Panhandle city choices (Post Falls, Hayden, Sandpoint: for sale by owner, real estate, refinancing)

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Well. After reading almost every single thread on the 3 states I am looking at, it is time to narrow it down to specific cities. I’ll tell you, that it is a lot of reading, but I highly recommend it to new folks on the forum. You will find a lot of your basic questions answered.

I am trying to get my list of possible cities to look at this summer. I have specific areas of 3 states I am looking into, and I will only have 2 weeks to do it in. The states are, Western MT, Western WY, and the ID panhandle.
Obviously you can only gather so much info from websites and such. Sometimes you just need to find out stuff from locals. I put together a criteria that I hope will help you understand what my wife and I are looking for in an area. We will not have any school age children with us, so schools are not even a factor at all.

1. Jobs: I guess first and foremost is being within an hour of an area that would have jobs available.
I work as an industrial maintenance mechanic/technician. I could basically work in any type of mfg environment. Right now I work for a newspaper here, as a printing press mechanic, but I realize what a dying industry it is, and I really don’t want to continue in it. I have also worked in other industries related to refineries, working on equipment such as pumps, cooling towers, etc. I’m trying not to make it sound like a resume, but I figure the more you great folks know, the better direction you can steer me in.
I will also toss in other options I am looking at as a career change. Getting my CDL and driving a truck is one option, and I have also thought about opening up my own auto repair shop, doing basic tune-ups, oil changes, brakes etc. Basically, non diagnostic work. To much money to spend on equipment this late in life. Any cities in need of mechanics?
My wife currently works for the major electric utility here in Southern California as a service planner. She basically goes out to new construction or remodeling sites, and tells folks where they can put their meters, what type of service they need, etc. etc.
Prior to that, she was a dental assistant, but definitely does not want to do that anymore. She also has an AA in paralegal.
She would definitely like to be closer than an hour to work. LOL.

2. Horse property: We are looking at a minimum of 5 acres. We have 4 horses right now, but it is hard to say how many we will have in 6 years, when we move. Not more than 4, I hope.
Ideally would like the property to be in a treed area. Needs to be something where riding can take place directly off of the property. Ideally it would be nice if our property backed up to public BLM land, I think. Don’t want to have to trailer the horses every time we want to ride.
This brings up another business idea for my wife. She actually would like to have a boarding stable. Could a person make money in these areas boarding horses for folks? Is there much call for it? No training, basically just a horse motel. Could anyone enlighten me on the average cost of boarding a horse in the area?
Oh! I almost forgot the most important part… Price. We are limited to around $300,000 for this minimum 5 acres with a house. I’m sure price will weed out a few of the cities on my list.

3. Weather: Not particularly fond of hot weather. Would like somewhere that never, or rarely sees 100 degrees. Cloudy and overcast skies are fine. Snow. No biggie, unless it snows 2 feet per day. Would rather deal with snow than ice. Prefer less wind, which is why I am not even considering eastern WY, or the eastern portions of MT and ID.

4. Shopping: Don’t mind being a little distance from major shopping, i.e. Costco, Home Depot, Target. Once per month trips we can do. We actually will likely eat out more often than cook, so having some decent eateries (mom and pop places) would be nice. Heck we do that now, even with kids. Being closer to feed and tack stores is probably more important than shopping centers.

5. Utilities: Not a lot of concern. From what I read so far, utilities are far cheaper than here. Even with my wife’s employee discount of 25%, our summer electric bill still exceeds $400 a month, and our summer lasts from about May (starts getting into the 80’s and 90’s) till sometimes well into November December. Heck we ran the air just a couple of weeks ago, because it reached 90 here.

Well, I’m not really sure what else to address. I’m sure I’ll think of more stuff. Feel free to add or subtract cities based on what you know about them. Even the smaller, more rural ones. Thanks for your help.

Here are the cities on my list:



1. Coeur d' Alene
2. Sandpoint
3. Bonners Ferry
4. Athol
5. Oldtown
6. Priest River
7. Sagle
8. Post Falls
9. Rathdrum
10. Cocolalla

[Sanddawgg]

vette, for my 2 cents, it sounds like many of the places on your list would be a good fit. My only modifications would be removing Post Falls... the city seems determined to rapidly grow into a sprawling suburb of crowded neighborhoods surrounded by generic strip malls.
Old Town is a mixed bag... jobs might be hard to come by... your best bet in my opinion would be somewhere in the Sandpoint to Coeur D'Alene corridor... jobs would be more plentiful closer to CDA and you could always commute to Spokane if necessary... Sandpoint's got some good restaurants, but if you eat out a lot, CDA has more variety....
The weather here sounds perfect for you... not very many sunny days between October and March. I tend to prefer the cooler cloudy weather to hotter climates, but it can get pretty dark and dreary by the time Dec and Jan hit. Summers are beautiful, but are brief, pretty much from Memorial day to Labor day, with pleasant days, and usually cooler nights.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Thanks Sanddawgg. I was beginning to wonder if my choices were "prefect" since I wasn't getting any info Good to know about Post Falls. I guess Bonners Ferry is a long way to anywhere also? Maybe not to far to Sandpoint though? Tough road to travel in the winter?

[Sage of Sagle]

Bonners Ferry is inexpensive for acreage, but IMHO it's way too far out. See, the 95 corridor between Sandpoint and Hayden has you close to so much more. I can be in Sandpoint in 10 minutes, or Hayden in 30 minutes (summer). I agree with Sanddawgg about Post Falls. It seems that so many people we know still in CA (wanting to get out) have this vision of Post Falls as "Mission Viejo up north". Friends who come to our place think we're way out in the sticks...and we're just 4 miles from 95....

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Thanks Sage Even here in Norco where I live, we are a few miles from the interstate. Funny what you say about your friends saying your in the sticks. LOL. Thanks also for reitterating (sp?) about Post Falls. I'll cross that off my list. I'll still go see Bonners Ferry, if I have time to look at it, but will likely scratch it off my list as well.
So, with my other options, I should be able to find property that suits my needs you think? Is there any certain cities that are a little more horse friendly than others?

Thanks, John

[Sage of Sagle]

Look at the Selle Valley area which is just a wee bit NE of Sandpoint. Lots of horse properties there. And Sagle, once you get away from the riverfront/lakefront has some great horse areas, more rolling hills and mixed forest/meadow through Dufort Road area, and down Sagle Road. Keep in mind that as even if you love hearing trains, you REALLY want to consider location-location-location if you're buying property next to the tracks. A LOT of trains come through this area. We chose the Dufort valley area about halfway between the river tracks to the west and the 95 corridor tracks to the east, so we hear them far-off, but not intrusive.

We almost bought in Westwood Heights, but when walking around a parcel there by the pond we were surprised to have a train come by about 100' from us (so thickly wooded we couldn't see the tracks).

So my take is when buying a place here, walk around the property for about 45-90 minutes. You're likely to hear a train come through. Or just check Mapquest and note the location of nearby tracks.

When I lived in Canyon Lake I commuted to Los Angeles, so you know I was through your area ALL the time. Spent many an hour sitting on that stupid transition sky bridge from 15N to 91W....hehehe....

But I know what you mean. When we left South OC in 1996 for the IE, OC people acted like we were moving to Needles!

[SicilianPolka]

Just curious if you picked out a state/place yet?

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by SicilianPolka

Just curious if you picked out a state/place yet?

Not yet! It is looking like a road trip may not be happening this summer due to finances, and the cost of gas right now We are in the process of refinancing our house, and I just took my ex back to court to adjust child support payments Looks like I will have an extra $450 a month in my pocket. I will need to wait a couple of weeks to see how things pan out. Might be able to make a one week trip later in the summer.

On paper, I will likely cross Montana off of my list and stick with the cities listed above (except Post Falls), as well as Western WY. I think I am still favoring ID over anywhere else, provided I can get a job. If I have a road trip choice based on only a one week road trip, I will visit ID.

And Sage, you should see that 15/91 transition now It is bad all day long. I stopped driving to work and started riding the Metrolink train. It is a lot nicer.
I also noticed what you said about the train tracks on the maps I actually wouldn't mind trying to get a railroad job too.

[pacalady]

Vette:
I agree with some of the comments regarding the development influence going on in Post Falls, but I live here on 10 acres, outside the city-impact zone on what is called the "Rathdrum Prairie". I see peppermint fields of several hundred acres, hay fields of several hundred acres outside my living room window; and I'm 7 minutes from 'town' (grocery store, auto store, restaurants, Wal-Mart, etc.) Location is ideal here, because it is 20 minutes to Coeur d' Alene, and 20 minutes to Spokane, which has more manufacturing and job opportunities. CdA is more of a 'resort' town with lots of fun shops, restaurants, huge Hotel (Coeur d' Alene Resort), but not a whole lot going on in the manufacturing end.

Towards Spokane, at Liberty Lake is a huge cabinet manufacturer, which is only about 15 minutes from me. And there are a host of other manufacturers in the area as well (from airplane parts, to trailer hitches!!).

The weather here is pretty temperate .... mild springs, lovely summers where only a few days peak at 100 .... usually upper 80's to low 90's with low humidity. Fall is gorgeous with the trees changing colors; winter has been mild as well. The last 3 years we maxed out at 1' of snow, which came and went, and experienced only about a week of sub-zero weather during the Dec-Jan months. Early spring flowers were in bloom mid Feb!!!

If you go a little further north, towards the towns of Rathdrum, Athol, Blanchard, the 'winter' lasts an additional 2-3 weeks, and is slightly colder because of the change in elevation, but there is still acreage there. I like this real estate site for searching, as it has the best criteria: Real Estate - Washington, Oregon, Idaho - John L. Scott And don't forget the for sale by owner websites too.

Good Luck!!

PacaLady

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Thanks for the info pacalady I talked with my wife and she is all for a road trip, and she is already scheduled to have vacation on the 4th of July week, so maybe we'll be up there after all We'll visit her dad in Northern CA (Placerville) then head up to ID from there. Guess I better start making hotel reservations