House Hunting in Englewood

Like many of our more recent trips to Mexico, our trip to Florida this year will include opportunities to do some house hunting, re: a possible long term stay arrangement in the sunny south. We did some house hunting today. We viewed five different properties in total but actually only took the time to walk through four of them.

The first property we went to was listed for $339,000. This information was NOT included in the Open House advertisement in the weekend paper. We drove up to it but did not go in. First, we were 30 minutes early. Second, it was not in our budget. Third, we were not impressed by what we did see. The house and large property are located on Gottfried Creek in Englewood. The Creek empties in to Lemon Bay and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Next we went to a relatively-new (built in 2007, still 12 empty units) condo complex on Beach Road in Englewood. This is on Redfish Key off of Lemon Bay. This beautiful 2-bedroom condo was listed for $444,900. Again, way out of our league. It was very nice, though. It had a nice pool. But no yard to speak of and on a very busy roadway in Englewood – the main access to all the beaches. This was one big condo building – 3 floors, 20-plus units ranging in price from $300,000 to $600,000.

Our third property was in a large development on the way to Venice from Englewood. The agent was just opening as we arrived. This was an empty unit in side-by-side duplexes. No yard to speak of. Very nice but not much for Jack to enjoy. This was listed for $169,000. The agent said properties in the development were selling around $165,000. She suggested we consider going up the road to the next property to make a comparison. So we did.

The fourth property was about a mile closer to Venice than property #3. It was a very new development. There were two different floor plans we looked at. One obviously more spacious than the other. They were both nice. We preferred the larger. These properties were in side-by-side duplexes listed at $159,990 and $169,990. Getting more into our league. Another gentleman was also looking at the same time we were. We all agreed that the larger floor plan was much nicer.

The fifth property we looked at was back towards central Englewood...closer to where we are currently staying. It also was a condo development but much older. The unit we looked at had much to commend itself. It was spacious. Had a huge screened lanai that ran the full length of the front of the unit – 32' by 8'. You had entrances in to the lanai from the two bedrooms and the living area. There was a 2-car carport at the back of which was the laundry room/storage area. There was much more yard between units here. There was a swimming pool. New appliances, a lot of work done recently to the unit by the owners. Very nice condo listed at $117,500. The owners were the ones who showed us the unit.  Rob noted that of all the properties we looked at, if we wanted condo living, this would be his preference. It was nice! Maybe we will return in March when Dave and Barb are visiting, that is, if we don't see something else in Fort Lauderdale or Cocoa Beach or Venice which takes our attention.