Thinkin' About Movin' to Tulsa - REDUX

[S.]

Hey Everybody -

Long and short (warning: pretty much always 'long' with me):  thinking about moving to Tulsa.  My family is from the Yale/Glencoe/Pawnee areas.  No one left out there, really, except a cousin and an uncle over in Yale and Cushing.  I do have tons of family down along the Red River in TX and in Dallas.   Family farm just north in the SW corner of MO, my pops is in northeast AR, etc., etc., etc.  Basically my hillbilly family is spread out all over that area.  I was back visiting family in Yale this summer, as per usual.  Would like to be able to visit my family more.  My dad is getting older, and I'm the only one left so I've just been thinkin' I might want to move back down that way.  

I've lived all over the place (18 states, 23 cities).  You can find the good, bad and the ugly everwhere, so I'm not really looking for anyone to tell me Tulsa is perfect, or do anything to convince me of anything.  I don't need anyone to tell me it's freakin' HOT in the summer, either [].  But I would like some candid input.

I'd like to be outside of town, because I want to have a couple horses and a few acres.  However, I'm single and I, unfortunately, wasn't born with the last name Vanderbuilt, so I'll be working for a living.  So that means I need to be close enough to town for work.  Ideally, when my dreams come true, I'll be working part-time (30 hours give or take), and teaching guitar part-time (went to school for classical guitar, and teach little kids).  

Sooooooooo.....honestly just not even familiar with Tulsa on any real level.  It's been a lot of years since I've done anything but drive through.  I am thinking about Tulsa because it's big enough these days that I'll be able to find work, and not so big that I'll have to live in the city (Even though I like kids and we get along just fine, I don't like people [the grown kind] enough to want to continue living in the city).   Tulsa is almost right smack dab in the middle, geographically speaking, of where my family is.  So it just seems like it might be a good choice.  What areas outside the city would you all recommend?  If I had to commute to town?

Any thoughts?  I'm not a huge gardener, though I might like to grow some tomatoes, cucumbers and maybe okra or something for pickling purposes.  But I'm smart enough to figure out how to get the soil right enough for a small garden.  So soil isn't a consideration for gardening, but definitely IS for grazing (horses).  Will need some good pasture.  

Right now I'm sitting inside avoiding all the nutbags out on New Years Eve at the Space Needle here in Seattle (I pretty much live right under the dang thing).  Give these people booze and fireworks, and they get a little nutty.....<wink>.  Makes for good people watching, I guess.  

Thanks, everybody.

S.

[rwarn17588]

There is enough rural area in west Tulsa that you could probably find enough land and live a mostly rural lifestyle, yet be close to several major freeways. I'm in the Red Fork area, so I'm familiar with it.

[ky]

[8D]Sapulpa, Mounds, Glenpool all of these area's are still close but will alow you to have land for horses and to have a garden. I not so sure about the west side of town I have lived in Berryhill all my life until I got married and now I live in Sapulpa. My brother just bought 10 acres and a 3 bd 2 bath house in mounds for about 72,000 not bad.

[S.]

Thanks for the recommendations.  I plan to come back out just to drive around and get a good look around the area this spring.  Usually I'm visiting my family, so I never have any reason to drive around Tulsa.  Need to see where the horse owners are, etc.   I'll definitely check out the areas you all have recommended.  Thanks again.  

My cousin in Yale might be able to help me out, but I haven't talked to him about it, yet.  He may not, then, too.  I imagine he probably doesn't have much reason to be in Tulsa and might not have any recommendations.  My uncle avoids it like the plague.  The biggest town he goes to is Drumright, so I imagine he'll just loan me his car so I can check it out for myself!    I know he won't drive there.  []

Anyway - thanks everybody.  If you find yourselves coming out Seattle way for a visit and need any pointers, let me know.

S.

[Goodpasture]

South and east of Tulsa is still inflating rapidly. I would look at either that area in Osage County northwest of Tulsa, between Skiatook and Sand Springs; the area in Pawnee and Creek Counties along highway 48 between Cleveland and Bristow. or that area along the turnpike between Bristow and Sapulpa.

FWIW, I am a real estate appraiser, and while I have a sales license I don't use it. If I can be of assistance or point you in a direction, let me know.

Just to give you an example of what CAN be had out that way, I purchased a 9.8 acre place near the town of Terlton (9 miles south of Cleveland) with a 1,000 foot 2br 1 bath house for $20,000 three years ago.

[S.]

Thanks for the info.  I appreciate you all throwing some examples of what you and your family have paid for comparable property.   Gives me an idea.  I've looked at web sites to get an idea, but sometimes I really wonder how accurate the listings are.  Not to mention I'm suffering PTSD from living in places like Boston and Seattle.  Prices are absurd and worse in both...

Goodpasture, I will definitely keep your name/info.  (can only be a good omen, right??  Good PASTURE?)  I plan to come out for a visit, harass my family, and spend some time driving around.  I think once I get a good idea of travel time from places outside the metro area into town, I'll have a better idea.  Kind of sad that I don't really know that already! :/ Funny - a friend of mine just mentioned Skiatook and surrounding, too.  Course my family would probably like your Cleveland recommendation.    Closer to Cushing and Yale!  

It's off in the distance a bit, so I have some time.

As for the buttermilk pie, I don't know, folks.  I've got cousins that make it, and I've never been too partial to it.  I know, I know.  Blasphemous!!    Now, pecan or pumpkin or blackberry?  ALLL over it....  Mmmm.

S.

[S.]

Goodpasure (or anyone else, for that matter)-

Are there any areas northeast that might be worth checking out?  I know you said east is still inflating, so that may be my answer.  But I thought I'd ask.  Still definitely looking at the other areas.  However, the family is wanting to pull me in closer to either the southwest corner of MO, or closer in to Fayetteville.  For reasons I haven't really tried too hard to figure out, I feel somewhat hesitant about heading in the Fayetteville direction.  If I were to begin thinking about northeast OK, are there any areas you'd recommend, or not, as the case may be?  

quote:Originally posted by Goodpasture

South and east of Tulsa is still inflating rapidly. I would look at either that area in Osage County northwest of Tulsa, between Skiatook and Sand Springs; the area in Pawnee and Creek Counties along highway 48 between Cleveland and Bristow. or that area along the turnpike between Bristow and Sapulpa.

FWIW, I am a real estate appraiser, and while I have a sales license I don't use it. If I can be of assistance or point you in a direction, let me know.

Just to give you an example of what CAN be had out that way, I purchased a 9.8 acre place near the town of Terlton (9 miles south of Cleveland) with a 1,000 foot 2br 1 bath house for $20,000 three years ago.

[S.]

Hello everybody -

Just wanted to chime in again and say thank you for all of the recommendations I received from you on this thread.  I was finally able to get out there over the holidays to visit family, and while I was there, I drove around and checked out all the areas you all had mentioned.  Thanks again - they were all great recommendations, and right on in terms of fitting the description of what I'm looking for.  Now the countdown begins...

Thanks again - hope you all survived the ice storms relatively unscathed....what a MESS...even out where my family lives the trees where down, blown to kingdom come, missing half their limbs.  Going to be cleaning up for quite some time.  Luckily my uncle has some really great neighbors who came over and took care of his trees for him during and after the whole ordeal.  Made me feel a whole lot better knowing the people around him keep an eye on him.

Anyway, thanks again for your help!

[cannon_fodder]

You're welcome.  

and it is always good to get feedback feedback, as looking at ones hometown (even if adopted) with a clear lens can be difficult.  Let us know what your overall impressions were, or other thoughts.  Honest reviews can be hard to come by.

[rwarn17588]

You're welcome.

And the ice storm wasn't all bad for a few of us. I already have enough firewood for next winter and then some.

[]

[S.]

You asked for it!  ;-)  

Overall impressions on this trip were good.  Seems like commuting into town for work is pretty manageable from all the areas everyone recommended.  I really liked the area up around Skiatook.  I love the hills, of course.    Saw a nice riding arena, and a saddle club, etc., as I was driving around the area, plus it seemed like there might be other things to do recreationally up there.  Someone had mentioned that Skiatook had some flooding issues, if I remember correctly.  Something to think about - that and what someone else mentioned about the commute time being dependent on exactly where you were in relation to the highway(s) around there.  Someone also mentioned the winter driving conditions.  I've driven in all kinds of much worse winter weather than you all get there, so I'd probably be just fine.  That said, I would imagine they salt/sand if/when those hills/roads get too icy, don't they?  The rest of it is the sort of thing I'll have to figure out after getting there, I think.  I also liked some of the areas folks mentioned just southwest of the city, too.  It's hard to have any real impression(s), though, without spending time there.  I'm thinking I'll probably rent a place for a short while after I finally get moved there and just spend some time visiting the various places and the towns, etc.  I'll just have to decide if I'd be better off renting in Tulsa, and then going out and looking around from there, or if it'd be best to just pick one of the areas and rent outside of town and test out the commute, etc., while looking around.  

I also looked around the Fayetteville, AR area, and couldn't believe my eyes.  WHOA.  Where IS all that money coming from?  McMansions everywhere.  Very surreal experience to see all THAT development.  Seems like you've almost got to be 45 minutes to an hour out of town there before you get into areas where you could afford to live and have a little land for a couple horses.  I saw SOME of that in the Tulsa area, but not to the same extent - just some developments here and there.   They were EVERYWHERE in the Fayetteville area.  HUGE houses.  Wondering how much of that has to do with out-of-state retirees.  Anyway....I guess I threw that in because I know I don't want to live in an area where I'm surrounded by McMansions, and the people who own them, either.   Invariably they will have strange, fancypants rules about how your property looks, etc., and will start developing the snot out of every square inch of land around them.    Cutting down all the trees, and planting strange new trees and plants in that homogenous weird way developments do.   No, thank you.

Anway, I digress.    My impressions were good.  But, as is to be expected, since I wasn't there TOO long and only got to drive around a bit and check out the areas, they're limited impressions.  All the areas seemed to fit the bill for what I was looking for on a general level.  I couldn't really say one way or the other at the moment.  I'll just have to spend some more time in them, look around, and talk to more people to see which area would be the best place to buy, I think.  I don't really need to consider some of the things families do, as I'm single and I don't have kids.  So mostly whether I like the looks of the land and the surrounding area, and whether I can do the things I like to do are the main considerations.  

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

You're welcome.  

and it is always good to get feedback feedback, as looking at ones hometown (even if adopted) with a clear lens can be difficult.  Let us know what your overall impressions were, or other thoughts.  Honest reviews can be hard to come by.

[S.]

That's true!  Funny, I was thinking the same thing looking at it all...has to be a positive side to losing all those trees somewhere, right!  At least they can be put to good use.

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

You're welcome.

And the ice storm wasn't all bad for a few of us. I already have enough firewood for next winter and then some.

[]

[cannon_fodder]

NW Arkansas has plenty of money thanks to Wal-Mart and the associated trickle down industries (you HAVE to have an office in NW Arkansas to do business with them).  Then in Fayetteville you also have (of course) the college which supports lots of development.   But the core of the wealth in that area is Wal-Mart.

And I'm afraid Tulsa has its fair share of McMansons if you head out to 121st areas.  Some nice looking developments of 300-500K houses, but many that are basic designs sitting on top of each other.  BUT, NW Arkansas lacks the old houses and interesting neighborhoods Tulsa enjoys.  It will be interesting to see what happens to all these McMansions - apartments like many old large houses?  Not sure, but it will be interesting to see.

quote: I would imagine they salt/sand if/when those hills/roads get too icy, don't they?

Yes, but not to the extent that you are used to.   All of Tulsa County has something like 50 plows/sand trucks at its disposal.  Getting things done on secondary roads is just not possible in short order.  So keep that in mind.