Nebraska City, NE (Omaha, Lincoln, Lexington: real estate, 2013, apartments)

[jokergirl]

Selling our business and seeking a fresh start after 15 years.

We have been considering a number of small Midwestern towns. We are in our early forties, and are empty nesters. We have a small dog.

We have always been into antiques, and are considering having an antique and home decor/furniture/craft etc kind of store. Hubby wants to buy an acreage and do this there. I feel we are better off having it in town. We have enough money to buy a downtown storefront, and even remodel, and this is what I kind of tend to think would be a good idea. One building has twelve apartments on the second level, and two large storefronts. I was thinking we could buy this, and it needs a fire sprinkler system installed in the upstairs to use as apartments....we could fix them up, and let whoever is renting the other side stay, and have ours in the other storefront.

Something like this though will take up enough of our money we wouldn't be able to buy an acreage as well, but our rental income should be close to $4000 a month when at capacity, so if we saved any rental income and actually had a property management place take care of it, and then we would have the taxes and any maintenance and repairs.

We could rent out our current house.

But anyways, we had considered Nebraska City as a potential new place, and visited it this weekend, and I fell quite into love with it. We spoke with people around town and business owners, who were all very friendly, said their businesses did OK, they like the town, etc. Of course another such business is a boon to the current stores, as the more little quaint "mom and pop" stores, the better. They draw visitors and seem to have alot of things going on and it is a quite vibrant business district, and lovely town.

Does anyone have experience with Nebraska City? Is it friendly and welcoming? In our hometown, generally outsiders are not treated so great, idk why. In fact, I've been here nearly twenty years, and only have a slight amount of acceptance because I married a local. My kids always were second-class citizens because since I came from the state four miles south of here that starts with a K, they are probably carrying a small amount of my inbred redneckish hillbilly genes. I'm just kidding. Sort of. I just...think people here could be more accepting.

Other towns we have been considering include Ashland, NE...Hot Springs, SD...Walnut, IA...Pella, IA....Atchison, KS...Auburn, NE....Centerville, IA.....Lexington, MO......Excelsior Springs, MO.......Sedalia, MO......St Joseph, MO......Webb City, MO..... Bentonville, AR.......Eureka Springs, AR......Alto Pass, IL.....There are a few small towns near Peoria.....maybe TN or KY....I don't want to be more than an 8 hour drive from the family. Eureka Springs is probably over our budget unless we buy a dump....and I won't borrow money EVER again to buy anything. Things are too unsure these days.

[wlane]

I've lived in NE for the past few years (about 40 mins from NE City). Nebraska City is one of my favorite areas because of the Arbor Day Farm and some of the orchards around that area. I am originally from MI, so the one thing I miss the most is trees. NE is mostly farmland, so it's nice to go around NE City where there is a little more trees and green areas than the rest of the state. Of all the places you listed in NE, I would recommend NE City. I also live about 15 mins from Ashland and while it is a nice little town with a couple neat shops and friendly people, I would not want to start an antique business there as there isn't a lot of traffic going in and out, like NE City. I have also spent a lot of time in the Pigeon Forge/Knoxville area of TN...I don't know how expensive it would be to open up a business around there, but you can check out smaller towns around there like Seymour (1/2 way between Knoxville and Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg) where the real estate may be a little less expensive than in the main tourist areas.

[robmac]

This 2013 post came up in a search for <Nebraska City>, so, if members wlane or the OP, jokergirl are around I'd like to hear from them.

Nebraska City came up in a dream, so I'm looking for corroboration. At less the 8K pop. it's still a small town which is typically limited opportunity for real estate at blue collar working income levels and employment opportunities.

I moved out of an even smaller Otoe County community in the late '80's to Lincoln, where I've been, mostly, since.

Thanks for any replies.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by robmac

This 2013 post came up in a search for <Nebraska City>, so, if members wlane or the OP, jokergirl are around I'd like to hear from them.

Nebraska City came up in a dream, so I'm looking for corroboration. At less the 8K pop. it's still a small town which is typically limited opportunity for real estate at blue collar working income levels and employment opportunities.

I moved out of an even smaller Otoe County community in the late '80's to Lincoln, where I've been, mostly, since.

Thanks for any replies.

I've only been through Nebraska City twice. It's really a gem of a town. With it's location just off the interstate and relatively close driving distance to a lot of major cities (Kansas City, St. Josephs, Lincoln, and Omaha/Council Bluffs) I would look on this town as an excellent place to start a business.

As to blue collar job opportunities, there is a packing house there (though NE City is not like your standard packing house town). There's a Pella manufacturing plant a short distance away in Shenandoah IA. I'm sure there's other manufacturing plants in NE City or a short commute away.

[robmac]

Thanks for the reply.

Just a note both Pella in Iowa and the packing plant are old fixtures in Neb.City.

When I was commuting form Otoe county 30 miles was a short commute. Gas is nearly 300 % more, now, assuming my math hasn't 'rusted out'.

[gbr15]

I don't live there but have been to NE City maybe 10 times. I think it is a cool town.

Small but at a least a little shopping for the basics and some outdoor stuff to do. As said above quick trips to Lincoln, Omaha, KC. The people have been friendly. Arbor Day Farm is fun once or twice a year. Apple Jack festival is a decent small town event. My kids spent a day at the public pool and loved it. Not too crowded, the other kids there were nice. I'm rambling but have been impressed with NE City.

[505HPC6Z06]

Originally Posted by jokergirl

Selling our business and seeking a fresh start after 15 years.

We have been considering a number of small Midwestern towns. We are in our early forties, and are empty nesters. We have a small dog.

We have always been into antiques, and are considering having an antique and home decor/furniture/craft etc kind of store. Hubby wants to buy an acreage and do this there. I feel we are better off having it in town. We have enough money to buy a downtown storefront, and even remodel, and this is what I kind of tend to think would be a good idea. One building has twelve apartments on the second level, and two large storefronts. I was thinking we could buy this, and it needs a fire sprinkler system installed in the upstairs to use as apartments....we could fix them up, and let whoever is renting the other side stay, and have ours in the other storefront.

Something like this though will take up enough of our money we wouldn't be able to buy an acreage as well, but our rental income should be close to $4000 a month when at capacity, so if we saved any rental income and actually had a property management place take care of it, and then we would have the taxes and any maintenance and repairs.

We could rent out our current house.

But anyways, we had considered Nebraska City as a potential new place, and visited it this weekend, and I fell quite into love with it. We spoke with people around town and business owners, who were all very friendly, said their businesses did OK, they like the town, etc. Of course another such business is a boon to the current stores, as the more little quaint "mom and pop" stores, the better. They draw visitors and seem to have alot of things going on and it is a quite vibrant business district, and lovely town.

Does anyone have experience with Nebraska City? Is it friendly and welcoming? In our hometown, generally outsiders are not treated so great, idk why. In fact, I've been here nearly twenty years, and only have a slight amount of acceptance because I married a local. My kids always were second-class citizens because since I came from the state four miles south of here that starts with a K, they are probably carrying a small amount of my inbred redneckish hillbilly genes. I'm just kidding. Sort of. I just...think people here could be more accepting.

Other towns we have been considering include Ashland, NE...Hot Springs, SD...Walnut, IA...Pella, IA....Atchison, KS...Auburn, NE....Centerville, IA.....Lexington, MO......Excelsior Springs, MO.......Sedalia, MO......St Joseph, MO......Webb City, MO..... Bentonville, AR.......Eureka Springs, AR......Alto Pass, IL.....There are a few small towns near Peoria.....maybe TN or KY....I don't want to be more than an 8 hour drive from the family. Eureka Springs is probably over our budget unless we buy a dump....and I won't borrow money EVER again to buy anything. Things are too unsure these days.

I do have experience with Nebraska city. A few people in the community were bullying me for using the free electric car charger. It was at a time when GM had the bail out and I had a Chevy Volt.

Some ahole just gave me an ear-full and complained because I was charging my car. Unbelievable.

The next time I charged up in the same place, the city administrator came up and gave me praise, took a pic of me & my car.

I'm walking on the sidewalk and the librarian comes out of his building, approached me and said "I've been watching you".

WTF? Really?

Charged again and this time a different city employee gave me praise and asked if I was planning to start a business.

There are a couple bars in town. One of which had cameras installed with like 4 LCD's/views front and center. I asked if they had a lot of problems that required that? Nope Proactive I guess. That was a nice bar.
The other bar down the way employed a bar tender that was nice, we interacted some. It was there I learned about mushroom hunting. Never heard of that before. I was thinking guns when they were talking hunting

I ended up leaving because the town lacked enough people that were open to new things and willing to move away from a tradition if something better comes along. Too many people were very judgmental and immature. Plus the weather sucked.

If you are the opposite of a liberal (whatever that term is?), Nebraska and pretty much any place in that whole bible belt area will be a good place to settle.