5 Must do's Before Moving to Florida

So, you're moving out here to Northwest Florida, and you're wondering, what do I need to do? I'm coming, man, I'm coming, what do I need to do to prepare myself or when I get here to this area? Well, in this video, we're going to go over the 5 must dos prior to moving out or as soon as you get here. So, stick around.

So, where is the Emerald Coast, where is Northwest Florida? Well, it's on the Panhandle of Florida. Yes. We go all the way out to Alabama. Right? Where some of us would call us lower Alabama in certain areas of our state. But the Emerald Coast, which is what we call the area from Pensacola, ish, all the way down to Panama City Beach. That's what we call the Emerald Coast. What do we normally known for out here? Well, No doubt, the beaches. That might be a reason that you are moving out here. Absolutely beautiful white sand, flanked by forests. This isn't really condo city out here with very few exceptions. It is absolutely gorgeous, white sand beaches, Emerald colored water, absolutely gorgeous. We also have some of the best fishing in the United States, and dare I say the world out here for good fishing, good boating, absolutely gorgeous. We're also known for our, the what we call the 30A region, which is that region around Grayton Beach, Alys Beach, all that area, probably one of the most affluent areas in Northwest Florida, and one of the most beautiful places that you can go to.

TOP 5 MUST DOS

Alright. So, let's get into the top five must dos as soon as you come out here.

1. Get a license and apply for a homestead exemption

Alright. So, if you are moving here, what I do suggest that you do is get a license and then apply for a homestead exemption. This homestead exemption is going to save you a ton on actual property taxes. And it's also going to make sure that your taxes can't actually go up at a higher rate than I believe 3% each year. So, it actually is going to cap that so that if you are going to stay and be a Floridian like the rest of us, that your taxes aren't going to get to a point to where you can't handle them year over year. One great part about being a Florida resident, is there's no state income tax. You lived in one of them states like California or New York, I'm originally from New York. It was just ridiculous how much that they were charging you. So, this is a great state where you can actually keep your money. Alright.

2. Throw out your winter gear

What I suggest is go ahead and throw out your winter gear. You're not going to need it. Well, maybe. It really just depends on how sensitive you are to the cold. I thought the same thing coming here to Northwest Florida is like, man, it's going to be 80 degrees year-round, it's going to be great. That wasn't quite the case. Now, it is gorgeous weather. It's nice and hot and humid, especially if you like that. All the way from the springtime, all the way to fall even into November, and sometimes even December it gets pretty warm. But, we do have a good 3-4 months where it does dip down to the 40's. And this seems like every four years, you know, even when the Olympics come around, we seem to get into the 20's for a couple of days, and then we'll shoot back up. So, we'll typically get around 40-50, so keep whatever clothes that you're going to need for that. We seem to develop Florida skin when we get here. So, the hot doesn't seem as hot, but the cold definitely seems cold. Alright.

3. Make friends with people with a boat

That's my biggest suggestion because, I mean, there's so much great boating to do out here. You've got Crab Island where it's a nice area to go. Set anchor, have fun with the family. If you'd like to go out and have a little party, there seems to always be one going out on Crab Island. You also have deep sea fishing. We got good snorkeling. They're putting artificial reefs everywhere. All sorts of great things. And I say, you find a friend with a boat. Because if you've ever owned a boat, it seems like it's just a money pit that you just keep throwing money in. And sometimes it floats and sometimes it doesn't. So, if you get to use somebody else, pay for the gas. Trust me, it's going to be a lot cheaper even if you paid for the entire trip yourself.  Alright.

4. Prepare yourself mentally for what we call seasonal traffic

Now, if you come from a place, it does have seasonal traffic even if you're coming from up north somewhere like Lake George, New York or something like that where they come in the summertime and you're just, it's kind of congested for a while and it's kind of annoying. This is a step up. This is Florida tourism. Okay? Florida tourism is worse because there's nowhere else for the traffic to go. The highway systems kind of suck here. There's no better way to put that. And it's because of the big bodies of water that we can't just go straight over to get to different places. So, there's not alternate routes or there's not a lot. And even if there are, it takes just as long to wait in traffic than it is to travel all the way around with no traffic. Yeah, unfortunately, that's the case. So, prepare yourself. Google maps, Waze, whatever that's going to give you an estimate based on the traffic on how to get there. Just know in the summertime, it may take you twice as long to get to the same destination than it would in the wintertime. So, prepare yourself mentally for that and for Floridian traffic, so us crazy drivers and all of our tourists that come in here that also are trying to compete with the crazy Florida drivers. If you're going to some place like Miami, good luck. I don't want to even drive there. Alright. But that's not Northwest, I don't know why I said that.

5. Be ready for kind of a diverse crowd

Alright. Number five that we're going to talk about is get also ready for kind of a diverse crowd. Something that's really interesting about Northwest Florida. One of the reasons I moved here was because of the very diverse crowd that we have. And I'm not saying anything specifically about diversity. I'm just saying, there's a lot of different type of people here. Let's kind of break it down. You have vacationers. One thing I love about vacationers is they're rarely angry. They're always happy because they're on vacation. Right? And they're having a good time, they're good people to bump into. If you're out, just even at a local bar or going down to Destin for in a crowded restaurant. Those people that are that are usually in a good time because they're relaxed, they're on vacation. Great people around. I like vacation Tim more than I like working Tim. It's just one of my things. Right? So, that's one great thing. Not only that, but here on the Emerald Coast, there's a lot of military bases. There's like five or six of them just in our area. And because of that, we got a good mix of military families all over the place. And, it’s really kind of nice because you get this kind of different take from everywhere. And it's just this culmination of culture that just kind of gets meshed up. Now, being a military guy for 14 years on active duty, this is something I got used to. So, I really enjoyed it when I was in active duty and it's nice to have that around. Of course, you're going to have your crazy Floridians. I mean, look up if you haven't seen florida man stories, look that up online, you'll enjoy that. But there's a good crazy locals. It's not too many of us or I'm not a true Floridian, but the people that actually hung around and stayed around Florida. It's a different kind of way of life, wearing flip flops all the time sort of feel. That's a great person to have around as well. And of course, you have transplants like me. Right? I'm originally from upstate New York and military brought me down here. I saw this area and I was like, this is where I want to have my life and my family to live down here and where I want my kids to grow up. Right? I actually heard this in one of the locals had said this one time. And it wasn't here in Florida, but I've heard it in Florida. But the first time I heard it was in South Carolina. And they're like, you know, we love you Yankee's for New York. We love you. Yankee's coming down and we'll just call you that when you're here. But when you stayed, we call you damn Yankee's. And I thought that was hilarious. So, I was like, yep, I guess I'm one of those damn Yankees. Because I just came down to stay. I call ourselves transplants. Call us whatever you want. We're loving life down here in Northwest Florida.

So, that's all I have for you for the 5 must dos when coming down here to Northwest Florida. If you have any questions about anything that I mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

Search for all Homes for sale on the Emerald Coast here.