Sarasota and Bradenton Florida Townhomes

 

 Sarasota MLS Townhome Update.  April 16, 2008

April 16, 2008 Townhome update for Sarasota shows (according to the Sarasota MLS for Sarasota County) townhomes listed sold, active and pending under condo and residential.   Please keep in mind that if property isn’t correctly entered into the MLS under townhome, it may not show up.  “Garbage in, garbage out”.  Sometimes, townhomes can be entered as a condo property. 

There is new townhome product through local and national builders in the Sarasota and Bradenton area.  Again, I cannot stress enough, buying any property without a real estate agent leaves you susceptible to overpaying and missing important property and tax information.  A responsible and knowledgeable real estate agent should do a thorough county property record search as this is vital as most (not all) townhome properties do not get listed on the MLS.  You definitely want to know the all around sales numbers on sold property value when going in to negotiate with a builder.  

Here is a report showing current statistics of Sarasota & Manatee townhomes taken from the Sarasota MLS for Sarasota County only. This date search criteria is from Jan 1, 2008 to April 16, 2008. 

 

County	Active	Pending	Sold YTD
Sarasota (Condo)	347	10	27
Sarasota (residential)	52	1	5
Manatee	21	0	3

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Sarasota Townhomes, villa’s, condo’s are for the most part maintenance free.  The maintenance for the development is typically included in the fee’s of the association.  This lifestyle fits a homeowner that wants to pick up and go at their leisure.  A townhome has mass appeal to all owner types.  Single parents, Empty-nesters, Boomerangs (parents that have children return from college), people in travel related careers, Baby Boomers, Single Women and more.

 

 

 

This makes it easy to manage for a homeowner.  Often times, the condo association or homeowners association takes care of the common grounds, pays for the cable TV, roof maintenance, painting of the building and now it is common place to see wireless internet connection throughout a townhome development.  Homeowners Insurance is also usually covered in the budget, but not the contents of persons residence.  There is an insurance policy that the owner should take out to cover their own perils. There are some developments that have CDD (Community District Development) fees.  These fees/costs are assessed to the homeowner when a developer has the county or city put in the infrastructure.  Walt Disney World in Orlando was the first in the country to use CDD fees.

Definition according to Merriam-Webster:
Town home: usually single-family house of two or sometimes three stories that is usually connected to a similar house by a common sidewall.

Villa: a detached or semi-detached urban residence with yard and garden space

Condominium: individual ownership of a unit in a multi-unit structure (as an apartment building) or on land owned in common (as a town house complex); also : a unit so owned b: a building containing condominiums

The picture below is from a townhome in Bradenton that I found for my client.

    

Here’s a builders model picture I stitched together: