Since we are recent early retirees, we want to check into renting a small house/condo/apartment next Jan, Feb. and March. Trouble is, we are a bit clueless where to start. Maybe it is already too late to get a place located for next winter. I am fairly sure there are more than a few here who have experience with this so I am soliciting your advice. I do have some general questions to get started.
1. How far in advance do you need to start looking for the next winter season?
2. How far south do you need to go to basically lose the winter season? We would prefer at least 70 degrees most days.
3. How do you pick a location? We have an uncle in the Palm Coast, FL area, I am not sure how warm that area is in the winter months. We would prefer someplace within easy walking distance (15 minutes or less) to a nice beach, but we wouldn't rule out Texas or Arizona if there was beautiful scenery nearby and activities to keep us occupied.
4. How do you know if the area you rent is going to be safe and convenient for walking and biking and other activities? We are not golfers.
5. If there are just the two people, what kind place do you look for? Do you prefer the ground floor for easy access or do you prefer an upper floor of an high-rise unit for safety?
6. What is typical rent you pay per month? I know this could be a very broad range.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
We winter in Panama City Beach, FL. Our unit is across the street from the beach. It is colder than further South (ie. Ft.Myers) in Florida, but rents are lower as it is off-season in the panhandle of Florida. It is "high" (rental) season in the rest of Florida. Weather in January can vary from 50's to 70's and nights can drop as low as 30's. February usually runs a little warmer. Weather varies from sunshine to cloudy and rainy, but no snow. A lot of snowbirds (a lot of Canadians) winter in PCB. We have searched the panhandle as we thought PCB was a little rough around the edges. After spending some time searching across the panhandle - have found PCB to be "not so bad". We don't stay for March as Spring Break brings the younger crowd down and it has been described as a torturous time by our winter neighbors.
Destin is a more upscale tourist area (can you say timeshares), but rents are accordingly. The coast of Alabama reminds me of PCB in layout/offerings. FYI - nowhere is "safe" in Florida - gets an "F" for safety in the ratings of most of its cities.
We find it is better to be in an area that focuses on tourist business (restaurants, activities, etc.), but off season Florida for obvious reasons. Look for an area that offers more of a city life nearby so you don't have to travel an hour to get your groceries or go out to eat (ie. Mexico Beach). It's nice to have Panama City next to PCB for that reason.
We used VRBO to find our rental. It's a real pain in the butt, as VRBO doesn't allow you to sort by "snowbird" criteria (offer winter monthly rentals) to my knowledge. Start looking now - it'll take you awhile to find something decent (believe me on this). The longer you rent in an area the better off you are as you learn where the best places are to eat, golf, etc.
Typical rentals along the beach are what we refer to as condo "tunnels". They can be dark and claustrophobic for a long winter stay (but work for weekly summer beach rentals). We are on the third/top floor, corner unit with double balcony and three sliding glass doors. Most are from 12 ~ 15ft. wide and +/-40ft long. They sport 8-12ft slider leading out to a small balcony, and (1) window in the bedroom (street view). Most sport bunks in the hallway and sleeper sofas/love seats so they can boast a higher bed capacity than practical. Pictures are almost always better than reality, and website reviews can be suspect.
Rentals are what they are, and suffer accordingly from rental abuse. Can't believe the damage we see to our owner's unit from one year to the next. Look for "in unit" washer/dryer (some buildings are coin laudry area only) and cable/internet access . Makes snowbirding much easier. Tall buildings with slow elevators make for a bad stair day, and moving in/out at the end of your stay via elevator sucks. One year we arrived on the weekend to an out of order elevator.
You'll find panhandle winter rentals for a little as +/-$900mos, but expect to pay in the range of $1200 - $2500. Rentals in the "high season" area of Florida will easily be double those figures. FYI - higher pricing does not necessarily mean a better rental (find absolutely no logic for pricing, deposits, down payments, cleaning fees and payment type).
We are looking elsewhere to extend our snowbirding for March. Our owners have also put their unit up for sale this year, so we may be looking elsewhere for January and February also. Would ideally like to have two places to go in Winter. We have found that when the end of February approaches (after two months in PCB) - we are thinking of home. Our thoughts are that a change of scenery would be nice for another month.
