Please fill out my questionnaire (Sarasota, Bradenton: homes, neighborhood, to buy)

[k9coach]

Hoping a few more will answer but so far out of 6 respondents that completed the questionnaire...

4 said the oldest home they would own would be built in the 2000s

5 have fire ants and have been bitten by them.

4 have encountered brown recluses or black widows. (Truly disturbing.)

At least 5 (possibly all 6) seem to deal with noseeums regularly.

3 have encountered 'dangerous' snakes.

3 have regularly found ticks on their dogs. (Surprising to me.)

2 have had problems with fleas on their dogs.


I know there are several threads about insurance. I've read them and will go over them again but I've found the topic difficult to understand. Here is what I think I've read: If I buy a house built after 2001 I will have the most affordable insurance rates available. Then as I go 'back in time' there are various code revision cut-offs, like if I buy a house built after 1994 my rates will be better than a pre-1994 house and if I buy a house built after 1978 I will be able to get expensive insurance but pre-1978 I might not even be able to obtain insurance at all. I know the roof comes into play - I have read hip roof is best and metal is the best material but I sure don't see it too often. Then there seem to be certain home improvements which can affect the cost of insurance. So I want to know if a house built in the 80s has all kinds of hurricane resistant add-ons will I get a better rate for that house than for a house built in 1995 with no updated hurricane protection? I also understand flood insurance is quite a debacle. I guess I'd simply do my best to buy in an X zone but eventually they'll find a way to say the entire state is a flood zone and everyone will just be out of luck.

I am pretty sure I could handle a fire ant bite. I would probably be very uncomfortable for a while but I think I could see the humor in it as a right of passage. Something I'd try very diligently to avoid, but fire ants alone will not stop me from moving to FL.

I have to hope that at least a couple of those brown recluse spiders were misidentified. Black widows are easy to recognize but several other brown spider species look very similar to recluses. I think the entomologists and arachnologists are full of it when they claim recluses are exceedingly rare in Florida, however I also think most people including medical professionals and poison control technicians are unable to i.d. recluses with much accuracy. I can be careful while I'm awake, but I have to sleep eventually and I know that disfiguring and even fatal bites occur when a sleeping person rolls on top of one of these spiders that has found its way into the bed. This topic is the one that has given me the most pause about moving to Florida.

I actually like snakes (and find insects and spiders fascinating for that matter) but I have watched my dogs so oblivious to the cute little garter snakes in our yard here that they step right on them. The garter snakes do nothing but I don't want to test how a rattler or coral snake would react.

Very surprised about the ticks! I don't associate ticks with Florida so I'm glad I asked about that. Looks like they don't typically carry Lyme disease in Florida but they can cause other serious problems. Disappointed to read how common they apparently are. My dogs sleep in bed with us (judge me all you want) and if they have ticks I'll probably end up donating blood as well and that is not ok with me.

I'm not necessarily looking to live around "friendly" people. Nice people can be very shy and reserved. Friendly people can be obnoxious. So level of friendliness is not really my metric when I comment on my experiences of the people in the various places I have lived all around the U.S. While in some ways people are the same everywhere, I think different areas have different flavors when it comes to the general population. I enjoyed the people of New England (MA and RI) because I found them incredibly amusing. A bunch of characters. I liked Illinois people, they have a similar vibe to WNY people which is where I currently live. Southern California people I didn't dislike but I did find weird and wacky. I'm not saying all Southern Californians are weird, I'm saying the concentration of weirdos is higher there than other places I've lived. And what I find weird, other people might consider normal or familiar obviously. I had some issues with the people in North Carolina. I actually don't think I'd have as many problems today if I moved back there because I have changed in certain ways since living there. The people in Hawaii I found unbearable. Made some amazing friends there so again I am not saying every person there is awful but overall I was not a fan of the population there. Now I'm in WNY and as I mentioned before the people here are pretty awesome. So far my favorites of anywhere I've lived. And yet I have had some issues with individual lunatics here (unavoidable when you are involved with animal rescue) so not every western new yorker is awesome.

When I am in Florida, the servers in restaurants and the checkout clerks at stores are unbelievably nice and warm and pleasant. The drivers certainly keep me alert on the roads... I have caught attitude and hostility from some residents and had nice interactions with others but those interactions have been limited. I gravitate toward older people and my husband is the same way so I think that aspect of living in Florida would really suit us. We enjoy being surrounded by retirement-age folks when we are down there. Just so thrilled for them that they are living the dream.

Thanks again to those who have filled out the questionnaire. What has been most helpful for me is the specific nature of the questions and answers. Plenty of people say the bugs are out of control in Florida and just as many people say that they don't find bugs to be an issue in Florida so it has been informative to get some hard data instead of subjective opinions.

[beninfl]

I wouldnt call 6 answers "hard data". It's not even a scientific hypothesis.

[Californianz]

Originally Posted by k9coach

Hoping a few more will answer but so far out of 6 respondents that completed the questionnaire...

4 said the oldest home they would own would be built in the 2000s

5 have fire ants and have been bitten by them.

4 have encountered brown recluses or black widows. (Truly disturbing.)

At least 5 (possibly all 6) seem to deal with noseeums regularly.

3 have encountered 'dangerous' snakes.

3 have regularly found ticks on their dogs. (Surprising to me.)

2 have had problems with fleas on their dogs.

Even though I did not specifically answer each point (posting an actual POLL would have easily received more answers)

YES to a newer house (as a preference) - NO to all the others.

Generally speaking - Keep a clean house, get a pest control service, stay away from swamps and jungle and you'll reduce your odds of any serious encounters with problem pests. Suburban areas are obviously more tame than wild/rural/swamp areas. I think the paranoia level and imagination about these things exceeds the reality. Factor in the squeaky wheel syndrome - the vast majority of people remain silent while a very tiny percentage whine loudly and repeatedly.

Renting a house and living for a few months in the area you might want to buy would be a true gauge of everything - the rest is just all talk.

[Sunshine Rules]

The statewide building code was adopted in 2002, with some additional changes in 2010. So a home built in 2001 would not have the lower insurance rates. Many people looking for newer homes want one built in 2003 or later.

[gypsychic]

Sorry, OP, I hate to say this, but I don't think you should move here - I just think you have WAY too much paranoia and anxiety about everything. Sorry you aren't looking to be around "friendly people" - to me that is important, but I guess "friendly" is subjective.

Bottom line, Florida isn't for everyone. Fact is, we have loads of Hooters, seedy areas, ticks, bugs, wildlife, alligators, hot weather, storms, bad drivers, people with 'tudes, EXTREMELY high insurance rates and the whole nine yards. Not trying to sound negative, but just tell you honestly how it is, per your questions. As a native, I LOVE IT HERE, and would not live anywhere else. I recommend you make a list of pros and cons and see what outweighs the other.

Maybe another state would work out better for you. Good luck.

[dcp528]

Really appreciate the honesty gypsychic. You are one of the very few.

For the OP, you can also look at it this way, there are so many people who are transplants and they have made it work. The concerns you have, there are workable solutions. And, the key is to pick the right location/neighborhood where you will live and it will all fall into place!

[k9coach]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

Sorry, OP, I hate to say this, but I don't think you should move here - I just think you have WAY too much paranoia and anxiety about everything. Sorry you aren't looking to be around "friendly people" - to me that is important, but I guess "friendly" is subjective.

Bottom line, Florida isn't for everyone. Fact is, we have loads of Hooters, seedy areas, ticks, bugs, wildlife, alligators, hot weather, storms, bad drivers, people with 'tudes, EXTREMELY high insurance rates and the whole nine yards. Not trying to sound negative, but just tell you honestly how it is, per your questions. As a native, I LOVE IT HERE, and would not live anywhere else. I recommend you make a list of pros and cons and see what outweighs the other.

Maybe another state would work out better for you. Good luck.

Since I signed up on city-data in 2011 I have been obessively researching areas for relocation. I want warm winters and no bugs and such a place simply does not exist. (Or maybe I should never have left HI.)

I think this thread has saved me from making a mistake. We were a month or two away from listing our house for sale and now we have decided not to do that. Even if we do eventually move to Florida, now seems like a foolish time to buy there. We will do an extended visit this winter, not so much for the purpose of relocation research but just to avoid some of the cold weather here. In the end that might be my best solution, stay here in WNY and just keep vacationing in Florida because apparently the wildlife I am particularly concerned about leaves tourists alone and only goes after residents.

I wanted to clarify my statement about not necessarily looking to live around friendly people. As I said, 'friendly' is just not my metric. I would be happy to live around friendly people - if I like them. I would be happy to live around shy and reserved people - if I like them. So level of friendliness isn't the important factor to me. I think the miscommunication is a semantics issue as we might just have different definitions of what friendly means. To you it might simply mean nice, to me it implies a certain level of extroversion.

[macrodome2]

I wonder how many of those who found brown recluse or black widows spray on a regular basis? We just purchased a home and the idea of them in the house bothers me as well, but many or the people I spoke to said to just get a good pest service (or do it yourself), just do it regularly.

[bbronston]

I think I saw more black widows up north than here and I can probably count all of them I've ever seen on one hand. I don't look for them and, if I see a spider in the house, which happens a 2-4 times a year, I take a broom and whack it, I don't try to figure out which type it is. I've never seen a rattlesnake in my entire time here and I've seen one water moccasin that was swimming in a pond. I've seen a few other snakes here and there but it is not a regular occurrence by any measure and I walk my shepherd and husky in the preserve area next to my condo, 2-3x/day, everyday. These things just aren't a part of everyday life.

[beninfl]

Originally Posted by k9coach

I want warm winters and no bugs and such a place simply does not exist. (Or maybe I should never have left HI.)

Bugs exist where it's green. Try Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc....... Damn near bug free.