Looking for info - Sierra Vista (Phoenix: rentals, how much, houses)

[123catlady]

I know I've read a bit about Sierra Vista, but I am wondering about a few things. We may be relocating there with short notice so I am trying to research now.

Does anyone recommend a prop managment co? We will rent first and get to know area before we buy.

Which is preferable central air or evap cooler? We lived in a house with a swamp cooler once and it was horribly loud. Didn't cool whole house either.

Are there water regulations? Is it really expensive? I live in a high desert area now, but its close to rivers so we have lots of irrigation water available. Dont need lots of grass, but a bit for the dog would be nice.

Should we really make sure we find a place with a garage or covered parking? Or is that not really necessary? We garage now, but mostly because the sprinklers overspray leaving water spots.

About how much could I expect to spend on gas/elec/w/s/g in a house 1200-1500sq ft? Just looking for ballpark estimate.

Would a fireplace come in handy or is it mostly a luxury? How hard is it to find the wood to burn?

I've heard we'd want to get our dog in rattlesnake training. I also heard about spiders/such...how dangerous are those for dog/cats?

We have a son who will be looking into community college/tech school. What's available in town - any recommendations? His interest is in video photo/camera type stuff. Wants to work making films or something along those lines.

If you have any answers to all these questions thanks a bunch! We are excited at the prospect of moving sight unseen to a new place.

catlady

[123catlady]

No replies yet? darn. Something else I forgot to ask about was churches. Right now we attend what used to be AoG, with very rocky worship music which we love. Anything like that in Sierra Vista or will we have to head to bigger area?

Thanks!
catlady

[drb85650]

I'd contact Long Realty, they would know the best landlords, may carry some rentals too. Biggest realtor in area. You're up against TDY housing demands from the military personnel. Familiar with that? Nice houses rent for $$$ due to the allowance they receive.

ac is nice, but unlike Phoenix, unnecessary. You will have a period of 2-4 weeks in July that are "humid"....your swamp will be a tad uncomfortable, but the rest of the year, works great. Make certain you have a place with good insulation. We had 2,000 sq.ft and 2 coolers, never worked great and cost alot. Now we have 1400 sq.ft. , 1 small cooler and good insulation, works great.


No regulations, our highest bills during summer are $45 or so and the wife waters alot! We have a small grass area, but multiple flower beds, pumpkins, sunflowers, grapes and pomegranites(sp?).


Not really necessary, just nice. You'll have a few mornings of scraping frost, some days of heat and hot interiors. You will get water spots from rain and they are hard to remove. I've got 2 black cars, yech.


SSVEC is costly, we pay about 120 per month during the summer with the swamp going. Gas is negligible, maybe $15 or so during the summer. Winters we use our wood stove and the furnace only when it's getting down into the teens or 20's.


Fireplaces are a nice thing, but not heat conductive. We have a wood burning stove, again tho it depends on your layout, insulation etc....
Wood.....we gather free stuff from areas that are being cleared for developement, but that's getting harder to find. Several big wood suppliers here, so not a problem buying a cord if necessary.



Having lived in Arizona for almost 25 years, I've seen 1 live rattler, a handfull of scorpions and a couple of tarantula wasp. Granted 20 of those years were in Phoenix, but there are still insects there.
If you're going to walk your dogs/let them roam in open areas, take precautions, sure. Yard dogs(like ours)....no biggie. Our basset has eaten more birds and frogs than anything else.

Cochise Community College. University of Arizona south. No tech schools that I've heard of in town.

Churches.....there is a AofG, couple of them. Alot of independent little churches, a big Calvary Chapel, very active First Baptist and Methodist. We attend a nondenominational church called Thunder Mountain Community Church(tmcc.org), like it alot. Modern music, alot of young couples along with us old folks, casual dress.

Hope you found my post about Sierra Vista in the sticky thread, top of forum. Any other questions, feel free to pm. Funny, I'm always telling people on here about SV, how great it is.....yet we are getting ready to move away. Still a nice place tho. A real "hidden" area of Arizona.

catlady[/quote]

[123catlady]

Thank you so much! I'm really excited to hear I'll still be able to have a bit of a garden. And I hope we never see any snakes or bugs! Our family is glad to hear about TMCC, its one of the place we decided to try just from our internet search. Never can tell by the net though. I'm feeling much more peace about this move -

Thanks again,
catlady

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by drb85650

Funny, I'm always telling people on here about SV, how great it is.....yet we are getting ready to move away. Still a nice place tho. A real "hidden" area of Arizona.

catlady

Yup - and (aside from the very pricey areas of SoCal so famous for their climate) it has (in my opinion) the VERY BEST weather in the continental US. Very warm - but not scorching hot - summers, nice mild winters, and even a decent amount of rainfall to keep the place from being barren.

Ken

[Arizona1]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

Yup - and (aside from the very pricey areas of SoCal so famous for their climate) it has (in my opinion) the VERY BEST weather in the continental US. Very warm - but not scorching hot - summers, nice mild winters, and even a decent amount of rainfall to keep the place from being barren.


Ken

Yep I can agree. Very mild for South Arizona. Can get close to 90-100 at times with the first part of summers, but mostly in the 80s by the time the monsoon season kicks in. Then warm and moist and probably the most green part of the year too.

[crazyme4878]

Originally Posted by 123catlady

And I hope we never see any snakes or bugs!

Don't move to Arizona if you are serious about this sentence!

Besides, they are part of what makes living here interesting (and no, I'm not being witty, I mean it).

[123catlady]

Well, I don't really, really mean it. I just don't want snakes in my yard or house.

[drb85650]

Living outside of town proper, but still in a "developed" area surrounded by open land, we've seen 1 bull snake(harmless). Tarantulas are fascinating, I'd rather have one of them on me than just see a black widow.
Just a touch of rain and we have fat frogs out and about, the dog is fascinated by 'em.
In our other home we did have problems with centipedes for awhile, and you've not lived till you have a tarantula wasp buzz your head. You'd swear it was a Piper Cub.
But........anyone we've spoken to that was from the south, or midwest...say that in comparison we've no bugs out here.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by drb85650

Living outside of town proper, but still in a "developed" area surrounded by open land, we've seen 1 bull snake(harmless). Tarantulas are fascinating, I'd rather have one of them on me than just see a black widow.
Just a touch of rain and we have fat frogs out and about, the dog is fascinated by 'em.
In our other home we did have problems with centipedes for awhile, and you've not lived till you have a tarantula wasp buzz your head. You'd swear it was a Piper Cub.
But........anyone we've spoken to that was from the south, or midwest...say that in comparison we've no bugs out here.

There are pretty strange ones though. Coolest one I saw what may have been a sphinx moth or maybe a hummingbird hawk moth - it was about the size of a hummingbird, hovered in place, and sounded a bit like a hummingbird(but perhaps a bit more leathery sound to it's wings) and drank nector from flowers, but it was obviously an insect. It was VERY COOL.

Most jaw-dropping thing I saw though was a BIG (6 inches (or more) across) tarantula that lumbered out of the bushes one night across the sidewalk near the swimming pool. I was in the pool at the time so when the people nearby first saw it and let out an "Oh my Gawd!" I swam over to the side of the pool to take a look. Their dog was looking down at it like it had never seen such a thing before (just stared and stared at it in amazement). The spider was big enough that - with my face as it was at the level of the ground - I could see UNDER it as lumbered along like a tank. It was like one of those old 1950's horror movies where the spider is 10 stories tall. It crawled along for a minute or so, but then noted all the attention, reared up on it's back legs, and turned around and made it's way back into the bushes.

Whoa!

Ken