Before my wife and I became Florida villa owners, we spent many months investigating if and where we should buy an investment property. Should the villa have a pool and / or spa, should it be close to Disney World, how many bedrooms and bathrooms should it have ?  How will I obtain a mortgage and what type of mortgage is best ?  These are just a small sample of the many questions that you will need answered before taking that final step of buying your dream Florida villa.

Florida is extremely well known for its large and beautifully designed properties, year round sunshine, many attractions, exquisite beaches and inexpensive lifestyle. We wanted a holiday home that we could enjoy with our family and also rent out to help cover the cost of the mortgage.

After many months of trawling the internet, speaking to various property companies and existing Florida villa owners we were ready to purchase our very own Disney World rental home.  We needed to select a good development area, choose our own plot and decide on the style of the property to be built.  We eventually decided on a single storey home in Kissimmee.  Once it was completed, it was everything we dreamed it would be.

You have already taken the first step toward purchasing your home by reading this article.  Though buying a property in Florida is relatively uncomplicated we still hear many stories of people who have had problems in one way or another.

Please don’t forget that the experience of buying your Florida villa should be pleasurable and exciting.  From visiting the various developments, choosing the plot and house that is right for you to finally making the purchase.

Location, location, location

The next step to buying your home requires some ground work to be done by yourself prior to arriving in Florida.  Firstly decide where you want to buy. Do you want the villa to be close to Orlando’s many theme and water park attractions or do you prefer to be near the beaches? If you prefer the beaches, do you prefer the Gulf Coast or the Atlantic Coast. 

Whichever you decide, as with all investment properties location is very important. Once you have decided on your location, you must decide the type of property, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, pool, etc. Do you want to be on a small development or larger resort development, do you want a gated or non gated community.

And last but not least what is your budget.

Do You Need To Rent Your Property ?

This is a very important question as it will determine where you can buy. Only certain communities in Orlando are zoned for STR (Short Term Rental).  Please do not accept any verbal guarantees from salespeople regarding STR without checking in the covenants and restrictions of the developer.

One of the most important decisions you will make is choosing the development which suits your needs best. Remember not all developments allow short term rental and if you intend to rent your property this is the single most important item you must consider.

Remember the developers’ agent is acting on behalf of the builder, and is bound by law to obtain the best possible deal for the builder, not for you. Some builders and management companies offer guaranteed rental programs. These include a minimum income for an agreed period (usually 12 months) or alternatively, a minimum number of weeks booked for the year. What you are not told however is what the income will be for those weeks or what the agent will rent your property out for (for example, you may receive £350 per week but the agent is renting it out for £450 per week).

We strongly advise that if you decide not to secure rentals for the property yourself, then you thoroughly investigate any proposals presented to you from Management Companies / Letting Agents.

Our advice is that if you have the time, you market the villa yourself.  This allows you to maximise your income and makes it easier to reach that magical break even point of income versus expenditure. If we are being honest this can be quite time consuming but well worth the effort when the bookings start to come in. If you go down this route you will have to consider the costs involved in marketing your villa.

Costs could include newspaper / magazine advertising, creating your own website, listing your villa on other websites and other incidentals like business cards, flyers etc. 

Inspection Trips

We would highly recommend you look at the possibility of an inspection trip.  This can be purely for the purpose of choosing your dream home or can be combined with a holiday / vacation.

While there are benefits to both scenarios if you have limited time available and are there, purely with the inspection of properties in mind, then you are more focussed on the job in hand. However, we would recommend an absolute minimum of 4 days for an inspection visit. You will need to meet up with the Realtor to view several villas and communities, spend a few sleepless nights deciding on which property to purchase, sign contracts with the builders, pay the deposit, choose the colour of the house etc.  Decide on the shape and size of the pool and type of pool tiles, open a bank account and look at some of the furniture packages that are available. A very hectic but rewarding few days.

Alternatively If you can spare more time, it will give you extra opportunities to view a few more developments over a longer period, then take a few days to contemplate and narrow your choice down to a couple of villas before finally viewing your favourites again.

You will also have more time to investigate the local area and amenities such as shops, restaurants, banks and supermarkets to satisfy yourself the area has what you and your guests will be happy with.

Its now time to make your final decision. Should you buy a new home or a resale.

Should you decide to have your dream home newly built, you will then sign a contract with your chosen builder, leave your deposit and if you haven’t already done so open a bank account and arrange a mortgage quotation.

If you decide to purchase a resale home, then under Florida law, all that is required for a legally binding sales contract is a signed written agreement plus good faith deposit. It is therefore possible to ‘Exchange Contracts’ straight away with a Seller and virtually eliminate any possibility of your chosen property being sold elsewhere. Most written Sales contracts are conditional and you will have ample time to arrange financing, survey the property and approve legal work. If your loan is denied or the house does not pass inspection, you may withdraw without penalty. There can be any number of conditions in the contract but essentially all elements of the sale should be in writing to avoid dispute.

We would highly recommend that you use the services of a state registered realtor whether you are buying new or resale. In the U.K. we use estate agents who are normally employed by the house owner to find a buyer for their property. They then work with both the buyer and seller to agree a deal that is suitable to both. The downfall of this system is that the estate agent may withhold information about the buyer or seller which may be beneficial to the other despite the seller paying their fee. In Florida the realtor you choose can only work on your behalf and is legally bound to act in your best interest disclosing information such as - is the property worth the asking price - are there similar properties available at a better price - are there any known future developments that may affect the value of the property.

Mortgages

Many British citizens who buy a holiday home in Florida, are unsure whether to arrange a US or UK mortgage.

Most US mortgages enable you to lock into a fixed rate mortgage for up to 30 years.  In our opinion, this is the best way forward as you will always know what your monthly mortgage outgoings will be – there will not be any interest rate increases.  The only drawback is that exchange rate fluctuations will affect how many dollars you get to the £ when you transfer money over to your US bank account.  However, if you keep an eye on the rates and transfer money at the correct time, these fluctuations will not have a significant effect on your expenditure.

A UK mortgage can be arranged through several companies dealing with homes in Florida and usually offer variable rate mortgages closely linked to our own bank base rate – usually around 1.5% above base rate.  They do offer a fixed rate but usually for a maximum of 3 years.  The issue with this type of mortgage is that your repayments are always subject to interest rate increases.  Remember that if your mortgage payments increase, you cannot increase your weekly rental prices.  The upside is that your repayments are not subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

Management

Once you have purchased your Florida vacation villa, whether you intend to use it for your own personal use, or for short term rental purposes, you will most definitely need to employ the services of a reputable management company to look after your investment. In this section our aim is to advise you on the do’s and don’ts of management in Florida.

Which Type Of Management Company Should I Choose ?

The simple answer to the question above is really down to individual circumstances. In Orlando there are literally hundreds of management companies offering their services to villa owners. They vary from the very large companies with hundreds of homes on their books to the small husband and wife teams with just a few homes. Our advice, is that you look into which type of Management Company suits your personal needs and aspirations for your villa, speak to at least 3 companies and make you final decision from there.  If possible obtain recommendations from current villa owners who deal with the proposed Management Company.

What Should I Expect From My Management Company ?

Lawn maintenance, villa cleaning and inspection, pool maintenance, villa maintenance, pest control and perhaps bill payment facility

Dealing With Licencing Issues

All Florida vacation villa owners who intend to rent their villa for short term rental purposes must be properly licensed with Department of Regulation, divisions of hotels and restaurants and a Florida state agency. Before the licence is issued the property will be inspected by a Florida state agency, this will cost in the region of $150 for a single family home.

Taxes

In addition to the property taxes that every homeowner has to pay, an additional tax based on the gross rents received must be collected for any rentals of 180 days or less. This is made up of 5 or 6% Tourist Development or Resort Tax plus 6 to 7% State of Florida Sales Tax.

Therefore, a total of around 11% to 13% of gross rentals received is to be paid in State and County Taxes.  Normally these taxes are charged on top of the rents and paid by the tenants - much the same as would take place with a hotel or motel. 

However, for our homes, we include the taxes within the price we quote so that the potential guest does not receive any nasty surprises when the final rental cost is calculated.

Taxes that are collected from rental income must be submitted to the appropriate agencies on a monthly basis by the 20th of the following month, in compliance with the law. In other words, rental income received in August must be paid by the 20th of September.  By paying these taxes, you are assured that you are properly registered for State and County Tax.  It is the responsibility of the owner to declare the rental income achieved on Owner Bookings and to pay the relevant tourist tax. If your Management Company has made bookings on your behalf and taken the rental income, then it is their responsibility to ensure all taxes are paid to the relevant authorities.  However, you need to check this happens as any default on payment is YOUR responsibility.  For this reason, my wife and I pay all taxes for our properties – once again enabling us to keep strict control of our finances.

We went out for a 3 week holiday and didn’t have the slightest idea where to begin and having 2 young children with us didn’t help so we came home and a couple of years later happened to see an advert for a Florida property show in York. That was near enough so off we went, we came back armed with lots of information and later that year arranged to fly out without the kids to have a proper look.

We stayed on the Manors North at Westridge and ended up buying the identical house off-plan on the Manors south which at that time was all sand! The location was ideal for us, close to the shops and not too far from Disney world, of course there is a lot more along the US27 now.

We realised that we wanted a home with a west or south facing pool, not overlooked and not adjacent to the highway and because we bought off plan we were able to choose our lot, albeit at a premium but it was worth it.

Then came a whirlwind round of choosing carpets, tiles, furniture, shape of the pool, colour of appliances and what seemed like a thousand choices to make in that one short week. We also chose to have a 2nd en-suite bathroom instead of a utility room and patio doors in the master bedroom.

Then came a fairly stressful few months waiting for the house to be finished and taking a few tentative bookings on the strength of a completion date. We finally completed in September 2000 and nothing can compare to the feeling of owning your own, spanking brand new home in the Sunshine state.

It’s not all been plain sailing and everytime we go we replenish, re-stock, replace, to keep the house in mint condition. All in all it’s worth it and we still get that same great feeling as we walk in through our own front door.

February

New Year family decision to be made; put a lump sum into a pension fund or invest in an overseas property?  Er hello!  For me, it’s like choosing between a date with George Clooney or Gordon Brown!!  It’s a no-brainer.  Overseas here we come!

March

Attend Overseas Property Exhibition and before I know it, book an eight-day Exploration Trip to Florida.  I drive home and deliver the news to my husband that he’s off to Florida.

April

BIG discussions/arguments about who should go.  Husband is adamant it should be me and he should stay take the easy route and stay at home with our girls!  Easy – PAH!  Little does he know.  I’m freaking out about the whole idea.  I’ve never even spent a night away from the family – let alone eight nights, 4,500 miles away.

8th May

Departure day.  Try to be very grown up but collapse in a crying heap once through Security.  Not so grown up!  Calm myself down with some Duty Free therapy.

Spend flight showing everyone photos of my girls.  Airline staff very sympathetic to a point, then just keep me quiet with copious amount of gin and tonic!

Land at Orlando and meet my Guide who’s built like Mr T from the A Team called Rocky…only in America!  He has five girls of his own - I think we are going to get on well.

Day One

An early 8am start and spend 10 hours viewing properties around Orlando.  I’m constantly surrounded by Disney paraphernalia which makes me miss my girls even more.  I want to go home.

Day Three

With no joy in Orlando we head to the beautiful Gulf Coast.  With jaw-dropping beaches and amazing scenery, it’s a real breath of fresh air. We arrive in an area called Rotonda, nestled between Sarasota and Naples – it’s stunning.

Introduced to a company who build homes from scratch. 

I would be in sole charge of deciding:-

Location; golf course, woodland or water front views?

Number of bedrooms; 3, 4 or more?

Design and layout;  open plan, country style, formal/informal areas etc?

Exterior & interior finishings; enough home style encyclopaedias to wade through it made the entire back catalogue of Next Directories look like a light read!

For a control freak like me, I’m in heaven.

12th May 2006

Our wedding anniversary.  Wake up with my emotions colliding; I’m missing my husband, I’m excited that we’ve decided to build our dream home, I’m nervous about signing the paperwork and totally scared about how much I’m about to commit to.  This calls for Rescue Remedy – preferably intravenously!

Seeing the beautiful sunrise, I’m calm again.  I’ve found a wonderful plot of land, overlooking the tranquil waterway and chosen a beautiful villa.  It’s going to be perfect.  Later that day, I sign the deal, open a bottle of wine and ring home for a verbal hug.

16th May

Arrive home.  If I thought the hard bit was over, I had little idea of what lay ahead for the next 15 months.  Maybe it’s the heat but everyone has a “mañana, mañana” attitude which drives me crazy.

6th October

Finally the builders break ground.  Any longer and it may have broken our marriage!

November

Money for the build is rushing out of our bank faster than pensioners from Northern Rock. We pray for a hurricane-free season.

I start working on our website to advertise the villa. 

www.gloriousgulfvilla.com is born – virtually of course although it’s starting to feel like my third child. 

December-

Trying to compare monthly update photos from the site is like playing Spot the Difference.  Little progress is being made.

Almost every week a new challenge or dilemma arrives sucking up precious family time quicker than Great Uncle Dyson. 

Sleepless nights, frantic phone calls and demanding emails are now a daily feature.  Trying to juggle running a home, being Mum to two girls under five and being a great wife leaves me feeling exhausted.  This is definitely aging me. 

I constantly ask myself “Why did we think it would easy to build a house 4500 miles away?”  I feel totally out of control being so far away from the build but I have to plough on regardless.  The list of people and jobs that I have to manage and juggle is endless from builders and banks to County offices, to interior designers and landscape gardeners.  Honestly, anyone would think it was their house?!  We may all speak the same language but they may as well be speaking Cantonese!

2007

January

Now the fun starts.  I’m asked to choose everything from the roof colour, to the size & design of our pool.  Most people would find this level of detail a nightmare – fortunately I love it.  However, what I quickly realise is my husband doesn’t share my passion.  Being a Virgo, I’m surprised with his lack of interest.  Normally, he’s all over detail like a rash.  With his eyes glazing over before I even open my mouth he assures me that I have his full trust and I should make decisions on behalf of the family.  GULP! As if the pressure wasn’t massive already, I feel like it’s just gone up a few notches!

May

We always had May in mind as a month in which the villa would be built and we would all go out to visit but it’s no-where near ready.

July

After what seems a life-time of waiting, we get the news - the house is finally built.  We all sigh a huge sigh of relief.  All we need now are some renters through the door.  I feel more sleepless nights coming on!

16th October

We arrive in Rotonda to admire the fruits of our labour.

I feel sick with a mixture of excitement, apprehension and tiredness.  The final photos we’ve seen look good but it’s going to be so different seeing it for real.

Oh my God, what if we hate it?

I feel as though I’ve been holding my breath since we landed so it’s not surprising when I nearly faint as we walk through the door…

Glorious Gulf Villa is totally amazing.  Everywhere I look I see things that I love especially the wonderful four-poster bed!  It’s a real home-from-home.  The girls are most impressed to have their very own swimming pool

My husband looks at me with new found admiration.  I can’t believe my eyes.  I feel like I’m dreaming.  I’m half expecting someone to put a blanket round my shoulders and hang a medal around my neck as it feels like I’ve just completed the London Marathon!  Instead, in a terribly British manner, my husband makes me a cup of tea and puts me to bed for a lie down to recover.

The journey has been long and emotional.  My knowledge of house building has of course increased but more importantly I’ve learnt so much about myself.  I’ve definitely earned a few brownie points from my family but I don’t think anyone really understands just how much this project has taken out of me.

In Summary

Am I proud of the end result – Yes!

Would I do it again – No!

Is our marriage still in-tact – Just!

Over the years we have only found one effective solution. As soon as we get home, unpack, go through the post and maybe catch up on a little sleep, we just have to logon to Expedia and arrange the next trip! Knowing that there is more Florida sunshine on the horizon helps us cope with the English weather. It really is an addiction. We then break the calendar up into the relevant number of weeks (always sounds better than months) and ‘sleeps’, and start to count down :-) This little family ritual keeps us – mostly – sane.

As the years have gone by we find ourselves needing to do less and less. This is a good thing. We don’t need to rush round every park; we have no quota to reach. The children by and large are happy just to live in the pool – coming from the UK, it is such a rarity for them to have the weather and the facility to do this. If we can get them out of the pool by about 1pm, we can have a light lunch, let them chill in front of the TV for an hour or so and then we can go out to a park (preferably one that we have annual passes for!) in the later afternoon as the parts start to empty and the temperature starts to drop a little.

If we don’t fancy a park then we will do our second favourite thing in Florida – eat! For as long as the dollar stays at almost $2 to £1 then we can justify eating out again and again. I know it sounds both  extravagant and lazy, but there is such value at places like Bob Evans and Perkins that we cannot help ourselves! As long as we point the children towards the healthier options (and finding meals with good servings of fruit and vegetables is getting much easier) then we have few qualms about eating out. We still find it a little weird to find carrots, corn and even broccoli sweetened and glazed with honey, but it is a small price to pay.  

As I write, we have just returned from 2 weeks ‘quality r&r’ at our villa. True to form, we are counting down and – fantastically – we have just 91 sleeps until we return!

I had been recommended to see a Realtor by a friend and so had arranged to meet him on the Monday morning after arriving in Orlando the Saturday evening.

I met him at his office where he engaged me about the area and general process of purchasing a home.  Everything was explained easily and no jargon was used so when I felt comfortable with the process ahead of me we then began to discuss property. 

I had previously been in contact from the UK where I had given a list of my requirements in a home, so that made for a good starting point.  Realtors in the UK not only have their own registered properties available for purchase but they can also access the MLS (multiple listing service) which is a listing of all properties for sale with all registered realtors.

He had prepared the information on half a dozen properties in different communities for us to view, some being on his books and some not.  We set off in his car to view for the remainder of the day with me reading and re-reading each property detail to try and prepare myself beforehand.

Some of the communities were gated and some were not.  He’d previously obtained all gate and property codes which allowed us access.  Properties are either entered via a coded entry pad on the front door or via a key box attached somewhere on the outside of the property also with a keypad to release the key, so gaining entry was never a problem. 

I was not prepared for how beautiful some of the properties were.  Some were lovely from the outside and some were nicer from the inside.  Some had overlooked pools and some had a view of a lake.  The overall size of some was unbelievable compared to the usual measurements in the UK. 

I took lots of photographs of those that had the attributes I was looking for.  However it was very difficult to weed-out those that were beautiful but not practical and I desperately tried to work with my head and not my heart.  My focus was a long-term project, one for retirement for myself and my partner, but in the short term had to be a good rental to “pay for itself” in the meantime.

I took this trip by myself because it was more practical than taking the whole family, apart from the cost, there was the time issue too.  The children would have wanted to visit the parks rather than view properties, and we felt that it would not be a focused week just concentrating on the job in hand. 

So in the evenings, my time was taken up by emailing the photographs of the properties that were under consideration to my partner back in the UK which subsequently followed with a long discussion on the telephone about our thoughts.

After three days of searching and occasionally returning to a few previously viewed properties, I finally came to a decision, so we put in an offer a fair way off the asking price, but it had been available for quite a while.  With a little bartering, we finally managed to reach an agreeable price which then instigated a meeting with a mortgage broker.  He was recommended by my realtor and provided me with all the information I needed in lay-mans terms regarding obtaining a mortgage.  It wasn’t important that my partner was not accompanying me at the time as any signatures required from him could be obtained on my return to the UK

A couple of short meetings over the next day or so with both the realtor and the mortgage broker pretty much wrapped it up for my purchase and it left me with some time to discover a little bit of  Orlando and the locale.

On returning home, during the subsequent weeks, we had occasional paperwork to complete and return to the US but with just a phone call, it was collected by courier.  The three of us kept in constant contact via email and occasional phone calls and I was updated on the situation every couple of days. 

Just getting into May and finally we became the proud new owners of a beautiful 4 bed/4 bath property in the West Haven community of Davenport.

The property was already a rental and we happily took over the whole situation from its current Management Company together with any bookings for the rest of the year.

So after months and months of just being able to remind myself with photographs of the beautiful house that I’d bought for myself and my family, we all took a trip out there just after Christmas 07.

I was a little nervous as we drove into the gated community, just wondering what my partner was going to think about seeing it “for real”.  But there was no need; he loved the entrance, the street and the property itself.  We spent 9 days visiting the parks, traveling around parts of Florida and best of all just living in our home.  We had intentions of buying a few items for it and spent the last couple of days putting in some finishing touches.  I took lots of lovely photos for memories and best of all to use on my new website.

So all in all it was a fabulous journey, relatively painless but thoroughly enjoyable especially on my part, at least I was the one who got to do the trip in the first place!  We have a successful rental business and a good relationship with the management company and between myself and them business is booming.

Wish I could do it all over again!!