[davephan]

The real estate web sites used to have crime maps, but now they don’t have them. You can search the internet for crime map sites to learn which areas have more crime. But since you’re asking that question, it implies that you’ve never visited that area of Florida. I haven’t visited Seabring because I live a long way from there 50 miles south of Tampa.

If you’re planning to buy a property in Florida, it’s tough to try to look at properties online and make an offer remotely. It’s extremely risky to buy a property sight unseen. You really need to be in Florida, have your financial approval already, and ready to pull the trigger after the first showing. We found that when searching for properties remotely, before moving to Florida 2-1/2 years ago, by the time you can get to Florida, most properties already go to pending, unless something is seriously wrong with the property or seriously wrong with the area where the property is located. You really need to be in Florida in person, ready to pull the trigger.

When you’re looking at properties in person, you can drive around the area in all directions surrounding the property. Run down properties and properties with metal bars on the doors and windows are a tell tail sign that the area has high crime rates. You can also determine if the stores where you normally shop, are located in reasonable driving distances. Also drive around the area at night. Some areas are very poorly lit at night.

Also check out the access to the community where the property is located. Sometimes the access is poor, and you have to do left turn in dangerous intersections. Other times, the intersections will be safer near the property. Also, listen to the noise level from busy streets nearby, make sure that there aren’t train tracks too close to the property which will shake the house. We stayed in a VRBO rental one time, where the train tracks were right behind the house. The whole house shakes with the trains went by at a high speed. All the tile floors were cracked from the vibrations. Also, check how far you are from an airport and the airport noise.

Not all areas have natural gas. Those areas, you’ll have an all electric house, unless you have a propane tank.Walk around the neighborhood where the house is located. Try to interview random people who are walking around to get their opinions on the community. Most random people that you interview will be happy to tell you what they think about the community.

Before you do the move from up north, where you have lots of storage space, you will need to downsize and declutter. We downsized and decluttered starting two years before the move from Minnesota to Florida. You will simply not have the storage space in Florida that you had up north. It’s very helpful to have one extra garage stall for storage. A three car garage if you have two cars. The overhead garage doors are narrower in Florida than up north, probably to make the house stronger against the possible hurricane winds. As a result, larger vehicles might not fit in your garage.

If the house is in an HOA, download the HOA rules to determine if you can live with the restrictions. If you’re not in an HOA community, you could have houses in your area that are in disrepair with junk cars, old toilets, RVs, boats, and other junk decorating the bare dirt or tall weeds. Some HOAs are so restrictive that they don’t allow you to leave your shoes on the doorstep outside of the house.

A home inspection is a must. It’s probably better to buy as is, than the other way where the seller has to repair things. Oftentimes, the seller does sub standard repairs or doesn’t follow through on repairs. Check the local topology around the house to determine if the risk of being flooded is too great.

There’s s lot to consider, much more than I’ve already mentioned. You really need to be in Florida if you’re serious about moving to Florida. If you can’t physically be in Florida to search for real estate, you’re not ready to properly search for real estate in Florida.

[Adrenalize]

Sebring is fine when it comes to crime. Most “Persons crimes” are criminal on criminal. There is some property crime but nothing major. Downtown is alright and there are some nice neighborhoods close to it. I rarely go downtown at night, mainly because nothing is open at night. Sebring Police Departments headquarters is downtown also. Sebring PD does an excellent job and frequently patrol their designated areas.