suhamilton

My husband and I are sick of the harsh Wisconsin winters are looking into buying a home. We love the gulf coast and have vacationed near Destin but are looking into other areas as well. I will be taking a trip to visit towns/beaches along the gulf to learn more about the different areas and potential places to buy. I'm thinking I'd fly into Ft.Meyers, rent a car, take several days to visit different beaches and areas between there and up to Tampa. Fly from Tampa to Panama City or Destin, rent a car and visit beaches there. I'm still at the early planning phase so no judgment for not having more details. My question is, is there a good real estate agent(s) or agency that would have information about more than one area? Say someone that could give me information about the whole area between Marco Island up to Tampa? Or even an agency that has several realtors that could work together to show me around and give me information about the different locations. It would be nice not to have to meet with a separate realtor in each town I visit. Do you have any advise for taking a road trip along the gulf coast and the best places to visit. I'm looking at north and south of the following: Ft. Meyers, Sarasota, Tampa and between panama city and Destin.

Any info would be greatly appreciated! I've looked through previous posts and havent found much!

PrairieHikerII

If you really want to be warm in the winter, you need to go to Tampa and on south. The avg. Jan. Low is 52 for Tampa but only 43 for Panama City. Someone on another travel forum checked out most of the Gulf towns and then decided to move to Sarasota. They recommend that you live a few months in a place before making the final decision.

Sarasota. It features a vibrant downtown with an equally vibrant bookstore and cafe culture. Attractions include the Selby Botanical Gardens (with 6,000 orchids), Ringling Museum of Art, Circus Museum, and Towles Court Artist Colony. Nearby are lovely powdery white-sand beaches (such as South Lido Park Beach). Bicycle or walk on the Legacy Trail to Venice. Take a wildlife cruise and view dolphins and manatees. There are many nature preserves in the Sarasota County.

janisj

What I'd do is pick one of the towns that interests you and rent a place for 6-12 months and get to know the 'lay of the land'. Take your time exploring all the possible towns, traffic patterns, amenities, shopping, health care centers, etc. During the rental period start the property search for real. I would not try to run all around with various realtors on a short trip in / out - you just couldn't learn enough to make an informed decision.

RoamsAround

As others have pointed out the areas you are considering is extremely large with literally thousands of residential “communities” and hundreds of thousands of homes and condos. It is almost impossible for you to find one RE broker who is familiar with every place. You could deal with one of the major brokers like Sotheby’s or Christie’s who have branch offices in multiple towns/cities in the area but you’ll still be shuttled between different agents as you move from branch to branch (thus defeating your intention to use one broker.

The advice you got to rent a home in the general area you are considering to use as a base while you check out the different communities is spot on. That’s what we did before making the move to SW Florida. You’ll need at least 6 months to scope out which area will best fit your particular needs. Plan your stay for peak season (at least November through April) as that’s the busiest time when the population soars with snowbirds. The rest of the year is completely different in terms of traffic and crowds.

One last comment, be prepared for sticker shock when pricing homes as they can be quite pricey. It’s a seller’s market in this part of the country with pre-owned homes selling for over asking price within days of being listed. New home prices go up every couple of weeks. The community I live in has had 5 different price hikes in the last year. One model that had a base price of around $625,000 two years ago now has a base price of over $1,000,000.

A website you might find useful to research the various towns that interest you is City-Data.com.

Good luck in your search.

suhamilton

I should have added more details about what we are specifically looking for and maybe I should create a new post? We are actually looking to buy a second home on the gulf of Florida so staying in a place for 6 months is not feasible at this point. We are looking for a luxury home right on the beach so I think it reduces the areas that we'd be looking at. This is why I wanted to take a sort of road trip to see what areas we would like and possibly meet with realtors that could point us in the right direction. I have seen houses and areas that I like but again, need to visit them first.

RoamsAround

Luxury homes on the beach in SW Florida start at around $5 million and go up to as high as the traffic will bare. For what it is worth, there are only a handful of non-luxury beach front homes almost all of which have been in the same family for generations. When they sell for $1 or $2 million they get torn down and replaced by mega-mansions. I know of someone who recently purchased a beachfront home in Bonita Springs for about $7 million and tore it down to build a $13 million home. Some people have too much money. You have to be one of them to live beachfront. Beachfront condo apartments are less expensive, think in terms of $2million and up for a 1 bedroom in an older highrise.

If looking for beachfront lucuary, Sotheby’s or Christie’s should be your brokers of choice.

AustinTraveler

Take a look at Gulf Breeze, Florida. It is about an hour west of Destin. You can also find luxury homes on Pensacola Beach, which is on the Gulf side. Gulf Breeze is on the intracoastal waterway on one side and Pensacola Bay on the other. The Gulf is great but takes a bigger hit in hurricanes. Levin Rinke Realty would be a good place to start.

oldemalloy

Go to one of the real estate sites like Zillow and do a search. You can specify your price range, as well as other wants.

suhamilton

Thanks Austin, I will check that one out! I have search Zillow, Realtor.com, etc… I was just hoping to get advice from people that live there that have the personal knowledge and experience.

rtbotts

Pensacola Beach is beautiful and less expensive than Destin and the 30A area. People could not be nicer and there are many things to do in neighboring Gulf Breeze or Pensacola You can make the island as chill or exciting as you wish.