After the relocation... (Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor: car rental, 2014, rentals)

[coltsgirl8]

I hesitate to post yet another relocation thread but I'm curious. I too was just given a really fantastic opportunity to work on the USF campus. I will be starting in mid October, so I'm getting my ducks in a row now for a move to the tampa area from Indianapolis.

This forum is filled with "I'm relocating to xxx, heres what I want, any suggestions?" threads, but I have yet to see anything that is "I've relocated, here has been my experience".

Does anyone care to share experiences of relocation...this is my first time doing such, I'm pretty overwhelmed with possibility. There seems to be quite a lot of relocators on these boards...like most of you, the beaches and weather are a plus for me. 2 years ago I walked around in waist high snow and didn't see grass for 2 solid months. One year ago I was in temperatures for a month straight of negative 20. The older I get the more I long for nice weather

So please...if you have a post relocation story or experience (or any tips too of course), I'd love to hear them.

Thanks so much in advance!

[cjrudy]

As a very recent re-locator I will give you my story, for what its worth.

My wife and I have been coming to Florida, particularly the Gulf side for 20 years and from day one decided at some point we were going to relocate. Two years ago my daughter starting talking about college, first that she wanted to go away to school and soon after that she wanted to go to school in Florida. After 40 years of cold and snow in Buffalo my wife and I decided this was the time. We spent about a year and a half researching, planning and executing. A very important part of our equation was my wife finding a job, that happened in February and after that is was a full on press to complete the relocation by July. We have been down here together as a family for two weeks and we love it.

The most important part of our relocation was the research and planning, if you do it right it can be a very smooth and enjoyable experience.

Hope that helps

[dothetwist]

We needed to relocate to the East Coast (from AZ and Central MX; owned homes in both) to deal with an elderly parent. We are both retired.

We wanted to buy a house, not rent. It needed to be within a 30 minute drive of TPA and with good walkability (to eateries, the waterfront, shopping). We hate suburbs, so we were looking for a small city/town.

We researched on-line and narrowed our search to 4 places (Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Safety Harbor and Gulfport).

We booked our first reconnaissance mission for a week in the spring of 2013; we saw all the above places and ruled one out. We returned in the fall of 2013 for a month, renting via VRBO, vacation rentals in the downtown areas of the 3 cities we were still interested in, we rented in the exact area (walkable) where we knew we would eventually buy.

After that hands-on experience we were hooked on the historic area of Gulfport. So we came back in Jan. 2014, rented VRBO's in Gulfport for 2 months, expecting to buy in that timeframe. Alas, the inventory was low and no houses met our criteria. So we extended our stay into March and luckily our dream house came on the market just as we were about to depart for our home in AZ. We bought the house, returned to AZ to pack and moved here permanently in late April 2014.

It wasn't a cheap relocation in that we spent a lot of money on very nice short term vacation rentals in the high season, lots of airfares (including pricey 'change' fees when we extended our trip) and extended car rentals.

But in the end it was the right way to do this for us. We got exactly what we wanted and have no regrets.

You are on a much tighter schedule!

[Snoogler]

We left the DC area due to COL and wanting to try something new. 5 years later we're still here and planning our eventual exit. FL's been a nice detour, but it's nearing time to find a more permanent home. I've never really felt "at home" here. Sadly, it looks like it may still be several years away.