Ep.42 "Moving to Florida? Here's What Nobody Tells You Before You Make the Move"

🎙️ Real Estate UnRaked Episode #42

Moving to Florida? Here's What Nobody Tells You Before You Make the Move

Thinking about relocating to Florida? Before you pack the moving truck and trade snow boots for flip-flops, there's a lot more you need to know than what you see on social media.

In Episode 42 of Real Estate UnRaked, host Eric Rakers is joined by Dane Coussens, Bridget Hodges, and Jaycee Crawford for an honest, entertaining, and eye-opening conversation about what it's really like to move to the Sunshine State in 2026.

From skyrocketing insurance premiums and property taxes to HOA rules, hurricane preparedness, flood zones, traffic, schools, and hidden homeownership costs, the team dives into the realities that many out-of-state buyers discover only after they've already moved.

If you're considering relocating to Fleming Island, Jacksonville, Orange Park, Green Cove Springs, St. Johns County, or anywhere in Northeast Florida, this episode could save you thousands of dollars—and a lot of headaches.

In This Episode:

✅ The biggest misconceptions people have about moving to Florida
 ✅ The true cost of homeownership beyond your mortgage payment
 ✅ Florida insurance challenges and what buyers need to know
 ✅ Flood zones explained in simple terms
 ✅ HOA and CDD fees—worth it or waste of money?
 ✅ Why Northeast Florida continues to attract families and retirees
 ✅ Hidden expenses most relocation buyers never plan for
 ✅ Schools, commuting, lifestyle, and quality-of-life considerations
 ✅ What Californians, New Yorkers, and other transplants say after moving here
 ✅ Expert tips for making a smooth relocation without costly mistakes

Whether you're relocating for work, retirement, military transfer, better weather, lower taxes, or simply a fresh start, this episode delivers real-world insight from local real estate professionals who help buyers make the move every single day.

Why Northeast Florida Continues to Grow

Despite higher insurance costs and changing market conditions, Northeast Florida remains one of the most desirable regions in the country thanks to its strong economy, beautiful communities, top-rated schools, proximity to beaches, outdoor lifestyle, and diverse housing options.

If you're wondering whether Florida is still worth the move in 2026, this episode gives you the answers no relocation guide will.

🎧 Subscribe to Real Estate UnRaked for weekly insights on Florida real estate, housing market trends, buying and selling strategies, mortgage updates, new construction communities, relocation advice, and everything happening across Northeast Florida.

📲 Thinking about moving to Northeast Florida? Reach out to The Rakers Home Group for local expertise and guidance before you make your move.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Everybody talks about the beaches. Everybody talks about the sunshine. Everybody talks about the no state income tax. And everyone's got that friend posting pictures in January while they're still sitting by a pool and everyone back home is scraping off ice off their windshield. But here's what nobody talks about the insurance bill, the humidity, the hurricanes, the property taxes, of course, and all the little things that people call us six months after moving here and say, why didn't anyone tell me about this before we bought? The truth is, Florida can be an incredible place to live. But if you're only looking at the highlight reels, you're missing half the story. So today we're actually going to give you guys the real version the good, the bad, the expensive, and the stuff that catches almost every transplant person completely off guard. So grab your coffee or something stronger and let's unrank it.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

All right. All right, all right. Episode 42. What's up?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

So today last week, since you weren't here, you know, I always record your let's do it. Right. All right, because that's just I I like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

And I caught the girls in the back going right after we started the whole thing, and they're like laughing, going, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, let's do it. You can do it. Do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah. We're doing our own version. I am glad to have you back this week, buddy. We missed you. Glad to be back. Like crazy. Well, I'm glad to be here. So I don't have to do a wife joke this week. Dane's taking the roll back over. So Dane, what do you got, buddy? All right. Do you even have a wife joke today?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

I do. Imagine that. So it's my wife's birthday next week, and she's been leaving jewelry catalogs all over our house.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Smart woman.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

So I got her a magazine rack.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

If that were me, I'd be like, really? What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

All right. Well, what's the difference between a poorly dressed man on a tricycle and a well-dressed man on a bicycle? A tire?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Attire.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Oh my goodness. Oh my God. That was good. That was good. It took me a second.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

I'm glad.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

But that was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Thanks. I'm getting better again. Last couple weeks have just been not good for Eric.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

This one I laughed out loud at. We'll see. That's it. Yesterday, I couldn't figure out if someone was waving at me or the person behind me. In other news, I lost my lifeguard job.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Oh no. Yep, that'll do it.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Like imagine you're just sitting there and you're like, me? Me? Guy, what?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah. Oh my gosh. JC, what do you got for us this week?

SPEAKER_03 2:52

All right. How much does it cost this one with chirks? An arm and a leg.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Wow. That goes along. We should have like the survival with JC. Yeah, no kidding. Talking about skydiving.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Yeah. Parachute ones.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, I need a sk a parachute twice if you want to go skydiving twice. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. Well, since we're talking about, you know, arm and a leg, let's jump right into the insurance. That costs your arm and a leg. Yeah, that cross with the arm and a leg. It surprises almost every buyer moving to Florida. Okay. People see no income tax and they think, oh, we're about to save a fortune. And then they get an insurance quote, and suddenly we're having a completely different conversation. The reality is insurance isn't just part of your payment in Florida, but often one of the most biggest ones. So insurance itself obviously you can big box insurance companies. Right. We've seen so much evolution with that. You're seeing a lot of like smaller insurance companies come to Florida. That brings it to be more affordable. But you know, what's the biggest insurance surprise you've seen buyers experience right now?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Roof repairs, probably. That's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Yeah, I would think so.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Because, you know, they got the age restriction now. Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

So we I ran into that personally. I was gonna say that, yeah, probably roof. Um my per my home's in 84 or 87, and I was one year away from not being able to get someone's insurance because of my roof.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

So I think that, yeah, that's a big surprise for people. And the house isn't really that old.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

How about flood insurance? You don't know if you really need it or not, and all of a sudden flood insurance comes up.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Realizing you're in the flood zone.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

It's important to check the FEMA map 100% whenever you're dealing with any property here in Florida because there may not be any water near you. And guess what? Surprise, you're in a flood zone. You're like, what the heck? It happens.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

It happens. Sometimes flood insurance is required for certain policies, depending on which one you're liking.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

And where you're at.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

And where you're at. So sometimes it can be a requirement, and that's completely separate.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

So those are homeowners insurance. Those are some of the the biggest experiences we'll see that home buyers will see down here in Florida when it comes to that. But how do you prevent yourself to kind of get past this and be proactive and get past the insurance like shocker, sticker shocker thing?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Discuss it early on.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah. Discuss early on, get quotes before making an offer.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

You know, again, have enough money set aside.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

And I mean it's usually included, but you know, just in case.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Usually it's i I mean, the escrow payments included, but your initial payment, they'll give you an estimate.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

And then you have to go out and and dig and find it. Because anything that's financed, it does require the the insurance, the insurance to be bonded. Because you'll see like on Zillow, Redfin, Homes.com, anywhere else, they're not going to have that. They'll have an estimated and it's a pretty low margin. And don't trust those algorithms. Oh no. Get get with an insurance agent.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Especially here in Florida, because you can live in the next neighborhood over and it's totally different than the neighborhood, right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Three to five quotes. Yeah. What's another thing that you can do to keep your insurance low?

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Get multiple insurance companies, go to different ones.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

You can do that. Yeah. But looking at the product itself, what are you insuring? A home, right? Right. Buy new. Usually the first five years it's under $1,000 a month, no matter where you're at.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Except uh probably on the water, but like these new communities and stuff like that, people are getting insurance for anywhere between $750 to $900 a year, you know, versus a home that's been built since 2002.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

And that's like $19 to $3,000, $1,900 to $3,000 a month.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

I can't believe 2002 was 24 years ago. Sorry, I just had that like thought of like.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Oh my goodness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Like, doesn't that just like hit you? Sorry, that was kind of my squirrel moment. It just kind of hit me. I'm like, that's 24 years ago. I felt like that wasn't that long ago.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

It doesn't feel like that long, girl. So Dane, we I I know you were going to bring up roof impact and you know, some of the inspections and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Right. I mean, like we already discussed a little bit about the roof age, you know. Home homeowners insurance varies depending. You know, some will cover total costs depending on how much you want to pay, and some will prorate it and give you a portion of whatever. So you got to be on top of that and definitely look at the fine print on the contract.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

And then we touched on flood zones, something I wanted to bring up. And again, we always check, no matter where the house is, always check the FEMA mount just to be safe. Because again, it may not be any water around you, but guess what? You're in a flood zone.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

That's not a number you just want sprung upon you either. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

And another thing about roofs as well is the wind mitigation. We get these storms that come through here and the wind mitigation inspection is huge because you'll never know it. And then they look up there and all of a sudden you need a new roof.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So yeah, like whenever you're going and doing showings on homes and stuff like that, we we we talk about this. And the first thing that I see as soon as I pull up, I mean, yeah, they get we have we have metal roofs down here, we have tile roofs down here, but the most type of roof that we hit we see is a asphalt shingled roof. Yeah. Have a different wind rating than an architectural shingle. An architectural shingle has a little bit of design to it where it's got different shapes and sizes on each sheet that it has. And if you do a traditional three tab, I think it's rated for like up to 70 mile an hour winds. And the lifespan on it is anywhere between 15 to 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

15 to 20, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

And then you get into an architectural shingle, which is a little bit thicker shingle, that's rated up to 140 mile an hour winds, and it can have an age life expensive up to 30 years.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Yeah, up to 30.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So those are important things, and that's usually conversation that I had right out of the gate with a customer when we come back, hey guys, I I noticed this is what I see right away. And it's it's a great time to actually explain that because outside you got nothing but visual aids. Yeah. Oh, see, this one here is architectural, the one that's across the street, it's a three-tab, and that guy down the road looks like he's got a metal roof, which I don't know how you got away with that from the HOA, but here we are. So those those are really, really, really nice things to be able to pay attention to for your customer. And also, why would you think insurance carriers would actually care about your electrical and your plumbing system?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Because in Florida, we got older plumb lines, if you will, that are copper in it. Cast iron. Cast iron. That's what it was. Sorry, brain fart there. Yeah, no, no. And they need to update them, and they're the older homes, you still find those. And then even houses with aluminum wiring, believe it or not. As a matter of fact, one of my first sales years ago was an aluminum wired home. Was it really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

I've seen a lot in downtown Jacksonville specifically, I've seen a lot of cloth wiring still.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Yeah, cloth, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

I'm like, oh my goodness. And you have a cast iron under the sink.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

I'm like, right, and you gotta make sure. And it's hard to get insurance on those too.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Well, with those aluminum wiring is you just need to have those connectors. You don't have to go into every section and rewire house. You can get away with it by doing what they call uh alumicon connectors.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

You do them in all those switches, all the outlets, and then at the fuse block.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Because when aluminum heats up, it heats up differently than copper does.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Cloth wiring, that's not so much luck there.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

No, that one it's just you can assume that freaking just get just change it all.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yep. So and that polybupylane piping that they had that's different than PVC, those are all usually were in manufactured homes. Those can't be insured. No, that's a no cannot be. So that's a big no no. So we pay attention for that too. Just get a couple quotes for insurance. Same time. Do it annually.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Shop it annually. I always do that.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

And I've, you know, I've heard people in the past, even you know, growing up, you know, my grandparents and my mom and dad have been with the same insurance guy for 25 years. Well, uh, does the rates gone up? Have they checked it? Have you made sure that he's staying within the market? Shop it every year. Let's talk about the next thing. The heat is different.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

It's so different.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So it's funny. My my family's traveling from Illinois. They're down here this week, and we were at Disney. We went to Hollywood Studios yesterday. And they're like, man, it's just hot.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah. It's just uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

And I said, you know, it's not 90 degrees, but yes, it's hot.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

And it's a different kind of hot.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

The sun kisses you different. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

The sun's stronger down here. The humidity hits ya.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

But yeah, if you think you know Florida heat, you don't. You know, if you visit this place in March, that's one thing. That's not Florida. That's Florida on its best beat. No, no. Because seriously, when August hits, it's where the real energy is going to start with that. It does get hot. The humidity kicks it in gear, too. There's there's nothing to be walking around, especially at a theme park or something. Right. Or even in your backyard, and you got that sitting air. The wind doesn't blow very much down here as it you can get it on the coast. Right. I remember in Illinois. You know, we a light breezy day was 15, 20 mile-hour winds.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Well, here, you know, the you can get up at six o'clock in the morning and the humidity is like a 250%. I mean, you can't breathe walking out the door during the summer.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Expect the mornings to be still warm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

And no wind. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

No wind. And so you're like, I mean, it's better than you being in the sun right at noon, but just expect that. It's not going to happen. Everybody front loads their days really early in the morning or after when the sun's not as hot. So you really o'clock. Yep. You're not doing much during the day.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Well, that's why you know people play golf. This is the offseason in the summertime.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

That's why people play golf early in the morning and then you get tea time at seven, yeah. Yeah, you get those discounted tea times after two o'clock. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

You gotta watch out for your utility bills. Yeah. Just consider that, right? Yeah. There's no more, I'm just gonna crack the window open because I want fresh air. I want to air out my house. No, you don't do that in Florida heat. You trap the cold air as much as you can.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

You're not kidding. And you know, the funny thing is, buyers start looking at homes differently once they lived here.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

You know, shade is like a commodity. I mean, it's big time. You know, one of the reasons I picked the house that we're in right now is the fact that my backyard faces the east. So I can enjoy my backyard in the afternoons.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

That's smart because the sun's rising.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yep. So I tell all my people, as a matter of fact, I almost had a buyer last weekend or the weekend before it was. They were looking at a house, fell in love with it, and I said, one thing I want to point out to you, the backyard faces the west. Is that something you won't do in the summer? And they're like, Oh, we didn't even think about that. So we're still looking.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

That's really smart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

That's great. Because that covered that covered patio on a sunset in the west. You don't get to enjoy that in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

No, you can't. You can't cook out. Even if you have a pool like I do. Right. A pool, you can't even enjoy that in the afternoons because the pool's 150 degrees in the afternoon on it.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

It turns into a hot tub, but you don't even need to get a heater for it. The sun's heating it up for you.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

You got a pool cooler. Yeah, seriously. Seriously.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

Well, that's how it is in Texas. My parents are there and they don't leave the heater on. Like they have it if they need it.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

But they're turning on the cooler.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

They're cooling it down.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah, the winter time would be the only time you really have to. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Yeah. I mean, heat isn't just about comfort. It's about operating costs too. Like we were talking about the utility bills, maintaining your HVAC system. I mean, now that it gets hotter, I personally like switch it out a little bit like now every like two months instead of three or four. Right. So I kind of do that. Like we were saying, how the home is orientated, right? Like if you want the morning and you have the sun in the east, that's nice. That's better than having it set in the west. There's a lot of energy saving stuff out there that you can get to update with your home.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

So yeah. Absolutely. Insulation's a big deal for sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

That too. Florida heat isn't weather. It's a personality trait.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Ain't that the trait? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Sometimes it's a little temperamental.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yep. No doubt. So what are some of the things you guys see with the people that just moved to Florida? I guarantee you can point them out in the wintertime.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Oh, yeah. They're in shorts.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah, no doubt. Well, I I got a funny story. My first two years here, I moved down here in 2000, and I'm walking around in shorts, and like you said, maybe a long sleeve shirt, not a sweatshirt, but just a long sleeve shirt. And I'm like, you know, it's 58, 60 degrees, and people got their heavy jackets on and stuff. I'm like, what is wrong with these people? You know what? Two years after my blood thinned out, yeah, I'm wearing one of them heavy jackets.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

Your body self-regulates. Yeah. You don't realize that your blood thins out. And so now I'm you're like, oh yeah, it's a breezy 70 degree day, kind of cloudy. And I'm like, ooh, I could use a sweater.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

Yep. It's so funny. What are we looking at right now? 84 degrees right now. High of 87. You're wearing jeans. Cloudy.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Yeah, JC's in jeans. They've got ribs.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

No, if I'm doing showings in the summer, there's no way. Yeah, no way. It's dresses only. Like you can't. It's 100%. Showing houses, middle of the day. Peak heat. Same here, JC.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Same here. Dresses only. Dresses only.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Well, like yeah, shorts are despairable.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

But Dane likes the flow. The flow.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

But 65 degrees, once you you're used to that 85, 65, it's it feels cold. It's chilly. It's chilly.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

It does.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

It'll get you.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah. No doubt. So yeah, definitely. You know, the sun is awesome. Everything's awesome. But you do, there is, there is a learning curve.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Well, there is, and it takes a little bit, you know, uh to get. I mean, it took me a couple years to figure out, hey, this afternoon heat is miserable. During you know, but that being said, Jacksonville, especially, best weather, eight, eight, seven and a half, eight months out of the year.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

And you can't get any better weather.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Jacksonville is the only spot in Florida. I believe this with my whole heart, is the only spot in Florida where you can actually have a couple months to cool off.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

Well, like it's so nice and it feels like a little fall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

You've got a little bit of a season change here in Northeast Florida.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Exactly. That's what I love about here. It's like you can't get a little break from the heat, right? Miami never stops. It's a consistent and then it goes higher in the summer, and you're like, oh my gosh, what am I doing here? You know? So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Well, besides the the lovely sun, you also have the other thing that everybody freaks out about. And we're gonna talk about the real story with that is hurricanes.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Because I tell you, every relocation conversation always eventually gets here. And it's usually right after or in the the same conversation as the flood zone conversations. And honestly, most people imagine, you know, a disaster movie, you know, all the stuff they've seen down over in Louisiana and the things they've seen down in the Miami in the past, like everything's flooding, we're all gonna die, and it's you know, you're never gonna have anything left of your home. Let me tell you that we probably have storms down here on a normal day that there's no warnings for, that that hits you harder than we've had in the last probably four hurricanes here in Northeast. Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

I yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, and it's it's really honestly between the two, it's it's the reality of a hurricane, it's all based on preparation and being prepared for something like that. And that should be a much bigger story than the storm itself. Right. And it kind of is because that's why it gets talked about a lot.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Well, the news coverage, if you ever watch that, they always talk about preparation, hurricane season's coming up. Now, the good news here in Northeast Florida, in Jacksonville, especially, is we're in that little pocket. Yeah. And that pocket somehow detours the hurricanes out to the sea or makes them go. I don't know how it works, but like they turn.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

So it's either going to skip below us and and go west, or it's just gonna turn north and go up and hit the Carolinas.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

Because what was it? The 20 uh 2024, right? There was that hurricane that hit Tampa really bad, and then the other one that hit the Carolinas, remember? And I thought that both of those hurricanes, they just split like Jacksonville, it just left us alone. All we got was like the arm of it, but by then it already slowed down because it was hitting land. Yeah, and it drastically reduces once it hits land, the storm.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Well, yeah, usually most of the time when it hits land, it they they go down fast. Because I know that big one that that was like a cat four.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

It hit Tampa last year. Yeah, yeah. The year before, because we didn't have any hurricanes last year.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yeah, it hit Tampa, it got into the bay. Cedar Key got tore up.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

And then as soon as it hit solid landfall, the I did, it went from a four to like a three and then a one. Right. And then believe it or not, there was more damage up in southern Georgia off the Carolina Mountains before or the I-75 corridor than there was in Jacksonville. There was. It skirted right up that way.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

All of us are prepared no matter what, because you never know.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Well, that's what most Floridians do. They're preparing, and that's a huge difference once you prepare. I mean Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

Like maybe you get a little generator if you want.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Well, we got a whole house generator.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

It depends on you know, but you may want to take that into consideration. Storm kits is very storm kits, you know, have a bunch of batteries on hand, lights for your pets, your kids, with anything.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Trim your trees beforehand. If you hear a storm coming, get those loose branches or road branches. Yeah, no kids.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

100%. You know, yeah. I mean, I think one of the biggest misunderstandings too, when it comes to this, is like again, like going back to the flood zone part. Check your FEMA map. There's different levels. I actually like pulled it up because I was curious. I'm not gonna say all of them, but it's so easy to look up. Oh gosh, I didn't even use the phone password.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

There's a difference between the the numerical evacuation zones than it is to a flood zone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Correct. Yeah. And like knowing how to evacuate when you get out.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

I mean, there's signs posted everywhere. There is.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Where there is, but and as long as you've been down here after you lived here, because you know, I'm a transplant Florida resident. I've been down here for since 2010. So wow, I can't believe it's going on 16 years.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, I've been here since 2000. But I've been here coming all my life, though. I had family down here. So growing up, I'd come down here three or four times. Yeah. But a year.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

You know, yeah, I I've lived through the the Midwestern tornado era. And I mean, I that that comes in fast without warning. I think those are worse than hurricanes. To me.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

I agree because you don't know they're coming until they're there.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Yeah, and they can grow in drastically. It's quick, it's fast.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

This one's long drag out, and that's that's what makes that dangerous along coastlines. And if you're not prepared and you don't leave this and that, and you don't take care of your house, because I usually you get past Orlando from the East Coast, West Coast down, then you get into homes that are built a little bit differently. You're gonna see more cinder block homes, you're gonna see storm shutters that are built into the home. You'll see a lot of other things that help protect your investment. So it's not like your home is there's a hurricane coming, and if it hits your area, even if it does hit your area, it's not like you're gonna get there and it's gonna be leveled, like we know the movie Twister. Yeah. It's yeah, it's it's not. And most of the time you just gotta know your areas, your flood zones, stuff like that, the evacuation stuff when it comes to a storm, those usually are the first low-lining areas that's gonna pick up a storm surge or do anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

You know, I used to my grandmother calls me all the time, family up north too as well. We had that hurricane. Oh, it's it's hitting St. Augustine. You better get out of there. I'm worried about that storm surge. Yes. I am almost an hour away from from that storm.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

Yeah. I we I yeah, I I got a handful of texts too. People were asking, are you guys okay with the hurricane? Back in 2024, I'm like, you guys don't even get it. Like, we've been in rainstorms worse than this. I mean, I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

If I get water that's gonna be rising to my front yard, all of Florida's going down. All of Florida's gone and half of North America. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

So no, my favorite saying is a Floridian can sleep through a hurricane up until the fans turn off.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Yeah, that's when the problem sets in.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, we're all good, and then the power goes out, and we're like, we're all gonna die!

SPEAKER_03 23:49

No, no, the fan turns off, you're like, oh no, maybe this is this is real, this is really happening. No hurricane party anymore. Like fans are like snow fan.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah. Well, do you that's a great question. You know, why do we get so upset about that?

SPEAKER_03 24:01

It's hot. Yes, the humidity is actually airflow right before that hurricane. The humidity's nice, it's like non-existent. It's nice and cold with storm, but no, fans turn off, it's a different story.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yep, yep, you don't want to sulk and sit in it.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Ew. Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

All right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break from our content here, and I'm gonna jump into a new game I created for you guys.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

New game time. And I need I need to find it. I don't know where it went. We're gonna find it. Okay, I found it. Are you ready? All right, let's see what you got.

SPEAKER_04 24:46

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Let's do it. It's called Welcome to Florida. So now what? Real. All right, so I'm going to uh present some issues, and you guys are gonna have to tell me. Um, A. Is it normal Florida life? B California transplant meltdown.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

A they're back.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

They're back. Or C, immediate trip back to Ohio.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

And then our term is Bridget, we can use Illinois.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Yeah. Yeah, well we can we can poke fun at Illinois people.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Oh, I'd I'd love to.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

I think I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Because there is a huge division in Illinois. Anything outside the Chicago area, everybody's fine. All right, um, are you ready? Um so you moved to Florida in January. It's 72 degrees outside. You see a local wearing a hoodie, sweatpants, and winter boots. What's your guys' reaction? What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Welcome to Florida.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Welcome to Florida, normal Florida.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yeah. I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 25:43

Sorry it took me so long. I was just picturing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

That's freezing for us. Well, I will honestly tell you the truth behind that is it's it's around 50 degrees. You'll you'll see me wearing jeans and maybe a jacket or something. Sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

Like a vest.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

It it just hits different because the different cold here in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

It's like a wet cold. It's a wet cold. That's what it is. It's exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

Yeah, it's not really dry.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

No, it's a wet cold.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

It's never really gonna be dry here.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

That's how you got it.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

That's all I got right now.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

So it gets into your own.

SPEAKER_04 26:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

All right. You buy you dream home in Florida. Three days later, your insurance quote arrives. Payment is now $700 more than expected. What do you think that is? A, B, or C?

SPEAKER_04 26:29

That's Florida. That's Florida. That's Florida for you.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yep. Do you think insurance is more or less here or in California?

SPEAKER_02 26:38

No, I don't think it's more California. I don't think it can be more than a lot of people. I think everything's more in California.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

I wonder if California has fire. Is there such thing as fire insurance? I say like fire, like earthquake? I don't know. Earthquake? Yeah. They may have because they're on they're on that vault line.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

So all the West Coast. Wildfires.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

That's what I'm thinking. I'm trying to, I don't know if you're quite a few. Yeah, there's no way you escape that.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

I'll be honest with you. I don't think the Californians would be that worried, much worried about it. But then somebody from like the Midwest.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

What, a wildfire?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

And I don't think the payment is $700 more than you'd be quoted either.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Yeah. Maybe it was like an online random quote. Not like a real quote.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah. Alright. So uh you're a Californian. Good luck, guys. Yeah, seriously. You move from California and you buy a home in Florida thinking that uh life's gonna be great, right? And then the neighbor walks out and tells you, hey neighbor, hurricane season start next month. They freak out immediately, buy 42 gallons of water, nine flashlights, regenerators, a survival backpack. So that's a B California meltdown.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

You think that's a California meltdown? Because I would be out buying beer or whatever, you know, for uh hurricane bars.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

We're gonna have people over. That's what how that's how this is working.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

You see everybody that's not from around here going to Home Depot in a frenzy. We're we're just mosey on and strutting over to ABC liquor.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Getting beer. Oh, that's usually when the hurricane mixers come out. Yeah, that's right. Yep, and then we'll probably buy some batteries.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Yeah, some for the fan.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

For the fan. For the fan, we'll see. That's how it works out. All right, so you moved into your new Florida home, and alligator is sitting besides the beside the retention pond behind your house. What do you do? Do you call animal control, take a picture, or name him Gary?

SPEAKER_04 28:37

Name him Gary. No, here's the thing. Flordians.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

I almost say C D all the above as all of them. That is so funny.

SPEAKER_04 28:48

Well, I feel like when okay, I I've I'm on year three now, being down here, so not as long. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of hey, there's gators in fresh water. So like anybody of water.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Anybody of water. Right.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Yeah, I get okay, yeah, you're right. Just less likely at the beach. So I don't want to get into anything freshwater here. Or I don't even walk along the side with the dog because I'm scared an alligator's gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Just usually not not in the mornings and the evening times they would do that. But during the day, they will.

SPEAKER_04 29:15

Well, I'm not taking all out during that time. But anyway, and they also climb fences. So what I do is I stay clear, but I know that general rule of thumb. But I've seen people raised here, born and raised. They're just like feeding it, hitting its tail if it needs to leave the yard.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

I don't know about feeding it, but they did teach us how to run from a gator.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

I was gonna say zigzag. Well, zigzag, but they could run. Yeah, they could they could run. I was gonna say, let's give Bridget another level of fear because apparently she's not gonna need fresh water stuff. They do get into pools.

SPEAKER_04 29:53

Yeah, but it's a pool. Like you go, you'll see it. Like I'll look out in front of my window and be like, oh my gosh, it's in my pool.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

They could run up to 22 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_04 30:01

Right. That's what I'm saying. I don't I'm very cautious.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Funny story, you know why my pool is so light colored? My wife said, I'll because I wanted it darker. And she goes, When are you making it dark? I want to see if there's any snakes or alligators in there.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

See, yes, and snakes. Water snakes, that freaks me out. Yeah, big time. I'm like terrible. That's like my number one fear.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Just get you at least you can see Gary, though. Like if yeah, but you'll see Gary's in there. At least you can see Gary.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

That is so funny. See, Dane, I'm I'm just I'm just saying. What does it say?

SPEAKER_04 30:33

He's so smart. I would keep the water light too.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Florida's juice tea.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

The girl's like instantly said Gary.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Well, I will say all that if he's there more than six months, he's technically part of the HOA now. No, no doubt.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

He's enjoying the work being done.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

All right, you move from California. Your first electric bill arrives in August, and you think this has to be a mistake.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Well, because it's so much less than what they would pay in California.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

That's what I was just gonna say, too. Oh my god, there's not a tax on top of a tax on the city. On top of a tax, yeah. This is great. There's no feel-good tax here. This is great.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

But we'll say that's an Ohio or Illinois person because they uh the their uh summer uh bill just went through the roof what they're used to.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Yeah. Unless you know how to manage AC and you get a high efficiency home, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yep. But yeah, that's normal life. And we can help you find one of those.

SPEAKER_04 31:30

And my parents would always yell at me to don't touch the thermostat.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Yeah. Oh, my dad used to get on me all the time.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Why isn't it at this?

SPEAKER_00 31:38

It's cold. I don't care. Put on a jacket. I'm inside the house. I don't care. That's so true. And we lived out in the submarket pictures in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest on the farm. Okay, a Florida realtor tells you that house isn't in the flood zone. And you respond, but it's raining. Wait, how does that make any difference? That doesn't make any sense. Okay, we're gonna skip that one because uh my my game making algorithm didn't work. See, don't trust algorithms, guys. All right, you maybe read it first. Yeah. Well, you finally experience your first afternoon Florida thunderstorm. The sky turns black, the rain comes sideways. 30 minutes later, the sun is shining. But just so you know, that black sky and the pouring rain could be raining on one side of the highway, and somebody's driving on the other side of the highway with their top down, and it's sunny. That's uh that's a hundred percent true Floridian light there. There's no that is no exaggeration. Yes. I experienced that the first time I was here in '95 and going, I can't see in front of me that everybody's putting on their hazard lights. And then I saw a guy driving going the opposite direction, sun's beating down on him, and he's convertible. Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_04 32:51

It's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Riding a line. It really does happen. That's how it works.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

I will tell you, California's probably gonna call somebody in their family and talk about they survived a natural disaster. It's like a wall. Alright, you moved to Florida. Within six months, you own. You guys ready? Yep. Flip-flops. Which is now is hey dudes. Uh, a Yeti cooler, fishing gear, beach chairs, and a weather app addiction.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Yeah, that's Floridian lights.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

I I I I think a lot of people would just keep that stuff in their car if they had the space for it. Like, throw it back in the truck and you're good to go.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah. Alright. Well, this is why I chose the game because this is the bonus round. And I need you guys to tell me it's either a Floridian or a person from California. All right. We need more regulations.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

California.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Thank you. That gator ain't bothering nobody.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Floridian.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Floridian. I paid cash for solar panels.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

That's gotta be Cali.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Ah! Good girl.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Yeah, I wouldn't have to do that.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Most people down in Florida finance it. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

Florida. Florida.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:57

Florida way of life.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

The HOA should do something about that. Well, it could definitely be Florida or California. Probably more California. Florida only has something. Only one Nancy with a mustache that goes around and takes pictures of your shrubs. Don't care about anything else. I'm never evacuating. Definitely Florida. This humidity feels nice.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Florida.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

No.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Nobody would ever say that. That's a psychopath. Nobody would ever say that.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

No, no, I hate it.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

I mean, I don't love it, but I'd be like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

She's a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

It's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

The property taxes. It confuses everybody. We can go and talk about this for days, but property taxes may be the least exciting conversation in real estate. Until they affect your payment, then suddenly everyone's interested about what's going on. Well, we do know what's going on right now, don't we? Well, DeSantis is uh trying to help us out right now. He is. And I I do have some more information. I I actually posted on a few important things about that. And does you guys know some of the details on all that? Have you been watching? All right. So you have to be a Florida resident for five years to take advantage of this. Your traditional homestead that you we have right now, right? You get uh exemption as your primary residence, it's fifty thousand dollars off your taxable value of your home. Which is never what you pay for, it's always less. All right. If you're what DeSantis, our governor, is currently doing is trying to increase that fifty thousand dollars to two hundred and fifty. And that would be a tax exemption of that value of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or less. If you own your home and a floor resident for five years or more, you will get that. However, that would make then the people that own their home as a primary resident never have to pay taxes, right? That's what you think.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Incorrect. Because you still have county taxes, infrastructure costs, everything else. Those are still gonna be a part of that.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

Yes, those are not going away. I think everybody's freaking out. That's what the media is saying. Right. That how I think even the mayor, Donna Deegan, said that and uh a few days ago. She did, she was scared of it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

That's not I don't want to bring her up.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Yeah, she can't do the bill. But that's anyway, I'm just saying that reason being, you'll see that on the news. That's not necessarily true.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Yeah, so I agree.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Just be careful what you're reading.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Okay. No, so yeah, that's a real thing, but there's a lot of good things that are gonna come out of this, and there's gonna be a lot of gray area that's still gonna be yet to be discussed because eventually his thought process was to take it up to half a million.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Which would be interesting. But the majority of homes, I mean, yeah, 250, having that easy even as a tax reduction on the value, that's still huge.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

That's that's a lot of money right there.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

That is that is huge. Yeah, you know, people that have a home value of that. Let's say people have a home value of 400 grand, or you buy a house that's about $425,000. That that's probably around 30% of majority of the homes in Northeast Florida. Yeah, I would say. I agree. Your tax bill is not that it's more in the 300s, probably. Right. And that you probably have a tax bill around 45, 5,000 between 45 and $5,000 a a year. That's in your escrow that you pay on it every month. Right. But with this proposed thing, it's only gonna end up being like eighteen hundred.

unknown 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yeah, you can't beat that.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be great. Hasn't gone through yet.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

And not to mention everybody that owns an investment property, people that don't live here that are you know, snowburns, stuff like that. Second homes, second homes purchased, they do not participate in this at all.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

Right. So helps out the real Flor Floridians.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

It's not gonna change so much. I mean, you're talking you're talking about a state that has an excess surplus? Surplus of of a like $180 billion a year in tax revenue.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Right. Why not? You know, when you're uh looking to pay taxes on a home though, when buyers are looking at a new home, they think they're gonna pay whatever the seller has been paying, but what they don't realize is that when that home changes ownership, it gets reassessed. Yeah. And so if they had a homestead exemption, that could go up quite a bit, depending on how long they've owned that home and how long it's been homesteaded. So a lot of the buyers don't are not aware of that. So I I know we do, we try to educate them and make sure they're quite aware of it.

SPEAKER_04 38:38

We send reminders to buyers too. Hey, if you haven't homesteaded your house or people you worked with, make sure you do it. Here's the deadline. Yeah, just take advantage of them.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Yeah, and usually deadlines in March. So you know, so that's a big deal. So we just gotta make sure buyers are aware of that.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Yeah, Florida has a lot of tax benefits, and you just have to honestly just research, ask us, you know, ask people around you how you can take advantage of them. Florida gives a lot of good opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

So well, you guys are speaking of the homestead exemption, which I I think is is the one of our biggest tax advantages that we have as primary homeowners here in Florida. The other great thing that we have that is an addition to that homestead exemption is if that is your primary residence and you have homesteaded it, when you go to buy a new home, you can use another thing portability. Portability. Yeah. And that actually limits the amount of tax increase that you get on your new home that you buy.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

So if you go up in value, you won't go up in a dramatic value on your taxes as well. Right. It helps super important. A lot, believe it or not, a lot of real estate agents miss it.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

They do.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

A lot more than I thought.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Well, you know, a lot a lot of people, a lot of realtors, you were taught that in real estate school, but a lot of realtors just blow that away. And that's when I that's the first time I ever heard of, and I've owned homes.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

And and I was like, this is a huge thing.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

You actually can go back and claim back stuff on that too. I think it's 12 to 18 months you could do that on. Very good. The Florida lifestyle nobody expects. And this is where Florida wins for us. We're here, we're talking about all the bad stuff about Florida and some of the goods and benefits. But we're gonna we're gonna finish this thing off great. So because once people adjust to the cost and the weather, they start experiencing the lifestyle, and that's usually why people stay. I mean, obviously, you got outdoor living, year-round activities. So my year-round activity obviously is I play golf.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Yeah, golf any any day.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

I it's every day, all day. You know, I had this crazy idea and I was talking to my brother. I said, buddy, we should have like an indoor, like virtual golf stuff, you know, with the the screens, the simulators. And I I thought about it, and I'm like, no, actually, that wouldn't go over very well unless you want to continue to golf in the evening time. That would be beneficial. Right. But not here. It would we would actually get more of a benefit if we built it up in Illinois because six months to eight months out of the year, it's miserably cold. It's like using a regular stick and hitting a concrete boulder when you try to hit a golf ball in the middle of winter. Yeah. But I used to play up there until there was snow on the ground. Wow. Then I would change the ball color and keep playing.

SPEAKER_04 41:20

So you could drag out the no, not me.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

50 degrees or lower, I ain't gonna be able to do it. But besides golf, because not everybody enjoys golf. You got boating, the beaches. I like the beaches for like the first year I was there, and then I got tired of the sand. Well, you got fishing, fishing, family life. Family life. And there's you know, you're a part you're if you're a sports family. I'm a softball sport family. That's what we do. We travel around all over Florida all year long for softball tournaments.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

But, you know, people rarely would move away unless they're really, really tired of it. I hear it's funny because every time that I talk to somebody that lives in Florida, that's that grew up in Florida, they're like, I want to leave. I don't want to be because I've never experienced anything else. Like, so where do you want to go? Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

Well, here in Florida, you got a variety of everything. You got the beaches, you got rivers, you know, you play golf, you got great communities, you got theme parks, uh, you got the jaguars, you got professional football. If you're a skater, you got college football right around the corner.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Right around the corner danger.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

I'm sorry, I feel bad for you guys, go dogs. Anyway, I mean, there's so much, especially in this area, yeah, that that Northeast Florida has to offer, you know. And if you want to go up to the mountains in Georgia, it ain't it ain't an all-day drive. You can get there six hours. Six hours. Yeah. Six hours gets you to Chattanooga. Yeah. So I mean, it's not a bad drive to no. So this is a great location. If you'll go down the keys, guess what? Six hours. Mountains, six hours.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

I mean I yeah, Northeast Florida location-wise, is just perfect. Like you said, six hours to the mountains, six hours to the keys.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

Two hours to Savannah, four to Charleston, yeah, two to Orlando, four to Tampa.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

It's like a year in the middle of everything.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Have you been to any of the springs yet? Oh my gosh, there's no thing. Oh, the springs are amazing down in O'Cala. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

How do you handle the springs, by the way, Bruce? It's since you don't like fresh water. Stay away from springs.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

No, no, no. I I I've done it. Take a deep breath. Okay. I just am very aware. I don't like have my limbs hanging off a paddleboard or a kayak.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Oh. They're not gonna bother you.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

I know. I just I I know that they won't, but I'm just not risking it, you know? But that's the only time. If I'm going fresh water, I'm in something. Like I'm in a I'm in uh it's just none of my limbs are getting in that water. I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

So you you wouldn't do the doctor's like wakeboarding evening time.

SPEAKER_04 43:39

I'll be on the boat watching somebody wakeboard. I'm not going up on the wakeboard.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

Listen, there'll be a time where you hit it like a little speed bump. I can't, I can't, I can't. No. I just you'll see him in there. That'll it gives you real motivation to say, oh, I don't tell them.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah, no doubt. You're sitting on the dock in the middle of the night and you take a flashlight and all these little shiny little things look up. And he goes, Hey, do you instantly want to see him go away? And I go, Yeah, sure what. He jumps in the water.

SPEAKER_04 44:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

And like they're all gone.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

See, that's what I'm saying. That's like yeah, I'm not sure. Right. But uh, you know, maybe in f ask me that question in 15 years, I might change my mind.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

All right.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

But right now, no, not changing my mind.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Well, if you're afraid of alligators, Florida isn't perfect for you. But at the same time, Florida is 100% perfect.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

It is.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

No places. You'll deal with insurance, yes, you'll deal with the heat. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

And the H-word hurricanes, yeah, you deal with that. Well, you're also gonna get sunshine, outdoor living, the beautiful winters, which they are really nice, opportunities that keep thousands of people moving here every single day. So if you're considering a move to Northeast Florida, don't rely on social media highlight reels, don't rely on crypto kyle, don't rely on relatives sometimes. Right. Talk to the professionals that help families relocate people every single day. Yep. Give us a call. All right, and like Dane says, give us a call. Get to know us. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

Yep. But I third.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

I hope this gives you a little bit more detailed insight on what it's like to live in Florida. Yep. I think this is good stuff for sure.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

You miss love bugs. Love bugs is a major thing in Northeast Florida.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

That's a negative, but we'll talk about it maybe one other time.

SPEAKER_03 45:20

That's the one negative of Gainesville.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

The only one.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Well, there's there's more than one in Gainesville. I was waiting for it. We'll go on there another time.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

The love bugs in a white car. Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

Terry Blay.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

You know how to get rid of the bugs in a car, right? WD40. Boom.

unknown 45:37

Really?

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Yep. Just like duct kit next to everything worked. Everything works. All right, guys. Well, I appreciate you. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.