So you want to move to Winter Garden, FL.  Our town is known as a charming little city with a juicy past and we are happy to welcome you.  Here are 5 helpful tips for moving to Winter Garden.

1. Set an appointment at the DMV.

Winter Garden and west Orange County in general is a very popular place.  There are many people moving here everyday and so, the DMV tends to be quite busy.  Of course, drivers license offices aren’t known for their efficiency so you might be waiting hours if you walk in to get your drivers license.  Fortunatley, there’s a better way!  You can set an appointment online.  This can be done at the website here. Book your appointment a day or two in advance and arrive early because they do sometimes get to you before your appointment time.  Also, make sure you look up what documents you need so you can handle everything the first time.  Another note on the DMV, if you are bringing a vehicle with you from out of state, you will need to register it as well.  Vehicles can be registered for 1 or 2 years but watch out, because they actually expire on your birthday.  If you only register for one year and have a birthday coming up, you’ll find yourself right back in the office soon renewing your tags.  The good news is, your Florida Drivers License is good for 8 years!

2. Be Prepared for Tolls

If you’re moving from out of state, you will probably find yourself on some toll roads on the way into town.  Most take cash, but some are automated and require exact change.  Worse, you’ll find some exits in Central FL don’t even take cash and are for SunPass only.  Do yourself a favor and get a SunPass as soon as you cross state line.  Even better than that, you can order your SunPass in advance at their website, Sunpass.com.  The SunPass itself will cost you a few bucks, but you actually get a reduced rate when passing through toll sites, and even better you can keep on trucking instead of waiting in line to pay your toll at each stop.

3. Bring Fido Along

You will probably want to grab a bite to eat once you make it into town.  If you have a four legged friend, you probably don’t want to leave them home alone amongst all the boxes in a new, unfamiliar place.  One of the many great things about our town is many of the restaurants have dog-friendly patios.  Amongst these are Hagan O’Reilly’s Pub, Moon Cricket Grille, The Attic Door, Winter Garden Pizza Company, and the patio at Crooked Can, where you’ll find several more restaurants.  The weather here is beautiful most of the year and patio dining is fantastic.  Your pups will agree.

4. Easy Downtown Parking

Winter Garden has a wonderful downtown area with many popular restaurants, shops, and bars (we even have a brewery, The Crooked Can).  Downtown Winter Garden also features many special events throughout the year and an award winning Farmers Market every Saturday.  During the busier times, you may find on street parking to be a bit hard to find.  No worries though, in mid 2017 the City of Winter Garden remedied this situation in opening the downtown parking garage.  Parking is always free here and even at the busiest times you can find a spot here.  Personally, i’ve never had to go above the second level to find a spot.  Look for entrances to the parking garage on South Lakeview Avenue and South Boyd St one block off of Plant St.  You can also find a map of the cities free public parking here.

5. Find a Place to Call Home

As Winter Garden is becoming an increasingly popular place to live, the city has a strong real estate and rental market.  The average sales price for a 3 bedroom home in Winter Garden for the last 6 months was $280,500 and the average rent price for the same was $1782 per month.  You can find all types of homes in Winter Garden, everything from older established neighborhoods around downtown to new planned unit developments featuring townhouses and larger homes with resort style community pools plus many more amenities.  If you need help selecting your next Winter Garden home you can search through current listings at our website here.  If you have real estate questions or questions about Winter Garden feel free to contact us at 407-955-1672 or leave us a message below.  You can check out our YouTube video on this same topic here.