Can you help me Find The Perfect Place to Buy? (Phoenix: real estate, to rent)

[LoveSRQ]

I'm not sure which state I will end up in but we are partial to Arizona. So I am hoping for some advice. We work from home so logistics is not an issue for us. We want to live a good distance from cities to avoid any riots,etc. We want to be in the mountains, have a garden, have some trees, and no water issues. (I know some areas have year round creeks) Also, we want wildlife like mule deers,etc. Not to hunt but to just enjoy nature. We are conservative, Christians. (incase that makes a difference)

Any ideas???

Thank you for helping me.

[grmi66]

I know many people that work from home, do need on occasion to fly back to the corporate office 1-2 times a month to check in. My wife works remote, but still needs to (post-Covid) to show up to the office once a pay period, so we live just over 90 minutes away in a location that makes it easy to get to downtown Phoenix. Do you have the same requirements?

In Arizona, it isn't how far north or south you are, but how high up in elevation you are. One reason that despite being 100 miles south of Phoenix, Tucson is generally 10 degrees cooler. But if you go too high up in elevation, you may not have a very long growing season.

I'd start my search around Prescott, Payson and around southeast Arizona, looking at places above 4000 feet in elevation.

To throw you a curveball, the place you are describing sounds very similar to where some friends live just over the border in New Mexico. Look up the Mimbres Valley outside of Silver City, about a 3-4 hour drive east of Tucson.

[recycled]

The worst mistake that many people make in going to a new area they don't know well is to buy a home or other real estate. If you are interested in an area, find a place to rent for awhile, 3-6 months maybe, and explore from there. grmi66 gives some good location suggestions above, but that is just general info. You need to do some on the ground research.

It is also not easy to work from home (assumes high speed internet needed) while at the same time wanting to live far away from a city in secluded mountains. High speed internet in most rural areas of the USA is not widely available.

[LoveSRQ]

Originally Posted by grmi66

I know many people that work from home, do need on occasion to fly back to the corporate office 1-2 times a month to check in. My wife works remote, but still needs to (post-Covid) to show up to the office once a pay period, so we live just over 90 minutes away in a location that makes it easy to get to downtown Phoenix. Do you have the same requirements?

In Arizona, it isn't how far north or south you are, but how high up in elevation you are. One reason that despite being 100 miles south of Phoenix, Tucson is generally 10 degrees cooler. But if you go too high up in elevation, you may not have a very long growing season.

I'd start my search around Prescott, Payson and around southeast Arizona, looking at places above 4000 feet in elevation.

To throw you a curveball, the place you are describing sounds very similar to where some friends live just over the border in New Mexico. Look up the Mimbres Valley outside of Silver City, about a 3-4 hour drive east of Tucson.

Thanks for your response. We do not have to report to an office. We work for ourselves. We trade stocks so we do need an internet connection but it's not like we sit and watch the tickers all day.

We do want to buy a large amount of land 100-200 acres so I will look around the areas you suggested. I think 4,000 ft in elevation would be nice, temperature-wise. I'm OK with not having a long growing season. Just being able to have a garden will be a major plus for me.

It's funny you mentioned New Mexico. We did look into New Mexico but decided against it because of taxes and it is a Liberal run state. Normally it wouldn't be an issue for me but with watching how the COV was handled with the lockdowns and then these riots that are just allowed to run wild, I really want to be in a state that the Gov's are not going rule with an iron thumb of the residents but turn a blind eye to the rioters. We have friends in Nevada that were locked down for months and then had rioters come from Vegas and were in their neighborhood with intentions of smashing all the cars, starting them on fire,etc. I just don't want to be around all that drama.

I do appreciate all your advice. I am going to look into each area.

Thanks!!!

[LoveSRQ]

Originally Posted by recycled

The worst mistake that many people make in going to a new area they don't know well is to buy a home or other real estate. If you are interested in an area, find a place to rent for awhile, 3-6 months maybe, and explore from there. grmi66 gives some good location suggestions above, but that is just general info. You need to do some on the ground research.

It is also not easy to work from home (assumes high-speed internet needed) while at the same time wanting to live far away from a city in secluded mountains. High-speed internet in most rural areas of the USA is not widely available.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it. We do plan on traveling to Arizona to look for land. We have been there many times. I just thought I would throw it out there and see if anyone had any cool places to suggest that I have not thought about.

I do work online but it doesn't have to be "high speed" We have been in some remote areas in the mountains in the Smokey Mountains as well as in Colorado and were able to get cell service enough for us to work. We just trade stocks for our job so it's not like we have to be online for hrs at a time. If we can't get on for a few days, it's OK as well.

Anyway, thank you! I appreciate your time and your knowledge.

[dump1567]

I'd start my search around Prescott, Payson and around southeast Arizona, looking at places above 4000 feet in elevation.

This. And I'd throw in the Pine top/Show low area.

But you should probably hop in the car and take a road trip through several States. There's a lot of nice places to live.

[KurtAZ]

If your Internet connection is important to you, I wouldn't consider Payson. Maybe Show Low or Pinetop/Lakeside. Especially for the parcel size you are looking for (100-200 acres is going to be hard to come by in Payson or Star Valley).

Show Low has a fully functional hospital, more reliable Internet (Lots of chatter about this if you Google Payson's Internet woes), more land available, and sits a little bit higher than Payson (6345' vs. 5003') which makes summers more tolerable. You won't have to deal with the World's Largest Truck Stop's traffic on weekends either.

Quick property search isn't coming up with much in the mountains over 100 Acres though. There is a nice property in Ouray, CO (one of our favorite towns anywhere) but it depends on your price point, I guess.

[LoveSRQ]

Originally Posted by dump1567

This. And I'd throw in the Pine top/Show low area.

But you should probably hop in the car and take a road trip through several States. There's a lot of nice places to live.

I have heard of Show low or Pine Top area Not sure if I have been through the area. I have been to Sedona, Flagstaff, Tuscon, Phoenix, Gilbert, Scottdale, etc.

I will look into it for sure.

We live on a island off of Florida Coast so a road trip will be a big event. LOL But we will take one for sure once we are closer to making a decision.

I just want to have some other ideas instead of my own before we take a trip. That way I have places to research.

Thank you for your time. I appreciate your input and ideas for sure.

[LoveSRQ]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

If your Internet connection is important to you, I wouldn't consider Payson. Maybe Show Low or Pinetop/Lakeside. Especially for the parcel size you are looking for (100-200 acres is going to be hard to come by in Payson or Star Valley).

Show Low has a fully functional hospital, more reliable Internet (Lots of chatter about this if you Google Payson's Internet woes), more land available, and sits a little bit higher than Payson (6345' vs. 5003') which makes summers more tolerable. You won't have to deal with the World's Largest Truck Stop's traffic on weekends either.

Quick property search isn't coming up with much in the mountains over 100 Acres though. There is a nice property in Ouray, CO (one of our favorite towns anywhere) but it depends on your price point, I guess.

LOL OMG what is the "world's largest truck stop"?? Is that a place? OK so if it is, I know I don't want to be living near there!

We live on a little island off the coast of Florida and we are leaving Florida because of 1.) traffic, 2.) the noisiest place I have ever lived. 3.) WAY TOO CROWDED!! We live on the beach so we are right on top of our neighbors.

Thanks for the internet info. While we do work online and need access but we do not have to have daily access and we don't have to have access all day.

Having a large land is very important to us and we are open with our budget. Thanks for the tip about the property in Colorado. I will take a look at it. As long as it is safe and quiet and not crazy amounts of snow, I will be interested.

Thanks again!

[Sno0909]

I could be wrong, but I think you will find it difficult to find 100-200 acres in a desirable area (creeks, wildlife, internet connection, etc). A lot of AZ land is government-owned, and the nice areas that aren't are quickly picked up by developers. Good luck, though.