Running in the US Virgin Islands

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One of the reasons that I am so excited about the property we chose on St. Croix is that it is in a gated community, and I will be able to safely run through the community (I hope!) On my last trip to St. Croix, I ran a short distance on the North Shore road just outside Carambola resort, and it was interesting to say the least. First of all, I was running on the opposite side of the road compared to what I am used to at home. I always run facing traffic, but that meant that I was running on the inside of some blind turns. It was a little nerve-racking. There are also hills all over St. Croix. We have what might be considered “incline changes” in Dallas, but nothing like the mountains that I experienced on this brief run on the island.

I started a marathon training class in Dallas today. It was a really great experience (despite the thunderstorm), but as I was leaving, I realized that there won’t be classes like this once we move to St. Croix. It’s a great program that is really well thought out, and involves several hundred people. In contrast, St. Croix’s running program is in its infancy from what I have read.

I hope that running is a hobby that I will be able to continue once we make the move to the island. I’ve already started doing some research on the Internet. One race that I found is called “8 Tuff Miles“. This race runs from west to east across St. John. I saw fliers for the race when we were on St. John last year. I’m sure the race must be beautiful as St. John was one of the most beautiful islands I’ve visited, but it has got some crazy hills! The race climbs from sea level to 999 feet at the midpoint and back down to sea level. Even if you’re not a runner, you’ve probably heard about Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon. I’ve never been to Boston (I’ve only done one marathon so far), but I’ve heard that it’s not the uphill that kills you, but the downhill that tears your legs to shreds. I’m sure I would have to do some serious training to run 8 Tuff Miles, but I am definitely intrigued, and as close as I will be to St. John, I am going to make running 8 Tuff Miles a goal of mine.

Another race that I will have to run after making the move is the St. Croix Marathon. It is supposed to be relatively flat (http://virginislandspace.com/marathonmap06.pdf ) and almost the entire marathon is along the water. Scenery is very important when running 26.2 miles – it’s good to have plenty of distractions. A big difference in this race compared to the last marathon I ran is the number of participants. The St. Croix Marathon is limited to 50 participants whereas the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego had over 20,000! Next year will only be the 6th year for the St. Croix Marathon so I am hoping that’s a sign that the island is generating more interest in running so that by the time that I am there, it will have some great events. In the meantime, I’ll have to find some hills in Dallas to get ready for the island.


Alexandra Bentley – St. Croix Realtor

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Hey, my first post. I usually let my wife write these entries, but I wanted to take a moment to recognize and recommend an excellent Realtor in St. Croix, Alexandra Bentley. I figured she deserved her own post. My wife mentioned throughout this blog’s short life we started looking online at properties in February 2006 after a trip to St. Croix and the rest of the Virgin Islands. We stumbled upon “the board” shortly after and found Alexandra replying to posts with super detailed information without every trying to blatantly sell her Realtor service. So we began emailing her for information regarding certain real estate we had found online, and of course she provided detailed information along with her opinions of the property (ie “those lots are quite steep and would be a challenge to build on”). We then scheduled a trip for July of last year to look at vacant lots (both waterfront and non-waterfront lots) and were pleased with what we found but frustrated with the prices. At the time they seemed pretty high especially because we were carrying two mortgages. Alexandra spent an entire day driving us around all parts of the island.

Things didn’t work out last summer (read previous posts) but in January we started seeing some listings show up that were “interesting”. Alexandra would email us the listing the day they came on the market. The first one was a “too good to be true” lot in which I purchased a plane ticket to fly down and see, however, the next day the lot already had a contract on it. Trip canceled.

The next week while we were in Belize for vacation we got a call from Alexandra telling us about a large waterfront property with some issues. The struggles we went through to get contract offers signed and faxed would have made for some good “third-world technology” jokes. I am sure Alexandra was as frustrated as we were when 5 offers came in on the first day. We raised our offer price to 25% above listing. They didn’t accept our offer. In the end this was probably for the best.

At the end of February Alexandra emailed a listing to us. We had an offer in by noon on the first day of the listing at slightly under listing price. The listing price was high but after missing out on several properties (including one that we really wanted last summer) we were at the point of “just pay it”. Anyway, after a trip down to St. Croix and meeting with Alexandra and the listing agent, I flew home happy with the lot. The appraiser was not as happy with the lot and appraised it for 5% less than our contract price. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, however, we were approaching the final day of our mortgage contingency period and needed to figure out a way to come up with the additional 5% down payment because the bank would not finance the full amount, only the appraised amount. At this point our lake house hadn’t sold. Alexandra went out of her way to make things work out with the listing agent and seller, but in the end the seller wouldn’t budge even 1%.

We found out Saturday that the sellers wouldn’t help out and had until Tuesday to cancel the offer or risk our earnest money. Monday morning is where Alexandra truly shined. She knew we were stretching our budget and when a different property seven lots away and almost 15% cheaper came on the market Monday morning she did not hesitate to send the listing our way even though she knew her commission would be reduced and it would take much longer for her to get paid. By noon we had rescinded our previous offer (if the seller only knew all he had to do was come down 1% to make it work) and had an offer accepted on the other lot. Thank you Alexandra Bentley.

Alexandra was great throughout the whole process and I cannot recommend her enough. She was available at all hours of the day answering our calls and our emails. Hopefully it was worth it for her.

Dealing with Scotiabank who changed the terms on us at the last minute (a 15 year loan to a 5 year loan) is a story for another day.

Thank you Alexandra.


We Did It – We Now Own a Piece of St. Croix Property!

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We finally closed on the land. We got an email from our attorney the day before we were supposed to close saying that they had not yet received the deed from the seller and the closing would have to be pushed back one week. Then a couple of days later, we got another email asking us to wire our money to our attorney because we would be closing on Friday instead of Tuesday. No explanation why, but we didn’t care. We were just glad to get this first step out of the way.

Now that we have finally closed, the realization is setting in: what are the next couple of years of our lives going to be like? Will we be able to survive building a home over two thousand miles away? Will we be able to survive building a home on “island time”?

These are hard questions to answer. We’re not even sure if we are going to have to sell our home in Texas before we build in St. Croix. We would like to keep it and rent it out, but things seem to have a way of costing more than you have planned when you build in the Virgin Islands (according to some other blogs I have run across.)

Nevertheless, this is a really exciting time for us, and we are one step closer to living our island dream.


Where Are We Now?

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I mentioned we had a backup plan, but since I have now become a little superstitious, I have delayed in sharing any details. (I have to get over this fear if I am going to continue to post on our future move!)

Our Realtor did the most incredible thing: while we were still in the option period for the lot with the difficult sellers, she told us about another lot that had just come on the market in the same subdivision. It was right next to the lot we wanted this summer – we couldn’t believe our luck. We rescinded our offer since we could not get financing for the purchase price on the first lot, and immediately put down an offer on the second lot. It was quickly accepted, and if all goes well, we close on it this week. We will be St. Croix landowners!

Just to address a couple of the comments that I have received – H and I have never lived on the beach. When we came down to St. Croix this summer, we looked at properties all over the island, including properties that were not waterfront. We decided that for our first home, we wanted to be on the beach. We want to be able to walk out of our back door right down to the water. We have 2 big dogs that love the water, and we want them to be able to easily enjoy the beach as well.

When we bought our lakefront property (that we sold very quickly this spring now that the lake level is back to normal), we had very specific ideas about what we wanted. We wanted open water, H wanted a sunset view, and we wanted to be close to town. We looked at close to 50 houses before we found one that met all these requirements.

We also had never lived on a lake before. Some of these things that we felt we could not live without required a bit of an adjustment. Open water means that your dock is not protected when the strong winter storms blow in from the North. Shortly after we bought our jet ski, one of these storms blew in, and the strong waves knocked it off the lift. Luckily it was locked with a cable, or we would have lost it, but you would not believe the superhuman strength that it took to get that thing back up on the lift while the storm was beating down on us.

A sunset view was beautiful in the winter when we bought the house, but by summer, we were miserable. The entire back wall of the house was glass facing the sunset view. There’s really nothing like having the 110 degree heat pounding through your windows for most of the day. We quickly adapted with both sun-blocking shades and curtains.

I guess the point of this long story is that until you experience something yourself, there’s not a lot that people can say to talk you out of that something. H and I are dead-set on living out our beach fantasy. We know there will be a period of adjustment, just like there was at the lake, but we are determined to make it work. We’ve done the research – we know that our appliances will rust, our electrical equipment may not make it a year, and our clothes will likely mildew. We also know that plenty of people make it work, and there are trade-offs to living just about anywhere. We would love for this property to become our forever home, but if it’s not, we will find the place that is.


St. Croix Property – I Jinxed Us!

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I should have never posted about finding a lot. The appraisal came back below the purchase price. I won’t say “way” below, but we were already at the extreme limit of what we wanted to pay, and to have to chip in this extra amount would have been really hard on us. The ironic thing about the appraisal was that the lot we had wanted this past summer sold for a really low price (or really low for an acre of beachfront property). Once again, we were kicking ourselves for not finding a way to purchase that lot, but with a large portion of our disposable income tied up in a lakefront property with a dried-up lake, it would have been nearly impossible to buy it.
We tried everything we could think of to make this sale work – the sellers just would not budge on the price. Apparently, one member of the selling couple really didn’t want to sell the lot, and he or she was happy to leave it on the market until the price was right.
Don’t worry though. We have a back-up plan, but I will not jinx it this time!

Our Trip to Belize

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Since we briefly thought that Belize might be a good alternative for living out our island fantasy, we booked a trip there this past February. Of course, by the time that we got to Belize, we had already decided that making a home there would be too difficult so this trip was going to be all about vacation and nothing about real estate. (or so we thought – see previous post!)

We started our trip in Ambergris Caye, a peninsula northeast of Belize City. It was a short flight in a small airplane which flew very close to the water. There were many hotels and resorts to choose from on Ambergris Caye, but we had decided to stay in the main city of San Pedro. We were also trying to keep this trip on the cheap so instead of staying at one of the big resorts, we stayed in a small resort in the middle of town called The Tides. The Tides had twelve rooms and was right on the beach. They also had their own dive shop which was very convenient. The Tides was definitely not the Four Seasons – we had one washcloth, no box springs on the bed, very little light in the room, and it was next door to a school with screaming kids in the morning and band practice with drums in the evening. That being said, the general location was great. We were able to walk to the restaurants in town and never felt unsafe.

One day, we rented bikes and rode up the shoreline and saw some of the other nicer, larger resorts. To ride north of San Pedro, you have to cross a bridge where no cars are allowed. Most people use golf carts. While the accommodations were much nicer up north, I’m glad we chose to stay in town where everything was more accessible.

We stayed in San Pedro three full days. One of the days, we went scuba diving. This dive was probably the most interesting dive we had been on in terms of seeing wildlife. The boat took us out to Hol Chan Park, a national park in the middle of the ocean. As the boat pulled up, I began to see fins circling. “Don’t worry, they’re just nurse sharks,” our dive master said. Needless to say, that did not reassure me, but I did get in the water. Sure enough, the sharks stayed away from us. On our second dive, we went out further and deeper. The dive master had brought some “treats” and large grouper began to follow him like little puppies. They stayed with us throughout the dive. We also saw an enormous stingray which had a wingspan somewhere around 8 feet.

From San Pedro, we flew back to Belize City and drove 3.5 hours south to Placencia. We had planned to fly, but the airstrip was shut down to be repaved. This is just one of the examples of how Third World Belize still is. The drive through the countryside was absolutely beautiful. The land was lush and green, and I have never seen so many orange trees in my life. The drive was uneventful until we turned off the main road. Luckily, we had rented an SUV because nothing could have prepared me for this “road”. It was unpaved and had potholes the size of small canyons. Unfortunately, we had to travel twenty miles on this road to get to our guest house.

We stayed at the Maya Beach Hotel in the bottom floor of a guest house. The house was literally right on the beach, and we had our own pool that was shared with the couple on the top floor of the house. The house was perfect. I felt like we had the beach all to ourselves. The main hotel was next door and had some of the best food that I ate on the whole trip. (Everything that I ate in Belize was excellent, and that’s saying a lot because I am extremely picky).

To go into the main town of Placencia, we had to get back on the unpaved road and travel about ten miles. As a result, we only made 3 trips into town. On the way into town, you travel through a fishing village called Seine Bight. Throughout this area, the road was probably in the worst condition. It was also a little sketchy. People were sitting in the middle of the road, and just expected you to drive around them.

Placencia was also a little sketchy. To get to the beach from the main road, you basically had to walk through people’s backyards. None of the walkways to the beach had sidewalks or decks, and they were all unlit. At nighttime, it was a little unsettling. The town itself was cute, and had a little bit of a hippie vibe. Most of our time in town was spent trying to send faxes, but I think we saw a representative sample of the town.

On the evening of our anniversary, we drove almost all the way into town for dinner at Turtle Inn, a resort owned by Francis Ford Coppola. Turtle Inn (even at night) was stunning. The restaurant had a very South Pacific feel, and the waiters were wearing long sarongs. The grounds were beautifully landscaped, and if the restaurant bathrooms were any indication, the accommodations were incredible as well. Oh well, maybe on our next trip – after we win the lottery.