Ocala 55 plus retirement communities in and around the Ocala Marion county Florida area with images, prices, amenities and HOA fees.

Golf is never included in the HOA fees

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Candler Hills golf course shows sand traps

Candler Hills Golf Course

HOA fees do not include golf in Ocala area golf course communities. Buyers who don’t play golf often are concerned that they might be paying for a golf course that they wouldn’t use. While buyers who do golf sometimes expect that golf is included in their HOA fee. Here in Ocala golf is not included in the HOA fees of any community that I’m aware of.

Part of The Villages is in southern Marion County and they do have free golf on their 9 hole executive courses. I don’t work down there and don’t consider it part of the Ocala area.

Golf fees vary from community to community. The Ocala Golf Course Communities page of my web site has links to most courses associated with golf course communities.

If you’re interested in Ocala Golf Communities call me, email me or use my Ocala Dream Home Finder and put golf course communities in the special desires box. I’ll set you up a Listing Cart for golf course communities.  BTW I can also search on homes with golf course frontage.

Below is my Google map of Ocala Golf course communities. Not all the golf communities on my map are 55+ and several don’t have a blog profile yet.

 

It’s termite swarm season here in Ocala

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Its termite swarm season again here in Ocala. As the weather warms up termites go out and look for a new home. You do not want that new home to be yours.

Termites cause $700,000,000.00 in damage each year here in Florida. Despite this scary statistic about half the homes in Florida have no form of protection.

There are 2 types of termites, subterranean and dry wood. The subterranean variety is considered the worst because they have much larger colonies and thus eat more wood. Obvious from the name they live in the ground and prefer moist conditions and wood. The subterranean termites enter your house through a sort of tube that connects their colony to the food source. Dry wood termites like dry wood, like the rafters in your attic. They have much smaller colonies and are harder to detect.

The University of Florida has a great web site dedicated to termites with loads of information and great color images. Take a good look at the pictures and so you can identify the little buggers if you see one.

 

There are several warning signs of a termite problem.

1. Little black winged insects about 1/4″ long that are attracted to lights at night.

2. Wings on your window sills and in spider webs.

3. Wood pellets, smaller than a grain of rice that is 6 sided when viewed under a magnifying glass. Yes, these are termite droppings.

4. Mud tubes look like mud caked to the side of a house and are actually engineered by industrious termites to create access to your house and their food supply.

There are several things you can easily do to avoid termite problems.

1. Have a termite inspection.

2. Keep fire wood piles well away from the house.

3. Water is your enemy and a termite’s friend. Check that gutters and down spouts drain away from the house. The same goes for air conditioners.

Termite control is not a do it yourself project. Homeowners should get an annual inspection by a professional. It is essential to have a termite inspection before buying any house in Florida. Although a concrete block house may be preferred, it is no guarantee that you won’t get termites.

Foreclosures in Ocala 55 plus communities

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Buyers seem to be looking for foreclosures in Ocala 55 plus communities. Just before starting this blog post I logged into the MLS and searched on foreclosures. I got 348 hits. When I added 55+ to the search that number went down to 12. As you can see most Ocala area foreclosures are not in the 55+ communities.

Buyers looking for a deal in a 55+ community should also consider estate sales. The unfortunate thing is that there are a lot of vacant homes in the 55+ communities simply because people get old and either pass away or need to go to an assisted living arrangement.  These vacant homes often need to be sold by out of state relatives and can be very good buys and an easier transaction than a foreclosure.

For a list of 55+ foreclosures or 55+ estate sales give me a call, send me an email or use my Dream Home Finder and I’ll set you up a Listing Cart for 55+ estate sales or foreclosures or both. All can be found in the green column to the right of this post.

Ocala 55 plus retirement communities map

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Confused by all the 55+ retirement communities in the Ocala Marion County area? Well I’ve created a Google Map that shows the location of all the significant Ocala 55+ retirement communities. In case you’re not familiar with Google Maps you can zoom in and out, you can move the map around with your mouse and there is an aerial view feature. Click on the blue bubble like place mark to identify the community. In addition to the map below you can go Ocala 55+ Communities Map and save it to your favorites. I also have Ocala  55+ community profiles on my blog site. If you’re interested in seeing listings for 55+ communities check out my Listing Cart service which is a custom MLS search.

Buy now and retire later?

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People are buying 55+ community homes in Ocala now to retire in to in the future. Much to my surprise I’ve been contacted several times now in 2009 by buyers looking to buy a retirement home even though they’re not ready to retire just yet. Think about it, we are in the middle of the most extreme buyers market in anyone’s lifetime. Interest rates are at historical lows with no where to go but up. This is the buying opportunity of a life time. Can you can afford to buy your retirement home now and hold onto your primary home for several years until the market starts back up? This is a scenario of buy low and sell high if there ever was one.