Do you want to move to Florida?

And have plenty of room for your herps, dogs, horses, or whatever? Want to be our neighbor?

We are offering the 10 acres next door to us - a beautiful piece of property near Ft. Myers, Florida. Please look here for all details:
www.alvaparadise.com

Also, my niece has finally graduated (this past weekend), and is vacating our efficiency style, "mother-in-law" apt. attached to our house. So it will be available for rent, and will include use of lanai, outdoor areas, pool, etc. If you have a reptile collection, we can probably find room for it in one of the buildings, depending on what you have. Dogs, horses, and other pets are welcome, too. We are asking $500/month rent, which includes high speed, wireless Internet.

Hope we can find some good, compatible neighbors!

I wish!... Then I'd have someone close by when I freak out about a hurricane lol.

Good luck! It's interesting seeing a yard so much different than what I'm used to in Wisc.

OMG!!!! Wow, Kathy, if it wasn't for being tied down by my job (and family that would object), I would be the perfect quiet 46 year old peaceful bachelor renter. You'd hardly even know I was there.
Kathy, you are so sweet.

Haha! Yes, if only...

I could find somebody just like you! OTOH, considering all of the interesting online discussions we have had, it would be WAY too much fun having you here - I wouldn't ever get any work done, lol!

PM sent :0)

Kathy I am actually looking to move to Florida. I was looking in Daytona because I have family in the area. But I hear the jobs are so scarce up there.
Your place sounds like a dream.
I have 2 horses, 1 dog, 2 cats & around 22 snakes.
I would have so much fun being your neighbor! And I am very neat too. Still working on cooking.
One flaw? I talk a lot. I mean a lot. Once I am comfortable with a person & get by my shyness I am non stop lol.
You have given me something to think about if I do not have to many critters for you.

It is not too many animals. The only thing is that our 20 acres (of which we are trying to sell 10) is not fenced. So you would have to either build a pen of some sort, or tie the horses out, or some other solution. The property is mostly natural woods, but there is some grass, too. If you planned on staying quite a while, it might be worth it for you to put up a fairly large pen / fenced area. If you only planned to stay for a short time, maybe you could buy some of the hog panels and attach them together. We made some big tortoise pens that way. They are fairly portable when you move. Or maybe the "invisible fencing", or other type of electric fence - you can mount it on PVC pipes as the fence posts. If you rent the apt., and really like it here, maybe you could eventually buy the 10 acres and build a house.

You would have your own apt. with its own cooking facilities, although small. So you and we would have our own privacy. But we would share the lanai, pool area, outdoors, animal and storage buildings. If you "talk too much" and I can't get any work done, then I will just put you to work feeding and cleaning, lol!

The job scene is kind of bleak everywhere. But it can't last forever. What kind of work do you do?

I wish I could!!

Wow, If this land was closer to me... the Rescue I am fostering for is looking for land to get a shelter put on!

What a nice offer!!

Are you taking trades? :roflmao: C'mon all the animals I produce and a snake slave for the next few years?

Man I'd be all over this if I didn't know it would be taken as soon as my ducks are in a row.

We actually had the 10 acres "sold" (or so we thought!) twice, with contracts and deposits, but both fell through. Once was right at the height of the real estate bubble - had it "sold" for $550K!! That would have been great! But he never got financing. Then the next year we had it "sold" for $499K. But they wanted to change it to commercial zoning, thought they had it all figured out, but found out more requirements at the last minute and backed out. Now with the bad real estate market, we have actually cut the price in half, and can't go much lower. But the local market seems to be just barely starting to pick up a little recently, especially for cheaper houses. If the economy starts to turn around, I think prices will start rising again, at long last.

We haven't bothered to try to sell it the last couple of years, except for the ever present sign out front. But now that it is starting to pick up, I am going to give it a try again. Maybe if it doesn't sell this year, we will just hold out for a higher price in a year or two. I have also put an ad on Craigslist, offering to trade the 10 acres for a nice house on a big lot in the Phoenix area (we hope to retire there eventually).

This is a great time to buy a house or land if you can afford it. The prices were artificially high a few years back, and they are artificially low right now. As soon as the economy improves, prices should get back to a more moderate level, in my opinion.

(Tim works at a pet shop).

Would that ever be cool if Carol moved here!!! Remember, no state tax!! No earthquakes! Land cost is probably 1/100th of what it is out there!

Nanci said:

(Tim works at a pet shop).

Would that ever be cool if Carol moved here!!! Remember, no state tax!! No earthquakes! Land cost is probably 1/100th of what it is out there!

Click to expand...

I'll survey things out there in August!

I forgot, this state likes guns!!! You can have whatever you want!

Yes, if Carol moved here, then I could just go out to the building and LOOK at her beautiful pink snows and striped Miamis, and not have to get any for myself, lol!

We do have hurricanes, but we are quite a ways inland, so not as likely to have extensive damage, and no storm surge here. We have never had more than minor damage from any storms or hurricanes so far (knock on wood!!)

We have a Quonset - style metal building for the animals, rated to more than 125 mph winds, and no windows. Probably where we would all go if there was a hurricane, lol! And NO earthquakes in Florida! It IS pretty hot and buggy here in the summer (that is why they invented A/C!!), but our winters are WONDERFUL. And we do get some dramatic, gorgeous storms to watch during the summer rainy season.

No state income tax, although we do have a 6% sales tax. And property taxes will be much cheaper if you do some kind of agricultural business, such as fence the property and board some horses, or something similar.

August is good if you like to see Florida at its worst! Probably the hottest and wettest month of all, with the most mosquitoes and hurricanes. If you can stand it here then, the rest of the year is a breeze! Probably not a month I will be actively trying to sell the property to non-Floridians, lol!

That's it. I'm dragging my trailer down tomorrow. I'll figure out how to finance it later. LOL.

I would LOVE to live out in the woods like that, but Tony would hate it... such a shame...

If it wasn't for the weather, I'd already be packing my stuff to come down. I am not a fan of hot weather at all....I don't think my horses would appreciate it much either, they're so used to the cooler weather up here.

If I had a choice, I would be a "snowbird" - up north or on a mountain in the summer, and down here in winter. But since I can't afford both, I will take our hot, wet summers over the cold, snow, and ice, any day, lol!

Wow, about seven years ago I'd been all over this offer... but I'm married, tied to a house, and a good job, and lots of friends I'd miss, and the total lack of human population in general that the outback of North Dakota has going for it... Mmmm....but man I'd love to be able to go snake hunting in my own yard! LOL!