Ray Peckham Real Estate

Buying and Selling Surfside Condos

Surfside has special regulations

Every area has its own building regulations. You need to know how these restrictions will affect the design of your Surfside home. Issues to consider include zoning, setbacks, rights of way and easements. Most subdivisions have CC&Rs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions). Studies of Surfside demonstrate that these carefully to make sure they are not too restrictive for your needs or create excessive building costs.

Surfside HOME BUYING PITFALLS TO AVOID

Buying your Surfside home whether you are a first time buyer or an ‘Old Pro’ involves legal, financial and emotional considerations. The more you know about the most common buyer mistakes, the more likely you are to avoid them.

Make sure that when you put in an offer on any Surfside home that you have spent time narrowing down just what you are looking for. When the sellers accept your offer, you are involved in a binding contract that could cost you your deposit and other damages should you decide to back out. The opposite scenario, waiting for the 100 % perfect home can be an exercise in futility. With the thousands of variables available in housing, including location, style, size, amenities and condition, perfection is almost always an unreasonable goal.

Surfside Real Estate Cycles

One problem with attempting to time your purchase to the business cycle is that even experts have problems accurately predicting the future economy. Even when they can, the Surfside market does not necessarily move in tandem with the stock market or the economy as a whole. Surfside is a unique situation.

When the economy is doing well, interest rates are generally higher. The result is that fewer people can afford houses, and Surfside is no exception. When the economy slows down, interest rates fall, the "affordability index" moves up and more people can afford houses. The Surfside market will take the lead.

Surfside Disclosure Rule

Tell All is definitely the rule for anyone who is selling Surfside real estate in today’s market. Let the Buyer Beware can easily come back and bite you in a delicate spot—your pocketbook.

Today, those selling a home or any Surfside are expected to disclose all known material defects that are not readily apparent to the buyer. A Material Defect is usually a physical condition that would affect a buyer’s decision to purchase the home or what price to pay for the home. A leaky roof is definitely a Material Defect. If a Surfside seller tries to disguise the leak by painting the interior ceiling and walls without fixing the leak, the truth will come out the next time it rains. Chances are the first call the buyer makes will be to his attorney.

Bitten by the Surfside Home Improvement Bug?

Money isn’t everything however so that if the most important consideration for remaining in your Surfside home happens to be the school where your children attend or the proximity to your work or to a particularly attractive recreational opportunity then remodeling may be the best option. On the other hand, if the idea of having your Surfside house torn up for weeks at a time makes your blood run cold, it really doesn’t matter how much money you might make turning a fixer-upper into a model home. You will be far better off selling the home you have and moving to a home that better fits your needs.

Buying a Surfside Fixer-Upper

Some Surfside investors concentrate on buying fixer-uppers, making repairs and upgrades then selling for a profit. Going with a Surfside fixer-upper can also be a smart way for those who are handy to buy a home in a neighborhood that they might otherwise be unaffordable. Fixer-uppers are a wonderful opportunity for those who simply love to create their space to their own specifications but for whatever reason do not want to start with a vacant lot.

Best to know the extent of the job and whether or not you are up to it before you buy. Some Surfside fixer-uppers simply need cosmetic work such as paint, wallpaper, carpeting and maybe kitchen appliances are fairly easy to estimate the costs for fixing. Surfside homes that need minor structural repairs such as roofing are also fairly easy to cost estimate.