where should you live in florida
so you've set your target on living in florida but you're not quite certain where maybe the west
coast maybe the east coast this video is about helping you figure out what makes sense for you to
live in by taking a much more strategic approach so that you have an easier time to make a decision
based on all these different criteria that we're going to get into my name is katrin pfitzenreiter
i'm a real estate agent here in sarasota florida this channel is all about florida information
insights and destination including real estate information as it relates to sarasota county if
you haven't subscribed subscribe and let's get right into this video number one cost of living
affordability so i think it's important that you look at the affordability of living in a certain
place maybe you have three or four different places that are of interest to you but perhaps one
or two of these places don't make financial sense for you based on your budget because real estate
prices are too expensive so for example if you're going between clearwater st petersburg sarasota
and naples and these are typically four of the areas that a lot of my buyers will choose from
and you're on a strict budget then naples can automatically already fall off your list
most likely because real estate prices are much more expensive there so when it comes to looking
at affordability there's a few buckets that you really need to kind of investigate to figure out
if it makes financial sense for you right so if you're purchasing real estate then of course get
acquainted with the real estate prices if you're not purchasing real estate let's just say you're
looking at rent understand what the rental market is like and you can tap into places such as zillow
or apartments.com or even talk to a real estate agent to have a better idea of what money can get
you in the different areas that you're interested in the real estate or rent is probably going to
be one of the largest financial burdens on you there's other expenses that you're going to have
to consider so if you're purchasing real estate property let's just say you have an hoa what is
that hoa going to look like you have to factor in property taxes typically it's about one percent of
the assessed value add in your utilities expense on average for florida home it's about 500 a month
and that includes charges such as electric gas trash removal water you also want to add in the
cost of health care groceries and entertainment now a website i feel is very helpful just to get
a directional view is bestplaces.com you type in the place you're moving from to the place you're
moving to what your income is currently and the website tells you what your income needs to be in
order to have that same standard of living where you're moving from i did the simulation on the
website just to kind of see what it would be like if you were moving from manhattan to sarasota at
200 000 income and so basically what the website came back with was that a 200 000 salary in
manhattan in order to have that same standard of living here in sarasota you need to just mix
no wonder a lot of people from manhattan are so crazy to move down to florida one because of the
weather but also it's so much more affordable to them number two is employment unless you're
retired most of us are going to have to work for a living the majority of us are still going to be
having to travel to work if you're choosing between these different places that you can
live in then one of the ways to kind of narrow down the list the options is to determine if
there's employment opportunities in those places for you and how do you go about researching this
information you can start off with an online search look at employment websites such as
glassdoor.com linkedin is really good indeed.com to see all of the job opportunities that are
currently listed that'll also give you insights as to kind of the salary range so much information to
tap into online but i also suggest that once you have a good idea of the places that you're really
considering moving to is to contact the local employment office they'll be more than happy
to answer any questions that you have i'm sure in most cases you can even meet with the consultant
at these offices they'll have the deepest most insightful information when it comes to the
current job situation number three is culture and what i mean by that is you want to figure out if
you're going to like living there based on your interests maybe you're somebody that loves to see
a theater piece you love the arts then you would want to make sure that you have that accessible to
you i would imagine right if you find a place that is affordable but there's really not much to do
then maybe that's not the place for you especially when there's other options out there so how do you
find out if a place is really in line with kind of what you like to do one of the first
places i would tap into is tripadvisor.com tripadvisor.com is so great because it
actually lists all the major attractions in a particular place it's mainly for people who are
traveling as tourists but i actually also think it gives you a lot of insights as to what there
is to do in the area and that's ultimately the information that you're trying to get to number
four is happiness and desirability you want to make sure that the place you decide to move to
is a place that you can actually see yourself living in you're going to be happy there
now you've done some initial research in terms of understanding what the culture is like but i think
there's more to that and that is to really kind of understand what the city the town the neighborhood
that you chose to live in is like one of your best options is to actually rent for short period time
really to get understanding of what it could be like to live in a place more long term what
you're essentially wanting to do is to test drive it you're really simulating for the short term
would it be like to go about your life in that destination so if you're happy doing that then
the likelihood of that place being it for you is far greater versus not really understanding what
you're getting yourself into number five is crime most likely that not you want to live somewhere
that is safe and so i get questioned all the time realtors are not supposed to answer that question
because we're not supposed to steer you in one way or another but also safety is subjective so what i
feel is safe you may not actually think is safe at all so what i would do is go to a website called
spotcrime.com to get an initial idea of the safety in a particular location but even better than that
is to call the local police station and ask them especially when you're already interested in a few
neighborhoods in a particular city or town and they'll be able to get you the most insightful
information you'll have somebody that can answer questions for you as well number six is quality of
education this is predominantly important to those of you who have children many of you are going
to want to live in a place that has a really good school system a lot of the information is readily
available to you online for example you can tap into niche.com and do this initial research
you also have the option to go directly to a local school rep and talk about the educational program
and get the details directly from somebody who's a representative in the school system
so this is going to be extremely helpful for you to tap into especially if you're somebody
that says well the education of my child is going to be what's going to drive my relocation
decision lastly is healthcare if healthcare is important to you and to most of us it is i do
know a few people who are very young and they don't really seem to be thinking about this
right now but the majority of you who are going to be moving to florida are probably going to be
over 30 and up i would say that's the bulk of who are currently moving into florida more likely than
not health care is going to be something that you're going to give more thought to so that's
the case that you would want to make sure that wherever you're moving to that you have good
assets to health care one of the reasons why a lot of retirees especially will choose sarasota
is because of our health care options here in one of the best hospitals in the us namely sarasota
memorial hospital there's other health care facilities that are rated really highly here
check the health care situation and if you can talk to locals and get an understanding from them
in terms of what their healthcare experience has been like especially for those that need
certain types of treatments inside information is always going to be the best versus reading
articles or even watching videos though doing that is going to be your initial phase in the
research stage and that shouldn't be overlooked if you enjoyed this video please do me a favor
and like this video if you haven't subscribed to this channel please subscribe to this channel if
you're looking for real estate in sarasota county i would love to team up with you call me email
me anytime thank you so much for hanging out with me today watching this video and take care