Floridians- learn me: moving to Florida.

Wife and I are pretty done with central Oregon and it’s weather, and it’s people. (I realize jerks live everywhere, I’m mostly talking about family that we are tired of dealing with). 

Heres the deal. Were are dreaming of simplifying. Right now I do the 9-5 pace as an appliance technician, and my wife runs her successful vacation rental business. We make good money combined, but the rat race in central Oregon is horrid. And her family that lives here have us at our wits end. We feel like the only responsible people in this family at this point. Because of that, nearly the entire family relies on us to bail them out and help them through issues that they should have conquered decades ago. Emotionally we are done with them and want to live somewhere 1) cheaper than the west coast, 2) more beautiful and sunny than central Oregon, 3) a place that has vacation rentals so my wife can relocate the business. 

We are not looking for a mansion, we are keeping it simple this time, we figure with the equity from our home we can nearly outright buy a place for about 100k and be done with a mortgage and, therefore, live simple. I would help her with the vacation rental business, and, if need be, I could go back to appliance repair. It’s an easy job that I have 13yrs experience in, and can do anywhere on this planet. 

My questions are: what neighborhoods/cities are the ones to avoid? Particularly, the ones located near the beach.

What are the taxes like?

Any weird laws that get people when they first buy a home in Florida?

How’s the mold situation, and what do you do to combat it?

Do you love living in Florida and how would you rate the people in general, based on your experiences and dealings with them?

edit: wife wants to know how often you guys get evacuated for storms? I’m from the mid west, lived in “tarnayda alley”, I’m kinda used to it. Wife has never lived elsewhere, and The Oregon people never get catastrophic weather events. 

Check flood insurance rates near the coasts. Nobody in Florida is from Florida. :)

In reply to NermalSnert :

Makes sense. Is flood insurance something required? Recommended? And how steep is it?

I don't know specifics- just hearing grumblings from relatives, etc.

There's a lot of different Floridas. The panhandle (Lower Alabama), North East FL, Orlando/Daytona, and South Florida are so different from each other that I'd want to know more about what you want before recommending an area. Biggest surprise to newcomers is that it cost ~$400 to issue a title to out of state cars.

Trackmouse said:

In reply to NermalSnert :

Makes sense. Is flood insurance something required? Recommended? And how steep is it?

If you're in low laying areas yes but you can just make sure you don't. I'm 2 blocks from the St John's River in Jacksonville but I'm 44 feet above sea level. 

In reply to Stampie :

What would you need to know about me/ what is special about the areas you mention? 

Trackmouse said:

In reply to Stampie :

What would you need to know about me/ what is special about the areas you mention? 

If you’re straight redneck you do panhandle, if you’re a biker or can’t live without nascar you do daytona, if you love humidity and the swamp and horribly rude international tourists  you do orlando, if you like the gulf breeze you do tampa, if you’re into mountains of cocaine and fake boobs you go to miami, etc...

my two favorite areas in the state are St Augustine and Dunedin.  Orlando can get bent, including my sister in law and the big greedy mouse.  

In reply to Patrick :

Well cocaine is a helluva drug. And the wife doesn’t want me anywhere near fake boobs, or any boobs. I WAS straight redneck, but now am only partial (the PNW reformed me. Lol.) I don’t ride bikes or motorcycles, and not really an ASScar fan, but do love autox and lemans and Sebring sounds rad, but I don’t need to live near a track. My big thing is not having to worry about my wife being home by herself (I own guns, but would hate for her to have to use one, obviously). I can deal with old people and tourists, I currently live in Bend, OR. Aka- retired Californians and Silicon Valley/ ski bums and droves of slow moving ski families in massive SUV’s. So I’m used to the tourism crap. 

I personally would look hard at the coast north of Tampa, anywhere south of Jacksonville/north of daytona or south of daytona toward sebring. Stay away from the cruise ship areas like port canaveral because they attract typical cruise passengers.  

My grand plan includes buying a home in saint Augustine one of these days.  For storm purposes i’d rather stay on the gulf side but it’s just an area we fell in love with.  Anything towards the middle of the state is humid and buggy and just not very pleasant without the breeze that being close to the coast brings.  Plus i want to be far enough from orlando that i’m not seeing my sister in law constantly.    

In reply to Trackmouse :

As someone who gets to travel to Fla fairly regularly - there is something "special" about the tourists in Orlando, especially the ones visiting mousedom.

And by “special” he means “shiny happy people”

Wife is a Disney-Holic. I should save thousands by not planning our yearly vacation to mousedom. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

I'd recommend Biloxi, MS - cheaper cost of living than costal FL and growing tourism. 

The norther' you go, the souther' you git.

BoxheadCougarTim said:

In reply to Trackmouse :

As someone who gets to travel to Fla fairly regularly - there is something "special" about the tourists in Orlando, especially the ones visiting mousedom.

Every single one of them is an entitled dickhead that seems to think all of orlando is owned by disney (most of it is) and that as such, they can behave as they will and expect to be treated as disney would. 

Also, the rule that no one from Florida is from florida, absolutely true. And they all bring those garbage ass driving habits with them. Turn signals don't come on cars here, horns are to be used whenever they damn well feel like it, driving lanes are totally made up, and if you're important, you can just use the shoulder wherever you want and cut off traffic to get to the front of the line. And make turns from wherever you want. Also, beware of Nissan altimas, and hyundai elantras. 

One thing I didn't expect- jobs. Being a skilled tradesman will help you immensely. Being a white guy from not Florida will not. Plan on learning Spanish. 

At least in orlando i have never been evacuated for a tornado. We're outside of that general area. I have however been subject to no one, but TWO hurricane evac notices. I've ridden them both out. Matthew didn't do E36 M3, Irma made me lose power and Wi-Fi for a day. It rains every day at 2pm 9 months out of the year. It will rain for 30min. By 3pm the sky will be clear and it will become 140* With 100% humidity . Winter was on a Tuesday this year. 

https://lifehacker.com/the-best-orlando-tips-from-our-readers-1823708693 this link explains orla ndo to a t. Once swmbo is done with school, depending on disney (she's a gem-e @yacht and beach) were probably going to vacate orlando. That being said, there are good pockets, mostly south towards davenport/reunion aren't bad. Avoid polk county. 

I live in Port Orange, 10 minutes from the ocean. I love it! Orlando is as much as a rat race as Portland. (I use Vegas for my rat race comparison too, since that is where my wife is from and where we have also lived for a very long time) I despise the traffic in Orlando. I have a 35 mile commute from my home to work and it's all back roads. Almost zero traffic during my commute. 

Daytona Beach proper is mostly hood. (no offense to anyone there) Port Orange and New Smyrna are convenient to the beach and have less expensive insurance. Easy to spend a day on the water, but also in an area where you aren't being evacuated. As far as expense, if you live beach side or the peninsula then insurance gets pricey. When we bought this house ,we were looking beach side. The insurance was actually more per month than the house payment! 

We walked into a 3,000 sq ft home with a 800+ sq ft garage and a pool on just under an acre of property for right at $350K. It had been gutted and remodeled from the rafters down. We looked at one beach side with no pool and the house was built in 1947 and badly needed renovation. It was in the $300K range. 

My wife and I have lived in Vegas, Seattle, Mobile, Greenville SC, and Florida. We have always enjoyed life way more here. 

As someone who has only visited Florida once, and only recently, I could see myself living in Dunedin. 

In reply to Mndsm :

"One thing I didn't expect- jobs. Being a skilled tradesman will help you immensely. Being a white guy from not Florida will not. Plan on learning Spanish. "

THIS! Half of my crew are Puerto Rican. Hard working as hell but hared to know when they are discussing your demise if you don't speak the language. :)

Skill trades are always in demand. Anything from mechanics to electronics, fabrication, etc will help you land a job in a hurry. 

VegasNick said:

In reply to Mndsm :

"One thing I didn't expect- jobs. Being a skilled tradesman will help you immensely. Being a white guy from not Florida will not. Plan on learning Spanish. "

THIS! Half of my crew are Puerto Rican. Hard working as hell but hared to know when they are discussing your demise if you don't speak the language. :)

Skill trades are always in demand. Anything from mechanics to electronics, fabrication, etc will help you land a job in a hurry. 

And with Maria having turned pr into a parking lot, it's only increasing. 

I did read that on a lot of appliance tech business sites. “Habla espanol” preferred. 

I know a little. I can get by in Mexico. Definitely not fluent and can’t conduct business in that lingo.

Anywhere else in the country where people vacation? Preferably old timers, since that’s where the money is. NOT CALIFORNIA. That’s the one place I would love to live, but only if I could move half the people out and drive the COL down. 

I have a friend who was a farmer for years and moved in with a friend in Atlantic Beach.   She loves it.   Says the hurricanes aren't any worse than some blizzards.   It doesn't get the humidity south Fla. gets

If I were leaving florida,  it would have to be a no inspection state that doesn't get snow. 

And honestly, florida is pretty awesome. Food culture is blowing up, and due to the tourists, you can get literally anything here. The weather is great most of the time. 3 months out of the year, it's brutal- but that can be mitigated by going to the beach. I live about as one can physically without having a fist up the mouses ass. In fact, in roughly 7min, I will hear hollywood studios fireworks. There is no snoe, so there's no salt, so there is a lot of ridiculous rust free E36 M3 down here. Swmbo doesn't get why I freak out. Cost of living isn't bad. There more use taxes on like clothes and stuff, but it's not obnoxious, it's around 7%. There is no state tax, so that's cool. There is toll roads, but anyone can avoid em if they have Google's. The oddest thing for me is when people find out I live here. Because I shop at tourist target, I get asked all the time where I'm vacationing from. When I tell them about 10min west of here....they laugh. Gets you solid service a lot of places too, since they let down fornot having to disney you. (Disney. Controls. Everything) really, 30min in any direction from Orlandoand you're out of the worst of it. I've probably been here the least out of any grmer (I don't think I get my locals pamphlet for another 2 years and change) but I'm really happy with it. I'll trade hurricane for snow any day....and I'm used to Minnesota winters. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Hey, walk me through “vehicle inspections”. What’s that like? Is there emissions through the whole state? Or just densely populated areas?

Vehicle inspections? Been driving here in FL 20 years and 4 vehicles, no inspections.  When you see some of the “creative” custom vehicles here, you will know there is no inspections.