What does it really take to build a life in one of South Florida’s most sought-after communities? Kevin, the founder and owner of Unlimited Auto Wash Club, knows the answer better than most. With six thriving car wash locations spread across Palm Beach County and more than four decades of calling this beautiful region home, Kevin has watched Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, and West Palm Beach grow from quiet towns into vibrant, world-class destinations. In this exciting conversation on the PBC Living Podcast with host Jamin,
Kevin pulls back the curtain on everything newcomers and longtime residents alike want to know. He talks about the neighborhoods he has lived in, the schools that shaped his children’s futures, the real costs of living in paradise, what it takes to weather a hurricane, and why he would never dream of leaving.
Whether you are thinking about relocating to Palm Beach County, curious about what daily life looks like here, or just looking for an honest take from someone who has truly done it all in South Florida, this conversation is packed with genuine insights, practical advice, and a few great stories you will not want to miss.
Full Transcript
Jamin: Welcome to the PBC Living Podcast. My name is Jamin. I’m your first friend in South Florida. The purpose of this channel, as always, is to answer the questions you have as you’re considering making the move to the Palm Beach County area, really looking at everything from the Tequesta town all the way down to Boca Raton and everything in between. And today we’re very lucky to be joined by a business owner that owns the Unlimited Auto Wash at six locations throughout the entire Palm Beach County area. So he is the perfect person we want to talk to about what it’s like living here and just kind of the ins and outs of these different areas. Before we get started though, do make sure that you give this video a like, subscribe, and hype the video as well.
And then also, if you have any questions that we just didn’t quite get to that you’d like to have answered, make sure you drop those in the comment section down below so we can get those answered on a future video. But without further ado, Kevin, thank you very much for joining us.
Kevin: Well, thank you very much for having me.
Jamin: Absolutely. So let’s get started with this. How long have you lived in the Palm Beach County area?
Kevin: Sure. Actually, I moved down when I was twenty years old. I’ve been down for forty years. That makes me sixty. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn’t move back now. It’s just too cold for me up there.
Jamin: Where did you move from?
Kevin: The Washington D.C., Southern Maryland area.
Jamin: Oh, gotcha. Okay. And what initially brought you down?
Kevin: Well, my father had moved down. He loved this area. He’d worked for the Kennedy family for years in the early sixties, and so he would visit down here with the president. When it was my dad’s time to retire, he decided to move down here. He did buy a couple of businesses down here to run, and I ended up taking over that family business after I left the airline industry, Continental Airlines. I was a ticket agent, gate agent, and so forth for a few years and I enjoyed that thoroughly.
But I came back to work for my family and then ended up buying them out and became a successful business owner in South Florida. Love every minute of it. I have a beautiful wife and family. Matter of fact, I met her coming off an airplane while I was working at Continental. I even got engaged at one of the gates there and had it filmed by a local TV crew. It was on the 11 o’clock news. So that was pretty fun.
Jamin: Man, that is bold. That’s bold to propose on the news.
Kevin: I wanted to have it stand out. But anyway, all three of our kids are from here. They were born and raised here. My wife’s from South Jersey, so we’re both transplants, and she’s been down for almost forty years too.
Jamin: So what area did you guys kind of move into at first?
Kevin: We started in West Palm Beach, eventually moving about twenty-six years ago to the Palm Beach Gardens area, and then about eleven years ago we moved up to Jupiter, Florida, Jupiter Country Club. We love it there. A lot of friends that we’ve gathered over the last twenty years.
How the Area Has Changed
Jamin: You’ve been here a long time, and I love that because you kind of give that historical perspective on how the area’s developed. When you initially went to the West Palm Beach area, what was that like compared to what it’s like now?
Kevin: Certainly there, I remember when Okeechobee was two lanes. Then it went to six lanes wide, and I believe it’s now seven lanes wide, if I’m not mistaken. Jupiter here, Military Trail right in front of you was two lanes up until just twenty-some years ago. I think it was in the late nineties or early two thousands that Military Trail was finally widened here. The traffic was certainly not as dense, but housing was a lot more affordable.
Schools and Magnet Programs
Kevin: Schools, my gosh, the school system has grown dramatically. And don’t let people tell you that maybe this school’s bad or that school’s bad in the middle school to high school area, because a lot of these schools also have the magnet programs. If you put your kid into a magnet program, for example, maybe sports management at Palm Beach Gardens or up at Dwyer, they get a really, really good education.
It happened to my middle son, Connor, at Palm Beach Gardens High School. He was in sports management and went to UF for nuclear engineering. He’s now a radiologist, and by the end of next year he’ll be a neuroradiologist.
Jamin: So it sounds like they have the option to actually specialize, even at the grade school levels, not just when you get to college.
Kevin: Well, not necessarily the grade schools. Not all the grade schools have a magnet program, but a couple do.
Jamin: And the magnet program is where you get the chance to actually specialize in something.
Kevin: Exactly. For example, Hal Watkins in Gardens, they had the county’s first medical magnet. I know a child that went through there, and he is now a top children’s doctor in Kansas City. If you put your child in these magnet programs, it insulates them from the rest of the school. You have to do your due diligence and find out what schools have these magnet programs, and don’t be afraid if you have to drive your kid to school seven miles compared to having him on the bus for two and a half miles. A lot of the schools have some great programs. Dwyer has some really fascinating ones.
If You Couldn’t Live in Palm Beach County
Jamin: Let’s say, for instance, that for some reason you couldn’t live in Palm Beach County anymore. Is there another part of the state that you would consider moving to and why?
Kevin: Well, as I’m aging, I know the southwest part of Florida. There are some areas that are newer, being aggressively developed, that look nice. Although I’m from the Northeast, and those of us up there tend to gravitate to the east coast of Florida, whereas the middle of the country tends to gravitate towards the west coast of the state.
I also own a condo up in Hobe Sound that we really enjoy going to. But I’ve never thought about leaving. Matter of fact, right now with housing prices, once you’re into that home, it’s going to be hard to move, even with the portability of your tax basis over to the new home for property taxes.
Affordability in Palm Beach County
Jamin: Affordability is something that a lot of people think about when they’re considering moving to the Palm Beach County area. It has the reputation of being incredibly luxury-based and very affluent, and you kind of get a sense that if you’re normal or average, you’re going to get boxed out unless you’re super wealthy. How would you say the affordability is?
Kevin: I believe south of West Palm Beach, but well above Boca, is probably your best value, although I’m a northern Palm Beach County guy. There are some deals to be had. It seems as if some of the newer housing developments, if you get in at pre-sale prices, there may be some room for that to still advance after you take possession, so you’ve got some equity going into it already.
Buying a resale right now, it kind of looks like prices are just starting to settle. I have a friend that bought next to me from Wyoming, the identical home, flipped, same acreage, and his property taxes are exactly 100% higher than mine.
Jamin: Wow.
Kevin: Yeah, but that’s because I bought before 2022, before the prices took off, so I’m still paying a much lower rate.
Jamin: Right, you’ve got the homestead on there, so it can only increase at maximum 3% a year.
The Property Tax Debate
Jamin: Do you think they’re actually going to pass the proposal to get rid of property taxes here? Or is it a lot of talk and good headlines?
Kevin: I just talked to somebody with the Realtors Association yesterday, and they don’t feel like it will pass. I don’t see how it will pass. Listen, I’m very lucky I can afford my property taxes, but it’s only those of us that have the homestead exemption that will be affected and see a drop. If you’re a renter running a 33,000-square-foot unit and two of you are living there, your landlord’s not going to see a decrease in property taxes. Your rent will not go down. Period. End of story.
Where are they going to make up that money? The only way they can do it is with an additional sales tax. That’s the only way. And so, yeah, I’ll still save $15,000 a year in comparison, but what about the poor guys living in the $3,000 unit going from 7% sales tax to, let’s call it 12%, sales tax? Did we just redistribute money there? That’s not something I want to be a part of, personally speaking.
Jamin: If it does go through, I would actually expect to see the prices for homes in the area suddenly shoot through the roof, because everyone in the country would suddenly be like, “No property taxes in Florida? I guess that’s where I’m moving.”
Kevin: And it’s possible the state government didn’t think about that. We’re already in a housing shortage in Florida, especially South Florida. We still need to attract younger workers to live here. If we can’t get them housing, we’ve got to do something for them.
Jamin: I just don’t know what services they would have to cut.
Kevin: And I like my trash being picked up twice a week.
Hidden Expenses
Jamin: What would you say are maybe some hidden expenses that people considering moving here might not be thinking about?
Kevin: I have noticed in certain municipalities, your water bill could be much higher for the same usage from one area to another. If you move into a home with two or more air conditioners, expect to have that $500 electric bill. Nice restaurants are still a little bit more expensive up in the Northeast than they are down here, so that’s not bad. And the fun side is you don’t have to get as dressed up as you normally would. Look at me now, this is my daily wear. It’s a lot more casual down here.
Employment and Wages
Jamin: How difficult is it to find employment here in the Palm Beach County area?
Kevin: Florida, including South Florida, has always had a bad reputation for pay. A 20-year police officer in the Northeast could potentially make maybe 50% or higher more than a police officer down here with the same amount of time. Starting pay for a teacher has always been relatively low here. Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen a gradual increase, but I still feel we’re underpaid in Florida.
We did have the constitutional amendment for increased minimum wage. It was $8.45 about five or six years ago. This year we’re at fourteen dollars an hour. This October, we’ll go to fifteen dollars an hour where it will cap out.
I’ve got two sides to this, personally and as a businessman. As a businessman, it is difficult, especially when I’ve got 145 employees and my biggest expense is payroll. But personally, I get it. Fifteen dollars is fair. As a business owner though, every dollar an hour it goes up is about $300,000 in additional payroll expenses for me that year. I just recently went up on our prices, and hopefully that’s the last time I have to go up in a while.
Character of Different Areas
Jamin: How would you describe the character and the differences between the places where you’ve got businesses?
Kevin: Oh my gosh, the difference in our clientele is unique. Wellington, during the wintertime, we get a lot of polo players through there, and when the polo matches are going, the clientele have more spending availability.
West Palm Beach, we get a lot of people from West Palm, but also from just south between us and the airport. It’s a unique blend. We go from a Lamborghini down to a Toyota Corolla, the next car. And nobody gets treated any better. The guy with the Lamborghini is paying the same price you are.
Palm Beach Gardens, we’ve got a good mix of country clubs in our area, so our average customer there has a little bit more wealth.
Jupiter, we’ve got Jupiter Farms just west of us and there’s no car washes out there, so we get a lot of pickup trucks.
Tequesta, during the summertime, I think everybody leaves Tequesta. They’re really unique. They watch the weather more than anybody else. If there’s a 40% chance of rain, they’re not coming. But Palm Beach Gardens? It’s like, “Did anybody not watch the weather last night?” We’re packed, it’s cloudy, it just rained thirty minutes ago, and I’ve got a line.
Where Would Different People Live?
Jamin: Let’s give you a scenario. I’ll give you three separate groups of people, and you tell me where you think they’ll probably end up gravitating towards.
A Hard-Driving, Career-Oriented Single Person
Kevin: Are they new to the area? What kind of money are they making? I would tend to say probably downtown West Palm Beach in a rental unit. They typically want something that’s newer, and they can’t afford what they really want at that time.
A Young Family Making $70K to $90K a Year
Kevin: Well, I hope they bought a round-trip ticket. Just kidding! It’s possible they may have to go to the Hobe Sound area. Maybe the Lake Worth region, maybe a little west. There are some values in PGA National where you don’t have to be a club member. My nephew just bought his first townhouse in Jupiter off Tony Pena for $310,000. He’s probably going to put $25,000 to $30,000 into it, but it’ll be a nice home for him. So there are some values in smaller two-bedrooms.
A Young Family Making $120K to $150K
Kevin: It depends on age. Younger families aren’t going to necessarily want the country club aspect. Where I live, I paid $5,200 to join eleven years ago. It’s now $175,000 to join.
Jamin: Jeez.
Kevin: Yeah, so thank goodness I got in early. Maybe PGA wouldn’t be a bad value because you don’t have to join the country club. Or even Atlantis. Up in Jupiter, they’re going to have new developments. There are still some new homes they can get into at a lower price point, though not necessarily a reasonable one.
A Retired Couple on a Fixed Income
Kevin: My mother-in-law just recently bought a home for $399,000, a nice house on a big corner lot in Tradition up in Port St. Lucie. In Palm Beach County, there are quite a few nicer 55-and-older communities, but I think the vast majority are centered in that Tradition area. They’ve got quite a few developments within Tradition that are 55 and older.
Fake or Florida Man
Jamin: Kevin, we are going to play a bit of a game called Fake or Florida Man. I’m going to read you three headlines. One of them is not going to be true, and you have to try to discern which one is fake.
Number one: Florida man hospitalized after attempting to teach local gators the Macarena to increase tourism.
Kevin: I’m gonna say yes to start.
Jamin: Number two: Predictably, Florida man blows off part of his hand in July 4th fireworks accident.
Kevin: Oh, I gotta say yes.
Jamin: Number three: Florida man finds iguana in toilet, calls 911.
Kevin: You know, again, it’s Florida. I gotta say yes. I’ve been here so long. It’s all happened. If it didn’t happen in the past year, it’s happened.
Jamin: Well, actually, that first one was the made-up one.
Kevin: Okay, okay.
Jamin: But again, there’s a good chance that’s actually happened at some point.
Kevin: I saw it on late-night TV. It had to be true.
Hurricanes
Jamin: Another thing a lot of people are concerned about are hurricanes. You’ve been here for a while. Are they worth all the hype that you see on the TV and the news?
Kevin: Our first hurricane experience, my wife and I, was Hurricane Andrew back in the early ’90s. We were in a wood-framed home, two-story, and we left that to go up to my dad’s house in PGA National. He had just built a new home a couple years earlier. We saw the devastation down in Homestead that occurred from Andrew. We felt some of the effects, but nothing, obviously, what they felt.
Later on in our home, we stuck it out for another hurricane. The eye passed right over us. Before it crossed over us, it was on us for 10 to 12 hours, just sustained winds. I remember sitting on my couch, which was a few inches from the wall on the concrete floor. The wind was hitting with such force that the concrete pad of the house was actually shaking, and I could feel it shaking on the couch. I already had kids by this time. I was legitimately scared. I didn’t let anybody sleep upstairs because a roof could come flying off.
We’re in a CBS home now. But they are real. If you’re told to evacuate, that is a personal choice. But if it’s your first time, if you’ve just moved here, listen to what they say. Then talk to your neighbors afterwards who hung around. Storms can be real.
We did have one a year and a half ago. I had put a generator in my house. If you can get a generator, please do it. You won’t go wrong. Especially if you have a sick relative that needs to stay with you and needs power. When the eye was passing a few miles east of us, we could see some nice daylight, and my kids jumped in the pool, not because they wanted to. I told them to go get the palm fronds out and start cleaning up a little bit.
But listen, if it’s your first time here, do what the authorities tell you to do and just learn as you go. Ask your neighbors what they do. And if it’s going to be over a hundred miles an hour, you need to think about what you’re going to do. Do you want to go west 20 or 30 miles and stay in a hotel? That’s always a wise choice.
Jamin: There’s definitely a decisiveness element to it, too. You wait long enough, the roads are going to be really backed up and tickets are going to be like $1,000 to leave.
Kevin: And that brings me to another thing, gas versus electric vehicles. In the middle of a storm, if you leave, you’re not going to get too far, especially in traffic. But the same could be said with a gas car. You need to make sure you’re topped off. If you’re living near the storm’s path, good chance there’s no gas available at most of the gas stations.
Please, if the storm’s approaching, make sure your vehicle battery is topped off, make sure your gas cans are filled up or at least your car. Don’t run your generator inside your garage. Push it outside and run it outside.
Kevin: Prices for homeowners insurance can be more expensive the closer you are to the coast, where the higher sustained winds will be. The further inland you are, the less the sustained winds will be, and that also goes for homeowners insurance and wind insurance.
How the Culture Has Changed
Jamin: You have the advantage of being able to see how the area has developed over the decades. How much has it changed? Would you say it’s the same area just with more people, or has the heart and culture itself started to change?
Kevin: I believe, my personal opinion, it’s younger. The West Palm Beach area has grown dramatically. It seemed to be a more, well, an older type, a lot of snowbirds that were even year-round. Now we still have the snowbirds, but it’s a much younger crowd. A lot more money-driven, a lot better paying jobs, especially in the downtown West Palm Beach area with all the new tech companies coming in, the “Wall Street of the South.”
I really do believe the school system is much better than it was 30 to 40 years ago, despite what some people might say.
I’ve got employees that have been with me for 15-plus years, and a number for 20-plus years. I was a gas station convenience store owner first. Then car washes kind of fell into my lap in 2010, and I felt we did a good job. So I expanded the businesses up to now six locations.
We’re probably the only car wash chain that offers 100% hand washes and full service. It’s very hard to find that. And we offer a great price for what you get. It’s a great value.
Jupiter: Likes and Dislikes
Jamin: What do you like and what do you dislike about the Jupiter area?
Kevin: Don’t laugh, but I think the lack of restaurants in the Jupiter market. Palm Beach Gardens has quite a few, although very few chain restaurants. There are just not as many in the Jupiter market. I don’t think the shopping is as good in Jupiter as it is in Palm Beach Gardens, especially since they have a mall.
There is just a lack of shopping in this market. You go two miles north and there really isn’t anything for another five to ten miles. It hasn’t developed yet. I think Hobe Sound is another area that’s going to develop in the next five to fifteen years, both east and west of I-95 at the Bridge Road exit. Most of Jupiter’s roads, there’s really no land left to build.
The Jupiter Lighthouse
Jamin: I was told that someone was talking about creating a condo association where the Jupiter Lighthouse is now.
Kevin: Oh, no, no, no. The lighthouse needs to stay there. That’s Jupiter’s iconic look. That’s everything that the town of Jupiter does. It’s all lighthouse-driven. Their logos, that’s what Jupiter is famous for.
Jamin: What are we going to do? Change all our logos to include just this rectangular condo building?
Kevin: I mean, you can’t take the lighthouse down. I would be upset if they changed it from red to yellow, for gosh sakes. It’s got to stay red. That’s the way it’s always looked.
Jamin: Yeah, there’s some serious history. General Meade from the Civil War, the commanding general of the Union forces during Gettysburg, he’s the one that actually designed that lighthouse. So let’s keep it where it is.
Kevin: It’s a national treasure.
Palm Beach County vs. Miami
Jamin: We often kind of get lumped into the same category for people who are out of state with Miami. How would you say the Palm Beach County area is similar and dissimilar to Miami?
Kevin: Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is the demographics. Miami is very Hispanic-driven, and I’m not suggesting anything’s wrong with that at all. It’s just a statistical fact. In Jupiter, it’s a boater’s way of life. Palm Beach Gardens, I guess, a golfer’s way of life. A lot more condos in Miami. They’re closer to the cruise ships, so they have some beautiful views that maybe we don’t have.
But the area here has changed. It’s a lot more wealth-driven, more year-round residents than there used to be, and a lot younger. A lot less traffic than Fort Lauderdale or Miami, that’s for sure.
Why People Leave Florida
Jamin: We had over 500,000 people leave the state last year. We still had a net gain of about 22,000, so we’re still growing, but about 500,000 people did decide to leave. In your interactions with people, what’s normally the reason?
Kevin: I had a family that moved back to North Carolina because of housing prices. I think for a lot of younger families, they seriously have to look at housing costs. That’s probably the number one reason, especially in the Tri-County area, and even now in Martin and St. Lucie County.
If they’re a new family to the area and they don’t have homestead, property taxes are another deciding factor on whether they can afford the home. They think they’ve got all their numbers right, the bank says, “Well, with the property taxes and your homeowners association, you’ve fallen out of the numbers you need to be in.”
Jamin: It’s an easy mistake to make. If you’re buying the property for $700,000 but going off the taxes they’re paying now, they bought it for $300,000 a decade ago, as soon as you buy it, the assessed value shoots up to $700,000 because that’s the new baseline. It’s really important to start that homestead exemption as soon as possible because they can only increase it 3% every year.
Kevin: The same can be said for buying a new construction home. You’re only paying the property taxes based on the property value without the improvements, the house itself. They may have only paid an average of $50,000 per lot, but you’re buying the house for $1.2 million. So that first year of taxes, it’s only $1,529. That’s great. But boy, that second year comes in and now you’re up to $15,000.
Palm Beach Gardens: Pros and Cons
Jamin: What would you say the pros and cons are of Palm Beach Gardens?
Kevin: Obviously, it’s gotten more expensive, just like Jupiter. It’s going to get a little bit busier traffic-wise over the next five years with the FPL building opening, although the city staff has worked very hard with FPL to make sure the roads feeding that area are going to be ready.
When it comes to city staff, Palm Beach Gardens, they’re a class act. I know Jupiter’s trying to get that way, always trying to emulate Palm Beach Gardens. As a business owner, they’ve got strong code enforcement, which homeowners and business owners may not appreciate too much sometimes, but their city staff knows what they’re doing.
I’m about to build two gas stations near Avenir on North Lake Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens. City staff has worked for a year and a half making sure everything’s right with entrances and functionality. They make sure the roads are widened enough and the turn lanes are in before all the businesses open. I’m very pleased. With that said, as a business owner, you have some additional costs because city staff is very thorough. They want better aesthetics. This is Palm Beach Gardens, and they expect it to be nice.
Why Car Washes Matter in Florida
Jamin: Here in Florida, the car washes are way more of a deal than what you’re going to find in other places. Why would you say that is?
Kevin: Wealth, obviously, and I think there’s also the drive to outdo your neighbor or your friend. Where else is there within 15 miles of where you live a Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley dealership? For nine out of ten of you that moved here, you didn’t have that where you came from. People love to take care of their cars, and they do.
Jamin: There’s definitely kind of a maintenance element to it as well.
Kevin: Florida, we have a lot longer summer. The heat and direct sunlight is a solid eight months compared to maybe four months up in the Northeast. And of course, all the salt air. You really need to take that into consideration when you buy your car. Where are you going to wash your car? Are you going to take it to a machine wash weekly? Or do you want to, for maybe just a few dollars more, get a company that will hand wash your car, do the interior and tire shine at a very reasonable price?
And go one step above that. Join a club where you can come whenever or wherever you’d like. That’s what I offer right now, and it’s not on sale, it’s a regular price, $60 a month. You can come in every day. All six locations, you can try them all out. If you’re a member at one, you’re a member at them all.
For $60 a month, every time you come, we’ll hand wash your car, seal or wax, blow dry, wheels cleaned, hand-finished, interior vacuumed, windows cleaned, dash jams and cup holders wiped, and your tires shined. Sixty bucks a month, and you can come every day. That wash is $35 every day if you pay for it as a single wash. For less than the price of two washes, you can come all month long.
Closing
Jamin: It’s definitely an investment here in the area. Your car’s going to get beaten absolutely to nothing if you don’t take care of the exterior. It’s not just mechanical. You’ve got to think about the environment you’re in now.
Kevin: If you live, work, and play in the Gardens or Jupiter areas and you’re taking your wife to a nice restaurant, Saturday’s my birthday, I believe we’re going to River House, do you really want to pull up at the valet with a dirty car or a clean car? Because the guy in front of you and the guy behind you is in a clean car. So do you want to be that guy? Just remember that.
Jamin: And remind me again, it’s the Unlimited Auto Wash.
Kevin: Unlimited Auto Wash, and we have six locations: Wellington, West Palm, two in Gardens, and two in Jupiter, although one is on the Jupiter-Tequesta line.
Jamin: Well, Kevin, I really do appreciate you coming on here and sharing your perspective and insights into the area. I’m sure we could probably talk for a couple more hours.
Kevin: Probably could.
Jamin: But I better let you get back to running your business. Everyone else, we talked about the business throughout here. We’re going to have the link to Kevin’s businesses in the description section down below. Once you’re moving here and you’re looking at getting car washes, which you definitely should, because that’s actually going to increase the longevity of your paint job and everything else with your car. You’ve got to think about the salt in the area and the direct sunlight beating down on the top of your car. It’s a car maintenance thing here. So make sure you do take care of your car.
If you have any questions that you wish I’d asked, do make sure you drop those in the comment section down below. We’ll see if we can get that to a next interview, and we’ll give you a shout-out. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time.