AREA'S OF THE VILLAGE

Hi trouth,

What you say makes good sense about investment on inner lots. This is an especially good time for getting adjoining lots if you plan on building. I've done so myself as the lots have come available. Golf course and Lake lots are lower now and in a good range for purchase in my view. Bottom line, you have to have a heart for the Village right now as the basis of your actions with all but the choicest locations.

Paul just my thoughts but those days are now over. ParLago should let everyone know that unless the economy just really turns around there will not be any big money being made in buying and selling lots in CV. Way to many jobs have been deleted, companies are running leaner and will continue to do so. The current housing problem is going to hang around for awhile. But if someone really wanted to build here now would be a very good time to buy several adjoining lots and create an estate so to speak. But as an investment I would put my money somewhere else.

Hi Forum,

I would still be interested on opinions about areas where a person might be wise to be considering"inner lots" for investment?

Hi Forum,

I have been thinking more about this topic. While I believe that sound investments will focus around the lakes, golf courses, or special upper lots with sweeping views, still for the "insider" there are "inner lots" generally undervalued that on a case by case basis can be pretty special. Has anyone built on one of these out of the way cul d' sacs? Does anyone want to share areas where these more interesting inner lots exist? About a year ago there were quite a few sold on back roads near Aztec.

Hi Desertdweller,

Welcome again! Your post about real estate prices was well answered by Mike. Just know that the areas that you have picked thus far are nice ones. I too have a lot in Hualapi Addition. Perhaps we are nearby, but I'm across from the lake. All the best on your plans.

Abdi,

Wow! You found CV from a long way away. If you have any questions in helping to make your move easier, by all means, ask away on here. We're glad to have you.

mike wrote:Welcome to Desertdweller!

Glad you found the forum and Cherokee Village. Have you visited yet? What brought you to the area?

Hello Mike,

I haven't visited CV yet. I'm originally from Michigan. However, currently living in Egypt right off of the Red Sea. I'm into Real Estate Investments. I own several parcels in CV. 2 in the Isleta Addition and one Lake Front in Hualapi Addition. If things go right I should be retiring in about 4 years and at that time I plan on setting up our main home on the Lake Front Property in Hualapi land either making rental properties or moving my Mother to one of the Isleta properties. We'll see.

BTW thanks for the reply and the warm reception.

Looking forward to making new friends in CV.

Warmest regards,
Abdi

Welcome to Desertdweller!

Glad you found the forum and Cherokee Village. Have you visited yet? What brought you to the area?

As to lake lots, there is a wide range in asking prices and what's available out there right now. As to lakefront and how the lots are priced for sale by their owners, it all depends on what lake, the number of feet of lakefront, is the lot buildable? Has it had a recent perc test?, the number of lake lots for sale on that lake, etc. Many variables.

We all know real estate across the country has had its troubles of late, and Cherokee Village is no exception in my opinion.

We're glad to have you on the forum.

Paul2CV wrote: Again, I would recommend local and very well regarded ALC (American Land Company) for ebay purchases and local realtors for other purchases.

Don't get me wrong, I recently saw an auction from ALC that listed Lake Front Property for $25,000
on Lake Navajo with a 80ft frontage and 216ft Long. That was the lowest I've seen any lake front property on the Internet? How in the world can they get prices like that? If the monthly payments were a tad bit lower I would have bidded on the auction.

Are prices in CV now at a recorded low?

Hi sprinr,

Saw your house on the website that you mention. It seems like a great place. Once the real estate bug "bites" though, it bites hard! lol

If anybody out there is looking for a nice little turn-key furnished vacation or full-time home with a nice lakeview in the back (i'm not on the lake) with elbow room on each side for privacy, I'm on owners.com. I'm trying to find something bigger for my family to move into full-time in a couple of years. There's so many nice " cherries" on the tree to pick from, though, it's hard to pick what you want! I like the brow or mountain views off of Cochise but at the same time, I want a lake house. Or a river house...help....my husband thinks i need counseling because i obsess over real estate too much.....lol

Hi Forum,

I thought that it might be a good idea to revisit this topic. There are always new folks checking in and looking for information on lots for sale and parts of the Village that are recommended as most desirable. I've chimed in already about this. Perhaps you would like to give your 2 cents as well.

Also, there is a related matter. From time to time, we get these kinds of videos/promotions hitting the web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLjxoGus6DI One essential thing for current residents to offer to perspective newcomers is the issue of taking care. I know nothing about this operation. And that's precisely the point. These sellers show up and one simply "doesn't know." Again, I would recommend local and very well regarded ALC (American Land Company) for ebay purchases and local realtors for other purchases.

Thank you guys for your advise and welcome. I just wanted to clarify "secluded". We are not hermits or anything we just prefer to not live eaves to eaves if possible. We are familiar with Arkansas as in we used to go to Hot Springs on golf package long weekends and loved the place, always remarked that if we ever retired we should move there. We have been researching retirement areas nation wide and have narrowed it down to CV. The climate seems a bit more mild than south Louisiana and we would be closer to our kids and old friends. Our kids and most favorite people are scattered from Dallas to Lafayette, La to Jackson, Ms.

From everything we can gather so far, it seems the village has most everything we need. We are not shoppers, not fast food lovers, love clear lakes and streams, love autumn leaves, love quiet and really love paved roads. These cobblestones down are quaint but not really designed for traffic over 10 mph. My wife will not drive anywhere down here and can't wait to get back up there where she can actually get in the car and go somewhere by herself, tell you the truth, I can't wait either. I understand the golf courses are not overcrowded which sounds great to me. We love walking, cycling, raquet sports and most of the lawn sports we read about. We are sure there are things to keep us occupied. We are in our early 60's so we can still get around ok.

We do have tons of questions but most may be better answered after we get there. Most of the questions are estimate questions like: average electric bill, water and such, homeowner fees, home insurance, car insurance and things like that. Someone indicated that $150.00 a month would be a reasonable average for an electric bill. Ours is almost that in Mexico and we have no heat and A/C. I do think though that the charge per Kwh in Mexico is 4 times higher than the US. When we lived in Louisiana our bill averaged around $400.00 per month. I am sure we will suffer sticker shock on some things and think other things are bargains. This fixed income living can sure be a challenge at times but it still beats working.

Chuck K you said you were from Wisconsin, me too, Rhinelander. I have lived in the South since I was 16 so I'm pretty much not a yankee anymore.

Enough yacking for now.

Hi Donjulio, Welcome to the forum, and for starting a great topic. It took me a couple days thinking about how to reply. I moved here from Wisconsin in July of 2001, and have rented and owned here ever since. I also have lived in different areas of the village. I quess that is why I had a hard time answering, until I realised there is no real answer. I really do not believe there are areas that are better suited for the retired.
The village was developed in the 50's as a retirement community. We have been fortunate to have kept that concept, but we welcome people of all ages here. I think retired folks can find a comfortable place to live anywhere in the village. It's a great idea to rent first to get a true feel for things. If you decide not to rent, I would at least recommend you spend some time here before purchasing. There are nice homes in all areas of town, but what is comfortable for one, might not be for another. With you wanting a partially secluded spot, I am sure you will find what you are looking for. You will also find the people in the village to be very friendly, and most want to keep our sense of community as it is.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. If you have any questions, you have found the right place, with this forum. We are here to help you.

We plan on visiting for as long as it takes for us to be comfortable with our choice. We are traveling light this time and will be able to check out numerous locals if necessary. We are selling our house in Mexico fully furnished except for toothbrushes and underwear and are starting over from zero. The cost of shipping to and from Mexico is ridiculous and for us, way better to just leave everything there. The house we bought there was furnished so we are not out much. All our good stuff is in Louisiana with our kids.



Yes, we tried retiring out of country and I loved it. My wife hated Mexico from the day we got there, which is pretty typical we learned. There is a good percentage of single guys there who were married when they got there, for me, throwing away 43 years was not an option. If it were up to me, we would still be there and if I never went north of the border it would be ok by me. I love the place. The weather is absolutely perfect pretty much year round. The scenery is incredible. I will have to adjust to not wearing t-shirts and shorts 12 months of the year. Our house has no heat or air conditioning, as it’s not needed and very few homes here do, I personally know no one who has it. The lifestyle is very laid back and relaxed. You never reschedule or miss anything because of bad weather. There are no tornadoes, hurricanes or anything like that and the homes are all concrete and brick so no fires. Most homes are not insured, as it’s really not necessary. Cost of living in our particular area is not cheap and house prices are outrageous. Most houses are paid for in cash as up until recently there was no financing and even now the interest rate is sky high. I have a feeling that we can live comfortably in CV for not much more than we spend now. Prices on most everything have skyrocketed since we got here (4 years ago) and continue to rise. People from north of the border caution us on the sticker shock we are going to experience if we move back up there, we will see. We do have a Wal-Mart here but it’s a complete joke and we feel sorry for the Mexican’s (who are generally poor) as they are being screwed right along with us having to pay inflated prices for everything. I just bought a new camera at WM and paid double what it would cost anywhere in the US. You do save money on other things here but it would take a lot of convincing to get me to believe that you can live here for way less than up there.



“How did I find this forum”? Just searched for CV forums. I registered on this one and the other one. This one sent me a confirmation, the other one didn’t. We have several active forums down here, one with 14,000 registered users.



Anyway, I am looking forward to visiting and looking around, we just are waiting for our house to sell.

Thanks for the candid response. As you know the best way is to visit for more than a few days and get a feel for the area. My inlaws are in central Louisiana and will be retiring to the village soon. They've been coming up for years and love it. You tried the retiring out of the country route and I'm curious why you decided to give it a try and then why you're deciding to come back. I know it is becoming more and more popular to retire in Central and South America and would be interested to hear your comments about it.

By the way, how did you find this forum? I'd be curious to know that also as this is a fairly new forum when we decided to give the forum a new look with better features. Let me know. Thanks!

Thank you for the information. We do plan on renting for a while until we get our feet wet. We figure the best way to learn is to talk to people who live there and kind of average out the responses. This will all be new to us, we have been retired for 4 years now but haven't been retired in the US. We retired 4 years ago to central Mexico and bought a house on a mountainside overlooking the largest lake in Mexico. I am from Wisconsin and my wife is from Mississippi. We have lived in south Louisiana for the past 30 years. We have put our Mexican house on the market a couple of weeks ago and have several responses. My wife is looking forward to living in a place where she can speak English and I am looking forward to playing golf as I can't afford it in Mexico, it's still a rich man's game here. We also have never lived in an area that has 4 seasons, that will be new to us. We have been looking at some nice looking houses there and can't wait to see some of them. I am especially curious to find out why some houses that look especially nice aren't selling while others are and it doesn't seem to be the price. This is kind of the reason for my original question about the area's. We hope to be there by the end of the year but who knows. Thanks for you help.

Donjulio,

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, Cherokee Village has areas where homes are right on top of each other and other areas where homes are spread out and where it would take you fifteen minutes or more to walk to your closest neighbor. It's all there. There are more secluded areas of the village than more built up areas, if that's what you mean. There are literally thousands of acres in the village with no homes, and entire roads and streets with no homes, so you can have the seclusion if you want it.

If you want very secluded areas, Paul is right about the western areas of the village on the Fulton County side. If you want water and privacy, I would suggest the Lake Chanute, Lake Omaha, and the Lake Aztec areas. They are close to water access, the south golf course, and gives you ample areas for seclusion. Lake Thunderbird and Lake Sequoyah, my favorite part of the village, is where the homes are closer together, but it is also the more central part of the village.

When you come to visit, I would suggest spending a week or two and really get a feel for the area. Once you spend a week, you won't want to leave! There is plenty of retirees all over the village. What part of the country are you from? Chances are, there are other retirees from your area.

Let us know when you plan on a visit, and if you ever need help with anything, let us know. We'll try to help as best we can. If you have any other questions about the area, don't hesitate to ask.

Hi Donjulio,

Firstly, thank you for posting. Your question is one that members of the forum hope to answer. Welcome.

I think that I understand where you are coming from in your question. It is a very reasonable question. As a basic rule, houses in the immediate proximity of the lakes tend to be very nice and the areas quite desirable. Some lakes are more sought after -- like Thunderbird and Omaha, but Thunderbird is pretty active. while Omaha is more quiet. Omaha can be pricey, but has some nice quiet sections with great homes. All the other smaller lakes, with the exception of Cherokee, are fairly less developed and would provide more privacy. The other nicer areas tend to be around the Golf Courses.

The Fulton County side of the Village is generally less developed. You could get a decent lot there or house without many neighbors in several areas of the Fulton side. There are also some upper "bluff" homes on the Sharp County side that can be quite nice.

The areas that can be less along the lines you are seeking will be pretty clear by price, density of housing, square footage, and older age of the homes. Most of the real estate companies have photos inside and out. What is important is to know about the area itself around the house and as you narrow your targets to a few, many on this forum would be happy to offer advice.

One thing that can vary quite a lot from "quiet area" to "quiet area" is how much the area invites simple walking. Some areas have lots of side roads that encourage a stroll. Others less so.

In terms of overall quality of life and neighborhoods, there's no denying that the lakes and golf course areas are a good place to start. It doesn't have to be "lake front" but even across the street will almost always be nice. Likewise, the golf areas tend to be great. I hope this helps. Again, welcome.

We are planning on relocating to CV very soon but have never been there. Trying to be delicate here but are there any area's of the village that may not be right for a retired couple. We are very active but prefer fairly private living as in semi secluded.