Moving Nationally or Internationally

[Rain Man]

Rankings 26 through 30. It's getting serious now.

Sample houses:

26 – Pueblo (CO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-72104?view=qv

27 – Fort Lauderdale (FL)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-52078?view=qv

28 – Delray Beach (FL)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-32452?view=qv

29 – Amarillo (TX)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-42743?view=qv

30 – Taos (NM)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-55148?view=qv

Summary (in ascending order)

Taos (NM) – My wife is a big fan, and I like it too. You can get a nice house for the money in a charming small town, and it’s a little more affordable overall than Denver. The summers are a little cooler than Denver due to the altitude, but the winters are a wash – notably colder but with only 2/3rd the snow. I think the biggest challenge here is the remoteness. It’s a small town, and to get to Santa Fe you have to go on a really twisty rural highway. That wouldn’t be ideal in the winter. I think this is a romantic pick, but not a practical one.

Amarillo (TX) – This is the opposite of Taos. It’s a practical pick, but not a romantic one. It’s notably more affordable, and you can get a nice house for the money. The summers are a little worse on temperature and humidity, and there’s less snow than Denver but it’s still cold. This is purely a financial play in my book. It’s an option, but I see better gains elsewhere.

Delray Beach (FL) – I know nothing about this place other than seeing it on a “best places to retire” list. We should talk about that sample house, though. That’s pretty epic. I’m assuming that the pool is screened in as opposed to air conditioned, right? Even so, it’s a very, very nice place. There are no winters here, and the summers are more humid than Denver, though only a couple of degrees warmer. My note of caution, though, is that I saw a number of houses on my home tour that require a country club membership that’s really expensive, in some cases $50k to buy in and $10k+ per year. I don’t see that with this house, but I’d definitely want to check. It’s a bit more affordable than Denver.

Fort Lauderdale (FL) – See above. They’re basically right next door to each other. I think I like the Delray house more, but Fort Lauderdale is still nice. And yeah, this Fort Lauderdale house is actually in Delray Beach while the Delray Beach house is actually in a different small city. I'm just looking through the lists when I do the search.

Pueblo (CO) – Pueblo is known as the unhippest town in Colorado, but I think it’s got potential. It’s a decent-sized city with restaurants and stuff, and the house is a good value for the money in a slightly more affordable locale. It only gets half the snow of Denver (a little lower and a little more south), but the winters are slightly colder and the summers are slightly warmer. Not sure it would be worth the trouble to move there.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

28 – Delray Beach (FL)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-32452?view=qv

That many mirrors in the bathroom is a bit.... unsettling.

Maybe the most bang for the buck so far though.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

That many mirrors in the bathroom is a bit.... unsettling.

Maybe the most bang for the buck so far though.

I guess the owner needs to review all angles of him/herself for maximum grooming.

I'm thinking, though, that this house might be a trap. I was worried about required country club memberships and didn't see it in the description, plus it's got a pretty high monthly HOA fee of $895. So I figured that it wasn't one of those properties. But looking a little more closely, it seems to be in a development that's linked to a country club.

The fees are extortionary. This is from a five year old article, so I suspect now you'd have to pay $55,000 up front and then another $12,000 a year in fees. And that's on top of the $895 monthly HOA fee. It's a direct requirement to own the house.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/articl...per%20quarter.

New homeowners must pay a non-refundable $10,000 initiation fee and purchase an equity stake in the club, which currently costs $41,450. The equity stake increases in price by $850 a year, but residents who sell their homes get back 70 percent of the going rate for the equity stake at the time they sell the property.

Residents also must pay yearly for one of three levels of membership: the golf membership, which costs $10,665; the tennis membership ($9,181) or the social membership ($8,439). Each neighborhood association charges its own fees, which range from about $1,200 to $2,000 per quarter. On a monthly basis, residents pay $221 to the club to cover the cost of common area upkeep and of renovations.

So it's a great house and seems like a screaming deal. But I think it's a screaming deal because the developer is pulling a ton of money out of you every year beyond the purchase price, and that drives down the home value. I think I'd need to find a different place in Delray Beach.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I guess the owner needs to review all angles of him/herself for maximum grooming.

I'm thinking, though, that this house might be a trap. I was worried about required country club memberships and didn't see it, plus it's got a pretty high monthly HOA fee of $895. So I figured that it wasn't one of those properties. But looking a little more closely, it seems to be in a development that's linked to a country club.

The fees are extortionary. This is from a five year old article, so I suspect now you'd have to pay $55,000 up front and then another $12,000 a year in fees. And that's on top of the $895 monthly HOA fee. It's a direct requirement to own the house.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/articl...per%20quarter.

New homeowners must pay a non-refundable $10,000 initiation fee and purchase an equity stake in the club, which currently costs $41,450. The equity stake increases in price by $850 a year, but residents who sell their homes get back 70 percent of the going rate for the equity stake at the time they sell the property.

Residents also must pay yearly for one of three levels of membership: the golf membership, which costs $10,665; the tennis membership ($9,181) or the social membership ($8,439). Each neighborhood association charges its own fees, which range from about $1,200 to $2,000 per quarter. On a monthly basis, residents pay $221 to the club to cover the cost of common area upkeep and of renovations.

So it's a great house and seems like a screaming deal. But I think it's a screaming deal because the developer is pulling a ton of money out of you every year beyond the purchase price, and that drives down the home value. I think I'd need to find a different place in Delray Beach.

Holy shit!

Most HOAs are scammy enough.... even if I had that kind of money, I'd really be curious where the hell all of that was going.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Holy shit!

Most HOAs are scammy enough.... even if I had that kind of money, I'd really be curious where the hell all of that was going.

Yeah, no kidding. If you live there for 20 years, you're going to be paying a quarter million dollars or more just to go to the pool and get your lawn mowed. I wouldn't get anywhere near the value that I would be paying.

It seems like these are pretty common in South Florida because I ran across them several times. I thought this wasn't one of them, but after digging a little I'm pretty sure it is.

So I've found four really unusual location-specific hidden fees that are enormous. They don't exist for all properties in those places, but when a place seems like a good deal, you have to look for these things.

1. Hawaii has the leasehold system that essentially destroys your home equity over time.
2. Southern California has land leases where you own the house but not the land and pay a huge monthly rent on the land.
3. South Florida has required country club memberships that include upfront fees and annual fees.
4. Some resort communities like Colorado ski towns list prices, but it's for fractional ownership of 8 or 12 weeks per year. Those are clearly identified in the descriptions, though, even if they're not easily identifiable during the search.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Yeah, no kidding. If you live there for 20 years, you're going to be paying a quarter million dollars or more just to go to the pool and get your lawn mowed. I wouldn't get anywhere near the value that I would be paying.

It seems like these are pretty common in South Florida because I ran across them several times. I thought this wasn't one of them, but after digging a little I'm pretty sure it is.

So I've found four really unusual location-specific hidden fees that are enormous. They don't exist for all properties in those places, but when a place seems like a good deal, you have to look for these things.

1. Hawaii has the leasehold system that essentially destroys your home equity over time.
2. Southern California has land leases where you own the house but not the land and pay a huge monthly rent on the land.
3. South Florida has required country club memberships that include upfront fees and annual fees.
4. Some resort communities like Colorado ski towns list prices, but it's for fractional ownership of 8 or 12 weeks per year. Those are clearly identified in the descriptions, though, even if they're not easily identifiable during the search.

Yeah, the leasehold is a no-go... the price makes more sense now though.

Wasn't aware of the land leases.