Floods to Fortunes: Tampa's Housing Secrets

Imagine enduring four feet of water inside your home. That’s just one of the gripping stories shared by our guest, Sam Caudle, a vibrant real estate personality and Instagram sensation known for showcasing the dynamic Tampa region. Sam's journey from Oklahoma to Florida brought him face-to-face with the challenges and rewards of life in this hurricane-prone area. From the heartache of natural disasters to the resilience of Tampa’s real estate market, Sam brings personal anecdotes and professional insights that paint a vivid picture of recovery and growth in the Sunshine State.

We also tackle the complexities of FEMA regulations and the notorious 49% rule impacting property assessments in Florida. Listen as we break down how these regulations affect homeowners and the real estate landscape. Additionally, we explore the ripple effect of demographic shifts, with snowbirds flocking to Tampa and residents moving from Miami due to rising costs. Join us for an episode packed with stories of resilience, insights into market trends, and even a few tales about the joys and challenges of raising chickens in North Tampa.

"Sam gave us an inside look on the real estate market in Tampa and what it means to get pummeled by Hurricanes year after year.  Can you imagine 4 ft of water in your home happening two times in 3 years?  You have to hear his story and he still has a sense of humor about it all.  Believe it or NOT, the weather in Florida is still the main reason people flock to this state.  I LOVE FLORIDA!" - Brad Weisman

---
Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real people, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealPeopleRealLife 

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller. 

Transcript

Real Estate Recovery in Tampa

Speaker 1 0:29

All right, rock and roll From real estate to real life and everything in between, the Brad Wiseman Show and now your host, brad Wiseman, we are back, we are back. That's all I'm just going to say. I'm just going to say we're back. What do you think about that, hugo? We're back, we're back, all right. So we're back and we are traveling. This time we are traveling all the way to Florida believe it or not, tampa Florida.

Speaker 1 0:57

I found this guy on, I think, instagram, and he does an amazing job with videos basically selling his area of Tampa Florida. My wife and I have family down in Tampa Florida. I thought it was very interesting. We had the hurricanes that happened this past summer in Tampa and all the part, all kinds of parts of Florida and North Carolina and Georgia and I thought it'd be great to talk to him, find out how the real estate snapping back. Is the real estate coming back price-wise? Are they fixed up? Are they, you know, do they have a lot of stuff they have to do yet because of the hurricanes? And he has firsthand experience of what went on down there in the real estate market during that time. So I thought I'd bring him on and we'll chat with him, sam Cottle, how you doing, man?

Speaker 1 1:36

I'm doing great, brad, thanks for having me. I'm doing great too, and you're very welcome. But yeah, I saw so many videos of you over the last 24 hours. I was watching a lot of your stuff. You do a wonderful job. You do a really good job with that.

Speaker 2 1:50

Thank you so much. I hear that a lot from clients. They're like I binge your videos over the past weekend and then called you like perfect.

Speaker 1 1:57

That's great yeah exactly, but you do a really authentic job. I think what I wrote down in my notes is that you're casual friendly. You have a casual friendly delivery, you know. So it's not. It doesn't seem plasticky, it doesn't seem fake. You're really putting the information out there about the Tampa area and also, I guess basically it You're really putting the information out there about the Tampa area and also, I guess basically it's St Pete, clearwater, wesley Chapel.

Speaker 2 2:18

You're covering a large area around Tampa, correct? Yeah, absolutely, you know an outside perspective like Tampa is big. Yeah, like they don't know the difference between St Petersburg and Tampa and Wesley Chapel and right Even down into like other suburbs and other counties, like people don't see all that from the outside.

Speaker 1 2:32

Yeah, it's incredible, it's really cool and it's a beautiful area. It really is. Oh, it's so beautiful. Yeah, and you're. You said you're originally from Oklahoma. Okay, I need to know how do you get from Oklahoma to Florida? I know you can fly or drive, of course, but there had to be a reason. There had to be a reason.

Speaker 2 2:54

Well, I always tell people city for a little while and I lived in Colorado for about a decade.

Speaker 1 2:59

Colorado, then to Florida.

Speaker 2 3:01

Yeah, I've been all over the place. Talk about a weather swap, oh my gosh. My wife grew up in Florida, though, so we always kind of knew we we'd have to come back here Cause she couldn't handle the cold.

Speaker 1 3:11

Yeah, I get it. You can always go to Colorado and do what you need to do. You ski whatever it is and then come back to warmth and and some kind of a more better, a comfortable life. I would say Absolutely yeah. So so you're, you're in Florida now, so you're married. You said you're married 10 years. Congratulations, it's awesome. Any children? Yep, three, three kids.

Speaker 2 3:33

Wow.

Speaker 1 3:34

Seven months, wow, okay, congratulations, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 3:37

I don't know when we'll stop. We'll probably go for four. We have 18 chickens right now to do 18 chickens.

Speaker 1 3:44

Wait, where do you live in Florida that you have chickens?

Speaker 2 3:55

I live on the north side of Tampa. Actually, I published a video not too long ago about where to find an acre near Tampa. Wow, so many locals called me saying I never knew I could live on an acre and be 30 minutes from.

Speaker 1 3:59

Tampa. I thought Disney world was the only one that had something over a quarter of an acre. I didn't know that you could actually have more land.

Speaker 2 4:05

Oh, there's so much diversity on the North side of Tampa as it gets a little more rural. It's like super interesting, we love it.

Speaker 1 4:11

Oh, that's cool, that's very cool. Well, that's that rural. It's like super interesting. We love it. Oh, that's cool, that's very cool. Well, that's that's. I wasn't expecting that. So let's go back to what you know. This year, you guys had a rough time. This past summer you had a rough time and, um, you had two hurricanes that came through was um Helene and Milton. Now I saw a video of yours and, if you're, if you can check out his video, it's pretty interesting showing a house that you actually had damage from last year or two years ago. Right, you fixed it up, right, and then you got hit by. Was it milton that hit you then, or was it?

Speaker 2 4:41

helene. Helene, it wasn't a direct hit, but the way the storm rotates just they call it the dirty side it just pushes all the flood water up to us amazing and I and I saw the video you had four feet of water in your house. Yeah, that's a lot of water. Oh, it's crazy. And outside on the privacy fence it was like chest high.

Speaker 1 5:01

I'm five foot 10. It was chest.

Speaker 2 5:03

high out there I could have treaded water in the yard.

Speaker 1 5:06

So you obviously got out before it got to that point, or you weren't there.

Speaker 2 5:10

Yeah, so long story short. Last year, year before hurricane adalia, we had just moved, okay, okay, and we were selling our house. It was under contract to sell, flooded while it was under contract, oh geez, five days from closing, it flooded. Buyers backed out. Fix it up, get it back on the market. It's slow to slow to get traction and then it floods, floods again. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 5:34

I know I think you need to sell that as soon as possible that there's.

Speaker 2 5:38

there's something going on this time, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 5:40

I bet you just want to get get it done, right.

Speaker 2 5:43

Absolutely, and I bought it in 2020 and it's 2.7% interest, so I have a lot of appreciation in this.

Speaker 1 5:50

Oh my gosh, that's crazy. So. So where, where is that house located that you got that, that dirty side of the hurricane, I mean?

Speaker 2 5:57

yeah, that's a house built in 1962 in Tarpon Springs, so like Northwest side of the of the Tampa area.

Speaker 1 6:02

Gotcha, okay, and they got hit. Yeah, they got hit. Yeah, it's, it's a shame.

Speaker 2 6:07

well, hopefully you'll get that fixed up in the yards from, like tidal water, like a bayou oh, wow coastline.

Speaker 1 6:13

So oh, wow, yeah, so you saw that now. Is that the uh what they call the, the uh, not the tidal way what they call that. When it comes in the, the, when the water just goes up, I forget, yeah, the surge. Is that what that was?

Speaker 2 6:23

yeah, just silently comes up, it just comes under the doors. Yeah, both times when I go to like check on the house, I open the door and water comes out.

Speaker 1 6:34

That's not supposed to happen.

Speaker 2 6:36

The first time I did it, there were reporters with me from the Tampa Bay times. Yeah, and they're like can we walk with you? And we're like walking through this water. I'm like sure we opened the door and they're like this emotional reaction of me, like seeing the water come out of the house. I'm like what in the world?

Speaker 1 6:51

Oh my gosh, yeah, we, we just don't. We don't deal with that up here. We don't have thank goodness, we don't have those situations and I, you guys, don't have it all the time. But so let's go into this now. Sure, what has that done? Back to normalcy after those storms?

Speaker 2 7:08

It takes a long time. You know, a lot of houses were damaged. About 20,000 houses were damaged to that extent. Wow, that's a lot Another another 40,000 were damaged, but not that to that extent, right. So imagine 20,000 people that now can't live in their houses. That's great. Where are they? Where are they? Where's everybody? They have to rent other houses. Fema has temporary housing available, but it's like a motel, like on the other side of Tampa, yeah right right, wow.

Speaker 1 7:36

So people are really hurting. Yet I know that's amazing yeah.

Speaker 2 7:39

And I'm the furthest along. So on my street most of the houses were flooded and say there's 40 of them. I'm the only one that has drywall in already.

Speaker 1 7:48

Wow, Okay, that's amazing. Well, I know, obviously you know it goes to who you know, to obviously how you can get on the list to get stuff done Right, um, but so our house is all the same.

Speaker 2 7:58

People from last year.

Speaker 1 8:00

Exactly, you have a whole list.

Speaker 2 8:01

Hey, hey, bad news, and I'm excited to give you some more work.

Speaker 1 8:05

Oh man, now what about insurance? Does the insurance? How does that work? Do they drop you? Do they? Is it double now? Or how does?

Speaker 2 8:12

that work. The insurance is the. It's the national flood insurance program, so it's backed by FEMA.

Speaker 1 8:16

Oh, okay, I got it. So that means my insurance is going to go up then.

Speaker 2 8:19

They can't technically drop you.

Speaker 1 8:21

That means our taxes are going up. Thanks a lot, I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 8:27

My insurance actually doubled before the last storm. Oh my gosh, it's crazy. So before it flooded the first time, it my my policy doubled. So that's a $400,000 house Flood insurance on. It is about $4,500 a year. Oh man, 4,500 a year. But the claim last year was six figures. Oh my gosh, just barely six figures. This year, you know there was way more water. Oh my gosh, just barely six figures this year.

Speaker 1 8:50

You know there was way more water. Oh my gosh, that's going to be a lot more money. Yeah Jeez, that's incredible. I had no idea. Had no idea at all. Hugo, you have a question?

Speaker 2 8:58

Yeah, so do you know how, when you crash a car, you know there's like a record that goes to the title of the car. Does that happen too with the houses? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 9:13

Yeah, the flood claim history transfers, like with the transaction.

Speaker 2 9:15

Yeah, okay, but there's a lot, so there's a flood claim history.

Speaker 1 9:17

that goes with the transaction, okay.

Speaker 2 9:19

And now there's a new document called the flood disclosure document, specifically asking did a flood because the loophole previously was a lot of people own their houses outright, because they've been in them a long time, they don't have to have flood insurance. So then the claim history. There's no claim history because they don't have insurance.

Speaker 1 9:35

Got it Makes sense.

Speaker 2 9:37

So now they're making you actually disclose, like what the height of the water was, what storm it was damaged in, those kinds of things.

Speaker 1 9:43

What the height of the water is. Okay, so like when we do a disclosure here about water in our basements, it's basically oh, during very heavy rains there's a slight trickle. Okay, yeah you guys are talking height you guys are talking height, you're like so was it three feet, was it four feet?

Speaker 2 10:00

oh my gosh, it's crazy, it's pretty wild, and homeowners insurance in those scenarios is really high too. Yeah, now do you find?

Speaker 1 10:07

the insurance companies are the insurance companies are they do? They do they make you whole on the property, they do? Yeah, okay, good, that's good, because you know you hear horror stories sometimes around here if it's a fire or flooding or whatever it would be.

Speaker 2 10:20

Oh, I know and I see I see other real estate professionals like propagate these stories on social media and I'm like that's literally not how it works. Like you don't know what you're talking about. You haven't been through this. Like look at how mine did went last year. Look at how it's going this year.

Speaker 1 10:34

Like I can show you actual numbers? Okay, good, that's good to hear. So okay, so Tampa's doing, you guys are rebuilding, things are coming back now.

Speaker 2 10:42

But also like think about the market a little bit. 20,000 people without a house that's crazy. 20,000 people without a house that's crazy. We've sold, we've sold a few listings recently and most of the offers come from people who's flooded two miles away.

Speaker 1 10:54

Are there people that go screw it? I am not going back to that location, I'm moving. I'm moving inland because I don't want to deal with this again.

Speaker 2 11:02

Yeah, we, yeah, we sold one with. You know, cash only cut down to the studs.

Speaker 1 11:07

Wow, unbelievable. So you do so. You do sell houses that basically they're not even done yet either. Somebody comes in and says look, I'll give you 150,000 or 200,000 cash. I know it's going to cost me another 200,000 to fix it up, but I'll take that on. It's my, I want it.

Speaker 2 11:23

That's amazing, amazing.

Speaker 1 11:25

That's it's. It's such a different world. It really really is different world there's opportunity all over the place oh, that's true, and but it is, and it is the opportunity. I mean, here's the thing yeah, those 20 000 people need to go somewhere. I mean, you know they have to live somewhere. It's not like they're just going to disappear, um well, and they're not likely to just leave town right, that's what's going to say families here, their jobs here.

FEMA Regulations and Property Assessments

Speaker 2 11:45

like yeah, yeah, you're just like move across the country. No, you're planted there, you're there, you know.

Speaker 1 11:51

Yeah, and it's a great state. There's no state income tax. It's wonderful. Why wouldn't you want to do that? That's wonderful. All right, let me. So I want to talk about this. What is this? I heard on one of your videos. Like I said, we don't deal with this stuff.

Speaker 2 12:06

Yeah, so this came into effect in 2022, after Hurricane Ian or right before Hurricane Ian, maybe? Okay, and I'm not an attorney and I'm not an insurance broker, that's all right.

Speaker 1 12:15

Just give us your take on it as a realtor.

Speaker 2 12:18

The rule states that significant repairs or improvements cannot exceed 49% of the tax assessed value of the building, and that's the tax assessed value, not the appraised value of the building.

Speaker 1 12:30

And that's the tax assessed value, not the appraised value of the building. Okay.

Speaker 2 12:33

So my number for that house is 110,000. That's how much I can spend on it before I hit that rule. Once you hit for over 49%, that house would have to be torn down.

Speaker 1 12:44

So cause? They want it to be brought to code. They want all the code to be brought up Right, Unbelievable. Now who pays for that? If it does get to that point, I don't know Like within. I should have given you this question ahead of time.

Speaker 2 13:11

No, I like it. Would I then get my total amount from insurance of $250,000? That's what I'm saying, like what happens, and then I sell it as a lot Like I don't yeah, I don't know that's an interesting one. Interestingly, it's up to the cities to enforce this on FEMA's behalf.

Speaker 1 13:27

And somebody has to go, look at it and go, okay, well, this is. And when you talk about assessed value, is that what your house? Is that what it's taxed on? Like your? Property tax, the tax assessed value of the building and in Florida I owned a couple of condos down there at one point and they were in Tampa. When you every year, don't they reassess your value every year, like with a computer estimate system or something like that?

Speaker 2 13:51

They do. But if it's a homesteaded property, that can only go up 3% per year, so it goes up pretty slowly.

Speaker 1 13:57

Mine was not homesteaded because I was outside.

Speaker 2 13:59

Yeah, so then, it can go up to 10% per year.

Speaker 1 14:01

Yeah, I experienced that very much, so it was not fun because I bought them in. I bought them in 2008, nine, and then by the time I went to sell, they were they were definitely a lot higher taxes. That's interesting, so, uh. So going back, so the 50% rule you've never had to test it yet or anything. You've never been involved in it yet. I exceeded 50% rule. You've never had to test it yet or anything. You've never been involved in it yet.

Speaker 2 14:20

I exceeded 50% on expenses last year. Yeah, and no one ever talked to me about the rule.

Speaker 1 14:26

Okay.

Speaker 2 14:27

So I'm like, okay, should we take this part out of the video.

Speaker 1 14:30

No, I like it.

Speaker 2 14:32

Everybody's talking about it and everybody's freaking out about it. Yeah, because these are having meetings and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 14:46

Yeah, because my thing is, how do you police that? That's 20,000 homes that you have to have somebody check out If the value, if you're putting more than than 49% of uh back in right.

Speaker 2 14:50

I don't know how you do that Well, and do you also just look at those people who've lived in those houses for 40 years and say you have to tear your house down? Probably not. No no no, cities don't do that kind of stuff to their citizens it's like eminent domain almost.

Speaker 1 15:05

I mean it really is. It's crazy. So here let me ask you another thing that we get into into the. You know we hear good and bad about fema. How is fema for you guys?

Speaker 2 15:14

it's good and bad.

Speaker 1 15:16

Good and bad so it's like anything, it's like anything?

Speaker 2 15:18

yeah, okay, it's the last resort. Oh, it's the last resort.

Speaker 1 15:21

Oh, it's the last resort. Okay, got it it is. Yeah, so of all.

Speaker 2 15:26

You don't want to go to them and ask for assistance. Okay, it's the last resort. Okay, that makes sense. If you got flooded and you're homeless, go ask for help. Got you figure it out? Put stuff on credit cards. Call your credit card company and say hey, I was hit by this disaster. They'll give you forbearance, like all those kinds of things Gotcha Okay, so.

Speaker 1 15:44

So there's a lot, there's a lot of help. It's out there. Fema is the last.

Speaker 2 15:47

There is, and creditors help a lot when it's a FEMA disaster.

Speaker 1 15:51

Gotcha Okay.

Speaker 2 15:52

They have loopholes. Even mortgage companies have that. When you say, hey, I was hit by this hurricane, they have a procedure for that.

Speaker 1 15:59

Interesting. Well, that's good to hear, because you never want to have somebody lose their house or they're already having a bad time, so you don't need them to be stressed out about paying their mortgage and things like that if they're out of work and going back to the car insurance question, it's like you're driving down the road and a tidal wave hits you.

Speaker 2 16:17

It's not your fault, and a tidal wave hits you.

Speaker 1 16:19

It's not your fault. No, it's not your fault at all. Yeah Well, you could have picked a different road. You could have. Yeah, it's not your fault.

Speaker 2 16:29

And I hear a lot of people say, oh well, they live in Florida, so they should expect this. You should see the comments on that video.

Speaker 1 16:35

Oh, I can only imagine they're like oh, who's what? It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful state. I, like I said, we love, we love visiting. In fact, we'll be down there. We will be down there sometime this before the end of the year. We'll be down in Florida again.

Speaker 2 16:48

So let's talk about some chickens around my house.

Speaker 1 16:52

I love chickens. I got to say there's nothing like fresh eggs. I it is the best and people don't. They think you're crazy when you say stuff like that. But there's nothing like fresh eggs.

Speaker 2 17:01

Oh, and the chickens love my six-year-old. They just like run up to her.

Speaker 1 17:04

Oh yeah, I had a. I had a rooster attack me when I was a kid, that's a whole different story.

Speaker 2 17:08

I really did. That's a whole different story, yeah.

Speaker 1 17:11

They're not. They're not friendly. They are not friendly. The roosters are not. The the hens are good. So about this, our snowbirds, that's still a thing not not an actual bird, but people that you know that come down there for three months from like december to march. Is that still a big thing?

Speaker 2 17:25

absolutely yeah, and you know, that kind of started as like a, a semi-retirement thing, right, right, right, go ahead and buy this place and you'll live there part of the year and then eventually maybe you'll live there the whole year. Right, but as you know, fixed costs of living here have gone up and up and up. Insurance and now condo condo associations are just far more expensive than they used to be because, of all this extra they have to keep in reserves, all these kinds of things.

Speaker 1 17:51

That's happening everywhere. By the way, that thing that has the collapse that happened in Florida, that there has affected the whole country. In fact, I am now the vice president of our HOA at the beach, where we have a condo at the beach and that they bring up the Florida thing that collapsed. That building collapsed and they now make us all have a reserve study done and we have to fund that reserve study based on the Maryland. I'm in Pennsylvania but the condos in Maryland on the Maryland state law states that we have to have that funded. That has made our condo fees go through the roof.

Speaker 2 18:26

Through the roof. Yeah, so condos are just more expensive all of a sudden. So we've had a lot of clients retirees that moved here kind of as snowbirds partially and then moved here permanently, like leaving going to Tennessee?

Speaker 1 18:39

Yeah, because they're fixed costs. If they're retired, they have fixed income. Yeah, you can't have your HOA going up by $100, $200 a month every time you turn around.

Speaker 2 18:49

Or your car insurance or your electric bill, like all those things. Florida has just had higher than typical inflation in the past five years and a lot of people on fixed income have had to leave. Wow that's amazing.

Speaker 1 19:01

So who do you see coming in? Who's coming in, like, if it's not the, the, the retirees, I mean, where are they coming from? Just other places, I guess.

Speaker 2 19:08

Yeah, interestingly, you know, a big influx to the Tampa area is the Miami area. Okay, as the Miami area has gotten more expensive, gotcha, I need to hire an agent that speaks spanish. Because, yeah, you should.

Speaker 1 19:21

It's just like so needed now oh, absolutely, it's needed everywhere and and there's, it's great. I mean, you know that's it's something that, as americans, we need to. By the way, uh, my producer is spanish speaking. Hello, my name is carlos hugo, is actually from guatemala and and uh, he's now a US citizen, which is cool, but he speaks, obviously speaks. His first language is Spanish.

Speaker 2 19:46

Sam, if you eat tacos twice a week, that will tremendously help you with your Spanish. Okay, okay.

Speaker 1 19:53

See, he can make the Spanish jokes. I can't you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah he's allowed to.

Speaker 2 19:55

I can't make those jokes. I love it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 19:56

He's, he's allowed to. I can't make those jokes. I love it. Yeah, it's fun, it's fun.

Speaker 2 20:00

So so yeah, definitely influx from the Miami area, but also other States like New York, like California, like those are all popular people to relocate to the Florida area.

Speaker 1 20:09

How about Pennsylvania? I bet I bet you Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 20:12

you get a lot of people because and also amazing so how harder to finance if you're from canada okay, but there's a few canadian banks that make it a little easier okay, interesting, that's interesting, didn't know that.

Speaker 1 20:28

So here's, here's the thing, inventory. How's it going? Good or bad are you guys? Are you balanced now? Are you still seller's market, still buyer's market? Where is it?

Speaker 2 20:36

it's pretty balanced pretty balanced and listing prices are down year over year.

Speaker 1 20:41

So they went down.

Speaker 2 20:43

Yes, asking prices Okay, so that's like optimistic. You know, people thought it was still going to go up 15% so they listed accordingly. Yep Sold prices are up year over year, but Interesting that's a good point and we're going through that, but the bargaining happens easier. Yeah, like, yeah, we haven't. We haven't had a deal over asking price in a long time. Actually, we have one under contract right now. But it was that condo, I mean that townhouse, that a bunch of people that flooded were trying to buy.

Speaker 1 21:12

Oh, that's so funny.

Speaker 2 21:13

Interesting, so you did have over feet above sea level.

Speaker 1 21:16

Oh my, that's it. In Clearwater water. Oh my god, 90, 90.

Speaker 2 21:21

yeah, that's actually good then that's high, that's high for for there right, highest points in the whole county.

Speaker 1 21:27

How the heck did they get a 90 foot? Is this like a little mountain in clear water? Yeah, it is kind of. You know, around here that would be called like an ant ant hill. Yeah, yeah, in colorado too. Yeah, that's crazy, yeah 90 feet.

Speaker 2 21:36

Yeah, because most of the stuff's at sea level or below right right, I think tampa is actually.

Speaker 1 21:39

Yeah, yeah, in Colorado too. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, 90 feet. Yeah, because most of the stuff's at sea level or below right. Right, I think Tampa is actually below sea level, isn't it the best.

Speaker 2 21:46

There's some parts of South Tampa that are yeah.

Speaker 1 21:49

I've heard that before Amazing, amazing. So inventory is kind of balanced. Prices are kind of evening out a little bit. They're not, they're not going up like crazy.

Speaker 2 21:58

You have to with a listing. You have to price pretty competitively to get good traffic fast, otherwise stuff's going to sit on the market for a few months.

Speaker 1 22:06

So I'll tell you what you are. I'm going to call you Mr Tampa. Tell me, just. Give me a? Um, let's just say like a two minute overview of Tampa and why I should buy there.

Speaker 2 22:15

Well, mostly for the weather. That's why most, most literally, why most people come to the tampa area. It's such a unique tropical town with very unique history. Tampa, st petersburg, even little towns like tarpon springs have rich history going back to the 19th century, like, literally, industry was started by ebor and by the greeks and the spongers and by the really unique dynamics of St Petersburg in the late 1800s super, super unique history and super invested community. But there is so much more opportunity for Tampa because it has areas to grow Really does to the North, or to the North and West, the East and to the South, really interesting the.

Speaker 2 22:57

West is all water.

Speaker 1 22:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:59

And that and that County is also the most densely populated county in the state I meant.

Speaker 1 23:03

I meant I meant east. When I say west, I always think of myself here in pennsylvania. Yeah, but no, I know what you meant.

Speaker 2 23:09

To the east, yes, yes, but like miami fort lauderdale area to their west, they back up to the everglades.

Speaker 1 23:15

So they just literally can't grow, you can't do anything, you have to grow up.

Speaker 2 23:18

So we have this like outer circle that's continuing to grow and creating opportunity, but not just opportunity for living, opportunity for jobs and businesses and all kinds of things.

Speaker 1 23:28

Yeah, that's amazing. So there's so much, so there's so much there. Yet there's a lot there and and, uh, you know, I always feel, just feel like the golf side is just different. It's just different than it's chill yeah. Charming beach towns, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 23:40

It's chill, charming little beach towns.

Speaker 1 23:42

That's what I found. I always say, if I move to Florida it's going to be Tampa area. I mean, apollo Beach is nice. We've hung out there before Bradenton, even going down. I guess. Further south there is nice New Tampa. Is it still called New Tampa? That's up north there.

Speaker 2 23:56

Oh yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 23:57

Yeah, is that Wesley Chapel area area?

Speaker 2 23:59

no, that's not so that that borders wesley chapel. Okay, that's what I thought.

Speaker 1 24:02

When you go across county line road, you go into wesley chapel interesting because I used to have a place what they considered new tampa.

Speaker 2 24:08

That was where the condos were that we owned yeah, new tampa is a place that was like annexed back into the city. Oh, okay, got it, got it. Yeah, in like the late 80s, okay, late 90s, 1999, yeah. And then lennar built out those, all those neighborhoods amazing yeah, it's a cool spot.

Speaker 1 24:22

Is there anything else you want to say about tampa before we wrap things up here?

Speaker 2 24:26

I. I got into real estate and thought, okay, how do I share my experience of? I'm an outsider to this place, yeah, and how do I make sense of it? Because locals are defensive about it, newcomers are in love with it. How do I find this like middle ground of just like sharing what it's like to live here, what it's like to move here from somewhere else? So I started just by telling you know funny stories about my Greek father-in-law and anecdotal things. But then, just being a student of the map and the history and all those kinds of things and starting to piece it all together, I've loved just sharing about Tampa, but I'm not into selling people on Tampa.

Speaker 1 25:05

I'm into if they're, if they want it, I'm here to help them. Yeah, I love you know it's a unique situation where you really you've almost become like a historian of it. You just have the information about it and I think actually, what you believe it or not, when I listen to your stuff, you are selling me on Tampa by giving me that information. You're not doing it actively, but you're you're selling me on that location because I always liked it there anyway, but it's. I like it even more when I hear some more of the history and I didn't realize it was that old. You know the 18, 1800s. I had no idea.

Speaker 2 25:37

Oh, and the locals like me up in the comments. If I were to call myself a Tampa historian, they would tell me what's what. I'm just trying to provide value and tell the stories and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 25:50

You know what you are. You're doing, that. You're doing it very well because you're being noticed. I love the videos you're doing. People should check you out at Instagramcom Living in Tampa is what it is. That's your thing. Living in Tampa, right, yeah. And also YouTube. Lots of good videos on there At Living in Tampa is his YouTube page. Check that out. It's all good stuff. You're doing a great job, man. I appreciate it, sam. Thanks, brad, you're welcome. All right, there we go.

Speaker 1 26:18

If you are looking to move to Florida, you want to look this guy up, sam Cottle. He actually is a realtor for eXp. I'm going to just call him Mr Tampa from now on, just because I think it makes sense. He's Instagramcom backslash living in Tampa, florida, and then he's also YouTubecom at living in Tampa and he's doing just a great job. So check him out when you're down there if you're buying any real estate or whatever you're doing, and maybe he'll even let you have some eggs from his chickens, who knows? Let's see what happens. All right, that's about it. We'll see you next Thursday at 7 pm.