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Posted: 11/22/2016 1:23:13 PM EDT
I've held out as long as I could but recent events and looming anti gun legislation has finally convinced me it's time to go.  I am a communicable disease investigator (RN) for a small health department here and am hoping to find a similar job in MT or possible even ID.  

So my question to arfcoms MT residents is where should we start looking?  I definitely do not want to live in town and really want to have my own shooting range again.  We are thinking 10 acres minimum but after doing some searches I realized pay seems to be on the low side and property a bit more expensive than I expected.  Our budget is a relatively low 300K.   Is there an area that I should be focusing my efforts?

Thank you
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 1:47:47 PM EDT
[#1]
Quoted:
I've held out as long as I could but recent events and looming anti gun legislation has finally convinced me it's time to go.  I am a communicable disease investigator (RN) for a small health department here and am hoping to find a similar job in MT or possible even ID.  

So my question to arfcoms MT residents is where should we start looking?  I definitely do not want to live in town and really want to have my own shooting range again.  We are thinking 10 acres minimum but after doing some searches I realized pay seems to be on the low side and property a bit more expensive than I expected.  Our budget is a relatively low 300K.   Is there an area that I should be focusing my efforts?

Thank you
View Quote


You can cross Missoula,Kalispell,Bozeman,Billings,Helena off of your list as those are generally areas with higher prices on land/homes. Communicable diseases you say...check Great Falls,Butte, the land/home prices are a little more reasonable. Out of those two I would pick Great Falls but I may be biased as I live there. FWIW we have a great range here as well $50.00 a year gets you access to the whole complex so you may be able to forgo having a range at home.

http://gfssc.org/

ETA and yes wages are low here,40 something nationwide IIRC we have income and property taxes but no sales tax
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 3:32:12 PM EDT
[#2]
Thank you.  I'll check out those areas.  I also looked at the link for the range.  It looks nice.  I'm not sure I can handle living in town anymore though.  I am getting a bit cantankerous in my old age (mid 40's) and my wife and I prefer solitude.  Finances may dictate otherwise I suppose.
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 3:52:50 PM EDT
[#3]
Kalispell is not to bad if you get outside of town, I know of several properties that will fit the bill for you, prices are again on the rise.

Jobs here locally at the Hospital are good and there are a hell of a lot of them, I see them advertised all of the time.  Missoula I would not even consider, outside of Missoula perhaps, Missoula proper, no way in hell!  Being a college town it is marked Liberal and even if you look at the election returns you will see that.

How far are you willing to drive?

I can hook you up with a really good realtor, he sold us our place when we moved here and he will go the extra to find you what you are looking for.

Just give me a holler and I will send you his name and number.
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 4:50:52 PM EDT
[#4]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Thank you.  I'll check out those areas.  I also looked at the link for the range.  It looks nice.  I'm not sure I can handle living in town anymore though.  I am getting a bit cantankerous in my old age (mid 40's) and my wife and I prefer solitude.  Finances may dictate otherwise I suppose.
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Good news then,Great Falls is fairly small population wise under 65k IIRC and there are several smaller outlying "rural" communities within easy commute. If you do look in the area,look for south and east of town though. North and west of town have some water quality issues. There is also a very sizeable medical campus here that might offer some employment opportunities look up Benefis in Great Falls also Sletten cancer institute.

Old age at 40 lol,I am 53
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 9:11:39 PM EDT
[#5]
Link Posted: 11/22/2016 9:20:16 PM EDT
[#6]
You could look into Havre. It has a nice hospital and is a very small town. It has a wal-mart but that's about as "city" as it gets. Wages compare to elsewhere in Montana but property in and around Havre is cheap. Expect brutally cold winters, though.
Link Posted: 11/23/2016 12:46:56 AM EDT
[#7]
A lot of folks live in the Bitterroot Valley and commute to Missoula since it has the major health services (two large hospitals) (and job market) in this part of the state (west-central MT).  There's a small hospital and associated health facilities in Hamilton.

Good shooting range in Hamilton, and two outside of Missoula.  Good shooting clubs also.

$300K won't get you a house & 10 acres in the Bitterroot though.

The good thing about this part of the state is there's great access to Idaho compared to elsewhere for additional hunting & rec opportunities.

I lived in west-central OR in the late 70's and thru the 80's, and went to school at OSU. It was a nice state back then but too many Kalifornians invaded.

Regardless of the politics of Missoula "proper" there are plenty of very good gun shops in and outside the city limits. Once you get out of the city limits Missoula County is just as Red as most of MT.

My .02

BTW - If you go to live in the northern half of the state east of the Divide you'll have to shorten one leg so you can lean into the wind, especially in the winter. Some say folks on the "High Line" are born that way.

BTW 2 - Idaho is significantly more conservative than MT is. Boise, Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston are the largest cities with significant health care facilities in the northern and western part of the state, unless you want to go to eastern ID - Twin Falls, Pocatello & Idaho Falls. Any thing else is out in the sticks.
Link Posted: 11/23/2016 12:54:48 AM EDT
[#8]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Missoula proper, no way in hell!  Being a college town it is marked Liberal and even if you look at the election returns you will see that..
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Better add Butte and Bozeman to that list.
Link Posted: 11/23/2016 6:37:37 AM EDT
[#9]
Montana is full.  I was the last foreigner they let in.  JK.  If I were you I wouldn't be looking in northwest mt.  You aren't  going to get 10 acres and a house for 300k.  My wife and I just bought a place thats 2100 sq ft with an attached garage and a 24x30 detached shop that was unfinished.  5 acres and half wooded half sloping hillside.  we paid a bit more than what your budget is.  We had the same sticker shock that you probably experienced when you started looking.  Even with 10 acres your gonna have to make sure you have a safe shooting lane which is actually more difficult than it seems.  Anyways we are outside Kalispell.  Land and houses are a bit more expensive than one would think.  its all those damn foreigners moving in lol  I really like the 3 forks area though  Ill hopefully retire down there also I love Virginia City.  Land seems more affordable down there as well.  In terms of work.  Im an RN currently and some of the smaller community hospitals its almost as if you gotta wait for someone to die to get in I've heard lol.  Just keep your eyes peeled and you will find something. Also we found our home on craigslist.  so keep your eyes peeled everywhere not just the traditional routes. Good luck and  cant wait to greet you at freedoms door!
Link Posted: 11/23/2016 10:49:18 AM EDT
[#10]
I live on 5 acres about 15 miles west of Kalispell, we have been here 20 years and I actually found this place on Craigslist when it was still a new medium to look for things, now I paid $30K for my place, but that was 20 years ago, what is nice about it, is I am able to hunt my neighbors property 60 acres and I am able to hunt and shoot on Stoltz land right behind me, which is about 50,000 acres, so I am pretty much set for life on hunting and shooting, having access to over 50,000 acres is really nice and like I said, I got this access for only $30K, now a days it will cost you about $250K, but still within your price range, there is a 60 acre property about a mile away from me that is up for $160k, kind of hilly, but you could set up a 100 yard range pretty easy.

Like I said, there are places up my way in your price range, but you have to look for them.
Link Posted: 11/24/2016 10:09:48 PM EDT
[#11]
I went the other way and moved to Oregon from Montana. I work in a niche industry and when my company got bought out, I saw the writing on the wall.  I used to live in Helena and went to school in Bozeman.

I saw the same thing, pay was on the lower end of the scale and property prices on the upper end.  Montana is beautiful country and provides great outdoor opportunities. Best of luck to you.
Link Posted: 11/25/2016 10:38:49 AM EDT
[#12]
I suggest you find some job postings then research the local areas.  Montana is a very geographically diverse place.  You can live on the great plains (eastern MT), in northern Montana (hi-line) with hurricane wind gusts year around, mountains in western/central montana, etc.  

Theres all kinds of different places here in Montana, so I suggest researching each area.  Montana is not cheap but there are reasons why we all live here.  

Best of luck!
Link Posted: 12/2/2016 7:07:10 AM EDT
[#13]
Federal jobs you could look into with Indian Health Services. Good pay and benefits, but there must be good reason why they are always hiring. There's also the VA hospital in Helena and quite a few local clinics around the State, too. They have a fairly high turnover with LPNs as primary care providers, but I don't know about RNs.
Montana Dept. of Public Health has some nursing positions. https://mtstatejobs.taleo.net/careersection/200/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en#
There may also be some County health positions, as well, if you want to keep chasing down and trying to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.
Link Posted: 12/5/2016 3:43:19 PM EDT
[#14]
Lots of people here telling you to avoid Missoula area. And I understand that, But I wouldn't cross it off your list completely. It is the "Berkeley" of Montana I suppose. But its not that bad, Missoula is only 10 miles from Montana anyway! Just bring your guns with you...
Link Posted: 12/6/2016 3:23:44 AM EDT
[#15]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Lots of people here telling you to avoid Missoula area. And I understand that, But I wouldn't cross it off your list completely. It is the "Berkeley" of Montana I suppose. But its not that bad, Missoula is only 10 miles from Montana anyway! Just bring your guns with you...
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It's actually a lot less than 10 miles and can be right across a street. There's a lot of what folks think is Missoula in the valley that really isn't. Just Google the name and call up a map and you'll see were the city boundaries are. Most of what's on the west/south side of Reserve Street/aka Hwy 93 is outside the city limits, as is East Missoula, out the Mullan Road and towards the airport, and portions of Miller Creek. Missoula is not that big compared to Willamette Valley cities, and a sizeable part of the population in the valley lives outside the city limits.

So it's easy to avoid the "city" if you have some paranoid notion (like some apparently do) that you'll be contaminated by breathing the air within the City limits. But there's a lot of fun stuff to do in town, and there's five really good gun/sporting goods stores in "town", plus three really good shooting ranges just outside, and some good shooting clubs.  

The City govt. (democrap dominated but not 100%) keep raising the high property taxes each year. I hope they keep raising the city taxes so the taxpayers will finally wise up and vote in a non-democrap majority.  

A lot of folks work in the Missoula "area", including folks that live in the Bitterroot, because it is the economic center of this part of western MT.

Plus Bozeman and Butte, MT are a lot more libtard than Missoula is based on traditional voting (ie. Butte), or have turned that direction due to population growth (ie. Helena and Bozeman).

The bottom-line there isn't a single decent-sized city in MT that doesn't have it's "quirks".  Idaho is a lot more conservative than MT is.
Link Posted: 12/6/2016 7:15:16 AM EDT
[#16]
Not sure why anyone hasn't mentioned this, but Hamilton has Rocky Mountain Laboratories, which studies infectious diseases. You can definitely find a chunk of land around Hamilton with an alright house on it for under 300k. You won't be close to town, probably on a private road, but 300k is doable if you look, but it goes fast, or doesn't have the greatest home on it.
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