The Call: Your County Property Appraiser
They deal with calamity rebuilds routinely, the conversation is free, and they will tell you two things that decide whether you should be selling at all.
What your accumulated differential is worth. The gap between assessed value and just value that Save Our Homes built up over your years of ownership. On a long-held house it is a large figure.
How the calamity provision applies to your parcel. Rebuild within the square footage threshold and the assessment is calculated using the value as of the January 1 before the damage. Above it, the excess arrives at just value.
Why Should I Call Them Before Talking to Buyers?
The provisions are set out on our page covering homestead, rebuild limits and portability.
Two Lookups on the Same Record
While you have the parcel record open, note two more things.
The jurisdiction. City of Orlando, unincorporated Orange County, or a neighbouring county. It decides which department permits the work, and the mailing address does not settle it.
The year built. It decides whether the framing is dimensional lumber that can be repaired in sections or engineered assemblies that come out whole, which frequently matters more than the visible extent of the fire.
What We Do Next
The slab. Almost all Central Florida housing is slab-on-grade and heat damage to a slab is invisible. It is the largest unknown on most files here, and a structural engineer's assessment is usually the highest-return spend available to a seller because buyers discount unknowns far more heavily than known problems.
The records. The property appraiser for ownership, square footage, year built and homestead status. The county comptroller's official records for the deed and any lien. The permit history from whichever department covers the address.
What the lot supports. Close to the centre, and on the larger unincorporated parcels, that can exceed what burned.
What Are You Looking for on the Slab?
What Comes Back
A written figure with every line showing: what a finished house on that parcel is worth, or the parcel's value where that is higher, the cost of getting there, carrying cost, the documentary stamps, and margin.
Where you told us the property was your homestead and you have owned it a long time, the email also says plainly that the appraiser conversation may change your answer, because it often does.
What If the Numbers Say Rebuild Rather Than Sell?
Then It Is Your Call
No deadline from us, though the statutory clocks are real and we will point them out. Florida closes through title companies and a clean file moves quickly. What slows an Orlando file is a homestead question nobody raised, a jurisdiction nobody confirmed, and title.
Compare figures if you want to. The questions on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart work on us as much as on anyone.
Things That Never Happen
No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the slab, board the property, commission a report or make any repair first — where an assessment is worth doing we say so rather than requiring it. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. And no pressure to decide before you have made the appraiser call, which costs us nothing to encourage and may cost us the deal.
Common Questions About the Process
How Long Does It Take?
Address to written figure is usually a few days. Closing depends on title and on the jurisdiction. The insurance claim does not have to be resolved first.
Do I Need to Be in Florida?
No. Out-of-state owners are common here, particularly on inherited and investment property, and remote closing through the title company is routine.
I Have Not Made the Appraiser Call.
Then make it before you accept anything. We will still send a figure and it will hold, but you should be comparing it against something rather than against nothing.