A SOURCE FOR REAL ESTATE & TAMPA BAY INFORMATION

Should you buy at Art House or 400 Central in Downtown St. Petersburg? Art House is a 42-story, 244-residence tower from Kolter Urban — the developer's third condominium high-rise in downtown St. Petersburg — that began welcoming residents in late 2025. The Residences at 400 Central is a 46-story, 3

Should You Rent First or Buy Right Away When Relocating to Tampa Bay? Rent first if you don't yet know which Tampa Bay neighborhood fits your life — a year of local knowledge is cheaper than a six-figure resale mistake. Buy right away if you already know the market, because renting delays Florida's

Should you buy at Pendry Residences Tampa or The Residences at The Tampa EDITION? Pendry Residences Tampa is a 38-story hotel-and-condo tower under construction at 111 S. Ashley Drive on the Tampa Riverwalk, with roughly 200 residences reported to be priced from about $1.7 million and completion and

Should you install impact windows or hurricane shutters on a Tampa Bay home? For most Tampa Bay luxury homes, impact-rated windows are the stronger long-term choice: they protect every opening without deployment, qualify for Florida's mandated wind-mitigation insurance credits, and carry real weight

Should you buy a condo on Clearwater Beach or St. Pete Beach? The two barrier-island markets differ on four things that matter to a condo buyer: building stock and age (which drives milestone-inspection and SIRS reserve exposure under Florida's post-Surfside laws), short-term-rental zoning (St. Pete

Can you sell a Tampa Bay home off-market — and should you? Yes. Stellar MLS, the listing service covering Tampa Bay, gives sellers three private-sale paths: an office exclusive, an office exclusive with temporary exclusion, and a delayed distribution listing. Each requires the seller's signature on

Can you buy a Tampa Bay luxury home without selling your stock portfolio? Yes. Three lending structures let you use your investments without liquidating them: a securities-backed line of credit (SBLOC) that borrows against your portfolio for a fast, cash-style purchase; a pledged-asset mortgage that

Which Tampa neighborhoods carry the highest home values? Tampa’s highest-value neighborhoods are Avila, Beach Park, Sunset Park, Culbreath Isles, Davis Islands, Golfview, and Hyde Park. Six of the seven sit in South Tampa; Avila is the outlier to the north. Most articles on this topic hand you a lis

Should you buy in Avila or Cheval? Avila is North Tampa's estate-caliber guard-gated enclave — acre-plus custom lots behind a walled perimeter with a 24-hour staffed gatehouse, anchored by the private, invitation-based Avila Golf & Country Club, with recent median sale figures reported in the mid-$2

How do you read a Tampa Bay flood zone before buying a home? Start with the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM): zones AE and VE are Special Flood Hazard Areas where flood insurance is mandatory on a federally backed mortgage, while Zone X carries no federal requirement. The Base Flood Elevation (B

Can you buy a Tampa Bay home without seeing it in person? Yes. Florida's transaction framework supports a fully remote purchase. A live video walkthrough and the Florida Realtors Sight Unseen Property Disclosure and Acknowledgment (SUP-1) handle the showing, the FR/BAR “As Is” contract's inspection

Should you buy in Snell Isle or Old Northeast in St. Petersburg? Snell Isle and Old Northeast face each other across Coffee Pot Bayou and sell two different products. Snell Isle is a 1925 planned island neighborhood with open-bay, bayou, and canal waterfront, Mediterranean Revival roots, and an acti

How do construction loans work for a custom build in South Tampa? A construction loan funds a custom build in stages — the lender releases money in four to six draws as inspections confirm each phase, and you pay interest only on the drawn balance during the build. Most South Tampa builds use a cons

What is the FEMA 50% rule for Tampa Bay homes? The FEMA 50% rule — formally the substantial improvement and substantial damage standard under 44 CFR 59.1 — says that when the cost of repairing or improving a home in a Special Flood Hazard Area equals or exceeds 50% of the market value of the structu

Do you have to replace an older roof before selling a Tampa Bay home? No — Florida law protects roofs under 15 years old from age-only insurance denial, and a roof 15 years or older can stay insurable with an inspection showing at least 5 years of remaining useful life (F.S. 627.7011). What roof age

What's the real difference between buying in Hyde Park and Palma Ceia? The biggest practical difference is regulatory. Much of Hyde Park sits inside a locally designated historic district, so exterior changes to homes there require a Certificate of Appropriateness from Tampa's Architectural Review C

What does a boundary survey catch before a Tampa Bay closing? A boundary survey maps your legal property lines, plots every recorded easement, and flags encroachments — fences, driveways, pool decks, or docks that cross a line in either direction. In Florida, the buyer typically orders and pays for

Should you buy in Beach Park or Sunset Park? Beach Park and Sunset Park sit side by side on the Old Tampa Bay side of the South Tampa peninsula, and both offer canal-front homes, private docks, and a mix of original houses and elevated new construction. Beach Park is the older neighborhood — platted

What does Florida's Seller's Property Disclosure have to reveal, and what does Johnson v. Davis require? Florida's Seller's Property Disclosure is the seller's written statement of known defects that materially affect a home's value — structural and roof issues, water intrusion and drainage, floodin

Can you sell a Tampa Bay home without being in Florida? Yes. Florida law fully supports remote real estate closings, and out-of-state sellers close Tampa Bay transactions every week without setting foot in the state. You have three paths: remote online notarization (RON), legal in Florida since Janu