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I don't know how helpful my response will be but a realtor told me that we'd have to leave the AC on in any house we bought in Fla even if we weren't there because of the high humidity and the possibility of mold. That's an added expense if you're not even living in the house.
We leave the AC on full time in the FL house set a little higher than normal.
you need to for the humidity as stated.
Our son lives 2 miles from our FL house for back up and we have a retired FBI neighbor who keeps an eye on our house in NY when we are gone and when we are there. We try not to use or abuse them and they give us piece of mind.
AC is kept at a high temp in FL in the summer and the heat is kept low in NY during the winter. Home insurance companies are aware of our absences, I had been told some companies may charge more, but that wasn't true for us.
We have wifi thermostats at both places with wifi outlets and switches that can be remotely accessed. Security camera/system in FL and cameras only in NY, so Internet costs at both locations. These allow us to be somewhat independent.
We pay for cutting the grass in both places as needed and our neighbor has our snow blower for his use and keeps the walkway to our front door clear in case someone needs to get in.
We drive back and forth as we have pets. DH has thousands of hotel room points from work, so we stay in a Doubletree suite coming and going, but pay a $50 non refundable pet deposit each time.
We made FL our primary residence since we are there longer. DH is still working so the no income tax is significant. NY wants paid for any day he works while in the state. He takes more vacation time while we are there and he travels, so the days are minimal. Only homesteading in FL or STAR in NY can be claimed, not both for property tax.
We have to write a letter to get a break on our garbage collection fee in NY while we are gone, the board needs to approve it. It's a rubber stamp type thing and we need to be gone >60 days to get it. Garbage collection is in our ad valorem taxes in FL, so no break there.
We have our mail forwarded for six months and has to be done again after that time period. We bank and pay bills online so there is very little that gets forwarded. Magazines are hit and miss with forwarding, so I dropped the one I had. The NY mailman continues to stuff our box with junk mail after we leave so we made it easy for him this year and removed the mailbox from our house to help him out. The FL PO has no problem stopping everything.
It's obviously expensive to own two homes with upkeep and maintenance. The cost is not much more than if we wanted to rent up north in the summer. Rentals are harder to find there and pets usually make rentals problematic.
We are doing a slow move. The first couple of years in FL I felt like I was camping: I was always missing something I knew I had in NY. This last time in NY, I realized that had changed as more things have migrated to FL. We didn't pack up our life in NY and move it all to FL. We've had the time to not have regrets about tossing or keeping anything and to realize how little we are attached to.
DH is working four more years to FRA and we will pare down to one place. My nature is to be monogamous and houses are included. DH's ability and desire to keep up maintenance on two places will lessen and be increasingly hired out; tipping the scale on expenses. It's been an interesting adventure so far and has given us time to make important decisions.
Anyone here have homes in Michigan and Florida?
Wondering how you work it out. I transplanted myself from Michigan to Florida 40 some years ago. I bought my house in Florida (Space Coast) 9 years ago just before getting married to my long lost girl friend from Michigan, then brought her down here to live. (Reconnected after no contact for 30 yrs., - long story but to steal a quote: sometimes the love of your life comes after the biggest mistake of your life.)
She owns an old house in a very small Michigan town and we've always talked about spending at least some of the hotter months up there and returning here when it cools off. [Her MI home is paid for, just taxes and ins. Our FL house... I'll be paying mtg until I'm 88]
Tomorrow it will be one year since my last day of employment and so far we have not made the trip. We were really hoping to make it a reality this year...we've had a few set-backs and now here's summer and we're finding that logistics are mind boggling.
Most posts and forums that I see related to "Snow Birds" seem to involve Motor Homes or rentals in Florida and maintaining the main home in MI. Can't find much about 2 actual homes.... I'm not even really sure what I'm asking here. Any suggestions - tips?
I just don't know where to start..
Although the forum Talk of the Villages is focused on The Villages retirement community in central Florida, many of this forum's posters are snowbirds who own homes in this community as well as homes elsewhere and split their time between their two residences and you will find many threads on this site that involve much of the info you are seeking.
I like the Sun Bird term, which is actually what we would be. I've been here for over 30 years and retired from my job here, so this is our permanent residence. While 6 months in MI and 6 in FL sounds nice, I really don't see that happening. Michigan would be more of a visit of a few weeks or so..maybe even a couple times a year, not a half and half thing.
Also, the small pension I get is from my FL employment, so no tax implications there. My wife gets a little from her IRA from money earned in Michigan, but she set it up using the FL address right from the start.
Someone here made a comment that if you can afford two homes, you can afford the taxes. True, but who ever said I could afford any of this?? That's kinda why I'm looking for advice...and I'm getting a lot here. Mostly good.
Why are logistics mind-boggling? Hire a yard service, put the utilities on auto-pay from the bank, put a hold on mail and papers, stick one car in the garage and go. You're not moving, just going on vacation. All you need to pack is a suitcase. If you need pots and pans when you get there, hit thrift stores.
I don't know how helpful my response will be but a realtor told me that we'd have to leave the AC on in any house we bought in Fla even if we weren't there because of the high humidity and the possibility of mold. That's an added expense if you're not even living in the house.
AC is cheap in a well insulated house. You can turn off the water heater, which is where most of the electric bill goes. You can set the AC to 80 or 85 in an unoccupied house and as long as it runs for an hour a day it will pull the humidity down.
Why are logistics mind-boggling? Hire a yard service, put the utilities on auto-pay from the bank, put a hold on mail and papers, stick one car in the garage and go. You're not moving, just going on vacation. All you need to pack is a suitcase. If you need pots and pans when you get there, hit thrift stores.
Yeah, I've considered all this for after we decide what we really want to do, but there's more to the story that I haven't mentioned.. My wife's house is roughly 120 years old. While she lived in it right up until we got married in '07, it hasn't been lived in since. We were up in '09 for 2 weeks, but couldn't really couldn't stay in it because the basement had flooded in the early spring and the entire house was musty. Wife's brother owns an apt. house next door, so he's there every day, he keeps the electric and gas on (though prior arrangement with my wife) but we recently found out that the water's been turned off for 2 years...
So. the first trip up will pretty much be to asses the situation and take it from there. In the mean time, I'm trying to get as much advice as I can. Honestly, it's starting to look "iffy" at best.
We moved to FL in 1972, I was working and the kids, 9&11 were in school. Snowbirding was not an option. We found that after a couple of years we were totally acclimatized. Summer was the beach season and we took vacations up in the Smokey mountains. The rest of the year was sailboat season.
A lot of snowbirds that own two homes buy their license plates where they are cheapest. I have never heard of anyone checking.
We moved to FL in 1972, I was working and the kids, 9&11 were in school. Snowbirding was not an option. We found that after a couple of years we were totally acclimatized. Summer was the beach season and we took vacations up in the Smokey mountains. The rest of the year was sailboat season.
A lot of snowbirds that own two homes buy their license plates where they are cheapest. I have never heard of anyone checking.
My vehicles are registered in Alaska not only because it's my home, but because it's required under state law and is one of the ways you prove you are a resident of Alaska. Other states may have different laws.
Actually, Florida law states that if you're in the state more than 90 days - are employed in the state (by a Florida employer) or have kids registered in school, you must have a Florida driver's license. Not sure about vehicle license tags tho'.
I don't think they enforce the law as much as they used to, but I also originally came here in '72 and in early '73 I was stopped at an FHP road block while driving a loaded dump trunk with a Michigan driver's license.. I asked the officer how much the fine would be..he said $17.50 court cost plus up to $500 fine. I asked him what would determine the amount of the fine and he said "attitude, mostly". I turned into the most polite little hippie you might ever see.."thankyou, sir. have a nice day sir" etc. I took the afternoon off, got my FL chauffeur's license the same day..Got to court, judge asked how I plead, said guilty. He asked me if I now had the FL license and asked to see it. He saw that the license was issued the same day as the ticket and dropped the charges. The irony is that two weeks later I packed up and moved to California. Came back to FL in '85, been here since.
Sorry about the soliloquies, this was supposed to be me looking for Sunbird advice.. I got off on a tangent.
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