Looking to move to southwest Florida (Port Charlotte, Venice: home builder, pool, vacation)

[snowtired14]

Originally Posted by chirodoc1

Great replies, Thank you to all! The research seems overwhelming, so I thank you all for the pushes in the right direction, will save me tons of time. I am a chiropractor, if that helps any of you point me in the right direction. I don't really have a target age population for my practice, as I work with all ages, from infant to 101. I want an area that has good employment though, as businesses like mine tend to not do so well in areas that have high unemployment, underemployment or no health insurance.

Well, if you look at a map of Charlotte County, it seems to be pretty well served by chiropractic services, can it support another practice? You would know better than me, but check out Lee, Hendry, Collier, Sarasota, Manatee counties. Of course you'll be on the older end of the age scale, and Medicare will most likely influence your clientele, and as the boomers retire FL expects to get more of them so population is increasing. It's also going to have a seasonal cycle, higher population during the winter months, you'll probably slow down the rest of the year(?). As far as employment, the southwest area of Florida has high levels of service jobs, usually they don't cover benefits very well. Is this still something you can work with? You may want to look at areas with more industry, typically northern Florida and east coast, weather is still warmer than NH. Not trying to rain on your parade, SWFL is a beautiful place to live, we've been a regular visitor for the past 15 years and that's where we're headed in a couple of years. Hopefully you get better advice from people more knowledgeable than me.

[chirodoc1]

I have no problem dealing with medicare, it has been a large percentage of my practice up here for years. I'll certainly look at how many offices are running compared to the population in the area. I have the reverse snowbirds effect up here. Older patients leaving for Florida in the fall and coming back here in the late spring. Those fluctuations are usually balanced by the locals. While the limited health insurance gives me pause, its not enough for me to consider a more metropolitan area, as I still want to keep the small town feel that I have here. I'm getting really excited for my vacation/scouting mission. Really hope I have enough time to get a proper feel for the towns. A week doesn't seem enough to scout more than two, maybe three towns

[mktobob]

Glad to hear you are coming down to scope out the area. We will have the heat turned up for you!

[03bluecoupe]

Do a lot of reading on this group as well as the "Sarasota - Bradenton - Venice Areas" forum and read through the thread histories. There is a wealth of information to be had and acquired doing that. In searching for a community, factor in if it's in a flood zone or not. That may or may not be an issue for you but it will certainly be an issue on homeowners insurance.

Here are a couple of links that will help you with that:
https://ags2.scgov.net/sarcoflood/
https://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/
https://www.fema.gov/insurance-profe...-questions#in8

Flood zone designation "X" does not require you to have flood insurance for mortgages, although it would be advisable to have it anyway. I don't think it's a matter of "if" as much as "when"

So, if you do a lot of homework ahead of time, it doesn't take a long time to get a feel of the different areas if you spend a few days driving around. A realtor should be able to provide you with local maps. Combine that with a GPS and you can easily scout out the various areas.

We focused our search from the Venice, North Port areas south through Punta Gorda (and PGI of course).

Also what helped was visiting "off-season" and spending time talking to local residents. Who knows the area better then them? I've found them all to be friendly and very helpful.

Good luck!

T minus 3 weeks until we're fulltime....

[snowtired14]

Originally Posted by 03bluecoupe

So, if you do a lot of homework ahead of time, it doesn't take a long time to get a feel of the different areas if you spend a few days driving around.

Sorry bluecoupe, I have to disagree to an extent, IMHO, PGI has its own very distinct personality vs. NP or another town. A week is going to be tight to get a real "feel" for getting to know a new area enough. For instance, we like Rotonda, it's not so much a town as a community, and it's about the location and convenience for us, but that was after many visits. I would suggest chirodoc think about a two step move, one to get into and established in the area and rent for a while, then nail down where you want to finally settle.

BTW- congrats bluecoupe! I am sooooooo jealous.

[03bluecoupe]

Originally Posted by snowtired14

Sorry bluecoupe, I have to disagree to an extent, IMHO, PGI has its own very distinct personality vs. NP or another town. A week is going to be tight to get a real "feel" for getting to know a new area enough. For instance, we like Rotonda, it's not so much a town as a community, and it's about the location and convenience for us, but that was after many visits. I would suggest chirodoc think about a two step move, one to get into and established in the area and rent for a while, then nail down where you want to finally settle.

BTW- congrats bluecoupe! I am sooooooo jealous.

No offense taken, snowtired. For us, we ruled out PG and PGI as we're not boaters, we're more beach people. So we were more focused on North Port, Englewood, Venice, Placida and Port Charlotte. It really didn't take much time for us to decide on Rotonda but we spent two weeks there in January and did a TON of online homework. We ruled out various areas for various reasons but it really didn't take long to filter things out. I guess different strokes for different folks.

[Old Gal]

After doing months of research I knew that Venice would be perfect for us. One trip down, bought a house and moved. We've been here for over a month and couldn't be happier with the location.

[03bluecoupe]

OH, sorry snowtired - I didn't thank you for your good wishes.

Thanks, we're stoked. Can't wait to get there. We figured we may as well move in during the most brutal time of the year for heat. May as well jump right in with both feet, right?

[snowtired14]

Originally Posted by 03bluecoupe

OH, sorry snowtired - I didn't thank you for your good wishes.

Thanks, we're stoked. Can't wait to get there. We figured we may as well move in during the most brutal time of the year for heat. May as well jump right in with both feet, right?

And before you get wet, don't forget to chill the margarita's.

[03bluecoupe]

Originally Posted by snowtired14

And before you get wet, don't forget to chill the margarita's.

LOL - dunno 'bout that but SWMBO has already acquired a dual temp wine storage fridge.