[SellinginFL]

Originally Posted by jenjmurray

We prefer the gulf coast, so we are checking into Punta Gorda & Port Charlotte. If you enjoy the beach, perhaps Fort Myers would interest you. Let us know what you decide...

I agree. There's also Cape Coral which is nestled between the Punta Gorda & Fort Myers areas. Not sure if you'd already been down to FL to scope out prospects and/or have already made your decision, but Cape Coral checks off many off your boxes.

Originally Posted by wantingflorida

Most important to us:

1. safety, safe neighborhoods at the cost of having less nightlife - we're in bed by 10pm anyway! Restaurants and being near a major city would be cool, but a quiet beach town is ok barring my wife's ability to find a job nearby.

Lee Health System has several hospitals and clinics in the area and Cape Coral is the 2nd safest city in the state. It's roughly halfway between Tampa & Miami but does have its own entertainment district downtown with bars/nightclubs. You also mentioned working remotely and needing access to airports. Cape Coral has access to two nearby airports (PGD in Punta Gorda & RSW in Fort Myers), plus Tampa (TPA) is less than 2 hours from our house in NW Cape Coral.

2. Being within an hour drive to a nice beach, that isn't too crowded. Ideally less, but an hour is reasonable.

You'd have access to several beaches in that drive time: Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Captiva, Venice, possibly Siesta Key.

3. Ok, I realize it's a ridiculous statement, and I realize hurricanes are a risk you take by living in FL but _relative to FL_ minimal hurricane risk. I know, ridiculous statement. Again relative to FL. We'll be prepared, we'll ask a lot of Qs once we move on being ready, and we know a lot of times it's just overhyped by news outlets. So again, relatively safe!

Yes, it is a risk but you also have to take it into perspective that snow and ice can increase the chances of car accidents, a tornado comes without warning, etc. The "positive" with hurricanes is that you have advance warning that they are coming. Most catastrophic events do not provide such luxury. Today is the one-year anniversary of Irma making landfall in FL and we only evacuated further up the coast last second to my MIL's house because we thought we were going to get hit with a Category 5 storm and we had cats. If not for the cats and fear of losing power, we would have stayed and rode it out like several of our neighbors did. Evacuating was actually more of a nightmare than the storm ended up being for us, and our area thankfully never lost power nor any damage other than it obliterated a bougainvillea bush in front of our house, so we considered ourselves very fortunate. I honestly felt more at risk of losing my life during the evacuation process than from the storm itself.

4. COL: rent under 2000 for a house (1300-1900 sqft) with a yard in a safe and quiet neighborhood. When we buy we'll likely want to buy for 200k top for the same reqs.

Plenty of homes available meeting that criteria.

5. Not being in an exclusively party area, no spring break area - either a quiet beach town or suburb of a major city though.

Cape Coral is 100% not a spring break area. The closest location for spring break is down on Fort Myers Beach and it's nothing like Daytona Beach. Cape Coral is more an area whose average age increases in the winter months.