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Old 07-29-2013, 06:00 PM
 
2 posts, read 1,898 times
Reputation: 10

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Hi everyone,

My wife and I are looking to move from Ft Lauderdale to Central or Northern Florida. We are in our early 30’s and have a 1 yr old child. I was a police officer in Virginia and my wife is a registered nurse.

I was born and raised in Ft Lauderdale but moved to Maryland (Upper Marlboro) about 6 years ago where I met my wife. We both hated the high cost of living, cold weather, and traffic in the DC/VA/MD areas so we moved back to Ft Lauderdale to be closer to my family. After two years here, we’re ready to leave again. We don’t like the overcrowding, aggressive drivers , heavy traffic, and general culture of Ft Lauderdale / Boca Raton (where I currently work). My wife, who grew up in Georgia, frequently has people ask her where she’s from because she seems too friendly to be from here because she actually smiles and makes small talk with people in public.

When we lived in Maryland, we rented a barn apartment on a 15 acre equestrian farm and LOVED it. We love the country lifestyle-we enjoy hiking, camping, riding dirt-bikes, kayaking, fishing, gardening, etc. We would love to live on/near forests or bodies of freshwater. We have no interest in living near the beach. Our perfect house would be on at least 1 acre and under $200k so there's $ left over for some toys. We don't want any HOA's.

We enjoy going to festivals and outdoor events on the weekend. While we do love the country, we’d still like to be within about 20 minutes of wal-mart, costco, grocery stores, etc. Schools will become a factor for us in a few years. We plan on renting for about a year until we can narrow down where we’d like to buy.

Based largely on the advice of this site, we’re currently leaning towards Lake, Orange, Polk, or Osceola counties but we’re definitely open to suggestions and would love to hear some ideas for areas we should live in. From there, I’ll have to start narrowing down departments that I can apply to.

Thanks!
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Old 07-30-2013, 09:56 AM
TD*
 
1,695 posts, read 4,121,744 times
Reputation: 754
Try Tallahassee

Sent from my HTC DNA using Tapatalk
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Old 07-30-2013, 12:12 PM
 
529 posts, read 1,165,986 times
Reputation: 612
I don't think Ocala/Marion county would work for you long term. The County Sheriff is butting heads with the County Commissioners, and threatening to take it to Tallahassee, the City Council and the School Board are in a pissing contest over fees and using the students as pawns, the School Board just laid off 180 " first year in Marion County " teachers, but just might hire some of them back at half pay and no benefits, and Monroe Hospital just entered a lease agreement with a company recently profiled on 60 Minutes.

In other words, law enforcement, schools, and to a lesser degree, health care are all at the bottom of the barrel as far as money, opportunity, employment, and stability are concerned. Marion County is great for leisure and outdoor opportunities, and proximity to the majority of things that make life worth living. It sucks to be in law enforcement, or educating your child in public school. It can be done, but you're gonna have to work for it.

Of course, I may be wrong.
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Old 08-05-2013, 04:18 PM
 
1 posts, read 855 times
Reputation: 10
Lots of folks have done what you're planning. You'll be just fine. If you're looking for a nice small acreage farm property just a hair off the beaten path, get in touch, it's a FSBO near everything.
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Old 08-07-2013, 11:18 PM
TD*
 
1,695 posts, read 4,121,744 times
Reputation: 754
dan. you can find what you want in Tallahassee. Its a much bigger city than ocala, but you can live in the suburbs.
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Old 08-09-2013, 08:56 PM
 
1,400 posts, read 1,838,741 times
Reputation: 1469
Quote:
Originally Posted by TD* View Post
dan. you can find what you want in Tallahassee. Its a much bigger city than ocala, but you can live in the suburbs.
Tallahassee is nice, pretty etc. However, one thing that struck me was what I perceived as near impossibility of penetrating the good ole boy club and actually landing a job. I have worked all over the country and my resume shows the experience and the skills. However, one place I could not even land the interview in is Tallahassee...
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