Waters Edge at The Forest is a 36-unit condominium of two-story fourplexes and one-story villas in Fort Myers, with the top condominium median sale in The Forest, $425,000 over four years, and 2023 roofs on each building. Sell or buy with McGreevy and Comisar.
By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, McGreevy and Comisar, Domain Realty Group. Updated September 2026.
McGreevy and Comisar are the team Waters Edge sellers call first, and the team buyers call when they want to know which of the two kinds of home at Waters Edge they are actually looking at. Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 real estate team in Southwest Florida since 2012, and are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, with over $900 million in personal sales between them. Waters Edge at The Forest is a 36-unit condominium of two-story fourplexes, one-story duplexes and one-story villas inside the master-planned community of The Forest in Fort Myers, Florida. It is one of the smaller attached neighborhoods behind The Forest's gates and, on Lee County's 2026 appraisal roll, the most valuable conventional condominium in the community.
Three facts set Waters Edge apart, and each comes from a public record rather than listing copy. First, it is one condominium holding two different products: 20 homes built in 1984 and 1985 in four two-story, four-unit buildings and two one-story duplexes, and 16 one-story villas added in 1991 in eight attached pairs, per the Lee County parcel roll. Second, it has recorded the highest median sale price of any condominium neighborhood in The Forest over the last four years, $425,000 on 11 closings, per the Southwest Florida MLS, and its one-story villas sold at a median of $500,000 in that span. Third, its median 2026 just value, $300,820, is the highest of any conventional condominium in The Forest; only the Heron Coach House Villas, a land condominium, sit higher.
Waters Edge also carries the one piece of hard storm evidence inside The Forest's gates. U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a Hurricane Ian high-water mark about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge building, per the USGS high-water mark record, and in 2023 the association re-roofed every one of its 14 residential buildings and its pool house under Lee County permits; each of the 11 we opened records the work as Hurricane Ian damage. We put both facts in front of you rather than behind a showing, because a buyer's lender and insurer will find them anyway.
We built this page the way we price a listing here: from every Southwest Florida MLS closing at Waters Edge over the last four years, pulled September 23, 2026, checked unit by unit against the county roll, plus the association's state corporate filings, the state condominium registry, Lee County's permit, development order, flood and parcel records, FEMA's maps and Florida statute. If you own at Waters Edge, the market and seller sections show what homes like yours have sold for and what a buyer will ask. If you are buying, the fee, rules and storm sections show what you will pay, what you must request before closing, and where the record goes silent.
McGreevy and Comisar are the best realtor for Waters Edge because the case is a matter of record: the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012, Top 1% of agents nationally since 2008, over $900 million in personal sales, and a Waters Edge market read built from the MLS, the county roll, the permit file and FEMA's maps.
If you're searching for the best realtor for Waters Edge in The Forest, Fort Myers, whether you're ready to sell your Waters Edge home or buy your next one, McGreevy and Comisar is the team that delivers. We lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 real estate team in Southwest Florida since 2012, Top 1% Nationally since 2008, with over $2.5 billion sold as a team and $900 million in personal sales between Jesse and Marc.
Recent Waters Edge track record, from the Southwest Florida MLS Matrix. In the last 12 months we tracked 3 Waters Edge closings in the Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026, covering closings dated 09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026: a one-story villa at $520,000 in January 2026, a two-story fourplex unit at $325,000 in April 2026 and a one-story villa at $425,000 in May 2026, for $1,270,000 in closed volume. The 12-month median was $425,000 (n=3, odd, so the median is an observed sale), the median sold-to-list ratio was 99.05%, the median time on market was 79 days, and the May 2026 villa closed at its full list price with 0 days on market, the fastest sale recorded anywhere in The Forest in that year. Three sales is too few to price anything, so we widen the window until it holds at least ten: the first window that does is the full 48-month pull, the widest we hold, 09/24/2022 to 09/23/2026, with 11 closings at a median of $425,000 (n=11, odd, an observed sale), $4,628,000 in volume, a median $202.91 per square foot of MLS living area and a median 97.94% of list. One unit is listed today. We publish these as tracked-market figures, not as a count of our own transactions.
For Waters Edge sellers: premium marketing, including cinematic video, drone, professional photography, a qualified-buyer database, and discretion with off-market capability when a sale needs to stay quiet. A Waters Edge sale also runs on paperwork, and some of it is published nowhere. Your buyer will need two estoppel certificates, one from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc. and one from The Forest Property Owners' Association, because neither association publishes its assessment. A condominium resale also carries the statutory document list in section 718.503 of the Florida Statutes: the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules, the annual budget and financial statement, and the "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" sheet. Buyers here will ask about the 2023 roofs, about the Ian high-water mark and about which floor a fourplex unit is on, and we answer each one from the county's own permit and parcel records before the first showing. They will also ask whether they must join the club, and the answer is no: The Forest is non-bundled. That is a documents and marketing problem, and it is the one we are built for.
Honors and recognition:
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
If you are still comparing agents, our guide to the best real estate agents in Fort Myers sets the leading teams side by side, compared on the public record: licence dates, production and Google reviews.
Selling your Waters Edge home? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home, or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Confidential conversations are welcome.
Buying a home in Waters Edge? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873 for a personalized buyer consultation, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Office: 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134 · Jesse McGreevy: (239) 898-6072 · [email protected] · Marc Comisar: (239) 287-5873
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) are licensed Florida REALTORS® with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC).
Waters Edge at The Forest comes down to eight load-bearing facts: what you are buying, what it has sold for, what the storm record shows, what the laws require of a two-story condominium, what the fees are, who runs the association, what you must join, and where the rules live. Each is sourced again further down.
This guide to Waters Edge runs from what the market is doing and what the homes are, through governance, fees, rules, storms, flood and insurance, schools, permits and daily logistics, to how Waters Edge compares with Sparrowood and Fairway Woods, honest pros and cons, and both FAQ sets.
Living in Waters Edge means owning a condominium home on a private street off Timberlakes Drive on the west side of The Forest, behind two staffed gates, with an association pool and spa, a garage on every unit record, golf frontage on the one-story homes, and the optional Forest Country Club about a mile and a half away by road.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County Property Appraiser roll and Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 to 24 Sep 2026)
Waters Edge is small enough that a buyer can learn every building in an afternoon: 14 residential buildings and a pool house on about 9.2 acres of common elements, per the county parcel record for the common elements. What makes it unusual inside The Forest is that the same association runs two very different kinds of home, and they trade in different price bands.
Every Waters Edge address is on Waters Edge Court, a private street that meets Timberlakes Drive, the loop road that also serves Units Two and Three, Eagle's Landing, the Dove condominiums and Sparrowood. From 16581 Waters Edge Court, the clubhouse at 6100 Club Boulevard is about 1.4 road miles and 6 minutes away, and the master association office at 5990 Forest Boulevard about 1.6 miles, by our routing on the OpenStreetMap network with the OSRM engine from a Census Bureau geocode of the address, run September 24, 2026. On that routing, Waters Edge traffic leaves through the Island Park gate, the back gate on Island Park Road, rather than the Main Gate on Forest Boulevard.
The first thing to know when you tour Waters Edge is which product you are standing in. The 1984 and 1985 section has four two-story buildings of four units each, at 1,693 and 1,991 heated square feet, and two one-story duplexes whose four units are the largest at Waters Edge, 2,334 heated square feet. The 1991 section is eight one-story duplex villas, 16 homes of 1,989 heated square feet with three bedrooms and two and a half baths on the county roll. The two sections share one declaration, one association and one pool, but they have different floor plans, different golf exposure and, as the market section shows, different prices.
The county roll gives a clear picture of ownership without naming anyone. Twelve of the 36 units carry a Florida homestead exemption, the legal marker of a primary residence, and the split is sharp: 10 of the 20 one-story homes are homesteaded against 2 of the 16 fourplex units. Owner mailing addresses on the roll run 19 in Florida, 16 in other states (Illinois and Wisconsin lead, with four each) and one in Canada. In plain terms, the one-story homes lean toward year-round owners and the fourplexes toward seasonal owners, which is consistent with the master association's own estimate in its 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan of about 1,000 year-round residents across The Forest and about 2,000 in peak season.
Waters Edge has its own pool and spa, in a pool house the association re-roofed in 2023; the county issued a permit in August 2026 to resurface both, with no change to the footprint, per Lee County's permit record POL2026-01130. The association also re-roofed the buildings in 2023 and handles the parking along Waters Edge Court, which the county approved for a reseal and restripe with 38 new car stops in 2026. Everything larger, the gates, the private streets, street lighting and landscaping beyond the condominium, belongs to the master association, and the golf, tennis and clubhouse belong to the separate country club.
Waters Edge is not a waterfront community in the boating sense, despite the name: The Forest has no marina and no Gulf access, and the county roll describes the one-story units' setting as golf front. It is not age-restricted on any record we reached, and we make no claim about age either way. And buying here does not make you a member of The Forest Country Club: The Forest is a non-bundled community, per the club's membership page and the master association's resident portal.
Own at Waters Edge? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Touring Waters Edge? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Waters Edge at The Forest shares its name with many unrelated Florida properties, so a search for "Waters Edge Fort Myers" returns the wrong places. The state corporate registry lists dozens of Waters Edge entities, and Lee County's own records hold other Waters Edge projects miles away.
The confusion is not academic. A buyer who reads a flood, permit or fee story about the wrong Waters Edge can walk into a showing with the wrong expectations, and a seller who pulls the wrong comparables prices the wrong way.
A name search for "Waters Edge of Lee" in the Florida Division of Corporations returns this community's association, Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc., followed by a long run of unrelated Waters Edge marinas, management companies and property companies. In Lee County's development order record, projects named Waters Edge include a marina dredge, a marina parking lot and a lake-bank stabilization about five miles west, near Peppertree Pointe, and parking projects at Palms at Waters Edge about 11 miles north; we located each order on the map, and the ones that belong to Waters Edge Court are listed in the permits section below.
This Waters Edge is the condominium on Waters Edge Court, Fort Myers, FL 33908, inside the gates of The Forest. The state condominium registry calls it WATERS EDGE CONDO, the Southwest Florida MLS carries it as WATERS EDGE AT THE FOREST, and the county roll names its association WATERS EDGE OF LEE CONDO ASSN. Every figure on this page is tied to those three names and to the 36 units on that one street.
The Waters Edge market is thin but high for The Forest: 3 closings in the last 12 months at a median of $425,000, and 11 over the full 48-month pull at a median of $425,000, the top condominium median inside the gates. One unit is listed today, and the one-story villas consistently sell for more than the fourplex units.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
Everything in this section is read from closed and active records in the Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026, for the MLS subdivision WATERS EDGE AT THE FOREST, and each record was matched by address to the county roll. MLS numbers are internal and are not printed. Square footage is MLS living area unless we say county heated area; the two differ for some Waters Edge units, and we show both where it matters.
Our rule is to widen the sales window until it holds at least ten closings, and to name the window beside every figure. At Waters Edge the last 12 months hold 3 closings, the last 24 months 4, the last 36 months 8, and the full 48-month pull, the widest we hold, 11. So the 48-month window, 09/24/2022 to 09/23/2026, is the one that carries a median, and we always report the 12-month count beside it, honestly small as it is.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
In the last 12 months (09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026) Waters Edge recorded 3 closings for $1,270,000: a median of $425,000 (n=3, odd, observed), a median $191.27 per square foot of living area, a median 99.05% of list and a median 79 days on market. The three were a one-story villa in January 2026 at $520,000 after 190 days, a two-story fourplex unit in April 2026 at $325,000 after 79 days, and a one-story villa in May 2026 at $425,000, full price, with 0 days on market. For context, the 24-month window adds one sale (median $414,500, n=4, even, the mean of the middle pair $404,000 and $425,000) and the 36-month window reaches 8 (median $457,500, n=8, even, the mean of the middle pair $425,000 and $490,000).
Closed | Product | Bed / bath | MLS living area | List price | Sold price | $ per sq ft (MLS) | Sold-to-list | Days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 2026 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 2,222 sq ft | $425,000 | $425,000 | $191.27 | 100.00% | 0 |
April 2026 | Two-story fourplex unit | 2 / 2 | 1,758 sq ft | $349,000 | $325,000 | $184.87 | 93.12% | 79 |
January 2026 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 sq ft | $525,000 | $520,000 | $252.43 | 99.05% | 190 |
April 2025 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 sq ft | $415,500 | $404,000 | $202.91 | 97.23% | 130 |
July 2024 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 1,989 sq ft | $515,000 | $510,000 | $256.41 | 99.03% | 2 |
June 2024 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 sq ft | $399,000 | $395,000 | $198.39 | 99.00% | 11 |
May 2024 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 1,989 sq ft | $525,000 | $515,000 | $258.92 | 98.10% | 58 |
April 2024 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 sq ft | $530,000 | $490,000 | $237.86 | 92.45% | 11 |
May 2023 | One-story villa (1991) | 3 / 2.5 | 2,060 sq ft | $485,000 | $475,000 | $230.58 | 97.94% | 3 |
March 2023 | Two-story fourplex unit | 3 / 2 | 1,991 sq ft | $300,000 | $289,000 | $145.15 | 96.33% | 8 |
February 2023 | Two-story fourplex unit | 2 / 2 | 1,693 sq ft | $300,000 | $280,000 | $165.39 | 93.33% | 27 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; product and year built matched by address to the Lee County parcel roll. Bath counts follow the MLS (2.5 means two full and one half bath).
Split by product, the 48-month record shows two markets. The six one-story villa sales closed at a median of $500,000 (n=6, even, the mean of the middle pair $490,000 and $510,000), a range of $425,000 to $520,000, at a median $245.15 per square foot of MLS living area (the mean of the middle pair $237.86 and $252.43). The five two-story fourplex sales closed at a median of $325,000 (n=5, odd, observed), a range of $280,000 to $404,000, at a median $184.87 per square foot. The two one-story duplexes from 1984, the largest homes at Waters Edge, recorded no MLS sale in the window. A villa and a fourplex unit are not comparables for each other, and a Waters Edge price built from the combined median would miss both.
The county roll records 14 deeded sales at Waters Edge in the same 48-month window, three more than the MLS. The three that do not appear in the MLS pull are 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 not marketed through the MLS, so they carry no list price or days on market, and we do not use them to set medians. They matter anyway: private sales happen here, and a seller should know what a neighbor accepted off-market.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
On September 23, 2026 one Waters Edge unit was active and none was pending: a two-bedroom, two-bath fourplex unit of 1,758 square feet of MLS living area, asking $325,000 after 194 days on market. 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. One active 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, but at this volume one listing or one sale moves the ratio a long way.
Two area figures circulate for the same Waters Edge unit. The MLS reports living area, which for the two-bedroom fourplex units reads 1,758 square feet and for several villas 2,060 or 2,222; the county roll reports heated area, 1,693 square feet for those fourplex units and 1,989 for every villa. Our $ per square foot figures use MLS living area, sale by sale, and then take the median of those ratios; a buyer comparing with a county-based figure should expect it to run higher, because the county denominator is smaller.
The 11 MLS closings fell three in 2023, four in 2024, one in 2025 and three so far in 2026, and all eleven closed between January and July, the season when The Forest's winter residents are here to see homes. The slowest sales, 130 and 190 days, both listed near the top of their product's range; the fastest, 0, 2 and 3 days, were villas priced inside it.
Waters Edge holds two products under one association, two-story fourplex units and one-story golf-front villas, and the 48-month record shows the villas selling at a median of $500,000 against $325,000 for the fourplex units. If you own either, get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. If you are buying, Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, and we will tell you which product fits your plans before you tour.
Waters Edge began as a condominium association filed on October 17, 1983, the year before the earliest year built on its county records. The first buildings followed in 1984 and 1985, a subsequent developer of record filed with the state in 1988, and eight one-story villa duplexes completed Waters Edge in 1991.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Division of Corporations, state condominium registry and Lee County roll, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
The Forest itself was laid out from 1979 onward, and its condominium neighborhoods went up in a sequence from the 1981 walk-ups at Partridge Place to the Heron's villas of the mid-1990s. Waters Edge sits in the middle of that sequence, and its record shows a project built in stages under two developers of record, which is why it ended up as two products under one condominium.
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc. is a Florida not-for-profit corporation, document number 770753, filed October 17, 1983, and active today, per its Division of Corporations record. The same record shows a reinstatement filed May 2, 1988, the corporate signature of an entity that had lapsed and was brought back into good standing. Its annual reports from the 1990s give its principal place of business as 6010 Forest Boulevard, the address the state condominium registry still carries for the project.
The first phase went up in 1984: two-story, four-unit buildings B, J and K and one-story duplexes A and L. Building E, the fourth two-story fourplex, followed in 1985, per the year-built dates on the Lee County parcel roll. The roll's legal descriptions still carry that history: buildings A, B, J, K and L read "Phase I," building E reads "Phase II," and every unit's legal description cites Official Records Book 1725, Page 1848.
The state condominium registry, maintained by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, lists Waters Edge Condo as project PR1S020267, approved and recorded, with 36 residential units and a licensure date of April 20, 1988. It names Forest-Waters Edge Inc. as the subsequent developer of record, with a filing that same day and one amendment on May 9, 1988, per the state's condominium and licensee search. Lee County's index of recorded instruments lists the Phase I and II condominium at Official Records Book 1988, Page 2827, with its plat at Condominium Plat Book 9, Page 68.
The eight one-story duplex villas, buildings D, F, G, H, I, X, Y and Z, all carry a 1991 year built on the county roll: 16 homes of 1,989 heated square feet each, with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. Their legal descriptions carry no phase label, only the building letter and unit, and they share the Waters Edge common elements, pool and association with the 1984 and 1985 buildings. The villas are the reason Waters Edge prices differently from The Forest's other 1980s condominiums: they are a newer, one-story, golf-front product sitting inside an older condominium.
The public record after 1991 is mostly maintenance, and it is specific. One half of the building I duplex was demolished and rebuilt after a fire in 2014, under county permits DEM2014-00219 and RES2014-06621, which is why the county roll shows a 2015 improvement year on that building. The association resealed and restriped Waters Edge Court in 2020, granted a communication easement to Hotwire Communications in 2022, re-roofed every building after Hurricane Ian in 2023, and in 2026 won county approval to reseal and restripe the parking again with 38 new car stops and a permit to resurface the pool and spa. Each of those records is linked in the permits section below.
Waters Edge has three home types across 36 units: 16 two-story fourplex units of 1,693 or 1,991 heated square feet, 4 one-story duplex units of 2,334 square feet built in 1984, and 16 one-story villas of 1,989 square feet built in 1991, per the Lee County parcel roll. The median unit is 1,989 heated square feet.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County Property Appraiser roll, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
Those are among the larger condominium homes in The Forest. Only Fairway Woods, whose units run to 2,962 square feet, and the Heron Coach House Villas, at a median of 1,993, compete on size; the 1981 walk-ups at Partridge Place and Partridge Court are 1,161 square feet. The table below is built from every one of the 36 unit records on the Lee County parcel roll.
Product | Buildings | Units | Year built | Stories | County heated area | Beds / baths (county roll) | 2026 just value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Two-story fourplex, smaller plan | B, E, J, K | 8 | 1984 (E: 1985) | 2 | 1,693 sq ft | 2 / 2 | $254,990 to $268,072 |
Two-story fourplex, larger plan | B, E, J, K | 8 | 1984 (E: 1985) | 2 | 1,991 sq ft | 3 / 2 | $287,086 to $317,721 |
One-story duplex | A, L | 4 | 1984 | 1 | 2,334 sq ft | 3 / 2 | $328,366 |
One-story villa | D, F, G, H, I, X, Y, Z | 16 | 1991 | 1 | 1,989 sq ft | 3 / 2.5 | $300,820 to $331,941 |
All Waters Edge | 14 buildings | 36 | 1984 to 1991 | 1 and 2 | median 1,989 | median $300,820 |
Source: Lee County parcel roll, September 2026. Just values are mass-appraisal figures set for taxation, not prices.
Each of the four two-story buildings holds four units numbered 101, 102, 201 and 202, and every building mixes two plans: two units of 1,693 heated square feet with two bedrooms and two baths, and two of 1,991 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths. These are the entry point to Waters Edge. Over the full 48-month pull they closed at a median of $325,000 on five MLS sales, and the one active listing today is a fourplex unit. They are also where most of the seasonal ownership sits: only 2 of the 16 fourplex units carry a homestead exemption.
Buildings A and L are one-story duplexes from the first phase, four homes of 2,334 heated square feet each, the largest units at Waters Edge and among the largest condominium homes in The Forest. They carry the county's golf-front description and a 2026 just value of $328,366 apiece. None was marketed through the MLS in the last four years; the one recorded sale among them in that span was a December 2022 deed at $325,000, per the county roll. When one of these four comes up, it has no recent MLS comparable of its own, and it has to be priced from the villas and the larger fourplex plan with adjustments for size and age.
The villas are Waters Edge's signature product: 16 one-story homes in eight attached pairs, each 1,989 heated square feet on the county roll with three bedrooms and two and a half baths, all coded golf front. Each half has its own street number on Waters Edge Court rather than a unit number, so 16591 and 16593, for example, are the two halves of building X. The villas produced six of the eleven MLS closings in the last four years, at a median of $500,000, and eight of the 16 are homesteaded.
A villa is identified by its own street number. A fourplex unit is identified by its building's street number plus a unit number, such as 16581 Waters Edge Court, Unit 201. At Waters Edge the county records the same plan for units ending in the same digit within a building, which is consistent with stacked floor plans, but the roll does not record which floor a unit is on, and neither does this page. Read the floor from the condominium plat and the listing, not from the unit number. That caution applies across The Forest: at the Heron Coach Houses and at Fairway Woods, the leading digit of a unit number identifies the building, never the floor.
The same Waters Edge home can carry two different sizes. The county roll gives heated area: 1,693, 1,989, 1,991 or 2,334 square feet. MLS listings give living area, which for the smaller fourplex plan reads 1,758 square feet in recent listings and for several villas 2,060 or 2,222 square feet, figures supplied by the listing side and measured on a different basis from the county's. Neither is necessarily wrong, but they are not interchangeable. Compare like with like, and ask the listing agent what the MLS figure includes.
The county roll records a garage on every Waters Edge unit, and the association's 2022 roof permits include re-roofs of garage structures at two of the fourplex buildings. One practical consequence of the 2014 fire rebuild: one half of the building I duplex was reconstructed under the Florida Building Code in force at the time, not under the local codes in force when its neighbors were built in 1991. That matters for a wind-mitigation inspection and an insurance quote on that specific home.
The county's land-use description reads "golf front" on all 20 one-story unit records at Waters Edge, the four duplex units and the 16 villas, and carries no such description on the 16 fourplex records. That is the county's coding, not a survey of views, and it does not say which course or hole a unit faces. Walk the unit before you rely on it, and remember that golf frontage at The Forest is a view, not an access right: the courses belong to The Forest Country Club.
Own a villa, duplex or fourplex unit at Waters Edge? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Deciding between them? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
A Waters Edge home comes with the condominium's own pool, spa and pool house, the parking and grounds on Waters Edge Court, and the master association's gates and private streets. Golf, tennis, pickleball and the clubhouse belong to The Forest Country Club, a separate corporation, and are available only with an optional membership, per the club's membership page.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County permit records and club and association websites, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
The line between those three layers is the single most useful thing a Waters Edge buyer can understand, because each layer is paid for separately, run by a different board, and documented in a different place.
The condominium's own recreation, on the public record, is a pool and spa with a pool house on the common elements. Lee County issued permit POL2026-01130 in 2026 to resurface the existing pool and spa, with no change to the footprint and no electrical or plumbing work, at a declared job value of $30,150, per the county's permit record. The pool house roof was replaced in 2023 under permit ROF2023-18166, which the county records as Hurricane Ian damage. Pool hours and guest rules are association rules and are not published online.
Every Waters Edge owner is also a member of The Forest Property Owners' Association, Inc., which owns the private street network and runs the gates. The Main Gate 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 association's 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan; gate staffing hours are from that 2022 plan. Residents enter by vehicle barcode, requested through the association's barcode request form, and guests are pre-registered through the DwellingLive visitor system.
The Forest is a non-bundled community: buying a home does not require joining the club. Both The Forest Country Club and the master association describe The Forest as non-bundled on their own websites, and the club sells memberships to residents and non-residents alike. Golf, tennis, the pro shop and the clubhouse are available with a club membership. 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 the same thing independently.
The club owns two 18-hole courses, the Bear and the Bobcat. 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, and 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, and dining at the clubhouse at 6100 Club Boulevard, about 1.4 road miles from Waters Edge Court. The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry.
Waters Edge is governed by Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation filed in 1983 that owns and maintains the condominium's buildings and common elements, sitting beneath The Forest Property Owners' Association, the master association that holds a board seat for Waters Edge and runs The Forest's gates.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Division of Corporations and master association records, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
A Waters Edge owner therefore answers to two boards, pays two assessments and needs two estoppel certificates at resale. Unlike the Heron, there is no third, sub-master layer.
The condominium association is active, document number 770753, with annual reports filed for 2024, 2025 and 2026 (the last on March 8, 2026), per its Division of Corporations record. Its 2026 report lists five officers and directors, and the association holds title to the 9.2-acre common-element parcel on the county roll.
The association's state record shows a change of hands in its administration. Its previous registered agent resigned on December 10, 2024, and on March 27, 2025 the association moved its principal and mailing address to 11000 Metro Parkway, Suite 4, Fort Myers, and named D&D Association Services LLC as its registered agent, per the same Division of Corporations record and the March 27, 2025 annual report. The master association's 2022 plan had listed a different company against Waters Edge. The state record names a registered agent, not a management contract, so a buyer should confirm the current manager from the estoppel certificate, which the manager or the association issues.
Waters Edge holds one of the "Condos and Villas" seats on the master association's board, per the roster in the association's 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan, alongside Dove Hollow, Dove's Nest, Eagle's Landing, Fairway Woods I and II, Falcon Crest, The Heron, The Heron Villas, Partridge Court, Partridge Place, Pheasant Court, Quail Cove and Sparrowood. The master association, The Forest Property Owners' Association, Inc., filed December 7, 1979, is professionally managed by FirstService Residential, per its website.
Under Florida's Condominium Act the association maintains the common elements, and the Waters Edge permit record shows what that means here: the 2023 roofs and the 2026 pool and parking work were filed in the association's name, while window and shutter upgrades were filed by individual owners. The declaration defines the exact boundary between unit and common element, and it is the document to read before assuming who pays for what.
Because Waters Edge has more than 25 units, Florida law requires its association to post its official records, including the declaration and every amendment, the bylaws, the rules, the last 12 months of approved board minutes, the budget and the financial report, on a website or a mobile application, with a protected section accessible only to unit owners, under section 718.111(12)(g). That section is not public, and we found no public Waters Edge website in our search. A seller can open it for a buyer's review, and a buyer under contract is entitled to the core documents anyway under section 718.503.
Owning at Waters Edge means paying a condominium assessment to Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and a master assessment to The Forest Property Owners' Association, neither of which is published, plus county property tax, the San Carlos Park fire levy and a solid waste assessment on the tax bill. Club dues apply only if you join.
Data updated: September 2026 (association, county and fire district records, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
That last point is the one to plan around. No layer at Waters Edge publishes its budget, so the only way to see the real number for a specific unit is to request it, and we do that on the first day of any Waters Edge listing.
The Waters Edge condominium assessment is not published; it appears in the association's annual budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale. The Division of Corporations publishes no financial data, and the state condominium registry publishes only unit counts. For a condominium, this is the assessment that carries the building insurance, roofs, exterior maintenance, the pool and the association's reserves, so it is the number to read most closely. Ask for the current budget, the reserve schedule and the last year of board minutes before you commit.
The master association does not publish its assessment. The amount appears in the association's annual budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale. It covers the private streets, the two gates and security, street lighting, landscaping and drainage across The Forest, because no county taxing unit does that work here.
Layer | Amount | What it covers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association | Not published | building exteriors and roofs, master insurance, reserves, pool and spa, parking | Division of Corporations record; estoppel certificate |
The Forest Property Owners' Association (master) | Not published | private streets, gates and security, lighting, landscaping, drainage | |
Community development district | $0: none exists | n/a | |
County street-lighting or other MSTBU | $0: none exists | n/a | |
San Carlos Park Fire Protection and Rescue Service District | 2.3590 mills ad valorem, fiscal year 2025/26 | fire and rescue | |
Lee County solid waste, Service Area 2 | set by unit type in the county's adopted rates | collection, disposal, recycling | |
Lee County ad valorem property tax | set by each unit's taxable value | county, school and other public services | |
Sewer (Forest Utilities, Inc., private) | Not published | wastewater | county wastewater franchise layer |
Bulk fiber (Hotwire) | Not published | internet and television | |
Club dues and initiation | Not published. Only if you join | club membership |
Neighborhood associations' special assessments are not published; buyers can find them in the association's estoppel certificate and meeting minutes. At Waters Edge that question has a specific shape. In 2023 the association replaced the roofs on all 14 residential buildings and the pool house, at declared permit values of $45,055 per duplex building and $47,000 per fourplex 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. Read the 2023 and 2024 minutes and budgets, and check the estoppel certificate for any assessment still being collected.
Florida caps what a condominium association may charge for an estoppel certificate: a fee of up to $250 when nothing is delinquent on the unit, an additional $100 if it is delivered on an expedited basis within three business days, and up to $150 more if a delinquent amount is owed, with the caps adjusted every five years for inflation and published by the state, under section 718.116(8). A Waters Edge resale needs one from the condominium association and one from the master association, which falls under the homeowners' association cap in section 720.30851.
Selling at Waters Edge? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buying? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Beyond the Waters Edge condominium assessment, an owner's layered costs are the master association assessment, the San Carlos Park fire millage and county solid waste on the tax bill, private sewer from Forest Utilities, water from Lee County Utilities, Hotwire service, and club dues only for members. There is no CDD and no county MSTU.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County and district records, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
Each of those layers is billed by a different body, and several arrive on different schedules, so a buyer comparing Waters Edge with a condominium elsewhere should compare the whole stack, not the association number alone.
The San Carlos Park Fire Protection and Rescue Service District levies 2.3590 mills for fiscal year 2025/26, adopted September 15, 2025, per the district's final budget; as an illustration only, a Waters Edge unit with $300,000 of taxable value would owe $707.70 to the fire district by our arithmetic. Every Waters Edge unit is in Lee County solid waste Service Area 2 on the county roll, billed as a non-ad-valorem assessment at the rate the county sets for the unit type, per the county's adopted rates. The rest of the bill is ordinary ad valorem tax, set by each unit's taxable value after exemptions such as the homestead exemption.
The Forest has no community development district and sits in no county municipal service taxing or benefit unit: it does not appear on Lee County's official roster of special districts, and the county's MSTBU map returns no unit inside the community. That keeps two common Southwest Florida line items off a Waters Edge tax bill.
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; The Forest lies outside the county's wastewater service area, per the county's wastewater service area layer. Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility, provides sewer service; 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 itself granted Hotwire Communications a communication easement over about 5.25 acres in 2022, instrument 2022000230999, per Lee County's easements layer.
Because The Forest is non-bundled, club costs belong in a Waters Edge owner's budget only if the owner chooses to join. The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry. Because membership is separate from home ownership, a club membership should not be assumed to transfer with a home. Members, not homeowners, carried the club's special assessments of 2022 to 2024, which its Form 990 filings report as club-wide totals.
At resale, a seller orders two estoppel certificates, delivers the statutory condominium documents, and pays documentary stamp tax on the deed at 70 cents per $100 of price under section 201.02. Any association application or transfer fee a buyer pays is set by the Waters Edge governing documents and the statute, and is not published.
The Waters Edge declaration of condominium is a recorded public document, but it is not available through the county's online search, and no Waters Edge rule book is published online. This page therefore describes where each rule lives and what Florida law guarantees a buyer, rather than quoting a document we have not read.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County records and Florida Statutes 2026, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
Florida's Condominium Act fills much of the gap: it sets what the association must post, what a seller must hand over, how amendments work, and which amendments bind which owners.
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 on the county roll cites Official Records Book 1725, Page 1848. All three are held in the Lee County Clerk's official records and can be retrieved there by book and page. Before relying on any instrument, search for later amendments; a 1980s declaration has usually been amended more than once.
A buyer under contract for a Waters Edge resale is entitled, at the seller's expense, to a current copy of the declaration, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the association's most recent structural integrity reserve study or a statement that it has not completed one, and the "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" document, plus a governance form summarizing owners' rights, under section 718.503(2). Because Waters Edge's buildings are under three stories, no milestone inspection summary applies.
The Waters Edge architectural approval procedure is not published. What the county record shows is the kind of work owners do: impact-rated window replacements in 2018, 2019, 2023, 2025 and 2026, roll-down hurricane shutters and screens in 2024, and interior alterations, each permitted by the individual owner, per Lee County's permit index. In a condominium, exterior changes such as windows and shutters touch common elements or the building envelope, so the association's written approval under its rules normally comes before the county permit. Confirm the procedure in the rules before you order a window.
Amendments to a Florida condominium declaration follow the voting procedure the declaration sets, within the limits of section 718.110. Two limits matter to buyers. An amendment that restricts rentals binds only owners who vote for it and owners who take title afterward. And unless the declaration as originally recorded says otherwise, an amendment that changes a unit's size or its share of the common expenses needs the joinder of that unit's owner and lienholders and the approval of every other owner, under section 718.110(4). Read the amendment history with the declaration, not just the original.
This page makes no claim either way about age restriction at Waters Edge. The Waters Edge declaration and rules that would establish a 55-and-older designation are not published online, and no public record we reached settles the question, so a buyer should read the recorded declaration and its amendments before relying on any age rule.
Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Florida's parallel law, a community may lawfully restrict occupancy by age only if it qualifies as housing for older persons, which for a 55-and-older community requires, among other things, that at least 80 percent of occupied units have at least one resident 55 or older and that the community publish and follow policies showing that intent, per section 760.29 of the Florida Statutes. A designation lives in the declaration, the rules and the association's verification records, not in marketing copy.
Ask for the declaration and every amendment, the current rules, and any age-verification records the association keeps. If none of them imposes an age requirement, Waters Edge is open to buyers of any age; if one does, the documents will say so. We will pull them for any buyer before an offer.
Waters Edge's rental rules, including any minimum lease term, limit on leases per year or approval requirement, are set in the condominium's declaration and rules, which are not published online. Florida law protects owners from rental restrictions added later without their consent, so the date an owner took title matters.
Under section 718.110(13), an amendment that prohibits rentals, changes the rental term or limits how many times an owner may rent in a period applies only to owners who consent to it and to owners who acquire title after it takes effect. A buyer is therefore always bound by the rental rules in force on the day of closing, even if the seller was not.
The county roll shows 24 of 36 Waters Edge units without a homestead exemption and 17 owners mailing from outside Florida, a profile that includes second-home owners and may include some who lease. It does not tell you what the rules allow. For a buyer who plans to rent, the declaration, the rules and the last year of board minutes are the three documents to read before signing.
Ask for the minimum lease term, the number of leases allowed per year, whether the association must approve tenants and what it charges for an application, whether tenants may use the pool, and how the master association registers tenants' vehicles at the gates. The association's written answers belong in the purchase file.
Waters Edge's pet rules are set by the condominium association's declaration and rules, and neither is published online. A buyer with a dog or cat should read those rules, including any limit on number, size or breed and any leash or common-area rule, before signing a contract, not after.
Leasing, pet and architectural rules are set by the master and neighborhood associations and are not published publicly; they are in each association's governing documents, provided at resale. At Waters Edge the condominium association's rules are the ones that govern life inside the building and on the common elements, and the master association's rules govern the streets and shared spaces of The Forest.
A condominium's pet rules do not apply in the same way to an emotional support animal that a resident with a disability needs: Florida requires housing providers, including condominium associations, to consider a reasonable accommodation, and limits what supporting information they may request, under section 760.27 of the Florida Statutes.
Hurricane Ian's surge reached Waters Edge in September 2022: U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a high-water mark 2.89 feet above ground on building K. In 2023 the association re-roofed all 14 residential buildings and the pool house; every permit we opened is recorded as Hurricane Ian damage, and owners have added impact windows and shutters.
Data updated: September 2026 (USGS, Lee County permit and GIS records, retrieved 23 to 24 Sep 2026)
Waters Edge is the one place inside The Forest's gates where the storm left a surveyed federal measurement, which is why its storm record gets more attention than its neighbors'. The record answers the buyer's real question in measurements rather than anecdotes: how high the water came outside, what the association replaced afterward, and what the buildings are built to.
U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed Hurricane Ian high-water marks of about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge condominium building inside The Forest (and at a garage in adjacent Forest Villas, which sits outside The Forest's gates, across Island Park Road). On the golf property, the club's superintendent later described 5 feet of seawater crossing the courses (Golf Course Management, 2022). The Waters Edge mark, on building K on Waters Edge Court, 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 mark measures the water surface at the outside of one building. It does not say whether water entered any home, and nothing in the public record we reached does; interior flooding depends on each building's finished-floor elevation, which is recorded on its elevation certificate. Two cross-checks give the mark weight. The ground it implies, 9.5 minus 2.89, is 6.6 feet, which matches the median 2018 LiDAR ground for Waters Edge in Lee County's spot elevations layer exactly. And by our arithmetic, Ian's crest at Waters Edge, 9.5 feet, sat 1.5 feet below today's 11-foot base flood elevation.
Lee County's permit index lists a 2023 re-roof permit for every one of Waters Edge's 14 residential buildings, A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, X, Y and Z, and for the pool house. We opened 11 of those permits, covering buildings A, B, E, H, I, J, K, L, X and Y and the pool house, and every one is typed "Hurricane Damage" and describes "Hurricane Ian Damage," with shingle roofs and the flat sections included in scope, per records such as ROF2023-13503 (building B), ROF2023-16172 (building L) and ROF2023-18047 (building J). Declared job values were $47,000 for each fourplex, $45,055 for each duplex building and $10,500 for the pool house; each permit shows a closed status with a certificate of completion issued. The remaining four, for buildings D, F, G and Z, appear in the same index as closed roof permits, and we have not opened them.
For a buyer, a 2023 roof on a 1984 building is the single most useful fact in the file: it resets the roof-age question insurers ask, and it was permitted under the Florida Building Code in force in 2023. For a seller, it is a line to lead with.
The 2023 roofs were not the first recent ones. Under 2022 permits the association had also re-roofed fourplex buildings J and K under permits ROF2022-05226 and ROF2022-05227, and several villas carry 2006 roof permits. Owners have added impact-rated windows under permits in 2018, 2019, 2023, 2025 and 2026, including OPN2026-00926 for 15 impact windows in building B, and roll-down hurricane shutters and screens in 2024. Those upgrades are unit by unit, so ask the seller for the permit and product approval numbers on the specific home.
Florida's post-2022 condominium safety laws do not reach Waters Edge. Milestone structural inspections apply to condominium buildings "three habitable stories or more in height," under section 553.899, and the structural integrity reserve study rule in section 718.112(2)(g) "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. Every Waters Edge building is one or two stories on the county roll, and every one is a two- or four-family building, so Waters Edge is outside both. Sparrowood's three buildings are the only three-story residential buildings in The Forest, according to Lee County property records, which places Sparrowood alone under Florida's milestone-inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements for condominiums of three or more stories. That exemption is not a substitute for reserves: a buyer should still read the Waters Edge budget and reserve schedule.
The whole of The Forest, Waters Edge included, is in Lee County Evacuation Zone A and Storm Surge Zone 1. The master association's 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan sets re-entry procedures after a storm that admit contractors on a prior pass or barcode and require the gate to challenge any contractor without one. Seasonal Waters Edge owners should register a key holder with the condominium association before they leave for the summer.
Selling a Waters Edge home with a 2023 roof? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buying and want the storm file first? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Every Waters Edge unit is in FEMA flood Zone AE, a Special Flood Hazard Area, with a base flood elevation of 11 feet NAVD88, on map panels 12071C0438H and 12071C0576H, effective November 17, 2022. Median ground at Waters Edge is 6.6 feet, about 4.4 feet below the base flood elevation.
Data updated: September 2026 (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer and Lee County GIS, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
That is the same zone as every other neighborhood in The Forest. What differs from neighborhood to neighborhood is the ground, and at Waters Edge the ground sits in the lower-middle of the community's range.
Every home and the club property in The Forest are in FEMA flood Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 11 feet (NAVD88), on FIRM panels effective November 17, 2022, per FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer. At Waters Edge, 31 of the 37 parcels, including the common elements, are on panel 12071C0438H and 6 on 12071C0576H. The November 2022 map revision raised the base flood elevation across The Forest by one foot, from 10 to 11 feet NAVD88; the zone itself did not change.
Neighborhood | Median ground, ft NAVD88 (range) | 11-ft BFE minus median ground (our arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|
Waters Edge | 6.6 (6.2 to 7.7) | 4.4 ft |
Sparrowood | 7.5 (7.5 to 7.8) | 3.5 ft |
Fairway Woods I, II, III | 9.1, 8.7, 8.5 | 1.9 to 2.5 ft |
Heron Coach House Villas | 6.6 (6.2 to 7.6) | 4.4 ft |
Dove's Nest | 6.3 (6.2 to 6.5) | 4.7 ft |
Source: nearest 2018 LiDAR ground point to each parcel, Lee County spot elevations layer, stated accuracy plus or minus 0.57 feet. These are ground elevations, not finished floors.
Lee County requires new and substantially improved buildings in the Special Flood Hazard Area to be built one foot above the FEMA base flood elevation, and applies FEMA's 50 percent rule to renovations and repairs, per the county's substantial improvement page. By our arithmetic, that puts the lowest floor of a rebuilt Waters Edge building at 12 feet NAVD88, about 5.4 feet above the median ground. In a condominium, where the structure is the whole building, a major renovation or storm repair should be planned with the association and the county's floodplain staff from the start.
No Letter of Map Revision touches The Forest, per FEMA's LOMR layer, and the one Letter of Map Amendment request FEMA's index holds inside The Forest was for a Partridge Place building, and it was denied. For any Waters Edge unit, pull the current panel from FEMA's Map Service Center, and ask the seller and the association for the building's elevation certificate.
Insuring a Waters Edge condominium means two policies over the same building: the association's master policy on the structure and a unit-owner's policy on the interior and contents. Because Waters Edge is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, a federally backed mortgage requires flood insurance, and unincorporated Lee County's Class 5 rating cuts NFIP flood premiums 25 percent.
Data updated: September 2026 (FEMA, Lee County and Florida Statutes 2026, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
We do not publish premiums for Waters Edge, because there is no public source for one that we would stand behind, and a premium quoted without the building's elevation certificate, roof date and wind-mitigation report is a guess. What we can publish is every rule that moves the number.
In a Florida condominium, the association insures the building under its master policy, as section 718.111(11) provides, and the unit owner insures the interior and contents under a unit-owners (HO-6) policy. The master policy premium is inside the Waters Edge budget, which is not published; ask the association for its current declarations page, its hurricane deductible and whether it carries flood coverage on the buildings.
FEMA's flood maps still drive the mandatory purchase requirement, per FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0 page, and every Waters Edge unit is inside the Special Flood Hazard Area. Unincorporated Lee County is a Class 5 community in FEMA's Community Rating System, worth a 25 percent discount on NFIP premiums in the flood zone; that is Class 5 as of FEMA's April 2025 list, per the FEMA CRS eligible communities list. A Waters Edge address says Fort Myers, but it is not in the City of Fort Myers, which the same list rates Class 9.
Florida law makes flood coverage mandatory for Citizens Property Insurance personal-lines policies on property in the Special Flood Hazard Area, under section 627.351(6), but the statute exempts policies written on a condominium unit-owners form. So a Waters Edge owner insured by Citizens on an HO-6 policy is not forced into flood coverage by that rule, although a lender may require it anyway.
Under section 627.7011(5), an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a homeowner's policy solely because a roof is less than 15 years old, and every Waters Edge building carries a 2023 roof permit. Under section 627.0629(1), residential rate filings must include discounts for wind-resistive features such as opening protection, which is why the impact windows and shutters several Waters Edge owners have permitted can matter on a unit-owner's policy. A current wind-mitigation inspection turns those features into credits.
For a Waters Edge unit: the 2023 roof permit and closeout for its building, the unit's window and shutter permits and product approvals, a wind-mitigation report, the building's elevation certificate, and the association's master policy declarations. For the half of building I rebuilt after the 2014 fire, add that home's 2014 permits, because it was built under a later code than its neighbors.
Waters Edge falls in the same Lee County school choice zones as every neighborhood in The Forest: Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2. Rayma C. Page Elementary, the nearest Zone O choice, is about 2.6 road miles from Waters Edge Court and earned an A in 2026.
Data updated: September 2026 (School District of Lee County and Florida Department of Education, retrieved 23 to 24 Sep 2026)
Lee County assigns students through a zone of school choices, not a single school per address, and families apply through the district's Choice Application, per the district's student enrollment page. 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, and our parcel tests found no split inside the gates.
The Zone O choices are Rayma C. Page, Heights, Tanglewood and Villas elementaries. Rayma C. Page Elementary, 17000 S Tamiami Trail, earned an A in 2026, 2025 and 2024, per the state's 2026 school grades file, and it is about 2.6 miles and 8 minutes from 16581 Waters Edge Court by our routing. Heights Elementary earned an A in 2026, and Villas and Tanglewood each a B.
The Zone MM choices are Cypress Lake Middle, which earned an A in 2026, 2025 and 2024, and Lexington Middle, which earned a B in 2026 after a C, per the state's 2026 school grades file and the district's grades release.
The South Zone 2 high school choices include South Fort Myers High (C), Cypress Lake High (A), Estero High (B), Fort Myers High (A), Bonita Springs High (B) and Dunbar High (C), 2026 school grades (Florida Department of Education). Dunbar High School is among the South Zone 2 high school choices, but the district's 2026-27 transportation plan does not provide Dunbar bus service to The Forest's subzone (S2), per the district's transportation optimization page.
Lee County's records show a well-maintained Waters Edge: a 2026 order to reseal and restripe the parking with 38 new car stops, a 2026 permit to resurface the pool and spa, re-roofs of every building after Hurricane Ian in 2023, a 2020 reseal of Waters Edge Court, and a steady run of owner window and shutter upgrades.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County development order layer and Accela permit index, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
Every record below is a public county record number, so you can look any of them up yourself. We matched each one to Waters Edge by address and by mapped location, because Lee County also holds records for other properties named Waters Edge.
Lee County development order LDO2026-00304, filed under the Waters Edge name with The Forest Country Club noted in its title, covers a "Reseal and Restripe (38 new car stops)" of the Waters Edge parking; the record was created May 13, 2026 and reached Closed-Finaled status on August 26, 2026, per the county's development order layer and its Accela record, which also shows an approved amendment. It is a surface maintenance job, not a mill-and-overlay repaving like the 2025 order at Quail Cove. A buyer who sees fresh striping and new wheel stops at Waters Edge is looking at finished, finaled work.
Record | Filed by or for | Scope, as the county records it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
LDO2026-00304 | Waters Edge parking | reseal and restripe, 38 new car stops | Closed-Finaled, August 26, 2026 |
POL2026-01130 | Waters Edge pool and spa | resurface existing pool and spa, no footprint change, $30,150 | Permit Issued, 2026 |
ROF2023 series (15 permits) | every residential building and the pool house | re-roof, recorded as Hurricane Ian damage on each permit opened | Closed, certificate of completion issued |
ROF2022-05226, ROF2022-05227 | fourplex buildings J and K | shingle and flat re-roof, $37,000 each | Closed, certificate of completion issued |
LDO2020-00130 | Waters Edge Court | reseal and restripe per existing | Closed-Finaled |
LDO2016-00512 | Waters Edge of Lee Condo | no description published in the county layer | Closed-Finaled |
DEM2014-00219, RES2014-06621 | building I, one half | demolition and replacement of a half duplex after fire damage | Closed |
OPN and COM window permits, 2018 to 2026 | individual owners | impact window and door replacements | Closed, certificate of completion issued |
OPN2024-05077, OPN2024-04016 | individual owners | roll-down hurricane shutter and screens | Closed, certificate of completion issued |
Sources: Lee County development orders layer and the county's Accela permit index, searched by address on Waters Edge Court, September 24, 2026.
The pattern is an association that spends on its envelope: roofs in 2022 and again after Ian, parking in 2020 and 2026, the pool in 2026. That is the good news. The open question is how it was paid for, which the permit file cannot answer. The budget, the reserve schedule and the minutes can, and they belong in every Waters Edge purchase file.
Lee County publishes no bulk layer of re-roof, pool or repair permits, so our Waters Edge list comes from searching each address, and permits filed under an unusual address form can be missed. Interior permits a unit owner pulled are part of that unit's history, not the building's, so ask the seller for them directly.
Inside The Forest almost nothing new is being built near Waters Edge; the live case on The Forest's own land is a proposed 149-foot wireless monopole on the golf property, In Review with no decision. Outside the gates, a proposed 61-acre mixed-use rezoning about a mile east is the largest nearby change.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County zoning, development and capital project layers, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
Waters Edge sits in the RM-2 residential zoning Lee County applied to most of The Forest in 1980, and the county roll records RM-2 on its one-story unit records. The changes that matter to a Waters Edge owner are the few projects on the community's own land and those on the commercial land toward US 41.
A special exception and variance for a 149-foot wireless monopole on the golf course property (Lee County cases SEZ2026-00001 and VAR2026-00001) were In Review as of September 23, 2026. No hearing has been scheduled and no decision has been made. Until a hearing is held, nothing about the tower has been approved.
Case | What it proposes | Status | Distance from the center of The Forest |
|---|---|---|---|
DCI2023-00020 (Dia Crossing) | rezoning of about 61 acres to a mixed-use planned development, up to 350 dwelling units, a hotel of up to 150 rooms and up to 200,000 square feet of commercial | proposed | about 1.0 to 1.2 mi east |
SEZ2024-00005 and related cases | convenience store with fuel pumps and a car wash at US 41 and Island Park Road | approved | about 0.5 mi east |
ADD2023-00194 | a daycare and a future office | approved | about 0.6 mi north |
REZ2026-00007 | rezone 0.61 acres to light industrial | In Review | about 0.9 mi east |
DCI2023-00049 (Royal Palm Multi-family) | rezone 19.33 acres for 391 multifamily units | approved November 6, 2024 | about 1.4 mi northwest |
Source: Lee County zoning cases layer. We describe Dia Crossing's figures as proposed maximums until the county's zoning resolution for the case is read. Waters Edge lies west of the community's center, so the cases to the east are a little farther from Waters Edge Court than the distances shown.
Lee County's capital projects layer carries the Ten Mile Canal South flood-mitigation project, about a mile from The Forest, a $37,000,000 estimate to install seawall, dredge and remove obstructions "to provide additional flood relief in the event of an extreme storm event," in design and planned through December 31, 2027. For a low-lying neighborhood like Waters Edge, regional drainage is worth watching.
Daily life at Waters Edge runs through two associations: the master association handles the gates, guest access and private streets, while the Waters Edge condominium association handles the parking, pool and buildings. Water comes from Lee County Utilities, sewer from the private Forest Utilities, Inc., trash is a county assessment, and Hotwire provides fiber.
Data updated: September 2026 (association, county and permit records, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
Most of the everyday rules at Waters Edge are condominium rules, and those are not published online. Where the public record is specific, we say so; where it is silent, we say that too.
Residents enter by "vehicle bar codes, authorized pass, or resident/guest look up," per the master association's 2022 plan. Barcodes are requested through the association's online barcode form, which asks for the vehicle's registration and the driver's license; no barcode fee is published. Guests and contractors are registered in advance through the DwellingLive visitor system.
Waters Edge parking is association common element, and its layout was reset in 2026: the county's order LDO2026-00304 records 38 new car stops with the reseal and restripe. Every unit record on the county roll carries a garage. Guest parking rules, boat, trailer and commercial-vehicle rules, and whether a unit has an assigned space outside its garage are in the condominium's rules, which are not published online.
Lee County bills solid waste on the property tax bill as a non-ad-valorem assessment, and every Waters Edge unit is in Service Area 2 on the county roll, per the county's solid waste districts layer. The association does not publish pickup days or collection points; in the condominiums, collection points are set by the neighborhood association.
Water comes from Lee County Utilities and sewer from Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility, per the county's water franchise and wastewater franchise layers. Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility, provides sewer service; its rates are not published online. Ask the seller for twelve months of both bills. For internet and television, the Waters Edge association granted Hotwire Communications, LLC a communication easement in 2022, recorded as instrument 2022000230999, which the Clerk holds at its official records portal. The community has a Hotwire fiber arrangement; whether it is billed through the association is not published.
Golf-cart rules on The Forest's private streets are not published; they sit in the master association's rules. Waters Edge Court is about 1.4 road miles from the clubhouse by our routing, so a member who wants to drive a cart there should read the master association's current rules first.
Mailbox arrangements at Waters Edge are set by the condominium association and the Postal Service and are not published online. Package deliveries follow the gate's visitor procedure, so register regular delivery services in DwellingLive if the gate asks for it.
From 16581 Waters Edge Court, Southwest Florida International Airport's terminal is about 9.9 road miles and 21 minutes away, Gulf Coast Medical Center about 5.6 miles and 14 minutes, and Rayma C. Page Elementary about 2.6 miles and 8 minutes, as typical free-flow drives measured on September 24, 2026.
Data updated: September 2026 (Census geocoder and OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap, run 24 Sep 2026)
We geocoded 16581 Waters Edge Court with the US Census Bureau geocoder and computed each route on the OpenStreetMap road network with the OSRM routing engine. OSRM has no traffic model, so these are off-peak figures; January to April traffic on US 41 runs longer.
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 (RSW) terminal | 9.9 | 21 |
Our hub guide to The Forest measures longer drives from the clubhouse, which is 1.4 road miles from Waters Edge Court. From there, Bell Tower Shops is about 3.9 miles, Fort Myers Beach about 10.7 miles and 21 minutes, downtown Fort Myers about 10.3 miles and 21 minutes, and Naples about 26.5 miles and 44 minutes. Gulf Coast Medical Center is Lee County's state-designated Level II trauma center (Florida Department of Health), per the department's trauma center list.
Waters Edge is the premium condominium neighborhood in The Forest on both measures that matter to a seller: the highest 48-month median sale price of any condominium neighborhood, $425,000, and the highest median 2026 just value of any conventional condominium, $300,820. Fairway Woods trades more often and offers more space for the money; Sparrowood sells for less and more slowly.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County roll, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
The Forest's attached neighborhoods do not trade as one market, so the right comparison for a Waters Edge home is Waters Edge first, then the neighborhoods closest to it in size, age and price. Our two sibling guides cover the closest comparisons in depth: Sparrowood, The Forest's only three-story condominium and Fairway Woods at The Forest, its largest condominium cluster.
Yardstick: Southwest Florida MLS closings over the full 48-month pull (09/24/2022 to 09/23/2026), with the Lee County roll's median heated area and median 2026 just value.
Neighborhood | Units | Built | Stories | Median heated sq ft (county) | Median 2026 just value | Closings, 48 months | Median sold, 48 months | Median $ per sq ft (MLS) | Median ground, ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Waters Edge | 36 | 1984 to 1991 | 1 and 2 | 1,989 | $300,820 | 11 | $425,000 | $202.91 | 6.6 |
Heron Coach House Villas (land condominium) | 15 | 1994 to 1996 | 1 | 1,993 | $334,217 | 8 | $400,000 | $200.45 | 6.6 |
Fairway Woods (Sections I to III) | 118 | 1986 to 1991 | 1 and 2 | 1,937 | $218,505 to $221,917 by section | 31 | $350,000 | $143.48 | 8.5 to 9.1 |
Heron Coach Houses | 48 | 1990 to 1992 | 1 and 2 | 1,679 | $246,498 | 8 | $336,250 | $197.60 | 6.2 |
Quail Cove | 24 | 1982 | 2 | 1,460 | $202,740 | 9 | $325,000 | $202.62 | 6.3 |
Dove Hollow | 48 | 1981 to 1982 | 1 and 2 | 1,419 | $191,445 | 10 | $297,500 | $209.80 | 6.5 |
Sparrowood | 30 | 1984 to 1985 | 3 | 1,773 | $225,330 | 8 | $282,500 | $160.02 | 7.5 |
Sources: Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; Lee County parcel roll and spot elevations layer. Even-n medians are the mean of the middle pair: Heron Coach House Villas $400,000 and $400,000; Heron Coach Houses $332,500 and $340,000; Dove Hollow $290,000 and $305,000; Sparrowood $265,000 and $300,000. Every row is a small sample, and just values are mass-appraisal figures, not prices.
Three readings stand out. Waters Edge leads the conventional condominiums on price and appraisal, and its median price per square foot sits with the smaller-unit neighborhoods rather than with Fairway Woods, which suggests Waters Edge buyers are paying for the villas' one-story, golf-front format rather than for raw size. Fairway Woods is the value alternative for space, at about $143 a square foot, and it trades nearly three times as often, so its comparables are fresher. And Sparrowood, with units close in size to Waters Edge's fourplexes, sells for about a third less than Waters Edge overall and below even the Waters Edge fourplex median of $325,000, in three-story buildings that carry Florida's newest condominium inspection obligations.
The 48-month neighborhood medians across The Forest run from $157,500 at Partridge Place to $902,500 in The Oaks, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Waters Edge, at $425,000, sits above every other attached neighborhood and below all four single-family phases. For the full table, see our guide to The Forest.
Pricing a Waters Edge home against its neighbors? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Comparing neighborhoods as a buyer? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Waters Edge vs Sparrowood comes down to format and obligations: Waters Edge offers one-story villas and two-story fourplexes at a 48-month median of $425,000, outside Florida's milestone and reserve-study laws, while Sparrowood offers three-story walk-up units at a median of $282,500, under both laws. Sparrowood costs less to enter; Waters Edge has sold faster and closer to asking.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County roll, retrieved 24 Sep 2026)
The two were built at the same time, 1984 and 1985, a short drive apart inside the same gates, and both are condominiums under the same master association. That is where the similarity ends.
Factor | Waters Edge | Sparrowood |
|---|---|---|
Units and buildings | 36 units in 14 buildings: fourplexes, duplexes and villas | 30 units in 3 buildings on Cougar Run |
Stories | 1 and 2 | 3, the only three-story group in The Forest |
Built | 1984 to 1985, villas 1991 | 1984 to 1985 |
Median heated area (county) | 1,989 sq ft | 1,773 sq ft |
Median 2026 just value | $300,820 | $225,330 |
Closings, full 48-month pull | 11, median $425,000 | 8, median $282,500 (middle pair $265,000 and $300,000) |
Last 12 months | 3 closings, median $425,000, 79 days, 99.05% of list | 3 closings, median $245,000, 337 days, 88.63% of list |
Active on September 23, 2026 | 1 | 2 |
Milestone inspection (s. 553.899) and SIRS (s. 718.112(2)(g)) | Not applicable: under three stories | Applicable: three stories; buyers should request both reports |
Median ground elevation | 6.6 ft | 7.5 ft |
Recent envelope record | re-roofs of all 14 buildings under 2023 Ian-damage permits | see the Sparrowood guide |
Club membership | optional | optional |
Sources: Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, pulled September 23, 2026; Lee County parcel roll and spot elevations layer; Florida Statutes 2026.
Choose Waters Edge if you want a one-story home with golf frontage on the county's coding and are willing to pay for it, or a larger two-story fourplex unit in an association whose buildings sit outside Florida's milestone and reserve-study regime, and if a fresh 2023 roof matters to your insurer. Choose Sparrowood if the entry price matters most and you are comfortable with a three-story walk-up and the documents that come with it: whether Sparrowood's milestone inspection and reserve study have been completed is not in public records we could reach; buyers should request both from the association. Either way, the association documents decide the real cost of ownership, and we request them before an offer. Compare the two in detail on our Sparrowood guide.
A Waters Edge seller competes on format and condition, and a Sparrowood seller on price and paperwork. Buyers cross-shop the two, so each listing has to answer the other's advantage in the first paragraph. Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072 for a pricing read against both. Buying at either? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
The honest case for Waters Edge is that it offers The Forest's best-selling condominium format, one-story golf-front villas, in a small, well-maintained association outside Florida's new milestone and reserve-study laws. The honest case against is thin sales data, low ground in Flood Zone AE, and assessments that no one publishes.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, Lee County and FEMA records, retrieved 23 to 24 Sep 2026)
Weighing a sale at Waters Edge? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Weighing a purchase? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Selling at Waters Edge means selling one of 36 condominium homes in the highest-priced condominium neighborhood in The Forest, where 11 homes closed over the full 48-month pull at a median of $425,000 and one unit is listed today. The winning listing is priced against its own product, villa or fourplex, and documented before the first showing.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026)
If you're searching for a Waters Edge listing agent, or thinking, 'I need someone to sell my Waters Edge home...' you are selling into a small market where every comparable matters and where buyers arrive with three questions: which floor, which roof, and which fees. McGreevy and Comisar sell Waters Edge on the record. We answer the roof question with the county's own 2023 permits, the floor question with the condominium plat rather than a guess from the unit number, and the fee question with the estoppel certificates we order on the first day. As the leaders of Domain Realty Group our team has closed over $2.5 billion in real estate, and that discipline is what a Waters Edge listing needs.
Honors and recognition:
In the last 12 months Waters Edge has seen 3 resales, per the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026: $1,270,000 in volume, a median of 79 days on market and a median 99.05% of list. Because three sales cannot carry a median worth pricing from, we widen to the first window with ten or more, the full 48-month pull, the widest we hold (09/24/2022 to 09/23/2026):
In the last 12 months we tracked those 3 Waters Edge closings among 45 across The Forest, and every figure above is read from the closed records.
A Waters Edge villa and a Waters Edge fourplex unit are different homes, and pricing either from the combined median misses. The villas have sold between $425,000 and $520,000 in four years, and the fourplex units between $280,000 and $404,000. Within the villas, the MLS living area recorded for the same county plan has varied from 1,989 to 2,222 square feet, so price per square foot needs care. For the two one-story duplexes in buildings A and L, the largest homes at Waters Edge, there has been no MLS sale in four years at all, and the only recorded sale was a December 2022 deed at $325,000; pricing one of those starts from the villas and the larger fourplex plan, adjusted for size and age.
Four things set a Waters Edge sale apart from a generic Fort Myers condominium sale. The roofs: every building carries a 2023 re-roof permit, and we put the permit and closeout in the listing file because insurers ask for roof age first. The storm record: the USGS high-water mark at building K is public, so we present it with its limits, a measurement outside a wall, not a statement about any unit's interior. The two associations: the buyer needs estoppel certificates from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and from the master association, and the condominium's statutory resale documents. And the club: The Forest is non-bundled, so a buyer's first question, "do I have to join?", has a clean answer in the club's own words.
The file we build with every Waters Edge seller: the condominium association's estoppel certificate and the master association's; the declaration, articles, bylaws, rules, budget and financial statement, and the "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" sheet under section 718.503; the building's 2023 roof permit; the unit's window and shutter permits; a wind-mitigation report; the building's elevation certificate if the association holds one; and Florida's residential flood disclosure under section 689.302, which every seller gives.
All 11 Waters Edge closings of the last four years fell between January and July, per the Southwest Florida MLS, and the master association's 2022 plan estimates The Forest's population roughly doubles in peak season. A Waters Edge home that is priced, photographed and documented by early January meets the largest pool of in-season buyers. Allow time for two estoppel certificates.
Start with a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home. It takes about a minute, and Jesse follows up with the sales that actually fit your home: the same product, villa, fourplex or duplex, the same plan and the same association, not a community median that mixes a Partridge Place walk-up with an Oaks house. Prefer to talk first? Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
(239) 898-6072, text or call. Confidential conversations welcome.
Separately. Over the full 48-month pull the six villa sales had a median of $500,000 and $245.15 per square foot of MLS living area, and the five fourplex sales a median of $325,000 and $184.87, per the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. We price a villa from villas and a fourplex unit from fourplex units, then adjust for plan, condition and upgrades such as impact windows. Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Yes, and we raise it first. The USGS mark reads 9.5 feet NAVD88, 2.89 feet above ground at an exterior wall, surveyed October 12, 2022. It measures water outside the building and says nothing about any unit's interior, and the 2023 roof permits show what the association replaced afterward. Presenting that plainly, with the elevation certificate where one exists, keeps a buyer's insurer from finding it first.
It leans slightly toward sellers on the arithmetic: one active listing against 3 closings in the last 12 months is about 4.0 months of supply, and about 4.4 months against the 48-month pace, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Under six months usually favors sellers. At this volume, though, one new listing changes the picture, so the first price still has to sit where the closed sales are.
A Florida seller typically pays the brokerage commission (negotiated, not set by law), documentary stamp tax on the deed at 70 cents per $100 of price under section 201.02, prorated taxes and assessments, and the title and settlement costs the contract assigns. On a $425,000 sale, the 48-month median, documentary stamp tax alone is $2,975 by our arithmetic. Add the two estoppel certificates, capped by statute.
It does. Florida insurers may not refuse a homeowner's policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old, under section 627.7011(5), and every Waters Edge building has a 2023 roof permit. We put your building's permit number and closeout in the listing file so a buyer's insurer sees it on day one.
Visitors are pre-registered by residents through the master association's DwellingLive visitor system, and the Main Gate is staffed 24 hours a day, per the association's 2022 plan. We register every showing in advance, so buyers are expected at the gate. Call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072 to set up a Waters Edge listing that runs smoothly behind the gates.
Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are the McGreevy and Comisar team behind this Waters Edge guide, and they lead Domain Realty Group from an office on US 41 in Bonita Springs, south of The Forest on the same highway. Jesse leads the listing side, and Marc works with buyers across Lee and Collier counties.
Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are top-reviewed Waters Edge realtors on Google. Jesse McGreevy, Sales Associate, and Marc Comisar, Broker Associate, built the team on a simple idea: the seller or buyer who understands the record before the first showing negotiates from strength. Read more on our about the McGreevy and Comisar team page.
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, but on a Waters Edge page the credential that matters more than any award is preparation. Before a word of this guide was written we pulled every Waters Edge unit record on the county roll, matched every MLS closing of the last four years to its building and plan, searched the county's permit index address by address down Waters Edge Court, read the association's state corporate filings, and placed each building on FEMA's panels. When we list a Waters Edge home we put that work to use: we price from the right product, we lead with the 2023 roof permit, we explain the Ian high-water mark with its limits, and we register every showing through the gate system in advance.
Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are top-reviewed Waters Edge realtors on Google, and the quotes below are 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 Business Profile.
★★★★★ "Jesse listened to what we were looking for and found us exactly what we wanted. Jesse was always available to answer any questions and helped us through the entire process." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "So knowledgeable! You can tell they truly have a high level of expertise and were incredibly professional from start to finish." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "Jesse did a great job as Realtor and his assistant, Beth, didn't miss a thing throughout the process!" Verified Google review
★★★★★ "Their knowledge of the Southwest Florida market really stood out, and you can tell they genuinely care about their clients and getting the best results possible. They were always available to answer questions, kept us informed every step of the way, and paid attention to every detail." Verified Google review
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) are licensed Florida REALTORS® with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC). Follow McGreevy and Comisar on Facebook, or connect with Jesse McGreevy on LinkedIn and Marc Comisar on LinkedIn. License status for either name can be verified through the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation's public licensee search.
Selling a Waters Edge home? Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home, or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Buying at Waters Edge? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
For the community around Waters Edge, see our guide to The Forest, our Fort Myers guide, and our sibling guides to Fairway Woods at The Forest and Sparrowood.
These are the questions buyers ask about Waters Edge at The Forest, answered from the public record: the homes, the prices, the fees, the storm and flood record, insurance, the rules and the club. Where the record is silent, the answer says so and names the document that holds it.
Waters Edge is on Waters Edge Court, Fort Myers, FL 33908, a private street off Timberlakes Drive inside the gates of The Forest, in unincorporated Lee County in south Fort Myers. The clubhouse is about 1.4 road miles away by our routing.
Thirty-six condominium units in 14 buildings, per the Lee County parcel roll and the state condominium registry's project PR1S020267: 16 units in four two-story fourplexes, 4 in two one-story duplexes and 16 one-story villas in eight pairs.
The fourplexes and duplexes in 1984 and 1985, and the eight villa duplexes in 1991, per the county roll. The association itself was filed October 17, 1983, per the Division of Corporations.
Over the full 48-month pull, 11 closings at a median of $425,000, from $280,000 to $520,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. Villas sold at a median of $500,000 and fourplex units at $325,000.
On sales, yes: its 48-month median of $425,000 is the highest of any condominium neighborhood in The Forest, per the Southwest Florida MLS. On the county's 2026 appraisal it has the highest median just value of any conventional condominium, $300,820; the Heron Coach House Villas, a land condominium, are higher at $334,217.
Not published. The Waters Edge condominium assessment appears in the association's annual budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale, and so does the master association's assessment. Ask for both, with the reserve schedule and the last year of minutes, before you commit.
No. The Forest is a non-bundled community: buying a home does not require joining the club. The club sells memberships to residents and non-residents alike, per its membership page, and does not publish its dues or initiation schedule.
Yes. The association has a pool and spa with a pool house on the common elements; Lee County issued a 2026 permit to resurface both, per permit POL2026-01130.
The county roll describes all 20 one-story units, the 16 villas and the 4 duplex units, as golf front, and gives no such description for the fourplex units. That is county coding, not a view survey, so walk the home. The courses belong to the club, so frontage is a view, not access.
The county roll does not record it, and we do not infer it from the unit number. Read the floor from the condominium plat and the listing. Across The Forest, never read a floor from a unit number: at the Heron and Fairway Woods the leading digit is the building.
USGS crews surveyed a high-water mark 2.89 feet above ground on the outside of building K, per the USGS record. The mark measures water outside a building; it does not say whether water entered any home, and no public record we reached does. Ask for the building's elevation certificate.
Yes. Lee County's permit index lists a 2023 re-roof for all 14 residential buildings and the pool house, and each of the 11 permits we opened records the work as Hurricane Ian damage. Ask the seller for the building's permit and closeout.
No. Both laws apply to condominium buildings of three stories or more, and every Waters Edge building is one or two stories, per the county roll; the reserve-study rule also exempts two- and four-family dwellings of three or fewer stories. Sparrowood is the only three-story group in The Forest.
FEMA Zone AE, base flood elevation 11 feet NAVD88, on panels 12071C0438H and 12071C0576H effective November 17, 2022. Median ground is 6.6 feet, per Lee County's 2018 LiDAR.
A federally regulated or insured lender will require it, because every unit is in a Special Flood Hazard Area. The association's master policy covers the building; your own unit-owners and flood policies cover the rest. Unincorporated Lee County's Class 5 rating gives a 25 percent NFIP discount.
Only as the declaration and rules allow, and they are not published online. Under section 718.110(13), a later rental restriction binds a buyer who takes title after it passes, so read the current rules before you sign.
The pet rules are in the condominium's declaration and rules, which are not published online. Read them before you sign; emotional support animals are handled under section 760.27.
This page makes no claim either way. No public record we reached establishes an age restriction; the declaration and its amendments would, so read them before relying on any age rule.
The association is Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, Inc. Its 2026 state filing lists D&D Association Services LLC as registered agent at 11000 Metro Parkway, Fort Myers, changed March 27, 2025, per the Division of Corporations. Confirm the current manager on the estoppel certificate.
Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2, the same as all of The Forest. Rayma C. Page Elementary, graded A in 2026, is about 2.6 miles away by our routing.
About 9.9 road miles and 21 minutes to the Southwest Florida International Airport terminal, free-flow, by our routing from 16581 Waters Edge Court.
No. The Forest has no community development district and no county MSTU, per Lee County's special districts roster and MSTBU layer.
Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. We pull the association documents, the building's roof permit and the elevation certificate before you make an offer.
These are the questions Waters Edge owners ask before they list, answered from the Southwest Florida MLS, the Lee County roll and permit index, the association's state filings and Florida statute. Where a figure is not public, we say so and name the document that holds it.
It depends first on which product you own. Over the full 48-month pull, Waters Edge villas sold at a median of $500,000 and fourplex units at $325,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072 for a unit-specific read.
Three, in the 12 months to September 23, 2026: a villa at $520,000, a fourplex unit at $325,000 and a villa at $425,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS. That is a median of $425,000, 79 days on market and 99.05% of list.
Because 12 months holds only 3 closings, 24 months 4 and 36 months 8. Our rule is to widen until the window holds at least ten, and the full 48-month pull, the widest we hold, holds 11. We name the window beside every figure.
$520,000, a one-story villa in January 2026, after 190 days on market at 99.05% of its list price, per the Southwest Florida MLS. The next two highest were villas at $515,000 in May 2024 and $510,000 in July 2024.
The 48-month median is 11 days on market, per the Southwest Florida MLS. The range is wide, from 0 days (a villa in May 2026, full price) to 190 days, and the slowest sales were listed near the top of their product's range.
A median 97.94% of list over the 48-month pull and 99.05% in the last 12 months, the closest to asking of any Forest neighborhood with more than one sale in that year, per the Southwest Florida MLS. One of 11 closed at or above its list price.
On September 23, 2026 one Waters Edge unit was active, a fourplex unit asking $325,000 after 194 days, and none was pending. Buyers also cross-shop Fairway Woods, the Heron Coach House Villas and Sparrowood, so we price against those too.
Rarely. They are different formats at different prices, $500,000 against $325,000 at the 48-month medians. A villa buyer comparing homes looks at other one-story attached homes such as the Heron Coach House Villas; a fourplex buyer looks at Fairway Woods and Quail Cove.
Carefully, because none has sold through the MLS in four years. The one recorded sale was a December 2022 deed at $325,000. We start from the villas and the larger fourplex plan and adjust for the duplex units' 2,334 heated square feet and 1984 construction.
They inform it. The county roll records three Waters Edge sales in the last four years that never appeared in the MLS: $325,000 (December 2022), $265,000 (February 2023) and $380,000 (January 2024). They carry no list price or days on market, so we use them as context, not as medians.
Both, labeled. The county roll gives heated area (1,693, 1,989, 1,991 or 2,334 square feet at Waters Edge); MLS listings have shown living area of 1,758, 2,060 and 2,222 for the same plans. Buyers who see two numbers without labels assume one is wrong.
Yes, and the county roll does not say. We answer from the recorded condominium plat, not from the unit number, and state it in the listing so no buyer has to guess.
Yes. It is a public federal record, 2.89 feet above ground at building K, and buyers' insurers find it. We present it with its limits: it measures water outside a wall and says nothing about any unit's interior.
It is one of the strongest facts in a Waters Edge file. Every building has a 2023 re-roof permit, each one we opened recorded as Hurricane Ian damage, and Florida insurers may not refuse a homeowner's policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old. We attach your building's permit to the listing.
No. Waters Edge buildings are one and two stories, so neither Florida's milestone law nor the structural integrity reserve study rule applies. Under section 718.503, the resale package instead includes the association's statement that it has not completed a reserve study, if it has not.
Under section 718.503(2): the declaration, articles, bylaws and rules, the annual financial statement and budget, the reserve-study statement, the "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers" sheet and a governance form. Florida's flood disclosure under section 689.302 also applies.
Two: one from Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association and one from The Forest Property Owners' Association. Florida caps the condominium estoppel fee at $250 plus $100 if expedited, adjusted for inflation every five years, under section 718.116.
The association or its manager. The association's 2026 state filing names D&D Association Services LLC as registered agent at 11000 Metro Parkway, Fort Myers; the master association's estoppel is ordered through FirstService Residential's resale documents page. We order both on day one.
Only if the Waters Edge declaration or rules require it, and they are not published online. We read the governing documents before listing, so any approval step and its timing are built into the contract.
Waters Edge special assessments are not published; they appear on the estoppel certificate and in the minutes. Because the association re-roofed every building in 2023, buyers will ask how that was paid for, so we have the answer in writing before we list.
Typically the commission, documentary stamp tax at 70 cents per $100 of price under section 201.02 ($2,975 on a $425,000 sale by our arithmetic), prorations, the estoppel fees and the title costs the contract assigns. We give every seller a net sheet before listing.
List by early January. All 11 Waters Edge closings of the last four years fell between January and July, per the Southwest Florida MLS, and The Forest's population roughly doubles in season, per the master association's 2022 plan.
Not automatically. Because membership is separate from home ownership, a club membership should not be assumed to transfer with a home, and the club does not publish its transfer terms. If you are a member, we get the club's terms in writing before we list.
Yes, often in your favor. A non-golfer can buy at Waters Edge without a club obligation, which widens the buyer pool, and a golfer can join separately. We state it in the club's and the association's own words.
Lenders review the condominium association itself: its budget, reserves, insurance and litigation. Those documents are not public, so we request them early. The absence of milestone and reserve-study obligations at Waters Edge removes two questions lenders ask of three-story buildings.
The ones buyers' insurers price: impact windows and doors, shutters, and a documented roof. Several Waters Edge owners have permitted impact windows since 2018. Keep the permits and product approval numbers, because a wind-mitigation inspection turns them into insurance credits.
It can. That half was rebuilt after a 2014 fire under county permits, so it was built under a later building code than its 1991 neighbors, which can help a wind-mitigation report. We put those permits in the listing file.
Visitors are pre-registered through the master association's DwellingLive system, and the Main Gate is staffed 24 hours a day, per the association's 2022 plan. We register every showing in advance.
Yes. Discretion with off-market capability is part of how we sell, and the county roll shows private Waters Edge sales do happen. An off-market sale still needs both estoppel certificates and the statutory condominium documents.
Many Waters Edge owners are seasonal, since 24 of 36 units carry no homestead exemption on the county roll, and seasonal buyers often want a turnkey home. List the furnishings in the contract, and price them separately if they are significant.
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Get a free home valuation for your Waters Edge home, or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072, text or call. We will pull your building's permits, your unit's comparables and both associations' documents before we meet.
Every fact about Waters Edge on this page traces to a named public record: the association's state corporate filings, the state condominium registry, Lee County's parcel, permit, development order, flood and utility records, Florida statutes, FEMA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the master association's and the club's own publications, and the school district and state agencies.
Market figures are cited in the text as "Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026," a member-only system with no public link. No realtor site, listing portal or brokerage page is used as a source anywhere on this page.
The public records that govern and describe Waters Edge are linked below at the authority that issued or holds each one; we do not re-host any of them, and some government hosts refuse automated requests but open normally in a browser.
Several Waters Edge records are not posted anywhere public, and we say so rather than link a copy: the recorded declaration and its amendments (held by the Lee County Clerk at Official Records Book 1988, Page 2827 and Book 1725, Page 1848, with the plat at Condominium Plat Book 9, Page 68), the association's budget, reserve schedule and minutes (member records, provided at resale and posted in the association's owner-only website area), and the association's rules.
Document | What it is | Link |
|---|---|---|
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, 2026 annual report | The association's current state filing: principal address, registered agent and officers | |
Waters Edge of Lee Condominium Association, 2025 annual report | The filing that recorded the March 27, 2025 change of address and registered agent | |
The Forest Property Owners' Association Emergency Preparedness Plan (updated May 2022) | The master association's own plan: board structure including the Waters Edge seat, gate staffing, re-entry rules | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0438H (effective November 17, 2022) | Flood map covering 31 of the 37 Waters Edge parcels | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0576H (effective November 17, 2022) | Flood map covering the other 6 Waters Edge parcels | |
Lee County Evacuation Zone A map | The county evacuation zone that covers all of The Forest | |
FEMA Community Rating System eligible communities (April 1, 2025) | Lee County (unincorporated) 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 | |
Florida Building Code effective dates | The code-era reference for 1984, 1991 and 2014 construction | |
Florida Statutes s. 718.503 (2026) | The documents every Waters Edge seller must provide a buyer | |
Florida Statutes s. 718.111 (2026) | The association's website, records and insurance obligations | |
Florida Statutes s. 689.302 (2026) | The residential flood disclosure every Waters Edge seller gives |
Market data from Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 2026. McGreevy and Comisar, Best Realtor for Waters Edge at The Forest. Brokered by Domain Realty. Jesse McGreevy, FL Lic. SL3101296 · Marc Comisar, FL Lic. BK3060671.
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