Specializing in Titusville Real Estate, Cocoa Beach Real Estate and Brevard County Real Estate and Homes

Cocoa Beach Homes / A Guide for Buyers and Sellers

Cocoa Beach has special regulations

Every area has its own building regulations. You need to know how these restrictions will affect the design of your Cocoa Beach home. Issues to consider include zoning, setbacks, rights of way and easements. Most subdivisions have CC&Rs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions). Studies of Cocoa Beach demonstrate that these carefully to make sure they are not too restrictive for your needs or create excessive building costs.

Cocoa Beach Housing Patterns

Cocoa Beach Housing patterns tend to be homogenous, meaning homes worth $100,00 are located in $100,000 neighborhoods. It is important for properties to be within the general pricing patterns of their neighborhoods because over-valued homes, even if they are exceptional, are sometimes difficult to sell at full market price. Remember, lenders want to compare your home to nearby homes. If your Cocoa Beach real estate is located in a neighborhood of $100,000 homes but you have added another $100,000 in improvements, you may have over- improved your property in that lenders will be reluctant to lend the higher amount.

Many sellers think that the price of their home is determined solely by what they are willing to accept and what the buyer is willing to pay. However, the lender’s appraisal in Cocoa Beach is one more variable and it can complicate the sale of your home. In these cases, it helps to have a knowledgeable REALTOR working on your side.

Cocoa Beach Home Buying Pitfalls

Buying your Cocoa Beach home whether you are a first time buyer or an ‘Old Pro’ involves legal, financial and emotional considerations. The more you know about the most common buyer mistakes in Cocoa Beach, the more likely you are to avoid them.

Make sure that when you put in an offer on any Cocoa Beach home that you have spent time narrowing down just what you are looking for. When the sellers accept your offer, you are involved in a binding contract that could cost you your deposit and other damages should you decide to back out. The opposite scenario, waiting for the 100 % perfect home can be an exercise in futility. With the thousands of variables available in housing, including location, style, size, amenities and condition, perfection is almost always an unreasonable goal.

Cocoa Beach Real Estate Title Insurance

A Cocoa Beach mortgage policy that insures the lender remains in effect until the loan is paid off. An owner’s policy insures the buyer and remains in effect as long as the owner or the owner’s heirs own the property. An owner policy may cost a little more than a lender policy. For example, an owner policy may run somewhere around $3.50 per $1000.00 of home value while a policy for lender protection may run in the neighborhood of $2.50 per $1000.00 of home value.

The Cocoa Beach real estate Title Company searches and examines public records to determine if any problems with the title exist. Your real estate agents works very closely with the Title Company to help clear up any past clouds that may affect the transfer of title to the new owner.

Bitten by the Cocoa Beach Home Improvement Bug?

Unless money simply isn’t an issue, the financial implications of remodeling are definitely something to consider. When it comes time to sell your Cocoa Beach home, the new buyer will usually not pay for over-improvements. This means that if you have the smallest home in an area of larger, more expensive homes, home improvements may make very good financial sense. However, if you already have the largest, most expensive home in Cocoa Beach, more improvements may make you more comfortable but may not bring you a good financial return. You may find that it is financially wiser to sell and move to a different home that already has the features you want to add.

Buying a Cocoa Beach Fixer-Upper

This, of course, depends on the condition of the Cocoa Beach home and the estimated cost of the repairs you must make. Cocoa Beach real estate in a good neighborhood that is priced about 25% lower than others that are in good shape may be a good deal if it simply needs cosmetic or minor structural repairs. If the house is a gut job, that is the entire inside will be torn out and rebuilt the 25% rule may work and may not so estimate your costs as closely as possible.

Shopping by neighborhood makes good sense when considering the purchase of a fixer upper. As a buyer, the more you know about the Cocoa Beach homes in a particular area the better able you are when it comes time to judge whether or not a home your are considering meets the financial parameters you are looking for.

Robin Taylor Ritchie
Broker Associate
GRI, ABR, e-Pro

Licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of Florida

Titusville, FL 32780
321-698-8731