Living in Florida is Nothing Like You Expected

Are you one of the many people that dream about living here in Florida and just think that life is just going to be so perfect living here in the sunshine state? We'll, just pump your brakes just for a moment because you want to also think about how living in Florida is possibly nothing like you expected. So, hang tight, I'll explain more in just a minute.

Alright. So, how's living in Florida nothing like you expected.

WEATHER

Well, first, I'm going to touch on how the weather rolls out here in Florida. Let me start by talking about the heat and the humidity. Of course, we do have our hot summer days here in Florida. However, that heat also comes with humidity, especially during the summertime when it's a rainy season too, the rain will bring in that dreaded humid weather. You might look at the weather in the morning and just see, oh, it's only going to be 80 degrees today, that's perfect, not too hot not too cold it's just right to spend a few hours outside. However, when it's humid, that 80 degrees can quickly feel like 90 to 95 degrees. If not hotter, you could just be standing outside for like 5 minutes and just be pouring with sweat, just for no reason you feel like. And, it's hard for girls to even just stay cute out there in the humid weather. Their makeup might start running, their hair will just pop up, or maybe that's just me. I'm still experimenting with the right products for my hair to even handle this crazy humidity out here in Florida. So, just know that even though we do have lots of sunshine, humidity makes it a little bit more miserable, especially if it's really, really bad. And, you just feel like you can't even sit outside that long because you're just feel like you're just being smothered, not just with the sunshine, but with that humidity that's just making your skin just really feel icky. And you're just sweating again for no reason even if you're you're not even moving around. You're not playing any sports, you're not walking around downtown or the parks. You're just pretty much sitting there maybe on your back porch having a cup of coffee and just start sweating because it's just that humid. So, just be prepared if you're not aware of that or if you live in a state where humidity is not an issue. It probably will be when you're living here in Florida. Now, you also want to be prepared for the sudden rain showers that we get here in Florida. Whether we expect them or not, we we do know that even if the weather says there's a 20 or 30% chance of rain. You might actually get that for maybe 2 minutes out of the day if you're maybe across the street, but maybe you won't exactly catch some of that rain right on the other side of the road. It's just that crazy here in Florida how that works. You could be driving down the road and you can see literally, see the rain cloud down the road, a mile or so ahead and just prepare yourself to run drive right through it. Or, you can just run into a grocery store when it's you know, nice and shining bright outside and you come out and all of a sudden just pouring rain. And you weren't prepared, you didn't have an umbrella, you don't have anything to cover your head and you have no choice but to just run to your car holding your groceries and just getting soaking wet. However, that's just how it rolls here in Florida. If you do see the weather, it says, oh, there's 50, 60% chance of rain, don't let that ruin your plans for the day. If you have some plans to be outside, if you have plans to go to the park or just have some activities planned. Maybe a festival, maybe that's your plan on going to, and you just think that it's going to be canceled because there's some rain chances. Don't even worry about it. If it rains, it's just passing through, it won't take that long most likely unless we do have a storm rolling through. Maybe it's hurricane season, and we're going to expect some rain for a few days. And then, you might want to plan some indoor activities instead. But, yes, just be prepared for the sudden rain showers that like to stroll on here, stroll on through our skies in Florida.

Now, in the fall and winter time, it does still get a little chilly here in Florida. It might not be like what it is up north where we have snow. Or, you know, the roads will freeze over. There has been a couple times over the past few years where it did get a little icy outside. However, it's not too often we experience that especially in the last year. I felt like we just had a pretty warm winter. The temperatures maybe a couple times did drop to the 30's or below 40's. But, I'm sure that's nothing for some of you guys that are are used to living through snowstorms. The weather here, it's pretty great. We still have a lot of snowbirds, a lot of people vacationing here during the fall and winter. The winter time frame, people that are snowbirds, they come and actually stay here for a few months during the winter months just to get away from their colder weather to enjoy our colder weather, which could be in the 60's, 50's, or even in the 70's during the winter. Right now, January and February 2022, the weather seemed to be great. We did have our cooler nights, but I don't even think we even used our fire pit this winter season. We probably did once, that was in November time frame. But, we usually like to just sit outside and enjoy the fire pits when it's like really, really cold and we want to bundle up, get some marshmallows out. But, we didn't really enjoy that much because it didn't feel like it just didn't get cold enough. But, there's also times where it would be chilly out in the morning. You feel like you do need to put on a coat but you can still walk the beach and be comfortable. So, I did see a lot of people out there still enjoying the beach even on the days where the temperature was 50 degrees. Again, it doesn't change the way people feel about being on the beach. They like the sound of the waves, their feet in the sand. However, the colder times, just know that if it does get cold, maybe under 70 degrees, you'll pull out a hoodie or maybe a light raincoat during when it has a little bit of rain coming through too. So, it's cold and rainy at the same time. We don't have too much of an issue of having to get the big, I don't know what's being called, the big parkas or snow coats here in Florida. I mean, I don't even know if they sell those here in the stores, I've never seen them. But however, just know that it doesn't stay warm, maybe in the 80's all year round. So, people do think that when they come to visit in the winter months, but it does get a little chilly, but it's not exactly freezing I would say.

TRAFFIC IN FLORIDA

Now, let's talk about the traffic in Florida. A lot of people, when they think about Florida, they just more so start thinking about the beaches and little small cute little towns, even historic towns. But, there are lots of areas where we do get a lot of traffic, especially in the more touristy areas. Now when I say traffic, it's nothing like with the traffic that you would experience in maybe New York City or LA or even Washington DC. But, even us locals, we do complain about the traffic. I admit, I'm one of those that might complain, but I'll just turn the music up and just make the best of it sitting in the traffic and just make sure I get to where I need to go safely. But, there's a lot of people that are trying to get to the same place at the same time, especially in the spring and summer. Everybody wants to get up in the morning, have some breakfast and hit the beach. There's the locals that are having to get to and from work, especially if they work in the touristy area and maybe like the restaurants and beach services, even the hotels and condos. They're just, everybody's just up and moving at the same time. We do have one main road that goes through most of the Panhandle, which is Highway 98. Of course, it'll have a couple different names throughout the way, like Emerald Coast Parkway, Miracle Strip. And, you'll also just experience some areas where they have some roads work going on, of course. Especially in Destin, I think it's gotten a little bit better in Destin now that they finish a lot of the roadwork out there. But, as you go into Miramar Beach, there's some road construction going on. So that kind of adds to the congestion during these spring and summer months. However, that's just temporary. Even if it's a year or two, it's just temporary. It's just going to make the flow of traffic better in the future. But, it just makes it a little difficult because that is the main road that gets everybody to and from wherever they need to go. But you may become more familiar with some of the back streets especially in Destin or even Fort Walton Beach to be able to avoid some of the the bottleneck areas. However, just know that there's going to be lots of traffic from March through maybe September. And, you'll just have to make the best of it. And again, just hope that you get to where you need to go safely and don't cause any wrecks out there.

BUGS AND WILDLIFE

Now, also when you think about living in Florida, again, you're thinking about the beachy weather, the nice Florida sunshine, the white sands. Let's not forget about all the bugs and all the wildlife that's also out there. You'll see lots of bugs and different species that you just never even heard of or never even seen before. I'm pretty much from Florida, I moved in to Florida in 94. I did leave for a few years in 2001 and came back 2014. But, even in the times that I have been living in Florida, I still come across lots of insects I've never seen before, even little animals I can't even identify. And, I feel dumb saying that, but yeah, there are some animals where I need to, like, look up and see what they are because I've never seen them before. That just makes me want to visit zoos and become more familiar with the animals that are out here. But anyways, yes, you'll experience a lot of different creepy critters that you might just be terrified because they look like they could be dangerous and they probably aren't. There's different kinds of snakes. So, I see a lot of posts online or people are trying to figure out if a certain snake in their backyard is poisonous or not. Even if you're living in a residential neighborhood, yes, you still have a possibility of having bears come onto your property. So, just make sure you, I mean, keep your trash can in an appropriate location and try to keep it secure. But, however those bears are very smart, they'll find a way to get into your trash can. There's raccoons out there too. There's also areas that where you might have an alligator come into your backyard or a little baby gator taking a dip in your swimming pool. So, it's just your own little national geographic right in your own neighborhood. But if you are living in an area where you have many small children or pets that are out and about, just make sure you keep an eye on them. You never know what may just kind of creep into your backyard or even your front yard, and you just want to make sure that you're aware of the surroundings and make sure you protect your kids and your pets, even yourself. I've seen videos where people are just going out to their car and all of a sudden, there's like bobcat that came out of nowhere. Yes, that does happen in Florida. I've seen it online and it's just crazy. I've never expected to even see that. But, again, there's lots of wildlife that you'll see out here. There's actually highway 85 coming from Crestview, I did have a buyer new to the area that said that when you're driving it from I-10 heading south down 85. They said they saw a bear crossing sign. So, they asked me like, did I see that correctly? Did I really see a bear crossing sign on the highway? And I'm like, yes, you did see that. Again, not only just off the highway, but you'll see bears in our residential areas. Just have to be cautious if you know the neighbors are telling you that they are in that new neighborhood that you're moving into. Just ask your neighboors what to expect. And, if you're not already aware of how to protect your property and your family from you know, from harm and from any damage to your property from these critters, these animals running around. But, you wouldn't expect to see it running around. So yeah, just be prepared. Just know your neighborhood, know your surroundings. That way, it doesn't become a big of an issue when you're just really not used to having the wildlife on your own property.

WONDERFUL PLACE FOR RETIREES

Now, another thing is that, a lot of people think about Florida being a nice little party state. They want to take a vacation or a girl's trip, a bachelorette trip to Florida because it was just a big great place to party. However, Florida is not just a great party state. It's also a wonderful place for retirees. There's lots of different communities where people like to just reside and just live out the rest of their days. Maybe there are people that lived up in the colder weather. They're sick and tired of snowstorms, and they just hate having to deal with all the snow and driving the snow, and showing snow off their driveway. Or, there's a lot of people that don't like to live on the West Coast because of the earthquakes. I know when I lived in California for a couple years as a kid, I've experienced maybe one or two minor earthquake, so that was pretty scary. But however, people just want to get away from all the craziness that they're used to and just come over to Florida and retire. Maybe they're military, and they had spent some time in the past here in Florida, and they just already knew that once they retire, they want to come back to Florida and live here the rest of their days. So, we do have a lot of the elderly people or even people that retire early in their late 30's and early 40's and they just find a place that's perfect for them. It might not be, of course, in a retirement community, but there's several different areas that's appropriate for people that are retiring. Nice neighborhoods with amenities, swimming pools, golf cart, I'm sorry, golf courses. And there's, if you do prefer to live in a condo, of course, Florida has many options for that, especially here at the Destin and Fort Walton Beach area. We do have people not only are looking to invest in condos, but a lot of people are looking to purchase one to live in full time and they want to make sure they have that perfect view, the perfect amenities for the activities that they like to do on their downtime. So, it's not all just about coming here and partying and just drinking on the beach and all, you know, having all that good fun. A lot of retirees like to come here and just kind of live their peaceful lifestyle too or they could do both. We have the retirees coming over here and just party it up with all the spring breakers and have a great time. But, just whatever makes you happy and whatever you want to do to have a good time in your life, just go ahead and do it.

BEACH MAY NOT BE AS RELAXING AS YOU WOULD LIKE FOR IT TO BE

So, speaking of the partying, you might also come to realize that sitting and relaxing on the beach might not be like what you expect because it might not be as peaceful as you'd hope for. Of course, the crowds during the spring and the summertime, lots of visitors coming in to enjoy the beautiful beaches out here. So, of course, there's going to be a lot of people playing on the beach, playing music, just having a great time. Maybe throwing frisbee, they're playing volleyball, lots of children that are just running around having a good time too. So, that might be a little distracting to you if you are one of the ones that just like to sit on the beach, enjoy just the sound of the waves, hear the birds, and maybe play your little light music. Or, just go out there read a book or just sit there and do nothing, just close your eyes and just take in the whole scene around you. If that's what you like to do, then it could be distracting with you sitting on the beach especially again in a touristy area because again a lot of people like to come and visit and enjoy these beaches just as much as the locals do. And so unfortunately, there may be certain areas where you won't be able to have that quiet peaceful time on the beach, but you'll always be able to figure out when's the best time for you to go or the best spot for you to go where you'll be able to avoid all the other, the noise and the distractions and be able to find that right spot for you.

PURCHASING A PROPERTY

Also, let's talk about purchasing a property here in Florida too. A lot of people think, okay, I'm ready to move to Florida, let's do it. I'm going to find in place real quick and just move down and just enjoy my new home right here at the Sunshine State. However, there's a lot of people that are doing the same thing at the same time. They're relocating here to Florida, which is making things a little bit more competitive for all the buyers. Right now, here it is, it's currently March 2022 and it's still the seller's market and it's just buyers are having a hard time right now. I've worked with a lot of buyers myself that are either relocating here or even trying to purchase investment property. It's just very hard because the inventory is low. So, there's even a couple of people that don't get to loop into their home right away. They're not able to find a place and time to where they actually need to be here. Maybe they're starting work or they're military and need to relocate here as specific time and they weren't able to find a home within that specific time frame that they were needing and end up having to rent for a little bit. And that's, of course, that when people have families, they're not really wanting to find a place to rent temporarily and then have to move in, you know, all the stuff knowing it's temporary and they have to move back out once they are able to find a home to move into. So, timing has been a little bit of an issue because even though you find homes that you're really, really interested in, you'll submit an offer. Again, you're most likely competing against other buyers, especially with those new fabulous listings where it's just a perfect home that's perfectly priced. Maybe not perfectly, but because the market everything's going up. So, it might be perfect for the sellers and maybe not so great for buyers. It's just going to take some time because you know, you'll probably expect to lose an offer too. It could take up to five to ten offers that you submit before you even have an offer accepted on a home. And if you're financing, you're going to have to wait at least 30, 45 days for that whole process to play through before you can even close on the home and move in. So, it can be very time consuming while you're looking to purchase property here in Florida. But just make sure that you do have a real estate agent that is going to help you. Just make sure you connect with one before you decide to make that move. That way they can make sure that you have all your decks in a row and the agent also has their decks in a row to be in the position to help you once you do start the process of living in this area.

HURRICANE

And, one last thing I want to touch on why living in Florida is not what you expected. A lot of people feel like living in Florida is going to be very scary because of the hurricanes during hurricane season. Hurricane season, it's really from June 1st through November 30th. That doesn't necessarily mean we're going to get hit with hurricanes left and right, weekly or monthly. That it's very scary for people to think that they have to just evacuate so often or maybe bunker down and board up their homes and get all their supplies all stocked up and just be prepared to ride out storms. It's really not as bad as you think during hurricane season that you're living here in Florida. As long as you know how to prepare for whatever you plan to do, whether you plan to stay home and ride out the storm or maybe even go to a shelter or if you plan on hitting the road and just leave the area where the projected path is for the storm. Just know what you're doing, be prepared, get your supplies that you need. If you are going to stay home, just make sure you have your food, your water, generators, your propane, you can use the grill so you still have an option to cook food and put up from going bad if you lose electricity and you know, one of your food to spoil, just get your propane tanks ready to go. Have your batteries, flashlights, first aid kits, whatever it is that you need that you feel like it's going to help prepare you and your family to ride out a storm for a few days. Or, if you're getting ready to hit the road, you can still prep your house, do what you can to protect your house, board up your windows. You also want to make sure you bring in all your patio furniture or any items outside that you don't want blowing around. Make sure you just bring everything in, make sure you gas up, bring your snacks, and make sure you know where you're going, and be aware of how long it might take to get there. I remember back in, I can't remember if it was like 1994 1995, it was my first time our family experienced hurricane years, hurricane opal. We decided to evacuate in travel to Tallahassee. Tallahassee is typically about two, two and a half hours from the Fort Walton Beach area. However, that day, it took us twelve hours because every one and their mommas and aunties and brothers were also trying to evacuate and it turns to Tallahassee as well. So, just make sure you know what your route is, the evacuation routes or whatever route you need to take to get to where you want to go. Maybe you're going to stay with friends or family in another state. But as long as you're prepared, you'll be okay. It's not as scary. I have never really experienced a storm to where I just felt like I was really, really scared because I was prepared for whatever may happen, and just hope for the best. And just keep an eye out on your neighborhood if you are staying in, you know, that your neighbors are leaving. Just keep an eye on their property too because I'm sure you'd want them to do the same for you if you were to evacuate, let your neighbors stay behind. They can keep it on your property and keep you posted on what's going on. And you just kind of put you more at ease to just know that everything will be fine once you return. However, if there's a lot of damage, you have your insurance in place and that'll be able to help you throughout the process of getting everything back to normal.

Well, that's all I have for you today guys. If you have any questions or would like to know more, feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com