Purchasing property in Florida

   / Purchasing property in Florida #1  

aesanders

Platinum Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
722
Location
Alachua County, Florida
Tractor
John Deere 2320 with loader, BCS 830 2 wheel tractor, Gravely Pro-Turn 160 XDZ, John Deere Gator HPX 615e
Hello all,

I had a very productive weekend. Just put a contract on a house and 6+ acres in north Alachua County Florida. About 12-15 miles north of Gainesville. Wife has decided to get her PHD and is going back to school at FSU. If all goes accordingly, I will be moving from Maryland to Florida over the summer.

I'm not that familiar with the area, but think it is quite beautiful. Looking forward to the move and getting some acreage back and meeting some new neighbors.

We will be keeping a couple horses on the property that we currently board at a local horse farm in Maryland.

Now the questions (not all tractor related).

1) Anyone familiar with any of the local equipment dealers. I will be buying either a subcut or small cut and was wondering about the dealers in the area. Their appears to be a dealer for John Deere, Kubota, and New holland, and Mahindra all on the north east end of Gainesville. All look like decent dealers but I have not stopped in to talk with any of them. Anyone familiar with these dealers or others in the area?

2) I'm very used to heavy clay soil. The soil on the new property is sand. Any pointers that anyone has with sandy soil would be appreciated. The tractor will be used mostly for a general purpose machine. Front end loader use, clearing out brush, mowing some pasture, post hole digger, box blade scraper etc. Would you recommend R4's for general usage on sandy soil or would Ag's be preferred on this very loose sandy soil?

3) The property is mostly pasture. Some in a shady area and some in sunlight. It is not in the best shape as far as pasture grass is concerend. What pasture grass varities grow best in the area.

4) Property is adjacent to a lake and spring fed pond. What kind of critters are expected to be around the lake. Should I worry about gators getting my Australian Shepards? The seller said he had seen a small gator about 1.5 feet long. Since I'm not from the area I'm not really sure how to deal with these.
How about snakes: What kind should I expect to see?
Insects: Any particular nasty bugs in the area to watch out for. I'm already familiar with Fire Ants as my Grandfather use to have them in Texas.
Mainly, I just want to keep my dogs and 2.5 year old Daughter safe. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.


I'll post some pictures of the property as soon as possible.

Also, thanks in advance for any help you may give.
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #2  
Gators, seven kinds of poisonous snakes and two or three kinds of spiders that will do you harm. At one time had found a web site with all of the various critters in the state of Florida. Can not find it now. Did I mention bears? Do not know if they will be up in your area but have seen a few on the roads down there in various places. See Soundguy's post in the safety forum regarding spiders.

Good luck with the grass, it will takes lots of water.

Nice state, but to many people and to much traffic.
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks for the info. From where I am coming from, the traffic in this part of Florida is very mild and way less people than I'm use to. Much more open ground.
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #4  
Aaron,
I find it hard to believe you're going to miss all of our lovely traffic and taxes /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I'm in Mount Airy and have been thinking about throwing in the towel and heading for the mountains of WV.
Hope everything works out.
Tom
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks Dodgeram,

I'm only about 15 minutes from Mount Airy. I've been here for quite some time now and the traffic and congestion keeps getting worse. We finally decided if we ever wanted to do something else with our lives, now was the time.
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #6  
Small world, I grew up in Mt.Airy. The only thing there then was a Highs store and Safeway. Now look at it. I'm about 90 mins. away now and loving it. I'm in a area now that resembles Mt. Airy 30 years ago. Congrats on the house in Florida and good luck!!
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #7  
<font color="blue">( From where I am coming from, the traffic in this part of Florida is very mild ) </font>

Being a Florida Gator (UF Grad '87), I really liked that area of the state. I recall hearing something about I-75 through the Gainesville area is the most heavily traveled section of the that Interstate within Florida. So, just stay off the Interstate, and you shouldn't have alot of traffic problems.
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #8  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
12-15 miles north of Gainesville. Wife has decided to get her PHD and is going back to school at FSU. If all goes
)</font>

If she's going back to school at FSU, why are you buying a house in Gainesville?
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida #9  
My dealer, bigtractorsupply.com is located about 50 miles north of Gainesville, and delivers for free up to 100 miles. Kioti is the brand he sells, and he also sells many brands of mowers (ZTRs and walks). I know there is or was a Kioti dealer in Alachua, but I know that quite a few sales have been lost by them to bigtractor because he deals better than most, and is also just a nice guy.

I could easily see you doing all you need to do with a tractor like mine, the CK20HST, but even better the 25 or CK30.

Sandy soil is quite easy to work for the most part. The biggest problem one usually runs into are roots from pines, oaks etc. when trying to clean land for a garden or other such use, but my backhoe pretty well takes care of all of that.

I find the R4 tires an excellent choice for our soil conditions. Not too aggressive, and for the most part, adequate for most situations. If you get into a place where you need more aggressive traction, even R1s aren't going to be a great help over R4s in this soil. Some yes.

Snakes are not a huge problem although they are around. There seem to be less of them than ever these days.
Water moccasins, rattlesnakes, copperheads are the most often seen poisonous snakes we see, occasional coral snakes. Usually, these are snakes you run up on, and they try to get away from you as fast as you try to get away from them.

Just keep in mind to be extra careful when moving rocks or other covering materials as snakes will often be curled up under these things.

Mosquitos are bad in the late spring and summer into fall, worst at dawn and dusk. Keep repellant on hand as there have been some cases of encephalitis and west nile virus in the state.

I wouldn't worry too much about gators. They are around, but rarely do we hear of any animal disappearances related to them. A long creek borders my property and I rarely ever see any evidence of gators, but over the years there have been some around.

We always continued to swim, along with the dogs, in the creek and never worry about the gators. I guess they're well fed enough off of nature.

You can expect to see O'possum and raccoons, owls, other birds etc. Hopefully you will have an abundance of animals to enjoy. Make sure to tell the girls to avoid getting too close to any of these animals due to the possiblity of rabies infected animals.
Most will leave you alone if you leave them alone.

I hope you get moved okay and find your new life very rewarding. At least you won't be buying a snow blower!

John
 
   / Purchasing property in Florida
  • Thread Starter
#10  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( </font><font color="blueclass=small">(
12-15 miles north of Gainesville. Wife has decided to get her PHD and is going back to school at FSU. If all goes
)</font>

If she's going back to school at FSU, why are you buying a house in Gainesville? )</font>

Oops, I meant to say University of Florida.
 
 
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