Trends: Moving to Florida
By: Amy Snook
Special to the Boca and Delray newspapers
Our world has changed so much in just a few months. For those of us fortunate enough to maintain our health during this crisis, we were forced to manage our lives in a very different manner.
We learned to work from home, we learned to balance home life with work with absolutely no escape for quiet time. We were forced to slow down and even developed some new skills out of necessity. Many of us are now Zoom experts, learned how telehealth works, learned to enhance our cooking, homeschooled our children, learned the importance of human interaction and friendship, and even learned how to workout at home. Buried in all of the sadness and dismay that came with COVID-19 were some very relevant and important life lessons about priorities.
The hope is that we all implement changes to our lives, for the better, and grow as a world moving forward. People in general are evaluating their lives and in particular where they are living their lives. They are looking at how best to protect their families and how best to survive in a catastrophe such as the one(s) we have been experiencing.
It therefore makes perfect sense that people from big cities are evaluating whether to remain living in the city or to move to the suburbs. Quarantine was difficult for everyone but for those of us in warm weather, we were afforded an opportunity to get out often for fresh air, and realized how important this is for our mental and physical well-being. It is not surprising that Realtors’ phones are ringing with Northerners looking to relocate to South Florida.
How do you evaluate where to live in a completely new state? This is where Realtors play an essential role in this relocation process.
Realtors are the homebuyers’ gateway to their new home. It is our job to get to know you and understand the lifestyle that works for you and your family. We need to educate the homeowner on the various cities and what each has to offer. So often we meet a buyer who starts out saying I “must” live near the beach but as we educate them on the options east, they quickly realize that they get much more house for the same price west and there are western communities with an easy, direct route to the beach. You can have it all if you make an informed decision. Looking for a golf club community but don’t want a large equity investment? Realtors can guide you to golf course communities that do not mandate membership making it an option not only for you but for a future buyer should you ever decide to move again.
It is a Realtor’s job to assist you in finding the right community and to protect you as you make your investment.
Providing walk through options for showings without a buyer physically having to be here to physically walk through is more important now than ever. As listing agents, we are adding the 360 tours, which allow potential buyers to “walk through” the home with the use of a mouse guiding the view as you virtually walk through the prospective home. For our buyers, if a particular property we are looking at does not offer at 360 tour – we are resourceful and utilizing technology to virtually walk you through all nooks of the home.
Partnering with the right Realtors is key to relocation.
Amy Snook, a 1990 graduate of the University of Maryland, is a partner in the All About Florida Homes team of Lang Realty, along with co-partner Noreen Payne of Delray Beach. She has been practicing real estate and title insurance for 17 years and is currently the Florida State Vice President for Women’s Council of Realtors. Amy is also a director of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale and a director of Florida Realtors. She resides in Atlantis, Florida.
