Posted: 7/24/2006 2:56:18 PM EDT
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Well, I've lived in Az all my life... and I've been getting the itch to get out of AZ for a while now. OKC is on my list of places to research right now...... and had a few questions that I'm hopeing ya could help me out with  1) What is the weather like? I'm used to 60-70 degree winters and 110+ degree summers 2) What is traffic like more or less in OKC? -- LA like? 3) What is cost of living like? (Including land/home pricing) 4) Is the job market any good? - I've done many things, however I prefer to do "Business Systems Analyst" work 5) What's the policy on business out of the house? - I am currently an FFL in Arizona, and would like to retain my business based out of my home if I was to move (I would be looking to buy a house for the transition) Anything I should beware of in OKC? I really appreciate any assistance that you give. |
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1. most of the time around a 100 or less, but here lately its been hotter. 2. only place traffic is real bad is on the hwys. 3. how much land you wanting?, the outlaying towns surounding OKC are your best bet for acreages, lots of land and houses for sale southeast of norman 4. lots of jobs in the $8 to $15 range. 5. depends on the zoning, there are some FFLs working out of their homes. Anything I should beware of in OKC? besides the cops, and a few gangs, not much else. |
1) Expect mid 90's in the summer and 50's in the winter. (of course there are extremes in both directions. 2) traffic is no problem at all. The highways slow down at rush hour but NOTHING like a very large city. 3) Cost of living is one of the best in the country. New homes run $120's for 1100 squ ft. to 190's for 2100 squ ft. (at least the ones I build in Edmond) 4) Can't help ya there.....I don't know 5) several of my friends have FFL's out of their houses....even Class three, so it is no problem here. I really like Oklahoma. Although flat, there are some great lakes for the weekend a couple hours away. The only thing I would change are the taxes, but there are many states just as bad in that area. |
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I wouldn't mind 1/2 - 1 acre of land.... out here a 4 bedroom house (or 3 bedroom + office) on 1/3 acre goes for 400-500,000 (Build in the 60's - brick home, brick wall) I don't want to share a wall with someone, but I also don't wanna have to drive 30 min to get to a grocery store. --- Bad traffic to me, 10 miles an hour in a 75mile an hour zone (highway) -- yeah, it gets that bad. --- $8-$15 range? hrmmm.... that's going to be a bit of a turn off.... is there much of an IT industry out there? --- Very happy to hear that I'd be able to keep my home based FFL.... hopefully there arn't too many hoops to jump through to get it going out there. Gangs & cops are everywhere unfortuantely, I've run into enough issues out here with them. |
"Traffic" here is a misnomer. About a million people in the OKC metro area, three major interstates with spurs run through it, the city is laid out on a basic north/south, east/west grid, i.e. what people here call "traffic" ain't shit. I drive from Edmond (far north end of metro) to OU's campus (far south end of metro) and even during heavy "traffic" it takes 35 to 45 minutes to get from my driveway to a parking space. Cost of living is fairly reasonable. I can't comment on the job market, but what I do pays well and there ain't much turnover in that. (I was lucky.) As of late, with the passage of that "right-to-work" horseshit, the only jobs that seem to be coming to Oklahoma are in the $8 to $10 an hour variety. I can't imagine trying to make a living on that. The GM assembly plant closed and Dayton Tire is closing. Oh, and Lucent Technologies closed back in 2002. (Formerly Bell Western Electric.) Those were $20+ an hour jobs. Weather tends to run fairly HOT in the summer and isn't too severe in the winter. (Highs in the 50s and 60s, lows in the 30s and 40s.) However, we occasionally see a few ice storms (nasty) and a little snow (absolutely paralyzing). The upside to all of that is it never lasts more than about a week. (FYI, the OKC area never saw any snow during the calendar year of 1994.) Home-based businesses are generally okay within each city's code, but you're getting into a whole compliance issue thing and I'm sure as a current FFL you're well aware of that. At any rate, not many municipalities in the OKC area prohibit home-based businesses. (Ask the municipality in which you intend to buy a house.) Property taxes in Oklahoma County suck. Cleveland County is worse. I would buy in Grady, Canadian, McClain, Logan, or Pottawatomie and maybe even Lincoln or Kingfisher. You're going to miss the BLM land. Very, very little public land here in Oklahoma and even less is available for shooting. You're likely to receive a load of BULLSHIT answers and "advice" to your questions. If you need to KNOW, ask me offline. |
From what little I know about the IT industry, most of it has moved away. Dell computer, howver, opened a call center right off of I-44 and S.W. 15th. They pay in the $8 to $10 range. |
I think that depends on the position. I have 3 or 4 Dell guys in my neighborhood, and all of them drive BMW's Mercedes or Lexus (Lexi?). I do not know for sure what they do there, buy they are all in their mid 30's, so I doubt they are too high. |
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Salaried positions in the IT field are more likely than hourly positions. Check out the oil/gas industry for available positions. Those would include Enogex, Chesapeake, Devon and some others The three named being the third to first largest oil/gas companies in the OKC area. The state capitol is in OKC and the state government is almost always looking for IT help. The pay for the state will certainly be less than what the oil/energy positions would pay. Depending on your level of expertise - Cisco certification, etc. - salaried postions can pay from $35K to $60K and on up. The OKC econoomy usually lags the national economy by two years. The nation can be in a recesssion and we'll be doing OK. The nation can be going strong and we'll be in the pits! Good Luck in your decision! |
Not to sound stuck up or anything, but I'm used to making 20+ an hour in the IT Industry. In my current position, I develop logic that computer techs use to fix computers... so I'm not a front line computer user. I know for a fact that I won't be able to make this move for anything less then $17 an hour starting - sounds like this is the main hangup at this point. Anyone got some pictures of the surrounding areas? Curious what it looks like outside of a brochure. Edit: I have no problem working a salaried position, I currently do, and my last 2 jobs have been salary. |
Uh, yeah it is. Flat, windblown, and dusty. Drive out there sometime and LOOK. |
I see a lot of $30K "millionaires." Leased cars, creatively financed homes, and a good line of credit. |
Uh...no...its not...but you have to go all the way west in the panhandle. Take a drive sometime and LOOK. I'm refering to Black Mesa area. I drove that way once going to Colorado. The state highway we took turned into a dirt road highway once we entered into New Mexico, so if you are on a speed track I don't recommend that drive, but it is very scenic! |
You could be right there, hell I don't know for sure what they make. But it would be odd for four people from the same company all have the same thoughts on creative financing. We all can't be lucky enough to work for OG&E and be able to afford all those machine guns you guys have! 
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I've been there, as I've been every other place in Oklahoma. It's FLAT, DUSTY, and WINDBLOWN. Boise City is flat as a pancake and Guymon has no wind break. A couple of hills in an otherwise FLAT panhandle ain't shit. Note the really neat traffic circle in the center of town next time you pass through Boise City. At any rate, it ain't anywhere near close enough to OKC to matter. |
about the only IT jobs I can think of right now that are paying 30k to 50k or more in some instances are supervisor/dept. directors positions in the indian casinos, majority of general IT techs make between $10 to $15/hr with benifits, but those jobs are not usally long term positions, generally only last as long as the current tribal adminastration is in office, usally two years or less. |
Do you think those long pipelines they run are used to carry fairy dust, sweetheart? 
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And to whom do they carry the gas? And for what purpose do they transport the gas? Let's see some more of your famous "know-it-all" bullshit, stud. You're just fucking WRONG. As USUAL. |
I didn't mention gas, Lestor! Thanks for answering your own question! Please try to be nice, darling!  Everyone will think you are on the rag again!
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Just admit you're wrong. No one can post anything in this forum without you posting how you've "been there and done it all." And -- AS USUAL -- you're wrong. Anytime, stud. You and me. Put up or shut up. |
Southeast Oklahoma:  Also not flat. |
I know you're afraid of me, Lestor.  But please don't let poor self esteem and your fear show itself here with such poor behavior. You're not going to trip my trigger on this forum even though your trigger gets tripped just by the mention of my name. Be nice or go kick your dog or beat up your boyfriend or whatever to overcome that inferiority complex. Don't bring it here, please. |
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CarbineReloaded, Lestor is our own private troll. Numerous people have had trouble with him for his smart ass comments when they post. Witness his response to my first post. I would try those companies I listed. Enogex is a part of Oklahoma Gas and Electric and handles the gas used for power generation. Feel free to contact the Staff about this. Personally, I'm tired of his attacking me or anyone else who posts here. You didn't start it, so don't worry about it. My wife is involved in oil and gas in both Houston and OKC. I'll ask her if she can make inquiries with several different companies concerning IT jobs. Contact me off line and I'll give you what information I can. My lovely lady is in Houston right now but will be back later this week. So it may be a few days before she can get to it. Dan |
I appreciate it... this is all probably 2-3 months out IF it is going to happen. |
Anytime you want to settle this, stud. The invitation was extended, you declined. I've had it with your fucking "been-there-done-it-all" fucking BULLSHIT. Anytime, big boy. Let's see what you got. |
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CarbineReloaded, Please accept my apolgies for the way this thread has went. Sadly things dont allways go well here. GUYS, normally I try my best to stay out of this crap, take it off line, meet up, do what you got to do, but I am asking for the Oklahoma Hometown forum to be kept clean and inviting. Not saying we cat cut up with each other, but the crap in this thread is IMO a black eye to the Oklahoma Hometown forum. Thats all I am going to say, keep it clean, I am tired of it, as I am sure others are as well. Here you have a guy, CarbineReloaded, asking about Oklahoma and instead of showing him the kind of people I know we can be and are, instead he gets to read this crap. |
I'd strongly suggest you chill out with the shit disturbing or you'll earn an unwanted vacation from the site! |
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Dan....Lester....just whippem out n see who's is bigger then stop fightin n arguein like a couple of 3rd grade girls! Oklahoma aint a bad place to live, fairly cheap place to live....cooler summers that yer used to. Cooler winters as well. We dont get too much "bad" weather in the winter. An occasional ice storm or snow for maybe 3 days or so. Not too bad though. |
Holy crap....a foreigner in our hometown forum!!!!! 
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CarbineReloaded, I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but Hertz is a big operation here. They have around 900 IT people in the OKC area. Hertz Rental has their worldwide reservations system centered here in OKC. They pay fairly well from what I understand. And the turnover is not real big but openings occur. One guy I know left Hertz because of them requiring him to travel all the time - in Europe and South America. He said it got real old being away from his family. So if you fill out a job app with them, tell them you like to travel if you want a job And what Ndenway said about jobs being 2 years tops in the IT field is pretty much the truth. So many companies have "contract" help it is astonishing. My wife says her company has approximately 40% of their Information Management Group as contract labor.
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thats what those dudes were saying when I ventured into the canadian country forum, had to pass myself off as an eskimo to keep from being deported. |
I know what you mean by that, we just let 3 contract workers go on my team at work - we have 9 left out of a 60 person team. I however expect large scale changes within the next 3-4 months, everyone tells me I'm wrong, let's just call it a bad hunch. And holy crap, a friend of mine showed me a house he just bout in TN -- WOW 6 bedroom, 2 offices.... it's a gorgous house on 2 acers.... $350,000 -- out of my price range, but holy hell that was cheap. |
A Big +1 |
A Big +2 |
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The cost of living is a lot cheaper that in az There a good jobs here you just have look a little harder oklahoma is not flat I like the tulsa area better than okc as far a looks There are tech job in the Enid area I bought a 2000 sq brick house on 14 arces 20 mins from Enid for $70k |
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okguy91, Sounds like you have a nice set up there in Enid. I spent a few of my early teen years in Enid & really enjoyed it. Lived on a farm not far from Vance AFB. I love Tulsa and wish I'd moved here long before I did. There is all kinds of public hunting places around here and so many places to go boating.
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well like my greatgreatgreatgrandfather henry lookstwice once said to me, "ND, your my favorite greatgreatgreatgrandson, so I'm gonna give you some old indian information, so listen up, if you can't make an impression on someone by being nice, then kick'em twice in the nuts, and once in the head", and you know, it works like a charm, if you do kick them hard enough, it'll leave a permanent impression. |