Dan What They Check and How They Affect Your Insurance Buy a home in Central Florida and your insurance agent will likely ask for two short inspections that most out-of-state buyers have never heard of: a 4-point inspection and a wind mitigation inspection. Neither replaces a full home inspection. The 4-point tells the insurer whether the … Read more
Permits, Insurance, Financing, and Renovation Rules A fixer-upper can be the most affordable way into a Central Florida neighborhood you otherwise couldn’t afford, or a way to build equity with your own work. Florida adds hurdles a fixer-upper buyer elsewhere might not face. Older roofs and systems can make a home hard to insure. Open … Read more
Flood Risk, Docks, Seawalls, and Riparian Rights Central Florida has hundreds of lakes, plus rivers, canals, the Indian River Lagoon, and Atlantic beaches in Brevard and Volusia counties. A home on the water can mean a dock out back, sunsets over the lake, and a boat ride to dinner. It also means higher flood risk … Read more
HUD Code, Titles, Land-Lease Parks, and Hurricanes Manufactured homes are one of the lowest-cost ways to own a home in Central Florida, whether on your own acreage or in a land-lease community. They come with rules a site-built buyer never deals with. The home may have a vehicle-style title instead of a deed, the lot … Read more
How the Age Rules Work and What to Check Central Florida has a lot of age-restricted communities, from small manufactured-home parks to large golf-cart towns with their own shopping centers. Their appeal is clear: quieter streets, amenities built around retirees, and neighbors at a similar stage of life. But “55+” is a legal status with … Read more
Condo or HOA, and Why It Matters Townhouses sit between a condo and a single-family home: you get your own front door and usually a small yard or patio, but you share walls and a homeowners’ association. They’re common across Central Florida, especially in newer communities. In Florida, though, “townhouse” describes a building style, not … Read more
Keeping Them Out of the Yard, and What to Do After a Bite Snakes are part of living in Central Florida. They turn up on lanais, in garages, in pool skimmers, and in flower beds, especially in spring when they become more active. Most of them are harmless, and many eat the rodents homeowners would … Read more
Keeping Them Out and the Rules for Removing Them Scratching in the attic at night, chewed wires, a raided trash can: most Central Florida homeowners deal with unwanted animals sooner or later. Rats, squirrels, and raccoons all want the same thing, a dry, protected spot near food, and they all get in the same way, … Read more
Control That Works and What to Skip Fire ants and mosquitoes are the two pests that make a Central Florida yard hard to enjoy. Both are year-round problems here, both have a long list of home remedies that don’t work, and mosquitoes carry real disease risk. In 2026, locally acquired dengue cases led to targeted … Read more
What They Are and How to Keep Them Out Almost every Central Florida homeowner has met a palmetto bug: a big brown roach that shows up on the bathroom floor at night, sometimes on its back. It’s alarming but usually not a sign of a dirty house. The roach that does point to a real … Read more
