Thanks to everyone for the advice. I accepted the position yesterday and will start at the Baxter, Mn. clinic the Monday after Thanksgiving. Cathy and I went up and looked at 6 properties today in the Baxter area. We were pretty sure we'd end up buying a lakeside cabin we were eyeballing, but will be going another way. The lakeside property was a small cabin, not really suited for a year round residence. No basement, no garage, and no spot to build one. Typical lake lot-barely bigger that the footprint of the cabin, and at best two skinny parking spots. It's shoehorned in between two other cabins, and one's pretty messy. We weren't impressed.
We looked at three different properties with mobile homes on them and weren't impressed with any of them. All three needed lots of work, and two of them had septic issues.
We looked at two houses, and found one we both really like. Looks like we'll be putting in an offer on that one pending some detailed research on i'ts history, taxes, the neighborhood, etc. Sure looks nice to us, so we're cautiously optimistic. It ain't lake frontage, and it ain't huntable (1/2 acre lot) but for the money we have to work with, this house gives us the most bang for our buck.
Getting punch drunk from researching stuff on the project. Thanks again guys, your advice was greatly appreciated.
