Questions about Boise...rent to own companies, safe neighborhoods, air quality, jobs? (Nampa: lease)

[Rmmms]

Hi,
I am a first time poster, long time reader of these postings, and want to say what a helpful tool these forums are for those of us looking to relocate! Hopefully I won't break any rules, and if I do, I assure you it is unintentional.
I was wondering if any of you can answer some questions I have after reading some posts...

1: Where are the safe neighborhoods in Boise? Also, I understand Nampa and Caldwell are maybe not as safe as Meridian, Eagle, Star, and Kuna...correct?
2: Does anyone know about any of the rent to own companies we are seeing on craigslist? We currently live in WA, so are having to do much of our work long-distance and don't want to get scammed. We would appreciate any suggestions or knowledge!
3: Is the air quality a concern? What does that mean to area residents when there is an orange alert? (Do you just stay inside? Sorry to sound dumb!)
4: My husband is a chiropractor looking for a job and hoping to either buy or associate to buy a practice in Boise. Does anyone have any recommendations for contacts who might be helpful for us? We would love to talk to some area chiropractors about their experience in Boise and helpful suggestions they may have for us. This leads me to my last question...
5: Is there a feeling of community in Boise? Do business owners support each other, have respect for each other, and is there a sense of positive attitudes and community? I'm not sure if I worded it right...hope it makes sense.

Thanks to those of you who will hopefully answer my questions. We have two little girls, and really love what we see and hear about Boise and the family-friendly community it seems to be. We are hoping to move in the spring...it just depends on a job! Right now my husband, who has a doctorate, is working two minimum wage, part time jobs to make ends meet (God bless him, he's such a great man!!!), so we can really relate to some of the postings about difficulty finding jobs. He was laid off from a local chiropractic office here because of the economy, and it took him over four months to find any work. Times are tough!!! Hope you are all well and Happy New YEAR!!!

[Torrie]

Originally Posted by Rmmms

Hi,
I am a first time poster, long time reader of these postings, and want to say what a helpful tool these forums are for those of us looking to relocate! Hopefully I won't break any rules, and if I do, I assure you it is unintentional.
I was wondering if any of you can answer some questions I have after reading some posts...

1: Where are the safe neighborhoods in Boise? Also, I understand Nampa and Caldwell are maybe not as safe as Meridian, Eagle, Star, and Kuna...correct?
2: Does anyone know about any of the rent to own companies we are seeing on craigslist? We currently live in WA, so are having to do much of our work long-distance and don't want to get scammed. We would appreciate any suggestions or knowledge!
3: Is the air quality a concern? What does that mean to area residents when there is an orange alert? (Do you just stay inside? Sorry to sound dumb!)
4: My husband is a chiropractor looking for a job and hoping to either buy or associate to buy a practice in Boise. Does anyone have any recommendations for contacts who might be helpful for us? We would love to talk to some area chiropractors about their experience in Boise and helpful suggestions they may have for us. This leads me to my last question...
5: Is there a feeling of community in Boise? Do business owners support each other, have respect for each other, and is there a sense of positive attitudes and community? I'm not sure if I worded it right...hope it makes sense.

Thanks to those of you who will hopefully answer my questions. We have two little girls, and really love what we see and hear about Boise and the family-friendly community it seems to be. We are hoping to move in the spring...it just depends on a job! Right now my husband, who has a doctorate, is working two minimum wage, part time jobs to make ends meet (God bless him, he's such a great man!!!), so we can really relate to some of the postings about difficulty finding jobs. He was laid off from a local chiropractic office here because of the economy, and it took him over four months to find any work. Times are tough!!! Hope you are all well and Happy New YEAR!!!

Let's see if I can answer some of your questions. Looks like your post got over-looked.

1. Safe neighborhoods are everywhere- too many to list. Often when people are considering an area and they have children, I suggest that they check out the school districts first and then based on what they find/like, search areas that fall under those school districts. You can pull up listings based on school districts in MLS.

2. Yes, you are correct to be careful of scams on Craigslist. The best way to avoid is to meet the owners of the house(or the property manager) in person at the house and make sure they can let you in! Never give money via wire or mail without seeing the house, that should keep you out of trouble.

As far as lease to purchase, I'm not a big fan....here's why....it usually ends up not being such a great deal for both the seller and the buyer. Probably 99% of the time the transaction never goes through. The potential buyer usually has to put down a deposit which is non-refundable, can be as much as $5,000k. Typically the contract will be written in favor of the seller, so unless you're willing to hire a contract attorney, it's not a good idea to put yourself in that position. Then after living in the house for a while, the buyer starts to find everything wrong with the house and no longer wants to buy it. He then breaks the contract, and walks away loosing his 5k that he could have used to make a down payment on a house he really wanted. So, the buyer leaves mad, and the seller, is back in the same situation he was a few months prior and nobody is happy. You're better off renting for a few months and then decide from their if/where you want to buy.

3. We have had problems with the air quality here, especially when all the fires were burning in CA, OR, WA, and ID. There was a tendency for the smokey air to hover within the metro area causing orange/red air alerts. That's when I've noticed it to be the worse. We will get an orange reading every so often when high pressure sets in during the summer. Personally I don't think it's all that bad. Sure it would be great if we didn't, but I don't feel it affects the quality of life so bad that you can't live here. Occasionally we will also have inversions in the winter. This is when cold air gets trapped below the hot air. It also traps in the dirty air causing a smoggy appearance. This seems to happen when we don't have a lot of weather patterns coming through to circulate the air. Inversions can happen anywhere from November to early Feb. and may last a couple of weeks or a couple of days. The past two years we've had little inversions....in fact this winter I don't think we've had any...maybe one....but it didn't seem to last more than a day.

You will see varying opinions on how bad the air is. Personally I don't think it's that bad, and when you compare it to places like Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, it's nothing, IMO. Rarely do they make it mandatory to stay inside, but I do remember when the fires were really bad, they did have the kids stay inside for recess and had canceled some outdoor games that had been scheduled, but I saw that as a rare occurrence.

4. Don't have an answer for this one....might be able to ask some of my friends in the medical field. Let me get back to you on this one.

5. I think you most certainly will find a sense of community within Boise-Metro. This is one of the things that stood out to me when we relocated here almost 6 years ago. It reminded of what it was like when I grew up. I notice it a lot in the suburbs- neighbors helping neighbors and friendships being formed. We experienced it ourselves in our neighborhood. We do things with our neighbors- go out to dinner, have bonfires at our house, Christmas parties, etc.. I feel confident in saying that if we ever had a problem our neighbors would come to our aide and we would do the same. Example: One night one of our neighbor's daughter swallowed her grandmother's heart pills because she thought they were candy....the ambulance pulled up and many of the surrounding neighbors were out of their houses in a heartbeat. We all were asking, how can we help, can we watch the kids for you if you have to go to the hospital? The ambulance driver even commented on how nice it was to have so many people offer to help.

As far as the business community, I can tell you there is strong support to buy local. They even run commercials that explain how buying local supports the community and keeps the money in Idaho. You might benefit well by becoming a member of the chamber of commerce & the better business bureau. The more you network the better off you will be. I find people to be quite friendly here, so you shouldn't have any trouble meeting people. You will have to make some effort, people aren't necessarily going to flock to you, and you have to expect that some people might not be as receptive, but if you keep a positive attitude and give it time, you should do all right. Looking back, I would say it took us a good year and a half to two years to get fully acclimated.

Well I hope this helps answer some of your questions. Sorry we missed your post and didn't get to you sooner.