Yet another person thinking of relocating to Sequim/Port Angeles (Wenatchee: house, buy)

[mikejody]

Thisplacesucks,

I've appreciated some of your posts; agree with you about the need for parents to be involved in the education of their children, not just ship them off to others to educate them, etc.

My question is, why did you choose thisplacesucks for your name? Does it have to do with Sequim? Just curious...

Originally Posted by thisplacesucks

Well, I have lived in the area for twice as long as Lovingthesunshine has, and my feeling is, if you feel the public schools are ghetto here, you should examine the public schools in California, Nevada, Arizona, take your pick. i am also a parent of grown and successful children and I know that I did not rely solely on the public schools to educate my children...no one should, nowdays.

Spouse and I have met people of all ages and backgrounds here...locals and transplants. Many of them have children, some grown, some still going to school. Some are wildly successful, some are not. For myself, I have paid my dues as far as financing public schools, and I don't want to pay anymore than I have to. Many people feel that way, in many communities all around the country. For those who are concerned about quality of education here, there is always private school and home schooling, options that I chose for my children during certain periods of their lives.

If you want a lot of urban amenities, this is not the place to be. Try the Kitsap Peninsula, i.e. Silverdale, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Bremerton, it is beautiful and more suburban. The beauty of here is because it is the way it is. Sequim already has a ton of big box stores. Port Angeles...not so much. Regarding culture, you do realize that you can take a ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC, Vancouver Island, for museums, opera, world class shopping? And from there you can go to the city of Vancouver, BC for more of the same? Not to mention, a ferry or a drive to Seattle, or even Portland, Oregon.

Regarding medical care...yes it is difficult. I have had to go to a specialist in Seattle, but it is doable. We really had to hunt & search for a decent family practice physician, a dentist, and another specialist. I do not know what we will do if they retire or leave. They seem pretty invested in this area because they are locals themselves, or transplants looking for a lifestyle change. However...we came from an urban area with a medical school & several universities, and we were having difficulties there...my husband's physician decided he was not making enough money and became a "boutique" Doctor, wanting to charge an annual fee, in addition to insurance reimbursements, to receive care from him. Our dentist and family practice doctors were getting ready to retire. I had to schedule appointments months in advance for one specialist, only to have them cancelled and rescheduled because he was so busy. Plus, drive in gridlocked traffic and wait in his office for 90 minutes past my scheduled appointment. So, this is not a "Sequim old people" problem, this is a problem with the healthcare system in this entire country. Perhaps I was a little more prepared for it than some people...I grew up in a small, isolated town with meager and mediocre medical care, and it was the norm to have to drive a long distance to get to a doctor and a decent hospital.

These are small communities in a beautiful area. It took awhile to adjust to the lifestyle here. I am still adjusting. But if you want to change everything about this place, you will be met with resistance. If you start changing it, then you will be ruining what you were looking for in the first place.

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Originally Posted by mikejody

Thisplacesucks,

I've appreciated some of your posts; agree with you about the need for parents to be involved in the education of their children, not just ship them off to others to educate them, etc.

My question is, why did you choose thisplacesucks for your name? Does it have to do with Sequim? Just curious...

1. Personal

2. No

[CrazyDonkey]

He's probably referring to S(k)e(d)attle...

[elkotronics]

Or is it Skidattle?

[Jumpindogs]

Originally Posted by mikejody

Just a couple of thoughts here: first, I would highly NOT recommend "C.M"; yes he's got a law degree and yes he is a good marketer, but doesn't have much time for you if you're not ready to commit just yet. On the other hand, I HIGHLY recommend Jeff Biles. He is at Town and Country (360- 683 - 6000). That man will bend over backward trying to help you, and will do it whether you plunk down a big chunk of change or not. He really has your best interest in mind and is absolutely the best real estate agent my wife and I have ever worked with. Very friendly, very knowledgeable (used to be a builder) and very helpful.

I can't speak personally for C.M. since he was too busy with other clients (showing homes and closing sales) to work with us in the four day window we visited Sequim last summer. But we worked with his assistant L.C. and she was awesome! Spent so much time with us (every one of those four days), very knowledgeable (when she didn't know something she found the answer right away), extremely personable and a pit bull protecting our interests. We did not plunk down a big chunk of change...or any change...at all. And we were looking only at land from which L.C. stood to make much less of a commission if she made a sale. I would say she also bent over backwards...way backwards. We were extremely impressed. Additionally, she had all of C.M.'s legal/RE expertise at her fingertips. BTW, C.M. has more than a law degree...he has 20 years of work experience as a real estate attorney. Just wanted to clarify that.

Even though C.M. is very busy, he gives away tons of useful information. Yeah, some of it is self-serving. But just weed through that and you can learn so much about Sequim and buying property in Sequim...at your leisure and at no charge.

I am sure there are other really great buyer's agents in Sequim, too.

[etartmove]

Originally Posted by mikejody

Just a couple of thoughts here: first, I would highly NOT recommend "C.M"; yes he's got a law degree and yes he is a good marketer, but doesn't have much time for you if you're not ready to commit just yet. On the other hand, I HIGHLY recommend Jeff Biles. He is at Town and Country (360- 683 - 6000). That man will bend over backward trying to help you, and will do it whether you plunk down a big chunk of change or not. He really has your best interest in mind and is absolutely the best real estate agent my wife and I have ever worked with. Very friendly, very knowledgeable (used to be a builder) and very helpful.

Thanks Mikejody!

Yeah, I was handed off to C.M.'s assistant as well, who, like jumpindogs said, seems capable. I will also look up Jeff Biles and see what he has to offer.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Back to topic, a little--if you're going to move into those areas and plan to buy, you should be ok. But I've been scanning the rental listings for Port Townsend, Ludlow, Hadlock, and Sequim since last spring, and I'm shocked to observe that the rental market has suddenly gone up in smoke. Whereas last year, there were scads of rental homes on the market, there's nothing now, except for an occasional one or two in Sequim. I just recently heard from a friend up there who knows several real estate agents and property managers, who said that there are so many people pouring into the area to a) get away from the drought in CA, and elsewhere in the SW, and b) escape the extreme winters in the NE that recent climate changes have brought, that rentals are snapped up as soon as they're available, so none ever make it onto Craigslist, except apartment listings. The rental market on the Olympic Peninsula has become like the Bay Area: hyper-competitive, crowds of renters competing for a single listing, people paying for temporary housing while desperately trying to compete for the few rentals there are.

Scary stuff. And weird. Rents haven't started to climb, but at some point, this will cause a rent spike. The same is going on in Bellingham.

Yeah, it's a little worrying that there might be a large influx there, especially if the towns are not prepared for quick increases in population. I'm trying to be optimistic, though and hope it won't be too bad over the next 20 years or so. I've wondered before, but did not want to sound insensitive, shouldn't there be a certain cycle to the real estate market there? Considering that there are a lot of retirees out there, it would seem that age would cause attrition. Perhaps it is just that more people are getting the same idea and word's gotten out.

[mikejody]

Originally Posted by thisplacesucks

1. Personal

2. No

oooook

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by etartmove

Thanks Mikejody!

Yeah, I was handed off to C.M.'s assistant as well, who, like jumpindogs said, seems capable. I will also look up Jeff Biles and see what he has to offer.




Yeah, it's a little worrying that there might be a large influx there, especially if the towns are not prepared for quick increases in population. I'm trying to be optimistic, though and hope it won't be too bad over the next 20 years or so. I've wondered before, but did not want to sound insensitive, shouldn't there be a certain cycle to the real estate market there? Considering that there are a lot of retirees out there, it would seem that age would cause attrition. Perhaps it is just that more people are getting the same idea and word's gotten out.

Well, Port Townsend (and neighboring towns) and Bellingham have been popular with retirees for a few years, so that's nothing new. What's new is entire families moving in significant numbers, or empty-nesters moving to escape the effects of climate change. And the local young people, young marrieds, for example, can't compete with older couples who may have excellent lifelong credit ratings and more rental references. I don't know, but I was told there are several young couples there as we speak, who have been turned down for rentals time and again, in spite of having all their paperwork ready, because of the feeding frenzy going on for the few available rental homes.

Odd, how these booms happen. Maybe the PacNW is the next California?

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Odd, how these booms happen. Maybe the PacNW is the next California?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !

[etartmove]

Well, I made it out to Sequim and did a short trip to P.A. too. I drove up from Berkeley over two days.

I liked Sequim, it's a beautiful area and has the potential for some of the best bicycle riding I'd be likely to do. Some brief impressions:

*walking around in stores in Sequim, I actually saw many more "young" people (50 and under) than "old" people (over 70).
*it appeared to have more ethnic diversity than I'd have thought.
*almost everyone seemed nice and I met quite a number of transplants from all over.
*young teens/early twenty-somethings were quite nice and helpful in retail places (I don't know why but I guess from reading things here and there I thought the kids would be depressed or maladjusted).
*saw a lot of cyclists many of whom were riding on Old Olympic Hwy (family weekend riders and serious roadies alike)
*the weather was interesting, maybe I acclimated quickly but when sun broke through early gray skies, 60 to mid 60 degree weather almost felt hot!
*despite the Pane d'Amore outpost of PT's baker, Sequim is in dire need of an artisan breadmaker/baker.
*despite mentally preparing for it, I was still shocked as the city closed down so early.
*I did see some strung out looking people and maybe a few skinhead types, not a lot. Both of the realtors I met left their cars unlocked and with valuables in them.
*most everyone I talked to who was working said jobs are still very hard to secure, yet a number of people I met, e.g. two younger people from Southern California, found jobs without waiting too long.
*there weren't many nice homes in nice areas in my price range, so I'm thinking of various strategies if I do still intend to relocate there.
*Mikejody - met J.B. and liked him a whole lot; he and I spent about 5 hours looking at places yesterday. Great suggestion, thank you!!

So, my trip was kind of a fact finding mission and a brief tryout to see if i could enjoy living there. I think I could, but would still really have to wrap my head around it and NOT being in the SF Bay Area. Funny how being away can make our homes seem not so bad. Ha!