Are you considering a move to Florida? I’ve been here for over 15 years now and I’ve learned a thing or two and so I wanted to give you some insight of what it’s like to be a resident of Florida.

It’s much more than just the palm trees, ocean and the Florida man stories that you see on the news. So no matter where you are moving to Florida from, here’s some insight that I think you will find to be true and helpful. The first thing to know is, almost no one is from Florida. Down here the common question is where are you from? And if that person says Florida, people want to know, where did you grow up? Usually it’s some State from the North and how long have you been here? Over the years, it’s been very interesting to see those responses. Now more than ever, people are really moving to Florida.

Now this one is a big one because people worry about the heat in the summers in Florida. It is said that your blood thins out over time and that this heat is not so bad. I actually think that that’s pretty true. Now, when you come down to Florida, especially in the summer months, you’re going to have high humidity, but we often get those afternoon rains to cool things down. We have a rainy season and then we have a dry season. So the winter months are a dry season and we can go four months without rain, six months without rain. In the rainy season, it absolutely can pour. The weird part about that is you can be going in a whiteout, driving on the highway, and then two seconds later, it will be perfectly sunny. One tip that I want to give you, if you do move to Florida, buy polarized sunglasses. A few reasons, number one, it’s very sunny here. The second thing is on those days, if you’re driving in very rainy conditions, those polarized sunglasses will help cut down on the glare and make your driving experience much safer and better.

Let’s talk about the wildlife and when you think of Florida, you think of alligators. That was a big concern for me when I moved down. You hear about alligators attacking people, and that certainly can happen, but it’s really rare. However, you need to keep your pets away from the water because smaller animals, those could be good food for the alligators. The next thing are lizards, they are everywhere. If you leave your doors open, you might get them in your house. I’ve got a 13 pound Morkie and she is a lizard hunter.

I also want to talk about the birds in Florida. So we have snowbirds that come down; those are humans that try to escape the snow, but we also have a lot of other birds that migrate South to Florida. Some of the very interesting ones are like the great blue Heron, which is a huge bird. They can stand over three feet tall. It’s just a really neat sight to see these exotic birds come to you in Florida. I’m going to talk about some of the other things that you would experience on a daily basis. Number one, the grass. I was used to very soft and cushy and fluffy grass up in the Midwest, and then come down here and we have this very hard type of grass. It’s called St. Augustine grass and it can withstand the heat, the drought and the heavy rains. But it’s not very nice to lay around in or walk around in. And the other reason that you don’t do that is because there can also be a lot of fire ants in Florida. So you want to watch out for those little dirt mounds, if you see those anywhere.

So we call things differently than other parts of the country. For example, a pond view is called a lake down here. So if you’re looking at real estate, you would then look for a lakefront home because that’s considered a Lake. The other thing is Hot tubs which are called spas in Florida. So if you’re looking at real estate down here, you want to understand some of that lingo, by the way, please subscribe. If you like this content, I put out a lot of other real estate related content and area related content. I would love for you to subscribe so it can help inspire me to make more content for you. Now, some of the things that I’ve mentioned in this video are debatable. This one, however, is not debatable. Pub subs are the best subs. So Publix, the main grocery chain in Southeastern, United States has the  best subs that you can get anywhere. I’m talking better than of course, Subway Jimmy John’s, they just cannot compete with what Publix offers for $5.99.

If you’re watching this video and you live here, I would love to hear in the comments what some of your expectations would be. I’m in Southwest Florida, but we have an extensive network of trusted real estate advisors around the State. I’d be happy to put you in touch with somebody who can help you out on a local level, because it’s really important that you get the information from somebody who’s knowledgeable in your area. 

I appreciate you watching. You have an amazing day and we’ll talk soon.

Brad Dohack | Gulf Pointe Properties | 239-839-1168 | Brad.HomeSearchinSWFlorida.com