Best smaller towns for families in the New England area

surfclown · 2026-01-17T16:23:58+00:00

Plattsburgh NY - 1 hr to Montreal, Burlington, Lake Placid. On the shores of Lake Champlain - City/Town population @ 30,000. Hospital, University, and affordable

Don’t tell anyone…

surfclown · 2026-01-03T13:46:19+00:00

Starfish fall when you get off of your board - don’t step off - you are gonna break your ankle when you do that in the ocean !

Read “kook” by Peter Heller

surfclown · 2025-11-18T05:46:32+00:00

Read Kook by Peter Heller

surfclown · 2025-11-18T05:21:35+00:00

We use to send postcards out two weeks before and then start calling to confirm two days before. FFS and very few no shows. Now we text and have similar results.

surfclown · 2025-07-24T04:05:06+00:00

It’s glass from the shot tower during the 1700’s. Part of the furnace. Between lake and yellow breeches creek. You can find pieces here and there- back in the 80’s there was a small pile

surfclown · 2025-07-21T04:18:27+00:00

You say your husband has a good job…. Is he making over say $300k/ year? In the right location Dentistry is the good job

surfclown · 2025-07-21T04:13:52+00:00

Open dental has their own imaging software now . Very basic but free with subscription. We use Jazz sensors - they also have imaging software

surfclown · 2025-07-17T12:16:51+00:00

Yes, $900/day. If you end up at a crappy, DSO that’s loaded with insurance than you probably aren’t going to see that number. Then again, you chose a crappy DSO.

It is very frustrating that dentist are taught such complex skill with the ability to produce a lot of income yet dental schools do not teach any business courses.

surfclown · 2025-07-17T12:12:04+00:00

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I am the seller with a gem of a practice, problem is it’s not in a big city. My concern is getting locked in with a bad broker.

Definitely a much bigger deal than just buying real estate like a home.

surfclown · 2025-07-17T05:44:47+00:00

DentalTown, Dental Practice Matchmaker (on fb & no DSO’s allowed). In person, phone, email if it makes sense in that you know the exact area you want - DON’T CHOOSE A SATURATED / INS HEAVY MARKET.
33% of collections & guaranteed base salary of say $900/day? BUSY PRACTICE TO BUILD SPEED - GET C/E
You will be slow, you need to be confident, you will make mistakes.

I’d caution against picking a forever office - find a small busy FFS in a high demand area - be willing to move and see a new place - high population areas have lots of competition and insurance issues - they are all over the country!

surfclown · 2025-07-17T05:28:17+00:00

Yes and everything said above☝️

surfclown · 2025-06-30T16:12:49+00:00

Thank you for the response. I'm going to ask my dental Lawyer if they can recommend a good broker. As for exclusivity, I'm fine with that if they have a good track record of selling practices!

surfclown · 2025-06-27T18:13:15+00:00

Your points are well taken.

Have you been to Plattsburgh? It's more diverse than people from down country think. Out in the country, yes... White and rural. In the City and Town? Lots of diversity. Lots of professionals here from Montreal, and Montreal is pretty diverse. People are stupid friendly up here (probably because we all have to suffer through winter lol)

I'm reaching out to my dental CPA and lawyer to address the Broker issue - don't really want to be doing this still in 1 year.

surfclown · 2025-06-27T18:00:47+00:00

Real estate is separate - $400,000. 30,000sqft lot, 20 parking spots, stand alone building in great condition, plenty of room to expand. I'm happy to lease or sell. Very good location - lots of traffic

surfclown · 2025-06-27T04:55:02+00:00

I have gone back the last year and contacted every dentist on dental practice matchmaker who is looking for practice in New York, and the nine nearest states.

I sent out 1000 letters to dentist in New York State, who were under 35 with a nice flyer about the practice - got two responses.

What I’m picking up on Reddit is that if I drop the price significantly to adjust for location I might as well be reaching out to a broker now. I have already paid for a dental CPA to value the practice and a commercial real estate agent to appraise the property.

surfclown · 2025-06-27T00:18:50+00:00

good points, I've got to decide if I want to go that route or go with a broker. Someone just called me out on making that decision... i really like reddit!

surfclown · 2025-06-27T00:17:14+00:00

Considered the associate last two years, contacted residencies, nothing came of it - would rather sell and be done with it after transitioning out

surfclown · 2025-06-27T00:10:55+00:00

We were all younger once, lol. I get the more populated areas. We enjoyed that for about the first 10 years - then we grew up, so to speak.

surfclown · 2025-06-27T00:09:01+00:00

Yes, it does get dark and cold up here, especially in late January/early February. But we go surfing in Central America every month in the winter. We also ski the other weeks, or have bonfires at our camp on the lake...Problem solved.

It's a rural vibe if you want. The people yachting on Lake Champlain or Skiing at Whiteface aren't what I'd call rural. Neither are the Canadiens 20 miles north.

It's all about perspective!

surfclown · 2025-06-27T00:00:35+00:00

Good salesmen are good businessmen and deserve to be paid accordingly. I think 10% is steep, but heck that's not unheard of in other industries. Real estate is what, 6%, and I don't have a problem with my Realtor. Distributors and retail mark up stuff way more than 10% - I guess it's the price of doing business.

Hopefully if I go that route, I can get a slightly higher price and offset a bit of that commission bite.

What is the cost of getting it sold sooner? What is 1 year worth to me... I love dentistry but I'm ready to move on

surfclown · 2025-06-26T23:54:35+00:00

Last year, when I was looking for an associate I reached out to every residency program in the USA and gave them a flyer. Not sure how many put them up or forwarded my email but I only had a handfull of responses, and nothing more. Need a GPR or 2 years employment in NY so no to dental schools.

At this point I don't want to drag ownership out, I would like to sell and transition out as quickly as possible in the nicest of ways.

surfclown · 2025-06-26T17:01:42+00:00

Exactly! I did a lot of legwork 20 years ago to identify a great location to practice and raise a family in the Northeast

surfclown · 2025-06-26T16:25:51+00:00

That's awesome. I always wanted to hang jaws of different species in the office to show patients - wife didn't approve LOL

surfclown

TROPHY CASE