St. Croix Avis

Best way to get a sense of the real estate market is to research the mls. You can research whats for sale on http://www.buystcroix.com/ they are the biggest and best on island. Or are you talking about rentals? If you're new to the islands please try to wait six months or so and really make sure you like living here before you risk a large lump of your savings. Prices in the rental market vary wildly on stx. You can find a studio for $600 for example but you may not feel safe living where it is located or you may find it MUCH humbler then what you are used to. Otherwise go to the apartment section of th moving board....the prices there are pretty accurate for what you will pay for a house/condo on stx.

I suggest that you contact Alexandra. she is a poster on this board and a great realtor. She will give you answers to your question WHILE you are still on the mainland, something many will not do. Many only want to set appointments when you get here.

Terry you said, "something many will not do." I'm sorry but that is your experience but I don't think everyone has it. I had a totally different experience then you when I came. I had realtors calling me back and emailing me left and right. I think a better way to start with a realtor is with email. You will get much more in depth answers to your questions with email and usually they will send you listings in your price range. Having worked in a large realty office you get sooooo many calls from people thinking of relocating and they have alot of questions and most never materialize. Start with email a realtor ask all the questions you want and find one you like/gell with. Then start calling and talking to people.

And ask people on this board if your nervous about any answers you get from your realtor.

Let me add here - we rented on STX from pictures sent over the internet and a GREAT rapport with our first landlords, a lovely couple Betty will know. I actually called a realtor and he was very blunt with me and told me he wasn't interested in renting to us since we had pets - but someone in his office had just bought a place, was going to rent part of it out, was pet friendly, and would I like to talk to her? Oh, yes indeed-y, I would.....and we struck up a wonderful email relationship, got pictures, talked on the phone, and that lady and her husband were with us every step of the way. We adored them, they adored us (I think), didn't have a problem with our dogs....it was great! What I think most certainly was the clincher was that we had employment already settled on STX, it was just a matter of a place to live - and it was verifiable employment - we weren't just asking to come down and rent and take a look around and hope for the best.

Point being - you never know what will fall out of the tree unless you shake it a little. This probably is not the optimal way for many people to rent, but it certainly worked for us. Word of mouth is powerful - some realtors will be more willing to work with you or point you in the right direction than others.......but isn't that true in every business and in every location you can think of?

Betty is right - find the realtor you gee-haw with, no matter who it is - different strokes for different folks....

When you came on island I'm sure that they were all over you. The experience I had was when I was emailing them most only wanted to set an appointment for when I was on island. Most would only barely answer any questions by email. Some never answered any emails, not even the first contact.
I'm sure your right that they get a lot of questions from people who never show up. But in our case, they have lost out on two sales.

No I was actually speaking about before I came on island. I'm sure your experience is valid and am in no way trying to say what happened to you isnt true, but realtors here simply do not ignore potenial clients. I'm glad you found the one you liked and liked you in return. But realtors are sales people they will call back. They absolutely look forward to call/emails from people who are actually coming to the island. If you are just thinking about coming and dont have any definite employment and no job and no large nest egg and want to buy a $150k house yeah you might have a hard time finding a realtor to call you back. Please do not think I'm suggesting that was you at all Terry but you get alot of calls emails from people with no common sense and no concept of what island living was is like so there is some weeding out of the serious from the not so serious.

I have no idea why you werent called back but I'm sure whoever didn't is kicking themselves for missing out on a sale.

I'm sure you are right. One of the people we tried to contact has a very nice web site that I still look at from time to time, but he never returned any emails.
Another sat on the first contact and then passed it on to my the realtor we used because it was only a $100K condo and he only wanted to do million dollar deals now and then. But at least he did pass it on. LOL