Homebuyers in their 50s and 60s typically downsize as they become empty nesters and ease into retirement, especially in Florida. But not Mitchell Rechter and Emily Weiss.<\/p>\n
They met two years ago on a blind date. Both had moved to South Florida about a decade before \u2014 Ms. Weiss, 58, from southern New Jersey, and Mr. Rechter, 66, from the Detroit area \u2014 and subsequently divorced.<\/p>\n
Their relationship blossomed quickly. Three months after they met, Ms. Weiss\u2019s lease ended and she moved into Mr. Rechter\u2019s two-bedroom townhouse, which he had bought the year before. It was in Boca West, a sprawling gated community in Boca Raton, Fla., about an hour\u2019s drive north of Miami, with about 3,500 homes built around a golf course and country club.<\/p>\n
[Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com<\/a>. Sign up here<\/a> to have The Hunt delivered to your inbox every week.]<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to see whether I liked Boca West, and then I would look for my own place,\u201d Ms. Weiss said. \u201cBut very quickly, I knew I wanted to live with Mitch and he knew he wanted to live with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rechter\u2019s 1,460-square-foot house was \u201ca hangout where everybody comes,\u201d he said. The couple hosted friends to watch their favorite football teams (Philadelphia Eagles for her, Detroit Lions for him). Ms. Weiss\u2019s adult son would visit often, as would Mr. Rechter\u2019s grown nieces and nephews, and their children.<\/p>\n With all the activity, \u201cit felt a little tight,\u201d he said. \u201cI just felt it was time to upgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Weiss needed some convincing. \u201cUsually, people at this age are downsizing,\u201d she said. \u201cBut Mitch talked about how our families are actually going to be growing. And we wanted people to stay with us, so it made sense.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple linked up with Hailey Desser, a broker with eXp Realty, and committed to their search over the summer, when many seasonal residents in Boca Raton return north. \u201cIt was the time to strike because there\u2019s less competition,\u201d Ms. Desser said.<\/p>\n The goal was to stay in Boca West, where they had cultivated a lively social life. \u201cAll parts of my life are ending up here,\u201d Ms. Weiss said. \u201cI\u2019m seeing people from my hometown, people that I met in college.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1,400-acre community comprises various subdivisions that were developed with different home styles, effectively creating distinct neighborhoods. They aimed for a three-bedroom house with about 2,000 square feet and an airy, open layout. Mr. Rechter was keen on getting a two-car garage.<\/p>\n While they were open to doing a joint renovation, Mr. Rechter would buy the property on his own, setting a budget of around $800,000.<\/p>\n Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homebuyers in their 50s and 60s typically downsize as they become empty nesters and ease into retirement, especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29681,29682,28,30,29,29680],"class_list":["post-45035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-boca-raton-fla","tag-condominiums","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-real-estate-and-housing-residential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}