Moving to Florida!! Relocation help.

[BigAlsGal]

Hi guys!

I'm pretty sure after years of thinking, debating, and wrestling with our emotions that DH and I are finally ready to relocate our family to Florida.

Of course we will be pinning down DH's job first. He's a software engineer so we're thinking the Orlando area has a pretty good tech job pool to fish from. (It doesn't hurt it's near Disney too ). We plan on leaving most of our belongings behind. All of our furniture is old/cheap not worth dragging down.

I guess we're just worried about our living arrangements. We have a 70lb poodle and 2 cats. We're a family of 5. From what I've witnessed in the housing market houses are flying off the MLS practically as fast as they go up so we aren't hopeful we'll snag our dream home from 700 miles away. Airbnb is a little pricy but they come furnished and pets can join. Renting a home usually has a long term lease which wouldn't work well if we needed to jump on a house really quickly.

I'm just not sure how to make the leap! If you Airbnb what schools do the kids go to? Are there areas of Orlando I should avoid like the plague? Has anyone made a big move with basically nothing but a job and your family in tow?

Note: We've done our research on Florida. We know the weather, bugs, taxes, insurance, and all that jazz. We have savings to fall back on so we're not financially struggling. We just want to know the smartest way to go about relocating while not compromising on a house purchase.

Stories are greatly appreciated. TIA!

 

[momto3pirates]

I can't help with the Florida part, but we relocated from Houston to Colorado last year with 3 kids. We found the school district we wanted the kids to go into first. We found an apartment complex in that district and signed a 9 month lease, all from Houston. After we moved, we started looking for houses in the district. I only wanted my kids to have one school change. This was our first big move ever. It was very scary, but it's been great.
Good luck

 

[BigAlsGal]

I can't help with the Florida part, but we relocated from Houston to Colorado last year with 3 kids. We found the school district we wanted the kids to go into first. We found an apartment complex in that district and signed a 9 month lease, all from Houston. After we moved, we started looking for houses in the district. I only wanted my kids to have one school change. This was our first big move ever. It was very scary, but it's been great.
Good luck

Thank you! This is exactly the type of info I was looking for!

 

[jwfla422]

Hi guys!

I'm pretty sure after years of thinking, debating, and wrestling with our emotions that DH and I are finally ready to relocate our family to Florida.

Of course we will be pinning down DH's job first. He's a software engineer so we're thinking the Orlando area has a pretty good tech job pool to fish from. (It doesn't hurt it's near Disney too ). We plan on leaving most of our belongings behind. All of our furniture is old/cheap not worth dragging down.

I guess we're just worried about our living arrangements. We have a 70lb poodle and 2 cats. We're a family of 5. From what I've witnessed in the housing market houses are flying off the MLS practically as fast as they go up so we aren't hopeful we'll snag our dream home from 700 miles away. Airbnb is a little pricy but they come furnished and pets can join. Renting a home usually has a long term lease which wouldn't work well if we needed to jump on a house really quickly.

I'm just not sure how to make the leap! If you Airbnb what schools do the kids go to? Are there areas of Orlando I should avoid like the plague? Has anyone made a big move with basically nothing but a job and your family in tow?

Note: We've done our research on Florida. We know the weather, bugs, taxes, insurance, and all that jazz. We have savings to fall back on so we're not financially struggling. We just want to know the smartest way to go about relocating while not compromising on a house purchase.

Stories are greatly appreciated. TIA!

I would suggest checking out the city-data dot com message board. This really helped with our move to the Melbourne, FL area (we moved from South FL a few years ago). Although not that far, this really helped us connect with the area and the different areas of town (good, bad, growing areas, etc). We did the big move many years ago when I graduated college and moved from Philly to South FL and started fresh which was a little scary but glad we did it. (although not so sure this week with IRMA knocking our doorstep-still something I DO NOT like at all about FL are the dreaded hurricanes)...anyways we do go to Orlando a lot (mostly to Disney) as we are only an hr from WDW and about 1/2 hour from the east side of Orlando.

There are so many areas to choose from and tons of building going on. Sure there are areas that are "shady" and there is a lot of traffic so be prepared for that, I always stay away from I-4 because it's nuts most of the time but even the secondary roads can be extremely busy.

Schools do get mixed reviews, again depending on the areas. The north area around Winter Park is very quaint and "old" Florida-ish while the east side near Alafaya Trail/Waterford Lakes in a somewhat newer area south of UCF. Clermont is a newer area (close to Disney on the southwest end of town) and Windermere is very pretty (west side) as well.

As far as rentals go you should be able to find shorter term (5-7 mths) in an apt complex and there are tons of those. Many home rentals do have a year minimum but that can vary as well depending on the HOA rules (or if there is an HOA). But check out that message board I mentioned earlier, good luck!

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

There's a lot of areas in orlando that don't allow short term rentals so if you're looking for something less than the minimum (can't remember if it's 6 months or a year) that may impact areas.

There's not a huge tech sector here. There are jobs but so many are 6 mos. contract gigs so be prepared for that.

Good luck.

 

[BigAlsGal]

There's a lot of areas in orlando that don't allow short term rentals so if you're looking for something less than the minimum (can't remember if it's 6 months or a year) that may impact areas.

There's not a huge tech sector here. There are jobs but so many are 6 mos. contract gigs so be prepared for that.

Good luck.

Compared to our current area jobs in Orlando seem infinite! Lol. Maybe we'll realize something different. The good thing is we don't plan on making any moves until he has a good offer. What throws a big wrench in our works is the animals. Places just don't like pets.

 

[low-key]

Tell Big Al his Gal needs all 4 seasons

 

[BigAlsGal]

Tell Big Al his Gal needs all 4 seasons

Nooooo! I've had all 4 my whole life. They're all great except winter. Lol.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

I would look at Orange and Seminole counties for schools... avoid Osceola and Polk counties (which is where short-term renting is legal). Orange County minimum rental is 7 months.

Orlando has a lot of great areas and plenty of bad ones too. You're definitely going to want to choose an area based on where your DH works because commuting, especially now that I-4 is under a major overhaul, can be a serious pain.

Some of the best suburbs are: Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Heathrow, and Maitland. Orlando itself has a lot of nice neighborhoods closer to downtown: Audubon Park, Delaney Park/Lake Cherokee, Thornton Park, College Park, and Lake Eola Heights. Avoid Pine Hills, Millenia, Oak Ridge, Kirkman/MetroWest, and Parramore.

 

[gillep]

We have made 3 big moves in the past 10 years and I have found that most places, not all of course, if you are willing to pay a bit more, you can find shorter term apartment rentals. Some may be fully furnished 'corporate' types, that would require you to store your things (we have done this multiple times whether in corporate housing, or housing that did not accommodate all of our furniture), but I have also always been able to find unfurnished, short term rental, apartments too, they just come at a price, and may not be in the area you want, as they aren't plentiful. I have also rented apartments that had 'less painful' lease breaking requirements, and took the rental with the understanding that my husband and I would be comfortable breaking the lease, and paying whatever penalties, if we found an ideal long term solution, just make sure to fully read and understand your lease.

Pets do complicate things, I have always had a much harder time finding a house to rent with our dog than an apartment. I also agree with looking close to wherever your husband can find a job, as commuting can seriously wear on both the commuter and those waiting for the commuter to get home every night.

I wish your husband lots of luck, my husband is also a software engineer so we discuss 'tech centers' quite a bit, especially now as I am itching to move again! We have never seen the Orlando area as big for software engineering, but there are certainly options.

 

[BigAlsGal]

I would look at Orange and Seminole counties for schools... avoid Osceola and Polk counties (which is where short-term renting is legal). Orange County minimum rental is 7 months.

Orlando has a lot of great areas and plenty of bad ones too. You're definitely going to want to choose an area based on where your DH works because commuting, especially now that I-4 is under a major overhaul, can be a serious pain.

Some of the best suburbs are: Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Heathrow, and Maitland. Orlando itself has a lot of nice neighborhoods closer to downtown: Audubon Park, Delaney Park/Lake Cherokee, Thornton Park, College Park, and Lake Eola Heights. Avoid Pine Hills, Millenia, Oak Ridge, Kirkman/MetroWest, and Parramore.

Thank you so much! If anyone can think of any schools to avoid that would help too. My kids will be in middle and high school. I've been looking at school ratings. It's hard to tell from that. My kids current schools are a 5(high school) and a 7(elementary). I had no idea the high school was so low. It's a great school and many generations of family have gone there so I hate judging schools by scores alone.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Thank you so much! If anyone can think of any schools to avoid that would help too. My kids will be in middle and high school. I've been looking at school ratings. It's hard to tell from that. My kids current schools are a 5(high school) and a 7(elementary). I had no idea the high school was so low. It's a great school and many generations of family have gone there so I hate judging schools by scores alone.

Usually the bad schools correlate with the bad areas. For Orange County, I know a few of the best high schools are Dr. Phillips, Winter Park, Olympia and Boone. Seminole County overall has a good reputation for schools but I don't know specifics.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I can't help with Orlando per se, but like a PP we've made several moves for jobs so I can answer from that standpoint. Our last move was literally arriving with 4 suitcases each (us and 2 kids who had just turned 10 and 12) and starting from scratch here. Like that PP we narrowed down where we wanted the kids to go to school and only looked for rentals there. We were not trying for short term rentals though----we figured we'd rent while they were in school, get to know the areas well then buy where we want to have a "forever home" once they graduated---so they would not be forced to make another change. We knew we did not plan to leave this region relatively quickly after getting here.
And that is exactly what we did. Had a rental townhome for 8 years. Moved in January and suffered through getting DS18 to school in spite of a commute for half a year (we knew he could finish out where he was at even with the move and that is when the building construction was done) and now we are in a little town I love and very specifically chose to live in, DH has a 5 minute commute to his office when he is there and the drive to the airport (he travels a lot) is down to 35 minutes. I'm really glad we did not rush into buying something where we thought we'd want to live when we first moved. It took a while to really get to know the areas well and the traffic patterns, etc to learn what would work best for us.

 

[BigAlsGal]

I can't help with Orlando per se, but like a PP we'Ve made several moves for jobs so I can answre from that standpoint. Our last move was literally arrving with 4 suitcases each (us and 2 kids who had jsut turned 10 and 12) and starting from scratch here. Like that PP we narrowed down where we wanted the kids to go to school and only look for rentals there. We were not trying for short term rentals though----we figured we'd reant while they were in school, get to know the areas well then buy where we want ot have a "forever home" once they graudated---so tehy would not be forced to make another change. We knew we did not plan to leave this region relatievly quickly after getting here.
And that is exactly what we did. Had a rental townhome for 8 years. Moved in January and suffered through get DS18 to school in spite of a commute from for half a year (we knew he could finish out where he was at even with teh move and that is when the building construction was done) and now we are in a little town I love and very specifically chose to live in, DH has a 5 minute commute to his office when he is there and the drive to the airport (he travels a lot) is down to 35 minutes. I'm really glad we did not rush into buying something where we thought we'd want to live when we first moved. It took a while to really get to know the areas well and the traffic patterns, etc to learn what would work best for us.

Great advice! Thank you.

 

[Micca]

Jealous, that's all...just jealous. Good luck with the move!

 

[QueenIsabella]

I guess I'm not understanding the need to move now, as opposed to a few years out. Your DH doesn't have a job in the area, and you don't mention what your dissatisfaction is with your current location. Personally, I would only move a HS-aged child if I absolutely had to. A child that age is working towards college and career, not to mention very involved with activities and the social scene, typically. Starting over in a new environment is difficult. That said, we did move twice with kids in middle school (in 2008, when my older two were starting 6th and 8th, and again in 2015, when #3 was starting 7th). Not gonna lie, these moves were hard on the whole family, especially the MS kids. In the case of our 2015 move, DH went ahead in May, the rest of us followed in July, after my older son graduated HS. We absolutely had to move--DH's job ended. We gave consideration to moving sooner, but older DS really didn't want to switch HS midstream, and I couldn't blame him.

Bottom line, if you don't have a compelling reason to move now, I wouldn't.

 

[gotomu212]

Aren't you going to have a hard time registering your kids for school without a rental lease? I'm sure every district is different but here you need a utility bill or rental lease proving residency to get your kids into school. There are exceptions for kids that are homeless/living in a hotel but that requires social workers to be involved.

 

[HarperLeigh]

I would never voluntarily move a kid that is in high school on nothing more than a whim.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Aren't you going to have a hard time registering your kids for school without a rental lease? I'm sure every district is different but here you need a utility bill or rental lease proving residency to get your kids into school. There are exceptions for kids that are homeless/living in a hotel but that requires social workers to be involved.

OP, to tack onto this I wouldn't do the AirBnB route unless you're doing it over the summer. I think the above poster is right, they're going to need a proof of residency. I'd just narrow down where he's going to be working/desired school district and then either rent an apartment or a house. Lots of apartments in Orlando are pet friendly. I'm sure there are plenty of individual landlords that are too.

 

[Feralpeg]

Where you live should be based on where your husband gets a job. Orlando is not a fun city to commute. The traffic is intense. Most highways are toll roads. Once he finds a job, give me a shout and I'll try to give you any info I have.

You are right about the housing market. My sister and I eached owned homes in Windermere. We decided to sell them and build one house and move in together. Both our homes sold in less than a week. We had to find temporary housing to rent until I house was ready. It was tricky. We have a golden retriever and two cats. We are finally in our new home, so it was worth it, but I wouldn't want to do it again.