Haley R
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2017
Dh is thinking we should rent for awhile, too. The problem is the cheapest I've seen for anything besides an apartment is $1,600. I've only been looking on Zillow so that could be why, but the rentals look pretty pricey (most of them hovering around $1,750-$1,800). I like the Winter Garden area, but so many of the houses have the garage in the back with no yard and I HATE it. It's not for me at all. I need at least a little green space and I don't like that my backyard would be a road with garages. I've always wanted a jet ski, but we probably wouldn't get one for a pretty long time.Glad I could offer some info... Dr. Phillps is a nice area, but it is older area and more and more the city/tourist areas are pushing in on that area... Ocoee is a nice quite area with a small town feel, we have friends that live over there and they really like it, we did look at house over there when we were deciding on where to build at... one reason that we choose not to was it was harder for DH to get to the main road ways that he travels, 429, (toll road) Fl Turn Pike, I-4, 528, hwy 27 and hwy 50 and the other main ones to get around Orlando...
We live in Winter Garden, and just love it. It honestly met everything we needed on our list and then a whole lot more. So we jumped in and we are glad that we did. We did have a advantage we are both from Florida, and we both grew up in the central Florida area. When we moved back from GA, after almost 6 years, things changed alot... so we decided to rent for a year then it was another year while the house was being built... We are living the lifestyle that we want, close to the parks without being in all the tourist stuff, close to the water, we have a boat, and its easy to pick it up and head out on a weekend, to the river, lakes, or haul to the gulf for scallop season, or head to disappearing island for the day, fishing, swimming relaxing...
I do think that I saw that you were interested in a YMCA we have a really nice one here in Winter Garden... You can see it from the turnpike when exiting off of the turnpike onto the 429 coming from I-75
I will give you a bit of advice, I hope you don't mind.... I know your looking for a single family, which is a big commitment, and since your not familiar with the area, you might want to explore renting for a year, before jumping in to buying house. Getting to know the area is really important, and I tell everyone that ask about making the move, to look at this option. We had some friends that made the move here, and were going to buy a house right away, then they decided to wait, and rented (single family home) in the area that they were thinking about buying in. They were so glad that they did not buy in the area that they were renting, they realized that what they thought the area was like and what the realtor told them it was like was not in fact what they were looking for... They spent a whole year trying on different areas, shopping, eating, going to the movies, driving through areas at night, they figured out what type of lifestyle that they wanted to live here... He started playing golf then she started playing and they ended up buying a house in Clermont at Legends its one of the communities that has a golf course, and Kings Ridge is across the hwy. They used to wonder why we went to the parks all the time, now they know... and are AP holders now...
Another thought is when you are looking at home, you need to know if the home will require flood insurance if it is in a flood zone or low lying area, which will add to your overall mortgage payment, and whatever you do get a home inspection and use someone that you are paying directly, so that they are working for you and your interest... as well as make sure the house has had termite treatments and if the contract can be transferred to you.
Let us know if how things work out.
We currently don't go to a YMCA. We go to our town's rec center because it's closer and has a lot better facilities. The YMCA here is in a bad part of town and is pretty crappy, but if the one by you is nice and we're in the area we would check it out.
I would absolutely consider renting if it will help us find the area we like most. When you look at rentals are you seeing much? Everything I'm seeing is so expensive for a rental (more than we pay per month on our mortgage). I would probably want to pick one rental and stay there until we find an area we like because we have cats and it's a pain to move them around to a new place often.
I have been looking into the flood zones a bit. I haven't gone in depth with it yet since we don't know if we're moving yet, but it'll definitely be something we look at. I would rather just not deal with a house in a flood zone if we can avoid it. Are termites really bad down there?