Some good advice above.

It sounded like the first poster was looking to have someone come to his house/pool to do the training - that's not typically how it works. Usually you do classroom session and pool sessions with other students - as a group - in a pool specified by the dive shop. But I guess if $ is no object you could have an instructor give private lessons at your house/pool as well.

Another good piece of advice someone gave me way back when - after you are certified rent your equipment for some period of time to figure out what sort of equipment is out there and what you like/don't like.

I'll also echo the comment above about taking your classes locally, then taking your certification dives while on a vacation further south in gin clear, warm water. This is a great approach in my opinion. This is eactly what I did when I got my daughter certified.

Russ