Retirement

[KateUK]

When we retire, we will hopefully buy a villa to live in during the Winter months. We would then come back to the UK for the Summer months. Would we earn enough on villa rentals between say March and October to pay the villa mortgage and the management company? As we would also want to buy a house in the UK we would not be able to buy the villa without a mortgage.

Anyone got any thoughts?
Thanks

[KateUK]

Thanks for the reply Martin.
It was only an idle thought.
It probably wouldn't be possible anyway as I am not healthy, so probably would struggle with getting insurance, but need the sun for my illness!! Back to plan A of living in the UK and spending the worst of the winter in Spain or Malta!!

[Osceola]

Yes, Kate, there are in fact quite a few UK residents who do this on a yearly basis. As for covering your running costs, well, it all depends on how you go about buying a property. If you get carried away on an expensive villa, you won't be able to cover the mortgage. However, 2007 will prove to be a boon for buyers looking at Florida property. You could pick up a villa with a pool in a nice estate for $260,000 USD on a resale - even better deals could be afoot.

[esprit]

Where is Martins reply as I cant see it?
Covering mortgage, management company, property tax and insurance in six months bookings, not easy, bookings are difficult to come by and by limiting yourself to only certain months, you have only half the possibilities everyone else has. You are ruling out October half term, Thanksgiving, Xmas/New Year, Feb half term, even Easter if it is early. Perhaps look at a condo with lower outgoings??

Also think of car hire ( expensive for six months) or if you buy one what are you going to do with it in the summer, car insurance is also expensive. Then there is health insurance. most UK policies wont cover you for six months. Plan B sounds good to me.

[bellaepovera]

I dont think Spain is the place to go in the winter time as its cold there brrr. And unless you buy a home in Spain that all the tourists go to, might be hard to rent there also.

[No Shoes]

Kate - you are going through similar thought processes to the ones we have been round and round many times. The only difference is we are already retired (we were both 50 this year).

We have a home in southern France (very close the the spanish border) and take it from me it is nowhere near warm enough for the winter months. We tried the south of Spain for a few months last winter and whilst that was a lot better, it was still t-shirt and fleece type weather most of the time, good for some but still a little restricting. Also not that much to do in most areas and very expensive and not our style in others. The coast line was too spoilt for us to feel comfortable. So after traveling there once or twice a year for twenty years we keep coming back to Florida (more me than him I might add).

Whilst the jury is still out on a definite verdict - we are coming around to the following:

We will sell in France when we have finished our renovations and split the money. With some of the money we will purchase a small buy to let in the IOW (where we live now) and with the remainder we will buy either a small villa or a condo in Florida to escape to for some of the winter. The rent from the buy to let will hopefully cover the outgoings on the place in Florida. Still early days yet and the plan may change but it never did any harm to explore all the options.

Am I missing something with this plan?

[No Shoes]

?? Why is there no 'subscribe to this topic' on this topic??

What am I doing wrong?

[chrizzy100]

You could just rent a condo in FL....let someone else have all the worry of its upkeep...storms etc....

[Kazzie]

You can subscribe to this thread, just scroll up and there is the option just on the right hand side at the top before any of the posts. Although that is just to subscribe to this particular thread, not the "General moving to Florida" topic.

Karen

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by No Shoes
?? Why is there no 'subscribe to this topic' on this topic??

What am I doing wrong?


[/quote]

[esprit]

Make certain you have your B2 visa in the bag before you embark on this plan. Factor in the cost of healthcare here and car insurance, both of which are expensive, and of car parking during the summer as you wont have a garage with a condo. Or of car hire otherwise. If the figures work for you, then go for it. Though be aware that there are cold spells in the middle of winter too in Central Florida and the nights can be chilly, I wear my fleeces every winter! And plans like this work best when both partners are 100 percent for it, not "more me than him", I have known people go to all the time and expense of buying a business here and then go home within seven months, because only one party really really wanted to do it and the other couldnt settle.