The Great SouthWest Passage aka Chronicles of Las Cruces: Part 11 - "Oh realtor, my realtor..."

(With apologies to Walt Whitman)

We went to LCNM on a search and explore mission, to see if this was a place we would like to retire to. To tell the truth we had really decided within about 48 hours that it was. The sunshine was great, the lack of snow and ice, super, and the people we befriended, priceless. So the next step was to figure out what we would do for a house.

Enter Todd, our first realtor. We had contact with him over the internet for some 6 months and he followed up with phone calls and emails almost weekly with housing ideas, schools and medical services information and the like. We talked to him on New Years Day about our visit and he was ready for us. We sat in his office conference room and just talked for an hour. Our plans, fears, desires and wishes were all laid out on the table (and a nice table it was with a built in computer and big screen on the wall above it!) In the end he said he felt the best move was to a new construction not started or in the early stages in order to make the modifications I would need. Condo’s and townhomes would not offer the equity and would need modifications at additional costs. Next step was to go look at homes, builders and neighborhoods.

Our Todd had an interesting analogy for describing the builders, comparing them to stores. This builder is like Walmart, this one is like Target, and this one is like Macy’s. We quickly were able to see the differences in quality and workmanship as we looked at 5 different builders’ home that day. All in all, without the carrot on the end of a stick of promise for him, he gave us 4 hours of his time and a wealth of experience.

Day two of our neighborhood and home tour was lead by Sharon, different realtor, different company. Her approach was more home spun, more personal but just as informative. We talked over coffee and then spent 3 hours that day and three more another day looking at more areas, more builders and more models. She didn’t have the “store type analogy” but easily conveyed her feelings about quality and value to us.

So really we are talking about 10 hours of time in which we saw 9 different builders, 10 model homes and maybe a dozen more in some state of being built. We were able to eliminate 5 out of hand due to poor quality/cheap appearance or too high cost for the product. A sixth was eliminated later because the price for what you got was significantly higher than the rest. This left us with three builders, maybe 4-5 models in a half dozen nice neighborhoods. Not an easy choice but I think a choice we will like making.

A quick note on neighborhoods. The areas we are looking at are all in the north east part of the city where there is a lot of development and building going on. The best part about this urban planning is that you are just a quick hop, skip or jump from all the action. We were able to get from this area to downtown during the “rush hour” in ten minutes and from downtown to the suburbs equally as easy. One final point is that downtown LCNM has all the services – federal, state buildings, new town hall, public library and offers easy access to the rest of town, areas like Mesilla and the pecan groves are moments away.

I expect we are going to like living there.

Now, do you know anyone who might be interested in a two car garage under ranch with ramp, handicap accessible bathroom, widened doorways and 3 ½ acres of land. Priced to move!