Lawrence Matthews’ New Book Finds Florida Budget Homes

A retiree in Florida today launched a book that tells exactly how to find a modern single family home in Florida and buy it for $30,000 or less.  It tells the story of how his family came to Florida after bankruptcy and rented while searching for a new home.  After lots of trials, the family eventually was able to buy in a Florida Gulf Coast 55+ community for $17,000 (in 2014).  How this was done is examined in detail, and all the pertinent forms are provided.  The book goes on to show exactly how to search and includes hundreds of direct links to these home sales on the internet.

One tip the author reveals is not to buy the land, only the house, and to lease the land.  His family pays $659 a month to lease the land his house sits on.  That fee also includes the perks of his gated retirement community, like an Olympic swimming pool and lodge and recreation areas.  It also includes trash pickup twice a week, 67 channels of cable tv, etc., so the actual cost of the land rental is about $400 a month.

The book identifies hundreds of similar communities with these fees ranging from $165 to $1000, and all having current homes available in the specified range.  Matthews warns, however, that some big corporate owners of retirement communities lure people in at low cost, then jack up the fees.  He recommends resident-owned, non-profit communities where the monthly costs are kept low.

The website for the book is www.affordablefla.com.   Matthews was a former Editor of the  monthly magazine of the National Speleological Society.  He is an instrument rated pilot and a noted pet photographer.

About Affordable Florida

New book on finding Florida budget homes:
Affordable Florida: Single Family Homes Under $30,000