Anyone from Cloudcroft? I need your advice please! (Santa Fe, Alamogordo: for sale, to rent)

[chant]

Hi there, i am from NM originally but that was far bigger places. I was born in Alb. and spent my teen years into my twenties Santa Fe.

I did read a few postings regarding Cloudcroft, so if i refer to them, its only because i did read them on this forums' website.

anyhow....my husband and I have homes in AZ and TX. we have been together a very long time and do travel constantly to see one another. my questions are many. anyone can jump in and answer part and parcel or all if ambitious enough.

i make 1300 a month from a very small business i have that doesnt require anything special other than making the crafts i make. i really dont want to get into that other than to impress upon folks what i make yearly so they can understand my income level and my desire to live in CC. this is poverty level income i know, and is it possible to survive with this type of income level in CC with maybe another 20K-30k a year on up from my husband? we arent sure what he would make as that would all depend on the demand of locals needing a mechanic (for any kind of vehicle literally) to a handyman.

my husband is a mechanic, can build race cars from bottom to top and also is a meticulous and expert handyman. is it possible for him to get side jobs "to make it" so we can have an extra income from folks who might need his services? he has built homes, is a welder and can do plumbing of any kind. my question here is are there too many handyman folks in CC to compete with? if there are, i need to know so my husband and i are aware of the good or bad income potential possibilities in CC.

he and i went to CC just a few weeks back and we really did fall in love with the place. i completely understand the small town attitude (santa fe can get real small real quick too) and am prepared to buy land/house there so we can finally be living in under the same roof.

the folks we met were friendly but they were realtors! so of course they were downright welcoming. we didnt get to meet too many locals other than a really nice waitress who sat down and talked with us about the town for 15 min.s.

i wanted to know is housing going down in value at a fast rate or slow rate? if so is it considered OK to make low ball offers to folks to see if anyone is interested in lowering their prices a bit on their home for sale. we would be buying land and then renting out a few cabins to tourists potentially. are there still the possibilities of renting out cabins to tourists at a constant pace/level? is this a bad idea? if so, why?

we have 5 dogs. in AZ it is highly looked down upon of course if one lives in an area where houses are close together and having this many dogs. so we had to split the group up. 3 in TX and 2 with me in AZ. are there any issues regarding dogs in CC? we have 3 pits. these pits have no issues around children or babies. they are around them all the time. we keep our pets near us and never allow them to roam freely nor do we allow them to bark. i absolutely abhor noise like this so they are trained not to unless there is an obvious issue of an intruder.

if we are able to rent out a room in a 3-4 bedroom house we might buy are there roommate possibilities......are there plenty of folks out there who rent rooms? there certainly are no end to them here in AZ! i have a 3 bedroom house and at one time had every room rented out for 2 years.
i hear you on the school system there. if i had children which i dont i would want to home school them. are people who do this treated badly or differently? would it be better to just put the kids in the schools regardless?

when some of you say EVERYONE knows your business, is that really true? i mean aren't some of the mountain type folks pretty private and keep to themselves? is it possible to live in total privacy? I am a homebody and rarely leave my home. I love reading books, doing the arts & crafts and spending time with my dogs. its not that i dont love people, i do. but i am more prone to sticking around the immediate vicinity of where i live pretty much all the time.

i apologize my message is so long but i really want to get a better view point on what folks think of newcomers to CC and the ability to sustain a living there as well. I am very grateful to anyone for their input and welcome any comments on this subject.

[songinthewind7]

I live about 30 miles from Cloudcroft.
If you like isolation, and you mentioned your 5 dogs, Timberon would be more the spot for you.
Cloudcroft is nice and the people I've met are friendly but I wouldn't call it isolated.
Dogs is the key work here. As with just about anywhere where there are some neighbors close by, pets are not very welcome as some people don't like that in multiples. When you talked with the realtors, was that a problem?
I have 2 dogs and they love it here and it's one big dog party about everyday for them and the neighborhood dogs. Our neighbor also has a few pit bulls.
Hope this helped some.

[chant]

Hi there, thank you very much for your response. i loved Timberon when i saw it, it was lovely.

I understand the isolation factor, and I know Timberon and I would work out perfectly except there isnt much in the way from what ive overheard regarding handyman work available for my husband. The way it was conveyed to us later by some local realtors to CC, was there was far more work in CC than Timberon for handyman and mechanic stuff. how true in your mind is this? The sidework would be what we would be leaning heavily on for a source of income for my husband.

i wonder if alamagordo is super self sufficient or if they need handyman work there additionally.

i am really glad to hear of your input regarding the dogs. this is good to know. I dont mind looking for families to take on a good part of our dog family as their own pets from now on. only i dont think in this kind of economic downfall we are going through people will necessarily want the expense much less taking on one or 2 pits. but you never know.

any advice you offer or other questions you care to answer would be so greatly appreciated!

[songinthewind7]

You're right. Timberon isn't a place for jobs and Cloudcroft probably isn't either.
In my mind, it's always nice to have handymen around. I don't think Timberon has any or at least not any advertising.
The construction companies here need help every once in awhile.
Not many people in Timberon working and from what I see in CC, the people working are the ones running some shops and restaurants. I'm sure there's more but don't deal with anything else in that area.
Alamogordo would be the best bet to go down and get a job if you want to move to CC.

[chant]

I appreciate your time very much!