Are you buying land in Florida?
The Coronavirus has impacted all of our lives in various ways, but if you were planning to buy, you may feel like there was a wrench thrown in your plans. The good news is that our team is here to help! While following the guidance of local, state, and national officials, we are still able to help you buy Florida land.
Precautions We Have Put In Place
We have moved into our home office (it’s not really an office, more of a spare bedroom – but it works!). We practice social distancing and have eliminated any meeting that cannot be done over the phone or via a video call. We are taking this very seriously and are doing everything we can to keep our team safe.
How We Are Able To Serve You
We still offer a number of ways to help you!
First, we are always available via a good old fashioned phone call! We’re happy to learn about your needs, buying goals, and your situation! If you prefer, we are also available to video conference at any time. We can do meetings via Zoom or Facetime! Plus, many documents can be signed remotely via SignNow!
We have also created property tours for each of our properties to help you get a better understanding of the property, important property details, and exact location all without leaving your house! You can see property tours on our YouTube channel. If you’re interested in the property tours, make sure you subscribe to our channel so that you’re the first to know when a new property tour is published!
What You Can Do To Help
If you are buying land in Florida, there are coronavirus protections you should put in place for you and your family. We recommend holding off on seeing land in person or having people in who you live with to come and see it. These things can be done online for the time being until the curve has been flattened and life begins to return to normal.
Try to avoid having outsiders come in to check for utilities or do a survey. However, if there is an emergency and something needs to be repaired, make sure they have protective covering and that you keep your distance. Be sure to sterilize your hands on a regular basis, especially if you come into contact with someone providing you a service.
Washing your hands, disinfecting your house, and practicing social distancing are the best ways to keep you and your family safe. If you feel any sign of illness, stay home and call your doctor immediately!
Use the Time to Prepare Yourself to Buy Florida Land
You can use this time to do your research and prepare yourself to buy Florida land. If you’re planning on buying land in Florida, or are wondering how to buy land in Florida, you need to know a couple of things – specifically the concerns about flood zones and wetlands. When buying land in Florida, flood zones, wetlands, and floodways are something you need to be aware of.
Wetlands are a marsh or swamp-like ecosystem, where the soil is always covered by water.
Technically the entire state of Florida is a flood zone because it’s located below sea level. Obviously there are areas that get more water than others, but in a lot of Florida, you’re going to experience standing water after heavy rainfall. So buying land that’s in a designated flood zone isn’t necessarily a terrible thing.
Flood zones are described by the 1% annual chance of flooding or a 1 in a 100-year flood. There are different zones as described by FEMA. Zone X has the lowest level of risk for flooding, whereas properties in Zone A or Zone AE are considered to have a high risk of flooding.
Floodways describe the watercourse and the adjacent lands that must be preserved to help mitigate flood water and keep the water from reaching a certain height.
You can check out this article to find tools for checking if your potential property is in a wetland, flood zone, or floodway.
Another thing you need to know about buying land in Florida is that in certain parts of the state, you will come across scrub jays. It may look like a cute little bird, but don’t be fooled! This little guy could totally derail any grand plans you have for your property.
If there are scrub jays on your Florida property, you may need to get a special permit before you do any improvements or build on the property. You can check out this article to learn about the free tool for checking if there are scrub jays on your Florida land.
Get To Know Your Florida Property Without Leaving Your House
Along with the virtual property tours we do for all of our properties, you can get to know your property’s characteristics and curves right from your couch.
You can find out the property’s slope and elevation using free online tools like the County’s GIS mapping system and Google Maps or Google Earth. You will need your property’s parcel number (also known as an APN or Assessor’s Parcel Number).
If the County has an online GIS mapping system, you can paste your parcel number in there, and the County’s system will show you where the property is located. It will often have a layer for topography, as well. You can zoom into the map and check out the topography lines to get the elevation of the property. You can also use Google Earth to do this.
Finding the slope of the property online can be a bit more difficult. I have a tutorial with a video walk-through here, I would recommend checking that out if you’re interested in this!
Another cool thing you can check while researching your next Florida property is whether or not the property has utilities. You can do this for free, online and by calling the County’s offices. You’re going to need the property’s parcel number (APN) again here.
This is a good check to do because utilities are not a given. If you’re looking at a more residential lot where you would build a house, closer to a city or town, you have a much greater chance of already having utilities in place.
Either way, it’s good to check the existing utility situation so you know what you’re getting into. Especially if you really want to have utilities at your property, you need to know if there are not any there right now because it can be extremely expensive to have utilities brought in. It might make you change your mind about a property.
I have a tutorial put together showing you how to do this, and how to figure out who to call for utilities. You can find it here.
Don’t Worry – Now is Still a Great Time To Buy Land!
While we might all be going a little stir-crazy at home, there is no reason why things should not move forward if you are buying or selling a house in Florida. Even if you aren’t able to see the land in person, we are more than happy to show it to you virtually via our property tour videos.
By getting the ball rolling now, you will be ahead of the competition when all of this is over. Don’t wait! The competition for real estate once the virus has passed will be fierce!
There are still tons of properties being bought and sold out there, don’t miss out on the opportunities that are out there in front of you just because you are stuck on the couch!
If you want to buy land in Florida, don’t wait! With less competition out there, you may have an opportunity to buy or sell with even better results!
Reach out to us to learn more about how we can help you with a parcel in Florida and what coronavirus precautions we are taking to help buyers and sellers in the area! Contact us today for more info! (313) 349-0434
Are You Looking for More Info?
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Get the FREE Guide and then give us a call at (313) 349-0434 and we’ll discuss how you can easily buy land with little money using our automatic approval owner financing.