Fort Lauderdale / Miami

[Taccadave]

I have asked your opinion about the best place to cultivate coconut palms and Fort Lauderdale was suggested due to ample rainfall, especially if you are considering it as a holiday home. I would like to come to Fort Lauderdale and see the beach, gardens, coconut palms and the cosmopolitan bars that are on offer. I do not know Fort Lauderdale at all and am trying to pick a hotel that can offer proximity to all these entertainments. My question is: are all of these attractions walking distance from each other or is a car essential to get from hotel to shops, bars and gardens or beach?

I live in Manchester, UK and can easily get about on public transport, but I believe things are different in the USA.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Dave, I only know Ft Lauderdale as an occasional visitor, and from the vantage of a driver. The downtown area is fairly walkable, as is Ft Lauderdale beach. The suburbs are a long way off and public transportation would be inefficient, at best. We are a car centric culture here! The cost of a home with property enough to grow coconuts in an area where you can walk to various attractions will be fairly steep, but I'm Sure you can find something. There are folks here that know the area much better than me so hopefully they will contribute.

[TikiRick]

Dave,

PM me as a native to Ft. Lauderdale I'd be happy to show you around. Some great hidden palms only a local would know!!

Rick

[Cedric]

I was just about to launch into a "walking is fine, everything you need within walking distance, restaurants bars nice guest hotels B&Bs" etc when I realised I was thinking about Key West.....ooops I never been to Fort Lauderdale, i drove past down to the keys though. (:

We expect a full photo essay of your trip of every palm you saw.

Im interested to see the state of their cocconuts. By all accounts Fort lauderdale has the same "zoning" as Hong Kong in fact right up to but not including the keys which I find a puzzle as coconuts grow here robustly but tend to have dried leaflet tips after the cool season so not as luxurious as I would like. In micro climates and well situated they do better but I wouldn't think of coconut farming as they don't fruit much at all, if at all. As an ornamnetal not so fabulous for these reasons, they need to look healthy rather than like a Roystonia with a deficiency for me.

[Kennybenjamin]

No problem cultivating coconut palms in North Queensland Australia, they grow like weeds here... Nice looking weeds though!!

[Jeff Searle]

There are many excellent hotels from a wide range of prices that are on the Ft Lauderdale beach or near it. There would also be plenty of coconuts and many other palms to enjoy in and around your stay. Shopping, drinking establishments, many fine places to get something to eat would all be in walking distances from your hotel. As far as gardens go, you would of course need transportation, and probably a rental car would be your best bet. It's very easy to get around as our roads are very good and well marked. And then like Rick stated above, there's plenty of us palm nuts that would certainly help in any way and would open up our gardens for a visit. A camera is a must though!

[Sandy Loam]

Yes, as someone mentioned above, you would never need a car if you lived in Old Town, Key West. You would have dozens of pubs in easy walking distance too, although most people seem to be on a bike there....literally the whole island gets around by bicycle....and you're in a bikini all winter there too, with emerald water views at the end of every street...quite pleasant.

I don't see the problem with coconuts fruiting in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. Every time I am down there, I see fruiting cocnut trees by the hundreds everywhere I look. The city workers literally have to go around picking up coconuts off certain walkways, and I velieve thry try to remove them early before they injure pedestrians walking beneath them.

In that region, people seem to choose their preferred neighbourhood depending on their lifestyle, e.g. artists who want to live in a studio will choose Wynwood; the gay community typically chooses to live in Wilton Manors, FL; people who want vibrant street live and people-watching choose to live in South Beach, etc.

If you want enough land to be starting a coconut farm, you may not want a residential property at all. Many of the agricultural properties where palm trees are cultivated in large quantities seem to be around Homestead, FL, Goulds, FL and Florida City, FL, just south of Miami. It is another worls when you start driving around on those roads full of huge palm trees for cultivation.

If you want to stay within the residential housing market, take a look at one of the websites like www.realtor.com and keep expanding your search to areas just outside Miami to see how you get more land for your money. Bear in mind, however, that most of the homes listed there are not "short sales" or foreclosures. Although the housing market is improving since the "crash" and prices have begun to rise again, there are still many good deals to be had and the cheapest ones are "short sales" and foreclosures. I read recently that about half of the home sales in Florida are still sort sales and foreclosures. If you contact a realtor (aka. "estate agent" in the UK), you will find many who are willing to drive you around and show you 30 or 40 properties that you have selected --- and will do so at no charge to you. (the seller pays a commission to both the buyer's and seller's realtor) The system works such that your realtor has the code to the ksy box of every single home listed on sites like realtor.com, and your realtor will call ahead to forwardn the owner's realtor that he/she intends to schedule a visit. In short, as the buyer, you don't have to do anything --- although beware that your realtor will try to steer you way from those fabulouse short sale and foreclosure deals. They want to maximize their own profit.

in any case, if you go viewing properties in the Miami or Fort Lauderdale at a site like realtor.com, note that you will end up paying about 10% less than the "asking price" for that property. This is simply how the system works. A couple of years ago, people were paying about 40% less than the "asking price", which is the price you will see on realtor.com.

As for a car, I do recommend eventually buying one to leave at your Florida property when you return to Manchester. Cars don't really rust in Florida. If you don't want to spend much, you can choose to buy an atrocious car in Florida. For some reason, you can sell any old car in Florida without meeting any significant regulatory requirements. This came as a surprise to me when I moved here. I moved to Glorida from a country where buying a cheap, old car was almost impossible because of all the regulatory standards that a car had to meet before being sold -- e.g environmental emissions testing. None of this exists in Florida, which is why you dozens of gigantic cars from the 1970s and 1980s driving around when you are in the "poor" parts of town here.

The older cities in the northeastern US are fine to get around on by foot and public transit, but not the newer cities which developed later on in the south and west. (The exceptions are, of course, cities which developed significantly in the 1800s like New Orleans, San Francisco, etc)

Whew! Well, those are my long-winded thoughts.

Good luck on your winter home purchase!

[Sandy Loam]

Oops. I meant to say "key box", not "ksy box" in my message posted above. It is never a good idea to type on my mobile phone. I apologise for all of the typographical errors in my message.

What I meant by "key box" is that every home for sale has a locked box attached to the door knob. That box contains the keys to the home, yet no one has access to the code which opens the box except for estate agents (realtors). That is how the system works here.

I can elaborate more later, upon request by PM.

Good luck in your search!

[Alicehunter2000]

Palm Beach up to Jensen Beach/Stuart area might be something you would be interested in as well. A little less tourist oriented with some really good beach communities. Coconuts are doable, especially along the coast.

[waykoolplantz]

Dave,

PM me as a native to Ft. Lauderdale I'd be happy to show you around. Some great hidden palms only a local would know!!

Rick

This is an offer you shouldnt refuse. Rick has one of the most beautiful gardens in Florida....you ain't seen nuthin like it. Great palms...amazing color and layers of texture. Ricks a charming host as well.