Ultimate Retirement Community Buyer’s Guide

May 26, 2009

Over the next several days and weeks I’ll be posting chapters from “The Ultimate Retirement Community Buyer’s Guide“. This is the entire text of the book (excluding the many buyer worksheets and checklists that are in there) completely free for you to read. In a few short weeks I plan to make available a printed version for those who wish to have it. Hope you enjoy it, and as always love your feeedback so let me know how you like it by leaving a comment.

Chapter 1: Introduction
If you are thinking of buying a new home and retiring, or at least considering buying a second home in the next couple of years, this book is for you. The idea for this book was born out of frustration. For the past several years, as a real estate broker and more specifically a new home salesperson, I have worked primarily with baby boomers who were either purchasing their future retirement homes, or buying second homes to visit and enjoy with friends and family.

No matter how successful, well-educated, or bright these baby boomers were, each had their own set of questions that they needed answered. Some had basic questions such as where to retire, what each region offers, and what the weather would be like at different times of the year. Others pondered what they might do to fill their days, wondering whether they would continue to work in retirement, start new businesses, or split their days between the golf course and the beach.

Invariably, their questions would eventually turn to real estate. They needed to know things like where could they find the best values in home prices, how much would their taxes be, would they be able to get insurance and how much would the insurance cost. Others wondered what type of community would be best for them, for example, would they want to live somewhere that has a Homeowners’ Association? Many other boomers were interested in learning more about the process of having a new home built.

What was frustrating for me was seeing so many of them receive and act on misinformation that they found on an unreliable website, or that they received from well-intentioned but misinformed friends or family, and in a few rare cases, from agents or builders with only their own interests in mind. My goal for this book is to answer the questions that you have about buying or building a new home and eventually moving to enjoy their retirement.

Best wishes for your retirement!

Chapter 2: Deciding Where to Retire

Chapter 3: How to Find a Realtor

Chapter 4: Types of Homes

Chapter 5: Kinds of Retirement Communities

Chapter 6: Retirement Community Homeowners’ Associations

Chapter 7: Real Estate Tax Information

Chapter 8: Homeowner’s Insurance Basics

Chapter 9: Home Inspections and Warranties

Chapter 10: Negotiating With Builders and Developers

Chapter 11: Real Estate Financing

Chapter 12: New Home Construction