Waters Edge at The Forest, South Fort Myers
Thirty-six condominium homes, two products and fees no one publishes. We match your budget to a villa or a fourplex plan, order both estoppels on day one and read the roof, flood and insurance file with you. Call Marc at (239) 287-5873.
Updated September 2026 · By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, Domain Realty
Buying a home in Waters Edge at The Forest means choosing one of 36 condominium homes on Waters Edge Court, inside the gated golf community of The Forest in south Fort Myers, where a two-story fourplex unit and a one-story villa share one association but sell about $175,000 apart. Three homes sold in the last 12 months, so preparation decides the purchase.
The full record of the neighborhood, its 14 buildings, its two products, its 2023 roofs, its flood panels and every sale of the last four years, is on our Waters Edge at The Forest guide, which this buyer page sits beside. The wider community, its two golf courses, its gates and its 19 neighborhoods, is covered in our complete guide to The Forest, and the community-wide purchase path is on buying a home in The Forest. This page is about the Waters Edge purchase itself: which product to buy, what to check, in what order, and what it costs to own. Owners on the other side of the table should read how we sell Waters Edge homes or start with a free Waters Edge home valuation. Call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 to talk through a specific home.
If you are searching for the best buyer’s agent for Waters Edge in Fort Myers, Florida, McGreevy and Comisar represents homebuyers across Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs, Naples, Lee County and Collier County. Whether you are relocating, buying a seasonal home or trading a house for a lock-and-leave villa, including in The Forest, its neighboring golf communities and the US 41 corridor of south Fort Myers, our team provides honest market guidance, pre-market awareness, partner-level negotiation and a clear plan to help you buy confidently.
Waters Edge is one condominium holding two different kinds of home. The 1984 and 1985 section has four two-story buildings of four units each and two one-story duplexes; the 1991 section is eight one-story villa duplexes, 16 homes with their own street numbers. All 36 share one declaration, one association and one pool, per the Lee County parcel roll, but the villas and the fourplex units trade in different price bands, and a buyer should treat them as two markets.
Waters Edge holds 36 of the 487 attached homes inside The Forest’s gates. The Forest is non-bundled: buying a home does not make you a member of The Forest Country Club, and you pay club dues only if you choose to join. The gates, the private streets, the nightly patrol and Waters Edge’s own pool, spa and pool house come with the home.
Waters Edge has no building newer than its 1991 villas apart from one villa half rebuilt after a 2014 fire, no published fee at any association layer, no three-story building and no unit outside FEMA flood Zone AE. Despite the name, it has no boat slip, no marina and no Gulf access; the county roll describes the one-story homes’ setting as golf front. A buyer who needs newer construction or a lower entry price should also look at The Heron at The Forest, and we cover both.
Waters Edge buyers work with McGreevy and Comisar because a Waters Edge purchase turns on records a general agent rarely reads: which product and plan a unit is, two estoppel certificates, unpublished budgets, a 2023 re-roof permit on every building, a surveyed Hurricane Ian mark and two FEMA panels. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.
Those are career numbers across Lee and Collier County. As the leaders of Domain Realty Group, the #1 real estate team in Southwest Florida since 2012, our team has closed over $2.5 billion in real estate; learn more at DomainRealtyGroup.com. If you are comparing teams, our guide to the best real estate agents in Fort Myers sets them side by side on the public record.
Your agent should tell you whether a listing is a villa, a duplex or a fourplex unit, which of that product’s sales your offer is really competing with, which building’s roof permit applies, and what the association’s budget, reserves, insurance and 2023 minutes say before your inspection period ends. Your agent should order the condominium estoppel and the master estoppel the day you sign, and read the resale package with you. That is the job, and it is the job we do.
Marc Comisar runs the buy side in the field: gate access, tours, inspections, contractor quotes and the walk-through. Jesse McGreevy runs the data, the documents and the association paperwork. Reach Marc at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse at (239) 898-6072, and read more on our about McGreevy and Comisar page.
We track the Waters Edge market for a buyer from two independent records: every closed and active Waters Edge listing in the Southwest Florida MLS over the last four years, and Lee County’s parcel roll, which places each sale in its product, building and plan and records deeded sales the MLS never saw. Each figure on this page names its window and its count.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; Lee County parcel roll, queried September 2026)
In the last 12 months we tracked 3 Waters Edge closings in the Southwest Florida MLS, $1,270,000 in closed volume, covering closings dated September 24, 2025 to September 23, 2026, among 45 closings we tracked across The Forest in the same window. We tracked all 11 Waters Edge closings of the last 48 months as well, and matched each one by address to its product and plan on the county roll, because the MLS carries villas and fourplex units under one neighborhood name.
Domain Realty, our brokerage, closed 856 transaction sides in Fort Myers in the 60 months to October 5, 2026, $443.4 million in volume counted by side, per the Southwest Florida MLS pulled that day. McGreevy and Comisar are the #5 real estate team in Florida in the 2026 RealTrends rankings. A buyer needs the whole neighborhood’s record to judge a price, and the whole record is what follows. These are market figures we tracked.
The same-product sales, the live competition, the building’s 2023 roof permit, the flood panel and ground elevation, and the list of documents to request, assembled before you tour, so that when the right home comes up you can write a clean offer inside days rather than weeks. At Waters Edge, where a year can bring three sales, that readiness is most of the advantage.
The Waters Edge market is thin and firm: the Southwest Florida MLS counts 3 closings in the 12 months to September 23, 2026, at a median of $425,000, 79 median days on market and 99.05 percent of list, and one listing was active that day, about 4.0 months of supply in a 36-unit neighborhood.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026)
Closed | Product | Bed / bath (MLS) | Living sq ft (MLS) | County heated sq ft | List | Sold | Price per sq ft | Sold-to-list | Days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 2026 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,222 | 1,989 | $425,000 | $425,000 | $191.27 | 100.00% | 0 |
April 2026 | Two-story fourplex unit | 2 / 2 | 1,758 | 1,693 | $349,000 | $325,000 | $184.87 | 93.12% | 79 |
January 2026 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 | 1,989 | $525,000 | $520,000 | $252.43 | 99.05% | 190 |
Window: September 24, 2025 to September 23, 2026. Three closings, $1,270,000 in volume. The median of $425,000 is an observed sale (n=3, odd), the median price per square foot is $191.27, the median sold-to-list ratio 99.05 percent and the median time on market 79 days. One of the three closed at its full asking price, the May 2026 villa, on its first day. Product and county heated area are resolved by address against the Lee County parcel roll.
On September 23, 2026 the MLS showed one active Waters Edge listing and no pending sale: a two-bedroom, two-bath fourplex unit of 1,758 square feet of MLS living area, asking $325,000 after 194 days on market. No villa and no duplex unit was listed. Its asking price equals the April 2026 closing of a same-size fourplex unit, which had listed at $349,000 and sold at $325,000 after 79 days, which is the comparison we put in writing before you offer. Listings change weekly; your search is set up to catch the next one the day it appears.
The median Waters Edge sale in the last 12 months closed at 99.05 percent of its list price, and over the full 48 months at 97.94 percent, with one of 11 at or above asking. That is close to asking for The Forest, but the spread inside it is wide: 93.12 percent on the April 2026 fourplex unit and 92.45 percent on an April 2024 villa listed at $530,000. Waters Edge sellers who price inside their product’s sales get close to asking; those who price above it negotiate, and a buyer with the same product’s sales in hand negotiates best.
One listing against 3 closings in the last 12 months is about 4.0 months of supply, by our arithmetic; against the 48-month pace of 11 sales, about 4.4 months. By the usual rule of thumb, under six months leans toward sellers. The Forest as a whole carried about 7.7 months of supply on the same date. At Waters Edge’s volume, one new listing or one sale moves the ratio a long way, so the useful reading is simpler: there is very little to choose from, and a buyer who wants a villa is waiting for one to list.
The last 24 months hold 4 closings, a median of $414,500 (n=4, even, the mean of the middle pair $404,000 and $425,000); the last 36 months hold 8, a median of $457,500 (the mean of $425,000 and $490,000). The first window with ten or more closings is the full 48 months, 11 closings at a median of $425,000, which is why this page leans on it. The 12 months before the last 12 recorded one closing: a three-bedroom fourplex unit at $404,000 in April 2025, 97.23 percent of list after 130 days. The mix of products changes the medians more than the market does.
With one listing and about three sales a year, the buyer who is ready when the right product lists gets it. McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008; call Marc at (239) 287-5873 or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. Selling a home to buy here? Get a free Waters Edge home valuation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Waters Edge homes have cost $280,000 to $520,000 over the last 48 months, a median of $425,000 on 11 MLS closings, and the product explains most of the spread: one-story villas sold at a median $500,000 and two-story fourplex units at $325,000, while the four one-story duplex units recorded no MLS sale at all.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; closed sales September 24, 2022 to September 23, 2026)
Product (MLS and county roll) | Closings, 48 months | Median sold | Median price per sq ft (MLS living area) | Median sold-to-list | Median days on market | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
One-story villas, 1991 | 6 | $500,000 (middle pair $490,000 and $510,000) | $245.15 (middle pair $237.86 and $252.43) | 98.57% (middle pair 98.10% and 99.03%) | 7 (middle pair 3 and 11) | $425,000 to $520,000 |
Two-story fourplex units, 1984 and 1985 | 5 | $325,000 | $184.87 | 96.33% | 27 | $280,000 to $404,000 |
One-story duplex units, 1984 | 0 | no MLS sale in the window |
Price per square foot is each sale’s sold price divided by its MLS living area, and the median of those per-sale ratios, never total dollars over total feet. Where n is even the median is the mean of the middle pair, named beside it.
The combined median of $425,000 describes neither product: it sits $75,000 below the villa median and $100,000 above the fourplex median. A villa buyer should budget from the six villa sales, which ran $475,000 to $520,000 apart from one at $425,000, and a fourplex buyer from the five fourplex sales and the plan. Inside the fourplexes the two-bedroom plan sold at $280,000 in February 2023 and $325,000 in April 2026, and the three-bedroom plan at $289,000 in March 2023, $395,000 in June 2024 and $404,000 in April 2025.
Closed | Product | Bed / bath | MLS living area | List | Sold | Price per sq ft | Sold-to-list | Days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 2026 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,222 | $425,000 | $425,000 | $191.27 | 100.00% | 0 |
April 2026 | Two-story fourplex unit | 2 / 2 | 1,758 | $349,000 | $325,000 | $184.87 | 93.12% | 79 |
January 2026 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 | $525,000 | $520,000 | $252.43 | 99.05% | 190 |
April 2025 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 | $415,500 | $404,000 | $202.91 | 97.23% | 130 |
July 2024 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 1,989 | $515,000 | $510,000 | $256.41 | 99.03% | 2 |
June 2024 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 | $399,000 | $395,000 | $198.39 | 99.00% | 11 |
May 2024 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 1,989 | $525,000 | $515,000 | $258.92 | 98.10% | 58 |
April 2024 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 | $530,000 | $490,000 | $237.86 | 92.45% | 11 |
May 2023 | One-story villa | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 | $485,000 | $475,000 | $230.58 | 97.94% | 3 |
March 2023 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 | $300,000 | $289,000 | $145.15 | 96.33% | 8 |
February 2023 | Two-story fourplex unit | 2 / 2 | 1,693 | $300,000 | $280,000 | $165.39 | 93.33% | 27 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; product matched by address to the Lee County parcel roll. Bath counts follow the MLS (2.5 means two full and one half bath). The 11 closings total $4,628,000; the mean of the per-sale price-per-foot ratios is $211.29.
Calendar year | Closings | Median sold | Median price per sq ft | Median days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | 3 | $289,000 | $165.39 | 8 |
2024 | 4 | $500,000 (middle pair $490,000 and $510,000) | $247.14 (middle pair $237.86 and $256.41) | 11 (middle pair 11 and 11) |
2025 | 1 | $404,000 | $202.91 | 130 |
2026, to September 23 | 3 | $425,000 | $191.27 | 79 |
Read a calendar-year median at Waters Edge as a record of which product sold, not as a trend: 2023’s low median reflects two fourplex sales among three, and 2024’s high one reflects three villas among four. All 11 closings fell between January and July, the months The Forest’s seasonal owners are here, and no Waters Edge sale closed through the MLS between Hurricane Ian and February 2023; the first MLS closing in the window is February 10, 2023.
The county roll records 14 deeded sales at Waters Edge in the same 48 months, three more than the MLS: a one-story duplex unit of 2,334 heated square feet recorded in December 2022 at $325,000, and two fourplex units of 1,693 heated square feet recorded in February 2023 at $265,000 and in January 2024 at $380,000, per the Lee County parcel roll. They were never marketed through the MLS, so they carry no list price or days on market and set no median here. For a buyer they carry one lesson: at Waters Edge some homes change hands quietly, and a buyer known to be ready hears about them.
MLS living area is entered by the listing side and reads 1,758 square feet for the smaller fourplex plan and 2,060 or 2,222 for several villas; the county records the same homes at 1,693 and 1,989 heated square feet. Every price per foot on this page uses MLS living area, so a county-based figure runs higher. Lee County’s 2026 just values, a mass-appraisal figure for taxation and not a market price, run $254,990 to $268,072 for the smaller fourplex plan, $287,086 to $317,721 for the larger one, $300,820 to $331,941 for the villas and $328,366 for each duplex unit, a median of $300,820, the highest of any conventional condominium in The Forest.
You choose a Waters Edge home by deciding the product first, a one-story villa, a one-story duplex unit or a two-story fourplex unit, then reading the building letter for its plan, its year built and its roof permit. A villa is identified by its own street number; a fourplex unit by its building’s street number plus a unit number that never tells you the floor.
Building | Product | Units | Year built (county) | Stories (county) | County heated area | Beds / baths (county) | 2023 re-roof permit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | One-story duplex | 2 | 1984 | 1 | 2,334 sq ft | 3 / 2 | ROF2023-16179 |
B | Two-story fourplex | 4 | 1984 | 2 | 1,693 and 1,991 sq ft | 2 / 2 and 3 / 2 | ROF2023-13503 |
D | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | in the county index, not opened |
E | Two-story fourplex | 4 | 1985 | 2 | 1,693 and 1,991 sq ft | 2 / 2 and 3 / 2 | ROF2023-13521 |
F | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | in the county index, not opened |
G | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | in the county index, not opened |
H | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | ROF2023-13517 |
I | One-story villa pair (one half rebuilt after a 2014 fire) | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | ROF2023-17986 |
J | Two-story fourplex | 4 | 1984 | 2 | 1,693 and 1,991 sq ft | 2 / 2 and 3 / 2 | ROF2023-18047 |
K | Two-story fourplex | 4 | 1984 | 2 | 1,693 and 1,991 sq ft | 2 / 2 and 3 / 2 | ROF2023-18141 |
L | One-story duplex | 2 | 1984 | 1 | 2,334 sq ft | 3 / 2 | ROF2023-16172 |
X | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | ROF2023-13507 |
Y | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | ROF2023-13512 |
Z | One-story villa pair | 2 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | in the county index, not opened |
Source: Lee County parcel roll, all 36 unit records and the common-element parcel, queried September 2026; permit numbers from Lee County’s permit index, searched by address September 24, 2026. The pool house carries its own 2023 re-roof permit, ROF2023-18166.
Each of the four two-story buildings, B, E, J and K, holds four units numbered 101, 102, 201 and 202, and every one mixes two plans: two units of 1,693 heated square feet with two bedrooms and two baths, and two of 1,991 with three bedrooms and two baths. The county records the same plan for units ending in the same digit within a building, which is consistent with stacked plans, but it does not record which floor a unit is on, and neither do we. Read the floor from the recorded condominium plat and the listing, never from the unit number.
Buildings A and L are one-story duplexes from 1984, four homes of 2,334 heated square feet each, the largest at Waters Edge and among the largest condominium homes in The Forest, each with a 2026 just value of $328,366. None has sold through the MLS in four years; the one recorded sale among them was a December 2022 deed at $325,000. When one comes up it has no recent comparable of its own, so we price it for you from the villas and the larger fourplex plan, adjusted for size and age.
The 16 villas in buildings D, F, G, H, I, X, Y and Z are one-story homes in attached pairs, each 1,989 heated square feet with three bedrooms and two and a half baths on the county roll. Each half carries its own street number on Waters Edge Court, so 16591 and 16593, for example, are the two halves of building X. One half of building I was demolished and rebuilt after a 2014 fire under county permits, so it was built under a later building code than its 1991 neighbors, which can matter on a wind-mitigation report.
The county’s land-use description reads “golf front” on all 20 one-story unit records, the 16 villas and the 4 duplex units, and on none of the 16 fourplex records. That is county coding, not a survey of views, and it does not say which course or hole a home faces. Golf frontage at The Forest is a view, not an access right: the courses belong to The Forest Country Club, so walk the home and look before you pay for the view.
Twelve of the 36 units carry a Florida homestead exemption on the county roll, and the split is sharp: 10 of the 20 one-story homes against 2 of the 16 fourplex units. Owner mailing addresses run 19 in Florida, 16 in other states and one in Canada. In plain terms the one-story homes lean toward year-round owners and the fourplexes toward seasonal ones, which is worth knowing when you weigh a quiet summer building against a busier year-round row of villas.
The steps to buy a home at Waters Edge are: choose the product and plan, collect the fee layers, check the flood file, write the offer with the documents in the calendar, order both estoppels on day one, read the resale package, clear inspection and insurance, confirm the tax reset, and close and register at the gate.
Decide between a one-story villa, a one-story duplex unit and a two-story fourplex unit against that product’s own sales, then read the building letter for the plan, the year built and the roof permit. The product decides what you pay; the plan and the building decide what you get for it.
List the condominium association fee, the master assessment, the tax bill with the San Carlos Park fire levy, insurance, sewer, water and fiber, and the club only if you join. The unpublished lines stay blank until the estoppels arrive, and your contract calendar should give them time to arrive.
Every unit is in Zone AE at 11 feet, on FEMA panel 12071C0438H or 12071C0576H, on ground at a median 6.6 feet. Ask for the building’s elevation certificate with the first disclosures, and quote flood insurance early if you are financing.
Build the inspection period around the documents: both estoppels, the condominium resale package, the 2023 and 2024 budgets and minutes and, where the declaration requires it, the association’s approval of your purchase. The Waters Edge declaration is not posted online, so any approval step is confirmed from the recorded declaration and its amendments.
One estoppel certificate comes from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and one from the master association, ordered through FirstService Residential’s resale and lender documents page. The condominium association changed its address and registered agent in 2025, so we confirm who issues its certificate the day you sign and order both that day.
The declaration with every amendment, the articles, bylaws and rules, the budget and reserve schedule, the insurance declarations and the last year of minutes. This is where the leasing terms, the pet rule, any special assessment and the story of how the 2023 roofs were paid for live.
A general inspection and a wind-mitigation report on the unit’s openings, then bind a unit-owners policy against the association’s master policy and deductible, and flood coverage if your lender requires it. Bring the building’s 2023 roof permit to the insurer.
Budget the tax bill from your price, not the seller’s bill, and if the home will be your permanent residence, plan the homestead application for March 1 of the next tax year.
At closing the estoppel figures are paid or prorated. Afterward you request vehicle barcodes through the master association’s barcode request form and set up guest access through the DwellingLive visitor system. If you are joining the club, the membership is its own transaction with the club.
A Waters Edge owner pays two association bills, Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and The Forest’s master association, neither of which is published, plus the Lee County tax bill with the San Carlos Park fire levy and a solid waste line, private sewer, county water, fiber, and club dues only if you join.
Data updated: September 2026 (San Carlos Park Fire District FY2025/26 final budget, adopted September 15, 2025; Lee County special districts roster and MSTBU layer, queried September 2026)
Layer | Amount | What it covers | Where the amount lives |
|---|---|---|---|
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association | Not published | building exteriors and roofs, master insurance, reserves, pool and spa, parking | association budget and estoppel certificate |
The Forest Property Owners’ Association (master) | Not published | private streets, two gates and a nightly patrol, lighting, landscaping, drainage | master budget and estoppel, through the resale documents page |
Community development district | $0: none exists | n/a | |
County MSTBU | $0: none exists | n/a | |
San Carlos Park Fire Protection and Rescue Service District | 2.3590 mills, fiscal year 2025/26 | fire and rescue | |
Lee County solid waste, Service Area 2 | non-ad-valorem line set by unit type | collection, disposal, recycling | |
Sewer (Forest Utilities, Inc., private) | Not published | wastewater | seller’s bills |
Bulk fiber (Hotwire) | Not published | internet and television | association or Hotwire bill |
Club dues and initiation | Not published; only if you join | club membership |
“Not published” means no public source states the figure, and we do not estimate it.
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association sets its own fee, which is not published; it appears in the association’s budget and resale estoppel certificate. In a condominium this is usually the largest line, because the association insures and repairs the buildings, funds reserves and keeps the pool, spa and parking. At Waters Edge the same fee covers both products, so ask how the declaration shares common expenses between a 1,693-square-foot fourplex unit and a 2,334-square-foot duplex unit.
The master association does not publish its assessment. The amount appears in its annual budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale. What it pays for is not in doubt: the private streets, a Main Gate staffed 24 hours a day, an Island Park Gate staffed from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, a nightly patrol and, because The Forest sits in no county MSTU, street lighting, landscaping and drainage inside the gates.
The San Carlos Park fire district levies 2.3590 mills for fiscal year 2025/26. As an illustration only, a Waters Edge home with $300,000 of taxable value owes $707.70 to the fire district, by our arithmetic. Lee County bills solid waste as a non-ad-valorem assessment in Service Area 2 and sets the charge by unit type, so read the condominium line on the unit’s own bill rather than a single-family figure.
In 2023 the association replaced the roofs on all 14 residential buildings and the pool house, at declared permit values of $47,000 per fourplex, $45,055 per duplex building and $10,500 for the pool house on the permits we opened, per Lee County’s permit index. Whether that work was paid from insurance proceeds, reserves, a loan or a special assessment is not in any public record. Special assessments are not published; they appear on the estoppel certificate and in the minutes, so read the 2023 and 2024 minutes and budgets and check the estoppel for anything still being collected.
Lee County’s utility franchise maps place The Forest in Lee County Utilities’ water service area. Sewer service is provided by Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility; its rates are not published online. The community has a Hotwire fiber arrangement; whether it is billed through the association is not published. At Waters Edge the association granted Hotwire Communications, Ltd. a communication easement dated July 5, 2022 and recorded on July 14, 2022, before Hurricane Ian. Ask the seller for twelve months of water and sewer bills, and whether Hotwire appears on the association bill.
We do not publish a total for the stack, and on purpose. Each layer is a disclosure from a different party on a different billing cycle, and none of the association layers publishes a figure. A single total assembled from guesses would look precise and be wrong for someone. We put both estoppels, both budgets and the seller’s utility bills side by side for the specific unit before your inspection period ends.
A Waters Edge seller must give you, under Florida Statutes 718.503, the declaration, articles of incorporation, bylaws and rules, the association’s annual financial statement and budget, its reserve-study statement and the frequently asked questions and answers document, and you will also need two estoppel certificates: one from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and one from the master association.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Statutes 718.503, 718.116 and 720.30851; Florida Division of Corporations filings, retrieved September 2026)
Because Waters Edge publishes no fee, the budget is the first page that states your number. Read what it funds, the reserve schedule against buildings from 1984, 1985 and 1991, the insurance line, and whether any special assessment is levied or proposed. Then read the 2023 minutes for the roof decision and how it was paid for, because a roof paid by special assessment and a roof paid by insurance leave different balances behind.
Lee County’s index lists the Waters Edge Phase I and II condominium at Official Records Book 1988, Page 2827, with its condominium plat at Condominium Plat Book 9, Page 68, and every unit’s legal description cites Official Records Book 1725, Page 1848. All three are held in the Lee County Clerk’s official records and are not posted online. They hold the leasing terms, the pet rule, occupancy, alterations, any approval procedure for sales and leases, and the floor of each fourplex unit on the plat, so read every amendment before you rely on an answer.
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc. is a Florida not-for-profit corporation, document number 770753, filed October 17, 1983, reinstated May 2, 1988 and active today, per its Division of Corporations record. Its 2026 annual report, filed March 8, 2026, lists five officers and directors, and its March 27, 2025 report moved its principal address and changed its registered agent. A registered agent is not a management contract, so confirm the current manager from the estoppel certificate.
The condominium estoppel under section 718.116 states the fee, any special assessment and the account status; the master estoppel under section 720.30851 does the same for the master assessment. Florida caps the fee at $250 when nothing is delinquent, plus $100 for delivery within three business days, and up to $150 more if an account is delinquent. Who pays for each certificate is a term of the contract.
Florida requires a condominium association of 25 or more units to post its official records on a website or app, with an owner-only section, under section 718.111. Waters Edge, with 36 units, is above that line, but we found no public Waters Edge website, so ask the seller to open the owner-only records for your review before your review period starts.
No. Florida’s milestone structural inspections and structural integrity reserve studies apply to condominium buildings three or more stories in height, and Lee County records every Waters Edge building at one or two stories, each a two- or four-family building. In The Forest only Sparrowood’s three buildings reach three stories, so Waters Edge is outside both requirements.
Section 553.899 requires milestone inspections of condominium buildings three habitable stories or more in height, and section 718.112(2)(g) requires a structural integrity reserve study for the same class of building, stating that it does not apply to buildings less than three stories in height or to two-, three- or four-family dwellings with three or fewer habitable stories.
Being outside the statutes means no milestone inspection report and no structural integrity reserve study to read at Waters Edge, and it answers a question a lender reviewing a condominium may ask. It does not make reserves optional: the ordinary reserve rules still apply, and 1980s buildings’ paving, pool and exteriors still have to be paid for, even with new roofs.
Ask for the current budget and reserve schedule, the 2023 roof permit and closeout for your building, the 2026 pool and parking work, the insurance declarations, and whether any special assessment is proposed or levied. Under section 718.503 the resale package also carries the association’s statement on whether it has completed a reserve study.
You check flood zone and insurance for a Waters Edge condo against FEMA panels 12071C0438H and 12071C0576H, effective November 17, 2022, where every unit is in Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 11 feet NAVD88, then price the association’s master policy, your own unit-owners policy and, if you finance, flood coverage before you go firm.
Data updated: September 2026 (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried September 23, 2026; Lee County 2018 LiDAR spot elevations; FEMA CRS eligible communities list, April 2025)
Every Waters Edge parcel reads Zone AE, inside the Special Flood Hazard Area, on FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer. Thirty-one of the 37 Waters Edge parcels, including the common elements, are on panel 12071C0438H and six on panel 12071C0576H. The November 2022 map revision raised the base flood elevation across The Forest by one foot, from 10 to 11 feet, so older documents citing 10 feet predate the current map.
Neighborhood | Median ground, ft NAVD88 (range) | Base flood elevation minus median ground, ft (our arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|
Waters Edge | 6.6 (6.2 to 7.7) | 4.4 |
Heron Coach House Villas | 6.6 (6.2 to 7.6) | 4.4 |
Heron Coach Houses | 6.2 | 4.8 |
Dove’s Nest | 6.3 (6.2 to 6.5) | 4.7 |
Sparrowood | 7.5 (7.5 to 7.8) | 3.5 |
Fairway Woods, by section | 8.5 to 9.1 | 1.9 to 2.5 |
Source: nearest 2018 LiDAR ground point to each parcel in Lee County’s spot elevations layer, stated accuracy plus or minus 0.57 feet. That is ground, not a finished floor; only an elevation certificate states a building’s lowest floor for rating. Waters Edge and the Heron sit on similar low ground; Fairway Woods holds the highest in the community.
Under section 718.111(11), the association insures the condominium property under its master policy, and the unit owner insures the interior, contents and improvements under a unit-owners policy. Ask for the master policy declarations, the hurricane deductible and whether the association carries flood coverage on the buildings. We do not publish premiums, because a premium quoted without those documents is a guess.
A mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender on a unit in the Special Flood Hazard Area requires flood coverage, per FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 page, and most NFIP rates may not rise more than 18 percent a year. Unincorporated Lee County is a Class 5 community in FEMA’s Community Rating System, worth 25 percent off NFIP premiums inside the flood zone, per the April 2025 CRS list. Waters Edge has a Fort Myers mailing address but is not in the City of Fort Myers, which the same list rates Class 9, so make sure any quote uses the county’s class.
Florida makes flood coverage mandatory for Citizens personal-lines policies inside the Special Flood Hazard Area under section 627.351(6), and exempts policies written on a condominium unit-owners form. Under section 627.7011(5) an insurer may not refuse a homeowner’s policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old, and every Waters Edge building carries a 2023 roof permit. Under section 627.0629(1), rate filings must include discounts for wind-resistive features such as opening protection, so a unit-level wind-mitigation report on the owner-permitted impact windows and shutters is worth ordering.
Lee County applies FEMA’s substantial improvement and substantial damage rule in unincorporated Lee County: work costing 50 percent or more of a building’s market value brings the structure under current flood rules, and new or substantially improved buildings must sit one foot above the base flood elevation. At Waters Edge that line is 12 feet NAVD88, about 5.4 feet above median ground, by our arithmetic, which is one more reason to read the association’s insurance and reserve documents before you buy.
The Hurricane Ian record for Waters Edge is a measurement, not an anecdote: U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a high-water mark 2.89 feet above ground on the outside of building K, the one surveyed mark on a building inside The Forest’s gates, and in 2023 the association re-roofed every residential building and the pool house under permits that record Ian damage.
The mark reads 9.5 feet NAVD88, 2.89 feet above the ground at the wall, a seed line on an exterior wall surveyed October 12, 2022 and rated good to plus or minus 0.10 feet, per the USGS Short-Term Network record for Ian. The ground it implies, 6.6 feet, matches the median LiDAR ground for Waters Edge exactly, and by our arithmetic Ian’s crest there sat 1.5 feet below today’s 11-foot base flood elevation.
The mark measures the water surface outside one building. It does not say whether water entered any home, and no public record we reached does; interior flooding depends on each building’s finished-floor elevation, which only an elevation certificate records. We do not treat listing descriptions of storm history as evidence. Ask the seller for the flood disclosure Florida law requires under section 689.302 and the association for its insurance claims history.
Lee County’s permit index lists a 2023 re-roof for all 14 residential buildings and the pool house; each of the 11 permits we opened is typed hurricane damage and closed with a certificate of completion, such as ROF2023-18141 for building K. Waters Edge, like all of The Forest, is in Lee County Evacuation Zone A, the first zone told to leave. Seasonal owners should register a key holder with the association before leaving for the summer.
For a Waters Edge buyer, the non-bundled club means the home and the golf are two separate decisions and two separate costs. Buying at Waters Edge does not make you a member of The Forest Country Club, you pay no club dues or member assessments unless you join, and a seller’s membership should not be assumed to transfer.
Data updated: September 2026 (The Forest Country Club membership page, retrieved September 23, 2026; club Form 990 filings for 2022 to 2024)
The club’s membership page calls The Forest “a non bundled gated community offering resident and non resident memberships,” and the master association’s resident portal says, independently, “The Forest is a non-bundled gated community.” When two separately governed bodies say the same thing on their own sites, a buyer can rely on it as the community-wide rule.
A Waters Edge owner who never joins still gets the staffed gates and nightly patrol, the private streets, and Waters Edge’s own pool, spa and pool house, which the county permitted for resurfacing in 2026. A golf-front villa’s view comes with the home; the right to play the course does not. A non-member does not play either course, use the club’s courts or fitness center, or dine at the clubhouse as a matter of right.
The Forest Country Club, at 6100 Club Boulevard about 1.4 road miles and 6 minutes from Waters Edge Court, runs two courses. From the back tees the Bear plays 7,010 yards (rating 75.1, slope 144) and the Bobcat 6,607 yards (rating 71.8, slope 125), per the club’s December 2025 scorecard; the Bear reopened on December 1, 2025 after a full renovation. The club lists six Har-Tru Hydro clay tennis courts, three lighted, plus pickleball and bocce on its lifestyle page.
The club describes itself in its federal tax filings as a private, member-owned club, and its filings show special assessments on members in 2022, 2023 and 2024, per its Form 990 filings. Those assessments fall on members only; a Waters Edge owner who does not join pays none of them.
The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry through its inquiry form. If you plan to join, get the category’s initiation, dues, any food and beverage minimum and any pending assessment in writing before you are bound on the home.
Property taxes after you buy at Waters Edge start from your purchase, not the seller’s bill: Florida’s Save Our Homes cap follows the owner, so a homesteaded seller’s bill can sit well below yours. The bill adds the San Carlos Park fire levy of 2.3590 mills and a county solid waste line, and there is no CDD or MSTU line.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County parcel roll, queried September 2026; San Carlos Park Fire District FY2025/26 final budget)
The Save Our Homes cap limits annual increases in a homesteaded home’s assessed value to 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, under section 193.155, and after a sale the home is reassessed at just value. Twelve of the 36 Waters Edge units carry a homestead exemption on the county roll, 10 of them among the one-story homes, so a villa seller’s bill in particular can understate what a new owner pays.
If the home becomes your permanent Florida residence on January 1, the exemption removes up to $50,000 of assessed value under section 196.031 and starts the Save Our Homes cap. Apply with the Lee County Property Appraiser by March 1 of the tax year; the seller’s exemption does not carry over to you.
The Forest does not appear on Lee County’s official roster of special districts, and the county’s MSTBU layer returns no taxing unit inside the community. The only independent special district that reaches Waters Edge is the San Carlos Park fire district. Compare total tax bills, not millage alone, when you weigh Waters Edge against a newer community that carries a CDD.
The Waters Edge rules that decide fit, leasing terms, pet limits, alterations and parking, are written in the condominium’s recorded declaration and its rules, which are not published online, and the rules for the streets and gates sit with the master association. Read both before your review period ends, because a rule you learn after closing still binds you.
Minimum lease terms and rental frequency are not published. Under section 718.110(13), an amendment prohibiting rentals or changing the rental term or frequency applies only to owners who consent and to owners who acquire title after it takes effect, so a buyer is always bound by the rules in force on closing day. Twenty-four of the 36 units carry no homestead exemption; if rental income is part of your plan, ask for the declaration, every leasing amendment and the lease application before you sign.
Pet rules at Waters Edge are set in the declaration and rules, which are not published online, so we do not state a pet limit. Ask in writing how many pets and of what size a unit may keep, whether tenants may keep pets and whether the rule has changed. Florida’s rules on emotional support animals in housing are in section 760.27.
No public record we reached establishes an age restriction at Waters Edge, and this page makes no claim either way. Housing for older persons must meet the statutory tests in section 760.29. Read the declaration and its amendments before you rely on an answer.
Waters Edge owners have permitted impact-rated windows in 2018, 2019, 2023, 2025 and 2026 and roll-down shutters and screens in 2024, each under the owner’s own county permit, such as OPN2026-00926 for 15 impact windows in building B. Windows and shutters touch the building envelope, so the association’s written approval normally comes before the permit. Ask for the alteration procedure, and ask the seller for approval letters and permits for work already done, because a buyer inherits an unapproved alteration.
The county roll records a garage on every Waters Edge unit, and the association’s parking was resealed and restriped in 2026 with 38 new car stops under county order LDO2026-00304. Guest parking, boat and trailer rules sit in the condominium’s rules; golf-cart rules on The Forest’s private streets sit in the master association’s rules. Neither is published. Guests are pre-registered by residents through the DwellingLive visitor system.
Waters Edge and The Heron at The Forest are the two highest-priced attached neighborhoods inside the gates, and both sell one-story villas. Buy at Waters Edge for a larger villa, a single condominium association under the master, a 2023 roof on every building and a market that has sold closer to asking; buy at the Heron for newer buildings, a villa at about $400,000 and more homes to choose from.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; Lee County parcel roll, spot elevations layer and permit index, queried September 2026; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer)
Question | Waters Edge at The Forest | The Heron at The Forest |
|---|---|---|
What you own | A unit in a two-story fourplex, a one-story duplex or a one-story attached villa | A Coach House in a one- and two-story building of eight, or a one-story Villa in a land condominium |
Homes | 36, in one condominium | 63: 48 Coach Houses and 15 Villas, in two condominiums |
Built (county roll) | 1984 and 1985; villas added in 1991 | 1990 to 1996 |
County plans | 1,693 and 1,991 sq ft fourplex units; 2,334 sq ft duplex units; 1,989 sq ft villas | 1,499 and 1,859 sq ft Coach Houses; 1,993 and 2,718 sq ft Villas |
Median heated area (county) | 1,989 sq ft | 1,679 sq ft (Coach Houses); 1,993 sq ft (Villas) |
Association layers | Two: Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, plus the master | Three: unit association, Heron Master, master association |
Estoppel certificates on a purchase | Two | Three |
Pool | The association’s own pool, spa and pool house | The Heron Master’s pool parcel, shared by both condominiums |
Closings, 48 months to September 23, 2026 | 11 | 16 |
Median sold, 48 months | $425,000 | $380,000 (middle pair $375,000 and $385,000) |
Median price per sq ft, 48 months | $202.91 | $199.29 (middle pair $198.37 and $200.20) |
Median sold-to-list, 48 months | 97.94% | 95.84% (middle pair 95.27% and 96.40%) |
Median days on market, 48 months | 11 | 25 (middle pair 14 and 36) |
Sold price range, 48 months | $280,000 to $520,000 | $290,000 to $570,000 |
One-story villas, 48 months | 6 closings, median $500,000 (middle pair $490,000 and $510,000), $245.15 a sq ft | 1,993 sq ft Villas: 7 closings, median $400,000, $200.70 a sq ft |
Entry product, 48 months | Fourplex units: 5 closings, median $325,000, $184.87 a sq ft | Coach Houses: 8 closings, median $336,250 (middle pair $332,500 and $340,000), $197.60 a sq ft |
Last 12 months | 3 closings, median $425,000, $191.27 a sq ft, 99.05% of list | 6 closings, median $389,500 (middle pair $385,000 and $394,000), $193.26 a sq ft, 93.03% of list |
Listings on September 23, 2026 | 1, asking $325,000 | 2, asking $199,000 and $318,000 |
Months of supply (our arithmetic) | About 4.0 | About 4.0 |
Median ground, ft NAVD88 | 6.6 (6.2 to 7.7) | 6.2 (Coach Houses) and 6.6 (Villas) |
Flood map | Zone AE, 11 ft, panels 0438H and 0576H | Zone AE, 11 ft, panels 0438H and 0576H |
Hurricane Ian | USGS mark 2.89 ft above ground at building K | No surveyed high-water mark |
Roofs on the county record | 2023 re-roof permits for every residential building and the pool house, recorded as Ian damage | No public re-roof record we reached; ask the association |
Homestead share, 2026 roll | 12 of 36 | 22 of 63 |
2026 median just value (county, not a price) | $300,820 | $246,498 (Coach Houses); $334,217 (Villas) |
Milestone and reserve-study statutes | Outside both (one and two stories) | Outside both (one and two stories) |
Club membership | Optional | Optional |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS Matrix closed and active records, pulled September 23, 2026, closed sales September 24, 2022 to September 23, 2026, each sale resolved by address; median price per square foot is the median of each sale’s own ratio on MLS living area, and even-n medians are the mean of the middle pair. The Heron’s figures combine the MLS neighborhoods Heron Coach Houses and Heron Coach House Villas. Lee County parcel roll, spot elevations layer and permit index; FEMA panels effective November 17, 2022; USGS Ian high-water marks.
Choose Waters Edge if you want a one-story, golf-front villa or a larger duplex unit, a single condominium association under the master and two estoppels rather than three, a 2023 roof permit on every building and a pool the county permitted for resurfacing in 2026, and you accept older buildings, a higher price per foot for the villas, a surveyed Ian mark and one listing to choose from today. Choose The Heron at The Forest if you want the newest condominium buildings inside the gates, a one-story Villa for about $400,000 rather than about $500,000 or a Coach House entry point, and you are comfortable budgeting for three association layers. Heron buyers have their own guide to buying a home in The Heron at The Forest.
The Heron’s 1,993-square-foot Villas have closed from $375,000 to $485,000, and Waters Edge’s villas from $425,000 to $520,000, so the two villa markets overlap between about $425,000 and $485,000. Below that, Waters Edge’s three-bedroom fourplex plan, 1,991 heated square feet, has sold at $289,000, $395,000 and $404,000, against the Heron’s Coach Houses at a median of $336,250. A buyer with about $400,000 can have a one-story Heron Villa or a two-story Waters Edge fourplex unit of about the same size; the decision is layout and age against roofs and one fewer association.
Over the same 48 months Fairway Woods closed 31 sales at a median of $350,000 for units of up to 2,962 heated square feet at $143.48 a square foot, the most space for the money inside the gates, and its buyers have their own guide to buying a home in Fairway Woods at The Forest. Sparrowood closed 8 sales at $282,500 (the mean of $265,000 and $300,000) in the community’s only three-story buildings, Dove Hollow 10 at $297,500 (the mean of $290,000 and $305,000), and Quail Cove 9 at $325,000. At the entry end, Partridge Place, The Forest’s 1981 walk-ups, carries the community’s lowest neighborhood median, $157,500, and its buyers can start with buying a home in Partridge Place.
We find you the right Waters Edge home by matching your budget to a product and a plan, watching a neighborhood of about three sales a year so you hear about a listing the day it appears, clearing gate access before every showing, and touring with the questions a listing does not answer, starting with the roof permit and the floor.
A neighborhood median mixes a 1,693-square-foot fourplex unit with a golf-front villa, so it tells a buyer very little. We show you what your product and plan have actually sold for, and when, so you know whether your number buys a villa, a three-bedroom fourplex unit or, when one ever lists, a duplex, and whether it buys an updated home or an original one.
All 11 Waters Edge closings of the last four years fell between January and July, and the master association estimates The Forest’s population at about 1,000 year-round and about 2,000 in peak season. Seasonal owners often decide while they are here in winter, so we keep your criteria on file and alert you when a Waters Edge home comes to market, and when a Heron or Fairway Woods home does, because many Waters Edge buyers weigh all three.
The county roll shows three Waters Edge deeds in four years that never reached the MLS. When we learn of a home before it is listed, we will tell you whether it fits your product and budget, and we will price it against the same recorded sales as any listed home.
Every visitor enters through a staffed gate, and guests are pre-registered through the association’s DwellingLive system, so we arrange access before we schedule. By our routing, Waters Edge traffic uses the Island Park Gate, staffed from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, rather than the Main Gate on Forest Boulevard. On tour, check the golf view from every window, the garage, the windows, doors and shutters and their permits, the air conditioning and water heater dates, and, in a fourplex, which floor you are on.
Ask Marc at (239) 287-5873 to set up a saved search for Waters Edge by product and budget, browse current homes for sale in The Forest on DomainRealtyGroup.com, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida and use the buyer form on this page. Alerts route to us directly, so a new listing reaches both you and us the same day.
We negotiate for you at Waters Edge at partner level, with the same product’s sales in hand, the listing’s days on market and price history, the association’s budget, reserves, roof funding and insurance as leverage, and a contract calendar that gives both estoppels and the resale package time to arrive before your deposit is at risk.
A list price above the product’s recorded sales has to show why, with updates, a better view or a better building. If it cannot, we write to the sales. The one fourplex listing on September 23, 2026 had been active 194 days at $325,000, the same price a same-size fourplex unit closed at in April 2026 after a $349,000 list; the villa that listed at $525,000 took 190 days to close at $520,000, while the villa priced at $425,000 sold on day one. Those are the market’s own lessons about price.
A special assessment still being collected for the 2023 roofs, an unfunded reserve line, an unpermitted window, a missing wind-mitigation report or aging air conditioning are all facts that move a price. We put them in writing, tie them to a quote or a document, and use them to negotiate a price, a credit or a repair rather than a vague discount.
The review right under section 718.503, the inspection period and any association approval period give you defined exits. We track every deadline, deliver every notice in writing and on time, and sequence them so your deposit is not at risk before you have read the budget, the 2023 minutes and both estoppels.
Where the declaration requires the association to approve a purchase, we set a closing date that leaves room for it and file the application the week you sign. The association publishes no approval timeline, so we ask for it in writing on day one.
Closing costs when you buy at Waters Edge include ordinary Florida buyer costs plus condominium items: the estoppel fees the contract assigns to you, prorated condominium and master assessments, prorated taxes including the San Carlos Park fire levy, and on a financed purchase the documentary stamp tax on the note and the intangible tax on the mortgage.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Statutes 201.08, 199.133 and 201.02; Florida Administrative Code Rule 69O-186.003)
Florida sets the title premium by rule, Rule 69O-186.003, at $5.75 per $1,000 of coverage up to $100,000 and $5.00 per $1,000 from $100,000 to $1,000,000, so what varies between title companies is the settlement services around it. At the Waters Edge median of $425,000 the owner’s premium at those rates is $2,200, by our arithmetic, before endorsements. Who pays for the owner’s policy and who chooses the title agent is written into the purchase contract.
Documentary stamp tax on the note runs at $0.35 per $100 under section 201.08, and the nonrecurring intangible tax on a new mortgage at 2 mills under section 199.133; neither applies to a cash purchase. As an illustration at $425,000 with an 80 percent loan of $340,000, the note stamps come to $1,190 and the intangible tax to $680, by our arithmetic.
The condominium fee and the master assessment are prorated to the closing date from the figures on each estoppel certificate, and any special assessment the estoppel shows as due appears as its own line. Property taxes are prorated against the seller’s current bill, which is not a forecast of yours.
The documentary stamp tax on the deed, 70 cents per $100 under section 201.02, is customarily paid by the seller; on a $425,000 sale it is $2,975, by our arithmetic. The contract controls every allocation.
Budget for a general inspection and a wind-mitigation report on the unit. If the association has no elevation certificate for the building, ask whether one can be obtained before you bind flood coverage, because it is the document an insurer prices, and at Waters Edge’s ground level it matters more than it does on higher ground.
Buyer’s agent compensation at Waters Edge in 2026 follows the National Association of REALTORS practice changes in force since August 17, 2024: you sign a written buyer agreement with your agent before touring, offers of compensation no longer appear on the MLS, and every commission is negotiable and not set by law.
The agreement must be signed before the tour, in person or by live virtual tour, per the NAR settlement FAQs and its guide to written buyer agreements. It must state the amount or rate of compensation, prohibit the agent from receiving more than that from any source, and state conspicuously that broker fees are not set by law and are fully negotiable. You need no agreement to talk to us or ask which product a building holds.
A seller may offer to contribute toward your agent’s compensation, you may ask for it in your offer, or you may pay it yourself. Florida’s brokerage relationship law, section 475.278, sets out the duties owed to you under each form of representation. We tell you plainly which approach fits the home and the seller before you write.
The same-product sales, both estoppels ordered on day one, the budget, the 2023 minutes and the resale package read inside your review period, the approval step built into the calendar, the flood and insurance file assembled before you bind, and a closing that lands on time.
Daily life around Waters Edge runs through The Forest’s staffed gates and the US 41 corridor of south Fort Myers: the clubhouse about 1.4 road miles away, Rayma C. Page Elementary about 2.6 miles, Gulf Coast Medical Center about 14 minutes and Southwest Florida International Airport about 21 minutes, measured as free-flow drives from 16581 Waters Edge Court.
Data updated: September 2026 (routes computed September 24, 2026; Florida Department of Education 2026 school grades file)
The Main Gate on Forest Boulevard is staffed 24 hours a day and the Island Park Gate from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with a nightly patrol, per the master association’s 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan. Residents request vehicle barcodes through the association’s barcode request form, and guests and contractors are registered in advance through DwellingLive.
Destination | Road miles | Minutes (free-flow) |
|---|---|---|
The Forest Country Club, 6100 Club Boulevard | 1.4 | 6 |
The Forest Property Owners’ Association office, 5990 Forest Boulevard | 1.6 | 6 |
Rayma C. Page Elementary, 17000 S Tamiami Trail | 2.6 | 8 |
Gulf Coast Medical Center, 13681 Doctors Way | 5.6 | 14 |
Southwest Florida International Airport terminal | 9.9 | 21 |
Routes were computed from 16581 Waters Edge Court on the OpenStreetMap road network with no traffic model; January to April traffic on US 41 runs longer. Measured from the clubhouse, 1.4 miles from Waters Edge Court, Bell Tower Shops is about 3.9 miles, downtown Fort Myers about 10.3 miles and 21 minutes, and Fort Myers Beach about 10.7 miles and 21 minutes.
Lee County assigns students through zones of school choices, not a single school per address. Waters Edge, like every neighborhood in The Forest, sits in Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2, per the district-linked 2026-27 zone map.
Zone choice | School | 2026 grade |
|---|---|---|
Elementary Zone O | Rayma C. Page Elementary | A |
Elementary Zone O | Heights Elementary | A |
Elementary Zone O | Villas Elementary | B |
Elementary Zone O | Tanglewood Elementary | B |
Middle School Zone MM | Cypress Lake Middle | A |
Middle School Zone MM | Lexington Middle | B |
High School South Zone 2 | South Fort Myers High | C |
High School South Zone 2 | Cypress Lake High | A |
High School South Zone 2 | Estero High | B |
High School South Zone 2 | Fort Myers High | A |
High School South Zone 2 | Bonita Springs High | B |
High School South Zone 2 | Dunbar High | C |
Grades are from the Florida Department of Education’s 2026 school grades file. The district’s 2026-27 transportation plan does not provide Dunbar bus service to The Forest’s subzone. Confirm choices for a specific address through the district’s student enrollment page.
Gulf Coast Medical Center, 13681 Doctors Way, about 5.6 miles and 14 minutes from Waters Edge Court, is Lee County’s state-designated Level II trauma center, per the Florida Department of Health’s trauma center list.
You get a personalized Waters Edge buyer consultation by using the buyer form on this page or calling Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873. We review your budget against each product’s sales, walk through the two association layers, the 2023 roof record and the documents to request, and set up alerts for Waters Edge, the Heron and the other condominiums inside The Forest.
Your budget against the same-product sales, which product, building and plan fit how you will use the home, the association layers and what each estoppel will state, the flood and insurance picture, the rules to read, the club decision and a timeline that fits the season.
Call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072, or email [email protected]. The office of McGreevy and Comisar is at 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, south of The Forest on the same US 41. Read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
If you are selling in Southwest Florida to buy at Waters Edge, we sequence both sides with one calendar. Owners inside The Forest can read how we sell homes in The Forest, and Waters Edge owners trading between products, a fourplex unit for a villa, can start with how we sell Waters Edge homes or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
McGreevy and Comisar are a top-reviewed buyer’s team on Google, and the quotes below are genuine five-star client reviews reproduced in each reviewer’s own words. We publish no aggregate score and no star-rating widget. Read the full set on the McGreevy and Comisar Google reviews profile.
★★★★★ “Marc was great! He helped us find a place that matched our needs, without trying to upsell us into something too big. And he’s helped us settle into the area. 100% recommendation!” Guy Avagliano, verified Google review
★★★★★ “Highly recommend Marc as a realtor. His devotion to finding you the perfect house is obvious and a breath of fresh air at such a stressful time.” Kendall Sweat, verified Google review
★★★★★ “We have purchased many properties over the years and Jesse is without a doubt the most knowledgeable, personable and efficient real estate broker we have ever worked with!” Jennifer Schnabel Wood, verified Google review
A Waters Edge specialist matters when you buy because the price turns on the product rather than the neighborhood median, a fourplex unit number never tells you the floor, no association layer publishes its fee, the 2023 roofs raise a funding question the permits cannot answer, and every unit sits low in a FEMA flood zone that an insurer will price.
Jesse McGreevy is a licensed Florida REALTOR and Sales Associate with Domain Realty and one half of McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. He runs the documents and data. Reach him at (239) 898-6072, and read his profile on the Jesse McGreevy agent page.
Marc Comisar is a licensed Florida REALTOR and Broker Associate with Domain Realty and the other half of McGreevy and Comisar. He runs tours, inspections and the negotiation in the field. Reach him at (239) 287-5873, and read his profile on the Marc Comisar agent page.
A general agent may price a Waters Edge villa off a neighborhood median that includes fourplex units, read a floor from a unit number, quote one estoppel instead of two, skip the 2023 minutes, mistake the county’s golf-front coding for a course view, confuse this Waters Edge with one of the many unrelated Florida properties of the same name, or treat a Fort Myers mailing address as a City of Fort Myers flood rating. Each one costs a buyer money or a closing date.
For the whole community, our guide to The Forest covers all 19 neighborhoods, and our Fort Myers guide covers the city around it. Neighboring guides cover The Heron, Fairway Woods, Eagle’s Landing and Dove’s Nest.
These are the questions buyers ask most about Waters Edge at The Forest, answered from the association’s state filings, Lee County’s parcel, permit, flood and tax records, FEMA’s map, the USGS storm record, Florida statute and the Southwest Florida MLS, each with its window and source. Where the record is silent, the answer says so and names the document that holds it.
A 36-unit condominium on Waters Edge Court inside The Forest, the gated golf community in south Fort Myers: 16 two-story fourplex units and 4 one-story duplex units built in 1984 and 1985, and 16 one-story villas added in 1991, under one association.
Inside the gates of The Forest, in unincorporated Lee County in south Fort Myers, ZIP 33908. Every address is on Waters Edge Court, a private street off Timberlakes Drive on the community’s west side, about 1.4 road miles from the clubhouse.
Three MLS closings in the 12 months to September 23, 2026 ran $325,000 to $520,000, a median of $425,000; 11 closings in 48 months ran $280,000 to $520,000, also a median of $425,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS.
Over 48 months, the six one-story villa sales had a median of $500,000 (the mean of $490,000 and $510,000), and the five two-story fourplex sales a median of $325,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS.
On September 23, 2026 the MLS showed one: a two-bedroom fourplex unit of 1,758 square feet of living area asking $325,000 after 194 days, with no villa, no duplex and no pending sale. Listings change weekly.
Not on the arithmetic: one listing against three sales a year is about 4.0 months of supply, and the median sale closed at 99.05 percent of list in the last 12 months. At this volume one listing changes the picture.
Lee County records four plans: 1,693 heated square feet with two bedrooms and 1,991 with three in the fourplexes, 2,334 in the duplexes, and 1,989 with three bedrooms and two and a half baths in the villas. The median is 1,989.
A median $202.91 per square foot of MLS living area over 48 months and $191.27 in the last 12, the median of each sale’s own ratio. Villas ran $245.15 and fourplex units $184.87 over 48 months.
Yes. The Lee County parcel roll records a garage on every Waters Edge unit. Garage size and any association rule on its use are not in the county record, so confirm both on tour and in the declaration.
The county roll does not record it, and we do not infer it from the unit number. Units are numbered 101, 102, 201 and 202 in each fourplex; read the floor from the recorded condominium plat and the listing.
The county roll codes all 20 one-story units, the 16 villas and the 4 duplex units, as golf front, and none of the fourplex units. That is county coding, not a view survey, and frontage is a view, not access to the course.
Not published. Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association’s fee appears in its budget and resale estoppel certificate, and the master association’s assessment is not published either. Ask for both, with the reserve schedule and minutes.
Two: one from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and one from The Forest Property Owners’ Association. Florida caps the fee at $250 when nothing is delinquent, plus $100 for delivery within three business days.
No public record says. Lee County’s permits show every building and the pool house re-roofed in 2023, but not whether insurance, reserves, a loan or a special assessment paid. The minutes, budgets and estoppel certificate answer it.
No. The Forest is non-bundled, per the club’s membership page and the master association’s resident portal. You join only if you choose to.
The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry. Get them in writing before you rely on them.
Because membership is separate from home ownership, a club membership should not be assumed to transfer with a home. Treat the club’s written answer as the authority.
Yes. The association has its own pool and spa with a pool house on the common elements; the pool house was re-roofed in 2023, and Lee County issued a 2026 permit to resurface the pool and spa.
The public record we reached does not name the original builder. The association was filed on October 17, 1983, and the state condominium registry names Forest-Waters Edge Inc. as subsequent developer of record, licensed April 20, 1988.
Yes. Every unit is in FEMA Zone AE, base flood elevation 11 feet NAVD88, on panels 12071C0438H and 12071C0576H, effective November 17, 2022, on ground at a median 6.6 feet.
With a federally regulated or insured mortgage, yes. Ask whether the association’s master policy includes flood coverage on the buildings. Unincorporated Lee County’s Class 5 rating cuts NFIP premiums 25 percent.
USGS surveyed a high-water mark 2.89 feet above ground on the outside of building K. It measures water outside a wall; no public record we reached says whether water entered any home. Ask for the building’s elevation certificate.
No. Those requirements apply to condominium buildings three or more stories in height, and Lee County records every Waters Edge building at one or two stories.
It depends on the declaration and rules, which are not published online. A later rental restriction binds a buyer who takes title after it passes, so read the current rules and every leasing amendment before you sign.
Pet rules are set in the declaration and rules, which are not published online, so we do not state a limit. Ask for the pet rule in writing before you sign.
No public record we reached establishes an age restriction at Waters Edge, and this page makes no claim either way. Read the declaration and its amendments before you rely on an answer.
Budget from your purchase price, not the seller’s bill, because the Save Our Homes cap follows the owner. Add the San Carlos Park fire levy of 2.3590 mills; there is no CDD.
If the home is your permanent residence on January 1, the exemption removes up to $50,000 of assessed value and starts the Save Our Homes cap. Apply by March 1; 12 of the 36 units carry one today.
No. Waters Edge has a Fort Myers mailing address, but every parcel is in unincorporated Lee County, which handles zoning, permits and flood-plain rules.
Lee County Utilities’ water service area covers The Forest, sewer comes from Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility whose rates are not published online, and the association granted Hotwire Communications, Ltd. a communication easement in 2022.
Waters Edge sits in Lee County’s Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2. Rayma C. Page Elementary, graded A in 2026, is about 2.6 miles away. Confirm choices with the district.
About 9.9 miles and 21 minutes to the Southwest Florida International Airport terminal and about 5.6 miles and 14 minutes to Gulf Coast Medical Center, free-flow from 16581 Waters Edge Court.
No. The state registry lists many unrelated Waters Edge entities, and Lee County holds other Waters Edge projects miles away. Confirm the Waters Edge Court address in ZIP 33908 before reading any record.
Guests, including buyers and agents, are pre-registered through the DwellingLive visitor system. We arrange access before we schedule a showing.
Yes, with an MLS agent. Since August 17, 2024, a written buyer agreement stating the agent’s compensation must be in place before a tour, and compensation is negotiable.
Waters Edge villas sold at a median $500,000 against the Heron Villas’ $400,000 over 48 months, with two association layers against three and a 2023 roof on every building; the Heron has newer buildings and more homes.
Choose your product and budget against the same-product sales, decide whether you want the club, and set up alerts. Call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873.
Every Waters Edge figure on this page traces to a primary source below, listed as of September 27, 2026: the association’s filings with the Florida Division of Corporations and the state condominium registry, Lee County’s parcel, permit, flood, tax and development records, Florida Statutes and state agencies, federal flood and storm records, the master association’s and the club’s own pages, and the Southwest Florida MLS. No listing portal or competing brokerage is cited.
Every row below links the authority that publishes the document, so a Waters Edge buyer always opens the official, current copy. We host nothing ourselves. The recorded declaration and its amendments, the association’s bylaws, rules, budget, reserve schedule and minutes, and the master association’s homeowner documents are not posted publicly; they come with the resale package.
Document | What it tells a Waters Edge buyer | Official authority |
|---|---|---|
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association 2026 annual report | The association’s current state filing: principal address and officers | |
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association 2025 annual report | The filing that moved the association’s address and changed its registered agent | |
The Forest Property Owners’ Association Emergency Preparedness Plan (2022) | Gate staffing, the Waters Edge seat on the master board, re-entry rules | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0438H (effective November 17, 2022) | The flood map panel for 31 of the 37 Waters Edge parcels | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0576H (effective November 17, 2022) | The flood map panel for the other 6 Waters Edge parcels | |
Lee County Evacuation Zone A map | The evacuation zone that covers all of The Forest | |
FEMA Community Rating System eligible communities (April 2025) | Unincorporated Lee County’s Class 5, a 25 percent NFIP discount | |
San Carlos Park Fire District FY2025/2026 Final Budget | The 2.3590-mill fire levy on every Waters Edge tax bill | |
The Forest Country Club scorecard (December 2025) | Both courses’ tees, yardage, rating and slope | |
Florida Statutes 718.503, disclosure prior to sale | The documents a condominium seller must give you | |
Florida Statutes 718.116, assessments and estoppel certificates | What the condominium estoppel states, and its fee cap | |
Florida Statutes 689.302, flood disclosure | The flood disclosure every Waters Edge seller gives |
McGreevy and Comisar represent buyers across Southwest Florida from an office in Bonita Springs on US 41, south of The Forest on the same highway, and Waters Edge sits inside the south Fort Myers market we work every week. The first conversation costs nothing, and at a neighborhood with one listing and three sales a year, it is usually what puts a buyer first in line.
Marc Comisar: (239) 287-5873. Jesse McGreevy: (239) 898-6072, [email protected]. Office: 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134. Use the buyer form on this page, return to the buyer consultation section, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. Video walkthroughs are on McGreevy and Comisar on YouTube, and the team keeps a company page at McGreevy and Comisar on LinkedIn.
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate, Florida license SL3101296) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate, Florida license BK3060671) are licensed Florida REALTORS with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC).
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team; learn more at DomainRealtyGroup.com. McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008. Nothing on this page is legal, tax or insurance advice.
Market data from Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, through the Southwest Florida MLS Matrix. Brokered by Domain Realty.