I watched the Today Show interview with Barbara and wanted to express my opinion. Barbara appears to focus on a lot of the 3 bedroom houses, for example the $349,000 house in Boca Raton, FL. If you are just going to pick random places to highlight values, there are much better deals in FL right now which will get you a lot more house for your money. For example, right now in the Tampa suburbs, you can get a 3,555 sq ft, 5 bdm, 4 bath, 3 car garage on a conservation water lot for $334,900 (MLS ID #T2312717). There are a huge number of listings similar to this one. I understand that she is trying to select certain houses that have something unique that will interest viewers, but it just makes me say, “she really does not understand what the word “value” really means”.
Additionally, Barbara mentioned in response to a question about fees that they were cheap and that a gated community placed restrictions on the owners ability to make certain exterior modifications. Actually the fees can be quite high in Florida as there is both a HOA fee and a Community Development District (CDD) fee. For example, your HOA fee may be $500 per year; however, your CDD fee is usually around $1700 - $2500 per year which can easily add $250 extra to your monthly mortgage. While it is true that most (if not all) gated communities have HOA covenants that restrict certain exterior decorating, that is not limited to just gated communities and in fact, any community with a HOA, gated or not, will usually have similar restrictions.
Overall, I think her house choices are short sited and lack the true understanding that I would expect from a person being held out as a national expert on real estate.
