What is comparable to Celebration?

[luvdsny]

I am planning this move over the course of a year so I haven't gotten to far into that yet.

Yes, that is exactly my plan as well. There are so many 'layers' to moving that I know if I don't start now I'll never be ready to go. What to keep and pack and move with us vs what to give away and what to try and sell. Then we need to paint out some 'vividly colored rooms' and replace all of the carpeting. When you're all home 24/7 there isn't a lot of time for these things. So if I work in baby steps, but progressive and persistent baby steps, LOL, I should be in a good place in about 9 months.

Trying to sell our house is going to be our biggest challenge.

Ugh, quarterly reporting would be a drag for sure. I hope it's annual. I'll have to delve into it a lot more as we progress.

Avalon Park is VERY promising.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? It's okay to tell me all of your secrets of favorite places, because we're a pretty cool family IMO. We are very much 'live and let live' kind of folks.

 

[safetymom]

It took me 10 months to get my house ready to sell. We had lived in it over 25 years.

I didn't have any idea where I wanted to live here in FL. I just knew I wanted to be close to the parks. We came for a vacation and read this newsletter. Decided to take a drive and loved the area. We are close to Disney but we can look out the back window and see cows grazing. Driving down the road is groves of oranges.

I had a little over a month to find a house in FL and move. I came down for a long weekend and looked at 30 houses. I bought house 25. Now living here for 4 years I love the area.

It was meant to be for us since everything went so smoothly. House prices shot up after I bought mine.

 

[luvdsny]

I'm not sure if anyone else feels this way or not, but there is something very reassuring just knowing that there are others out there who were either in the same boat at one time recently and/or are in the same boat now. It's not so lonely and daunting. Thanks everyone.

 

[cinderella73]

Well it seems a bit hard to find a home rental in Avalon Park. I dont want to go right down and buy . I was hoping on renting at first. I guess that is in part what makes some of the nice places nice. They are mostly lived in by homeowners. Its a bit scary to dive into buying without taking some time to check things out .

I talked with my husband and I guess we can be down as before the year is up. I was thinking it would take much longer. So now the pressure is on.

I guess I will keep a eye out for any Avalon Park house rentals in the meantime. If anyone knows of any please pm me a link or post it here .

Hope u are ok with me jumping in on your post luvdsny . But it makes more sense to keep this conversation going than start a new thread. Maybe if I get down there I can help you with area's and what is located where.

My mom is looking at moving back down as well . She is wanting to be near Jacksonville Naval Base though for my father . They are in the same situation with having to sell first so I see how much work it is. Its crazy! Thank god we are just renting here right now. But we still have all the other stuff to deal with like job transfers and so forth.

I have been spending so much time sitting here researching stuff that its making me crazy. I hate waiting! lol

 

[luvdsny]

I don't mind sharing this thread at all. You're right, it makes more sense to keep only one conversation going. Ask anything you want. We'll both just eavesdrop on each other.

 

[kerrynic78]

Well it seems a bit hard to find a home rental in Avalon Park. I dont want to go right down and buy . I was hoping on renting at first. I guess that is in part what makes some of the nice places nice. They are mostly lived in by homeowners. Its a bit scary to dive into buying without taking some time to check things out .

I talked with my husband and I guess we can be down as before the year is up. I was thinking it would take much longer. So now the pressure is on.

I guess I will keep a eye out for any Avalon Park house rentals in the meantime. If anyone knows of any please pm me a link or post it here .

Hope u are ok with me jumping in on your post luvdsny . But it makes more sense to keep this conversation going than start a new thread. Maybe if I get down there I can help you with area's and what is located where.

My mom is looking at moving back down as well . She is wanting to be near Jacksonville Naval Base though for my father . They are in the same situation with having to sell first so I see how much work it is. Its crazy! Thank god we are just renting here right now. But we still have all the other stuff to deal with like job transfers and so forth.

I have been spending so much time sitting here researching stuff that its making me crazy. I hate waiting! lol

When we moved down here, we rented a house while ours was being built. I rented through www.orlrent.com and found a home in Avalon to rent. We also looked at www.rentalhomesplus.com. Avalon Park also has their own realty group, www.avalonrealtygroup.com and they may be able to help you.

 

[cinderella73]

Kerrynic78 ~ Thanks a ton! I will go check out the links now. I did pull up some pics on google and it is very similar to Celebration . It looks like a really nice place to live.

I also found this site that listed off a few rentals in Avalon. I can get a nice rental house for around 1500 a month it seems. http://orlandorent.net/index.php?module=listings&page=view&id=55614&search_page=

I am going to go check out the other links now. Thanks!

 

[cinderella73]

I don't mind sharing this thread at all. You're right, it makes more sense to keep only one conversation going. Ask anything you want. We'll both just eavesdrop on each other.

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a plan. I am curious about the buying a home aspect as well. So I will be interested to see how your search goes as well. I am interested in what anyone has to say about any good area since everything is wide open at this point. I wish I lived closer so I could take a drive around. But since thats not happening its great to have everyone's input on what's nice or not so nice. Moving is such a huge thing to do from this distance with a big family. But it will be nice not to have to drive 45 minutes to a decent store or shovel my driveway anymore!

I wouldn't be as nervous if I wasn't always hearing about the crime. But I think everywhere is starting to get bad now. What can you do ? I guess that's why we have to do our homework.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[luvdsny]

Yeah, my DH and I will definitely consider renting first as well. We're trying to figure out a time to both fly over there and just drive around for a few days. October seems too far off at this point. LOL I'm getting too excited to wait that long. Patience might be a virtue but it's a challenge for me.

I'm going to check out those rental links as well. Thanks.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Another potential future WDW local here! I had plans to stay after I did my college program but things fell apart last minute. My friends and I had intentions of going home, regrouping, and coming back down. Schedules never quite worked out and I decided I couldn't put off going finishing college any longer and made the decision to finish school here THEN move. Well, I finished just in time for the peak of housing prices so that plan fell through.

I started a job last year that I love, in an industry that I had no real knowledge about and have decided that I'm going back to school to complete a program so I can go into a different area of the job. And looking at DOL stats, there is huge demand and FL is one of the states with biggest demands. So, add that to the decline in housing prices hitting central Florida and I think it may finally be time to move!!

I'm also looking in the same area. I want to stay southwest of Orlando, near Disney. I've been trying to research as much as I can, watching what's going on with the housing market so by the time I"m ready to move, I'll be ahead of the game.

I've been watching Craigslist, just to get an idea of what to expect in different areas. I've been reading the city-data forums to see which areas are recommended over others. And I'm STILL so confused! Windermere, Winter Park and Dr. Phillips are all highly rated but you don't get as much house for your money. People seem to shudder at the thought of Kissimmee/St. Cloud area. Davenport seems to get you a good bit of house but a lot of reviews say that a lot of Davenport is zoned for short term rentals so your neighbors may change weekly. Clermont gets decent reviews but people say just to spend the little bit more for the above mentioned Winter Park/Winderemere/Dr. Phillips homes.

SafetyMom, you say you're near Champion's Gate - I've seen some houses for decent prices but don't hear a lot about the area. I guess it gets overlooked with all the other cities in that part of Orlando. Know of any good sites with info about that area?

 

[luvdsny]

:::making my best train whistle::: ALL ABOARD! This party train is heading towards Orland, Florida...hop on if you hope to move that way in the near future. Welcome MyGoofy26. I've been looking in the same places as you and have pretty much figured out the same stuff. Interesting. I would like to find more about the St. Cloud area and Davenport. Also when I Google Champions Gate I get a lot of info. on the resort and golf course. I'm trying to find out more about the residential area. If anyone finds a good website, please post it here. Thanks.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Oh, here are the forums I've been looking at recently. Keep in mind that quite a few of the posters hate living in Florida and are quick to jump into every thread to complain.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/orlando/


But if you get past that, there is some helpful info posted.

 

[DisGal520]

SafetyMom and all on this thread.

When I come to Disney in May I have a day planned to look around Davenport. I had already planned looking at ChampionsGate for an apartment because it may take me a while to find a house. It will be a year-round house, not a snow-birder house.

Thanks for the links above. I too am getting away from the cold, snow and ice. My home is currently for sale and we need to be narrowing down the search for the right area in FL. Just know we want to be close to Disney of course.


Where do you do much of your shopping if you live in Davenport?


thanks
DisGal

 

[safetymom]

Keep in mind that the Davenport area is quite large. It stretches all the way up to Haines City. Yes there are communities that have a lot of short term rentals.

I personally live next to a short term rental. The house is kept up beautifully. We hardly ever know there is someone renting next door. I like it since it means I am not stuck with a nasty neighbor all the time.

I don't know of any websites that deal with this area but the local newspaper is the www.lakelandledger.com

When I first moved here there wasn't a mall around. Now they are building Posner Park so we don't have to drive as far to shop. Crime is low here. I can't tell you about the schools since I moved after my last one graduated.

 

[safetymom]

There is a small shopping center in Champions Gate. It has a Publix but they are building a new one up the road.

As I mentioned Posner Park is a new shopping center on 27. There are also 2 Wal Mart Super Centers on 27 and a Target.

 

[luvdsny]

and a Target.

When we had a Target come near to our town I thought I had died and gone straight to heaven. I figured I would never have to leave Eagle, Idaho again. LOL I have to avoid this store as much as possible because their marketing team is TARGETing me!!

 

[safetymom]

There are several Super Targets in the area.

 

[luvdsny]

There are several Super Targets in the area.

 

[luvdsny]

Okay, I think my DH and I will be taking our scouting trip in mid-August. I thought it would be a good time to go so I can get a good dose of the HEAT and HUMIDITY before making my final decision. Actually, the truth is that's the only time we could use our frequent flier miles to travel.

We're trying to make it a 'budget trip' so we tried to use his Hilton points for a stay at an off-site Hilton, but since it's still 'summer break' at that time that was a no go. And the few times that we could do it they wanted too many points. (those points will have greater value in HAWAII ) So we decided to just pay for the Hilton room. Duh. But as it turns out, it's going to be cheaper to stay at Pop Century so that's our plan now. Hmm, drive around by day, parks by night?? Sounds good to me!!

 

[mco-missy]

Hi!!

I live in Winter Springs, FL. Any questions I can answer for you?