The 13 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Destin FL Answered

So, you're considering moving out here to the Destin area and you've got some questions. Well, we all do. So, what we have been able to do is, over the last couple of years, we compiled the most questions that we've received here on this team and our surrounding area to give you the answers of the most frequently asked questions here in the last year, so stick around.

So, let's talk about Destin. Let's talk about the 13 most frequently asked questions here about the Destin area. So, you're new to the Destin area and you're just kind of curious of what this place is all about. Well, it's not that big of an area with a population of about 13,702 from the last census that we had. The area that's actually located, if you look at a map, we're up there in the northwest corner, and we're on the panhandles is what they call that. And, Destin's located kind of in the middle between Pensacola and Panama City Beach, right there on the Gulf. So, if you're looking at a map, there it is, Google maps are your friend. So, why do people typically move out this way? And, it's because of the gorgeous beaches that are here. We've got that white sand, gorgeous beaches all around. They're not over developed for the most part. It's not condo city like you're going to see in South Florida. You've got a mask with forest on the other side, it's just really, really beautiful here and pretty relaxed. The weather here is wonderful. It's not overly, just terribly hot all the time like it is in South Florida. We do get a little bit of a season change. Our winter is like, forty or fifty degrees, but you'll still see us bundled up because we have Florida skin. But the weather most of the time is beautiful up to the 80's. The humidity is a little bit higher than what you would most see. So, the hot feels a little bit hotter, the cold feels a little bit colder, it's weird how that works out. People also like to go here because of the world class boating and fishing. Matter of fact, here in the Destin area, Regatta Bay has got one of the or was rather featured on Boating Magazine. It's one of the best places to Boat in the country. And of course, Destin has a great community. I can't explain or just emphasize this enough. that our community is a great mix between southern hospitality, which because we're right below Georgia and Alabama. And, Florida people, which are just pretty relaxed in themselves. And this area surrounded by four military installations. So, a lot of people like myself that ended up retiring or getting out of the military and ended up sticking around. And it brings a lot of diversity here and a lot of respect and it's just hard to beat anywhere that you go around, if of course, that's what you're looking for.

Okay. So, let's get into the questions.

1. Where are the Best Beaches in Destin?

Now if you ask me, I think the best beaches are going to be in Fort Walton off of Okaloosa Island, but let's concentrate on Destin. First things first is head down to Henderson Beach, which is a state park that's well maintained, got lots of parking, places to change, showers, all that stuff, campgrounds, beautiful beautiful place. And because people have to pay to get in there, it usually isn't so overcrowded either. So, that's number one on the list. Another one to go down to is Norriego Point. Now, this is by the Destin Harbor, the HarborWalk, by Crab Island, right over to the Destin Bridge if you look over there. It's kind of funny because a couple years ago, it wasn't like that. It was out there as a park, but it wasn't as developed. Because, they had hurricane opal that washed through here almost fifteen twenty years ago. When that happened, it blew a lot of that peninsula out. So, they dredged everything, and it ended up building it back out again, making the nice little kind jetties inside of it. So, you can actually go swimming and enjoy it. It's gorgeous. The only thing that really sucks, it's the fact of the parking. There's not a lot of it to get there. But if you do get out there, just wonderful place to go hang out. And, one of the more popular places go for the beach, it's free. It's down there James Lee Beach and the Crab Trap area. So, if you we're going down on Crystal Beach side, so obviously on the gulf. You're going down that way and you saw the big Crab Trap restaurant. There's four pavilions, there's a good amount of parking in there. And that's where a lot of people like to go out, free access to the beach. If you like to be around people, this is a good place to go. Crab Trap's got some pretty good food. They got a little bar also that sits right on the little walk that they've got that way. So, you can look out, have your favorite libation, and enjoy the beach. Alright.

2. What's the Cost to Buy a Home in Destin?

Well, we get that question a lot because we're realtors. But anyway, back in 2021 for that year, these are what it looked like in order to purchase a home in Destin. Your median home price, so the most concentration of the home prices in Destin was about $517,000. And, that's condos and single-family homes combined was about 517,000 to buy some family home. Now your high was all the way up to a $6.1 mil, which of course was a gulf front home and absolutely gorgeous. And then we have low all the way down to a $117,500 which you probably would have had to pay cash in order to get that one. But, that's kind of the price point for it. A lot of the areas here do use your FHA and VA financing. But one thing to realize too that, if you're trying to get in some of these affluent communities, if you haven't seen that video, definitely check it of the top five best communities in Destin. But if you're looking to get more of the affluent communities, talking about Kelly Plantation, Regatta Bay, Emerald Lakes, all those areas in the north kind of eastern area of Destin are all in CBRA zones or CoBRA zones as we call them, Coastal Barrier Resource Areas. Now the VA and FHA are not going to finance anything in there because it's labeled as in that zone. Does that mean it's in a flood zone? Not necessarily. A lot of those different places are actually in a zone x, which is a minimal flood zone. But you're going to get higher insurance rates and some financing won't work out there. Just to give you that. Now, one other thing to pay attention to in Destin and all the areas surrounding is, it's still very, very competitive. Even though the prices are climbing a little bit more, it's the competition is tough. So, if you're going to come into this market looking to move into Destin, it doesn't matter if you're going into a condo or single family home or you're looking to get to townhome, it's pretty much all the same, ninety five percent of the time. Sometimes we get lucky. But you were usually competing with somebody else. So, if a home is priced right and dressed right, usually goes pretty quickly. So, the best thing for you to do is to sit down with me or any of our agents here and talk about what that looks like and what to anticipate moving forward while purchasing a home. Those consultations are free. You got 30, 45 minutes, you get a live interaction with us via Zoom. Alright, shameless plug aside. Let's go ahead and move to number three.

3. What is the Cost to Rent Here in Destin?

Okay. So, if you're looking to rent, most of the rents that we see here are single family homes. So think about that a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, single family homes. So, that means that our medium price is going to be for that, which is typically around $2,300 per month. Now that can go as high as $5,500 per month for something really nice sitting on the bay or the gulf. And, your lows, which are going to be some of your smaller studio apartments, can be as low as $950 per month. Okay, one thing about rentals too is it's very, very competitive. So things, again, just like when you're purchasing, if it's priced right and dress right, it's going to go super super quick. So, you need to get on this and have this place set for you. You may even have to sign at least sign on scene in order to get into these certain things. If you need a list of rental resources, go ahead, give us a call or a text. We'd be happy to text you or email you that information of the best places to get and to find rentals here.

4. What is it like to Purchase a Gulf Front Condo?

Everybody wants that gulf front condo. If you vacation down here and that's where you go, like, that's awesome. You wake it up, you can smell the sea air, like, it's amazing. Okay. So, if you are looking to invest down here in a gulf front condo, we typically deal with three different types of investors. Number one, somebody is just going to get a second home. They're the only ones that are going to use it, and that's it. Number two is that you want to buy something for you and your family to go use once or twice a year and then rent it out rest of the time. Number three is, just that person that doesn't really care if it looks good or how it is as long as the cash flow and the ROI is correct. So, return on investment, then we're good to go. Right? So, typically number one investors, you are going to have the same sort of processes purchasing a single-family home. Not too much of an issue there, but you're still going to have that same sort of competition. You know, which you're going to expect as far as payments for that. So not a big deal. Number two investors is the one that we typically get the most of. Now, if you're looking to rent it out half the time, I want you to know that with all the other fees to include complete rental management fee. So, you have a hundred percent taken care of, which in our area is usually somewhere between 20 to 25 percent whenever the rental incomes. Now I know that sounds like a lot, but they're doing a lot. They're making sure that it's always filled, that your linen's always taken care of, the on calls, their advertisements, all of that stuff is all taken care of. Right? So, it's totally worth it. But what I want you to anticipate is that, most of the time if you're going to do that, you're going to come down during the hot season when everybody else wants to be down here. The typically you're about to break even or you're going to be somewhere between three, four, five thousand dollars that you're going to have to pay for that condo per year out of your pocket. The rest will be supplemental from your rental income but that's pretty much the cost that you're going to have. But don't worry. Your appreciation coming through in the rise in rents is probably going to even itself out eventually depending on how long that you're going to hang on to it. My number three investors just wanted to cash flow. Guys, gals, or probably not going to find you something that is right there on the gulf that's going to be cash flow positive. So, we'll probably find something in there that is going to be off there or on the bay. But more than likely, you're not going to find that Gulf Coast condo that's going to be that cash flow positive unless you find those unicorns out there where you get it for the right price. Not to say that we haven't made it happen before, but it's just not as common. Okay. So other things to anticipate, obviously, beautiful views. When you purchase something here, all the furniture typically comes with it. So, you know to refurnish anything. That's a cool thing about real estate here in Florida that you can add personal property to real property. So, that means that the condo can be sold with all the stuff in it and that's part of the actual purchase. Now, you're going to have different types of management too. We talked about that 25%. You can also self-manage. You can use certain applications. Most popular out here are Airbnb and VRBO. You can check those out Airbnb.com, vrbo.com to see what they have and different types of fees that they have in order for you to leverage that so you don't have to pay that 25% down. I do caution you that if you are going to do this and you're more than a three four hour drive away, that it can get a little hectic and may not be worth the stress, but everybody's different. One last thing to point out too is that, most of the time, if you are a number two investor, your ROI, your cash flow, maybe a little bit less than you'd want. But again, it's a cost that you do have here. If you want a good explanation of that, we do have some great presentations that we can do just like if you were going to purchase, another shameless plug, give us a call or text, and we'd happy to go ahead and set up an investor console for strategy session with you.

5. What is the Best Food in Town?

Alright. Well, these are some of my favorites and some of our team favorites. So, here we go. First one that we have for pizza. I love me some pizza and some delicious beers. Alright? Is Landsharks. Landsharks is right there off a Highway 98. It's a sports bar. The guy that owns it is a Green Bay Packers fan and, you know, everybody, nobody's perfect. I'm a vikings fan. But they have amazing pizza there, mainly because they've got this pizza called the Diablo Pizza. So, if you'd like spicy pizza. Definitely check it out. I'm from New York, I'm picky with my pizza. That's some of the best spicy pizza I've ever had. For seafood, check out Boshamps. Boshamps is right there on the gulf. Again, it's right on the main drag off of 98. Really, really nice place built up great service. Some of the best views that you're going to find and I've got a lot of different things on this. But my favorite and I've, I had an argument with the rest of my staff here. But my favorite, that's where we're going to go with, for the best view is going to be the Back Porch. Now the back porch isn't right on the main drag there. It is actually just as you start to turn off towards where the track is, and we'll talk about that here in a minute. If it's kind of tucked away, and it's really really nice during the sunset. If you can get out there on the patio, watch the sun come down, that’s our favorite place to go. For steak, McGuire's. And McGuire's is a big old, Irish pub that they have there. If you've ever been in there, it's really unique because there's single dollar bills with stuff written on them all over the place. I don't know, there's got to be millions of dollars where the dollar bills in there, but they're hanging all over the place. Best thing is their peppercorn steak, again, it's kind of, if you like peppery food and spicy, Oh, that's so good. They've got some of the best burgers in town and definitely check out their Irish Wakes if you partake in that sort of thing. You'll only need one trust me. Okay. Mexican is Mi Gente. Love these guys, they just moved into Destin. They used to be a food truck out of Fort Walton. They got a little Taqueria out there in Fort Walton. So, they had their own store or their own taco shop right next to a store. And then they expanded out and now we've got amount in Destin. By far, some of the best that I've had in the area. Alright. And for Italian is, and I'm probably saying this wrong, I always say it wrong. But Mimmo's Ristorante Italiano. Alright? This place is right downtown too, and it's a really, really good place. A lot of people have really said that they absolutely love it. It's most authentic Italian that you're going to find in town. Okay, Moving on.

6. What Time of Year is the Best Weather in Destin?

So, what time of year should I be coming to visit? It's typically what I hear. Honestly, it's going to be sometime between the spring and the fall. Spring time is really nice because it's not overly crowded here. We got some spring breakers that start to filter in and traffic isn't crazy, isn't as busy as it normally is. As you get into right when school gets out all the way into the summer, fourth of July weekend is probably the most packed that you're going to see. And as we get into the hot months right before kids start to go back to school. That's where we start to see a ton of people coming in, relax a little bit before they get back into the fall. So, those are usually the best time, the best weather, don't have as much rain. And if it does rain, it's Florida. So, just wait about three minutes and it'll be gone. Alright, Next question

7. Is the Water Always that Emerald Green Color?

Well, if you're curious why it's even Emerald Green, it's because the sun reflects off of the algae that's in the water and turns it into that emerald color. But is it that color year-round? Unfortunately, no. Depending on the weather, depending on the sea conditions, it can get kind of cloudy and it gets a real dark. More in the wintertime, we see that. But throughout the spring to the summer, you see that. And I've lived here for several years and lots of years now. And every time I go over that bridge at Destin, when the sun's coming down and you have that green emerald color water everywhere, it's still like oh my god, I can't believe I live here. It's just absolutely gorgeous, but it isn't their year-round. Alright.

8. Where Can I Find a Job in Destin?

So, a lot of the big industry here is because of the military, there's four military bases around here. And a lot of them are associated military contractors doing all sorts of different jobs. So, if you've got something like that, going to usajobs.com. Go on indeed, check out what's there because there are shops that are set up in Destin or around the Destin area that you'd be able to go to. Now, the service industry is huge too. So, if you're looking to come out and be a waiter, bartender, or any service-related jobs, they're a ton out here. Most of the time, they're pretty seasonal, but we typically get a year-round around here. You'll make a good chunk of money, of course, between that spring and fall time. And of course, medical is always on demand around here. There isn't a huge medical infrastructure, but there definitely is a significant amount that people do move into here. And of course, don't forget because of COVID, a lot of different jobs have allowed you to telework. Which means that you can probably negotiate with your boss if you've been teleworking for the last year or two of going, hey, do I have to be in this geographic location? Can I get up and go somewhere else? And if you can, world is your oyster. Alright.

9. Where are the Top Attractions for Families?

So, obviously the beaches. We already kind of talked about the best beaches, but the beaches are some of the best places go for you and your family. For places to go, like Big Kahunas is a water park, adventure park is what they call it, and you could definitely check those areas out. You've got The Track, which you go carts and all sorts of stuff out there. The bowling at the Commons. You also have the Gulfarium, which is actually, technically on Okaloosa Island. You have the HarborWalk where you have ziplines. You've got some live music, the kids can get up on the rock wall, heck, you can get up on the rock wall. They've got this one where it's like a free fall, but connected, and it stops you right at the bottom. It's kind of crazy. You're not going to see me on that. But, yes, lots of stuff to do for the family. Alright.

10. What are the Best Top Things to Do for Adults?

Crab Island. Oh, by far, Crab Island is one of the best places that you can go. Get a boat, take the water taxi out, get a kayak or rent out there and paddle yourself out there. Beautiful place, tons of people, usually a little bit of a wild party. And it's got all that different types of people just out there having a good time. Of course, you can always go bar hop down the harbor walk. It stretches all the way up to the red door where that landsharks pizzas where I started. I personally have done that plenty of time, especially when I was a younger military guy. But, there's tons of places to go, different music, different atmospheres, whatever you want. Of course, parasailing. You want to do that. There's tons of fishing, deep sea fishing, fishing off the pier. Scuba, if that's your thing. You also have Club LA. So, we do have some bands that come out here and that's typically where you see them. And even if you're into country or you've like metal music, all those different things are actually at Club LA. You just have to pay attention to who's in town. Alright.

11. Where is the Best Fishing?

Okay. So, the best fishing is probably, if you want to go off up here, Okaloosa Island pier, which is not really in Destin, but is right down the road about six miles from the Destin Bridge. If you want to go from the shore, East Pass Jetty's are a good place to go. Just be careful of the rocks around there as you're walking around because they're some little steep drop offs. But, if you want to get on a boat and get about ten to twelve miles out, they got a hundred thousand curve that you can go out too, lots of great fishing out there. And, if you want to get really adventurous and go out to where all the big fish are, you'll want to go ahead and charter a boat out to the edge. Your not going to see me out there. Alright, we're almost there.

12. Is Scuba Diving Any Good in the Destin Area?

Now, this has been back and forth from some of my friends that have gone scuba diving. Most of the time they're comparing it to go into the Mediterranean or something like that. And obviously, it's just not going to be that good in comparison to. But there are some other places that you can go. The Miss Louise wreck, which is down what they call wreck alley. That's a good place that you can go out and it's got artificial reefs out there that they put in. There's a wreck boat and stuff down there that can go check out. You'll see a lot of people fishing there too, but there are some pretty good places that you can go. And of course, even if you want to stay right out in the jetty, there's tons of sea life down there for you to check out. It's just gorgeous.  Last but not least.

13. How Bad is the Traffic in Destin?

Well, it's bad. We love our tourists. It's one of the big things that push the industry here in Destin. But any time between the spring all the way until the fall, it can be rough. Google or Waze or any one of those that you can time the traffic. I could give you if this is how long it could be. But more honestly is probably going to be quite a bit more. So definitely plan it out there. Traffic can get tough, mainly down by the harbor walk of that main area. They are trying to widen it, and they've done a pretty good job so far to get from where the Destin Airport is, all the way out to the Destin Commons where the big outdoor mall is. They've actually turned it into six lanes. So, isn't so bad anymore, but you're still going to get that bottleneck downtown until they figure out something else with it. Worse time to come in for traffic is right around that fourth of July weekend. So, plan accordingly.

Well, that's all I have for you for the thirteen most frequently asked questions in Destin answered. If you got any questions about anything I mentioned here, please call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com