[MNIA]

We had a fantastic time on our exploring trip, thank you to everyone for your help in the idea and planning phase. I hope my/our thoughts don't make people upset, because honestly I think everywhere we visited would be a fantastic place to live depending on each person's objectives and needs. I will also say that I have NEVER EVER experienced such exceptional customer service and friendliness it didn't matter if we were at chik-fil-a,a fancy restaurant, gas station, shopping, a club, or a dive bar. We received a lot of great tips from locals....Yep I am that person, so if you had someone coming up to you in the last couple of weeks at a gas station thanks for answering my questions. I want to know what people living where we are looking think about where the live. I was extremely impressed Florida puts MNice to shame!!
First some background information for those that haven't seen my previous threads.
We are in our mid-30's
No kids now or ever
Both Self-Employed
Currently live full time in Mpls MN
Looking to become young snowbirds spending Jan-Mid April in FL
Want a lively area with a Downtown and fairly close to beaches
Have large dogs and will need a fence

Below are our thoughts on the different areas we visited.

St. Pete Beach Our primary goal in St. Pete Beach was to have some wind down time, which we did. We stayed at Beachcombers and had a blast a couple nights at Jimmy B's. We thought that the St. Pete Beach area was nice but not really our style....a bit to laid back for us. We did enjoy the walk ability of restaurants and shops. While at St. Pete Beach we did spend a day visiting Dunedin, Seminole, and Clearwater Beach, Our thoughts on :
-Dunedin was too small for us, but a cute town.
-Seminole I was not impressed with this area at all. I think it would be a great place to raise a family but that is not our goal.
- Clearwater Beach was beautiful ....but holy crap traffic sucked and parking was ridiculous. It seemed like a fairly walk able city though which we like.

St. Petersburg We spent 5 nights/6 days in St. Petersburg. We happened to be there during the Blues Festival which was fantastic!! Our first overall impression of the city was it is historic and beautiful!!! Neighborhoods we spent time in were Old Northeast, Kenwood, Snell Isle, Shore Acres.
-Old NE very quaint neighborhood, although I think I could say that about all of the neighborhoods we spent time in here. Very close to downtown and very walk able, which we really liked. I was under-impressed with the actual houses we went into, what a shame that past homeowners didn't take better care of them. The one house I thought needed the least restoration work to turn the house back to fabulous was unfortunately on a very tiny lot .10 acres.
-Kenwood we really liked this neighborhood as well. Only concern here was that it appeared not as safe as Old NE and closer to less desirable areas.
-Snell Isla and Shore Acres I will lump them together since I had the same thought on both. Love the neighborhoods, probably our favorite. By far the nicest houses and best lots........of course the biggest draw back here is the "constant flooding". The realtor we met with in these two areas admitted it was very flood prone, even with heavy rain. But also mentioned that a new sewer system is being installed in sections and since it was installed two years ago she hasn't had a flooded street but it has been drought-like in the past two years. A real bummer since these two areas are favorite in St. Pete. If we were moving to FL full time I think I would be more comfortable with it, but since we will only be there for 3 1/2 months my mold concern if water got in the house ruled that area out

Sarasota Heck yeah!!! Thanks to Gypsychick I had a feeling this would be it!!! We found it to be the best of both worlds in a smaller town....meaning a city with nightlife and close to beaches. We thought of all the cities we toured that Sarasota felt the most tropical... of course it is further south but who knew an hour could make that much of a difference . The neighborhoods we toured here were mainly Gulf Gate and South Gate areas. We almost, I should rephrase, my husband almost put an offer on a house after our third day there but I talked him out of it.....my husband is normally very level headed that is how much we like this town. Instead I convinced him to purchase a painting of the skyline coming back over the bridge from Lido Key . We decided by day 2 that this was the place. We adored the smaller downtown with the boutique shops, nightly entertainment, all of the museums, restaurants, and being close to Lido and Siesta Key. We spent 4 nights/5 days in Sarasota, we were not there on a weekend so we didn't take part in any of their festivals.
Our next step is finding a realtor for Sarasota. Any suggestions would be appreciated via PM. I will also post this thread on the Sarasota Page. Thank you!!

[kyle19125]

Send a direct message to SoFlGal, she is a regular on the forum and a real estate agent in the area. Good luck on the move!
http://www.city-data.com/forum/membe...al-209399.html

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by MNIA

We had a fantastic time on our exploring trip, thank you to everyone for your help in the idea and planning phase. I hope my/our thoughts don't make people upset, because honestly I think everywhere we visited would be a fantastic place to live depending on each person's objectives and needs. I will also say that I have NEVER EVER experienced such exceptional customer service and friendliness it didn't matter if we were at chik-fil-a,a fancy restaurant, gas station, shopping, a club, or a dive bar. We received a lot of great tips from locals....Yep I am that person, so if you had someone coming up to you in the last couple of weeks at a gas station thanks for answering my questions. I want to know what people living where we are looking think about where the live. I was extremely impressed Florida puts MNice to shame!!
First some background information for those that haven't seen my previous threads.
We are in our mid-30's
No kids now or ever
Both Self-Employed
Currently live full time in Mpls MN
Looking to become young snowbirds spending Jan-Mid April in FL
Want a lively area with a Downtown and fairly close to beaches
Have large dogs and will need a fence

Below are our thoughts on the different areas we visited.

St. Pete Beach Our primary goal in St. Pete Beach was to have some wind down time, which we did. We stayed at Beachcombers and had a blast a couple nights at Jimmy B's. We thought that the St. Pete Beach area was nice but not really our style....a bit to laid back for us. We did enjoy the walk ability of restaurants and shops. While at St. Pete Beach we did spend a day visiting Dunedin, Seminole, and Clearwater Beach, Our thoughts on :
-Dunedin was too small for us, but a cute town.
-Seminole I was not impressed with this area at all. I think it would be a great place to raise a family but that is not our goal.
- Clearwater Beach was beautiful ....but holy crap traffic sucked and parking was ridiculous. It seemed like a fairly walk able city though which we like.

St. Petersburg We spent 5 nights/6 days in St. Petersburg. We happened to be there during the Blues Festival which was fantastic!! Our first overall impression of the city was it is historic and beautiful!!! Neighborhoods we spent time in were Old Northeast, Kenwood, Snell Isle, Shore Acres.
-Old NE very quaint neighborhood, although I think I could say that about all of the neighborhoods we spent time in here. Very close to downtown and very walk able, which we really liked. I was under-impressed with the actual houses we went into, what a shame that past homeowners didn't take better care of them. The one house I thought needed the least restoration work to turn the house back to fabulous was unfortunately on a very tiny lot .10 acres.
-Kenwood we really liked this neighborhood as well. Only concern here was that it appeared not as safe as Old NE and closer to less desirable areas.
-Snell Isla and Shore Acres I will lump them together since I had the same thought on both. Love the neighborhoods, probably our favorite. By far the nicest houses and best lots........of course the biggest draw back here is the "constant flooding". The realtor we met with in these two areas admitted it was very flood prone, even with heavy rain. But also mentioned that a new sewer system is being installed in sections and since it was installed two years ago she hasn't had a flooded street but it has been drought-like in the past two years. A real bummer since these two areas are favorite in St. Pete. If we were moving to FL full time I think I would be more comfortable with it, but since we will only be there for 3 1/2 months my mold concern if water got in the house ruled that area out

Sarasota Heck yeah!!! Thanks to Gypsychick I had a feeling this would be it!!! We found it to be the best of both worlds in a smaller town....meaning a city with nightlife and close to beaches. We thought of all the cities we toured that Sarasota felt the most tropical... of course it is further south but who knew an hour could make that much of a difference . The neighborhoods we toured here were mainly Gulf Gate and South Gate areas. We almost, I should rephrase, my husband almost put an offer on a house after our third day there but I talked him out of it.....my husband is normally very level headed that is how much we like this town. Instead I convinced him to purchase a painting of the skyline coming back over the bridge from Lido Key . We decided by day 2 that this was the place. We adored the smaller downtown with the boutique shops, nightly entertainment, all of the museums, restaurants, and being close to Lido and Siesta Key. We spent 4 nights/5 days in Sarasota, we were not there on a weekend so we didn't take part in any of their festivals.
Our next step is finding a realtor for Sarasota. Any suggestions would be appreciated via PM. I will also post this thread on the Sarasota Page. Thank you!!

So glad you enjoyed your visit! And thanks for reporting back - I alway love to read the follow-ups! Please continue to keep us posted!

[MNIA]

Will do, thank you for all of your advice!!!

[AustinTraveler]

Have you visited Sarasota during Snowbird season? If not, I would suggest making another visit next winter.