Stacey Hesser is a realtor living in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Originally from Alaska, Stacey tried out life in Florida and Texas before settling in southern Oklahoma with her husband, Carl. As avid travelers and outdoorsmen, Oklahoma has proved to be the couple’s launching pad for endless excursions. Here are a few reasons Stacey says she loved Oklahoma so much, she decided to get licensed as a realtor and sell the state.
Affordable Homes
I quickly discovered that Oklahoma was truly the place that I could call home. I’m originally from Alaska. My parents moved there in 1969. I was born there and lived there for 38 years. Alaska is a beautiful state, but it’s a hard state to live in. By my 30th year there, it became very obvious to me it was not going to be a place that I was going to stay.
My parents, in the meantime, had retired to Florida. I was like, “Holy cow! This is my opportunity to finally enjoy some sunshine too.” Florida was really cool…for about the first six months. Then I realized Florida has a little bit of a dark side.
So I met my husband [Carl], who is also an Alaskan. He is a traveling superintendent, which allowed us to travel and see a lot of different places around the country. Strangely, Oklahoma kept hitting our list of places to go to, and it checked a lot of boxes for us. Carl still loves Alaska. I do too, but I personally told him I could never live there again.
Low Cost of Living
I’m a realtor, I’m sorry. I’m going to talk about the cost of living in Oklahoma and what a lifestyle change this was for us. Having this lower cost of living here in Oklahoma really gives you freedom of choice, especially if you’re coming from one of those high-end metropolitan areas.
Do you want to retire early? Do you want to have a great savings account? Maybe you need to pay off debt. Maybe you have kids you need to put through college. These are all amazing things that you could totally take advantage of by moving to Oklahoma. It’s really been a place where I can make my dreams come true and make my family’s dreams come true.
Central Location
I love to travel, and living in Oklahoma really gave me and my husband the opportunity to be able to travel more. I don’t know, if we lived someplace else with a higher cost of living, that it really would have been an option for us.
Oklahoma is a great travel launching pad. I love where we are, right smack dab in the middle of The States. It’s so easy to get to other places around the country. Plus, with Ardmore on I-35, we can really get to any place we want to go by driving.
The other great benefit for us is Ardmore is equal distance between Oklahoma City and Dallas, so we have the benefit of going to a large airport either way. If we want to fly domestically, Oklahoma City is by far the best airport, but if you need to go international or hit some of those smaller cities, then Dallas is a great option too.
Outdoor Community
My husband and I do long-range precision shooting. We compete pretty heavily in that whole scheme around the nation. Anything fitting that outdoor lifestyle is really just part of Oklahoma. It’s just part of who we are here. You’re going to be outside and you’re going to be enjoying the outdoor life with your community.
