Purchasing and insuring a sinkhole repaired home in Spring Hill. (Safety Harbor: how much, house)

[HWTechGuy]

The Hernando County property appraiser was the guest speaker at my HOA annual meeting. One thing he discussed was sinkholes. A permit is required if a property is going to be checked for sinkholes. This prevents someone from getting their place checked, finding out it has one, and putting it up for sale without disclosing it. They will be unable to hide it since a permit was pulled.

Granted, this is a fairly recent change. But it's a step in the right direction.

You can check the county GIS maps. If a house has an unrepaired sinkhole, there is a red symbol superimposed over it. If it has a repaired sinkhole, it's a green symbol. If there's no symbol, it wasn't checked. The symbol looks like a plastic house from the Monopoly board game.

http://www.hernandocountygis-fl.us/PublicMapGallery/

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

The Hernando County property appraiser was the guest speaker at my HOA annual meeting. One thing he discussed was sinkholes. A permit is required if a property is going to be checked for sinkholes. This prevents someone from getting their place checked, finding out it has one, and putting it up for sale without disclosing it. They will be unable to hide it since a permit was pulled.

Granted, this is a fairly recent change. But it's a step in the right direction.

You can check the county GIS maps. If a house has an unrepaired sinkhole, there is a red symbol superimposed over it. If it has a repaired sinkhole, it's a green symbol. If there's no symbol, it wasn't checked. The symbol looks like a plastic house from the Monopoly board game.

http://www.hernandocountygis-fl.us/PublicMapGallery/

Thanks for sharing this!

Did appraiser mentioned any "special codes" they used so only realtors could figure out if anything related to sinkhole has anything to do with the property?

[HWTechGuy]

Originally Posted by EngGirl

Thanks for sharing this!

Did appraiser mentioned any "special codes" they used so only realtors could figure out if anything related to sinkhole has anything to do with the property?

It's pretty cut and dry. Click the link, then go to page 2. Click on Sinkholes and the map will come up with the sinkhole information provided.

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

Didn't know that about Country Walk. You can also access the public records and it will tell you some history nd if a claim was filed for sinkhole and asco County has a special code for sinkhole homes but i'm not disclosing that because that is our advantage and why it is good for people to hire a realtor who has the knowledge.

I guess only Pasco county has special codes known only to realtors

[Ken E]

If your determained to buy in Spring Hill why go for a repaired sinkhole home. There are tons of cheap houses in Spring Hill. If for some reason you deciede you dont like it there and want to move you might have a harder time unloading it. Just the word sinkhole is enough to scare anybody who hasent lived there and doesent realize what there all about. There are plenty of nice places in Spring Hill for sale without the word Sinkhole attached to them.

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by Ken E

If your determained to buy in Spring Hill why go for a repaired sinkhole home. There are tons of cheap houses in Spring Hill. If for some reason you deciede you dont like it there and want to move you might have a harder time unloading it. Just the word sinkhole is enough to scare anybody who hasent lived there and doesent realize what there all about. There are plenty of nice places in Spring Hill for sale without the word Sinkhole attached to them.

I agree with you depending on the needs of the buyer. Some investors buy a sinkhole house cheap and rent it out and make a nice income on it.

We know even of sinkhole lawyers who buy them for their own investment but buy them in a LLC or trust so unless you know who owns that LLC or trust you won't know that.

With all other homes you never know if they ever will get a sinkhole...that might be 50% chance either way or maybe higher or lower but it will never be zero percent, unless it is build in a different way which builders are not doing because not many people will spend more money for a similar home if it was build better, some may but the majority will go for cheaper.

[HWTechGuy]

I looked around the GIS maps of my neighborhood. EVERY home with a sinkhole is newer than mine. My house was built in 1985, and was the personal home of the builder of the first group of homes in the neighborhood. Maybe that will bode well for me.

The homes built since 2001 seem to have more sinkhole activity, at least in my immediate area.

But then again, you have to take into account the "scam factor" for all of this.

[K9Veteran]

Seems once you get south of Sarasota the number of sink holes drops to almost zero. Must be something about all the small lakes up in the northern part of the State. The one thing that sticks out in this thread is the 20K deductable for insurance. Seems to me if the insurance companies were not worried about sink holes or claims, their deductables would be MUCH less.

Just the 20k deductable is enough of a red flag for concern.

[gulfer]

There are NO codes for Realtors regarding sinkholes. Where did you come up with this? Anything regarding sinkholes is listed on the MLS. There are time when it is listed in the Realtor Remarks section vice the actual listing or on the sellers disclosure. It it is there, it MUST be told to someone wanting to buy the home. I send that information in BIG BOLD LETTERS immediately.

Agents get fined and lose thier license over not disclosing this.

There are some shady people out there I am sure. But this one can have huge legal ramifications.

[bentlebee]

It is not a special code for Realtors only but for people with knowledge and that is what I stated prior and many agents will be aware of where to find them aside from going through the public records but we keep it to ourselves since it seems we have an advantage on others by having this knowledge in our office.