Help Possible Move to CO from Alabama (housing, golf)

[SkyDog77]

Check in to Durango. Most boxes checked. It is pretty liberal though.

[brown_dog_us]

Originally Posted by newbamadoc

Also, it is amazing how different areas of the country are when it comes to small towns and jobs. Here in Alabama my wife and I would probably make considerably more income in certain small towns due to being less saturated with healthcare professionals. It doesn't seem like this holds true in many other areas.

It's a supply side problem. A lot of healthcare professionals want to live in Colorado, but not many want to live in Sylacauga Alabama. Yep. I've been to Sylacauga.

I spent 40 of my 44 years in Georgia, and I haven't had the slightest problem fitting in and making friends. Plus, I know a lot of people from Georgia and South Carolina out here.

Here are a couple of thoughts on your plan:

1. Colorado is very liberal or progressive compared to Alabama. Honestly, it's night and day. You might find it refreshing or hate it.

2. Only the very wealthy or very poor (ski bums) live in the ski towns. You are more likely to live close by in a town like Eagle. That way you would have friends. It's a lot harder to rent a place in Eagle. Not impossible, just harder. That brings me to: You are looking at vacation rental property that you will eventually live full time in. Generally, you won't want to live in a condo building filled with tourists.

3. $500k won't go very far in a ski town. It will get you more in places like Eagle.

4. Ski property is spendy right now. You might want to wait for the inevitable down cycle. The rent you will save a couple of times a year will be easy to make up. Especially since you are talking about not renting it during the peak weeks around xmas and spring break. Basically, I would put this idea to paper with real numbers and see if it makes sense.

5. Maybe you would enjoy a gulf coast condo for the next 10 years and then sell that for a mountain condo.

6. You and your wife might enjoy living and working along the front range a lot more. It would be easier to find a group of peers to hang out with and the COL is less.

[newbamadoc]

Browndog, thanks for the great post. Nice to hear there are southerners that have acclimated well to living in Colorado. The other post above about never seeing southerners and that I wouldn't like living out west based off of one previous post was fairly entertaining. We would probably look to selling this 500K place down the road if we moved out there on a more full time basis. We would probably then be looking at a house for around 1M. We love being so close to Destin,FL, but we usually only go down for 10 days in July and a handful of 3 day weekends. With that being said, I have a friend that is basically living for free in his vacation home down there due to being able to rent it out on VRBO all of the time.
I totally agree with you about not doing anything until real estate takes a hit. I don't think we are all that far from a major downturn, so it would make sense to try getting in on the cheap. I am impressed with your Sylacauga reference. I live in Alabama and would never live there in a million years. What some people might not get is that there is a big difference between Mtn Brook, AL and Sylacauga, AL. Obviously, you get it. I will check out Eagle. Any other specific towns I should look at? Thanks and glad to hear there is atleast one southerner that is enjoying life out west.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by newbamadoc

Browndog...out west.

Short paragraphs improve readability

[newbamadoc]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Short paragraphs improve readability

Don't bother if it is too much work for you. Thanks.

[davidv]

How about Santa Fe?

Larger city? Check.

Close to ski areas? Check.

Politically conservative? Parts of NM are. Not very Protestant though.

[Mike from back east]

1. I'm going to move this to the main COLO forum as that's where it belongs.

2. As far as owning a home in the rental biz in the resort areas, we've a thread with a lot of info on what that is like, and I recommend reading this thread to the OP and others thinking of buying a property and renting it out in COLO's high country.

3. At the risk of sounding like a scold, I hope the OP has a nice long talk with his/her financial advisor on the best use of money for such a long term idea. It may be better to let that money stack up in a Roth IRA until the time comes to pull the trigger on a move. Not to mention that in 10-15 years the OP's outlook and likes could change, as well as the marital partner. My perspective is to rent a ski place in a different resort every year and then walk away from it after that week with my nest egg intact and not sunk into an asset that's hard to unload.

[newbamadoc]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Short paragraphs improve readability

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

1. I'm going to move this to the main COLO forum as that's where it belongs.

2. As far as owning a home in the rental biz in the resort areas, we've a thread with a lot of info on what that is like, and I recommend reading this thread to the OP and others thinking of buying a property and renting it out in COLO's high country.

3. At the risk of sounding like a scold, I hope the OP has a nice long talk with his/her financial advisor on the best use of money for such a long term idea. It may be better to let that money stack up in a Roth IRA until the time comes to pull the trigger on a move. Not to mention that in 10-15 years the OP's outlook and likes could change, as well as the marital partner. My perspective is to rent a ski place in a different resort every year and then walk away from it after that week with my nest egg intact and not sunk into an asset that's hard to unload.

Thanks for moving the thread. I will check the thread out that you linked about renting in resort areas. We are setting aside 20% of our income for retirement annually, so I feel we are good when it comes to retirement advice. I was hoping that we could rent it out enough to offset some of the costs, but it appears that might not be possible in many ski towns. If this is the case, we might end up doing as you say and just renting a few weeks a year as opposed to purchasing.
Also, if we did end up purchasing we would wait until the next economic recession. My uncle bought what is now a million dollar house for 400K in a foreclosure back ten or so years ago when the crap hit the fan. I have a few close friends that have purchased condos/houses down in Destin, FL and another on a really nice lake here in Alabama. They have done really well with rental incomes, but I realize different areas out west might not perform as well on the rental market.
As I said before we are just gathering info on various towns that we should look at right now. Thanks again for the info.

[Dogmama50]

I'm in the Vail area and if you want to rent VRBO Eagle will not work. You'll need to be in Vail or Beaver Creek, have a property manager or be part of a complex that manages the property to handle the unique maintenance needs of a winter property. Real Estate in resort areas can and does drop but not as much as many other areas. Deals can be had but it's still a desirable location with low inventory.

I wouldn't rule out Park City, the investments that Vail Resorts are making in the area along with the airport proximity make it desirable. Since you are planning on selling your investment property and moving into a place upon retirement you don't need to pick just one place to do both.

[DougStark]

OP, side question. Have you two visited Auburn AL? I hear it's a nice town, college oriented of course.
It strikes me as a possible retirement location. Homes don't look particularly inexpensive there, though.

Would you recommend I check the town out? Long, humid summers wouldn't bother me as long as locals are friendly to non-southerners.