Quote:
Originally Posted by gillygirl
Think carefully about Florida. Your auto insurance will be double and your home owners insurance will be incredibly expensive. When I sold my 1300 sq ft manufactured home in the Orlando area in September 2023, my next insurance bill was $4000. That’s after putting a new roof on after Hurricane Ian. Since I was selling, I didn’t shop around and probably could have gotten something lower, but not by much. You also have to be careful of your carrier, but there’s not a lot of choice as carriers have fled Florida in recent years. My neighbors also needed a new roof after Ian, and got $800. I got $6000. Our roofs were the same age.
If you could find a place that’s not in an HOA/COA, that would be ideal. While there’s a limit to how much fees can increase on a yearly basis, insurance and reserves are not included in that. The property I was helping to manage went up 25% on their fees after Hurricane Ian. Plus there can be the hassle of rules to be followed.
Your morning coffee in the kayak wouldn’t be as relaxing as you keep your eye out for gators and water moccasins.
Personally, I found Florida to be boring in many respects. But the summertime thunderstorms are awesome.
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Thank you! All excellent points! You keep us thinking and we question ourselves everyday. We've been wondering about the trade off for cold winters versus hot summers. As mentioned in this thread everyone stays in their house in the summer but we're doing that here this winter. Our fireplace keeps us cozy and I suppose A/C works in the summer.
We do love our cottage and remodeled it just for us. So much so that we were even considering duplicating it in Florida. I've always said to my wife "I can't believe we live here." Maybe we should just count our blessings and leave well enough alone.
Lakefront living is good. We didn't mean to hijack this thread.
The original question was should you buy a lakefront home in the winter? My answer would be anytime and anyplace you like. We purchased here in November of 1998. When driving by it looked like a dump. We saw inside and bought it on the spot. It was only seasonal at the time and the seller winterized it then with us. In the spring we did the normal stuff for an older cottage. Windows, siding, etc. We remodeled 6 years ago and moved in full-time. So if you find the right spot just jump on it. Contractors are buying up waterfront places and just knocking them down to build multi-million dollar mansions. The way we see things going that's all there's going to be on Winnipesaukee in the not so distant future.