Florida Aviation Real Estate Firm’s Launch Began With a WWII-Themed Airpark

“Fly-in communities are not typically named after the city or town that they are in, for the most part and sometimes have unique names,” Melanie Riddick said. “My husband and I moved to Naked Lady Ranch Airport (64FA) in the fall of 2018, at which point he [became] passionate about aviation but did not have his pilot’s license.”

Morale-boosting nose art was the namesake inspiration for the nearly 50 home airpark in Stuart, Florida.

“Naked Lady Airport was named by the developer of this community, Clyde Dawson,” Riddick said. “Rumor has it he loved the nose art of World War II airplanes, so he dug out a lake here in the shape of a pinup girl. And I guess the whole thing was how often the pilots could say ‘naked lady’ over the radio. ‘I’ve got the naked lady in sight! Do you have the naked lady?”

Riddick noted that the calls to change the community’s name over the years have always been vetoed. 

The community has two runways: a 4,000-foot paved and lighted surface, and a 2,000-foot turf strip. All homesites sit on a minimum of a 5-acre lot and most have direct taxiway access. Surrounded by many equestrian and cattle farms, Naked Lady Ranch allows for owners to keep livestock, with some owners having sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, and chickens.

Riddick’s own experience of searching for a hangar home on Florida’s east coast led her to start a new career focus. Her passion for aviation enables her understanding of what pilots want at a fly-in community. 

“How I got into the aviation real estate business was because I live at an airpark. And finding our airpark was extremely clunky and cumbersome, so that’s why I created AV8 Realty,” Riddick said. “I have been in real estate for over 12 years and found that searching for airport property is very different from other properties. A lot of real estate agents don‘t really understand how to market aviation real estate,”

Pilots themselves are unique, so selling to them should be as well. Aviation real estate requires a tailored approach that understands the target market’s nuances and buying patterns.

“Aviators are mobile and most likely your buyer for these properties are probably not going to be local. So, that’s really where you have to focus in order to attract buyers,” she said. “Furthermore, understanding the covenants and restrictions is important as you don’t want to have a buyer purchase a piece of property and then be told that the aircraft they fly is restricted from the covenants."

At the Naked Lady, for example, covenants stipulate that  only propeller driven aircraft are allowed.

Riddick contends that not only are there knowledge gaps in this space, but traditional real estate listing technology has also not catered to this niche of properties. 

“You go to Zillow and you type in ‘airport’ as a keyword,” Riddick said. “But the problem is that it will show homes that are 10 minutes from an airport, not necessarily on one. “Then you search for hangar and have to account for the incorrect spelling (‘hanger’) as well, if those details even show in the listing. Only a small percentage of real estate is aviation real estate. Every state has a different percentage, with Florida being a prime state for fly-in communities.”

While homes with access to an airstrip are a fraction of all residences for sale at any given time, there are enough that Riddick decided to invest in the space.

“So, we created AV8 Realty so pilots can search for homes by what is most important to them, whether that’s hangar dimensions, hangar door size, runway length, fuel availability, or the traditional things like home size and number of bedrooms,” she said. “The feedback I have received from Sun ’n Fun and EAA Airventure Oshkosh has been, ‘Finally, someone did this!'”

AV8 Realty’s proprietary software allows buyers to better understand the market in their area, as they consider their next move, she said. In addition to curating this resource, Riddick is directly involved with buyers and sellers of residential aviation properties within the Sunshine State. 

“I am a licensed real estate broker in the state of Florida and sell real estate across the state,” she said. “We have a 1967 Beechcraft A23-24 Super Musketeer III that we fly to show properties to make sure they are getting the exposure that they need.”