Sinkhole Property Investment Experience?

[Michael Goldsmith]

Does anyone have any experience dealing with sinkhole properties, either repaired or unrepaired?  I'm new to Florida (about a year and a half), and I moved to Hernando County, not really knowing anything about the area prior to moving here.  All I knew was that it was far enough away from Tampa to not have to pay Tampa prices or deal with Tampa traffic, and close enough that I could pop down there whenever I needed.  I'd heard the term "sinkhole" floating around here and there before.  Having lived in NJ for my entire life beforehand, sinkholes just weren't a problem and not something that people really ever had to think about.  So now I'm here in Hernando Co. and I'm starting to get into real estate.  So I start looking at properties in my town, and I start to pull cards of houses that are going pretty cheap.  Well there's a reason for that.  These sinkholes are freakin' everywhere.  Apparently Hernando and Pasco counties are the sinkhole capitolof the world.  Am I right to be terrified about trying to invest in properties in these counties?  Should I break the rule of trying to keep investment properties close to where I live and look further away in areas that have less of a risk of the ground just opening up one day and swallowing a house?  Or am I just making way too big of a deal about this, and I can get a lot for my money on these properties?   Thoughts?  Experience?