Ask Renee: Finding a community

Hi, Renee Han with Downing Fry Realty. I serve the Southwest Florida marketplace in real estate, and this is a series I call Ask Renee, where I start to tackle some of the more common real estate questions that come up from home buyers and home sellers alike. Today's question is going to be on the buyer side: How do I find the right community? If you're not already familiar with Naples, one of the things you'll find out rather quickly as you're starting your real estate search is there are an abundance of communities, not just in Naples proper but the surrounding areas as well. And it's such a long list that sometimes it can be overwhelming to figure out how you're going to trim that list down to a manageable size so that you can actually start to see homes. Now, when I'm working with a new buyer, I approach every buyer as slightly different. I certainly bring in some of the proven approaches that I've taken in the past, but each buyer is different. Their tolerance for how many homes they want to see can be different. Their tolerance for the broad range of job— not jobs, excuse me, properties might be different. All of those things are different, and after I get to know a buyer, I will really start to zero in on the best approach to help them find their potential shortlist of communities. But what I at least universally say is you've gotta make sure that you've taken the time to understand what the critical areas are to affecting your buying decision, certainly about a home, but even about a community, because as many communities as there are in the greater Naples area As you start to zone in and zero in on the things in a community that are important to you, you'll start to get a shorter and smaller list of what those potential properties are. So I usually start with the question, how do you want to live? What things are important to you? For example, are you a big golfer? Well, that helps because there are specific golf communities. From there, we would dive into Do you want a non-equity type golf arrangement where you're going to have an initiation and that initiation is, is money that you'll never get out of it, but that will be used to allow you to golf for several years? Perhaps you want a bundled golf community, or you may want an equity-based community. All of those things are really important. And again, that's just using an example of golf. I may say, what type of community do you want? In terms of size. Are you looking for something really small and intimate, or do you want to have lots of activities and amenities around you? All of those things are really important. So when you're trying to pick out a community, one of the, the key things you want to do right away is get hooked up with a knowledgeable real estate expert that can really listen to what your needs are and start to synthesize those against the wide array of neighborhoods and communities that are available. Some of the other considerations for choosing a community might be cost, not just the cost of, let's say, golf, as we talked about, but there are cost differences in terms of the HOA fees or condo fees if you're looking for a condo. There are also things like CDDs, which are essentially bonds that at the onset of the development, the builder or developer took out bonds in order to build out some of the infrastructure. Some communities may have those, and those are included in your annual taxes and may be something that affects what communities you're interested in looking at. Others may be amenity packages. Are you a big tennis player? Do you want something with clay tennis courts? Are you, uh, looking for a community with a really active social network? Are you looking for communities where there are higher numbers of children and young families? Are you looking for something close to the beach? Are you okay with pushing out? How important are those things to you? And then there's a piece of it where you have to overlay the home, because certainly in Naples, what's occurred over time is the city was built from the shore out, meaning that you're going to have the age of homes to be somewhat older in some areas of Naples, but as you push out north, south, and east, you may find that your dollar goes a lot further. So you've got to overlay the housing piece of it as you look at communities, and the blend of those two should lead you to a handful of pro— of neighborhoods that you'll then go do a deep dive into. So I always say shop first for your community Then within those short list of communities, go and look at all the properties that could potentially meet your needs. And then if none of those communities and the properties within those communities is meeting your needs, you can broaden your search. But again, you've got to find somewhere to start or you're gonna be overwhelmed and having a hard time making comparisons. A good realtor will help you do all of that and guide you through the process. So that it's not as overwhelming and in fact can oftentimes be very enjoyable. If I can help you find your future home, please don't hesitate to call me. Again, Renee Hahn, Downing Frye Realty, 239-287-2576. Thanks and have a fantastic day.