Tell me why I shouldn't move to Florida (Sarasota, Venice: rental, homeowners insurance)

[Cardiff by the Sea]

I am going to provide you a little elaboration on some of the hazards SoFl Girl mentions. As a newcomer to Sarasota, I have posted threads about my experiences with bugs and snakes. Here they are:


//www.city-data.com/forum/saras...es-galore.html

//www.city-data.com/forum/saras...sota-yard.html


Here is an incident that illustrates the danger of lightning. We are currently renting an apartment while our house is being built. Our landlord is an estate attorney. We were quizzing him about the name of his firm as one of the names in the firm is not currently practicing there. That is because he is dead. He was walking on Venice beach under a sunny sky with his family and a bolt of lightning travelled 2-3 miles horizontally down the beach and struck him dead.

[Old Gal]

Cardiff, I can appreciate your experiences and commiserate. My current home has had the same issues and they get dealt with. Pretty common in Texas and even in the city. Termites, fire ants, palmetto bugs, possums, raccoons, coyotes (we have a pack that hangs out just behind our privacy fence periodically). I think about the only thing Florida has that we don't have here are no see ems and gators.

[Sunshine Rules]

When you move to FL you will learn about love bugs. They are actually a type of fly. They don't bite, sting or harm people. What they do is mate, you'll see a male and female flying around attached to each other. Actually you'll see lots of them flying, they tend to swarm together. As I said, they don't harm people but they can harm the paint on your car (they are acidic) if you don't wash them off on a daily basis when they are swarming, which is typically April - May and again in August - September. The local car washes become very popular during love bug season. Love bugs are most noticable in the morning and then again just before sunset.



Regarding the relocation question. I was a transplant from the midwest 30+ years ago. My husband had family in Sarasota and my husband had lived in Sarasota previously, so my transition was easier in that respect. I think it is more difficult to make a successful move here if all of your family and friends are located in another state. You miss out on a lot of the day to day things involving friends & family that you took for granted. For some people the positives of the warm sunny weather here outweighs the negatives of moving away from family and friends, for others it does not.

Most of the people I've met that have relocated from somewhere else and are happy here in the Sarasota area made the move because (a) they already had family here, (b) they had been coming here for a number of vacations and knew the positives and negatives of our area before they moved or (c) they did extensive research accompanied by multiple visits to the area before moving so were also familiar with the pluses and minuses before making the move. That's why many (myself included) suggest if you are not familiar with our area before you move, it's a good idea to rent before making the commitment to buy. What looks good on paper may not necessarily work for you in reality.

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by Old Gal

craigiri, that is nice to know. I was having difficulty imagining the gun range thing in a regular residential neighborhood on a standard sized lot.

I think most people with common sense understand that a gun-range in a regular residential neighborhood on a standard sized lot would be inappropriate. However it would be perfectly legal for anyone to do it if they wanted to. The law doesn't prohibit this from being "in-town". There is also the possibility that you check on all of your neighbors before you move here -and then some of them have a change of heart - or some move away and somebody new moves in. As long as we have a corrupt governor that is bought and paid for by the NRA the law is unlikely to get changed.

[UKWildcat1981]

Florida's heat and humidity gives me a headache, I would only move to Florida for their winters. Love to visit to Florida but not to live.

[Not_liking_FL]

This is a great thread with a lot of good info. I've mentioned a lot of the same short comings of Florida over the years and get blasted for it almost every time.

Some other problems with the shady/trashy people are the bizarre crimes and weird news. Florida is kind of the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to this. I also seem to see a lot more horrible stories about animal abuse than I do in other areas. I don't know why this is, but it is something that I've observed.

[Who Dat]

I only read a few of the posts in this thread, so I might be off but here it goes anyway.

The best thing about Florida in my opinion is the lack of severe cold weather. It never gets overly hot, although you might be uncomfortable in the humidity that accompanies 95+ degree weather days, it ain't killing many people like it does up north.

The people and communities are...well, populated with people. Wherever they are there are generally problems.

With the weather, lack of state income tax, low property taxes and a good deal of day light and sunshine it makes for a pretty good spot. These things are probably the most common positive traits a community can offer. Beyond that, it's finding the right vibe, in a decent location near to what you want with an agreeable group of people.

My neighbors who are an older (75+) couple from Wisconsin who come down each October and stay through the end of May. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were running a landscaping sweat shop next door as they're always outside working in the yard/garden or on the golf course. I asked them once, "Why don't y'all pay someone to do that?"

Their response was, "That's the reason we bought here, so we could do it. It helps us keep active and stimulates the brain."

As an aside, there are a multitude of nationalities in Florida, so an occasional experimental dinner or food festival isn't to far away. Heck you never know, you might find something you like.

I say "bienvenidos, mabuhay, Vilkommen, welcome" to the Sunshine State.

[kiggy]

Not really a reason not to come to Florida, but I would STRONGLY suggest that you do not buy any property sight unseen. By you. Meaning, don't buy unless you have been down here, looked at the property and adjoining neighborhood, preferably at different times of the year. You'll have a much better idea of what you're buying and won't have a lot of buyers' remorse.

[Old Gal]

Sunshine, I totally agree that what looks good on paper may not necessarily work in reality. I also may not be able to find a home the size I want in a neighborhood that I will be happy with. I think this concerns me as much if not more than anything. As far as family, about all we have left is husband's family and we already live a long way away from them and the majority of our good friends are no longer in the area so we pretty much stay in contact via telephone, email. If I had close family in the area I would have reservations about moving.

A very serious driving force is that I have had two back surgeries and I really would like to live in a more temperate climate because as long as it's warm I'm not in near the pain. For whatever reason, winters here have gotten worse and are longer or maybe I've just gotten older and don't deal well because of my back. So it is kind of a quality of life issue for me besides just the beach, etc.

[Old Gal]

Who Dat, when my husband decided to retire I told him we were moving somewhere with a more temperate climate. His response was, no state income tax - he used to live in SoCal. Well, the Texas coast is out because a) property anywhere near the coast is a lot more expensive than Florida and then you still have to contend with high property taxes and high cost of insurance here in Texas. So Florida kind of made it by default - no offense because I have absolutely no doubt that there are a lot of really nice people in Florida particularly if this forum in any indication. I know that you also have what are referred to in Texas terms as rednecks - we have a lot of those too - and some of them are really nice people. At least it appears that Florida and the Venice area have the vast majority of what we are looking for. We have stayed in N. Texas because of family and good jobs.