If You are Moving to the Emerald Coast… Watch this!

So, you're thinking about moving here to the Emerald coast of Florida. And, you've got some questions and we got some answers. So, if you are debating on moving out this way or are moving this way and deciding where to live, you'll want to stick around because we got some key information that could help your move to this area. So, stay tuned.

So, let's get at it. Where is the Emerald Coast? We keep saying this, and I don't know who actually came up with the term, but it's because the water is emerald color. Right? And, what people are talking about is the area in Florida, the Panhandle Florida, it's in Northwest Florida. From Pensacola down to about Panama City Beach, that's what we're going to call it. Right? So, anywhere in between there, why do people want to move to this area? Well, first and foremost, probably the weather. Now, weather here in Northwest, Florida and the Emerald Coast is going to be a little bit different than you're going to see in most of the other parts of Florida. Why? Because we're pretty much in lower Alabama and Georgia, right? It's just, we get it kind of cold in the wintertime. Now, granted, if you're up in Dakota's or in the northeast, it's cold is relative. Right? Our cold here is a little bit more different. We'll say 40s to 50s is our cold. And, if you got the Florida skin, then yeah, it does get pretty cold. But the rest of the time, it's actually pretty reasonable versus going to a place like Miami or southern further south than that. Only because it gets devastatingly hot with the humidity. You don't necessarily get that level of it, which is why people want to move here. So, it's sort of four seasons, really, it's two. It's hot and cold. But the cold's very short, maybe three, four months. Obviously, people are going to move here because of the white sand beaches that we have there flanked by the Emerald colored water. It's absolutely gorgeous, you'll see pictures of this. This actually what it looks like, we didn't doctor that up. I can tell you just going over the bridge in Destin when we're going in and out of you know, closings and showings and things like that. I just always just so surprised I was like, oh my god, I live here. It never gets old. Over ten years of being here it just has not gotten old. But people are also moving here for the beach activities, water activities, all sorts of stuff. Fishing, this is one of the best fishing areas that you can go out to. Year-round golf, if you're a really good golfer or just an avid golfer that, you know, likes to go, but is terrible. Yeah, then this is a great place to go for golf as well. And a lot of people move here because of the most relaxed atmosphere and the people here. If you think about it, our area here is really just a mixture between like that southern hospitality. It also mixes in Florida people, which is kind of interesting. But, it's just that relaxed sort of beach life, salt life, whatever you want to call it, right? But this area specifically has like four or five military installations and a bunch of us that are prior service, and it being out here. So, it's also very respectful. It does have a good amount of diversity out here. And the way that people treat each other is just phenomenal. It's one of the reasons that I decided to move here after all my travels in the military. And, another reason people want to come here is the food, specifically, seafood. Why? Because it's right there. The food is pretty fresh. But there's phenomenal places to eat, especially when it comes to seafood in this area.

Okay. So, I'm going to give you six steps to things that why you're here that you want to know, what you want to, what you need to know when you move here. Right?

Step 1. Figuring out where you want to live.

Is it going to be Pensacola? Is it going to be Panama City Beach, or are you going to go to Destin or any of the other main places there? We've got luxury, if that's your crowd in what we call 30A area. And that's like you know, the Seacrest area, Seaside, you have Alys Beach, which if you haven't, if you don't know what that is, Google it, just absolutely gorgeous out there. If that's more of that scene, you can move to the Destin Miramar, which is more of that beachfront, it's where ton of activities and things are at. You also have that activity there. There's also places around this area that has access to it but isn't by the water. Another popular destination on the Emerald Coast is like Crestview in that area up there. You also have the most relaxed beach in all the state of Florida, which is in Navarre Beach. Right? And Navarre is actually priced really well with good sized homes, and a good size lot too. So, if you need some space, I mean that can be close to stuff, that's actually a good choice too. But there are ton of different ones. You can check here on this video. We've done videos and videos upon everything you want to know for almost every single town that you can think of as far as pricings, pros and cons and things like that. But the big thing is to determine where you want to be. Right? And that could really affect step number two.

Step 2. What type of home do you want?

Are you buying or are you renting? What are the prices within those different price ranges, right? If you're purchasing and yeah, I want to live in Destin, but I can't afford it, because a median single family home price is $900,000. Okay. Well, maybe I need to go to maybe Niceville, where it is $475,000 is your medium home price. Right? If you're looking for a single-family home. And you can look up the same thing for going rents in those areas too if you're going to be a renter. But you want to really determine what your budget's going to be and if it's going to fit that Right? And if here's a key thing that we see with a lot of people that are moving here, if you are going to buy, do you already have a job set up? Right? Because if you don't, then you're not going to be able to get through that loan process of actually moving here and getting through underwriting. If that's something that you are looking to do as far as purchasing. Right? If you have a job that can be mostly virtual, right? And you don't have to move jobs, you're just moving locations, which is pretty cool, right? Like it's 2023, at least at the time of this video, and now you can live wherever you want in this world if you want to by just simply having a computer since the whole pandemic thing kind of put everything virtual. So, definitely check-in with that if that's something you haven't explored and talked to your employer to see if that's something that you could do. But you should know your budget based upon what you're going to get paid here if it's a continuance of what you were prior. Or what that is so that all the financing pieces can come together. Realistically, what I would tell you is if you have questions about that, you contact us or contact a local lender in this area. If you contact us, we're going to give you a local lender in this area depending upon your situation to see if we can help you out there.

 Step 3. Figuring out what your time frame is.

When do you need to get back into your new position, right? If you are working here, if you were retiring out here, right? When do you want to get out here? How long if you have a home to sell is it going to take for that to sell to have the funds to come in here and does that need to sell before I get here. Right? These are all these things that we have to put into consideration as a timeline to get to a certain area. And would you believe that it's a little bit more difficult to find a house in the springtime than it would be saying the fall? Sure, depending upon what you're looking for, right? These are all good questions that you should go to your local real estate professional and ask them, hey, this is my timeline, what's the strategy that we can use in order to make sure that we, if it's just you or you and your family, get what you're looking for. So, making sure you have that and getting a defined timeline and expectations of what to come, especially if you're purchasing a house and you're not just coming here to rent, is really, really important. When it does come to rentals, our rentals here in this area are in very high demand. And just because of the military, it's because of the attraction to this area. Thanks to COVID and then all the other restrictions. There's been a lot of people escaping from different political, I don't know, political places that don't align with their values anymore, and then just start flocking down here to Florida. We've seen that over the couple of years. So again, you want to figure that out so that you can hit the timeline and you don't have any further questions with that.

Step 4. Setting up the move.

Are you going to be moving yourself and your family, who's driving the u haul, or whatever, right? Or are you getting somebody that's moving out here? Some of these people have been booking out for months ahead of time. You want to make sure that you can set that up and get an expectation of the cost. Maybe you want to use a pods sort of system or maybe you want to hire a trucking company to do that. You want to make sure to set up those moves. Obviously, you want to make sure that if you need childcare, that that's set up in your new area. All these different things that you may not be thinking of other than just moving yourself and your family. So, make sure to set that up early, get those and get at least an expectation of what that's going to cost from your location to the next.

Step 5. Arrive, close on that property, sign the lease

Step number five, is obviously arrive, close on that property, sign the lease, whatever that is. You want to make sure that when you get here, you're not sitting around in temporary housing too long? Why? Because it's expensive. It's expensive to be in temporary housing when you live in paradise, right? Because other people are at vacation, you've got all these different people that you're competing with, which of course drives those prices up. So, if you can possibly mitigate that amount of time that you're spending in temporary housing, obviously, the better for you.

Step 6. Change your state residence

And number six that you should know while moving here is you'll want to change your state residence. Depending, maybe you're coming from Alaska and you don't want to do that. Or military and moving to the area and it's just more advantageous to keep it in your current place. But there are good reasons to change your state residence. One, Florida doesn't have any state income tax. Right? Although they're going to get you another taxes as well. However, you don't have the state income tax, which is one less thing. Right? If you do own a home, you'll want to be a Florida state resident because you can file for homestead exemption, which if you're married or single, will give you a certain amount of money off your tax appraised value, which means lower taxes. If you're a disabled veteran or a hundred percent disabled veteran, you don't have to pay any taxes for your property, which is pretty amazing. But there's all these other benefits for being a Florida state residence. So, I highly encourage you to do that.

Alright. And if you need any help with any of these steps, reach out to our team here, we're happy to help. We can guide you through every single one of those and all this little steps in between throughout this entire process. Shameless plug.

But that's all I do have for you for the key things you need to know when moving here to the Emerald Coast of Florida. If you have any questions about anything that I said here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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