7 Things to Hate About Florida

We’re going to discuss the 7 things that people hate about living in Florida  Watch this video to learn more about Florida! 

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In this video we’re going to tell you seven things that people say they hate about living in Florida.

There are seven things that we found people really just hate about living in Florida and they’re super relevant.

1. Car Wash

It’s  Florida folks, we’ve got bugs, we’ve got rain, condensation, and sand. Unless you own a car wash or you just have extra time on your hands and your car is probably gonna be dirty. Unless you’re like wiping it down every day and you park in the garage which is totally doable. But we have kids and you know again this is another thing living in Florida, there are no basements. It’s hard to get storage so we store a lot of stuff in the garage like a lot of people and so we leave our cars outside. I wake up in the morning to go to the office and I’ve got condensation all over my truck and then it just collects dirt and pollen and it’s hard to keep your car clean. And then you get the little neighbor’s cat that goes over in the middle of the night and sleeps on your car. 

2. It’s Flat

Coming from Colorado where I grew up I’ve probably spent more time cumulative in Florida than I have in Colorado. In Colorado we had mountains. If you’re from New York you’ve got mountains up in New York and you’ve got hills up in the Northeast and in Tennessee so on and so forth. This is flat. It’s just straight flat, It doesn’t matter where you are, there are no vantage points, you’re driving around and you see trees. It all looks the same you can be in northern Florida or southern Florida it all looks the same. That’s kind of a downfall and I do hear people complaining about that. Sometimes you’re driving down the highway, and it’s just a long straight drive, you are just driving forever on a flat road.

In northern Florida, we’ve got some hills up there and we’ve got caverns in the caves up there which is pretty cool. I do love it up there but for the most part, Florida is just dead flat. So don’t expect anything if you’re going to be bringing a four-wheel drive down here or something like that you’re gonna be mudding you’re not gonna be climbing any mountains.

3. Poor Quality Service

I grew up in a retail store so I know quality service, overall Florida’s a little lacking in the quality of service, it pains me to say that. There are some exceptions and there are some great businesses out there but you know when you come across those they really shine and you feel special. Yesterday I took the kids to school shopping, shoe shopping and we went to four shoe stores and the first three you know their service was crap, guess where the best one was? Fort Pierce, we actually had to go all the way down there for shoes but we had the best service and I really made sure to mention it to the manager. 

A lot of complaints that I get from people are that trade people don’t call back or they don’t follow up or they don’t finish the job so you got to be really careful about that. We refer tradespeople to our clients and we vet them strongly before we do and even then, there’s just no guarantee that you’re going to get top-notch service. It’s one thing that I noticed when I first moved here from Colorado, I was blown away. I went to a local Florida chain grocery store and I waited in line and there was no eye contact at all between the Deli person and me. I waited in line because I didn’t take a  number but there was nobody else there, it just didn’t make any sense to me. So that was my first experience with customer service in this state, so I’ve experienced it. You’ve experienced it as a native and I hear it from a lot of people. It’s not horrible, all across the board you can get some good customers of course I mean if it’s not a hundred percent that way, it’s just we do notice that here in Florida and so do other people. So just make a note of that when you are here. If you do experience it, we told you here, so lower your expectations. 

4. Strip Malls

This one ties in kind of with the flatness because when you’re driving down the main road anywhere in Florida, like St Augustine which is a really cool place and you know you’ve got your little towns in each little area. You’ve got a little Sebastian and Vero Beach and so forth. I’m talking about the main roads and strip malls. Strip malls upon strip malls upon strip malls and you have corporate stores everywhere and it really just all looks the same. You get off the highway, it’s the same gas stations and the same restaurants and you go down the main roads and it’s all the same stores and it just all looks the same. We get a lot of people complaining that there’s not really a lot of diversity when it comes to those kinds of stores and I’m sure it’s like that all over the U.S. I know I’ve been to different places like Arizona, the same thing you’re driving down the main roads and it’s just all these same strip malls over and over and again. You can’t really walk anywhere, you gotta drive so that’s kind of a complaint for some people. The strip malls and the big intersections and all sort of look the same. It doesn’t really matter what part of Florida you’re in, when you do get into the little cities and little towns like where we are here in Sebastian, we’ve got a lot of cool unique stores and unique restaurants, same thing with Vero Beach. Melbourne’s the same way and you know Orlando has got some really cool little pockets of local restaurants and stores. I mean it’s not like a deal breaker, no, just you know when you’re driving down the main road, you’re going to see all those corporate stores and you know they’re all going to look the same. It doesn’t matter where you are, just look up to the palm trees.

5. Heat and Humidity

It is what it is, it’s Florida. It’s a hot and humid state especially right now like we’re making this video right now, it’s the 9th of August and it is hot. Actually today we got a little cloud coverage, not so bad but man I mean I still opened the back porch this morning to let the dogs out and I just felt so wet out there. Here that’s that humidity and the inside of your windows, condensation all over cause we keep our house cold. This morning our windows were all foggy on the slider, yeah and inside your car you know it gets really humid so it’s really cool. If you have those rain guard things the kids want us to get me to get those and then you leave your windows cracked, that helps a lot. Now you open your door and it’s like a heat wave that comes out of it. The kind of heat here I call oppressive heat, like when you walk outside you can feel the sun almost punching you in the head. you know it’s punching you in the back of the head. You haven’t been punched by it like that but you know it’s brutal, it’s super hot. We’ve got land out in Fellsmere and I’m driving the tractor and I wait until like 5:45 pm just to get on the tractor. I feel a little bit of heat for an hour or two and then once the sun goes down it actually cools down, it’s not cool down like in California or Colorado or anything like that, just less oppressive. You don’t have the sun punching you in the head but it’s still stinking hot and you gotta be smart. You have to stay well hydrated.

6. Cost of Maintenance

Cost of everything, you’ve got your pools, your lawns, your weeds. There are definitely a lot of weeds that take over and if you don’t take care of your grass and keep it strong then you just have a green grass of weeds. There’s a cost to all of that unless you’ve got the time because it grows so fast like you can’t leave your pool unserviced. I mean you can service it yourself if you have the time and a lot of folks do that but you’re looking at having somebody service your pool, probably around $100 bucks a month. To have someone mow your lawn is probably around $100 bucks a month. If you live on a standard lot like here in Sebastian that’s 80 x125 standard lot is what we call it, there are $200 bucks right there. Then you’ve got to maintain your air conditioner because it’s running all summer pretty much all year round, so you’ve got to maintain that. You’ve got pest control, and termite bonds you’ve got to make sure that everything in your house is maintained. You’re gonna probably have to repaint more than you’re used to living in other places because it’s so hot and the weather just really beats up the paint like every seven years or so. 

Weeds will grow if you don’t maintain your lawn and then of course you’re going to need to water your lawn too because it doesn’t always rain here and it does get hot. The heat will just burn your grass so you’re going to be watering that lawn. There are a couple of different types of grass and some like Saint Augustine have to be watered or it will die in just a few days. And then there’s the Bahia which can actually handle not being watered and it dies but it comes back when it gets rained on. That’s a little golden nugget for you guys, so when you’re purchasing a house, if you do decide to purchase a house here, make sure you know what kind of grass the house has because that’s going to determine how much maintenance it requires. Saint Augustine is a pretty fancy really dark green grass where Bahia you know it’s a little economical.

7. Insurance 

Insurance cost, people are hating it in Florida right now. I mean hopefully, we’re gonna get this thing sorted out in the near future, but right now the cost of homeowners insurance specifically is going up. If you have a house that’s 15 years or older it’s going up in some cases you’re not even getting underwritten for that insurance. It’s crazy right now if you have a roof that you might have a 30-year shingle roof or at least that’s what the marketing says, 15 years, insurance isn’t going to be happy with you. There are a couple of different insurance companies, two, in particular, I know of who are writing insurance are getting complaints every single day from customers and people that their insurance rates are doubling and they’re tripling and they’re just going up and there’s just no end in sight. We have heard some whispers that this is going to get reformed. There’s going to be an insurance reform here in Florida but that’s definitely one of the seven things to absolutely hate about Florida right now. It’s just a hard fact but if you’re looking at a newer home, you’re looking at new construction or if you’re looking to get a new roof put on you’re not going to have any problems. That’s the solution and it’s also better for you anyway if you have a nice new roof on there it’s more efficient.

Also read: Want To Buy a Home? Now May Be the Time.

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