Those who have moved to FL - How did you do it?

[arizonacolbys]

We've always thought it would be so nice to live in Florida. Away from the snow and someplace we would see the sun everyday.

Well, the more we think about it & talk about it - we really want to make this "dream" a reality. I know I've read about a lot of DISers moving down the the Sunshine State. How did you all do it?

Do you sell your home & move into an apartment/condo until you can find a house in FL? What about jobs? Is there a good way to search for jobs out of state? We would love any advice or info anyone could give us - this is definitely a longer-term plan (hopefully in the next 2-3 years, or so.)

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice!!!

 

[jacncaitsmom]

We moved 2 years ago from Savannah, GA. Now we were only 4 hours away, so my husband could come down and interview without having to fly. But he sent out resume's to every heating and air company in the area(or the big ones) and got quite a few responses. He interviewed and I searched the internet for the best school systems. We visited several times and drove all over the area. We lived in an apartment for 2 years before moving in a house. We got lucky though. The area we live in is perfect. Far enough from Disney that we don't get tourists, but we are still only 30 minutes away.

I have never been happier. I love Orlando. It was the best decision we have ever made. Good luck to you.

 

[beavismom]

Well, we just did this. We were building a house in our old town, but decided that it wasn't going to work for us. We were in a "funk" and decided to make a major change and Florida is what we decided.

Anyway, our house was already for sale and so we started the job hunt. Hubby posted his resume on Monster, HotJobs, and Dice and began looking for jobs. The major obstacle we ran into is that many openings wouldn't even consider you unless you are local. Nobody is paying to relocate you either. He ended up with a "contract to hire" job. He is having a lot more luck now that we are local. Things may be completely different in a couple of years though.

As for the actual move. Ours was unusual because we sold our house before we had the job down here in writing so we ended up putting everything in storage and moved into a hotel. When it came time to actually move we ended up using a company called City to City moving and they drop off the pods that you fill and then they move them for you. We chose this option because we could have just a couple of them delivered to our interim housing.

Housing... we lived in a hotel for a couple of weeks till we could find an apartment in a good school area. It was very close to the start of school so we jumped at the first place that met our needs. After we are more settled we will begin looking for a house. The biggest challenge to me was finding somewhere to live near good schools. I guess I am a little spoiled, but the schools here leave a lot to be desired in my book.

So, that is what we have done. Feel free to ask specific questions if you would like.

 

[laceemouse]

Well, we used to live and Florida and moved away 5 years ago. We miss it and would love to go back, but the type of work that DH does is more plentiful here, in NY, and the west coast. If you have a job that you can do anywhere you need to consider salary differences, if housing is less expensive jobs usually pay less. And one thing about the schools, much of the south has COUNTY WIDE school disticts, very different from up here. The huge school systems down there have so much diversity that you have to look at the individual schools. Look at High School ACT/SAT scores, how many AP courses they offer, etc. and then move backwards to find the best elementary schools which feed to that one. DH looks for jobs back in the south all the time and most will not pay relo so I guess we will just stay here for a while, my 2 oldest DD say they are going back to Florida for college though. Good luck in your decision...Lacee

 

[arizonacolbys]

Thank you all so much for the info & advice - please feel free to keep the info coming.

Well, we don't have any children yet, and are still probably a couple of years away from going down that road. My hubby is still finishing up his 4 year degree & is in the Ohio National Guard. We decided if we ever want to do this - now is the time - before starting a family & it becomes more difficult to uproot everyone.

We just started these discussions - so I guess everything is still very up in the air, but we are currently considering the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. Does anyone know how the job market is there? It seems like Orlando has really been booming over the last few years - are there more jobs in that region?

Any advice is greatly appreciated - thanks again for all the info!!!

 

[Feralpeg]

We moved to Orlando a little over two months ago. We came down on vacation a year ago and had a real estate agent show us around. I'd already done research over the internet as to the areas we wanted to see. We found a neighborhood we liked and contacted the builder. We had the builder send us floor plans and such. We signed the contract and began to build. They told us it would take six months from the time they broke ground. The house was done in a little less than six months. About two months after they broke ground, we flew done to visit their design center and pick out all of the interior details.

We put our house on the market in January. It sold at the end of April. Perfect timing. We didn't want to pay to move a lot of things, so we sold the vast majority of our furniture. We hired a truck and a friend drove it down for us. We also didn't want to drive our cars down. They were both about 5 years old and were large SUVs. We sold them in Kansas City. We flew down and stayed a couple of days at the AKL waiting for the truck to arrive. Since we left the refrigerator and washer/dryer with our old house, I went to Sears and purchased new ones before we left Kansas City. They delivered them to our new home in Orlando at the normal local delivery fee. I did the same thing with some of our furniture. I found a bedroom set that I liked at a store in Kansas City and made sure that they had the same store in Orlando. I bought the furniture in Kansas City and made arrangements for delivery the day after we moved in to our new home.

The trickest part for us was moving our pets. We ended up using a pet relocation service. We boarded the animals the day before we flew down at our vet in Kansas City. Three days after we arrived in Orlando, the pet relocation service picked our animals up from the vet in Kansas City and took them to the airport for their flight to Orlando. When our animals arrived in Orlando, the pet relocation service picked the animals up from the airport and delivered them to our new home. It worked out great! Expensive, but much easier than spending three days on the road with all those animals.

I don't know about the job market. I retired from my job last November, so finding work wasn't a problem.

Good luck with your move!

 

[Otimon]

We moved here from the Chicago area almost 7 years ago. Sold our home there, moved into an apartment there for 3 1/2 months while our home was being built here, and down we came.

My husband, daughter and I all work for the Mouse now and love every minute of it.

Before you make a decision, take a trip down and scout the different areas you might be interested in. A search on the internet will give you information on jobs and housing in the area.

Good luck.

 

[chrissyk]

We built our house in FL, closed on that, then sold the house here FSBO. We're closing on this house in Sept. and moving into an apt here for 6 months, so DH can tie up loose ends at his job. I'm self-employed, so my job wasn't an issue. DH wants to be an imagineer. Once DH gets an engineering/Imagineering job down there, I'll hopefully be able to start working on becoming a teacher

We can get by with just my income in FL. That's about it for our move...it wasn't all that complicated. Finding a house was the worst part. Once we decided on a town, it took 9 months of house-hunting long-distance before we gave up and decided to build. Then, building took longer than anticipated. Also, our house here sold faster than anticipated (hence the apt.). Overall, everything has worked out OK though.

 

[tenaseewalker]

Now that Hurricane Charley hit so close to home are you still happy with your move? I was really looking forward to retiring to the area around Disney (of coarse to work for Mickey) but then seeing how strong Charley was when it hit orlando, it kind of frightened me away from the idea now. I really love Florida, it's the hurricanes I'm not wild about. I was in Hurricane Andrew and that was not fun. I thought being in the orlando area would be safer but then Charley hit. I'm so Confused!

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by tenaseewalker
Now that Hurricane Charley hit so close to home are you still happy with your move? I was really looking forward to retiring to the area around Disney (of coarse to work for Mickey) but then seeing how strong Charley was when it hit orlando, it kind of frightened me away from the idea now. I really love Florida, it's the hurricanes I'm not wild about. I was in Hurricane Andrew and that was not fun. I thought being in the orlando area would be safer but then Charley hit. I'm so Confused!

Yes. Our property came through fine, with the exception of a small section of fence that got blown down. Charley was a rare storm for Central FL! My husband told me that the last storm that strong hit Central FL 40 years ago. Thos are pretty good odds! I'll take those odds any day over the danger of a horrible and deadly ice storm up here.

All winter, I worry about whether or not we have enough gas for the generator, or how many of our neighbors could fit into our house if we had a catastrophic ice storm. We are the only ones with a generator I worry about having enough food and drinking water put away in case we get trapped for a week in our house with no way to leave. During the last brutal ice-storm in Maine, people were without power for a month in the deadly part of winter. Trust me...I'm WAY more afraid of that scenario than I am of another hurricaine in Central FL.

 

[ziggystardust]

This is a great thread, and I'm finding it very informative. I'm also looking to relocate to FL preferably the Orlando area. And would be thrilled to work for the mouse! From what I hear, WDW doesn't pay the best (but I also live in NY so its completely different here), but can you live ok off of it. I mean if you are FT and all. Or would you need a 2nd job?

 

[tbee407]

BUMP

My wife and I have had this conversation more than once. It is nice to hear from those who have lived it.

 

[arizonacolbys]

Just wanted to thank everyone again for all the great info!!! Please keep it coming!

I'm getting very excited about this idea, even though it won't be in the works for at least a year from now. We're vacationing at WDW in Sept, but won't have a car. I think we'll just leave that trip as our vacation - we haven't had one since March '03. We are planning a weeklong trip in January to stay at WDW a few days & visit with my parents who are moving to Naples at the end of Dec. Our plan is to drive around the different areas & try to determine where we might like to end up. I'm assuming we'll be looking at an apartment at first - but, not sure how that search will go with our 2 dogs. I've seen a lot of weight limits at various apartments on-line. It does seem like more apartments allow pets than they do here locally. We've been living in a house for 3 1/2 years now & aren't sure how we'd like apartment life again.

Those that had houses built - how did you find out about them? Just by driving around? or online? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!!