Crystal River, FL
Home for Sale

Ham Paradise on Florida’s Nature Coast

Enjoy beautiful views of the sunset, year round fishing and kayaking, and a great location for ham radio.

5 Acres of Land included in asking price — additional 25 Acres available for purchase separately – no tower or antenna restrictions.

Attached master suite / apartment has a separate entrance and has successfully generated rental income via AirBnB in the past, but could be for Parents, etc.

Why are we selling? We are selling our dream home and would like it to be yours! Both our son Chris and his wife Neyda graduated from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with medical-related degrees and moved in with us after college. In June 2023 I had a major stroke. I am 50% paralyzed and in a wheelchair. With my condition and needing constant care, we realized we have to give up our custom dream home in Crystal River.

Possible trade? We are looking for a smaller home in Durham, North Carolina in the medical triangle where our son hopes to secure a job. We would be interested in a trade, or any leads on a home there, or a job for my son who has a BA degree in micro-nuclear biology.

— Dave AL7HG / WB4LIV

Location:

5395 N. Tumblewood Drive
Crystal River, FL 34428
Citrus County

Our house is on a ridge, two miles east of the Crystal River.  Crystal River is on the Gulf coast of Florida

• Two miles northeast of downtown Crystal River, Florida.
• About 80 miles (1.5 hours) North of Tampa, Florida
• About 90 miles (1.5 hours) West of Orlando, Florida

Introduction:

The four-bedroom, three-bath, 3800 square-foot home on five acres was planned in a quiet location as our “forever” retirement home, with a large ham shack/office/library near the front entrance. Behind the ham shack (east) there is a large living room and dining room, with a two-car garage beyond that. Most of the house has 12-foot ceilings. A large kitchen with a breakfast nook is north of the front rooms in the house. The kitchen has a large island in the middle, two more bedrooms and a bathroom beside it on the east side of the house.

In 1993 we decided to move to a quieter area. We already owned five acres in Crystal River and drove all over Florida looking at model houses. We found a Rutenburg home we loved in Naples, BUT it cost $1.5 million, in a gated community in a homeowner’s association and a ZERO lot-line. My wife discovered a contractor in Citrus County who represented Rutenburg Homes and modified the floor plan of the house in Naples, for our use in Crystal River. The house in Naples only had a small fourth bedroom at the back of that house — she enlarged the house in Crystal River with a master suite for my mother, which included a master bedroom, handicapped equipped bathroom with a seat in the shower, and to accommodate a wheelchair. The master suite apartment has a private entrance going into a fully equipped private kitchen, breakfast bar and living room. A double sliding-glass door in the living room goes out to the patio, with a spa and BBQ.

Anyone buying this house could use the apartment for a mother or father suite. At one point, we had this apartment on AirBNB and produced an income of more than $3,000 per month.

The house is in the middle of 30 acres divided into two 5-acre, and two 10-acre lots (the house is on one of the five-acre lots). The five-acre parcel with the house is totally fenced with a 500-foot driveway leading from the cul-de-sac to the concrete drive way at the front of the house and leading to the garage with parking for six cars on the concrete outside the garage.

The asking price includes the house and the 5 acre parcel it is on. The other two 10-acre parcels, and a 5-acre parcel, are available for sale and we can negotiate the price. The five-acre lots are zoned residential and the 10-acre lots are agricultural—none of the land has any restrictions and additional houses could be built on each parcel. The 10-acre parcel to the west of the house has 5 acres cleared and now has a dozen Black Angus cows owned by a neighbor there—it would be a great site for a beverage or curtain antenna.

When the contractor poured the house slab he poured two extra slabs for ham towers on the east and west where towers could be anchored to the house. Two 4-inch PVC pipes run from the shack under slab and exit at the bases of each tower.

Ham Radio Highlights:

• 60 foot steel tower on the north side of the house, anchored with a house bracket.
• 60 foot tower on the east side of the house, anchored with a house bracket.
• Concrete slab and base, with 110 volt service, on the west side of the house. The base was previously used for a 60-foot heavy duty Aluma Tower crank-up tower (tower is no longer available).
• Large heavy-duty concrete slab and base, 150 feet to the east of the house.  This 8′ x 8′ x 8′ slab was previously used for a 110-foot Rohn 45 guyed-tower (no longer available, but you can.view photos on my QRZ profile). Note: this tower was located on my 5-acre lot to the east of the house and has underground hard-line and RG-58 to the slab.
• 12 x 18 foot ham shack designed for multi purpose contesting and DXing with four 50-amp 220 outlets, and two 4-inch PVC pipes going under the house slab to concrete slabs on the east and west side of the house.  The ham shack has three custom-built wall-length wood shelves with a 12- x 2.5-foot desk, two desk drawers and five cabinets under the desk, plus a chair cut-out.
• While this property is not in the actual city-limits, it has a blacktop dead-end road leading into a cul-de-sac in front of our driveway. The entire side of the 5-acre lot we also own is also bordered on one side by a blacktop paved and fenced road. No need to worry about dust and dirt from gravel roads!

Home Highlights:

• 3800 sq ft home with 4 bedrooms.
• Master bath has a garden tub and walk-in shower.
• Ham shack next to the first master bedroom.
• Large kitchen with all steel appliances: double convection ovens, dishwasher, five-burner gas stove and two-door refrigerator.
• Fully equipped kitchen in the mother-in-law unit with electric stove and oven, microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator/freezer.
• Energy-efficient refrigerator/freezer, dishwasher, electric water heater and Hayward pool heater with energy-saving heat pump.
• Automatic solar thermostatically controlled swimming pool and spa heating system.
• Adjacent laundry room, washer and dryer included.
• Two-car garage, with floored area above garage for storage.
• Three new individual reverse-cycle A/C units, thermostatically controlled.
• Family room with gas-fired fireplace.
• Rooms on the west side of the house have a dozen sliding-glass doors. The doors in the master bedroom, living room, kitchen nook/kitchen, family room and mother-in-law living room open onto the patio and pool area—most fold into the wall to provide OPEN-AIR feelings in the rooms.
• Enclosed pool area with spa and brick-paved patio with BBQ. Pool equipment includes an energy-efficient Hayward electric heat to heat to back up the Hayward automatic solar pool heater during winter nights.
• Includes a tool shed with a reinforced floor to house a collector’s car.
• There is a hook-up in the garage for a generator and there is a small shed in the east yard for the 18-KW generator which can be connected to the house in the garage. It has never been necessary to use this but the contractor had the house with the connection ready to go and we put in the generator after several hurricanes hit the west coast but missed us. We are in a high-and-dry spot but put in the generator in 2005.

Price:

• Asking price is $949,000 for the home, plus the 5-acre parcel the home is on.
• Two additional 10-acre parcels, and one 5-acre parcel, are also available for sale, for an additional cost — price negotiable.
• If the buyer would prefer a different land arrangement, we would negotiate on a different size parcel, like the 10-acres on the north or east side or the whole plot with the house totally surrounded by the buyer’s property. We have several cash offers on the land, but are not selling any before the house because a ham might want one private 30-acre piece with the house in the middle.

Inquiry About This Property:

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