Always check the zoning for the neighborhood in which you’re looking and adjacent areas. Do it up front and avoid heartburn. In addition to the usual zoning questions, low-lying areas may require flood insurance if a structure is located there. This information is useful even if you’re only buying a lot. It is crucial if you’re buying a house; many insurance carriers will not write a policy for such structures and the State will require flood insurance. Here are flood maps for Lee (you might need to tell your browser to allow pop-ups here) and Charlotte counties (We haven’t found a good one for Collier county yet).
There are fewer variables involved with buying a lot than is the case with houses. The ones that apply also apply to buying a house, and you should read through the “lot-specific” stuff before going on to the things to watch for in houses. One interesting feature that might tilt you toward buying the house is the low prices. In this market, sometimes (usually foreclosures) you may get house and lot for about what the lot alone might otherwise cost. The downside is the higher maintenance and carrying costs for the house as you will see. Basically, the longer your time horizon before you either sell the house or move into it, the more costly, and consequently, the less advantageous owning a house will be as opposed to owning the lot alone.
Income property profitability is highly “location specific”. You definitely need the advice of a specialist professional for this plan. At this writing, vacancy rates in Cape Coral and parts of Fort Myers, for example, are quite high. It would be naive to depend on ordinary residential rentals to cover your costs in these kinds of areas. Beach and vacation properties are special cases for which this may not be a problem.
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