Real Estate Assistance--Florida Campsite For ALL To Use

[Ira]

I've been toying with the idea of buying a small piece of property near Everglades City/Chokoloskee to park my TD for camping.

This is still a great, unspoiled part of Florida that's gonna stay that way (hopefully) because of its location near Everglades National Park, Big Cypress Swamp, The 10,000 Islands, and various other state parks and forests.

Since you can't build on 99% of the property there, most of it is cheap. If I can make this happen financial-wise, I would make it available for use to anyone passing through the area. (The making it happen financial-wise will be the hard part.)

However, I am a total idiot on such matters, so here are the salient points. I've numbered them to give you the big picture and to outline the obstacles. I'm sure the web geniuses here like Steve (Stripper) can find the info that would talk me 3 months to uncover.

1) I did a web search for Everglades City, Land for Sale, etc., but because of the remote nature of the area, most of what I found were homes. Two real estate agents came up, one with a 2.5 acre listing in Faxahatchee Strand preserve for $12,500. (I don't want this site, but let's use it as our example.) I believe that most of the available property for sale will be by owner.

2) You can go to the county appraiser web site for an aerial view of the property I discovered through the agent:

http://www.collierappraiser.com/

You click "Search GPS Maps"... "By Folio#"...and type in the number:

01075520006

The zoom-in, zoom-out feature is a little funky on my browser (Safari), so if you go there and do this, if you click on the little map within the big map, it zooms in and out. Kind of. Sometimes.

3) The above mentioned parcel is useless to me because it is 1/2 mile off of Jane's Scenic Drive, with no road to get there. I would need a parcel right ON Jane's Scenic Drive, as far east as possible. This is because Jane's Scenic Drive connects to Route 29--so a quick right, a few miles, and you're in Everglades City.

4) You can also search their Database, and using that same Folio #, you get the name and address of the owner and its appraised value--$2,500, NOT $12,500. Does this wide discrepancy make sense based on the nature preserve aspect of this scenario? Or does something sound nutty?

5) Putting this undesired parcel aside (because of its off-road location), is it acceptable "practice" to contact the seller directly?

6) The site has not been "officially" surveyed, whatever that means. I DO know it means I wouldn't know where the heck the land begins and ends. In searching other parcels, is there some kind of keyword I should be looking for--like already surveyed, platted, etc.?

7) From that county website, can you figure out how to select a parcel, for example one way east and right on Jane's, and get the owner info from it, to see appraised value, and owner name and address to inquire whether it's for sale?

There are some other factors I'll have to consider like the suitability of the particular parcel, some of which is under shallow water. Faxahatchee has a very unique eco-system--I forget what the type is called--but it's like the only one in the state.

I'm not totally committed to buying in Faxahatchee, but it's a good place to start looking. And although you can't build permanent living structures, I do believe you're allowed to erect a simple pavilion (covering) and drill a well.

Any insights you guys can give me will be appreciated. If I can make this happen, this could be pretty cool for a bunch of us.

[wolfix]

Any chance you might want any partners or investors to make this happen?

[Ira]

Any chance you might want any partners or investors to make this happen?

Believe me--I was thinking in that direction when I first came up with the idea...but mainly for the few Florida guys who would get a lot of use out of it to make it worthwhile. I just don't want to seem like I'm pushing anyone into anything, especially since we all have our own financial situations to deal with.

More important, I figure I should try to find the perfect spot first, and then take it from there to gauge people's reactions.

[wolfix]

Any chance you might want any partners or investors to make this happen?

Believe me--I was thinking in that direction when I first came up with the idea...but mainly for the few Florida guys who would get a lot of use out of it to make it worthwhile. I just don't want to seem like I'm pushing anyone into anything, especially since we all have our own financial situations to deal with.

More important, I figure I should try to find the perfect spot first, and then take it from there to gauge people's reactions.

I'll send you a PM.

[Ira]

Any chance you might want any partners or investors to make this happen?

Believe me--I was thinking in that direction when I first came up with the idea...but mainly for the few Florida guys who would get a lot of use out of it to make it worthwhile. I just don't want to seem like I'm pushing anyone into anything, especially since we all have our own financial situations to deal with.

More important, I figure I should try to find the perfect spot first, and then take it from there to gauge people's reactions.

I'll send you a PM.

Cool.

But I'll answer it later, because although I'm still sick and took off work, I have to shlep over to CompUSA now to buy The Sims Life Stories for my older kid.

Yep--I'm one hell of a dad.

[surveytech]

7) From that county website, can you figure out how to select a parcel, for example one way east and right on Jane's, and get the owner info from it, to see appraised value, and owner name and address to inquire whether it's for sale?
.

First zoom out then click on the green "identify" button. Then click the parcel that interests you and the owners info will appear.

[Ira]

First zoom out then click on the green "identify" button. Then click the parcel that interests you and the owners info will appear.

GOOD MAN!!!

[surveytech]

Ira
Did it work?

(I do the same thing here for properties in Osceola county)

Walter

[Ira]

Ira
Did it work?

(I do the same thing here for properties in Osceola county)

Walter

It worked great!

Seems like a bunch of the parcels on Jane's Scenic Drive (and elsewhere, I'm sure) are owned by a real estate company in Coral Cables (near Miami), but plenty of them are privately owned, too. Either they were bought before it went preserve status, or they bought in anticipation of that status being changed one day, which I doubt will ever happen.

What do you think my best move is? Choose parcels and just send out letters of inquiry?

[surveytech]

Are you not satisfied with the selection of parcels from the real estate company?
Yes you could certainly send out letters of inquiry to the land owners. I noticed in the brief time I spent there that I saw some out of state owners, like Illinois and California. Not sure what their motivation was to purchase those parcels. Might start there.

Remember though that the "appraised" value will be a lot less than the actual selling price. It is always that way here in Osceola county. Try finding your own property on your county's website and see if that is true for you location as well.
For example.........look at this folio on Janes Scenic drive. Check the sales data......
parcel........ 01076680000
assessed value..........2350
sold in 7/2006............2800
sold in 9/2006............7600

the more sales data that you can find, the better because it will give you an idea of what a fair selling price would be for the parcel. The real estate company may have some of this info as well.

Just something to consider while searching.
Hope it helps.

[Ira]

Walter, the thing is, most of of these properties aren't listed with the local agency because they're either not for sale...the owners don't even know they OWN the damn thing...or for this kind of money, they don't want to bring an agent into it anyway.

I didn't notice that they give the sales history like that, but I'm gonna look at that parcel/folio # you quoted to see where/how to look for a sales history on other parcels.

And yeah...

For that first parcel I looked at via the agent, the owner was in California.

[Miriam C.]

Are you not satisfied with the selection of parcels from the real estate company?
Yes you could certainly send out letters of inquiry to the land owners. I noticed in the brief time I spent there that I saw some out of state owners, like Illinois and California. Not sure what their motivation was to purchase those parcels. Might start there.

Remember though that the "appraised" value will be a lot less than the actual selling price. It is always that way here in Osceola county. Try finding your own property on your county's website and see if that is true for you location as well.
For example.........look at this folio on Janes Scenic drive. Check the sales data......
parcel........ 01076680000
assessed value..........2350
sold in 7/2006............2800
sold in 9/2006............7600

the more sales data that you can find, the better because it will give you an idea of what a fair selling price would be for the parcel. The real estate company may have some of this info as well.

Just something to consider while searching.
Hope it helps.

Hey guys, what size are the parcels?

[surveytech]

Ira,
the state owns a LOT of the land there.
Do a search in "owner" for this....... TIITF/REC & PARKS
there is 960 parcels of stuff owned by the state in Collier County.
Avatar Properties owns 123 parcels. Good luck with them.
Outparcels are scattered here and there.


Miriam,
Most are 2.5 acres of prime Florida swampland.
Want some?

[Ira]

It's not called swampland--it's called something else to make it sound more exotic.

But you're right:

A lot of the Preserve is under water. They have a name for the kind of eco-system it is, but damn if I can remember.

Walter, from that site, is there a way to go to Picayune Strand state park without having a folio #? That's where I used to own a few acres. (It's adjacent to Faxahatchee, just northwest of it.)

[asianflava]

There was some guy that started buying up a bunch of swamp land and orange groves near Kissimmee a while back. What was his name? Walt something?