Florida's ABANDONED Waterfront Homes EXPOSED!

These waterfront homes in this Florida town are being abandoned with homeowners just walking away and selling for land value. The news is buzzing about people fleeing Florida, but this town particularly is seeing an exodus after the last hurricane's devastating floods. In my last video, I was over on the east side of Pinellas County in St. Petersburg in the Shore Acres neighborhood, showing you just how bad the flood devastation was over there. Today, I'm on the west side of Pinellas County in Reddington Beach, and I wanna find out why all these waterfront homes are being abandoned. I connected with a local realtor who's selling a lot of these homes, and he's gonna walk us through these flooded properties and tell us why people are choosing to abandon their home instead of rebuilding it. Hey, Mike, how you doing, buddy? Hey, I'm doing all right, how are you? Good, good to see you. Take a look inside here and see what we've got. So this house didn't get the walls cut out because we determined early on that there was no way this house was gonna be rebuilt. Rather than spend any money on it, we just left it as it was from the storm. What you can see on the wall over here are the water lines. Wow, that is it. Halfway, a quarter of the way up the window. Above the doorknobs, then. Yeah, above the doorknobs. You can see it there on the door. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so total devastation. Milton, through wind damage, also did that. So this house took a double whammy. So this is an absolutely gorgeous spot here. I mean, right on the water, it's incredible. Why is your client deciding to sell instead of rehabbing the property? Well, part of it is based on their station in life. They're not young people that own the house, and they don't wanna live through a couple years of tear down, rebuild, the whole permitting process. They've been here for over 40 years. I said earlier, they hate to leave this. I mean, this is what it's all about, right? This is the beach lifestyle. But given the situation, they felt it was best for them to move off the beaches at this point. They're selling this for land value, that is what it sounds like, right? Yeah, you're correct. The land value here, the thing to look at is what do we have, what features do we have and the things that contribute to the value of the land. Things like a boat dock, a newer old seawall will factor in, whether you have boat lifts, if you have a swimming pool, all those things can contribute to the value of the land. So we're seeing a very disparate sale range right now between properties that on the surface seem similar, but the view characteristics, the depth of the water, the width of the canal, the boating access, and then the amenities that you have left behind will contribute to the value, like the pool, the dock and the seawall. You brought up the FEMA 50-50 rule. I've heard a lot about that, but explain it. I know you're an expert on it. I hate to call myself an expert because there's so much, there's always something to learn. And it's actually the 49% rule, but we call it the 50% rule just because it seems easier. You're allowed to do up to 49% of the value of your structure in repairs to the property after damages. Once you hit 50%, you have now flipped that switch for FEMA, which then says you have to be fully FEMA compliant in order to get permits to rebuild your house. So the only way to be fully FEMA compliant in this area is to elevate the structure. Currently, we're standing at about 4 1⁄2 feet above sea level, and you have to be between 12 and 14 feet above sea level, depending on the municipality. So Madeira Beach, for example, I'm very familiar with, it's 10 feet above sea level plus an additional four feet. So it's 14 feet in total. So that gives you the garage space and storage area underneath the house. And then your living area has to be at least that height above sea level to be FEMA compliant. And then also you're gonna have to have the wind load standards on your windows and doors and things like that. So how do you determine what your FEMA 50% is? There's a kind of a misconception that people think, well, my house was worth a million two before the storm, market value, so I can do up to $600,000 worth of work on it and be under the 50%. It's not 50% of the market value of your total property. It's 50% of the value, depreciated value of the structure only, of the home itself. So for example, this home was valued at probably a million three to a million four prior to the storm, total market value, but the value of the structure, according to Pinellas County Property Appraiser's office, was only about 195,000 for the structure itself. So 50% of that was less than $100,000 worth of work that could be done within the house itself to rebuild it before flipping that 50% switch and having to become compliant. So there's no way after you see this house that you can figure out a way for $100,000 to put it back together. A lot of people here don't have flood insurance and they're thinking they're not a part of FEMA and they don't wanna be, and they're thinking they can do whatever they want. Is that true? Unfortunately, that's not true. It's the cities that are part of FEMA. Whether you have flood insurance or not doesn't matter. You still have to comply with the city's codes, which incorporate the FEMA rules. What about guys out there that are handymen and can fix all this stuff themselves and they think, I just don't need to pull a permit? So there are certain things that will require a licensed tradesman to do it, but you can pull your own permits. There is a FEMA guideline that says, if you pull your own permit to do the work, you can't sell your house for a year. Just because you're doing the work yourself doesn't excuse you from getting a permit. And under the FEMA guidelines that we currently have to operate under, way more things require a permit than did before, like putting up drywall, like installing flooring, like painting. All those things never required a permit and they do now. This home's currently listed at 875. Who's the buyer you're seeing for this? I'm getting very low offers that are blanket offers they're sending out to everybody that's got a house for sale. And then I'm seeing some sincere end user buyers that this is their opportunity to buy a place and build their dream home on the water. The second buyer is an end user who probably couldn't afford to buy the house at fair market value before, because it would have been like a million four, and then tear the house down and then build a new one. So now we're gonna be in the eights. So they're saving $600,000 technically off of what it would have cost them to buy this house before because there are, prior to the storm, there were very few vacant lots available. So most of the sales were a home on a lot that had to be torn down. And the homeowner was selling it with a viable intact home that was livable and that had value. So now in this case, this home has no value as a structure because it has to be torn down. What would it cost to build a home on this lot? On the very low end out here on the beaches, you're seeing about 350 to $400 a square foot for the elevated home. And that's all the way done, ready to move in. Something fully custom could go to eight or 900 or a thousand dollars a square foot, just depends on how carried away you get. So I'd love to buy a property like this, but I don't know the first thing about buying a property on the water. What should I look for? Obviously the house is gone out of the equation at this point, so there's not a lot to worry about there. But when you look at the water side of things, some really important items are whether it has a dock, also the ability to build a dock or extend that dock if necessary, you'll have to check with local codes. But one of the most expensive items out here is that seawall. So in this case of this house, it's got a newer seawall. But if you find a house that has cracks and things in the seawall, you may want to have somebody take a look at it. If the seawall is failing in any way, it's about $500 a linear foot to replace a seawall. Things like boat lifts and docks are expensive. So if they're already there, that's a bonus to that property. Same thing with a swimming pool. It takes a year to get a swimming pool built these days. If there's already one there, that's got some value. Where do you see this neighborhood in like, say, five years? Everything's gonna be elevated. So as you see these homes across the water that are two and three stories, it's gonna look more like that. So we're gonna see values go up. And my vision, I see more like a Palm Beach and a Naples. So you're a local realtor here. You've been affected by this. You live here. Would you mind if I put your contact information below this video in the description so people could reach out to you directly with any questions? Sure, of course. I've had so many help me in the past. So I'd like to pay it back and pay it forward. These homes are selling right now in as-is condition. And if you're looking to build a house in Pinellas County, Reddington Beach definitely needs to be on your list. Check out Zillow to get a sense of the area and the current listing prices. It's also smart to speak with a local realtor, builder, and insurance agent. Knowing the cost upfront is essential before signing any contracts. I pay close attention to the yearly insurance premiums too. Remember, your new home will meet today's hurricane standards and be elevated out of the flood zone, which should help reduce insurance costs. Wanna know another great neighborhood that's close to the water and downtown St. Pete that you can buy a lot for under $200,000? Click this video to find out why real estate investors are buying these properties up fast. And maybe, just maybe, you should too. Click here, and I'll see you there.