A couple of weeks ago customers from Switzerland were in town looking at property in Colorado. Throughout our correspondence prior to their arrival they continued to reiterate to me, "distance does not matter," we like remote. Where we live now is 2 hours to a bigger town. I hear this regularly and over the years have learned to ask, "what does remote mean to you"? It can mean:
- Driving over an hour to work
- Living 45 minutes to away from town
- Having to take a ferry to get to work/town
- Driving by multiple restaurants, stores, shopping centers, residential and/or commercial areas on the drive home
In Colorado Springs and the surrounding mountains it does not take long to get to a "remote" feel and more imporantly here is what "remote" can represent:
- Driving on an unpaved county road for 30 plus minutes after being on a highway
- Minimum 35 minutes to nearest store of any kind (gas station, convenience store, etc.)
- Having to put your shoes on to go see your closest neighbor
- Driving with only deer & elk for your neighbors
After returning home to Switzerland my customers emailed and said, "Remote' in our book is not necessarily ‘remote' in the mind of a person living in the Rockies (access to infrastructure is more important to us than we thought). I laughed out loud when I read this because as much as we talk about what remote is, most of the time it has to be experienced to truly be able to determine "by experience" what remote is and what they ideally want.
About the Author: Kelly Young, GRI
- Author's website: www.sellmyhomeincoloradosprings.com
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Kelly is an Associate Broker with Red Rock Realty. She has over 12 years experience in Real Estate in the Colorado Springs and Front Range region of Colorado. She represents buyers and sellers of real estate buying homes, land for sale, mountain getaways. Specific areas include: Black Forest, Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Divide, Falcon, Downtown, Manitou Springs, Monument, Old Colorado City, Westside, Woodmen Hills and Woodland Park. You can reach her at 719-226-0126 or by clicking "email the author" above.
Kelly - This is a very interesting post and yes remote can mean many different things to people. Depending on where a person my live remote could mean 2 hours and to others 30 minutes.
20 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip is remote!
Kelly,
It sounds as though you have the best of both worlds within a very short commute.
Great post. We get this all the time in rural Nevada. The other one is they all want "5 acres" until they see what 5 acres consists of. Really all they want is to not be 10 feet from their neighbors.
Very well said. When I work with buyers almost every single one starts out asking for a Foreclosure or a fixer upper. In order to avoid wasting anyones time I have a questionaire that I give them that makes them explain their idea of a fixer upper. To most they consider a fixer upper as a home that needs paint and possibly a few new fixtures.