move to Florida

I should be moving at the end of August. I am thrilled to be moving here. This will be good as the change of scenery and the different culture can add to my learning experiences of life. I have a multitude of plans for my home and as a welcome to Florida present my father is giving me a cat! :D

My husband and 2 children moved from Missouri to Texas for more business for the small janitorial company we own and as much as we HATE TX business was wonderful. The beginning of this year business has dropped so much we are struggling to put food on the table. I have always wanted to move to FL and we are really trying hard to make that happen but nobody is buying houses here so we are stuck. If anybody knows of gov help to move our janitorial business to FL please let me know otherwise I will get us there somehow, someday…Florida leave the light on for us.

We moved to Cali from Florida.. Ok everyone thinks oh wow Cali is so greeeaat! Florida sucks, etc! Not me! I love Florida! It is my home, I lived there for over 16 years and love it! We moved due to a job opportunity my hubby got in Santa Barbara.. I miss Florida so bad, the weather here is cold and foggy, and the people are the same as Floridians… We hope to go back in a year or so after the building industry takes off again! Fingers crossed!

I grew up there and moved away to see more of the United States. I want to go back. I love the climate and the people. I love the lifestyle. I have a plan to transfer within my job, and have started planting small seeds.

I have had a couple of goals in my life. One was to get my own place. I got my own place when I turned 21. Another was to Get a street bike. I have always wanted one since I was 16. did that mid 2007. I am now confident enough to progress with Goal list. The final goal I have for this chap. of my life is to move next to the beach. I want to live there for at least a year. I can’t imagine how happy I would be to wake up in my place. Get a cup of joe, and look out at the ocean. It is only in my dreams I see this and would be the ultimate reality. I am also open to meeting people and in luck find someone I can relate to and be with. Possibly find a roomate to split rent with and just enjoy each others company. Mike

I have TONS of Family in Florida so im down there pretty often.
Right now I live in Wisconsin, and i can pretty much say I HATE IT.
It’s always cold, its boring, everyone here is the same. Blahh. I think Florida is for some people and not for others. I love it. i love the heat and humidity, the ocean, everythings close you dont have to drive 100 miles to get gas or something. The Night life is amazing, and i have a weird little obsession with palm trees =]
I’ve also met some of the nicest people in florida. Hopefully soon i can get out of this crapy place and finally be happy in florida.

this whole goal thing is new to me but yesterday i was so upset i had to do something to make my mind go forward and i found this goal site and my god it is what i need! people helping people for no other reason besides cheering them on. i need to move from where i live, which is on cape cod, ma. i have lived here my whole short meaningless life. ( 19 is young, i no. but time to start!)i went to florida earlier this year, and as the plane was landing in Fort Lauderdale, i looked out the window saw florida for the first time in my life and felt home. sadley, the reason i was traveling to florida (key largo) was due to the death of my grandmother, who thru no fault of my own i had little contact with of what i can rememember. one of the things my mother told me my grandmother said often was out of her three daughters, she imagined i would be the one to show up on her houseboat and say “im here”....i regret not doing that. i would bet my last dollar her and i had a lot in common. i want to be there. i dont no why and i dont how im going to make it happen. if anyone has ANY advice, anything pertaining good locations, affordable houseing, good areas. i would love it. what i have to remember is this feeling that slips in and out, this feeling of dis satisfacation. i need advice but i have determination!!

Do not move here. You will regret it.

Property taxes are extremely high.
English is almost the second language here.
No scenery, everything is flat.
No seasons at all
To hot to enjoy the outdoors
Companies pay cheap
Cost of living is expensive
No culture
No history
Educational system is the worst (Majority of public schools are “F” rated)
Bad traffic (can’t blame that on tourist either, it the locals that do not know how to drive. The locals drive on the left lane under the posted speed limit , they do not know that the left lane is a passing lane for cars and the center lane is a passing lane for trucks, also they allow trucks in the left lane, and then they(city and state officials) cant figure out why traffic is always backed up. The timing of traffic lights are off, there is no logic in the way they have them running).
Nothing to do here.
Tons of bugs
House prices are outrageous (Homes are not affordable)
Bad crime rate in the state per capital
H.O.A (Home Owners Association)

Those are just some of the reasons not to come. Yes it is sunny 90% of the time, but it is to HOT to go out and enjoy the out doors, and if you sweet it out, then you have to deal with all kinds of critters out doors.
I am afraid to take my 8 year old son to a lake and show him how to fish (Gators are in every lake) I am afraid to go camping with my family too. (Snakes are all over, you’ll walk out your front door and one will be sitting on the porch).
The thunderstorms will take your power out and don’t expect it on anytime soon.

Florida is not a state to raise your children or a state to move to for employment. It is a state to retire in. That’s it, nothing more nothing less.

Hello everyone,
I just want to say that if you want to move to Florida…..Don’t!
It will be the biggest mistake in your life no matter where you live now.
I can not post all the negatives of this state but will post both negative and positives.
By the way, I am from Connecticut and currently live in Orlando, Florida. (9years here)

First the positives:
Hum……I can not think of any. Maybe someone can help me out.

Now the negatives:
The weather really stinks here. Yeah sure it is sunny 90% of the time but there is a bad side to that.
1. skin cancer
2. too hot to do anything outdoors (honestly)
3. the weather is to unpredictable (Sunny one min. then raining the next)
4. To humid
5. No seasons
6. Nothing to do
7. No culture
8. No history
9. Poor school system

The people here really are stupid, no wait, that’s an under statement.
There is no logic in anything that they do and I am talking about everything from the way they do construction all the way to Tallahassee. (The Governors Palace)
The Floridians are so dumb, that they do not even know why people move here from up north as well as from all over. Let me tell you why. We move here because it is easy to start a business and get you Floridians to work for us really cheap and make us a fortune.
For example:
If I wanted to open up a sandwich shop in the Tri-State area the people that I would have to hire is not going to take slave labor wages and they are going to want benefits too. But if I open the same sandwich shop in Florida, it is easy to pay Floridians slave labor wages. (All Floridians consider $8.00 and hour a good paying job) The reason why Floridians think that $ 8 dollars an hour is good is because they are use to working in the Groves (Orange groves) picking oranges for 10 hours a day in the hot sun and only make $35 dollars a day.
To proof is there. Look at the job turn over rate here compared to a place up north. Up north, people stay on a job/career for 30 plus years. Down here in Florida, people change jobs as much as they change their underwear. The reason is because every company down here pays around 8 dollars an hour. It does not matter where you work here. You could work for the city as a dump truck driver and only make 8 dollars and hour, all the way from a warehouse worker to a Host at Disney; you are going to make 8 dollars and hour. If you have skills, and become an EMT, Firefighter, Policeman, Teacher ….well you get the point, (a degree) you will make more. ($12 to $17 an hour). My children’s mom has her PhD. and teaches at a middle school and only makes 35,000 a year. I have a BS and only make $32,000 a year. Now I know everyone wants to say that the cost of living is cheaper down here, but the truth is that it isn’t.
For example:
We have a small 3 bedroom 2 bath house (1200 sq feet) and our electric bill is running at $335 to $350 a month. Up in Connecticut I had a $35 dollar a month bill, which now my sister (who still live in CT) she said that here electric bill runs around $75 to $85 a month. Now I know the next question that’s going to run out of your mouth. And you’re wrong on that too. You are going to try and justify that you don’t have a heating bill like up north. Well for all of you that don’t know, the Florida electric bill is the same all year round, because in Florida when it cools down (Jan) you use heat. Up north, depends on what you have for heating. I had both oil and gas heat at the places that I lived at up there and gas was much cheaper. Now days it cost about $350 a month to heat a house up north with oil and about 250 a month for gas. But if you do the math you will see that a 12 month Florida electric bill will cost more then a 12 month heat and electric bill up north.
There are neighborhoods in Orlando Florida that have bungalows still. Red Necks and Hillbillies are what Florida is made out of. And all they care about is there double wide trailer and their beer.
Food cost the same, cloths cost the same and pretty much everything else cost the same.
Now real estate is not even close. Down here the house cost more for what you get. An old friend of mine bought a 3 bed 2 bath 2 car garage that was 990 square feet. His yard was really small (two passes with the mower and the back yard was cut) he brought the house for $90,000 in 1996 and sold it in 2006 for $190,000. This is just an example of people saying. Wow! A 3 bed 2 baths for only 90k without seeing what you got. They don’t look at the lot size or house size, they just say 3/2/2 $90k Awesome. When up north in a good neighborhood a 3/3/2 was $135,000 but here is the difference. Florida has no basements up north does, they don’t put baseboards or trim around any of the doors widows etc. here in Florida, and if they do it is a cheep glued up vinyl baseboard. Up north there is wood trim around windows and doors and most houses up north have wood baseboards as well. Florida neighborhoods have H.O.A and for those of you Yankees that don’t know what that is, it’s another bill. A Home Owns Association basically tells you what you can do and not do to your house. And if you buy a house with a HOA then you have to follow their rules.
Foe example:
The house that I used to live in had a HOA when I first moved her to Florida ($1200 a year for dues) and I went out and bought a brand new front door with an oval window in the center of it. The HOA said that I have to take it down because it adds value to my house and makes the other house look cheaper; they want to keep everything the same. Another thing, I got a good deal for roofing materials and could not get my roof done because the HOA says that all the house in this development have to have gray tiles and the ones that I was going to get were rust color. The HOA tells you that you can not leave your garage door open unless you are in the front yard, you can not put your trash cans on the side of your house, and they have to be out of view from the street. You can not mow your lawn after 5pm or before 9am. Those are just some of the rule that are in a HOA. And the yearly dues for a HOA very, it depends in the area and value of your house. It could run from $600 a year to $5000 a year. As I said before, I live in Orlando and they have toll roads here. I spend $50 a month on toll roads going to and from work; my buddy spends $90 a month. (That’s another expense) The water bill is a lot more here too; you have to water you lawn or it will die in a couple of days and have your property looking like garbage. I use to do about 12,000 miles a year on my car up north, down here everything is spaced out and far to get to. Orlando is as big as the whole state of Connecticut and is bigger then Rhode Island. I do about 21,000 mile a year here in Florida. It takes me 40 mins to get to work and a little over an hour getting home. Up north I only had a 12 min to and 12 min from work commute. So what does that tell you? Well you will need more oil changes if you do it every 3000 miles, you will wear your tires out quicker and need new ones sooner, and yes, you spend double the amount on gas or fuel a year in your car here then up north. So if you sat and ran the numbers you would see that it cost more down here then up there. And the bad thing about it is that they pay more up north then here (Double and even triple the amount). By the way, the city job as a dump truck driver, well my buddy gets $8.75 an hour; he’s been there for 7 years. That is a shame when a grown man only makes 8 an hour. While another buddy of mine works for the city of Branford (CT) and make $36 and hour and triple time if he has to come in and plow the roads when it snows. He also has t been there for 20 years now.

I wish I can go on, but it is hard to explain it on paper.
And you are wondering why don’t I move? Well its simple, my kid’s mom is from here and she does not want to move, and there is no way that I can just leave without my children. I am however making progress at convincing her to make a change.
I didn’t even get to tell you about the poor, well crappy school system that they have here. That will have to be for another time. But in the mean time, please do not move here, you will regret it unless you open up your own business and make money off of these fools.

We have an appointment with our real estate agent tomarrow, We’ll get to see how much our house is worth and what our next step will be, This is finally starting to seem real and acheivable.