Employment and things in So Florida

[Randy g]

Ratsaruck- Thank you for the information you have laid out for us. You are a wealth of information and I honestly do appreciate it. Sounds like a good time to invest in real estate in south florida to me!

Ana- I've ridden Jennings a couple of times and Homestead is a terribly dangerous track on a bike. Way to many concrete walls that bodies bounce of off and broken bones are no fun, trust me I know all to well. After leaving California and its thousands and thousands of miles of mountainous twisties, I can not fathom riding on the street here on the east coast, it is just way to boring. I had some of the best tracks to ride and race on including Infineon, Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, Fontana, and many many more. Almost a dozen tracks within a 6-8 hour drive. I gave up racing for a life on and in the water and that is the main reason for us moving south.

Debby-We would be honored to help out with seaturtles or any other ocean conservation type activities that is available.

Looking at the overall picture. 400k pop in VB county at 6% unemployment vs 1.4m pop in PB county at 11% unemployment. Even with a higher unemployment rate there are still ALOT more employeed folks there, than here and people still spend money on the homes they live in.

People that are there and stable are keeping their homes and fixing them up vs selling and moving up. It is like that here and in California. Torn up foreclosures are an opportunity for me, plain and simple.:cool2:

That said, Struggling and starting over in south florida has its benefits. It is better to live someplace that we will be happy and able to spend our days in warm water diving, kayaking, sailing and someplace we want to be vs being someplace we only enjoy for half of the year. The other 6 months absolutely suck being stuck inside from the cold or with water thats to cold to dive wet. Thankfully Kate does a good job of keeping me warm and happy during the winter.

 

[ScooterSouthFlorida]

Well you appear to have a bullet-proof business plan/formula that will absolutely trump every other GC-who-does-a-bit-of-everything that has already been down here for decades, so.....

COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON 'HAVE A DREAM & AIN'T GOING BUST IN FLA!'

(Sorry, hate to sound overly sarcastic, but as I said before, I know quite a few in your line of work, and they are scrambling; and they DARN sure aren't giving any business to 'the new kid on the block')

 

[Randy g]

Damn dude take a chill pill. It is simply a numbers game.

With a population of over 1.4 MILLION +or- people in PB county and 1.7 MILLION+or- in Broward county. (in my mind, and it is relatively simple according to you) you would have to be either stupid, lazy, incompetent, a scammer, or just a lousy contractor if you couldn't get work out of over 3 million people within an hours drive, less the 400k that are out of work that leaves 2.6 million people that live in houses and would seem to need something done to them at some point during the year.

Just sayin!

I am not looking to take anything from anybody and I will make it on my own just like I have the last 25 yrs. For guys that want to work, there is always work if you look hard enough. I just want to live someplace that I can dive, kayak and sail pretty much year round. Is that OK?

Scooter you must be an out of work contractor as hard as you are selling me on NOT moving there. I guess you won't be refurring anyone to me huh?

 

[Florida Scuba Divers]

Randy,

I love your attitude. We bought Scuba Works almost 1 1/2 years ago during the height of the crisis. People in the industry, family members, my accountant, and close friends said " YOU WANT TO BUY WHAT?????" They would tell me that "don't you understand that when money is tight, DIVING (Recreation) is the first thing people will cut from their budgets. Guess what... they (so far) were all wrong. I have the luxury of having the sales numbers for every year since the store opened in 2003. I am happy to say the we doubled 2008 numbers in 2009 and are on pace to blow 2009 numbers away in 2010. Why.... hard work, persistence, honesty, provide value, ect. People are still willing to pay to scuba dive and will pay to have a room addition and or remodel their homes. Come on down... the water is fine. Will it be easy.... NO WAY! Prepare to work as hard as you have ever worked. But when you drive home at night, you can enjoy the palm trees and beautiful sunsets we have here in Jupiter. And oh... when you get a day off every other week or so you can take that boat of yours a couple of miles off shore and enjoy some the best reefs in the world.

All the best, John

PS: Do you do kitchens?

 

[Randy g]

Randy,

Why.... hard work, persistence, honesty, provide value, ect. People are still willing to pay to scuba dive and will pay to have a room addition and or remodel their homes. Come on down... the water is fine. Will it be easy.... NO WAY! Prepare to work as hard as you have ever worked. But when you drive home at night, you can enjoy the palm trees and beautiful sunsets we have here in Jupiter. And oh... when you get a day off every other week or so you can take that boat of yours a couple of miles off shore and enjoy some the best reefs in the world.

All the best, John

PS: Do you do kitchens?

Thanks John! I completely understand what you are saying and feel the same as you do. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of the SB crew in the future.

The majority of the populations cup is always half empty, mine is always half full!

And yes I do some very nice kitchens. Thanks for asking.

 

[ScooterSouthFlorida]

Scooter you must be an out of work contractor as hard as you are selling me on NOT moving there. I guess you won't be refurring anyone to me huh?

Hardly... I actually prefer to have money in my pocket and food on the table; why would I want to be a contractor and starving?