Buying, selling or renting in
Central Florida

Since August 2024, a buyer has to sign a written agreement with their agent before touring homes, and that agreement states the compensation up front. It is negotiable, and it is sometimes covered by the seller and sometimes not. I put the number in front of you before you sign anything, not at the closing table.

Less than most people assume. Conventional loans start around 3% down for qualified first-time buyers, FHA at 3.5%, and VA and USDA can be zero if you qualify. Plan for closing costs on top — typically 2% to 5% of the price. Your lender gives the binding numbers; I make sure you have them before we start looking.

A Community Development District is a bond that paid for the roads, water lines and amenities of a newer community. You repay your share through the annual tax bill, often for twenty to thirty years, and it is separate from the HOA dues that maintain those same amenities. In parts of Horizon West and the newer Lake County communities it is a real monthly line, and it is why two houses at the same price can have very different payments.

Because homeowners insurance in Florida is driven by roof age. Many carriers will not write a policy on a shingle roof past a certain age, or they will write it with a much higher premium. Get an insurance quote during your inspection period, not after — a house you cannot insure at a sane price is a house you cannot afford.

A property tax break on your primary residence in Florida — up to $50,000 off the assessed value, and after the first year it caps how fast your assessment can rise. You file it yourself with the county property appraiser, and the deadline is March 1 of the year after you buy. I remind every client, because forgetting costs a year of it.

Depends on the street, not on the city. In the Davenport and ChampionsGate corridor, zoning and the HOA together decide whether nightly rental is allowed, and two similar houses a mile apart can land on opposite sides of it. We verify zoning and HOA documents before writing an offer on anything you intend to rent short-term.

Then we do not sign it yet. We go through it clause by clause, in English or Spanish, and I will tell you plainly which parts are standard and which are worth pushing back on. For anything that needs a legal opinion rather than an explanation, you want an attorney — and I will say so when we get there.

Yes, and it is not an automated estimate. I pull the closed sales, walk the active competition, and write up what your house does better or worse than each one. It takes me a couple of hours, you get it in writing, and there is no obligation to list with me. If the honest number is lower than you hoped, you still get the honest number.

Everything after the lease is signed: rent collection, repair coordination, periodic inspections with photos, renewals started before the vacancy, the notices the statute requires, an owner statement for your accountant, and the move-out walkthrough with the deposit handled the way Chapter 83 requires. Most owners come to me wanting the whole thing — listing and management as one handoff — but if you only want the tenant placed, that is a normal place to stop.

Yes, and the order matters more than anything else. We map the two closings first — a sale contingency, a post-closing occupancy agreement or a short rental in between are all normal here. What is not normal is figuring it out after one of them is already under contract.