Any One Been To Alaska?

[Diane4145]

My brother is looking at purchasing property, in Alaska. He's worked and lived in the area, so he's pretty familiar. Personally, I feel that he needs to have decent access, to fly in. Ooh, a real desolate and only accessible by float plane, would be cool! :clap_1:

Objective is to buy some land and build a few cabins, for rental purposes. I've ck'd out the VRBO site and it seems that they only have a few properties, in all of Alaska! He prefers the property to have a river/lake, as well. Does any one out there have any contacts, suggestions, experiences, etc...?

Thanks ;-)

 

[swantree]

I'm from AK what do you want to know!

 

[Diane4145]

I'm from AK what do you want to know!

Thanks for the response, Swantree!

1. What part of AK, are you from?
2. Knowing what you know about AK, what area would you invest in?
3. Do you know of a Realtor that specializes, in that area?
4. What type of business in that area, do you feel could be profitable and in demand? At least, in season?

I mention the latter, because he's entertaining that, as well. Any info that you can provide, would be much appreciated!

Thanks again!
Diane

 

[swantree]

i've lived down in the panhandle and up in anchorage and in seward. the industry is tourism and oil, or fishing. if you can angle yourself in on these area's your ok.... I personally prefer the south like Sitka but it's wet wet wet. so you have to be aware of that. there are tons of things good and bad about AK. Real estate.....not so good. very slow growth and expensive for the most part. Oh you can find neat spaces but overall tough. I would most likely invest in a tourist area such as seward, homer, valdez. sport fishing is huge and so is back country ski/snowboard. I would check out;
ADN
always a great source and look at:
Alaska
that is good.
Remax is huge up in alaska as well as Century 21 so stick to those. Stay out of the cities. to much violence. a good starting spot is to get on board a sport boat or work up at a lodge. you can usually get those jobs pretty easy if your willing to pull a summer. the railroad is always looking for people in the summer and so is Princess tours. they may be run by the same people now? it's all about the cruise ships and the sporting people. hard core college kids come up and work the fisheries or canning plants. another great way to check it out is getting on a government crew working survey or planting trees/ campground etc. that can be fun and in the right area can be down right life changing.
Ak is about 60% government organization...parks,oil,native etc. so lifestyle is more about the place and the experience than what you own or what you have.
i have worked as a kayak guide, outward bound instructor, GM for a chain of stores, cashier, student, waiter, and crew on sport boats (fishing) in all of these places.
it's very big and not a lot of people. you can get island fever up in alaska, and I know cause I live in Hawaii for a while. We (wife and I) have been looking at a town called Girdwood for a condo. close to family but out of the mainstream. I've watched sales for a while and nothing seems to move much. It takes a certain type of person to make alaska work for them. kinda a Love/Hate thing. if your single it's a little easier. we will be up for 3 weeks in Sept. give me a call I'll show you around!