Star Farms: Lifestyle Living in Lakewood Ranch with Ryan Roland from D.R. Horton

In this episode of Jim Sells the Suncoast, Jim sits down with Ryan Roland from D.R. Horton to discuss Star Farms, one of the latest developments in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. Ryan shares insights on what makes Star Farms unique, from its extensive amenities to flexible housing options tailored to various stages of life.

Episode Highlights:

1. Community Overview:
   • Star Farms offers a resort-style lifestyle with something for everyone—first-time homebuyers, growing families, and empty nesters.
   • The development will have 1,500 homes across 700 acres when complete, with about 1,300 homes managed by D.R. Horton.
2. Amenities Galore:
   • Four Amenity Centers: Residents have access to resort-style pools, coffee shops, and lounges at three centers, plus an exclusive center for the Freedom Series with higher HOA fees.
   • The Palm Bar: An on-site restaurant under construction with poolside food and drink service, slated for mid-next year.
   • Sportsplex at Junction Place: Offers baseball, tennis, pickleball, and basketball courts, along with a splash pad for families.
3. Housing Options and Pricing:
   • Variety of Homes: Options range from townhomes starting in the low $300s to single-family homes up to 4,000 sq. ft., starting in the low $400s.
   • Freedom Series: A non-age-restricted, active adult section with exclusive amenities and higher HOA fees.
   • Additional Costs: HOA fees range from $266 to $380 per month, depending on the property, with lawn maintenance included.
4. Lifestyle and Activities:
   • Lifestyle Directors: Each amenity center has a dedicated lifestyle director organizing events, clubs, and group activities.
   • Fitness Centers: Two on-site fitness centers with group classes, CrossFit training, turf fields, and a golf simulator.
   • Trails and Walkability: Over 20 miles of sidewalks and trails for enjoying Florida’s year-round sunshine.
5. Construction Timelines and Inventory Homes:
   • New homes are typically completed in about 180 days, with many ready-to-move-in inventory options available, making it easy for buyers on a tight timeline.
6. Incentives and Special Offers:
   • Currently, buyers can enjoy special rate buy-downs and up to $25,000 in flex cash (subject to change).
7. Local Integration and Future Development:
   • Star Farms is centrally located within Lakewood Ranch, near shopping, dining, and schools, with plans for a Publix nearby and golf cart-friendly paths throughout the community.
   • The community is about 50% complete, with a projected finish in 2-3 years.

What’s Next?

Interested in buying or selling a home on the Suncoast, or connect with this week's guest? Reach out to Jim at jim.ahearn@gmail.com or visit his website, Jim Sells the Suncoast.

A Personal Note from Jim:

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Transcript

Jim: 0:52

Good morning today. I have the honor of having Ryan Roland with me today. He's with DR Horton. Started off in construction with them and slid over to sales. He's been there for two years and here in Florida for four. Welcome Ryan. Thanks, Jim, for having me. No my pleasure. Glad to have you here. As you and I know, Star Farms is one of the big areas growing out here in Lakewood Ranch into the east and D. R. Horton's a big part of that. I wanted to talk a little bit about the development, what you guys have going on in that area. As well as the amenities and looking at the lifestyle of what what's available out here. And just maybe you can give me a little overview of the development and maybe what makes it unique compared to other developments in the area.

Ryan: 1:32

Okay. Yeah. Sure. So when they designed StarForms, they pretty much thought of every little avenue of making this. A complete resort style of living at its finest. We have homes for every stage of life, whether you're a first time home buyer or if you're wanting to downsize because you're an empty nester, we have something for you. We are the most amenitized neighborhood in Lakewood Ranch. Amenity centers in total and no matter where you are in the neighborhood, you will have access to three of them and all three or all four of those have we'll have resort style pools our main resort club, everybody in the neighborhood will have access to their you have a trade routes, coffee shop a Starbucks, if you will, we'll serve anything from fresh pastries as delivered daily. From Mademoiselle Paris bakery down by UTC mall. All kinds of different brews a brunch style menu. Then they also have a little get togethers with their lifestyle directors on the weekends. They have little football parties. They're going on now. So it's really interesting and nice lounge area where you can go in there and relax and escape the heat.

Jim: 2:43

Yeah, 1 of the things I saw coming out there to not to cut you off, but the restaurant going in where how many places have a restaurant that's actually right there. You don't have to drive downtown. You don't have to go anywhere. Fantastic. There's nothing else out this way that, that compares to that.

Ryan: 2:58

Exactly. Yeah. You will be able to order your food and drinks right there from the pool side and have it delivered to you. Straight access from the pool over to the Palm Bar is the name of it. So it's it's really exciting. Can't wait for that to get started or get finished.

Jim: 3:11

Nice. So let's talk a little bit about you mentioned already some of the properties that are available. We have covering all, homebuyer or downsizing what are we, the single family homes there's townhomes.

Ryan: 3:26

Yep. Yeah. Single family homes. We have our single family homes starting at 1500 square feet and then they go all the way up to 4000 square feet two car garage, three car garage options and a couple of different trim levels as well. Okay.

Jim: 3:41

Now, what are the starting prices roughly for homes in the development? And basically the different pricing tiers.

Ryan: 3:47

Okay. So our single family you'll be looking in the low fours starting out. Then we also have townhomes and. In here that are starting in the low to mid threes, and then all the way up to our villas which they'll start in the upper threes.

Jim: 4:03

Okay. What are the additional costs or fees associated with HOAs or CDDs that would go with the different properties?

Ryan: 4:12

So with HOAs, they're going to vary anywhere from in outside of our freedom series. So the freedom series is our. Our active adult area. There is, but it doesn't have any age restrictions like you would in a typical 55 over right community. So over there you have 400 total homes between girls and three different. Single family school plans in there that have exclusive access to that community center called Adventure Retreat. Over there, it is a little bit different with having the exclusive access over there. It does come with a little bit higher H A fee. We're starting at around three, 350 for villas and 380 for the single families. But that includes all of your long term needs throughout the community. We are fully gated. We do have a security guard at our South entrance daily from 7 PM as well. And then outside of that area you'll have, it'll start with our townhomes at two 66. And then all the way up to our largest home, it's running around two 90 a month for HOA. Everything is all included with it. Every blade of grass in the community is all taken care of by the HOA as well. It's

Jim: 5:23

that you cannot overrate that as somebody who's had to mow the lawn in July. Yeah yeah, you don't

Ryan: 5:30

have to worry about touching anything, but you can let the HOA worry about. You can go enjoy your time at the at the amenity centers.

Jim: 5:37

There you go. There you go. So we talked a little bit about the amenities, four different amenity centers three open to the public, the fourth one special. And then I know I don't, and I don't even know what to call it where they had like the practice field that, for the sporting thing. Junction Place.

Ryan: 5:52

Junction Place. Yeah, Junction Place. It's like a mini sportsplex splash splash pad. So right now, all of the sports courts, so we have, we'll have baseball, tennis pickleball, four corners and basketball courts over there right now that are open. Thank you. To the community and a playground over there as well. That's all already built and next phase that they were going to start, there is going to be a clubhouse there that will also offer a, another resource style pool. And then you'll have a splash pad for the kids. So it's going to be geared towards that younger family. So they separated the community to where all the kids, young families, they go to a junction place. And then you have the adventure retreat, which is going to be more of that private setting for the older couples.

Jim: 6:37

Nice. And that's really a little bit of everything. Anything you can want is going to be right there. Exactly. So how large is the development in terms of total acreage and total number of units?

Ryan: 6:49

So the total acreage, there's 700 acres here on. When it's all said and done, there's roughly going to be about 1500 homes, and then 1300 of them are controlled by DR Horton.

Jim: 7:00

Okay.

Ryan: 7:01

So we do have, we do also have a school site that is a K through eight public school that is being built on the 700 acres. It's just not a part of the community. You will have to access it from the main road, go out of the community and access it from the main road. But it is definitely a convenience.

Jim: 7:22

Perfect. Talk to me about the construction timeline. One, like how long is that an individual house taken to be built? Where in the stage can people buy? Are their inventory homes ready to go? And then when do you project? The four star farms would be complete.

Ryan: 7:38

Okay. Yeah. For our construction right now, we are running on a timeline of roughly about 180 days and it's even fluctuating lower than that. It can go depending on time of year and materials and everything. So there is a little grace period in between there. It could go a little more, a little less. So just depends on the situations. As far as DR Horton, we are a complete inventory builder. So we don't have the design store shop that you would with other builders. We choose the floor plan, the lot where the floor plan that goes on each lot around with each color scheme and so forth, the elevation of the home. So we are always constantly building. We build it and wait for the buyer. As well compared to other builders where they wait for the buyer and then they move it. So we always have something ready constantly building.

Jim: 8:28

That's good for the buyer then, because they're not coming in saying, Hey, I want to buy a house, pick everything out. And then you still wait six, nine months, a year to move in here. They're going to be able to find something that, you 30 days, 45 days. Moving timeframe.

Ryan: 8:42

Yeah, exactly. And a lot of people, cause you never know when people have their homes up for sale. And then some will fly right off and, fly off the market. And then they're, scrambling to look for a home and then don't want to look into getting, second housing. So we are a great option for those people to where we always have homes that are in that, 30 to 45 day. Yes.

Jim: 9:02

And so really the buyer coming in, they have the ability to say, Hey, we want one of the three car garage, maybe two story, 3, 000 square foot home. Then they just wait for that lot in that house to be, they go, all right, here's your options. Which of these are you interested in? And I talked to somebody that they mentioned out, when you have homes being built like this, sure. The customization maybe isn't there, but personalization still is. So there's a lot you can still do to personalize that home and make it yours.

Ryan: 9:28

Yeah, definitely. Cause so I, I pretty much see it as. We give you a blank canvas with the home. So we give you all neutral color schemes inside your home. And we, the way we do things, we are we operate like a large Costco. We buy all of our product in bulk. That's the way we're able to, we don't have the delays like certain builders will we build efficiently and it makes it that much more cost effective being allowed and allow you to have the opportunity to give your own personal touches to your home without the builder premium on top of that.

Jim: 9:59

Yeah. You a little more bang for your buck on all that's going. Okay. How are you handling warranties and post-sale support for the homeowners?

Ryan: 10:08

I tell with me having the construction background, I always, I'm always available for my home buyers. I tell'em if they ever have any issues to reach out to me first, and then I can direct'em and, if that's a warrantable item and how to proceed from there or if it's something I can have taken care of. without even having to do a warranty, we can go that route too. Yeah, I think

Jim: 10:27

That construction background pays big dividends there. So I know who I'm calling say, Hey, tell me about what's going on here. Exactly. What kind of incentives or special offers are we considering now? I know on and off there's different buy down rates or different things going on. So what's going on currently as we speak in October of 24.

Ryan: 10:46

Yeah. So currently right now we have our red tag sale going on until the, they have extended it. Going on until the 27th of this month. Right now we have some rate buy downs for the people that are looking to do a mortgage. We have a 499 FHA VA, and then a 5. 5 percent conventional rate buy down. And then all of our stage six in construction and above, so you're looking, we have 13 stages total in our construction state or timeline that there's stage six and above will come with 15, 000 in flex cash. You can take that off, use that money towards the taking off the sale price buying down points to lower your rate or adding to extra closing costs. And then using our lender and title We'll throw in up to another 10, 000 in flex cash or in closing costs with that.

Jim: 11:35

Yeah. So

Ryan: 11:36

potentially 25 grand is that's a lot of money. Yeah. It's a lot of money, especially then if you look into the rate buy owns and stuff on top of that, you're looking at, another 15 at least. So you're looking at close to 000 in a total incentives, going on right now. But that does change month to month.

Jim: 11:56

There'll be things to look forward to. How did the development fit into the local community? I know you're only here two years, but Lakewood Ranch is it's been known as a the number one plant community in the country for pushing 30 years. And so this is the east side of Lakewood Ranch coming up to the growth line. What kind of do you see going forward from your area and then maybe the area around it?

Ryan: 12:20

Now it's just, everything's booming down here with just the whole Lakewood Ranch theme people coming from all over the country to have this lifestyle. Just by, and you can tell that just by driving down driving out of these neighborhoods and taking a look at just the roads, the way they've they've prepared they've planned for growth when they designed this, which is amazing. I come from a, where I live in a different area. They didn't plan for this. And, structure is a mess. If so, I have to deal with this daily. And coming down here and you see this and it's wow, this is amazing how they plan this. And then you can go down to the main street, water side see the, the true Florida lifestyle. They have to offer it on there.

Jim: 13:02

And I think you hit it right there with the amenities that you're offering. There's really not a need to go out, but if you do want to, a restaurant choice or the mall, you've got waterside with the with its farmer's market and it's got the things going on. You've got UTC just down the road. If you're flying in and out, you got SRQ and TPA, both 30 to 40 minutes away. So really a central location with the east of the interstate and then everything you need around it.

Ryan: 13:29

Exactly. And then we also have a Publix that is planning to go on just outside of the community, a quarter mile. So you could drive your golf cart. So that's

Jim: 13:39

almost a requirement. Now you gotta have your golf cart.

Ryan: 13:42

Exactly. Yeah, we are. And we are a golf cart friendly community as well. So we have golf cart parking at all of our amenities centers. Oh, there we go. Oh, it's yeah. That you'll see just driving through the community. There's everybody and their kids are all out running around on their.

Jim: 13:57

Nice. Are there any restrictions or guidelines homeowners should be aware of any kind of rental restrictions or pet policies?

Ryan: 14:05

As far as pet policies, there is no pet policies as of now. But for rental restrictions our townhomes are restricted to a six month minimum lease.

Jim: 14:15

Okay.

Ryan: 14:16

And all single families as well as our villas come with a one year minimum lease. Okay. For the neighborhood. Yeah,

Jim: 14:23

nice. You get some continuity. It's not just in and out.

Ryan: 14:25

Yeah, it's not a revolving door. So that way the upkeep of the community homes and everything in the neighborhood or are protected.

Jim: 14:32

Perfect. Can you share any success story or testimony from any current resident that you know, that you've had the fortune to be involved in something that they took away or love about Star Farms and what you guys are doing in there? Oh,

Ryan: 14:47

wow. Put me right on the spot on this one. Where I've had a couple of buyers just, they've bought sight unseen from out of state. We'll do zoom calls face, FaceTime calls through walking through the homes. And then go through the purchase process and then come down here for closing and everything. And they're like, wow, the videos and walking through really does not, show what everything, right? So

Jim: 15:11

It's nice to see it, but it still doesn't have that same impact as when you walk in there and see it.

Ryan: 15:16

Yeah.

Jim: 15:17

Cool. That's what I have today. What else do you have? Anything else you want to leave off talking about what you guys got going on over there?

Ryan: 15:24

So we when we were talking about the Palm Bar it is currently under construction. So they. From what I've been told is that it's expected to be open somewhere around the middle of next year. And then adventure retreat it is just finishing up construction. It should be open by the end of the year. Once those two places are finished, they are going to jump over to junction place, which is the sports park and start ramping up construction on the clubhouse and pool over there.

Jim: 15:55

Okay.

Ryan: 15:57

There's a lot of things happening. All of our so we have three or three different many centers, junction place, adventure retreat and resort club. They all have lifestyle directors is something I'd like to add in there. Okay. So where they are doing community events, they send out monthly flyers, emails to all the residents of events that they have scheduled. And then also different clubs that they have. offer. And if you're will, you can also throw in your suggestions on certain book clubs, different types of groups that you'd like to get started. And they make up a flyer and send out for you. Cool. So our fitness centers was another thing I was wanting to talk to you about. Yeah. Resort club. There is two fitness centers. There is included with your HOA and you'll have 24 seven access there. It does have a group studio, so

Jim: 16:46

you can

Ryan: 16:46

go in there and they offer group classes with instructors. The instructors will cost extra per class, right? But all of the state of the art equipment, you can track all of your workouts through your phone and the apps. And then you also have. Our second fitness center over there, which is a membership based. It's going to be more functional fitness, CrossFit training, sports specific training, has a 20 yard turf field in there, sleds and everything where you can do all sorts of different workouts as well as has stretching tables, has a tub in there. So you can do an ice bath and then also they are have a golf simulator. up. So that's some, s we have to offer our mini and then also with ou in general, with living t you have to get the weather. We have over paved trails throughout t and then we also have 20 over 20 miles of sidewalk throughout the community. So plenty of sightseeing, get out, enjoy the weather, get the vitamin D soaking in your skin. So

Jim: 17:54

when do you see or is there a projected completion date? Are we talking three years, five years, somewhere in that range to, to fill it out and be

Ryan: 18:02

done? So there what I, last thing I've been told has been roughly about two, two to two and a half years. So we're roughly about 50 percent through right now.

Jim: 18:11

Okay. Yeah. Plenty of opportunity to get in and enjoy it now while we can.

Ryan: 18:16

Exactly. Exactly.

Jim: 18:18

Perfect. Ryan. Awesome. Thank you for joining me, Ryan. I really appreciate you talking about DR Horton and what they have going on in Star Farms. And we'll touch base.

Ryan: 18:28

All right, Jim. I appreciate it. Thank you.