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HI everyone; a shortish (<this is a lie) intro: We are born/bred/raised from Long Island, NY, moved up to NH when we married in the late '90s, lived in rentals in Nashua and Manchester for 2 years before we relocated to the Newport News area in VA. We left NH due to my husband's job as a US Merchant Marine, then my job as a fed'l biologist had us relocating again to southernmost TX 11 years ago.
We loved NH, hated leaving the state, never fit in VA, and though we love our house in TX, pretty much have strong dislike for everything else in TX (HOT, vampire mosquitos, FLAT, yucky water, HOT, 8.25% sales tax, property tax rivals my sister's house in Long Island, which is high) high car insurance, gas is not cheap, high utility bills, lousy schools, HOT...)
We always planned to return to NH, and coming to the realization that the chances for me to be able to do a lateral move to a fed'l spot in Concord are less than 0%, we have decided to do the move anyway. I want to be able to get a higher degree (as I am older, I cannot compete with younger colleagues without a Master's), my husband, after almost 18 years working, now has a more-than-comfortable income, and we really REALLY miss NH.
We loved being around the Monadnock area and when we finally made the decision that we are going to move back, and that we wanted to be around that area, I went window/online shopping on beangroup, and homed in on Peterborough. It's just the two of us, and we are admittedly not social butterflies and are homebodies who like being outdoors. We like privacy, are used to paying through the nostrils for everything from water to fuel (though we know we'll get our money's worth in NH versus TX) and we really miss Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme donuts (these are nonexistent outside of Austin (7 hours drive from our house) and Houston (6 hours drive)
Yes, we know about the property tax (though how some homes are supposedly taxed an extra 'view tax' is odd), and after being taxed for EVERYTHING here in TX (like NH, it has no income tax) and that our comfortable-for-TX-wealthy-for-southTX income will put us in middle class levels here. Which is not a problem for us as we see it as How It Should Be.
When we plan to buy a home (we're also looking at Rindge Just Because), we will need to use a buyer's agent since we cannot commute back and forth from Cameron County, TX - can anyone suggest/recommend either an agent or agency in the area, so we can begin a correspondence within the next few weeks? We had a great agent when we purchased our present home, and having her know what we wanted, needed, could afford, what were dealbreakers, was helpful. Buying a house in TX is very different than NY and we assume NH (ex: you don't need closing attorneys) and we want to be able to make the future purchase with as little bumps as possible.
Any input, suggestions, etc will be greatly appreciated.
No advice on an agent, but I'll say I'm jealous of the possibility of moving to Peterborough! I love that area.
A correction - most towns do not charge a "view tax," per se. Instead, the view simply counts as a positive feature of your property and is incorporated into your overall assessed value, just like any other positive or negative feature. This is as it should be (assuming homes should be taxed at all, which is debatable), since a great view will also generally mean that you can get more money when you sell the house than you would with the exact same house and no view. It's true that the desirability of a view is subjective, but really, the same can be said for many other elements of the assessment. Who is to say that an "open home site" is more desirable than my hilly site surrounded by trees, but it is counted as a positive aspect of a property. I'm quite certain that other states also implicitly tax a view. Some NH towns do break it out into a separate item on the tax bill, though.
. . . we really miss Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme donuts (these are nonexistent outside of Austin (7 hours drive from our house) and Houston (6 hours drive).
I have no actual input, except to contact realtor ValerieC on this forum in case she covers the area you're talking about.
But I wanted to tell you that I had a Pumpkin Iced Coffee w/cream & sugar and a Boston Cream donut at Dunkin three hours ago, and they were yum - lots of chocolate, with the cream squooshing out in every delicious bite. I enjoyed them while sitting by the pond at Mack's Apples, looking at all the beautiful swamp maples that are brilliant red right now, watching the clouds scudding across the sky with the cool wind blowing through my hair - about 63 degrees today. It was close to perfect.
Good luck on your move and welcome back to New Hampshire.
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