Currently in the Gainesville area and will be moving to the Collier County area at the end of Aug.  Trying to get the family all moved is going to be a hassle given I will be busy till Aug. But we love it down in South West Florida.

See Ya'll soon.

Say hi to Ray Finkle.

Good job escaping gainesville.

Lol.... ray finkle...... I love that stupid movie....

Collier county resident here, feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions about the area. I’ll be happy to try and help.

Will do. We love it down there other than the price of housing.  I cant wait to do some fishing down there.

We have a 2nd home in Grey Oaks CC, I really like the area even compared to where I live in Jupiter. 5th Ave has great shopping and restaurants.

We are headed back down on the 11th to take a look at some neighborhoods.  Im still waiting to hear if we are going to be forced to live in the county or if I can live outside and commute in.  We would really like to be in the Estero area but work for me will all be Collier.

Look at golden gate estates for one thing.
What is your driving limit to go to work?

Hurry, enjoy the traffic.

laces out!

I can be 5 miles as the crow flies from the county line.  We ended up finding a place in Estero that is literally 2.3 miles from the county line by the corkscrew sanctuary.

I looked at the golden gate estates and maybe I went to the wrong place but those places 1.2 million.  Thats a weeeeeeee bit out of the budget.  LOL!

We are lucky we lived here 35 years ago.

Here is a good one.

I knew my wifes mother first.

The look on her face the first time she saw us together was

We’ll be neighbors in 19 more months!

Glad to see some good peoples coming down here.

Only 7 more long months for me.  Wife will be down there with the family first week of April.

@flg23
Do you have a backyard range?

I'm also looking in the area and want some land to shoot on.

I do not. You need to look into unincorporated collier county (golden gate estates) and need a certain acreage to be able to have a backyard range. Even then, neighbors will likely call the cops on you, so make sure you have the proper backstop etc. it’s on my list of life goals

My niece lives in golden gate estates.

5 acres and a backyard shooting range.

Awesome! I like the big lots in golden gate.

Got a map of Golden Gate Estates?  Not sure if Rural Estates is considered part of that.

Most of the lots in those areas I'm seeing are between 2.2 and 2.7 acres.

“Golden Gate” represents a huge area. There is “Golden Gate” the original planned community from the 50s that is a bit dated now and suffers from urban sprawl. A mix of nice homes and crap.

Then there is what they refer to as the East and West Golden Gate Estates or Rural Estates. Originally these were all laid out in the 1950s in a grid of 5 acre lots and was originally just another Florida land scam. Historically, prices have been all over the place between the savvy and the gullible. Many of the 5 acre lots were then subdivided into 2.5 and even 1.25 acre lots. Collier County now won’t allow subdividing into less than 2.5 acres now.

If you are looking at these lots, BUYER BEWARE! MOST of these remaining lots have a significant amount of determined wetlands which will make building both expensive and limited. Those lots continue to flip once buyers figure out why they got it so cheap and then look for the next rube. Some of these lots have changed hands dozens and dozens of times over the last 70 years.

Perform your due diligence if you are looking to buy a particular lot. Pay for an informal environmental study and a formal property survey, know what you are getting into. These properties have changed hands so many times, title insurance is a must. Talk to someone at the Collier County Building Officals office. Look-out for invasive plant species that YOU will be required to remove as a condition of your building permit. Brazilian Pepper Tree in particular. This can be expensive as you MUST leave protected native species.

There is a reason so many of these lots remain undeveloped.

Still, there are gems to be found if you know what you are looking at and pay the right price.

We found a 5 acre lot, 100% uplands, outside the floodplain (Zoned X) with canal frontage in the rear of the property and without shallow limestone so it will perc properly. We discovered it used to be part of a sugarcane field in the 1920s. We are finishing up the design phase of our home and expect to start building this year (about the worst time to begin construction but it is what it is). We have a shit-ton of Brazilian Pepper Tree to get rid of but nothings perfect. We knew what we were getting into.

We LOVE SW Florida. The beaches, the Everglades, the boating, fishing, paddling opportunities. There seems to be good places to shoot but I’m still trying to settle on a particular range. We like the people. Every time we are down there, we just run into good people. When we first bought our land, our future neighbors saw us, asked us cautiously what we were doing on the property and then when they found out we were going to be future neighbors immediately became very welcoming. Super nice family. Even the lady at the Building Officials Office was super friendly and helpful.

My wife is a Paramedic and wants to work part time and grow fruit trees and go shelling the rest of the time.

I want to spend my days fishing/boating/paddling/shooting/Python hunting and maybe volunteer with a group that cleans beaches or saves sea turtles or something. IDK

I’m looking forward meeting all of you. Like I said, GOOD PEOPLE down there!

ETA- I am from Florida. I grew-up north of Orlando. My wife is a Daytona girl. This is a homecoming for us.

Awesome!