You Should Move

We always tell people now is the best time. It’s, you know, the time to have moved was last year. The second best time is right now. So, you know, now is the time to do that. Where people are responding the reason why they’re looking to leave where they are now. Number one is taxes. Uh so, we should, we talked about taxes last time, we’ll talk about it again. (00:23) Uh property taxes here are really low. If you have a median uh home at 650,000, you’re paying about how much a year? Oh gosh. Probably about 1,200. 12 to 1,800. 12-800. Depends on the community. Uh but yeah, the uh the property taxes here are very very low. We do have income tax, but it is also very low. Uh we keep talking. (00:52) We we just we moved here from Texas and people get fascinated with the idea that Texas does not have income tax, right? The problem is they don’t need income tax because they get you on the and we know we live there. We know we live there. It is very very hard. We left nine years ago and we had not even a 3,000 foot home. (01:11) We were paying close to 10,000. Yeah. Here uh and here when you buy a home you don’t also get a stepped up tax appreciation. California, you buy a house and then all of a sudden your taxes go skyhigh because you bought it at a higher price. Yeah, we don’t do that here. It’s pretty much stays the same. (01:31) I think our taxes are like 2,800 a year or something like that. They may vary $150. It’s it’s never it never jumps up. Um especially when you’re buying a newer house. Yeah. Yeah. got one survey back uh actually a few from people who are born and raised in California and they hate to talk about California because they were born and raised in California. (01:56) It’s always been home and and now they’re they’re having to admit to uh kind of what’s going on there. Yeah. Uh it’s kind of sad. Yeah. Um we get a lot of Californians who come in town a lot. Um, some people are, you know, visibly upset, agitated. Some are almost in tears. Um, some are, “Wow, you know, this was my whole life and I’m being forced. (02:20) I feel like I’m being forced out.” And we understand completely. I mean, because we hear about it all the time. And especially a lot of our folks out there have acquired a nice little nest egg and they’re trying to project out if they continue to live there. and they’re realizing um that healthy nest egg is rapidly diminishing. Yeah. Um due to taxes, uh it’s always seems like, okay, I think after this round of taxes, we’ll be good and then something else comes up or some other catastrophic, you know, event happens and they’re hit again. And so, uh you (02:55) know, they just feel like they’re kind of being forced out. They’re like, we want to retire and live nicely and not lose everything we have over time. what’s gonna happen when I really need my funds. Yeah. Um and stuff like that. So, yeah, it’s kind of a pickle. No, no pun intended. Yeah. (03:14) It’s a lot of other states out there, too, that are, you know, we see a lot of people from Washington. We see a lot of people from Oregon, New Jersey. Um and they’re all saying the same thing. Please help us. You know, we just need a break. We want to enjoy what we’ve worked for. And uh you know, so they come here. (03:32) It’s a lot cheaper cost of living. Yeah. Yeah. Um, not so many taxes. We don’t tax your your social security here. Right. Right. Uh, if you have a pension, if you’re a firefighter, police officer, etc. Uh, you are taxed, but not as heavily as some of the other states for your pension. So, we get a lot of folks who come for that reason, too. Yeah. (03:52) And why not? You should protect what you’ve worked for. Yeah. You you always have the right to act in your own best interest. Correct. The thing about Californians and Prescuit is half the people in Prescat are are from California at least. You are outnumbering the locals. Yeah. (04:10) They have some people who are born and raised here during the 1860s and you know, they knew Wyatt Herp and they don’t like the way the way Costco has come to town. You know, you find people like that in small towns sometimes, but uh for the most part, most of our friends are from California. Uh we’re not from California. We’re from, I guess, Louisiana and then Texas before that. (04:31) Uh, most of the people we know are from extraction. You know, they came from someplace else. And, uh, California is by far the most popular. Uh, fire protection, that’s a new one. I wonder why people are asking us about fire protection. So, uh, Arizona in particular, the Yavapai County has a very proactive stance when it comes to fire. (04:59) Uh in the spring they do a lot of prescribed burns. Uh the firefighting effort for most of the state. I mean they will go down into Phoenix and everything. Most of the firefighting effort is centered on the airport here in Prescuit. So uh Prescuit firefighters, you’ll you when there’s a fire a foot, you’ll see the planes taking off and everything. (05:21) Very aggressive about it. Yeah. Um, very proactive. Very proactive. You you will hear of fires in Arizona. Uh, there was the mayor fire a few years ago. Mayor is about an hour away from Prescuit. Uh, the reason why it makes the news in Prescuit is because the firefighters come out of Prescuit, right? Uh, it’s kind of a rural area. (05:45) It’s very uh wooded um you know sparsely populated in areas like that you know you’ll have fires and most of those are naturally formed. Uh the thing about I remember the mayor fire they went out to assess the situation and they said uh this was like a Thursday I want to say and Friday they said it’ll be out Wednesday and it was. Yeah. (06:10) I mean they knew exactly. So they’re very and they’re really good about planning ahead and burning things out and they don’t let anything accumulate so that it’s just a tinder box waiting for a lightning strike. We don’t have that here. Yeah. And in nine years of living here, we’ve never even been requested, oh, everybody should evacuate. Never. (06:28) It doesn’t really get close. It’s always in the out outskirts like an hour or so out. every every now and then uh the wind will shift and one of the prescribed burns will have smoke going through town which is a pain. Uh that’s happened a couple of times. We’ve had we’ve had smoke from California a few times. Yeah. (06:49) But fires out there made its way uh all the way out here. Other than that uh you know fire is really not that big so as of now um you’re not required to carry extra fire protection. I know because of all the fires that have been occurring, especially in California, insurance companies are starting to change and and pulling out of certain areas. (07:13) As of now, I have yet had a client uh not be able to get fire insurance. U you don’t have to have a separate policy. You don’t have to have flood policy or anything like that. Um now, insurance companies can be really stupid. Yeah. you know, they they’ll pull out of a whole state instead of cherrypicking or they’ll pull out of a whole area. (07:33) You know, there’ve been fires in California, so we’re not going to write in Arizona. I mean, you will get some of that, but so far that really hasn’t hit uh hit us at all. Thank goodness. Thank good Thank goodness. All right. So, the other big thing we want to talk about is uh potential flooding. Um, houses here, uh, very few. (07:53) You’re not required to have flood insurance, which is, again, we’re from New Orleans. Everybody has it. It’s got to be mega bucks, seven, 8,000 a year. I mean, the short answer is we’re a mile high. If there’s a flood, the world’s over, you know, but you do have some lowlying areas. If there’s a big thunderstorm where, you know, water will come through, a monsoon will come over the road. (08:14) Yeah. Typically, our our clients don’t really go into a lot of those areas. Most of those areas are more like camps as opposed to like a real subdivision. They might have a little low lower line areas. Also, um very I think I can count on my hands four houses that we’ve sold that required flood insurance. (08:34) So, FEMA will come in and say on this particular property, you do have to have flood insurance. Yeah. I think it’s been four houses out of hundreds and hundreds of times. And one of them we got reszoned because they were wrong. And yeah, so not a big issue. Flooding is not big a big issue here. If we find a house for you with that, we will point that out and say, you should know on this particular one, you’re going to have to get flood insurance. (08:56) Fire insurance, not required to have a separate fire plan. Yeah. If you’re in danger of fire, chances are you’re up in the mountains. We do have some very remote homes here. uh fires that affect this area uh I say this area within a miles I’m sorry an hour’s drive from the city you know like mayor and and and places like that those are more those aren’t like subdivisions those are like cabins in the woods and if they’re surrounded by trees and there’s a fire and yeah pretty remote so I have found even since California people coming here that (09:34) has changed nationwide side in terms of uh offering fire insurance and all that. Fire companies are pulling out of states and stuff like that. So far, knock on wood, we haven’t had that uh someone buying a house and being denied Yeah. insurance coverage. But most most of the people in the the areas that they’re going, it’s not required and they don’t get it. (09:56) If you’re in, let’s say, the Hiyia area, lots of pine trees, you want to be really careful about creating a fire barrier, and the fire department will come out and they’ll help you how to firewise the uh firewise the home. If if you’re up in the the pine trees and you don’t do that, you know, then then you’re kind of at risk. (10:23) I still don’t know if fire insurance is required. No, so far I haven’t heard any of our buyers having to buy a separate fire. Yeah, we haven’t had that. I will say and the fire department like he said will come out and do the firewise free of charge. Yeah, free of charge. And they’ll come out and say, “You need to get rid of this, this, this, this, this, and you know, and really it’s you can do it every year and have them come out. (10:44) ” The the fire fighting effort uh comes out of Prescat. So the the guys here in Prescat, they’re down in the valley in Phoenix. They’re up in Flagstaff. The firefighting effort comes out of the Prescuit airport. Uh so it’s unlikely that Prescuit’s going to catch on fire because that’s their hometown. So um yeah, so we’ve been here nine, it’ll be nine years in August. (11:14) We’ve never even had to evacuate, even come close to it because of a fire. You know, the fires are usually farther out from a lightning strike or something like that, an hour out in open fields and stuff like that. So, uh thank goodness that crime as something uh to look that the reason why they’re leaving where they are now because crime is very high. (11:36) Crime, it’s hard to find crime here. It’s I will never say never say never. There’s never never. I mean it’s we don’t live in in heaven in Nirvana or whatever. However, if you’re crossing the street downtown, you drop your wallet on the sidewalk. Nine times out of 10, you’re it’ll be turned in. (11:56) Someone’s going to return it to you. I have left my wallet in the in the cart at Walmart. I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” And they and it’s there and somebody turns it in. I mean, how to be brutal and frank, the median age here is 58 and older. Yeah. So, you know, people aren’t they’re easy to run ambulatory enough to grab your purse and make a run for it. (12:16) They’re dragging their oxygen tank. You know, it’s not a lot of crime. So, I don’t want you to think um you’re going to be subject here to a lot of armed robbery or your home being broken into or your cars being broken into. Um, I haven’t in nine years of living here, I haven’t had one friend have a a negative experience. Yeah. (12:39) Coming from New Orleans, uh, leaving someplace at midnight and walking back to your car, you would be afraid. Yeah, that is a non-issue here. We don’t have a whole lot of children here. So, what the what the town does is they consolidate their trick-or-treating to a few blocks downtown, the old historic district, and the police will go and they will direct traffic and they put the lights out so everyone can see and they’re just very nice and everyone gets along. (13:05) So, yes, people are very friendly, welcoming here. It’s a super super friendly town. It is a laid-back town. I It is a quaint little town. People like one another. They’re kind. I would anticipate that the values particularly in Prescuit proper uh will continue to to rise as more and more people discover the city and start retiring here. Yeah. (13:29) Uh so that’s that’s a big question and the secret there is you know better buy sooner rather than later because prices uh over at least the long term should should be going up. So yeah, we’ve had a couple of folks who’ve been looking like two or three years and they couldn’t pull the trigger. They regret that because now it’s about 200,000 more, 150,000 more and they’re like, “I should have done it then. (13:54) ” Yeah, I get it. It’s a hard decision, but the more you wait, it just it’s creepy. And we’re not getting younger, people. people. Movies going to get harder every”