Moving to Central Florida - where should we land?

Start with the commute, not the house

• Downtown Orlando job — Winter Park, College Park, Baldwin Park.
• Lake Nona or the medical city cluster — Lake Nona or St. Cloud.
• I-4 corridor employers — Lake Mary, Heathrow, Longwood or Sanford. That corridor is where I live and work.

Seminole County is the usual landing spot for families because of the school district. That is a real reason rather than a slogan, and it is priced in.

What transplants underestimate

• Insurance. Get a quote on the specific address before you go under contract, not after. Roof age and plumbing material can make an affordable house unaffordable.
• Roof age. A shingle roof has a shorter working life here than the one you are used to further north.
• Block against frame. Both are code-legal and both work, and they behave differently on insurance and on renovation: the comparison.

Neighbourhoods change in two miles

This is the most useful thing I can tell someone arriving from another state. Two streets can differ by a decade of construction, a school boundary and a flood zone. Renting for six months is not wasted money if it stops you buying the right house in the wrong two miles.

Use that time to drive your actual commute at the actual hour, and to sit in a school pick-up line if you have children.

A sensible order of operations

1. 1Fix the commute constraint and shortlist two or three areas.
2. 2Get an insurance quote on a representative address in each.
3. 3Tour with someone who can tell you the repair exposure, not only the comparable sales.
4. 4Check permits and roof documentation before the inspection period runs out.

If new construction is on your list, read whether you need your own agent for it first: the answer changes what you do on your first model-home visit. Or tell me what you are trying to do and I will tell you where I would look.

Three things that surprise people in the first year

• The wet season. Afternoon storms from roughly June to September are daily rather than occasional, which is why drainage and grading matter more here than the house tour suggests.
• Cooling costs. The air conditioning runs most of the year, so duct condition and attic insulation show up on the bill rather than in the inspection report.
• Lawn watering rules. Irrigation days are restricted locally, and an established Florida lawn needs a working system rather than good intentions.

None of these change where you should live. They change which house on the shortlist is the sensible one, which is a different question and the one I am usually more useful on.