Considering a move to Winter Haven, Florida? Heres some things you should know! 

Winter Haven located in the center of the state and is in between Tampa and Orlando and is home to a number of attractions, including Legoland Florida, and the Chain of Lakes. Its location also puts you an hour to Orlando attractions such as Disney and Animal Kingdom, and Tampa attractions such as Busch Gardens and the Florida Aquarium.

Winter Haven is also a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

If you are considering moving to Winter Haven, here are a few things you should know:

The cost of living in Winter Haven is relatively low.

The weather in Winter Haven is warm and sunny year-round.

Winter Haven is a great place to enjoy the outdoors.

Winter Haven is a family-friendly city.

There are a variety of job opportunities in Winter Haven.

If you are looking for a place to live that is affordable, has great weather, and is family-friendly, Winter Haven is the perfect place for you, after all that is why it was called Winter Haven. 

There are many people that were snowbirds and have moved here permanently. 

You can browse all homes for sale in Winter Haven. We also have a page for Pool Homes For Sale.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when moving to Winter Haven:

The housing market in Winter Haven is competitive.

The traffic in Winter Haven can be heavy during rush hour.

Winter Haven is a popular snowbird destination. It's ranked highly by many retiree websites for its lower cost of living and accessibility to medical facilities. 

Overall, Winter Haven is a great place to live. The city has a lot to offer its residents, and it is a great place to raise a family. If you are considering moving to Winter Haven, I encourage you to do your research and visit the city before making a decision.

Moving to a new city can be a lot of work, but it is also an exciting time. With a little planning and preparation, you can make your move to Winter Haven a smooth one. At Haven Realty & Investments we can help you make a move into the area with less headache! Give us a call at 863.333.5053.

Here are a few resources to help you with your move:

The Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce: The Chamber of Commerce can provide you with information about the city and help you connect with local businesses and organizations.

The Winter Haven Public Library: The Library has a variety of resources for new residents, including books, maps, and information about local events.

The Winter Haven Police Department: The Police Department can provide you with information about safety in the city and help you file a report if you are the victim of a crime.

If you have any further questions about moving to Winter Haven, please feel free to contact us.

Here is a video where Ben goes over the pros and cons of living in Winter Haven, Florida.

He has lived here most of his life and would be happy to answer any questions you have about locations or things to do here. 

Winter Haven Housing Information

As of this post the Averages for homes sold in Winter Haven were:

Cost per square foot was $171. 

Days to contract was 63.

Average Square Footage living area: 1713 sqft.

There are currently 412 homes available for sale.

Please know that these averages were for all of Winter Haven, and are not specific to any area or neighborhood and may vary greatly. If you are interested in moving to Winter Haven and would like a more detailed report on a certain area let us know. 

You may also want to check out the post about the BEST neighborhoods in Winter Haven. 

Looking for Lakeland Foreclosures For Sale? Check out this video Ben made about why they may not be what you are looking for!

As of this posting there are currently ZERO foreclosures available. There have been 16 over the last 6 months, but they are going at market rate and are not the "deal" you may think they are. 

You can browse Lakeland Foreclosures right here on our website. In the video Ben mentions income properties for sale. You can find them on the Lakeland Investment properties page. 

If you know what you are doing you may be able to find a foreclosure that you can rehab and get a little sweat equity out of, but if you don't know what you are doing or are hiring a general contractor, you are going to have a bad time. 

Give us a call at 863.333.5053 and we can help you go over what you need when you are looking for an investment property. We can help you all the way through the process and we even offer Property Management.

Greetings! This is my 170th weekly update! You can sign up for these to come straight to your email every Wednesday on our newsletter page!

Let me know if you find these videos helpful! I strive to be the best agent in Winter Haven. 

In the last 7 days the real estate market for Polk County has had 368 new properties come on the market, 392 properties have gone under contract, 187 have come back on market and are available again, and 521 have successfully closed and changed hands. 

In the Winter Haven Homes for sale side of things we have 397 active properties that are available for sale, 351 currently pending, and over the last 30 days from today, April 5th, we have had 248 sold. That leaves us with 1.6 months of inventory, squarely in the SELLERS MARKET territory. 

I've even had a conversation with Alex Foraker, who sells homes in Washington, and says his market is similar to ours where homes that are priced correctly are receiving multiple offers. 

If you are thinking of making a move lets talk because we are getting into the hotter spring and summer market when things will start to move even more. 

Of the 397 active in 10 of those are Winter Haven Townhouses For Sale.

Give us a call at the button below or dial 863.333.5053. 

One thing we get asked a lot when working with buyers shopping for a new home is what are the different flood zone codes and what do they mean? 

In this blog post we are going to cover what the flood zone codes are, and what that means to you. 

The FEMA website states that if you live in an area with low or moderate flood risk, you are 5 times more likely to experience flood than a fire in your home over the next 30 years.

The most common flood zone codes are "X", "A", and "AE". These are the ones we will be going over in this post. There are others such a B & C which are typically low risk, but we do not encounter them often here in Central Florida. 

Flood Zone X means that the area that is determined to be outside the 1% and 0.2% chance floodplains, and this does not require flood insurance. 

Flood Zone A means These areas have a 1% chance of annual flooding and a 26% chance of flooding over 30 years.

Flood Zone AE means the areas of 100-year flood; base flood elevations and flood hazard factors determined, and this requires flood insurance based.

But just because a home is in a flood zone code A or AE does not mean you need to panic!

Both A and AE require flood insurance, which could be as cheap as $500/per year. When you are buying a home in a flood zone you will likely want to have your surveyor do an elevation certificate to help you shop your flood insurance. This is an added expense that will likely range from $400-$500.  Even if you are in flood zone X you may want to purchase flood insurance as we are located in a hurricane prone area, and standard homeowners insurance even with named storm coverage does not cover flooding. 

There are other codes that require insurance, but they are not common in our area. If you are buying a home and concerned with the flood zone codes, give us a call at 863.333.5053 and we can help you find them and figure out the best steps. 

If you are looking for finer dining with an intimate setting, check out Nutwood in Winter Haven! Less than 1/4 mile from the Haven Realty office in Downtown Winter Haven, Nutwood has been around for years and is a great place to spend a dinner with someone special! 

Located in Downtown Winter Haven its a gem of a local restaurant. It's a small farm to table restaurant located at 132 Avenue B South West Winter Haven, FL 33880. 

There is nice outdoor patio seating, as well as 3 rooms of tables inside. 

I met a friend here for lunch the other day and it certainly made the list of places to take Winter Haven Home Sellers and Buyers. 

Their menu changes with seasonal availability, but its always loaded with delicious selections.

You can check them out at https://www.nutwoodwh.com/

Looking for information about Winter Haven Foreclosures? Ben goes over the current status (as of March 2023) foreclosures in Winter Haven. Check out the video then read on!

Due to recent market trends, Foreclosures are a long way off. Everyone that has purchased in the last 10 years and has made payments would have equity in their home, enough that if they could not make payments anymore they could sell the home and get a check at closing for their equity. Foreclosures happen when the market has been down and owners are upside down. It is a step past a short sale, and banks had rather do that vs go through the foreclosure process as it is expensive and lengthy. 

Here are any available foreclosures in Winter Haven. You can also view all Polk County Foreclosures here. 

If you are attempting to find rental properties in the area call Ben at 863.333.5053 and let's talk about what your goals are and see what we can find you. This is especially true if you are just starting down your real estate investor path, there is a steep learning curve that can be full of very expensive lessons. 

If you are just looking for your next home check out all Winter Haven Homes For Sale

Ben's weekly video is out! This week he talked about active inventory for the whole Polk county area, as well as sold home numbers year to date. We'd love to have you subscribe to our YouTube Channel to stay up to date! We are working hard on community videos, How To videos, and more! 

Here at Haven Realty & Investments we are here to help with all of your real estate needs! If you are buying your first home or selling your vacation, we can do that! We help families upgrading and downsizing, finding their dream homes and investment properties. 

9 Steps to buying a house in 2023!

Step 1 is to get your credit in order, work on paying down any credit card balances. Ideally you'd like your score to be in the mid 700's to get the best rates, but a credit score in the 600's it is still a possibility to buy a house. 

Step 2 is to speak with a lender and get pre-qualified to know what you can afford and they will inform you of how much money you need and assist with any extras on step one. 

Step 3 is to make a wants and needs list on what you would want in your next home and what you absolutely have to have. Things like bedrooms, bathrooms, school zones, proximity to work, etc would be needs. Things like a pool, fenced back yard, lake access, etc may be wants and more flexible. 

Step 4 is to call us and lets talk about it! We can start the process of scheduling viewings on homes that fit your needs. 

Step 5 is to put an offer together on the house you love! After we've seen a few you'll have an idea of what you want and it'll make selecting the one easier!

Step 6 Home Inspections! Once we get under contract we need to get a home inspector out to do the inspection and a 4 point and wind mitigation report on the property. 

Step 7 is to continue going through underwriting with the lender to clear conditions to get the loan approved and funded. 

Step 8 is to have the appraisal done, which isn't something you do the lender orders this, but it is a milestone worth mentioning because it tells you what the home is worth to the bank and typically your contract protects you if it comes up short. 

Step 9 is Closing day! We do the walk through and you go and sign a huge stack of papers and the home is yours! 

We hope this is helpful in finding your next home! 

USDA Home Loan Options for Polk County for 2023!

In the video Ben goes over some of the pros and cons of USDA loans. We will cover that more in depth here on this blog post for you!

USDA loans are a government backed 100% financing loan option for rural areas in the US. Here in Polk County, Florida many homes qualify. If you are interested in checking to see if the home you are looking at qualifies go to the Eligibility Checker and enter the address. 

USDA loans are for primary residences only, multifamily does not qualify. You can only buy a primary residence such as a home, condo, townhome, or manufactured home. No duplexes, triplexes, or quads qualify. 

Browse USDA eligible homes for sale!

The minimum credit score is typically 640, but that depends on other factors as well and we can connect you with a lender to discuss the right loan for you. 

The maximum household income for 2023 to qualify for a USDA loan is $103,500. If your combined household income is greater than that you are not eligible for a USDA loan. 

Another pro for USDA loans is that they typically have a slightly lower interest rate, but that will depending on your credit score and financial situation. 

USDA loans also do not carry a prepayment penalty so you can pay them off early or make extra payments without penalties and fees. 

A large pro to these loans (aside from requiring no down payment) is that they will accept up to 6% of the purchase price back as a seller credit to go towards your closing costs. So if you are purchasing a home for $200,000, you could recieve as much as $12,000 to go towards your closing costs. Often times the seller agrees to giving that back with a raised purchase price to offset some of it.

For example you might offer $206,000 on the $200,000 list price but ask for the 12,000 back. This is a better offer, but every situation is different and doing this you also have to worry about appraisal issues. 

If you are interested in seeing if this may be a fit for you to get into your first home give us a call at 863.333.5053!

Welcome Home to Oak Crossing in Auburndale, Florida!

This home, located at 561 Willet Circle, is ready for you to call it home! 

Built in 2006 if has 1538 square feet of living area, a 2 car garage, and a split floor plan with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. 

Its location is less than 3 miles to the Auburndale Walmart, and 5.5 miles from Florida Polytechnic University. It's a short drive to I-4 for the commuter in the family as well. 

The AC is new and it has just had the interior repainted. 

Lots of room in the privacy fenced back yard to play, let the dogs run, or have a garden. The low HOA is only $380 a year. 

If you are interested in learning more head over to 561 Willet Circle! There you can see school zones, more pictures, and request a showing!