Ocala Real Estate Talk

Posts Tagged ‘ocala rertirement communities’

I always have buyers looking for a retirement home and an item high on their wish list is a nice view.  Most retirement communities are laid out with parallel streets and the homes are back to back. This is especially true of newer communities. If you think about it this makes a lot of sense. The builder gets a maximum number of homes on his land.

There are options for what you’ll see in back of a 55+ home.

1. A house right behind you, which is by far the most common.

2. A house right behind you screened by a buffer of trees or shrubs. In this case you’ll still see you neighbor to some extent

3. A view of woods. You find this in a home located on the outside perimeter of a community.

4. A golf course view. This is a premium lot that adds a great deal to the price of a new home but you do find deals on resales.

Some of your best bets for finding a home with out another home directly in back of you are Oak Run and Ocala Palms. Oak Run isn’t laid out with parallel streets. It is divided into neighborhoods and a lot of homes face a buffer between these neighborhoods. Ocala Palms was set out to maximize the number of golf course lots. There are great prices on homes with golf course frontage in Ocala Palms.

If you’re interested in Ocala 55+ retirement homes then either call me, email me or better yet use my Ocala Dream Home Finder.

Here in Ocala we have the lowest mediam home prices in Florida. We have foreclosures, estate sales and even great prices on traditional sales. I mostly work with buyers and I’ve seen 100′s of such homes.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a big mistake to concentrate on just the price. Buyers don’t think enough about condition.

I think the big 4 are the age of the roof, the AC heat pump unit,  the flooring and the kitchen appliances. When looking at newer foreclosures I’d add landscaping to this list.

The roof. Standard shingles here last about 15 years. Some insurance companies won’t insure a house with a standard shingle roof over 15 years old. Architectural shingles are good for 20 years or so.  The heat of our summers give a roof a real beating.

The AC unit, which in most cases is a heat pump, is harder to judge. An AC guy told me that they can break in 5 years and I’ve seen them 20 years old.

Flooring is really taken for granted. To carpet an entire house, as can be the case in an estate sale or even a newer foreclosure, can cost as much as a roof. For some reason buyers who would walk away from a house with a bad roof will have no problem replacing flooring. Flooring prices vary a lot from builder quality carpet to tile and wood floors.

Kitchen appliances can be 20 years old in an estate sale and missing altogether in many foreclosures. Here again there is a big difference in price between builder quality and top of the line. I do think appliances are at the bottom of the list price wise though.

Landscaping is often totally absent in foreclosures. No shrubs or trees, dead sod in the front of the home and a back yard that never had grass in the first place because builders here for some reason give an amount of sod that won’t cover the whole yard. You don’t over seed a bad lawn here. You rip out the old sod and lay down new sod.  Mature trees and shrubs won’t add anything to an appraisal. However I owned a landscape company and I can tell you an extensive landscape job on the house in an empty field can cost as much as all the four items above combined! Curb appeal is what makes a house a home.

Am I trying to sell more expensive houses? No I just believe too many people are “Penny wise and pound foolish”. I’ve walked out of what at first appeared to be low priced homes and said to my buyers that they couldn’t buy that house cheap enough to make up for all the work it needed.

Horse Topiary photo by Joe Dallorso

Most of the readers of my blog are from outside the Ocala Marion County area. A great way to get to know an area is to read the newspaper. If you’re a younger person you probably think newspapers are like dinosaurs. The reality is that only local newspapers have local news. All the Ocala Marion County newspapers can be read online.

The Ocala Star Banner is Marion County’s daily newspaper. You need to read it daily in order not to miss anything. This is a great source  to get an idea of what different areas of the county are like.

The South Marion Citizen is a great place to find information about the SW corridor retirement communities. If you click on news and then community you’ll fing columns written about the goings on in various retirement communities written by people who there. The South Marion Citizen is a weekly paper.

The Citrus County Chronicle is a weekly paper than covers Dunnellon and west into Citrus County.

The Ocala area also has 2 magazines. That’s pretty extraordinary seeing that Ocala is such a small city. Both magazines are lot nicer in print than online. They are both printed on exceptionally nice glossy paper, in a large format, with great photography.  Even the advertisements have beautiful photography.

Ocala Magazine

Ocala Style

Moving cross country is a huge undertaking. I know, I moved from Maine to Ocala in 2004. You have to do your home work and keeping up on current events is part of the job

Ocala 55+ Community HOA Fee Chart

Sometimes I think buyers want to shop for a 55+ homes here in Ocala by looking for the lowest HOA fees that they can find. Although I think that the wrong approach, I did create this HOA fees chart. Buyers have to look at what you get for your HOA fees and not just the fees themselves.

What do HOA fees cover? Maintaining the common areas such as the club house and pool. Mowing the drainage areas and along any roadways. Any buildings would need to be insured. Trash pick up is almost always included. Basic, and by that I mean very basic, cable TV is often included. Most communities have a management company to over see daily operations. Communities that are gated would need to pay the guard at the gate. Utilities for the clubhouse and entry. I’m sure that you can see that things can add up quickly in these types of communities.

The 55+ retirement communities are not condo’s. You maintain the home like any single family home. Lawn care is not included in HOA fees but every 55+ community has several lawn care companies and prices are cheap do to their volume. Exceptions are On Top of the World which offers total outside maintenance. Summerglen includes lawn mowing in their HOA fee. Oak Run has homes on maintained lots for a $216- per month HOA fee.

The quality of the amenities will vary from one community to another. Newer communities like Stone Creek boast an almost resort style pool, clubhouse and fitness center. While other communities might have more modest amenities do to the communities age or price point.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice.

On Top of the World Ocala Florida

On Top of the World is a huge 55 plus retirement community located in SW Ocala Florida.  Sidney Colen, a visionary Florida builder, purchased the 12,872 acre Circle Square Ranch in 1975 and began to develop On Top of the World in 1982. His son is still building new homes here today.

On Top of the World is unique in Ocala real estate for a couple of reasons. This is a leasehold property which is unusual for our area. This means that you own the house but the lot is leased for 99 years from the time of the first sale.  A buyer also can’t finance more than 80% of the purchase price of their home. Unlike most Ocala 55+ communities all outside maintenance is part of the HOA fees.

In addition to new homes there are quite a few resales here.  Older homes are often attached in groups of 4 to 6 and of concrete block and stucco construction. The newer homes are single detached and also CBS. Sizes range from 1,000 to about 2400 sq ft of living area. Prices start as low as $40,000- and go up to $200,000- for resales.

HOA fees at On Top of the World are high, around $375- per month, because they include all outside maintenance including lawns, painting and roof repair but not replacement as well as property insurance on the building but not the contents or interior. In addition there is a 24 hour guard at the gate and too many amenities to list.

Amenities include the Arbor Club with indoor and outdoor pools and tennis, the Health and Rec Center with a fitness center, racketball, steam room ect. and a craft building with a complete woodworking shop, The Spa Ranch and Fitness Center, a library, a dog park, a bus service for shopping  and the Circle Square Cultural Center. There are 2 golf courses, the Tortoise and Hare and The Links.  Golf, the Ranch Spa and Fitness and the Cultural Center all have fees above and beyond your HOA fee.

On Top of the World is also a golf cart community which means you can drive your cart down the street. You can even access 2 grocery stores, small shops and a few restaurants with your golf cart.

Update 1/10/11 : There were 75 resales in On Top of the World between 6/1/10 and 12/21/10 from $23,000- (handyman special) and $164,000-. There were 3 foreclosures and 1 short sale. HOA fees are now $388- per month in most areas.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in On Top of the World fill out my Dream Home Finder, call me or send me an email.

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Quail Meadow

Quail Meadow is a 55 plus retirement community located in NW Ocala Florida. This is a community that was built over a fairly long period of time. There are both frame and vinyl homes from the late 1980′s to block and stucco homes just a few years old. Prices vary a lot too, from $100,000- to the mid $200′s. Homes range from 1200 to 2500 sq ft of living area. Quail Meadow is not gated but does have a very nice clubhouse and pool. HOA fees are a minimal $25- per month. Quail Meadow is convenient to grocery stores but you’d have to drive to Ocala or down to SR 200 for other shopping and restaurants.

Update 1/1/11 : There were 11 sales in Quail Meadow between 6/1/10 and 12/31/10 from $75,000- to $150,000-. There was 1 foreclosure and 2 short sales. HOA fees remain far and away the lowest of any 55+ community in the area.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Quail Meadow fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder, call me or send me an email. I can set you up a Listing Cart on the Ocala MLS for Quail Meadow homes.

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Indigo East

Indigo East is a newer part of On Top of the World communities. It is located just north of SR 200 and is close to shopping restaurants and health care.  Homes in Indigo East are all of concrete block and stucco construction and range in size from around 1200 sq ft of living area to a little over 2,000.  Prices are in the $100-200,000- range with most in the middle. Indigo East has an electronic gate that works on a bar code but not a person in a guard house at the gate. There is a nice clubhouse and pool. HOA fees are about $130- per month and include maintenance of the common areas, clubhouse, curbside trash pickup, basic cable and high speed internet as well as discounted rates at the Candler Hills golf course and Circle Square Commons.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Indigo East fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder , call me or send me an email. I will set you up a Listing Cart on the Ocala MLS for homes in Indigo East.

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Marco Polo Village 55 plus

Marco Polo Village 55 plus is a different kind of Ocala retirement community.  It is not gated and there is no clubhouse or other amenities. The homes are concrete block with stucco and are located on large 1/2 to 3/4 acre lots. Marco Polo 55 plus is basically a neighborhood of single family homes with deed restrictions that make it 55 plus. There is also a Marco Polo Village that is not 55 plus so it can be confusing if you don’t know the area. There is a minimal yearly HOA fee to cover common areas maintenance. Marco Polo 55 plus is located just off SR 200 and close to anything that you might want. Homes here are large and of high quality. Houses have been selling in 2009 for around $200,000- and below.

Marco Polo 55+ seldom has more than 2 or 3 active listings and there were only 4 sales in 2010. There are similar non 55+ neighborhoods nearby. Quail Meadow is some what similar, 55+ single family homes on 1/4 acre lots.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Marco Polo Village 55+ fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder, call me or send an email.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice.

I work with a lot of first time buyers and out of state buyers and as we look at homes I try and point out things that make one house better than others. Here are some things that I think make for a quality home here in Ocala.

CBS or concrete block and stucco construction. Everything else is considered inferior do to the termites. CBS homes can get termites because there is wood framing in the walls and roof but CBS is considered the best material and commands a higher price than frame house. Read the rest of this entry »