Hmm buy a home on the water with dock or buy a boat and cruise.

[videorov]

Going to be selling a home with land and thinking of buying a home on the water with dock and waterway going out from Pine Island Fla area to the Gulf if you want. Could buy a smaller boat and sail out of there. OR buy a larger boat maybe a Catamaran and live on it plus dock and sail it around. Home would be bought free and clear or boat the same. You have taxes on the home going up and you have bottom jobs to do on the boat Have to worry about the home while you are away sailing. Value goes up on the home along with the taxes.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Do what makes you happy. You can’t take either one to the grave.

 

[Cowpokee]

Why not do both? ( Just not at the same time) Buy the boat, sail it around for a while, sell it, then buy the house.
In my opinion, a much better option then to buy the house and always wish you would have gotten the boat.

 

[videorov]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Get back to us after you find out the cost premium of waterfront property in Florida. Then add the mandatory flood insurance. Hint - you can buy a pretty nice boat for that and keep it at a nice marina too.

 

[videorov]

Looking at a few bucks but if you have it not bad price.

 

[ToddS]

You're asking people on the "SAILBOAT Owners" website, not the "Waterfront Home Owners" website... so obviously you're going to get a fairly skewed set of replies based on your audience here. Ask the same question to a bunch of Realtors, and expect a very different answer. That being said, I vote boat... go modest enough that "both" could be achieved eventually.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Looking at $300,000 and no flood insurance, I would own it not the bank free and clear. Property tax around $3500 I know Marinas have gone up over the years. You can get some cheaper around $150,000 if you don't need lots of room and maybe just a place to come back to with the boat.

Not to belabor the point but you might want to do a reality check on those market figures for waterside homes. Even on Pine Island, that's a stretch.

As for flood insurance, it isn't optional if you hope to obtain homeowner's insurance with liability coverage. Not to mention the financial risk - check the history of flooding in that area.

Another consideration is the dock. I think there is one (grandfathered from decades ago) and it's virtually impossible to build one anywhere near there now.

 

[odaydokay]

I always looked at the matter this way: If you don't like your neighbors (boating), it's easy to move away from them. A lot harder when you own a house...............

 

[VanIslandGuy]

Depends if you are retired and how many years are ahead of you.

If you're still working real estate is the better investment as it will appreciate with the market, the boat won't. If you're retired, why put off things if they are on your bucket list? Go sailing for a few years now while fit and healthy and accept that when you come back, you may live a few mores blocks from the beach as opposed to in front of it.

 

[videorov]

Yep that is the price for on the water with even two boat lifts with wide canal out to Pine Island Sound and then out to the Gulf.

I always looked at the matter this way: If you don't like your neighbors (boating), it's easy to move away from them. A lot harder when you own a house...............

That is true................

 

[videorov]

The prices can be around $500,000 for good home to withstand the storms. I like concrete and not wood pole for support.

 

[genec]

Buy the nice boat... you can change your address (and view) as often as you like. (of course this is the romantic in me speaking... I have a house, and the boat really doesn't go far.)

 

[pateco]

With global warming, a waterfront house may be an underwater house sometime in the near future. Get the boat.

 

[videorov]

Like the Johnny Cash song says How high is the water Momma

Yes some of the waterfront homes might be in trouble.

 

[Sailm8]

We made the house on a canal with a boat decision. How old are you? How is your health? What's your familt history? Where will you go if you or your partner becomes incapacitated? Having a home base gives you more options. Suppose you buy a big boat and live on it for a period of time and some event makes it mandatory you move ashore? Now you have an old boat which might be hard to sell with decreasing value and still afford a decent place ashore. Sure insurance is expensive but if you lose everything in a storm it will make you mostly whole. Charlotte Harbor is a great place to sail. No one sails forever. Just my 2 cents

 

[rickff]

Can't say what's best for you, only what we did.
Lots of good points above. I was 51, and laid off. very small early pension.
wife, just quit work. We sold everything. house money invested. we bought an
older boat to keep costs a lower percent of worth. that way, if the worst happened
we could recover, although quite a challenge. We sailed east coast and Bahamas,
Caribbean, then the british isles and the med. not so fast forward, I'm almost 67,
and 2 years ago bought the house. recently sold the boat. Its not waterfront, but
only 6blocks from the bay(Apalachicola). It was time. We got to pick where to swallow
the anchor. My wife now has friends at the library and is in women's groups.
Many we knew didn't get that chance, but we wouldn't trade our experiences for all the
tea in China