Unless you can find one you like that already had the surveys done, but accordingly that will cost a little more. And a lot more if the mitigation fees have been paid.

Interesting thing here, I think the big developers get around the mitigation fees by aggregating the areas classified as wetlands into ponds. Then not only do they not have to pay those fees (which could be huge for a larger development) but they get to charge a higher lot premium for a “water feature”. This ties in with my opinion that the developers pretty much own the state legislature in Florida because they are one of if not the largest block of political contributors, so the laws get written for their benefit. Again just my opinion, and I may expand on that another time.

We’ve visited the Orlando theme parks many times. But I didn’t want to live in or around the tourist areas. Even though Central Florida roads are pretty nice compared to the Northeast states those crazy lost tourists are no fun to be driving around.

The east side is where more white collar oriented jobs are, as well as the University of Central Florida and a burgeoning tech corridor. This is the area I settled on, because it is between the theme parks and the space coast (I so want to see a major rocket launch!). Also if our children are still with us after college, we want them to be able to get decent jobs without having a long commute.

The next big decision is the type of property. For me it had to be a single family home, or SFH as it is known in real estate. With my wife and I and two young adults we wanted plenty of space and a yard for our dog to run around in.

I really didn’t want to live in a development where the homes are right on top of one another, which is pretty much the way most moderately priced newer developments are built in Florida these days. I wanted a little space. Because of my knees it had to be a single story. And I was hoping for a water view. Not asking too much right?

So I decided to look for a lot to build the home I wanted. Simple right? Well between when the flights, hotel, and rental car were booked and when we were going to fly there that was when I started to find out about the costs for building on an unimproved lot.