Wanted: Whidbey Acreage for Horse and Family

[picklesuit]

Well, it looks like the Pickle herd is moving to Whidbey Island, WA...I am looking for a place to settle the herd; we come with 2 kids, 2 dogs (housebroken) a cat (declawed) a wife (housebroken, not declawed) and a horse (neither housebroken nor declawed, but willing to live outside).

We have seen a few 2.5 acre properties with a 3 bed/1+ bath on several of the sites, but we are still looking for a place to keep our herd. I am looking to keep rent under $1300 and I come with my own washer/dryer/yard equipment and various accoutrements.

If you, or someone you know, has a fenced acreage they would like to rent, please let me know.
Thanks,
Pickle

 

[A4sForever]

Well, it looks like the Pickle herd is moving to Whidbey Island, WA...

There goes the neighborhood!!!

 

[Jen]

Don't know of any areas with that big of acreage...but we just moved here and we used a great realtor. His name is Hal Hovey and he works at Koetje Coldwell Banker. If you would like his number, pm me and I'll give it to you. There aren't many (if any) houses to rent under $1300 with a big yard....but good luck to you! I hope you find what you're looking for. If you need help, I can surely take the time to look into any houses that might be of interest to you. Good luck.

Just a note for thought...base houses are also available right now for almost no waiting (if any). You can't keep the horse there, but the rest of the family is game! There's probably a stable somewhere on the island that you could keep the horse if you decided to go that route.

 

[Ken_gone_flying]

No horses aloud in base housing? Thats BS...

 

[Jen]

No horses aloud in base housing? Thats BS...

Ha ha...making assumptions on that part. I don't live on base, but I know they didn't allow chickens in Meridian (yes, someone had chickens on base...poor guy was made to get rid of them)...so I am assuming they won't allow horses. Just an assumption though!

 

[picklesuit]

Thanks guys...I am getting a few hits south of Oak Harbor on the east side of 20 before you get to Coupeville. Does that seem like a reasonable drive? I am also looking around the Coupeville area. I am pretty much willing to drive up to about 35-40 minutes to get to base. Anacortes seems too damn expensive fo me, so I continue to look south!

 

[Jen]

Coupeville is definitely doable. It's about a 20 drive into Oak Harbor. It's a cute town.

 

[xj220]

You're motivated, I haven't even looked at the areas to live. I'll probably do Anacortes myself but we'll see. There's a lot of open space up there so you shouldn't have any problems and horses are pretty popular there, too.

 

[Mumbles]

Pickle,

let me talk to my friend Syndi...she's married to a maintainer in one of the VAQs and she used to be my bartender at Toby's....(you'll learn of this establishment soon enough.) She's also a big equestrian type and has several horses. I think her ranch is between Coupeville and Freeland. I'll be in touch with you.

 

[puck_11]

Good luck with your find, its going to be tough to find a place to rent with a big yard for under $1300. Be aware that your BAH is probably going to go down as well. Coupeville is very doable, there are IPs that drive from as far as Bellingham and Everette, although I definitely do not recommend that. If you're willing to drive up to 45 minutes you could also look into the Mt Vernon/Burlington area. Their housing market has been hit a little harder than Anacortes and Oak Harbor, which have retained their values fairly well. You should try to get a hold of one of the local real estate places as they put out an entire list of available rental properties, not just their company's properties.

I know you're looking at renting, but now is a great time to buy if you can afford it. I just locked in at 4.5%, add in the $8,000, plus this is the first time in the last 5 years that housing prices in the Whidney area are actually affordable on an 02s salary.

 

[MasterBates]

I thought your plan was to make the woman pay for the house Puck? :icon_smil

 

[Carlos Caliente]

Most of the acreage on this island exists between Coupeville and Freeland. Expensive but pretty and not a bad drive to NASWHI.
Northwestnavigator dot com may have some classifieds that don't make it on to the MLS system.
I've seen a lot out on craigs list as well.
Good luck.

 

[picklesuit]

We are talking about buying; but I am pretty buried under a shitton of loans (school/car/USAA) and I'm pretty sure the mortgage companies would laugh me out the door. Plus I am hoping to return to Jax in 3+ years to try my hand at this IP thing...

So far I've talked with people from three realty companies there...I think finding a house alone would be easy. It is the horse that is the damned sticking point. And board up there is about $500/mo. on the low end. Apparently hay is $17 bucks a bale...

Has anyone here lived in the base housing? I talked to them, apparently the new housing has a 5 month wait and the old housing can b moved into immediately. I know that would make the drive to work easy, but is the housing worth all of my BAH or is it a crap-hole like Corpus was?

Every once in a great while I miss being single...not very often; but when searching for a house like XJ, it is a lot easier being "Single military dude, no pets/kids/horses and lots of BAH to spare" than "Hi; I have a small zoo that likes to eat/shit/dig/and color (did I mention I have dogs and a horse too? Oh, and can we split that deposit over like 3 months? Thanks."

 

[skidkid]

One trip to the glue factory and I am sure life gets easier in the housing department. (simulated smiles)

 

[Jen]

Pickle, one thing to keep in mind is that living off base will cost you more than BAH. The utilities here are on the high end...so while base housing may not be "worth it" (I don't know what the old housing looks like..new housing is REALLY nice though) it will definitely be the cheapest. If we weren't adamant on buying when we got here, we would have lived on base in a heartbeat. Because of the high costs of utilities, living on base would have saved us a lot of money per month that's for sure.