So, what’s the next step in actually finding the right property for you?

The largest property search in Florida
WARNING
This site allows you to view nearly all properties presently for sale in Florida. HOWEVER Unlike the UK there are major legal and financial implications of buying or even enquiring about a Florida property from the agent listing it. This point has led many Brits to make a costly and major mistake when buying property in Florida. If you would like further information on any Florida property, contact us for details of vetted independent buyers brokers whose service under the Florida system is not paid by the buyer.

For the British Florida Florida property search portal click here

You can find properties in a number of different ways:

• For Sale board
  
• Agent’s property magazine or newspaper
  
• For Sale by Owner board
  
• Direct from the developer
  
• Newspaper/Magazine adverts in the UK
  
• From a guide book
  
• At an exhibition or seminar
  
• Foreclosure/REO
  
• Do it yourself
  
• With the help of a buyer’s agent
  

There’s only one of these I can really recommend (can you guess which one?) – but let’s take a look at them all briefly for now and then return to them later as required. Forewarned is forearmed as they say!

FOR SALE BOARD

This is a common way to find properties in the UK, but not the best way in Florida. Contacting the vendor or their agent via the details on a sales board potentially ties you into a one-sided deal where all the cards are stacked in favour of the seller. The agent in the middle of such a deal has loyalty only to the seller, leaving you very exposed to risk.

In a situation like this, the seller’s agent potentially stands to earn double their normal commission (I’ll explain why later) – a strong incentive to push through the sale even if they know it’s not right for you.

AGENT’S PROPERTY MAGAZINE OR NEWSPAPER
This is exactly the same as the item above – I do not advise you to contact sales agents directly yourself.

FOR SALE BY OWNER BOARD
Unless for some particular reason you already know the property in question very, very well, this is not a good way to go. Real estate professionals in Florida are heavily regulated, trained and licensed, and have clear responsibilities with regard to fair representation, disclosure etc – all of which you forego if you decide to do a deal direct with the owner.

DIRECT FROM THE DEVELOPER

The key thing to remember here is that everyone involved in selling properties on a development site has only one loyalty – to the developer. They receive strong financial incentives to sell not only properties, but also expensive extras – and may even get paid extra for selling the least attractive plots. This is not a buyer-friendly environment!

Buying “off-plan” in a development that is designed specifically for short-term rentals is not in itself necessarily a bad idea – if you do your homework and everything about the deal stacks up.

However, watch out for developments that have been designed and built specifically with this kind of “sell to the Brits” sales model in mind. These properties can be dressed up to look like an attractive proposition to a naïve foreign buyer, but they may (for example) be a very poor candidate for resale – to better-educated foreign buyers or to local families.

You may be quite happy about the idea of spending a few weeks a year in a purpose built development with no local shops or schools, but you have to think about how that will affect the future resale value. Local families are unlikely to find such developments attractive – not only do they have few amenities, but Florida families do not enjoy living in the middle of rental properties with a constant flow of holidaymakers moving in and out.

… this of course is the reasoning behind the local zoning restrictions that are designed to separate permanent residences from rental properties.

Yes, if you decide to sell, the property may be attractive to other British buyers like you, but bear in mind that the same development company may have built three new developments in the same area by the time you are trying to sell – and are throwing vast marketing budgets behind their efforts to attract buyers to their new developments.

Show Homes
Something else you need to be aware of when buying “off plan” at a development – is the way show homes are handled in Florida. Don’t buy a property on a new development thinking that your home will look like the show house!

We’re used to show homes in the UK being furnished and dressed to look their best, but a Florida show home is more like the cars they show in the TV ads – metallic paint, air conditioning, alloy wheels and a whole range of other extras that might add 30% or more to the price.

You need to be extremely astute and well informed – a formal architectural or building qualification would be useful – to be sure that you understand the relationship between what you see on the plan and in the show home … and what you are buying.

Indeed, many specialists go further and advise British clients against visiting any developments on spec. There are too many stories of Brits being friendly and open with the on-site agents only to find later that they have been verbally signed up for services, or even worse, property!

NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE ADVERTS IN THE UK
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a company’s marketing budget is in proportion to their construction, maintenance, contingency or any other budgets. Indeed, all too often it seems that large marketing budgets are allocated to disguise shortcomings in other areas. In short, don’t believe everything you read!

FROM A GUIDE BOOK
Guide books are a great way to find out about the permanent features of an area – tourist attractions, climate, quality of beaches and so on – but they are not a good way to get your finger on the pulse of what is happening in a specific property market this year or even this month. Things change in the market too quickly for printed guide books of property listings to keep track, and they are rarely updated enough to keep up with the latest trends.

AT AN EXHIBITION OR SEMINAR
It may be convenient to look at Florida properties in a local exhibition centre rather than going to all the trouble of flying across the Atlantic and getting involved in the market, but it is very unlikely to get you a good deal.

Yes, it’s always a good idea to do as much research as you can, and picking up useful information at exhibitions and seminars will help to make you a better-informed buyer – as long as you do enough research to develop snake-oil radar that will prevent you being misled by the smoother operators.

Selling property at a distance is always a high-risk business, and “Florida swampland” is a cliché in America for property that is sold as highly desirable but turns out to be a mosquito-infested swamp. Although you are unlikely to end up buying swampland at a London property seminar these days (unless that’s what you really, really want!), there are modern equivalents that can leave you not getting the best property, mortgage or value for money.

Companies with stands at exhibitions – and even more so those running their own seminars – are virtually always representing a very small number of developments, perhaps only one. Combined with all the additional expenses they have in traveling and marketing overseas, you can imagine the pressure their staff are under to get you signed up and earn them a commission. They certainly don’t have your best interests at heart, so why would you believe anything they tell you?

… especially when you consider they are conveniently operating outside the jurisdiction of the Florida laws that are designed to regulate real estate transactions in the state!

FORECLOSURE/REO PROPERTIES
An entire industry has grown up around promoting foreclosed properties as a cheap way to get property in key areas like Florida.

They are however quite a risky proposition, as they are typically offered with little or no information about their status – and they may well be offered complete with sitting defaulting tenants who have to be evicted by the new owner!

The amount of research required to minimize the risk – and the number of auctions that have to be attended before you might successfully obtain a foreclosed property – make this unsuitable for most UK citizens looking for property in Florida.

“REO” (Real Estate Owned) properties are a category that may be slightly more practical. These properties have been repossessed by the bank or mortgage company, who have taken care of any issues such as existing occupants – to make the property ready for a more conventional sale.

These can be bargains, as the lender is clearly motivated to sell – but they will typically require additional time and money to get them back to good condition, so this must be factored into your thinking.

Finally, the process of actually doing a deal for a REO property can be quite drawn out, as you are dealing typically with a bank department rather than direct with the owner and their agent.

If you find a property that fits your purposes and it turns out that it is REO, it may be worth investigating further, but I wouldn’t recommend British buyers go out expressly looking for foreclosure or REO bargains.

DO IT YOURSELF
With the growth in DIY conveyancing in the UK, it’s understandable that some people are tempted to try this when buying in Florida.

However, the differences between the real estate systems of the two countries – especially the number of different professionals involved in Florida and the layers of federal, state, and potentially county and even city regulation, make this a very risky proposition. Especially when you consider that the most valuable advisor you can have to help you through the process won’t cost you a penny.

WITH THE HELP OF A BUYER’S AGENT
The concept of the “buyer’s agent” is perhaps the most significant difference in the Florida real estate system that British buyers have to understand. It’s so important to the success of your property plans that I’m going to give it a chapter all to itself. Before you read on take a minute to watch this short video.

The largest property search in Florida
WARNING
This site allows you to view nearly all properties presently for sale in Florida. HOWEVER Unlike the UK there are major legal and financial implications of buying or even enquiring about a Florida property from the agent listing it. This point has led many Brits to make a costly and major mistake when buying property in Florida. If you would like further information on any Florida property, contact us for details of vetted independent buyers brokers whose service under the Florida system is not paid by the buyer.

For the British Florida Florida property search portal click here

Buyer’s Agents

WITH THE HELP OF A BUYER’S AGENT
The first thing to understand here is that in Florida, you do not have to trudge around dozens of estate agents to see what properties each of them has on offer.

Virtually every property that is for sale in Florida is listed on a central database system – the Multiple Listing System or MLS - that is available to all Real Estate Agents (Realtors). The MLS can be searched by location, price and other factors to give you access to the whole property stock from the offices of any agent.

Agents work as “seller’s agents” or “buyer’s agents” and here is perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you in this whole book:

You must recruit the services of a buyer’s agent who has good experience working with British buyers.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

The real beauty of a buyer’s agent is that you don’t have to pay them!

The system works by having the seller pay their agent a commission for selling the property – and the seller’s agent shares that commission with the buyer’s agent. The possibility that they might get to keep all the commission is a strong motivation for a seller’s agent to try and get you signed up to a deal without involving your own agent – regardless of how bad a deal it might be for you. That’s why I kept saying earlier that it’s a bad idea to follow up for sale signs, development promotions, property ads and so on – because they will all lead direct to a seller’s agent.

Without a comprehensive understanding of the market, the property system and the modus operandi of these seller’s agents, it is all too easy for an unsuspecting Brit to end up in a deal without even realizing it.

LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
The key difference between the actions of the two agents in a deal – the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent – is where their legal responsibilities lie.

The seller’s agent has a legal responsibility towards their client, and although there are obviously over-arching laws that cover business practices in general, they have no fiduciary duty of care towards you with regard to protecting your interests or giving you any advice.

Once you enter into an agreement with a buyer’s agent however, they have fiduciary duties to you that include things like reasonable care, loyalty, confidentiality and full disclosure.

As you can see, your agent really should be your most trusted advisor when looking for a property. They can give you the benefit of all their experience, they know the local market, they know the legal and financial systems (including all the local variations), they’re legally bound to give you good advice and they don’t cost you anything!

However you must realize that all agents are not the same.

THE RIGHT AGENT FOR YOU
You should be aware that the vast majority of agents in Florida are self-employed. Although some will obviously be in business using their own name as their trading name, most are more likely to be working within one of the very large nationally recognized real estate companies, within a franchise operation, or a local company.

Within these organizations, there is a fierce hierarchy of seniority – a pecking order of real estate agents – that can have serious implications for you as a buyer. For example, if you simply walk in off the street to a real estate office and sign up with an agent there, you will probably be dealing with a fairly junior agent who has to serve his time on the “shop floor” handling what are usually casual enquiries.

This is not the best person to act as your guide through the Florida property system! You are well advised instead to seek out specialized agents beforehand who understand your situation. It is especially important to find an agent to work with who understands the differences between the Florida and UK systems – how else can you expect them to highlight the critical differences where a simple assumption can turn into a costly mistake?

The buyer’s agents we recommend are selected to be your best friend when buying a property in Florida, as they can guide you through the entire purchase process, including opening doors to finance, introducing you to other specialists and guiding you through all the legal processes. We have carefully chosen this important ally so you will reap the benefits in many different ways.