relocating to Florida for retirement (buying a house, buyer, living)

[Restrain]

Come down, rent a mfg home OFF SEASON. Season rentals (Nov-Apr) is much more expensive. Bt you can rent a furnished one monthly and you can decide if the area is for you. Besides people complain about the heat in summer (we don't).

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by Big House

This original thread was CountryKaren's thread about the potential for moving here.
Health concerns are an important factor to consider, but it is getting a tad off track now.

I'm glad she's / they're again on track to consider moving here. I thought they had given up on that for a few years - I might be wrong in that assumption, but I hope they find something that works for them, and doesn't overlook health options - it was a good point to bring that up.

I agree. We are getting it off track. Let's reel it back into the original OP. Thx.

[Macgregorsailor51]

I am with you ... come down and check it out.. Summers are not all that bad. We ALL Have A/C and even this year we only used it for about a total of maybe 6 weeks..( beats heating a house for 6 months) We dont live in PG.......... but we are far , from being on welfare : ) ...... anyway we just didnt feel the need and Heat Really Effects MS patients, of which my wife is one.. People saying its hot here, have NEVER lived where its hot hahaha.

Originally Posted by Restrain

Come down, rent a mfg home OFF SEASON. Season rentals (Nov-Apr) is much more expensive. Bt you can rent a furnished one monthly and you can decide if the area is for you. Besides people complain about the heat in summer (we don't).

[countrykaren]

Thank you all that have answered.

[buddy825]

Originally Posted by Bikechick58

We are planning a trip in February just to walk around and sit on those lots at 6 PM to see where the sun is at. We have been down two other times to get a feel for the area. We looked from Venice to Fort Myers and keep coming back to Rotonda and SGC. We dream about it and talk about it but pulling the trigger on this is very scary. We don't want to risk our retirement savings and lose it all.

Mod edit There are so many questions. And if we are buying a lot from an individual, how do we know about the water, electric, and extra costs?

Look up the book called Florida Move Guide by Ron Stack. Many have labeled it as negative and make you not want to move. My take on the book is that people ignore many of the things he brings up in the book and are sorry. Just an example and he has many, couple moves down, had big family and holidays were a house full. They retire, and of course everyone is coming down but at thanksgiving everyone had reasons for not traveling down so it was just the two retirees for dinner, the wife missed home and they ended up selling (at a loss) and moved back home to be close to family. Read the book and if you see yourself in the examples he sights maybe think twice. One more tip he gives is to spend a few months down their in the summer, heat and humidity and have no visitors come down. See if you and significant other can handle the temperatures for more than a week or so.

[Messing About]

Said it before, saying it again. Moving from Phoenix, AZ to Port Charlotte, FL was a great decision in my life. Between us, we have 7 grown kids and 8 grand-children, in AZ. Do we miss them? Sure. Enough to leave here? No way. This will be our 8th holiday season away and we have zero regrets. Even though yesterday we had to turn the AC back on for the first time since October. PS - we rented a little condo for four months while waiting for our AZ house to sell, then we bought a 1982 house on a canal in PC. Put a pool in this year. Love life here.

[buddy825]

The point of the book is not whether one will miss the family, it could be but the point is that as many people have moved to Florida on the basis of their experiences on vacation. He does not say that people are not happy with their move but the net gain of people migrating over a period of time is small. He was addressing a minimum of 9,540,260 people moved out of Florida in just a 28 year period. That’s more people than the entire population now living in all individual US States except ten. More people moved out of Florida between 1970-2008 than the entire population now living in New Jersey, Virginia, Indiana or Arizona for instance.
He wants people to be aware of the mistakes that some people have made. Some people never even think about it because they were never presented with the situation on a regular basis. For example if someone has a terrifying fear/phobia of spiders/bugs how are they going react in Florida? The bottom line is research and don't make a costly mistake. Today when you take into account flood insurance even more diligence is required. I agree with his assessment, if you can spend the summer months in Florida and experience the heat/humidity and not have visitors every weekend from back home and feel at home and satisfied your on the right track.

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by buddy825

The point of the book is not whether one will miss the family, it could be but the point is that as many people have moved to Florida on the basis of their experiences on vacation. He does not say that people are not happy with their move but the net gain of people migrating over a period of time is small. He was addressing a minimum of 9,540,260 people moved out of Florida in just a 28 year period. That’s more people than the entire population now living in all individual US States except ten. More people moved out of Florida between 1970-2008 than the entire population now living in New Jersey, Virginia, Indiana or Arizona for instance.
He wants people to be aware of the mistakes that some people have made. Some people never even think about it because they were never presented with the situation on a regular basis. For example if someone has a terrifying fear/phobia of spiders/bugs how are they going react in Florida? The bottom line is research and don't make a costly mistake. Today when you take into account flood insurance even more diligence is required. I agree with his assessment, if you can spend the summer months in Florida and experience the heat/humidity and not have visitors every weekend from back home and feel at home and satisfied your on the right track.

Florida just became the third most populous state passing New York, so obviously more people stay then leave.

It doesn't matter if your moving to a new state or a new city you need to do your homework

Gary

[mr&mrssunshine]

we moved country !!! Again we had been here numerous times on vacation and yes living here IS different, but guess what. that applies most places.

we have found good bits and bad bits, but we never once regretted moving. you have to try things in life, if it don't work out -at least you gave it a shot, if you never try you never know.

whats that old saying. to succeed, you first have to risk failure

[FL2HI]

I moved from New England to Florida back in 2006 to East side of Florida in Palm Coast. It started off nice till a lot of people could not find work from up north. Eventually renters came in and it all went to hell the area. So, decided to move to the west side. Now living in Port Charlotte where like any other town it has it bad with its good.. But, the good seem to out weigh the bad.. The weather is atleast 5 degrees warmer than the East side of Florida. Plus the people are more friendly. The bad part is the traffic on 41 especially during snow bird season.. Like Port charlotte over Punta Gorda and other surrounding towns because not too many rules with the town and if you find the right neighborhood can have a beautiful lot without the town saying no...