When Don’s company during the pandemic said, you guys don't need to come to the office anymore. Working remote is okay. He and his wife Melanie, decided it was time to move to Rapid City before retiring. Hey, Everybody it’s Tristan Emond with Mindful living Realty. A realtor right here in Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to the beautiful Black Hills.


The right timing, the right home and family were all keys to the Greers, starting their home in the Rapid City area. Check it out. Well, our daughter lives in Rapid City and we cannot convince her to move to Omaha. And with Covid my employer decided they didn't really care if we worked in the office anymore. So I'm afforded the opportunity to move without retiring, which so we took advantage of that.


And I've always worked remote, so it didn't matter where we lived. So we actually were able to move out of city. You still work at your job? Still no jobs? Yes. Of remotely, Exactly. Go to the Internet. It's all we need. Yeah, that was one of our Criteria We have enough good internet and we do. So, yeah.


Well, first of all, you were very patient, because I think it was two years before we ever actually bought the place that we contacted you. And we were every time we'd come visit, we'd look and you'd have a few houses lined up for us and walk through and kind of see what we wanted and didn't want. And then we just kind of basically fell into this one.


You found it, and we're like, Yes, we love it. But that and you loved it and you decided he loved it. he loved the shop and I love the house and I acquiesce to her demands. But no, it's just yeah, it's an all around. You were so patient and we felt that you cared about us being happy, finding a house that we enjoyed in a place we wanted to.


You know, we're uprooting everything after 25 years in Omaha to be here. So that was. That was really great.


I do have to mention your videos because you have pointed out places that are good to see and sites and the different interests in the Black Hills. So we have enjoyed that. When we lived here before. We never went to Spearfish Canyon when the colors were changing, and we did that year. This year because we had her and we're like, Yeah, let's do that.

But the scenery is just beautiful and the people are really nice. I mean, people in Omaha were, you know, pretty they weren't rude while most time there, you know. But it's just different here. I mean, it's you just feel like you're in a, you know, more a small town and it's not a small town. It is a city.


But we just love the scenery. And being close to our daughter, of course, and family, we have family here too. My sister and her family and my cousins and people live here, so it's nice to kind of get back where we can actually be close to family right? As as Melanie said, it was a great buying experience. We came out really looking for a rental when we found this house and just happened that we could have the opportunity to look at some houses and just fell into it.


I don't know how it was available when we were looking, but agree and stuff happens which actually saved one of our lives because we were looking at apartments and they were like 900-1000 square feet. And I'm like, Don, you, me and the cat box cannot live in this small of an area. So this saved somebody's life. And we cannot share a room.


for a home office know he's on one floor and I'm on the other and it works out well. That's why this house has been great, because we have so much room and this house is so much bigger than our other one because each level has basically the size of the house with me, right? Yeah. Actually, this location is great.


It's. It's in town, but yet it's quiet back here. I love all the space we have. I, I thought I loved my house in Omaha, which I did love my house in Omaha, but this house is almost twice as big as our house in Omaha, which is also a downfall because I was cleaning the floors and went, Why is it taking me forever to clean this floor?


Yes, but I love all the space and the yard is is so much bigger. We've looked at we looked at a lot of houses and they had very tiny yards. And this has a beautiful big fenced in yard that our grandbaby dogs love. And the garden shed, I mean it just like you said. Well, I mean, when we walked in here that this house was speaking to us, and now that we've moved in, it's even more so.


I just I love it down there. There's enough separation. We're on meetings all the time, and we don't interfere with each other. Right. And he had his knees replaced. So the stairs aren't a big thing for him. I'm still working on moving to where I can get my knees replaced. So I kind of live on this floor, which is nice.


I don't have all those stairs. And our previous house, we had a lot of stairs So yeah, he's just got four or five to get in and you’re good. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. So this has been nice and that's manageable. What it takes to get in is met. Yeah. Yeah. which will be good. Also on the resale value as well. A lot of times the single level floor, you know, goes a long way.


So yeah. But we're not planning on selling. I know, I know, I know. I don't want you to sell. We told our daughter we're not moving to get we said we were not going to move in Omaha, that she was going to have to clean out the place after. Yeah, well, here we are. And so now we have said, okay, this is it.

This is not moving. You're just gonna have to clean out the place to maneuver us into cleaning the place out. But yeah. Yes, exactly. Yes. Moving to Rapid City sounds like something you're interested in. Download my relocation guide, The 13 Reasons Why You Should Move to Rapid City. That link is below. Also, check out this playlist of other testimonial videos of people buying a property in Rapid City in Black Hills area.


Thanks again for watching. Have amazing day. Remember love where you live

Are you ready for another moving to Rapid City Success Story. Hi. This is Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty, a realtor right here in Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to the Black Hills. Last winter, I went to check in on the Evans, who moved up here from Denver, Colorado. Let's see what they say about their experiences and what they love about Rapid City, South Dakota.


Well, I mean, it came over a couple of year period. You know, obviously just Well, we're from Denver, so being from there, it was like impossible for us to find someplace that we would be able to afford. Because number one. Yeah, yeah. Like the housing market there was insanely expensive. So we always wanted a house we could raise kids in and those kinds of things.


So we were kind of looking at a few different states and South Dakota kind of stuck out for us because the population was low and it was small, small city and yeah, so your videos helped a lot. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just being able to see the different areas of town, the neighborhoods and other reasons why some people move and.


Right. You know, some of the stuff I really enjoyed was just finding out how far away the other populations are. Like, you have to drive like 5 hours to get to anywhere. Yeah, right. And we loved that. Oh, oh. Ideally, one day we wanted to homestead. That's our ideal situation eventually as to find a house and have some land in Homestead on and do those kinds of things.


So yeah, yeah, getting out here was the goal. The goal and mainly, you know, like seeing the housing market in rapid obviously has expanded quite a bit too. I mean, nothing like Denver, but still and for people living here, it's probably feels that way. Yeah, it feels like insane. And they're like, they're probably where we were, like, we're never gonna be able to buy a house.


But, you know, we were in that situation. We could, number one, anywhere, like 1900 dollars a month for rent and a two bedroom. So not even our kind of cost of living kind of put us in that range where, you know, like we're used to living kind of frugal so we could work like maybe we could apply and maybe we could get approved.


And I'm like, Let's just do it. Let's see. And it all came together. But, but I mean, also the freedom. Yeah. The freedom, Freedom for freedom, liberty and all those amazing things. Yeah. I mean, the one thing I'll say, I don't know if that really answers that question, but the one thing I'll say that I really noticed working with you is you knew exactly what you're talking about.


And like, I think sometimes, like you told me things without really telling me I don't know how to give a good example with that, but, um, I could just, just, I could tell in the communication where we were going to be at and what we could get into. And with the market the way it was, you know, like what we needed to do to get out here and really tell you that's, that's your specialty, you know, get people out here if that's what they're really trying to do.


It was for me, it was just like easy. It was like we were in a completely different state. So the I the options for us were kind of like it felt a little weird not seeing a house that you were going to put down, you know, put money down on. But like for us, you were so willing to, you know, Tristan's awesome.


He went to the house. He told us the truth about. I mean, we didn't feel like you were trying to hide anything from us about the house or anything like that. So it was just like, really straightforward, simple. I just that's the biggest word for me is it was like easy, simple and just smooth. It all went so smooth to me.

I was really awesome. That's what we like to hear. Yeah. What we strive for is really just smooth. Yeah, that's. Yeah. And like, I think it's considered something like, you just let us simply let us know that the whole process just went real easy. And suppose even despite we're you know, in Denver most of the time that was the thing is we were in a different state.


And then just like we didn't know anything about where we were coming to, really, we did some research, but not all. No. I mean, what can you really know without coming in so much? Yeah. You said, you said for actually putting foot on the ground. Yeah. See, what's about. I mean, I can only show you so much. Yeah, exactly.


Yeah. Just. I mean, even just the feel there's the how it, how it looks in person and it's so much different 100%. But we do everything we can to make sure you can see work as much as possible. Still being able to do what you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. And we, you know, when we drove out for the inspection, um, just kind of driving out, you know, over the hills into where we started seeing homes in rapid and getting into town.


Like, I mean, both of us kind of teared up a little bit. We love before we even knew for sure we were going to make it. And just because you could see as small town and like come in from Denver, like a whole different experience and we knew like we knew just driving in as soon as we got right now.


And it wasn't it wasn't even not mental. It was like just this feeling of like it was comforting. Yeah, Yeah, for sure. I love that everywhere I need to go is less than 15 minutes away. That's awesome. We can fill up the car at less. The gas lasts for like two weeks. But also just this has this small town feel that just makes it seem like it's almost 15 years back in a way.


I mean, I feel like where we came from, it just was like, so easy. Go, go, go. And even like the architecture, just everything about it was just a little bit so it felt futuristic. And then coming here, it just felt so homey. And like you said, Pleasantville feel especially like living off of West Boulevard. I love this neighborhood.


I love it. I think it's amazing. The main thing for me is just the people and yeah, super friendly and the people I work with and just real down to earth and, well, I mean, like when we moved in good people, we have like four neighbors come and just introduce themselves, which is really different for us because where we're from, it's not, they're not people aren't really like that.


So it was really, really amazing to have that experience and have neighbors come in and say, Hey, this is us, this is our this is my name. And I don't know. Now we know neighbors. Oh, that's really cool. I love it. I love it here. So far, I think I think we're only going to really love it more and more.


It's so funny. People that we talk to that have also moved out of from out of state say that they're never leaving. They love it here. Yeah. So that's yeah, that's really crazy. We moved here in January and he told me he's like, I'm going to die here. So, you know, he was quite say, yeah, he moved from California and he spent a lot of time in Tucson, Arizona, before that.


You know, he was in the military support. His dad was in the military. So he traveled when he was younger. But he's just happy here. Everybody is. I mean, talking about that year. But the main thing is specifically this home, too, I just want to say is that we found not necessarily what we're really looking for future wise, but we knew this home specifically would, number one, work for us.


It has everything that we do need, but most importantly, it's like a foundation piece for us to start our lives here and now, like coming out here and bringing something that we could afford, you know, like is it quite as foundational as establishing our lives as just getting a home that, you know, maybe in a few years we do get something that's more what we're looking for, But we could use this as a rental property or, you know, even maybe sell it and we have extra money to put into another home.


So I personally love this home, but I love the super ambiance with it. I love the age of it plus or the bus full of art. And yeah, I love the neighborhood. It's very central. Yes, you know, everywhere we've been. So that's great too. And I also feel like it was almost I mean, I don't know if you feel the same way, but I think like for the situation that we were coming from and into, I feel like it was it was here for us.


It's a very weird feeling. It always kind of felt that. Yeah, well, the way the whole situation worked too, I mean, things just kind of fell in line. And then the fact that we have any other offers and I mean, you know, yeah, the appraisal, even though we had to pay more for it, we managed to get it done.


Yes. Which is always happen before. Sometimes we try to get a cool appraisal and they say no way. So the fact that it just the old pieces just kind of clicked together as a result and the fact that, you know, it was like a whole separate unit underneath. We had my mom that came with us. It was just like it was just perfect for us and a lot more comfortable for us and all of us in that way, I think.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's yeah. Everybody, thanks for watching. Be sure to check out this playlist of other testimonials from people who have lived in and moved into Rapid City. Thanks again for watching that amazing day. And remember love where you live.

It just felt like home to us. These are the words from David and Ray Emery when they moved to the Black Hills area Hey Everybody, I’m Tristan Emond with Mindful living realty, a realtor right here in Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to the beautiful Black Hills. A few months ago, I went to Emery's house and I talked with them about buying a home in the Rapid City area with the Emond team.


Check it out. We lived in California all of our lives. We've been wanting to move out of state for quite a while, actually, and we've looked at other states. Nothing ever really felt felt right. Either timing was wrong or the location was wrong. Our job didn't work out. We happened to swing by South Dakota on a road trip last year.


And the easiest way I can explain it is it felt like home. So we we got here. We spent a few days in the Black Hills and that was really it for us. We just all kind of fell in love with the area, with the people, and we did some research after that. Once we were here and decided we could make it work, this is where we ended up.


Easy Enough.


I appreciate you taking us through all the different areas that we had mentioned that we were looking at. So we knew when we came home to discuss, Oh, this is where we want to be, that's where we don't want to be. When you visited personally the first time. Yeah. Yeah. But even before that you were watching your YouTube channel and you did a little the little drives through the neighborhoods.


And for us, that was that was a huge thing actually being able to see, you know, not just pictures of the houses, but, you know, the areas, the neighbors, the neighborhood with, you know, with the surroundings look like the stores that are close by. Things like that. So that was really important for us and that helped a great deal.


Yeah. On the sales side back in California, that didn't go as smooth as we had hoped or and timing wasn't quite right or didn't go as quick as we were planning on. But even then going through contract here it was it was really simple for us. I mean, once once our house sold, it was I mean, we're just at that point just waiting for the paperwork to get filed on this side.


Yeah, it was pretty much. Yeah. For the rest of the job, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it could have been any easier on the side There are a lot of good qualities. Yeah, we looked at a bunch of different houses. You showed us a couple virtually before we decided on this one. We had a lot of little checkboxes that, you know, these are the things we have to have.


These are the things we would like to have. And this house pretty much checked them all. The size of the lot came in just right. The size of the house was a little bit bigger than we were looking for, but it were okay with that bonus that the view is phenomenal. Pretty much every direction from this House. The view is amazing.


We like the layout. It worked out for us, for our needs, for our family. The location was perfect, close to the schools. We wanted to be in. A Yeah, we could not just go all right. Yeah. Yeah. Is that funny that I remember that you mentioning because I posted the pictures on Instagram. It kind of is a teaser and you the.


Yeah, And I remember. Okay, so I posed this picture of this guy and I called you and I said, Hey, by the way, I've got I've got my home coming up. This you guys might like. This is. Yeah, I know. Both. Both. Melanie, my wife had already been texting them to me, so I know that. Yep. Yep. So, yeah, yeah.


I don't really follow social media a whole lot when I and her mom do, so. Yeah, they saw your post with a little teaser of this house. I think you had maybe two pictures posted about two or three one kind of, you know, far away. And one of just the view. And using those pictures, I was able to track down what this house was before you came Went an searched it.


Yeah, that's what they track it down and. Yeah, yeah. Kind of got excited before we actually officially went on the market. So we kind of. But I was right, Right. I was like, Yeah, this is it. You go out of this house, my email that was. Yeah. You didn't take long at all. No, it's a wonderful job. I mean, that's one of the things we talk about.


And you knew exactly what we needed and what we were looking for. And Boom you found it. And it was in your price point which was also helpful. Oh, yes, Oh, I the drive for the boys schools is really nice about easy. Their transition has been really good. They've met a lot of new friends and the teachers are pretty awesome too. I like that there's no more traffic to get around when we have to drive around.


It's pretty easy not using Waze anymore I’ll admit I used Waze for a while, like the first week or so, and then after that I'm not using it anymore. So I know the basic way around. Now, grocery stores are pretty easy and accessible. Downtown was really close and nice. Haven't explored enough yet, but you know. Yeah, Target and all that too.


So yeah, it's been fun to go around and find different places. And now that he's back in town, we'll probably go into the hills a little bit more. But yeah, just exploring where you can find me. I love our neighbors. I've met a few of them already. They came over and everyone seems really friendly and nice and all that too.

That's the big change for us. I mean, like it nice to go somewhere and have people actually talk to you and say hi. It was pretty nice. Not feel rushed, not feel like you're constantly on the go, on the go on the go. It's just more laid back and the kind of life that we wanted to have versus feeling on the go constantly because we weren't there in California.


Yeah, yeah. I was more of a laid back feeling here. Yeah. If you like this video, check out this playlist of other testimonials about moving to the area and working with the Emond team. Thanks again for watching that amazing day. Remember Love where you live.

It's time. Welcome to downtown Rapid City. Everybody's Tristan Emond with Mindful Living Realty, a realtor right here in Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to the Black Hills. So, of course, downtown Rapid City is the home for everything services, lawyers, banks, accountants, all those kind of things are downtown. Let's look at some of the fun stuff around downtown.


Okay. For the purposes of this video, we're going to define downtown as Omaha Street to the north West Boulevard to the west, Columbus Street to the south and East Boulevard to the east. Now, we'll meander a bit over here. Memorial Park. For the most part, this is what we're hanging. The number one thing you could go downtown Rapid City for is the food.


Some of our local restaurants are amazing. Highlighted by Talley's Delmonico Grill, 17 Italian Firehouse Brewing Company and Que Pasa and the right weather sit on the roof at Que Pasa. I mean, when a place is called the Mudhole, ya gotta Try it out, right? This is a place to go out here for biscuits and gravy. Plus, there's a variety of other restaurants and ethnic choices.

But don't sleep on some of the bars for food, such as Independent alehouse for pizza. And I love the steaks out of Murphy's Pub and Grill. There's some good grub at Thursdays, too. If you're looking to just knock back a few, there's Camp Wobbly Bobbly and the firehouse winery where the bright spots in our community is. Behind me is the Fork Real Cafe.


Not only can you get your own food, there are great lunches and stuff. They'll do some catering for your events, but they also give food out to the hungry. And you can pay forward another person's name. Let's not forget ice cream and armadillos and chubby chipmunk chocolates. For coffee you can always start Starbucks, one of the first places downtown you should go for coffee's pure bean.


located in the historic creamery mall. It's got a really cool atmosphere that features local art. Plus, you also have events like painting classes, improv and so much more. There's also the essence of coffee and harriet Oak. Sit and a VW. Another amazing thing about downtown Rapid City is its unique stores and shops. From comic books to organic food.


Downtown Rapid City is a great place to explore, is highlighted by Prairie Edge, where you can find original Native American pieces and so much more. Plus, there's Victoria's Garden flower shop and o&a farmhouse. The hub of downtown Main Street Square. Not only is Main Street Square a great place to hang out. It has events all through the year.


Plus the grass and foutains turn into an ice rink in the winter at the Shops of Main Street square. Get your hot chocolate at alternative fuel and your specialty. Ice cream at Silver Linings. There are also local stores such as who's toy House roam’n around, travel and adventure gear and Macy's books. Rapid City is the only thing in the world with


Presidents on every corner. the presidents are laid out on almost every corner in downtown Rapid City with every effort to have no preference to political party or popularity. While you're downtown, check out a movie at the historic Elks Theater. Test your painting skills at canvas to paint. See if you can get out of one of the Black Hills themed escape room and check out Press Start arcade.


Get prizes for your little kids upstairs with the ticket of games, and then grab quarters and go downstairs for your old fashioned arcade in the basement. Downtown is also the public library and the YMCA. Yeah, you know, I had to sing that. North on sixth Street across Omaha Street is the promenade leading to the monuments and etc.. Here you find gardens and flower beds, memorials, Rapid Creek and Legacy Commons Park, a newer park where playgrounds built for kids of all ages.


And I do mean all ages.


Right next to the monument, Civic Center is the first of a hotel option in the downtown area, and that's the Holiday Inn downtown. There's also the historic hotel. Alex Johnson, to give you a idea of just how historic the Alex Johnson was here before Mount Rushmore was even started. And finally, there's the Rushmore with South Dakota themed rooms, enigma restaurant and 445 martini lounge on the street level.


These tables are sitting right here beside the road because every Thursday night there's a band playing on a stage right there. Thursday nights downtown free band, beer garden dancing things for the kids to do food to eat come on down Thursday nights in summertime. Other local music venues are the cave collective music at Abby’s Feed and the Performing Arts Center, which is a theater in the original Rapid City High school.


There'll also be live music in the coffee shops and outdoor spaces around downtown art alley is one of the premier places downtown between sixth and seventh Streets and right now the working out, you can see the road closed behind me. They're working on burying all the cables up there and I think probably adding some lights just to make it a lot more of a friendly looking place.


But you can see lots of graffiti art. throughout the whole place changes all the time. Really cool. If the arts and museums are your thing, we've got you covered. Check out the Dahl Fine Arts Center with its free display that changes periodically. Dakota Drum Company, Suzie Cappa and other art galleries around town. Don't forget to look up and check out the amazing historical architecture buildings and signs throughout downtown Rapid City and finally stop and take a picture with the many murals, signs and paintings around town.


Now it's time to go driving. All right. Heading into town from I-90, this is 190 You'll just drop us right off Omaha Street, just on the corner of downtown.


There's also is the exit just coming up here to get to Civic Center and Central High School. And you can see in the distance straight ahead that's Highway 16 going straight up out of town towards Mt. Rushmore. Up to the right here is the executive golf course. It's a I think it's a three par basically putting golf course, golf course.


The longest one there is about 250 yards or something as a fun course. Nine holes after one after 190, it turns into West Boulevard. So this is the west end of downtown. Goes from West Boulevard to East Boulevard. Surprise, surprise. It's kind of like 10th Street to zeroth street two one way streets here. Main Street goes towards the west and Saint Joseph Street goes to the east Straight


This is the West Boulevard District. That's where a lot of the historical homes are. It goes up for a number of blocks and is a really pretty neighborhood with a walking path down the middle. There's a great park up there as well. That's where the rich people live. Back in the day when Rapid City was first, first getting started.


So we've got a lot of turn of the century, basically mansions from that time frame, but basically just a huge turn of the century. Homes, really cool homes up that way. If you wanted to live near downtown, that's your best option for a home that's within walking distance of downtown, downtown is not only as the hub for your banks, your services, investments, all that kind of stuff, but also have some great unique shops, local restaurants.


And up here at Seventh Street in the summer, every Thursday night, they're going to block off this street, going Seventh Street here, and they'll have a free band playing with beer garden. Summer nights in the summertime. Oh, I love the trees down through here. Historic buildings, lots of murals everywhere. This Hardee's is really the only fast food restaurant downtown.


Everything else is local.


As we get to the other side of Fifth Street, between Fifth Street and East Boulevard. It's not quite as popular spot of downtown. From fifth to West Boulevard is kind of more of the main downtown area. Coming up to the right here, we've got the Pennington County Courthouse, County Buildings, when you register, your car. This is where you go.


You are seeing some new development here. So we've got some new apartments finally going in to the downtown area. Not a lot of apartments at the moment and maybe many apartments you don't want to be in, But got some good new stuff being built right now. They're going to have some retail on the bottom. It looks like, if you keep going down east ...

Wow, I can't talk right now. You keep going down. Saint Joe, you'll run into School of Mines Campus.


Here is the post office on the side of downtown. This cool purple building over here is called the Ascent Center, ascent center. I can’t remember what it's called, but it's a newer building and that's where the basically the city of the Chamber of Commerce works out of. And they have a lot of cool things in it.


It's kind of an incubation center for the School of Mines projects. So they've got in the back, they've got some places for a new business to kind of study their new technology, see if it works and create a business out of it. Really cool building, really cool what they do right there. Ope, Fire department’s doing the thing after the drive through here I’ll highlight some of my favorite places some of the really cool places There it is again.


Cool places in downtown Rapid City. Coming up on the right is Main Street Square. That's the hub of a lot of the events and activities around town. You know, a lot of people in there playing in the fountains right now. Really cool space.


All right. Going to keep heading south and a couple streets just to the south of downtown. And that would be Quincy, Columbus one. What's the other one? Wow. Quincy, Kansas City and Columbus, that's the three. Oofta, It must be too early in the morning for this. These few streets up here you’ll see more churches, more historic buildings, and mostly offices and services.


Shout out to my friends, the Millers at the fire recording company. They're just right there. We just passed them. They have the rock band where a lot of you get your kids together and play in a rock band and I'm taking some drum lessons with them. So it's a kind of a cool place for my my friends at the Millers more Banks Library on the right Up on the Hill to the left, you can see Dinosaur park.


You keep taking this road straight that's going to take you up to Skyline Drive, which will show you that you both sides of the city, west and east. I love west Boulevard it’s a really cool area. See some of the bigger homes up here? Look, there's actually some condos up here to the left that I don't know if I've ever seen come available on the market.


It's the only condos in downtown that I'm aware of. That's the original Rapid City High School building Rapid City Central. Back in the day. It's now called Rapid City, actually called obviously high School. And it's kind of been an alternative high school for the they're sure to call it right now. All right. So let's now pop down over to East Boulevard and go down Omaha Street to get that edge of downtown Rapid City.


All right. Back down East Boulevard. All right. Here again, getting to East Boulevard and Omaha Street. You keep going straight down here. You learn this is East Boulevard will take you up and around east North Street, where there's a lot of other restaurants and services and shops and just kind of straight in front of us. Across the bridge, right there is a bread root

That's where your organics, supplies and groceries are a kind of your Rapid City Alternative to Whole Foods.


Omaha is the busiest street running east to west through Rapid City. It's kind of the main road through Rapid city school and administration building is off to the left here on the corner of Fifth and Omaha. So if you have your building permits you need to get all everything that the city requires that'll be there in that building. And then of course, anything you need to do with school had been will be there as well.


Oh wait the school moved out into different building. That's right. So that should be just city city building right there. You can see M hill up in the distance. They're actually replacing the M. There was kind of beat up and cracked. And they're redoing that. off to the right That's where you get to the monument Civic Center and holiday inn downtown. There's a cool legacy park.


Legacy Commons park. And off to the left is just your general right. Strip Malls and businesses. And that'll do it for the drive around. Well, I hope you're happy that took a little bit of time to put that together. Plus, I was out walking around downtown in near 100 degree weather, but worth it for you guys. I hope you enjoyed it.


Have an amazing day, everybody. And remember, Love where you live.

Welcome back to another edition of Tristan about town, a neighborhood edition today we're off Sheridan lake road and the popular neighborhoods of red rock Meadows and red rock estates. Everybody's Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty, a realtor right here in rapid city, South Dakota. Welcome back to my YouTube channel.

I talk everything about moving to rapid city and the wonderful things about rapid. And the black Hills and these Tristan about town neighborhood editions, where you go rolling through the subdivisions, checking out the homes and talking about what's nearby. Let's do it. These two subdivisions are in the very Southwest part of rapid city, just along Sheridan lake road.

You'll notice Google has assisted as colonial pine Hills and Google is the only person that has it named that way. We'll start off with red rock Meadows. The Northern boundry is just below poppy trail. East is cog hill and Sahalee drive Southeast port rush road and west is Dunsmore road.

Since it is a couple miles outside our town. Let's take a quick drive.

Red rock Meadows has the majority of single family homes, but there is a row of town homes here as well.

These homes were built between 2005 and 2015.

And set on between 0.21 and 0.37 of an acre.

They are anywhere between three and five bedrooms

with two to three car garages.

And range anywhere from 2000 to 3,500 square feet.

In 2021, there are 21 homes sold in this neighborhood with an average sale price of $444,585. With an average days in the market of five and homes are selling above asking price on average 103% of asking price.

For your children attending rapid city public schools. Coral drive elementary is eight minutes away. Southwest middle school is right next to the elementary school, eight minutes away. And Steven's high school is 15 minutes.

From these subdivisions, it's 13 minutes to the nearest grocery store, 20 minutes to Rushmore mall, 16 minutes to the fun of downtown 13 minutes to Walmart Supercenter with grocery pickup and the many businesses that surround it. 23 minutes to shopping at target Sam's club and more at Rushmore crossing, 13 minutes to the nearest dog park, 13 minutes to monument health hospital, and about 30 minutes to Ellsworth air force base.

Now let's move just a bit to the west to Redrock estates, the boundary for this development on the north of bethpage road, the east Dunsmore and the south and west boundaries are on prestwick road.

Like red rock Meadows, red rock chase has a majority of single family homes.

With a row of luxury town homes.

Homes in this area were built to do 2001 and currently constructing.

That range between two bedroom and six bedroom homes.

On 0.25 to 1.2 acres.

You'll find at least a two to three car garage on each property.

With homes being anywhere from 1900 to 6,000 square feet.

In 2021, there are 11 homes that sold in this area. Their average sale price was $768, 263 their average in market was 29 and they sold for 96% of asking price.

Just outside these subdivisions on Sheridan lake road is the popular corner pantry gas station and convenience store athletic club landscaping shop. And storage units. As you drive back into town, there'll be numerous retail plazas, such as this Buffalo, wild wings, snap, fitness, and more. There's also salons for you and your pet

Dakota dental for kids. And numerous other businesses, including drive through wine. What could be better than that? Walmart super center has pickup grocery and is surrounded by retail Plaza.

Car wash. And gas stations, just a park drive is the ever popular canyon lake park, which is right next to the dog park where you can canoe and paddle board

and stroll down the bike path. Another shopping area is baken park with family fair as the regional grocery store. boyds drug your typical drug store with us postal, substation, and other restaurants and businesses.

Just across the street, a Safeway and hardware store

here. You also find Walgreens O'Reilly's auto parts. And a number of restaurants and services down west main street. And don't forget to get your ice cream cake at Coldstone Creamery. Thanks for watching this episode of Tristan about town neighborhood edition. We should check out this playlist of all the other neighborhood drive-throughs and this video have an amazing day.

Remember love where you live.

How's it going? Pretty good. Yeah. Good weather today, man. Finally, Hey everybody. It's Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty. Welcome back to my YouTube channel, where I talk everything about moving to rapid city and the wonderful things about rapid city and the black Hills. Today. We're also talk to the Jones's to talk to them about their moving to rapid city story.

For about the past four years, I knew that I wanted to move out of our home state and I had been looking and James was not really on board at the time. And so, um, I, last year I wanna say that it was about a year ago this month. Um, a friend of mine that I had been going to like a women's book club with, she had said that her grandmother had told her all these, you know, great things about South Dakota.

And I said, oh my gosh, tell me more. What is, what is up with South Dakota? And so she said that, um, This side, rapid city in particular was a lot like where we lived and James and I lived in a small mountain community and there were trees and a lot of snow and just fresh air . And, um, so I started to look into it and I thought that rapid city was just kind of more of our jam versus Sioux falls.

Um, and. so we went to go see them, right? Yeah. Do you wanna take that prior to go see 'em and they were very excited about moving and they made it sound really good. And I guess in that moment, I just kind of started thinking what's really keeping me here in California. Uh, don't have a deep family connection there other than my in-laws and my mother, but there was really nothing to rationalize.

Staying there, given everything that was going on, having lost my job twice last year, having to change professions, uh, we just weren't thriving. Years before I was the one that brought up possibly moving because of where we live. I knew it was beautiful. And I figured there's other places in this country that might be easier to get buy in that are just as beautiful if not even more.

So, so seeing her excitement about just them moving said, Hey, how can I not do this for her? Let's give it a shot. You know, I mean, as long as we're together, we're all right. Let's see what else is out there? Yeah. So after, um, James told me in our grocery store parking lot, um, that we could do this, um, obviously his pre-reqs were, I have to be able to find a job and we have to be able to sell our house.

Yes. And so, um, I need to find a house and we need to find a. And so for me, because of us purchasing a home prior that year, I kind of already knew the steps that we needed to take. And I knew that we needed to find a realtor. We needed to find a lender and really just start that process. So I got on YouTube right away and just started, you know, putting South Dakota.

Um, realtors, um, South Dakota in itself. So it was not only researching realtors, but I was researching what the state was even about because at the time we didn't have the luxury to, um, put a lot of money into traveling, especially with, um, the way that our state at the time was with their travel conditions.

It wasn't like we can just get up and go here and there and everywhere. So, um, I saw a man in a chicken suit. I believe it was and was like, what is this guy about? And lo and behold, it was you . And I started watching a lot of your videos. Um, there was a few of 'em where I think you made a makeshift chair out of snow.

I believe it was. Yes, I did that. I didn't see that one. Yeah. So I started looking into. Yours. And, and, and so what really caught my eye was you got in your car and you went to the supermarket and you started to show the prices of meat and eggs and your favorite ice cream . And, um, I just really appreciated, um, Your quirkiness can that be a compliment.

I take it as he knows. OK. He knows. Yeah. So, um, I started showing my husband, um, uh, your videos and things like that, and we just kind of knew right away. I was just like, you know, I will say, she says, I want to go with this guy. And I I've learned a long time ago. Yeah. Okay. Fine. No problem. Do it, send him an email.

Yeah. And that's how that started. Yeah. So he just kind of went along with whatever, but that's what really spoke to me was just your time and dedication to go out and, and show what it was really like. Yeah. Not the houses. Yeah. You didn't sit in your office and you didn't say, well, these are the stops.

These are the numbers. Um, give me a call. You know, it wasn't anything like that. It was like, no, let me show you what life is really like out here. And you had more videos like. But the grocery store went because we have six children that spoke volumes to me cuz that's where I spend the majority of my time.

Sure. And money. Huh? And money. Yeah. So I did that. So, uh, James started looking for jobs right away and he was able to acquire a job. Yeah. They, I applied a lot of stuff on indeed. I just applied to a few different places and I got a response back from Sams club here in town. And literally I talked to one guy, one.

um, set up a phone interview to call him the next day he wasn't there. So I spoke to this other lady and we just had a conversation. It wasn't anything. She wanted to know a little bit about me, but we just had a conversation. And the things, once I got here, I understood what the job market was like and how people need people.

So just with my experience and everything, um, she was able to offer me a position as a lead, which actually worked out better for us. Hired me offered me the job in January and held it until March when we got here. And so three days later after we got here, I started work. Yeah. Yeah. Kind worked together.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm yeah. Yeah.

Um, I'll say that, you know, just, we, obviously, we didn't have a luxury of coming here, so we had to look at pictures, photos, all that different houses that were listed. Um, just you being. available and willing to drive wherever we wanted you to drive, to go show us a house, you know, that helped out a lot.

And what I've really appreciated of not only your knowledge of the area and your experience, but when you would go into the home, you would take your shoes off. And you were very meticulous about feeling, um, the floors with your feet so that you could tell us. This is a little off here and you were able to be our eyes, um, because we would zoom with you.

Um, but, and just your willingness to do that, of not being like, no, you need to come and we need to do this, which was an option, but just understanding our circumstance, your willingness to say, okay, I'm gonna go a little bit above and beyond here and take you guys to different locations. Zoom it. And, um, You know, oh, here's the cabinets.

Like just things that we wouldn't have thought to make. I've never, I would've never to do over zoom. Right. Because I wouldn't even known if I was here to understand what the varying, um, angles on the floor wouldn't mean. I would've no idea. Right. I would've just thought, Hey, they just built it weird, you know?

So you telling us about foundations and how things move around here that that really helped out. Yeah. And just, um, your knowledge of. The weather change, cuz obviously it's different in our home state and what we're used to. Um, but just how that coincided with the particular area of, um, cause we have no idea.

I mean it is, things are so different in different parts of the town as far as weather goes. Yeah. It's bizarre. It's okay here and you go out here, there's some mosquitoes and then you go over there. It's crazy windy and it's just, you know, you go out the box out there and the wind is just insane. You know, and then come back.

It's just, we wouldn't known any of that. We just figured, I mean, we've only been in California our whole life, so, yeah. Right. And maybe it's colder in one area, but we don't know. You don't know how things are around here. And even though, um, you were local to the area, I found that you were very, um, you kept it light and you kept it fun, but also professional, um, and honest.

Yeah. And honest. Yeah. And, um, you were very, um, Professional in the manner of entering that person's home and just, you know, not leaving the lights on or not leaving the door unlock or telling us, or just telling us I'm not loving this house for you guys. Yeah. And just because of our basic needs, you know, what we needed, what we needed.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

How we were able to get this house is, um, what I really appreciated about your services is I told you that we needed a lender and you gave me, um, like your top five of who you would go with. And it was like, okay, this person does this, this one does this. This is who I prefer. And so we were able to go with the lender that you had, um, referred to us.

Or referred, excuse me. And, um, then we got that whole process started of seeing exactly what we were able to afford and what was in our budget. And just knowing, um, leading with that stuff first is always best because then, you know, You could've been looking at million dollar homes for us. we've found some big ones.

You would've found nice ones, nice place of time. Um, but, uh, having that step done, um, and even though you were willing to drive half an hour, 45 minutes to go look at a home, none of the houses were. Available to us because either a offer was in already or 50 offers, were you in? Yeah. And so we had to be really aggressive in that particular market at that time.

And so, um, this house had been sitting for a few months and, uh, we found out that it was a governor's home. And through our lender, we found out that we were able to qualify for it. And at the drop of the hat, she told me that I needed to get you over there immediately. Um, because houses were just slipping through our fingers at this point.

And, um, just the fact that you dropped what you were doing. hurry up and quickly get over here and again, go through the house as you typically do and checking everything out, um, in the snow. If I remember correctly in the snow, absolutely. Um, you've gone in rain and snow. You've gone through a few different conditions to get over here and, um, yeah, you walked through the house and you showed it to us and we were able to put in an offer and it was accepted.

Yeah. So, um, Yeah. That's how we got the house. I think one of the coolest things about the property that we got for you guys is fact that upstairs is new. Yes. Yeah. And basically we got kind of a newer home on the upstairs. Mm-hmm , it's all home new. Yeah. It's all, it's just crazy. Yeah. The price we got for it.

I mean, and we, yeah. And we found the bigness of it for, you know, and we found out, uh, after moving here, you know, just the neighbors and stuff, they told us that they saw. Dig this thing out, pour a whole new basement foundation, everything. So everything is new. Everything is new. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't have that big of a basement downstairs because it was a one bed, one bath house.

Okay. And so they demolished it, redid and dug everything out and put the concrete walls up and everything. So everything in this house is new. So thank you.

Been here eight months now. Uh, has it been that long? Yeah, it has. I just did the math the other day. And I'm just glad your spring. Yeah. I love that everything is close. I mean, we just have to drive down a mountain to do everything. Yeah. You know, um, some places are remote. We have friends that live. quite a bit of ways away, like going to see them, you know, they have properties and stuff with some acreage and it's nice, but I do like the convenience of everything being close.

Right. You know, we're able to do everything in town. We don't in California, especially where we're from. You have to drive quite a bit, you know, to most things. I mean, there are stores and stuff like that, but we would be in one town. Our church was in another town, you know, Stuff like that, or even just a commute to work.

You know, the lady that I used to work for are some of her places where I would go help out. I mean, on a good day with traffic would take maybe 45 minutes to an hour. But when you're trying to drive home, I mean, two and a half, three hours to get home, you know, so that's. That's halfway across the state for us.

Yeah. And it's 10 minutes to work for me. Yeah. You know, so I don't have enough to sit here and leave an hour early to deal with that. Add a couple hours to my Workday just because of driving, you know? And then I work late. So coming home, not a big deal. It's just, you know, a few minutes and I'm here and there's no traffic, so I'll probably get in here another 10 minutes.

But I do like that my kids can ride their bikes on the streets. They can play outside, you know, I mean, it's a relatively quiet neighborhood. I have nice neighbors, which is really cool because we've had some bad ones, you know, in the past. But, um, not because of anything we did I would think your way but yeah, I mean, I do like that we were able to, um, kind of just fit in pretty quick.

I mean, we made some friends right away with where we were staying prior to moving. Um, then once we started a community with school for our kids, you know, that's been working out, found a church finally, um, after a while, and finally starting to get roots here and we've done this before, so we know that it takes time.

Uh, when we first moved up to our last house, mean it took us a while, but you know, after about a few years, you know, I mean it was home. So, you know, we're getting used to everything, but you know, so far so good, the direction we're headed, the opportunities that we're here. I mean, you start getting here and you think, okay, this is a great home.

It's a few minutes from downtown. We got it at a decent price. Um, you know, just looking at the way that the market is going on the low end, we're still up, you know, it's still worth more than what we paid for it on the high end. Like can't believe that they're giving us that kind of an estimate, but I told her, you know, in a few years, this could pay off in a big way and we could get into that house that has a few acres, you know?

So I always look at it as a stepping stone to the next thing. So I told her about our last house. Once you get in and you own a. It changes your position and what you can do, cuz if we hadn't bought that home in 2019, we wouldn't be here today. Mm-hmm right. Yeah. So yeah, I think what I really enjoy about, um, rapid city in general, what they do say is true.

If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute. It'll change. Um, because we have seen, um, it be so windy in what we're normally used to in regards to wind being in like on top of a mountain, um, versus here it's very different vastly different, but I like the wind yeah, I like the wind. I like the cold. I like snow and things like that.

And so, um, within like a few minutes, it was gone. So, um, I'm a little disappointed in the snow though. Cause just wait, I just, wait. It's come March. We'll get to know it's snowed a few times and I went out so excited and there was nothing so, um, but I'm excited for um, the Christmas season to come up. I see that they already set up the ice skating ring.

Um, downtown there's oddly enough, there's a lot to do downtown in regards to like, especially the summer, we were able to just be walking downtown and they were holding concerts for the splash pad and they have a good, um, movie theater downtown, where they ran a summer program for the kids to go watch from pool passings that we had, they could go to the different pools and stuff.

That was nice. That was nice. Yeah, the indoor water park was nice. Um, that was fun. Um, but just the people really is probably my favorite thing. Once the weather, you know, starts to get a little bit warmer and stuff, cause I know we're heading in the winter, but once it gets warmer, then I'll start to, I wanna start to do more of the outdoorsy things that everybody talks about and you know, really start to see.

more than just Mount Rushmore, which was pretty awesome. But yeah, I haven't really had a chance to do much more, but I know there's a lot more out there cuz people do it. You know, they're always talking about it. That's our, I wanna looking forward to yeah. Cuz a lot of locals will agree that, you know, you could do fishing.

If there's lake, you can fish in it. There's hunting, there's hiking. And we buy our meat at the farmer's market now, which is very new to us. instead of. The grocery store talking about why don't you buy half a cow? Happy? Are you talking about people do that? Yeah, we are now looking into buying whole pigs cows.

Mm-hmm all of those things. Yeah. We've bought a beef from a whole beef from a rancher for the past. I don't know, eight years maybe. Yeah. Well, I definitely need that information from you. Cause that is a thing. And I, so I think that South Dakota is definitely wearing on us, you know, cuz um, in our home state it was a lot of, um, convenience, convenience, and this is like the local health food store and things like that.

And I think just because of how the community is, you want to support your local. Farmers. There's a lot of farm tables here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think it's neat too, because you learn that people out here do a lot more. I mean, I knew some people who would do stuff, you know, for themselves back home, but not a whole lot.

It was just so easy, but just learning like, okay, there are skill sets that people have out here that might be valuable to learn. And then also, you know, you meet people and you start talking to, 'em like, Hey, I'm sure you how to do this. Oh, okay, great. So now we're talking to people about. Canning and different things like that, that you can, it's crazy.

Right. But they're like, they're willing, they're willing. They, they just like to show people how to do it. And then I've in turn learned a few things, just working around the house and making improvements and stuff. Hey, now I can show somebody else how to do that. So it's kind of. A lot of people have a lot of information and a lot of skills and stuff around here that I think are valuable to know in, in our home state, it was very much to yourself.

It was very much like you do for yourself. And we didn't really know what to do for ourselves in case of an emergency. And while you're out here, I love that you touched on that of the skillset. Yeah. It's just, people are like, oh, I don't know how to do this. Then I'm gonna learn how to do this. And I'm gonna share the information.

Um, I recently went to, so the city of rapid city itself holds free. Outdoor. Um, I guess it's called adventure. Outdoor adventure. Yep. That what said? Yep. Yeah. So it's just this building that every month they have certain skill sets from, um, shooting gun safety, Dutch oven cooking. Um, right now they have ice fishing on how to ch so or archery and it's free.

It's free. You can just sign up and you can go and they have an instructor to teach you, um, basic skills that I feel that we should have known our whole life. But unless you really like the outdoor kind of life, then this is definitely the place to be. Oh. And the simplicity of everything, you know, we wanted only did get your driver's license.

I mean, we made an appointment, but I was in and out in 15 minutes. That's unheard of in California. Yeah. Or even going to the doctor's office. It's so fast and you know, not so rushed. And I was like, well, you don't have hundreds of thousands of people in this county. You know, everybody trying to go to the doctor, you make an appointment, you gotta schedule it like a month and a half hour or something like that.

Um, I like that. And. Again, just everything being so simple, registering my cars. I mean a nightmare. You wouldn't do it. You wouldn't wait until the very last minute to do it back in California, which by the way, I like that we don't have to smog our vehicles. what you're talking. I was just thinking that, cause we got an oil change and I saw a smog sticker in the windshield.

I was like this car smog. We haven't even talked about that every year, every year, every year, the price is going. Um, even though it's in an old car, we got both our cars. Well, we didn't pay a whole lot to register to cars. No, but for doing both of 'em that would've been maybe one, you know, in back in California and we had to do that twice.

So yeah, I, I like that part of it, just the, um, You know, just being able to live your life and mm-hmm, , you know, pay for the things there are services and stuff to offer, but it's reasonable. Um, not paying as much for, you know, utilities and stuff like that. You save some money there, insurance wise and compared to what we were paying for, for sure what we were paying, it's definitely a slash and what we were paying, um, just to run this house, I'd say, um, probably a.

Yeah. Like our bills average, like about $400, which is way less than what we were paying in California. Like our gas bills, only $10 and running. I mean, everything here pretty much is electric. Right? So, um, running the electricity, running the air conditioner during the summertime would never do it in California.

You're gonna have an $800 light bill. Oh yeah. You know, so I think the most I got up to here was 260, but that was running it almost every. You know, and all day, so, okay. I can do that. Yeah. Would never consider doing that in California. It's since insane how much it cost. Yeah. So lastly, I mean, you know, we just wanna thank you for your time and your energy that you, you know, Helped us get our home.

I have always wanted a brand new home. So you were able to make that dream come true in that. And we just appreciate you, your company, your family. Um, it really feels like, um, even over zoom while we were still in California, it still felt like a friendship, you know? And you just didn't leave us here and really quickly, I love this story.

You just happened to stop by and you brought a map and you listed out hand hand wrote all of the places that we needed to go see and, and everything that we needed to visit. And to me, that just meant so much of like, You know, they're new. I want to do this for them. So that has always been one of my favorite stories about you besides the chicken suit.

So on your videos yeah. We're, we're totally grateful and yeah, you'll forever be our friend. We are just so thankful yeah. That you did what you did. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks guys. For ready for watching. Be sure to watch this video on the reasons why people are still moving to rapid city in 2022, and then check out this Playlist.

Thanks. Again, everybody have a wonderful day and remember, love were you live.

Are people still moving to South Dakota? Yes, that's a good one. All right. Yeah. You know, I'm not gonna let you off that easy. Everybody. This is Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty, a realtor right here in rapid city, South Dakota. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. I talk everything about moving to rapid city. And the wonderful things about rapid city and the black Hills. Now it's been about two years since the start of the pandemic. And after that time, there was all those reports about people moving away from urban areas to more rural areas, such as South Dakota and during the second half of 2020 and all of 2021. That certainly was the case in November of 2020. I did this video, why people are moving to South Dakota. Now that it's 2022, and I've had the opportunity to help many families move into the rapid city area and have spoken to them after they've been here for a little while. It's time for an update, why people are moving to South Dakota in 2022 by far, the number one reason for people moving to South Dakota remains the same freedom. South Dakota never had a statewide shutdown. We've never had a statewide mask mandate nor have we had a statewide vaccine mandate as a result, business and livelihood in rapid city has gone on. We've had the benefit to do as we saw fit through the pandemic for us and our families. On top of that South Dakota is a really easy state to live in. There aren't any over regulations on a lot of business or personal life. It's easy to go buy and own a gun. If you want to go do something, you go do it. If you don't, you don't. As long as you aren't being terribly noisy, rambunctious and annoying, your neighbors, aren't gonna call you in the mentality in South Dakota is live and let live. And for your business owners, it's easy to set up and bring your business here with no corporate income taxes and no government overregulation. South Dakota has been named one of the top business friendly states in the nation. I had one outta state client that was, that was selling his business. And the goal was to move here before that business closed, which would save. Thousands of dollars on taxes, clients that I've talked to after moving here from outta state have talked about how they had the freedom to go walk down the street and say hi to the neighbors, how even getting a straw in the drink at the drive-through restaurant was amazing for them little things like this. Make South Dakota a great place to be a great place to live region. Number two space. The state of South Dakota is about 77,000 square miles. And in those square miles is about 880,000 people, which is the 2019 population census. So in comparison, the Denver, Colorado Metro area has about 3 million people in about 8,500 square miles in South Dakota. We have space now, rapid city on the west side of the state and Sioux falls on the east side of the state, the two biggest cities, we have experienced a huge growth in the past year to couple years, but you're still gonna find single family homes on their own lot, even if it's a 0.20 acre, lot in town, none of these homes that are right stacked next to each other. We like our space and our yards here in south dakota. As you get outside of the city, there are several divisions with some acreage. So you have a little bit of space along with your home. Now, these subdivisions, especially in the rapid city area are very high demand right now. So you gotta bring your money. If you're interested in buying up some acreage in the black Hills or around the rapid city area. But even as rapid city grows, we still have the black Hills national forest, which as a citizen, as a national forest is owned by the federal government. So that's never gonna go away. Yes. There's homes in private property throughout the black Hills, but for the most part, the black Hills national forest is always right there. Ready for the public to enjoy reason. Number three, outside and nature, wherever you're out in South Dakota nature is an amazing thing. We have agriculture as our number one economy in South Dakota. We have some amazing parks on both sides of the state. Plus we've got the Missouri river that runs through the middle of the state. Which is great fishing and boating. And over here in rapid city, you've got a city of parks where there's a bike trail that goes right through the middle of town that follows rapid Creek where there's park after park, after park. And then you've also got the Hanson-Larsen Memorial park and skyline wilderness area for hiking and biking in the center of town. And then there's the black Hills with so many adventures to go on. So many things to explore so many things to do in the black Hills to enjoy nature and to get outside. And on top of all, There's fresh mountain air with no pollution, no reason. Cuatro cost of living. Now, if you go at any cost of living calculator on online, just, just do Google search for cost of living calculator. And you put in any Metro area compared to rapid city. You'll find that the cost of living in general is cheaper here in the rapid city and South Dakota area. Now, of course, this isn't gonna hold true for all of America. There are other states and areas that may have a cheaper cost of living than rapid city in South Dakota. But if you're moving from metropolitan area, Chances are rapid city Sioux falls and South Dakota will be cheaper cost of living for you and your family. Let's add to that. No state income taxes pay the federal IRS, and don't have to worry about any other payments in South Dakota. Now, of course, we have sales tax on about everything and we've got property taxes are a little bit higher than some area, other areas, but as I've been talking with other realtors in the Northern Midwest states, our property taxes are really quite comparable. To our neighbors, even our housing when compared to other metropolitan areas is considerably cheaper. Now our housing prices are going up dramatically. They've gone up 28% since the beginning of 2020 to get into about a thousand square foot. Single level property might cost you around $200,000, but at least you're not looking at half a million dollars just to get into a small house rental rates. Aren't that much better looking at 900 to a thousand dollars for a one bedroom apartment. But from other areas I've talked. That's the deal. When you come to South Dakota, your dollar stretches just a little bit further reason. People are still moving to South Dakota. Number five, no traffic. According to the many people that I've talked with and driven around rapid city, we have no traffic and this is the same for Sioux falls in the smaller towns as well. You can get from one side of rapid city to the other side of rapid city and under a half an hour, if you're in the middle of rapid city, you can be anywhere in 15, 20 minutes and you can be walking down a black Hills trail all by your. Within an hour easy, even in Sioux falls, which is bigger city, you can be from one side of the other and half an hour, 45 minutes. The busiest traffic jams we have are those times in the morning and the afternoon before after school, after work, especially as people come from Westside, rapid city through the gap to downtown and vice versa, but even then you're waiting for one light and you're through the next one. Except for when there's lots of construction going around, we have a state animal in South Dakota during the summer, and that is the construction cone. Now, for some reason last year, they decided to work on the three main arteries through the middle of rapid city that went from west side to east side. All at the same time, our six, eight lanes, Ten lanes of traffic went down to three. So now all of a sudden we had to go, everybody had to go through these construction. And that really bottled up the traffic. But one day I was complaining about this to the world and mentioning that I had to sit through three lights to get through this construction area. And my brother-in-laws who were both have lived in Los Angeles before sighed and said, that's not traffic. You still have no idea what traffic is. And when you're ready to go on a trip, you head out on a highway, you go to nine 90 towards Sioux falls. There's from Sioux falls for city. You set the cruise coast control for 80, 80 miles. And the main goal is just to make sure you don't fall asleep. You don't spend hours of your day sitting in traffic in rapid city and South Dakota, reason, number six, small town living with everything you need. So with Sioux falls being about 200,000 people and rapid city being 75 to 80,000 people. Really, we don't have huge cities and all the rest of the cities in South Dakota are under 30,000 people. But whether you're living in rapid city or Sioux falls, you have everything you need in town. The big box stores are all there. You've got your targets. You've got your Walmarts, your Sams clubs, your department stores, everything that you need to shop and enjoy town is there. Plus you have all the chain, restaurants and amazing unique local restaurant. You might not have the selection or shopping just used to, but you'll have everything you need in town, including your grocery stores, hospitals, clinics, fun things for kids to do little league. All these other things will be in town without the constant pressure of the huge city. It's kind of tough for realtors in our area because it seems like everybody knows three or four realtors. They're not so small that everybody knows everybody, but it can be stinking close sometimes. But if you're interested in one of the smaller towns in South Dakota, chances are not far from a bigger city. That'll have everything you. For instance in the rapid city area, you're only about an hour away from Spearfish hot Springs and the towns of the black Hills. Don't worry. You'll still be able to get your Starbucks coffee or a better local coffee in South Dakota. All right. Reason number seven, people are moving to South Dakota. The people as I've been talking with my clients for the past couple years about what they thought about moving to rapid city and what their experience. The one thing that remains kind of the same, everybody kind of said the same thing was this. They're happy to be here because of the people, people are enjoying having neighbors that'll come by and say hi, but yet not be there always in their face, not be busy bodies. They're enjoying the fact that you're walking down the bike path. You can smile and say hi to someone they'll say hi back. They'll love the fact that kids can take their bike, run around their neighborhood and they don't have to worry about. Getting mugged or the bike getting stolen. I was talking with one client who said that they couldn't even go to the mall because of all the shootings in crime, going on in the mall. My teenage daughter ever since she's got her license, have been running to the mall and target and Starbucks all by herself. And she's never had a problem. As long as you're not here to create problems. The people of South Dakota are known to be friendly. Helping you, giving you the shirt off to the back, it's cleaning off your driveway, watching it over your, your animals as you got town. All the things that neighborhood and community should be. And that's what people are loving the most about rapid city and South Dakota. So yes, people have discovered South Dakota and are still moving to South Dakota, despite the wind, the cold and the winter, but South Dakota, it isn't for everyone. Make sure you check out this video. Don't move here to see why South Dakota might not be the place for you. Thank you for watching. Have amazing day and remember. Love where you live. .

No, don't move here. Everybody's Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty. Welcome back to my YouTube channel or talk everything while move to rapid city. And the wonderful thing is about rapid city and the black Hills. And since I've done so many great videos about what's great about rapid city, it's time to talk about what isn't. So here they are, the seven reasons you should not move to rapid city. The number one reason you may not wanna move to rapid city, South Dakota. If you don't like the cold. So we're in the north. We have winter exhibit a usually we're probably averaging 20 or 30 degrees during the course of the week, but then sometimes week, weeks of zero degrees and then the wind comes up. Yes. We have wind here as well. And that winter drops to sometimes double digits below zero. And it's fricking cold. And then we get snow and the snow melts, and then we get more snow on the snow melts again, and then there's ice. And then March comes along and we think we're almost the spring. And then we get dumped on about two foot, three foot of wet snow, and then we get snow, April, and then sometimes in may. And sometimes it's just like, would it just get to be spring? If you don't like cold, if you don't like winter, Rapid city, probably not the place for you. Don't move to rapid city. If you don't love nature. Agriculture is the number one economy in the state of South Dakota. There are over 3.6 million cows in the state of South Dakota and within a population of 844 ish thousand people that makes it about four cows per, per person living in the state of South Dakota. Plus there's over a hundred thousand horses putting South Dakota number. And horses per capita, just beyond Wyoming. There'll be farm smells. There'll be manure smells. There'll be smells of fresh cut alfalfa, and they'll be the smells of the Pines in the black Hills. In the rapid city area. The black Hills is an outdoor enthusiast dream with hiking, camping, biking, skiing, snowboarding, everything you can think of outside running your ATVs. Motorcycling. BMXing so many different things to do in the black hills. Outside that if you're one of those people that don't like the outside, don't like to be outside rapid city at South Dakota, probably not the place for you. Don't move to rapid city. If you'd love to shop all the big stores, now don't get you wrong. We do have everything in rapid city that you need. Target Walmart Sam's club, best buy Kohl's Lowe's hardware store. Plus we've got a great selection of local boutiques and shops and amazing restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, we've got a great selection of Cuisine. We just might not have as many as you used to, there might be only one or two Thai food restaurants and you know, our Mexican up here probably isn't really Mexican and our seafood. Well, we got red lobster. I'm standing at Rushmore crossing where you have a lot of great stores from Michael's to target, to bed, bath and beyond, but you're not gonna find whole foods. You're not gonna find Macy's or Nordstroms, and you're not gonna find Costco. And I understand that speaking from other Costco members, if I say, well, we got Sam's club, that's like Sacralidge. So I really won't even say that. So if you love to shop all the huge stores and love miles and miles of shops and stores, rapid city might not be the place for you. However, Denver it's only seven hours away for a weekend trip to go shopping down sixthteenth street street. You might not want to move to rapid city. If you'd like to visit the beach, like a lot, we're a long ways from any kind of beach and the rapid city airport, it's a regional airport. So while it's easy to get in and navigate, there's only seven gates. You could probably be there half an hour early. If you just had carry on and get in with no problem, it's still a regional airport. The main goal is just simply get you to a hub. So you're either going to Minneapolis or Dallas or Denver or salt lake city, and then the cost of that flight. It isn't so cheep. Usually you can't go anywhere for under $400. Now we do have Allegiant flight, so you can go direct to Las Vegas and Phoenix, most of the times of the year and some other times other ones during the summer, but then you've gotta fly during their timeframes. And sometimes those aren't very convenient. And if you wanna hop in the car and drive great, but here we measure time in hours, not distance. A three hour drive just gets you started going somewhere six hours. That'll probably get you to Denver, five hours to get you to Sioux falls, least wise. You'll be somewhere then. But if you wanna go any more warm during the winter to. You're looking at a good 20 hour drive just to get south far enough into the warmth. Now of course, a lot of people up here decide to be a snowbird that live up here during their summertime and go down south during the winter. That was always an option for you, of course. But if you're a travel bug, the likes to travel all the time, flying out a rapid regional airport is not the cheapest option in the books. Don't move to rapid city. If you hate tourists, tourism is a huge part of our economy, especially here in rapid city. In the black Hills, I know they drive slow and they take the wrong turns and they stop and things. What do you wanna move? But when they bring $161 million of tax coverage to the state, And 54,000 jobs. It's really hard to say no to 'em. Last year at South Dakota had 13.3 million visitors, which is the first state to come back from the pandemic. And they're not just around during the summer. We have many, many events during the year that tourists come flock into the black Hills. There's a stock show in February, uh, July 4th during the summer. And of course, there's that Sturgis rally that brings in just as many people to the state as are in the state. Plus there's hunting in the fall and snowmobile and snow skiing in the winter. So if you hate tourists, rapid city, probably not the place for you. Don't move to rapid city. If you think you're gonna get into. Super cheap housing. I know it's it's South Dakota, right? Housing should be cheap, not so much with the lack of inventory, the strong buyer demand from all over the place. Our average home sale price from 2020 has has gotten up 28%. Just to give you an idea. We sold a thousand square foot home, one car garage in December for $220,000 on the east side of town. We're working on selling one, a 1300 square foot home on the west side of town, 275. Multiple offers with over asking price. Bids is all part of the norm right now. And unfortunately the rental rates, they're not that much better. I just saw an advertisement for one bedroom, one bath apartment in a decent part of town, 900 bucks a month with new businesses coming in the area, a new military mission at the well worth air force base. Plus all the people wanting this to move into our area. I don't foresee this slowing down anytime soon. So if you're looking to get a whole bunch of homes for cheap, probably not gonna be in rapid city south dakota. And finally the last reason why you shouldn't move to rapid city, if you are on a big vendetta or mission to change things, South Dakota is full of hardworking Americans that love the state. Just the way it is. Yes. There's issues that need to be addressed. There's things that they probably should be changed. But for the most part here in South Dakota, we enjoy personal responsibility and having the freedom to do things the way we enjoy them. And that's something known here in South Dakota. Wants to mess up. So if that's you don't move to South Dakota. Very good buddy. Don't move to rapid city. If hope you enjoyed the video. It was really interesting too, because I took these videos over just a few days. You can see the different weather patterns just in the week or so that I recorded these. If you were interested to know the 13 reasons you should move to rapid city, go ahead and download my relocation, guide the link it's below. Thanks to get everybody have an amazing day. Remember love were you live.

It's time for the second largest event in the black Hills, the black Hills stock show. Hey, everybody's Tristan with mindful living Realty, a realtor right here in rapid city, South Dakota. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. Talk, everything about moving to rapid city and the wonderful things about rapid city and the black Hills. Now let's check out the black hill stock show and cinch trade show. The black hill stock show is a 9 day event. That starts the weekend before the first week of February, the cattle events are held. Monument civic center. The PRC rodeos in the new summit arena and the horse events in the James Kjerstad event center at the fairgrounds. The stock show is a huge variety of rancher pride, horse shows and sales, along with stallion Rowe. And roping contest. There's the show and sale for every breed of cattle for both the old ranchers and the new ones, ranch rodeos, PRCA rodeos, sleep, dog trials, and extreme bulls tour. the trade show expands through every level of the monument with cattle, horse, and ranch equipment trucks, trailers. Tractors. I'm pretty sure I need one of these Cowboy boots, Cowboy hats, rope equipment, Western wear jewelry. Kids clothes and about everything else you can imagine while you were there. Check out the Western art show, the petting farm. I'm not sure what this is and enjoy refreshments at the shotguns club and cowboy bar. Remember I mentioned the PRC rodeo there's one each night of the end of the week. Includes barrel racing, wrong sitting Bull Riding. Calf roping with entertainment and fun. If you've never been to a rodeo, it's a unique event to throw on your blue jeans, wear your hat backwards. You enjoy the show. Better, expect to come walking, cuz trying to find a parking spot nearby. Ain't gonna happen. Thanks for coming along with me today to the black hill stock show. Check out this playlist that has lots of other things to do in the rapid city area. Thanks again for watching. Have a wonderful day to remember love where you live.

Well, of course, I'm gonna tell you about the wonderful things about rapid city, but I've been here since 1990. What about those people who just moved here? What do they think about rapid city and the black Hills I've had the privilege and honor of helping a number of people move from all over the country to our little area, rapid city, South Dakota, and the black Hills in December of 2021. I sat down with Josh and Tiana and asked them about their home buying experience and their story. Well, you know, a lot of it was driven by Tiana because Tiana's family was from Las Vegas. So it wasn't really an easy decision for us. But I think with the lockdowns and the way that all played out, I think that was probably the big driving force. Yeah. Of trying to find another place, keeping our eye on like the country and seeing like, you know, what states were doing what. And we just, uh, wanted. A better quality of life. You know, we just like the freedom of choice that South Dakota has. You know what I mean? It's like, if you want to do something great, if you don't, that's fine too. It's everybody's got their free choice. So we like that about it. Yes. That was a big part of it. you know what? I think I just liked that I got the vibe from you immediately, that you were gonna be honest and straightforward about things and not be pushy or, you know, steer us in any one direction. You were just gonna kind of work for your client, so to speak and, you know, you were always available. You were always very prompt in getting back with us. Uh, you were great with knowing all the areas, because of course we were just moving from outta state. So we needed somebody who could guide us. You were great at that. So I would just say that would be the, the biggest things that I really appreciated about the experience. Yeah. The videos really helped us kind of like. Get our heads around where we were going, you know, outside of like reading articles online or looking at a map, like it gave us a vision. Yeah. That's true. Your videos, which Tiana got addicted to your videos. So then it was like tristan videos all the time. you know, this is, this is what's going on here. This is what this is. This is what that is. And so then I went down the rabbit hole too. So then it was just extremely informative. The pace I liked it. There's not a lot of tension. When you go outside, you know, there's not traffic everywhere. When you go to a store there's not the entire city at that store, you know, it's just except for black Friday, right? No, I guess. Yeah. I mean, we stayed in on black Friday. yeah. Smart. Yeah. So, but that's really it. Like, I just remember having lived in other places, just the getting in the car, you already feel tense. Mm-hmm here. There's none of that. Yeah. And people are so nice here. Like I. You know, I don't want to generalize it, but like, people are just a lot more friendly here. They're very, uh, family friendly. So if he's having a fit. You know, we're just having a moment. Nobody judges you, they just kind of smile and say like, Hey, I've been there. You know, there's families everywhere you go. And, and yeah, when your kid's two year old's throwing a tantrum, somebody just looks at you and says like, I've been there. You know, they try to help, you know, they'll come in and try to help. We went on a walk in our neighborhood the other day we talked to five or six of our neighbors along the way, you know, Really unusual for us, you know, coming from the places we've come from that we've lived before we don't experience that. So it's a whole different ballgame, you know, it's sort of like, uh, somebody described it as like the city and the country combined, and I guess that's a good way to describe it, you know? It's nice. Mm-hmm yeah. Yeah. We're just kind of a big town. Really. We're not. we're, we're a city, but we're not like a big city by any means for sure. Yeah. But at the same time, I feel like we got everything we need. Like I was telling somebody that the other day too, I'm like, I only need one target, you know, I don't need 45 targets. You know, one target is enough, you know, , you know what I mean? So I like it. I just like that, that vibe of it, it's just really relaxed. Yeah. We sleep really good here. For some reason, like Josh sleeps, like I used to never be able to sleep and now I'm sleeping. so , it's just crazy. Yeah. It's like, you have to find things to obsess about or get stressed out about, you know, they don't just come to you on a daily basis. You have to go seek them out. If you wanna stress , which isn't recommended. That's not doctor recommended. So yeah, another client that said, yeah, you get here and you just go. And I think that's a hundred percent, the way I've I've heard is from other people as. You know, um, that we just don't have that rat race kind of going on. Yeah. If you're coming from a big city, you'll definitely relax by coming out here to rapid city. Yeah. Even going, we, my mom came and visited, uh, a few weeks ago and going to the airport was actually pleasurable. Like it wasn't stressful. They give you free parking for a half hour. It's super easy to get in and out. Um, yeah, it's a beautiful airport. I mean, they had, they checked bags. That was no problem. it was super pleasant and I've never had an experience like that at the airport, so never, never. So yeah, it was really fun and our neighbor works on motorbikes, so that's really fun. It's fun actually. Like he's really nice. It's cool. He's a nice guy. Yeah, he's already. If this sounds too loud, let us know. That's the other thing. Yeah. People are just really polite, you know, and just, I haven't experienced that. I lived in Vegas in Los Angeles before this, and that was not my experience in those areas. And so here in rapid city, when this guy said, Hey, if these motorbikes are ever too loud, just let me know. I'll stop. I've never had a neighbor come to me and say that before. Yeah. So that was just really awesome. Yeah. Really nice neighbor. I'm glad that you had the good experience with neighbors cuz that's you can never. Really, you know, UJA said, I know you moved into a great neighborhood, but you never know you could have an idiot for a neighbor. You know, it, it happens track record. When I saw the motorbikes, I got nervous, you know what I mean? He had a boat before. I think he kind of flips vehicles. So he's had multiple vehicles in and out, and I got nervous at first, cuz I've had that experience before. not here. So this guy's been super polite. It's a really cool relationship. So it's nice. Yeah, really nice neighbors. Definitely a, anything else about the experience we're living here that we haven't talked about that you'd like to mention that comes to your mind right now? . I mean, if you're trying to like grow your family and, uh, you just want a little more space, a little friendliness, like I've just had the best experience going to the park and meeting other moms and, and dads. And we found a really great church that we love and, um, all the local restaurants and businesses that we visited and even the corpor corporations are really pleasant here. Like everyone is just. Um, generally really nice. Yeah. It's just an easygoing place. People are really kind and yeah. If you have a family, a young family or trying to grow a family, I think there'd be a great place for it. Cuz everywhere you go there's families. So it's just. It's like a community that way. So it's nice. Mm-hmm definitely. Yeah, we love, I love it here. We both love it here. Yeah. Hudson loves it here too. Yeah, he did. we got three parks right around. Gotta go to the parks. You walk, you walk and you could to a park around here. So yeah, we went to three in one day. We took the bike. I got a seat for him and we went to three park in one day. It was awesome. Yeah, you can do so much in one day and not. Stressed out or overwhelmed or over tired. Like it's just been definitely such a nice pace for us. Big time. Mm-hmm move to rapid city or don't because it's nice now, so yeah. I love. I mean, our particular house was fully renovated and they did such a great job, but they still kept the vintage charm, like, you know, the Archway and, um, I don't know, it just really fits the neighborhood and it just feels like such a, a family home. It reminds me of my grandparents' homes in a lot of ways. So I really like them. We have beautiful, gorgeous, uh, windows that face the French street. So we really. Part of the community. Love the windows. Yeah. I mean, yeah, so we kind of narrowed it down in the search. We kind of wanted to be on this side of town, the west side of town, because there's a lot of things nearby, a lot of parks nearby and all that. And so yeah, when Tristan was selling us the house, one of the things that he said that stuck with me is he said, you're basically getting a new house on the west side of town, which is like, sort of unheard of, because they did a full renovation here and they did a great job. And we even hired those guys to do a little extra workforce that we wanted done, just because we really appreciate the precision, the craftsmanship that they put in mm-hmm So we just feel like they did a great job with the house and yeah, it's built in the fifties, but it's almost like, feels like a new house. Mm-hmm so that's, that's what we love about. Definitely. Yeah. This sounds like the place for you and your family. Check on this video right here. The seven reasons why you should move to rapid city. And while you're doing that, I love it. If you'd hit subscribe, give me the like in this video and remember love where you live.