I did it

[cornercamping]

I got the wife to agree to move to Florida.   :D :D :D :D

Now, just gotta figure out the out of state house buying thing.  I personally would like to rent for 6 months and check out all the area's but she's not going for it.  She wants to buy.  So, any suggestions on area's in the general Orlando area?  Anyone bought a house out of state before moving  there and living there for a while?  How'd you do it? Fly down and look at houses for a week? Or, did you do it online.  Suggestions welcome.
More or less, I use to live in Miami Beach.  But, she doesn't want to move that far south, so the Orlando area is our target, along with surrounding areas within 50 miles of Orlando?  Any suggestions?  I"m more or less looking for a 3k to 4k sq. ft. house, new construction, or newer build (year 2k and newer.)  Any suggestions for areas to stay away from?  I don't want to be too far out of the city.  
Florida peep's.. .help me out here.  Out of state moving experiances???  Things to stay away from?  How'd you do it?
 :D :D

[cornercamping]

I'd also like to be in a race track frendly area meaing I don't want to drive 7 hours to get to a track.  I know Daytona isn't that far from Orlando, but how about Jennings  ???

 :D

Look out Florida, here comes Hurricane Dan  ;D :P

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Guess that means you won't be racing with us this year? ::)

[cornercamping]

Guess that means you won't be racing with us this year? ::)

Not at all.  I"ll still spend half my time in Chicago, so I'll still be racing the Midwest region.   :D

[cardzilla]

Orlando is great, but the area between Jacksonville and St. Augustine has the best bargains in the real estate market by far.  My friend just bought a new 3800 sq. ft, 2 floor, 5 bedroom, 3 bath house with a HUGE garage and 3/4 of an acre in a cul-de-sac for under $300K.  The prices go up every day, though.  Obviously people are finding out about the market.  I love golf (and racing, weird, I know) and this area has the highest course/resident number in the WORLD... the golf hall of fame helps that.  There are lots of other great things, like being centrally located to almost every racetrack in the southeast.  If you drive down, definitely take a look around (I-95 and SR 210 is a good place to start).

[cornercamping]

Thanks.  I can't believe how cheap the houses actually are.  We've been looking at houses that are in the $250's that would cost almost $500's in Detroit.  I've been arguing it with the wife for months, and finally today she said fine.  It took todays current weather of 6 deg. to get her to move.  In all reality, I can work from anywhere, and the company I work for has been looking for an excuse to open a Florida office.  Now we got one  :D  
In all reality, my quest to move to FL started last Thanksgiving when I took the wife to Disney.  She loved the area.  I've been pressing ever since.  I used to live in South Beach, but the wife isn't having that one. She doesn't want the kid to grow up in Miami area.  
We've already started looking at houses, and have a long list.  The current plan is to fly down, rent a car, and spend a week looking.  The only problem is, is that a week isn't long enough to find out if your looking at houses in bad areas. I figured I'd stop by the police stations and ask, but every city always has a bad area somewhere.  I just don't want to move into to it.  That's my main point of asking you guys.  Until you've been on the scene for a while, you really don't know.  I'd like to find an area where it's not in a downtown area congested with traffic, yet not so far out in the Suburbs that it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere.  We'll see.  Keep the advice going.  :)

[cornercamping]

Real Estate Example:

Detroit Area- 3950 sq. ft.  4 bedroom, 3 full bath, 3 car garage.  .35 acre lot.  $625,000.00


You know what kind of house you could get down in FL for $625K  :o  10K sq. ft or something.  Detroit is way overpriced. >:(

[Nate R]

Nothing against you, corner, but I never understood the need for 3500 square feet for what, 3 people?

Houses keep getting bigger. It seems ridiculous to me. We had 6 people for a while in 1700 SF, and now with 3 it seems too big.

I guess I question how often all of those SF get used.

Does anyone else NOT agree with the trend of huge houses? There are a few that I've seen that aren't fans. Just wondering what racers thought.


Now garages or work areas are a different story.  ;D

Again, nothing against anyone that likes houses that big, I'm just trying to understand the need/desire for it.

[cornercamping]

Well, I plan on having another kid sooner or later.  Plus, I have to deal with the mother in law coming over for week long stays  ::)  ;)

Honestly, I don't know.  I just want a house with plenty of room.  I also want a huge garage, and enough land to put up my own pole barn to house all the toys.  So far, I've yet to find a garage that is what they say it is.  To me, when you say it is "3 car," it should fit 3 cars side by side and you should be able to open all the doors all the way and have room to walk between them still. Haven't found a real 3 car garage.  Those garage are 5 car.  If it can't fit 3 full size cars, it's not 3 car.

3 car garage = 1.5 car garage if you ask me. They say it fits 3 cars, but what kind of cars? Kia?

[cornercamping]

and don't forget, the bigger the house, the more bikes you can fit in the living room  ;) ;D ;D

[Protein Filled]

You will do anything so that you don't have to show up at the track! Remember we still have a bet going!

When I moved up from Fl, I first rented for 6 months to get a good look at locations and market.

At the time there were not that many options online, so you may get a lot more help now with it.

I highly recommend looking at movers. It makes it a ton easier and it's worth it, considering how much it costs to rent a truck.

I can hook you up with some great land in the everglades if you are looking! I'll make you a special deal too... ;D ;D

You may want to wait a bit before moving for all of the houses that got damaged in the 3 hurricanes to get rebuilt... I am sure the market me be pretty aggresive down there at this time! Specially in the Orlando area.

[Baltobuell]

This is a different topic but FWIW I totally agree with Nate R. With 3 kids 2,800 sq ft was plenty roomy. Formal living rooms are a waste too. If I have to play dress ups for somebody they aren't my friend and I don't want them in my house. Now, with the last of the kids shipping out on the 26th, it's way, way too much.
 I guess if the inlaws were moving in I would want more, or better yet, a whole lot less, so they find somewhere else to go. ;D