Thinking of moving to Kelowna

[Zero102]

My fiancee and I are contemplating a move to Kelowna. She has applied to UBC okanagan, and there is a very good chance she has gotten in. So, we are looking to buy a house out there since that is most likely where we will spend the next 4 years of our life.
I have a few questions about Kelowna and the surrouding area however, and I am hoping somebody on here can answer them.
We have been looking at lots of listings on mls.ca, but it is really hard to tell whether some of these places are in a good neighborhood or not.
Are there any neighborhoods there to avoid (like a forest lawn or dover?)
Is there anything really bad about living in downtown Kelowna? (i.e large homeless population, rampant crime, etc)

Another possibility is to buy a house in an outlying area, but all of the places we have found that meet this criteria have septic tanks and wells. I've never had either. How complicated would this make our life, and will it add a lot of extra costs?

And last but not least, does anybody know the name of a good realtor in that area? It's easy to pick one of the dozens of them from mls.ca, but that doesn't really tell me anything about them.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[broken_legs]

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[frostyda9]

Have a look at Westbank properties. It's situated between Kelowna and Peachland. The only thing about living outside of Kelowna on the Westbank side is that traffic bottlenecks really bad at the bridge in the morning, so your commute will take a little longer.

I'd suggest Peachland if you can come up with the funds, but anything close to the water is $$. It's a nice little town, but like most of the interior, the prices are high.

[snoop101]

rundle is not a place in kelowna. sorry bud.

Ok i just moved to calgary from Kelowna in Oct.

Look at the mission. I sold my condo there and the area is awesome. If your looking for a house good luck, hopefully your rich not like me. Look for a house in glenmore (its starting to boom), Try to stay away from rutland. The farther you are away from hine rd (think thats the spelling) the better. I used to do security there for the city so i know all the in and outs. Do you have a real estate agent yet? I sold mine threw a guy that was really good. I also know another guy if you are rich and need a nice place. Anymore questions pm and i'll let ya know. I lived in the okanagan most of my life so I know pretty much everything. I can even hook you up with a job haha

[AndrewMZ3]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm looking at buying a place up in Edmonton but don't know much about the communities there. What I found helped was looking at the census data from 2001. You can pull info such as average family income, crime rate, and other relevant statistics for each community. Hopefully this helps.

[Zero102]

I wish I was rich. :(
Looking in the $200k-250k range, hopefully closer to $200k. I think that rules out any house in the city. What do you guys think about having a well and a septic tank?

It would be nice to have a yard of some kind, since kids aren't too far in the future, and I would like them to have a yard to run around in. If I could get half an acre or more outside of the city that would be the cat's a$$, but I don't think that will happen in my price range.

[snoop101]

hey man pm me and i'll get you hooked up with a realtor whos good. He can answer all your questions. You might want to check out lake country. (winfield area)