Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're letting the world know that we're moving
Speaker 1: and we're gonna give our advice for finding a great
Speaker 1: place to live. I never thought I would utter these words, Joel,
Speaker 1: but we are moving. So we've we've told our our family.
Speaker 1: Of course, they've known as we've kind of been going
Speaker 1: through this process, are closer friends, they know, told all
Speaker 1: our neighbors now, but it truly hasn't Like I think
Speaker 1: I'm realizing that it feels real now that we're talking
Speaker 1: about it here on the podcast. Podcast not legit, and
Speaker 1: so we talk about it on the show, and yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact is we are moving. But with that both
Speaker 1: of our families, both of our families, so that's at
Speaker 1: the same time. That's the craziest heart no surprise. This
Speaker 1: has been something that's been in the works, by the way,
Speaker 1: for or for months and months and months, and it's
Speaker 1: something that Matt and I we've been talking about, our
Speaker 1: families have been discussing together. We've been we call them
Speaker 1: family meetings. You and Emily, when you'll sit down with
Speaker 1: me and Kate and we kind of have some of
Speaker 1: these conversations trying to figure out what our lives are
Speaker 1: gonna look like in the future. And yeah, we we
Speaker 1: have arrived to this point, and I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: talk about us personally, what we're doing, what we're going
Speaker 1: to be up to, but also for our listeners. What
Speaker 1: we realized was that this is a great opportunity for
Speaker 1: us to talk about moving and so discuss the many
Speaker 1: factors that you need to keep in mind when it
Speaker 1: comes time to uproot and move your fing So this
Speaker 1: will be a somewhat personal episode as we talk about
Speaker 1: our own progression in this direction to leaving a neighborhood
Speaker 1: that we love, that we really do love. That's a
Speaker 1: sad part, yeah, because I think anybody who's listening is
Speaker 1: like if you have you listening for any amount of time,
Speaker 1: like Matt ji'l always talk about how they love the
Speaker 1: talk about how your neighborhoods like Mayberry and yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like perfect and in a lot of ways true, it's
Speaker 1: incredibly idyllic. That's why we're certainly sad. But honestly, by
Speaker 1: this point in time, we we've sort of cycled through
Speaker 1: the stages of grief. We have kind of through some
Speaker 1: of this the sadder weeks. But our family at this
Speaker 1: point is so pumped. We're so excited for what lies ahead.
Speaker 1: So I am looking forward to talking about that today.
Speaker 1: At times in this process, I was like, who am
Speaker 1: I? I I feel like I'm losing a sense of my identity.
Speaker 1: We've been in this neighborhood for for thirteen plus years.
Speaker 1: We've made a lot, We've got deep roots, like so
Speaker 1: many connections, like Derek zu Lander looking into the puddle, yes,
Speaker 1: my god, And so I am kind of looking up
Speaker 1: looking around, and I'm like, what is going on? But
Speaker 1: there are a lot of factors, like you'll find out
Speaker 1: in this episode that led to this decision. We will
Speaker 1: discuss more. That's right, man, you have a quick hobby
Speaker 1: you want I wanted to share with you. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: haven't told you what specifically this is, but have you
Speaker 1: heard of magnet fishing before? This is something that the
Speaker 1: algorithm fed to me because they know that this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing I'm into. Say the past, we've
Speaker 1: talked about how I've kind of got an old soul
Speaker 1: and that pretty soon you're going to find me on
Speaker 1: the beach during vacation with the metal detective sweeping you know,
Speaker 1: combing for lost jewels and other potential treasures. Well, I
Speaker 1: came across this thing called magnet fishing, and it's basically
Speaker 1: what it is. It's like this giant, super strong magnet.
Speaker 1: It's like this I don't know, like picture of hockey puck,
Speaker 1: maybe even bigger. But it's got a like a metal
Speaker 1: loop on it, and you tie a rope around it,
Speaker 1: and h typically, you throw it like in a river
Speaker 1: or a lake or something like that. You just kind
Speaker 1: of cast it out there and you drag it back
Speaker 1: to you and you see what cool stuff it's in
Speaker 1: the lake. Uh, but you have not done this yet.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing I have not yet done it. But I
Speaker 1: am this close to buying one of those magnets there.
Speaker 1: They're not that expensive. But specifically in mind, instead of
Speaker 1: walking on the beach with under the hot blazing sun
Speaker 1: with a metal detector, I'm picturing, okay, or just like
Speaker 1: waiting out into the water and kind of throwing it
Speaker 1: out there. You get to stay cool because you got
Speaker 1: the waves washing over you, even if you're like out
Speaker 1: there with the kids. I'm picturing myself being able to
Speaker 1: tie it around my waist and as we slowly as
Speaker 1: the current kind of pushes us down the beach. My
Speaker 1: super strong magnet's just looking for like lost watches or
Speaker 1: jewelry or sunglasses, just whatever might be slightly buried in
Speaker 1: the sand there. How cool is that? It's it's interesting,
Speaker 1: that's right, right, that's for sure. I'm call you Magneto.
Speaker 1: That will totally be my magnet fishing name. I'm super
Speaker 1: excited about the idea. I'm not totally sure actually how
Speaker 1: it works, if it works well at the beach, but
Speaker 1: there are folks out there and they've got accounts dedicated
Speaker 1: to this, and folks have found everything from like, yeah,
Speaker 1: jewelry to safe that that have been thrown into rivers,
Speaker 1: to like rusty bikes to tools, sunglasses, all sorts of
Speaker 1: crazy stuff. Uh, and so I don't know, I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: by the idea of kind of scavenging with the potential
Speaker 1: to possibly earn a little money on the side. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: any hobby that allows you to actually potentially make some
Speaker 1: money at the same time. It's almost like that, like
Speaker 1: it's like a passive hobby for yea, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like you have to be super dedicated
Speaker 1: to It's He's like, let me tossed a few. It's
Speaker 1: sort of like fishing. You don't have to be completely
Speaker 1: dedicated to maybe enjoy the process. We'll try it out
Speaker 1: this summer. Let us know how it goes. Well, I'm curious.
Speaker 1: The first beach trip is going to be ours, and
Speaker 1: so you'll see I mean, if I do this, and
Speaker 1: we will absolutely post pictures. All right, I'm very intrigued.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to see that. And I will say, if
Speaker 1: you're listening and this is something you've tried, let me
Speaker 1: know your tips, because I'm a total nube. All right. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can always reach out to us how the Money
Speaker 1: Pod at gmail dot com. But Matt, let's mention the
Speaker 1: beer we're having on this episode. This is called Stuck
Speaker 1: Ease Pecan log role by Wild Heaven. I said pecan.
Speaker 1: You can say pecan. I don't know. In the South
Speaker 1: it's peak and pecan, and the South, if you're a
Speaker 1: Southerner it's pecans. I think I did like very Yankee.
Speaker 1: It's I did somewhere in the middle on that pronunciation.
Speaker 1: But we'll give our thoughts on on this one. You're
Speaker 1: always living life in the gray. I am at the
Speaker 1: end of the episode. But let's get onto the topic
Speaker 1: at hand. We are talking about the fact that we're moving.
Speaker 1: We're talking about how we decided to do that and
Speaker 1: and how you can find a great place to live. Matt.
Speaker 1: For some reason, this made me think of those progressive
Speaker 1: commercials where that that doctor is trying to prevent people
Speaker 1: from becoming like their parents. Have you seen those? Yes,
Speaker 1: they're pretty funny. They're pretty funny, and I think that's
Speaker 1: that's exactly sort of a great way to talk about moving,
Speaker 1: specifically to the burbs. Yeah, and so we are moving
Speaker 1: to the burbs. And as kids growing up, there were
Speaker 1: things I was like, I'm never going to be like
Speaker 1: my parents in this way or that way. Whether it
Speaker 1: was the way that they didn't explain, maybe the reasoning
Speaker 1: behind the decision they were making and they just said
Speaker 1: because I said so, or maybe it was like the
Speaker 1: way they dressed or the way they decided to do
Speaker 1: certain things. It was like, I'm not gonna be like
Speaker 1: my parents in that way, Like I'm never gonna wear
Speaker 1: socks with sandals. Look at you today, just my uncle
Speaker 1: and not my dad. But yes, actually I might actually
Speaker 1: wear socks about sandals. My daughter does. Was this close
Speaker 1: to doing it during date night the other week, but
Speaker 1: Kate talked me out of it. Yeah, well it was wise.
Speaker 1: I was getting ready to make a statement, all right. So,
Speaker 1: uh so we're talking about how for for so many
Speaker 1: of us as we get older and we end up
Speaker 1: adopting some of those things that are that we said
Speaker 1: we never would do. Right. I tell my kids to
Speaker 1: do things just because I said so, And that's something
Speaker 1: I said I would never do. So I am now
Speaker 1: a fraud, I'm a phony. But yeah, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: what we're talking about today, we're talking about taking page
Speaker 1: maybe out of our parents playbook to a certain degree,
Speaker 1: you know, doing something we said we never do. And
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some reasons for that as well as
Speaker 1: hopefully just some helpful ways to think about where you
Speaker 1: might want to live. On the show today, we're gonna
Speaker 1: list a number of factors and kind of push you
Speaker 1: towards developing a system for how you think about where
Speaker 1: you're going to like live and raise your family and
Speaker 1: exist for a period of time. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be forever, but we want to make sure that we're
Speaker 1: thinking about where we live thoughtfully. That's right. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that this is a topic that
Speaker 1: is incredibly relevant for us these days. We wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about choosing the right place to live because this
Speaker 1: is a huge decision that's going to have massive ripple
Speaker 1: effects in virtually every every area of your life. But
Speaker 1: the fact is, for virtually everyone listening to this episode,
Speaker 1: the cost of housing is likely your number one line
Speaker 1: item on your budget. Uh. This is one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we like house hacking so much, right. Uh, the
Speaker 1: ability to take a top expense and pull like a
Speaker 1: jiu jitsu move on it and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: flip it on its head and it's making you money.
Speaker 1: It's why we love that strategy so much, because putting
Speaker 1: a roof over your head is incredibly expensive. And then
Speaker 1: in addition to that, we've got this insane housing market
Speaker 1: with the astronomical run up in housing prices over the
Speaker 1: past eighteen months or so, and then on top of that,
Speaker 1: ortgage rates they have shot into the stratosphere, just complicating
Speaker 1: the decision even more. And so I believe that's it's
Speaker 1: only appropriate for us to tackle this topic today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll talk about the money considerations, of course, because
Speaker 1: we're out of money. That you should be making before
Speaker 1: you uproot yourself and you move somewhere new. But we'll
Speaker 1: we'll go beyond that. We'll talk about how where you
Speaker 1: live ends up impacting your quality of life too, because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, right, the entire purpose
Speaker 1: of our show is not purely to focus on financials,
Speaker 1: but it's how but it's how your money can impact
Speaker 1: your quality of life too. And so because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the entire purpose of our show
Speaker 1: is is to help you achieve the goals live the
Speaker 1: life you want to lead, and money is obviously a
Speaker 1: big part of that. Earning more, investing as much as
Speaker 1: you can, spending less. These are these are just the
Speaker 1: tools and strategies that are going to allow you to
Speaker 1: reach higher degrees of financial freedom. Ultimately, that's not what
Speaker 1: life is all about, though, right having the most money
Speaker 1: in the bank account, you know, how you spend your time,
Speaker 1: the people and the environment you surround yourself in, Uh,
Speaker 1: that the experience you're able to participate in. That that
Speaker 1: is what makes life special. And so, yeah, what it
Speaker 1: is that you choose to value, that's up to you.
Speaker 1: But we're hoping to give you some good thoughts on
Speaker 1: how to go about evaluating where you want to live.
Speaker 1: We're all going to come down, uh, in different places
Speaker 1: based on this methodology. Not everyone prioritizes the same things
Speaker 1: the same way. Not everybody prioritizes craft beer like that's right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: how close are you to a few great breweries that
Speaker 1: might be important on Matt and I scale, but maybe
Speaker 1: not as much on yours. Yeah, And this is a
Speaker 1: topic that has likely been on the minds of a
Speaker 1: lot of people over the past couple of years. Specifically,
Speaker 1: you know, like like many folks who had never considered
Speaker 1: moving to Montana or to Idaho, they suddenly found themselves
Speaker 1: dreaming of a different kind of life. Some folks want
Speaker 1: that big sky country seriously. Yeah, Yeah, I think there
Speaker 1: are a lot of folks who absolutely loved living in
Speaker 1: a dense urban locale. They decided that it wasn't what
Speaker 1: they wanted anymore. We're seeing some some seismic shifts and
Speaker 1: how and where it is that people want to live,
Speaker 1: largely in response to the pandemic and just this repriorities
Speaker 1: nation that has taken place in our lives. And I
Speaker 1: think we definitely fall into that camp. But a lot
Speaker 1: of rural towns are are seeing an influx of folks
Speaker 1: who are looking to change things up. They're looking to
Speaker 1: lower the cost of living. So it's top of mind
Speaker 1: for sure. That is another reason that we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about this today. Yeah, it's been interesting to see
Speaker 1: where people are moving because you're right, Idaho, Montana or
Speaker 1: high on that list, but even small towns that are
Speaker 1: like an hour and a half outside of Nashville that
Speaker 1: you would never have expect is on the radar of
Speaker 1: a young millennial or gen Z or like those. Those
Speaker 1: Some of those towns are popping too, and largely because
Speaker 1: the work from any Anywhere climate has created a surge
Speaker 1: of interest in cheap living in some of these small
Speaker 1: towns that are close enough to the big city but
Speaker 1: still have a lot of natural beauty to offer. And
Speaker 1: so we're gonna talk about this in a holistic way.
Speaker 1: We'll share the different reasons when a move makes sense,
Speaker 1: as well as how to do it affordably. Matt, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of rip offs that that can and do
Speaker 1: happen in the moving industry. We're gonna cover those later,
Speaker 1: how people can make sure they don't fall victim. But
Speaker 1: really we're gonna talk about is developing a system when
Speaker 1: it comes to choosing where you're going to live. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a good thing to have an idea about what
Speaker 1: region of the country you'd like to live in, even
Speaker 1: a specific city, but then zeroing in on a few
Speaker 1: neighborhoods where you'll start house hunting. That's a solid tactic
Speaker 1: whether you're renting or buying, and if you're moving to
Speaker 1: a completely new place. You know, we always always recommend
Speaker 1: running for at least six months. This really helps you
Speaker 1: get a feel for the specific location where you prefer
Speaker 1: to live. You know, just in that brief period of exploration,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find maybe even down to a specific street
Speaker 1: level or small neighborhood where you exactly want to be
Speaker 1: the best place for you and your family. There's a
Speaker 1: lot to consider, obviously, but we're gonna try to break
Speaker 1: it down to the high points, like the most important
Speaker 1: things that should that should be on your radar as
Speaker 1: you're kind of thinking about where you want to live.
Speaker 1: That's right, and they're definitely the factors that went through
Speaker 1: our minds as we you know, ran this decision through
Speaker 1: the gauntlets of our of our decision making process, um
Speaker 1: and so this wouldn't be how the money, of course,
Speaker 1: if we didn't consider the financial implications. So let's kick
Speaker 1: it off. We got to mention that one of the
Speaker 1: ways that you might narrow in on a specific group
Speaker 1: of states or even cities is to consider the cost
Speaker 1: of living. Most folks know that it's it's likely going
Speaker 1: to cost a lot more to live in California than
Speaker 1: Alabama or Mississippi. But you should dig into the numbers
Speaker 1: and see what the cost of living looks like in
Speaker 1: specific cities or towns even within that state. Seen in money,
Speaker 1: they actually have a great cost of living calculator that
Speaker 1: will help you to see how much more or honestly
Speaker 1: even how much less everything will cost in specific cities.
Speaker 1: Will make sure to link to that in our show notes.
Speaker 1: But as a general rule of FuMB, you can always
Speaker 1: count on the cost of living being higher in more
Speaker 1: urban and more metropolitan areas versus more rural areas out
Speaker 1: in the country. Yeah, so let's keep talking about the
Speaker 1: money portion matt of how you make a decision, because
Speaker 1: you have cost of living is huge part of what
Speaker 1: influences the cost of living is how much you're gonna
Speaker 1: pay in taxes and you know, obviously it would be
Speaker 1: ridiculous to solely base your decision around where you move
Speaker 1: based on taxes. It sounds like something Matt and Joel
Speaker 1: would do. No, it doesn't at all. Actually, I think
Speaker 1: some people might pigeon holes, and I think they get
Speaker 1: like that might be like the knee jerk reaction. But
Speaker 1: we truly are thinking about so much more than just
Speaker 1: the cost of living, even though that is something that
Speaker 1: is sway our decisions slightly. For sure, we're gonna save
Speaker 1: money ultimately in this move. We're moving to a place
Speaker 1: it's going to be a little bit cheaper for us
Speaker 1: and for our family. But when it comes to taxes,
Speaker 1: like to say, more affordable, more affordable, yeah, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: when we're talking about taxes, that is an important decision maker,
Speaker 1: right because let's say you live in California, but you
Speaker 1: decide to move to Tennessee or Florida, you are going
Speaker 1: to save a boatload every single year on your state
Speaker 1: income tax bill. That's right, Florida, Texas, Tennessee. There's a
Speaker 1: number of states where you don't have to pay any
Speaker 1: income tax. You do not pay state taxes. I believe
Speaker 1: Washington State is another no income tax state. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things where sure it's nice
Speaker 1: to note that, and you might add a slight waiting
Speaker 1: to some of those locations because of that, because yeah,
Speaker 1: the discrepancy in state income tax can be a big deal.
Speaker 1: It can add up. But yeah, similarly, it's it's not
Speaker 1: a bad idea to look up where your new state
Speaker 1: ranks when it comes to property taxes, because you don't
Speaker 1: want to look at just income taxes. There are different ways,
Speaker 1: and and even sales tax to Matt because you know
Speaker 1: where we live now that the sales taxes right in
Speaker 1: the nine percent range, and some states have a zero
Speaker 1: sales tax when you're buying things. So those are all
Speaker 1: things you're gonna want to keep in mind. Of course,
Speaker 1: if you're leaving behind a great community or you know,
Speaker 1: close family relationships, the money you save isn't going to
Speaker 1: be worth the trade off when you're talking about reducing
Speaker 1: your your tax burden. Taxes are not a good reason
Speaker 1: to uproot your family, but it's also not an insignificant
Speaker 1: factor when we're talking about, you know, why we decide
Speaker 1: where we live. Cost of living in taxes are important
Speaker 1: monetary considerations when we're thinking about where we're gonna end up.
Speaker 1: That's right. And tax Foundation dot org they actually have
Speaker 1: a bunch of different charts. They've got a map where
Speaker 1: they show your state income tax. They've got a map
Speaker 1: that shows how much your map. Yeah, literally, it's it's
Speaker 1: colored where you can easily see the states where you
Speaker 1: are paying more in taxes. So we'll make sure to
Speaker 1: link to that as a quick little reference. But Joel,
Speaker 1: we've got tons of other factors to consider, uh, and
Speaker 1: not just money factors. There are a number of lifestyle
Speaker 1: considerations before you make that move, and so we'll get
Speaker 1: to all of those right after this. All right, that
Speaker 1: we are back, and yes, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: lifestyle considerations that you have to take into account, including
Speaker 1: you know, how many breweries per capita, crap breweries are
Speaker 1: nearby where you're planning to move to. I was a
Speaker 1: part of the reason that we were very interested in
Speaker 1: moving to North Carolina. Yes, it's like home. Maybe we
Speaker 1: should go to Raley. Looks how many berries there are there.
Speaker 1: But before we get to those lifestyle considerations, there is
Speaker 1: one more financial consideration that's ridiculously important when we're talking
Speaker 1: about where you end up. And that is where the
Speaker 1: job's at. Because if there is not a robust amount
Speaker 1: of jobs where you're looking to move, that could massively
Speaker 1: influence your decision. You know, we we actually mentioned the
Speaker 1: resurgence of small towns just a little bit ago. You
Speaker 1: know that this has largely been made possible because of
Speaker 1: full time work from home becoming a reality for tens
Speaker 1: of millions of folks. They didn't have the luxury three
Speaker 1: years ago of leaving their big town and moving somewhere
Speaker 1: less expensive because they had to be where their employer was.
Speaker 1: But because of these changes in the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of folks don't have to be in the
Speaker 1: city where their employer is, people are leaving, they're moving.
Speaker 1: It's it's like a diaspora where people are moving all
Speaker 1: across the country into towns that nobody was even considering
Speaker 1: just a few years ago. And and so yeah, that
Speaker 1: being said, city centers still offer the best access to
Speaker 1: the highest paying jobs, especially if you're starting out in
Speaker 1: your career or if you're looking to move up the
Speaker 1: ladder more quickly. We would suggest looking for locations where
Speaker 1: you're gonna have more choice when it comes to where
Speaker 1: you work or what you do. And so a recent
Speaker 1: wallet hub study actually found that the best places to
Speaker 1: start a career are Salt Lake City, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin,
Speaker 1: and Seattle. And those are all pretty major markets, right there,
Speaker 1: pretty big places. And so where you live has certainly
Speaker 1: a little bit less to do with the kind of
Speaker 1: job you're going to be able to get, but that's
Speaker 1: still an important factor, and especially if you're the kind
Speaker 1: of person who isn't planning on working from home, taking
Speaker 1: stock of the job scene before you like start to
Speaker 1: plant your roots is really important, that's right. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: it's not just about the cost of living, how much
Speaker 1: money you are spending every single month, but the amount
Speaker 1: of money that you might be earning the future potential
Speaker 1: two of the money that you might be earning over
Speaker 1: the years. Yeah. I think our fine city of Atlanta
Speaker 1: was number three on that list. Which there's just so
Speaker 1: so many great employers here. I was just talking to
Speaker 1: someone the other day who works at the new Microsoft
Speaker 1: office in Atlantic Station, and there's just there's so many
Speaker 1: fortune companies. There's so much opportunity for people to move
Speaker 1: with the ladder, to find gainful employment and to earn
Speaker 1: more money here. That's right, Yeah, so join us down
Speaker 1: here in the great city of Atlanta. By the way,
Speaker 1: we're not moving. We're not even the greater Atlanta areas,
Speaker 1: so it's just the run. Yeah. Just in case folks
Speaker 1: were thinking that we might be like moving to Washington,
Speaker 1: like you said or something like that, that is not
Speaker 1: the case. Uh. But of course money is not the
Speaker 1: only factor to consider when deciding where to live. You'll
Speaker 1: definitely want to consider how much space that you're gonna need.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about square footage of the house itself,
Speaker 1: how that square footage is allocated, how usable the spaces,
Speaker 1: but also we're talking about how big the lot is,
Speaker 1: you know what, what sort of ability you'll have to
Speaker 1: plan a garden, order to have a basketball goal for
Speaker 1: some of those one on one games. You know, As
Speaker 1: a culture, I think we've placed too much importance on
Speaker 1: just having quote unquote like more space. It's always more
Speaker 1: and more and more. We don't like that. But but
Speaker 1: having a good idea of how much and what kind
Speaker 1: of space that you'll need, I think that will help
Speaker 1: a ton and picking a great place to live. This
Speaker 1: is absolutely one of the top reasons that folks move
Speaker 1: because they're oftentimes looking for not just more space, but
Speaker 1: a space is going to suit them better. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like what you said about how that square footage is allocated.
Speaker 1: It because sometimes a square foot house can serve you
Speaker 1: better than square foot house just because of the way
Speaker 1: the space is laid out. And I've seen some really efficient,
Speaker 1: really incredible designs on some of those smaller homes that
Speaker 1: make a lot of sense for the way like our
Speaker 1: family lives, whereas some bigger homes just it's like an
Speaker 1: inefficient use of space. It feels like a waste. But yes,
Speaker 1: so the space is obviously an important consideration. You don't
Speaker 1: want to move your family of six into eight d
Speaker 1: square feet And we actually has a family five lived
Speaker 1: in nine hundred square feet for a minute and that
Speaker 1: was too tight. We realized that we don't want to
Speaker 1: do that again. Well, yeah, you knew there was a
Speaker 1: temporary deal, but even that, I don't think you would
Speaker 1: sign up for even a temporary gig one week maybe
Speaker 1: thatt if you had a choice, No, I would not.
Speaker 1: So another another top reason, according to multiple surveys, is
Speaker 1: that folks that folks often move has to do with relationships.
Speaker 1: Of course, makes tons of sense, right, you know, similar
Speaker 1: to needing more space potentially oftentimes, you know, wanting to
Speaker 1: be closer to family is the impetus that causes as
Speaker 1: someone to move or moving across the country because of
Speaker 1: a budding relationship. And you know, we love our family,
Speaker 1: so it's no wonder that we'd want to be closer
Speaker 1: to them if at all possible. And that is actually
Speaker 1: part of the reason for our move where our family
Speaker 1: is going to be closer to my parents. And so
Speaker 1: if you don't have to be a twelve hour drive away,
Speaker 1: well then maybe it's time to move. And so don't
Speaker 1: discount your relationships. Don't discount platonic relationships as well, you know,
Speaker 1: as as we get not just family, but like yeah,
Speaker 1: your friends, Yeah, being closer to friends, moving back to
Speaker 1: a city maybe where you have more roots, especially if
Speaker 1: it's like coming back home or something like that. Especially
Speaker 1: let's say you're starting a family, you've got young kids.
Speaker 1: Being closer to folks who you have deep relationship with
Speaker 1: your family or friends or both is something that makes
Speaker 1: a big difference when it comes to quality of life.
Speaker 1: And as besties, I can say that this is one
Speaker 1: area that we can really speak to because I mean
Speaker 1: with us moving together. This makes it tremendously easier. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've been friends for over a decade now. I would
Speaker 1: say that we've been besties for the majority of that time,
Speaker 1: but that as you and me are, why are best friends,
Speaker 1: Our kids are best friends. So we were doing this
Speaker 1: separately and moving through different places, my gosh, it would
Speaker 1: be hard. Yeah, it would be incredibly hard. And I
Speaker 1: wonder if just folks think that we're just like like
Speaker 1: we pretend to be friends, like like on TV, but
Speaker 1: we we truly are and this wee's been listening for
Speaker 1: any length the time. They know that this is an
Speaker 1: important factor when this is why we had so many
Speaker 1: of those meetings to kind of talk through the details
Speaker 1: of us because it's incredibly complicated, but it was also
Speaker 1: really important to make sure that we were doing this right.
Speaker 1: It's even more complicated when we run a business together
Speaker 1: and we have a podcast and so we have to
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot like that whole side of it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: We've already talked about the job aspect of you know, moving. Granted,
Speaker 1: being podcasters, we weren't necessarily tied to a location. That
Speaker 1: was one of the things I will say that actually
Speaker 1: made it easier to pull the trigger on this. This
Speaker 1: move was you and I don't We can work from
Speaker 1: wherever we want exactly, so because I've been wanting to
Speaker 1: kind of do that for a while because even you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day with photography, I wasn't necessarily beholding
Speaker 1: to a specific location. But it's like, oh man, but
Speaker 1: we're here in this neighborhood. It's like Mayberry, we love
Speaker 1: it here. Uh seven. Still, you were in Atlanta, photographer,
Speaker 1: and so you couldn't have moved too far away, exactly
Speaker 1: unless you wanted to start from a lot of people
Speaker 1: commute in for for shoots once a week, and you know,
Speaker 1: once a week commute where you're driving an hour. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's I'm not going to say that that's ideal, but
Speaker 1: for a lot of folks, it's uh, definitely doable given
Speaker 1: the cost of living where they where they do live.
Speaker 1: But as we're talking about relationships, and it also makes
Speaker 1: me think about empty nesters, because that's a way that
Speaker 1: relationships change. You might be like a six bedroom house,
Speaker 1: not that you or I are getting homes that are
Speaker 1: that big, but if you are an empty nester, your
Speaker 1: kids are no longer there. You might realize that, oh,
Speaker 1: we actually don't need to be bouncing around this this
Speaker 1: house that's made for a growing family. And so I
Speaker 1: mentioned that because for our older listeners, I think that's
Speaker 1: definitely a great reason to consider moving to downsize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we toured, actually met a few homes that were in
Speaker 1: that five thousand plus square foot range, and I was
Speaker 1: I was just not having any of it. It's like,
Speaker 1: is it a warehouse? I know? And then the basement
Speaker 1: was so big and I'm like, well, I don't even
Speaker 1: know what we do with the space. No, please show
Speaker 1: me things that are, you know, in the square foot range.
Speaker 1: So that's what we said, don't on to something that's
Speaker 1: very normal in size. But I just, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what people do. Do you send your kids
Speaker 1: to the east wing of the house like when you
Speaker 1: don't want to speak to them or something like? It
Speaker 1: felt it felt too big for for me. Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So community that is another big part of making a
Speaker 1: place that you land feel like home. But it can
Speaker 1: be hard to assess what the community vibe is going
Speaker 1: to be like before you move in. And so one
Speaker 1: way that you can get at least an inkling is
Speaker 1: by seeing how many public spaces exist in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: that you're interested in. So the more parks or the
Speaker 1: more playgrounds and trails that you encounter, I think, the
Speaker 1: more likely you are to see your neighbors. How much
Speaker 1: life is being lived in the front yards as opposed
Speaker 1: to the basements of those five thousands were foot homes, Joel,
Speaker 1: where you don't see anyone. The more sidewalks you see,
Speaker 1: the more likely you are to bump into new neighbors
Speaker 1: and and old friends on an evening walk. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's amazing in our current neighborhood that we're leaving. Just
Speaker 1: having a church with a great parking lot in a
Speaker 1: playground in the center of the neighborhood, it just has
Speaker 1: fostered so many her hangs and in a significant way,
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of like the heart geographically speaking of
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. And so spaces like that truly do matter.
Speaker 1: And the sidewalks. We've got sidewalks on both sides of
Speaker 1: the street, basically on every street around here. And so
Speaker 1: what did neighbors do They walk? And so I see
Speaker 1: people out all the time when I'm on my bike
Speaker 1: or when I'm walking with my kids, and it just
Speaker 1: it creates impromptu community community conversations that are honestly just
Speaker 1: as good, if not better than some of the planned conversations.
Speaker 1: And the plan hangs on a back porch or from
Speaker 1: ports or something. And sometimes that spontaneousness that's what you
Speaker 1: need in your life. Man, that's right. So so much
Speaker 1: of our lives are already planned and on the calendar.
Speaker 1: It's good to have these avenues that exist to foster
Speaker 1: that kind of relationship. Yeah, I love that. So another
Speaker 1: thing that, of course we think is important is walkability
Speaker 1: and bike ability, whether you're renting or you're buying a
Speaker 1: place that That's another thing we haven't really talked about
Speaker 1: much here, Matt, is you don't necessarily have to be
Speaker 1: buying a house in order to be thoughtful about where
Speaker 1: you're gonna live. You can be a thoughtful renter and
Speaker 1: you can decide to uproot and move somewhere else and
Speaker 1: find a new place to land to as someone who
Speaker 1: is still signing let's say, a year long lease, I
Speaker 1: think most of what we've talked about so far today,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's universal, right, and like it applies
Speaker 1: to you if you're looking to rent or if you're
Speaker 1: looking to buy exactly, and and so walk ability bike
Speaker 1: ability apply to everyone too. We think those are both
Speaker 1: worthy things to prioritize. And so whether that means being
Speaker 1: able to bike to your actual place of work, or
Speaker 1: just like a couple of great brewers and restaurants that
Speaker 1: you love that you feel like you're going to frequent
Speaker 1: a lot because that's the kind of life you're living
Speaker 1: right now, that's great, Or whether it's walking distance to
Speaker 1: a playground for your kids. I mean finding something you
Speaker 1: can you can't be you can't be walking distance or
Speaker 1: biking distance to everything. But as long as you've got
Speaker 1: a few things that you can consistently hit up that
Speaker 1: are meaningful, prioritizing some proximity to some of those things
Speaker 1: that you value is is important. And maybe it's just
Speaker 1: nature right that you want to be closer to, like
Speaker 1: a national or a state park. You know, there's actually evidence,
Speaker 1: Matt that that living closer to nature reduces stress and
Speaker 1: increases happiness. So I like that kind of an Those
Speaker 1: are the kind of studies that I look for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just back up my current way of thinking then, and
Speaker 1: I like it. Cherry picking a little bit here for sure,
Speaker 1: But that again was something that you and I discussed.
Speaker 1: Being in town Atlanta, there are a decent number of
Speaker 1: parks and trees, but still we weren't close enough to
Speaker 1: some of the nature things that we were wanting. And
Speaker 1: so where we're moving, just twenty five minutes away, gives
Speaker 1: us access to some of that. Yeah, but even if
Speaker 1: getting outside, if that's not your thing, focus on whatever
Speaker 1: it is that's going to move the needle for you.
Speaker 1: You're like, no, I'm playing Xbox twelve hours a day.
Speaker 1: I don't need that nature the metaverse, So focus on
Speaker 1: whatever it is that that you enjoy the most. Uh.
Speaker 1: But speaking of kids and playgrounds, schools, they are something
Speaker 1: else that you're gonna want to consider, honestly, even if
Speaker 1: you don't, you know, have kids or even plan on
Speaker 1: having kids, because how good the schools are where you
Speaker 1: end up moving is going to inevitably affect the value
Speaker 1: of your home. You know. I think this probably applies
Speaker 1: a little bit more to the homeowners to the home
Speaker 1: buyers out there. But you can find helpful school rankings
Speaker 1: on Great School School Digger are both sites out there
Speaker 1: that helped to compare apples to apples when it when
Speaker 1: it comes to schools, but I mentioned this one because
Speaker 1: this is a factor that Kate and I didn't consider
Speaker 1: at all when we bought our first home. That being said, kay,
Speaker 1: now we I think we kind of lucked out and
Speaker 1: we did happen to fall in a zone or a
Speaker 1: district for a school that is highly rated, that is
Speaker 1: rated well, that is highly sought after. But keep that
Speaker 1: in mind because not only is it going to affect resale,
Speaker 1: but even if you're going to keep that property, uh,
Speaker 1: if you are going to consider renting that, that is
Speaker 1: also going to have an impact on the rents that
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to bring in because folks
Speaker 1: they want to live in this in the neighborhood where
Speaker 1: we live because they want their kids to be able
Speaker 1: to get into that school. So aside from the fact
Speaker 1: that this is more of a lifestyle thing where your
Speaker 1: kids might end up going to school, if it's not,
Speaker 1: it'll at least come around, uh, and it will influence
Speaker 1: the finances and it could go and probably should go
Speaker 1: without saying, but I'm a saying anyway. Also, when the
Speaker 1: school district that you end up in, if you have kids,
Speaker 1: it's gonna turn where they go to school. For the
Speaker 1: most part, unless you live in municipality or a state
Speaker 1: where they're is greater access to school choice, which is
Speaker 1: a great thing. Uh, you are typically bound to the
Speaker 1: nearest school to where you live, and so the type
Speaker 1: of education that your kids receive is largely determined based
Speaker 1: on the kind of school. Even maybe even just the
Speaker 1: the academic approach of that school can differ. It might
Speaker 1: not even be that it's rated higher, but you might
Speaker 1: just say I really like the methodology. That that's the
Speaker 1: differences style of school instead, And that can be a
Speaker 1: big difference maker in where and why you decide to move.
Speaker 1: So that makes me think that maybe we should divulge
Speaker 1: a little bit more about why we're deciding to move,
Speaker 1: because we've covered a bunch of those factors that are
Speaker 1: worth considering. There's some financial factors, there are some lifestyle
Speaker 1: considerations that you really should take into account before you
Speaker 1: decide to pull the trigger higher the moving company and
Speaker 1: just peace out and move across the state lines or
Speaker 1: even just up the road within your state to a
Speaker 1: new neighborhood. We'll talk more about our decision for moving,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about how you can move without getting
Speaker 1: ripped off right after this, alright, we're back from the break,
Speaker 1: and now that we've discussed the framework for picking an
Speaker 1: awesome place to live, let's go ahead and like you said,
Speaker 1: you let's get personal. Let's uh discuss our move here
Speaker 1: for a second. And so, how do many listeners If
Speaker 1: you've been listening to the podcast, for those who have
Speaker 1: sharp ears, you may have heard recently me talking about
Speaker 1: the fact that we did purchase a home. And if
Speaker 1: you've got really sharp ears, you may have even remembered
Speaker 1: me talking about potentially even like moving someplace that has mountains.
Speaker 1: Was sometime last year, I remember talking about moving out
Speaker 1: to Boise. I think we had actually we had a
Speaker 1: listener who was in Boise and I told you Boise
Speaker 1: is way too expensive, and it is actually so is Denver.
Speaker 1: These were all locations that Kate and I that we've
Speaker 1: always sort of dreamed about moving to because of the
Speaker 1: proximity to mountains into nature. We always, for instance, we
Speaker 1: always thought we would end up in sort of the
Speaker 1: wester or North Carolina area. We both worked up around Asheville.
Speaker 1: I used to live in Black Mountain for a little
Speaker 1: bit back in the day. But given the many factors
Speaker 1: that we just talked through, it was gonna mean that
Speaker 1: we're further from family. It was gonna mean that we
Speaker 1: were potentially going to rupture relationships that we have with
Speaker 1: your family, not to mention the business as well. And
Speaker 1: so we started thinking, Okay, where is somewhere that we
Speaker 1: can at least be a little bit closer to nature.
Speaker 1: And so that is what kept us closer to home,
Speaker 1: closer to where we are right now, to where we're
Speaker 1: actually recording this episode, but still much closer to uh
Speaker 1: a state you know, state and national parks where we
Speaker 1: can literally hike from our house and start hiking, versus
Speaker 1: commuting in the van on the weekends, which is what
Speaker 1: we typically do to drive somewhere to go hiking. And
Speaker 1: you're not going to spend that time basically every weekend.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, to think that this new mountain, you know,
Speaker 1: right around the corner, literally walking distance from your house,
Speaker 1: is your new playground, is so so big for your
Speaker 1: famis it's a huge. And I mean, of course not
Speaker 1: only that schools. We kind of touched on that earlier
Speaker 1: before the break as well. That's something that was it
Speaker 1: wasn't important when we bought our first home, but then
Speaker 1: we quickly it kind of quickly rose and rank as
Speaker 1: to how much importance and how much stress we put
Speaker 1: on that. And as we've grown our family though, as
Speaker 1: we've had more kids, it's become more and more of
Speaker 1: a priority. And so work with you having four kids
Speaker 1: that need to get educated, me having three, the school
Speaker 1: decision makes even more of an impact on how we
Speaker 1: view it, at least at this point in time. And Matt,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that the school our kids go to, it's
Speaker 1: highly rated, highly sought after, it's been a good place.
Speaker 1: But then I talked about how different styles of education
Speaker 1: can make a difference, and so that was actually one
Speaker 1: of the major reasons to precipitate us moving. And as
Speaker 1: any parent knows who has had virtual school and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, it has shed some light on how the
Speaker 1: inner workings maybe of the school that that your kid
Speaker 1: goes to, and it's maybe made you think a little
Speaker 1: bit differently about how you want their education to go
Speaker 1: in the future. It certainly did for for the two
Speaker 1: of us, Matt, for our fans, and and so that
Speaker 1: was that definitely factored in. But but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of these things where the things that you and I
Speaker 1: that we prioritize the most highly about the neighborhood where
Speaker 1: we currently live, the community aspect that is so ingrained
Speaker 1: in the fabric of this place where we live. We
Speaker 1: wanted to find a similar place that had maybe some
Speaker 1: of these other characteristics that we love. We didn't want
Speaker 1: to give it all up, and we didn't want to
Speaker 1: give up some of the city vibes, and so we're
Speaker 1: able to keep actually I think a lot of that
Speaker 1: where we're moving to just minutes away, and so, um,
Speaker 1: these are the kind of things where it's a tough
Speaker 1: decision in there's trade offs because there's always gonna my
Speaker 1: favorite breakfast place. I'm leaving it behind. I'm gonna miss
Speaker 1: homegrowing like like it's my job, that place of place,
Speaker 1: the best one of our favorite breweries with the best
Speaker 1: merch in the entire country. That's right, We're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to bike there anymore. So there's definitely some
Speaker 1: things like that we're sad about, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: that we're excited about too. So. But again, the fact
Speaker 1: that we're able to do this together, Like honestly, that's
Speaker 1: what sort of sealed the deal. Like that was going
Speaker 1: to be so difficult, and that's why we wanted to highlight,
Speaker 1: Like you said, Joe Thos, platonic relationships because as you know,
Speaker 1: as we get older, I think it's just it's not
Speaker 1: it's really hard to maintain closer relationships, especially as men.
Speaker 1: As we get older oftentime, we're not going out of
Speaker 1: our way to make new friendships. And so if we
Speaker 1: don't intentionally foster and nurture the relationships that you do have,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times folks find themselves in
Speaker 1: middle age alone, you know, with that without friends. And
Speaker 1: that's certainly something that you and I we never talked
Speaker 1: about this on our show. On the show actually friendship
Speaker 1: and how important that is. We should we totally should
Speaker 1: literally say best friends out at the end of every
Speaker 1: We have talked about the declining American friendship because the
Speaker 1: average person used to have something like three and a
Speaker 1: half close friends and now have like one point six
Speaker 1: or one point seven. We have talked close friends, and
Speaker 1: so there is a decline, I think. And and so
Speaker 1: this community that the focus in the spotlight we shine
Speaker 1: on community and friendship, we think is crucial. That that's
Speaker 1: true wealth right there is having close community, close family. Uh,
Speaker 1: the more you can foster that, the richer you're gonna
Speaker 1: feel even if your bank account is just you know,
Speaker 1: even if financially actually you're broke. Yeah, we watch it
Speaker 1: up both ultimately, but like that, that's even more important
Speaker 1: really in our book. That's right man. All right. So,
Speaker 1: once you've decided that you are going to make the move,
Speaker 1: you know you've determined specific city or better yet, maybe
Speaker 1: you've determined a specific neighborhood. Uh, let's let's talk about
Speaker 1: what's next. Because you might be saying, well, the supply
Speaker 1: of homes where I want to live is low. How
Speaker 1: can I find the right place for me in this market? Well,
Speaker 1: it's crucial to make sure that you have an agent
Speaker 1: who specializes in the area where you want to live.
Speaker 1: Joel Unite. We we both have a killer agent who
Speaker 1: has helped us both by multiple properties in town where
Speaker 1: we currently live everything from the homes. Uh we live
Speaker 1: into the homes that our investment properties. But honestly, we
Speaker 1: didn't even consider using her at all for purchasing our
Speaker 1: homes out in the bourbs. It's it's a completely different
Speaker 1: market out there, and we wanted an expert who lives
Speaker 1: and who breathes the exact place we were hoping to land,
Speaker 1: and it's a completely different market out there, and we
Speaker 1: wanted an expert who lives and breathe the exact place
Speaker 1: that we were hoping to land. We want somebody who
Speaker 1: knows your target neighborhood inside. And now, can I just
Speaker 1: say to by the way, you keep saying the burbs,
Speaker 1: and I think I've mentioned it too, and we are
Speaker 1: moving to somewhere that's not that's heart of the city, right,
Speaker 1: But it's also there's a difference I think between where
Speaker 1: we're moving and just complete suburbia. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: not because it still has soul. That's part of the
Speaker 1: identity I was talking about, and that made it so
Speaker 1: difficult to move. We're moving into like actually a mid
Speaker 1: century house in an older neighborhood that is not too
Speaker 1: far from a suburban towntown. Sure. Yeah, so let's put
Speaker 1: this out there for the record. We're not moving into
Speaker 1: McMansion that are all cookie cutter, and not that there's
Speaker 1: anything against that, but that that is not what we
Speaker 1: were looking for, either one of us. What we're looking
Speaker 1: for in the type of that we were looking We
Speaker 1: have sung the praises about our super old bungalows and
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be moving into an old house again,
Speaker 1: because I just have an affinity for old houses, even
Speaker 1: if they cost you more in the long run. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're talking about an agent. Matt, the agent we went with,
Speaker 1: He does just that, right. He lives in the same
Speaker 1: neighborhood basically that you're moving to. Literally, yeah, and he great.
Speaker 1: Local real estate agents often have a network that impacts
Speaker 1: their ability to find you a home, sometimes that they're
Speaker 1: able to get you into a property even before it
Speaker 1: hits the market. That happened in your case, didn't it
Speaker 1: match that He was able to say, like, listen, I
Speaker 1: know these folks they're about to sell. They told me
Speaker 1: about it, and you know what, if you want to
Speaker 1: take a look, you get first DIBs. Exactly. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean so yeah, Literally, that happened for us, and it
Speaker 1: can be you at least have first crack at it, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that's just especially given the market that
Speaker 1: we've had. It does seem like things are starting to
Speaker 1: cool off a little bit, But the competition was fierce
Speaker 1: this pass spring, and the ability, like I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: think we're getting a killer deal because we were needing
Speaker 1: to pay a premium for them to not list the
Speaker 1: house on the market, right, And so in some in
Speaker 1: one sense, maybe we slightly overpaid because who knows, we
Speaker 1: never got to see what the competition was gonna look like.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, we also didn't get to
Speaker 1: see what the competition was gonna look like, which meant
Speaker 1: that more than likely I think we were able to
Speaker 1: slightly under pay for what that home would have gone for.
Speaker 1: But either way, having somebody who knows the specific area
Speaker 1: and knows of not just pocket listings, but listings that
Speaker 1: may not even be listings yet, you know, like like
Speaker 1: these are folks who are just like you know, we've
Speaker 1: been thinking about moving. That's why souch, you can take
Speaker 1: care of you. Yeah. And if we had used our agent,
Speaker 1: who was a great agent, but she doesn't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for this part of town, it would have been, it
Speaker 1: would have been, it would have worked out the same way.
Speaker 1: And and okay, one other thing I wanted to mention too,
Speaker 1: and can you talk about your guerilla marketing campaign to
Speaker 1: try to buy a house. And you you identified some
Speaker 1: specific homes and properties and some specific lots that you
Speaker 1: fell in love with the most, and so you started
Speaker 1: writing letters sticking in mailboxes, talking to neighbors. You weren't
Speaker 1: just content to pull up Zillo every day and see
Speaker 1: what popped up exactly. You were kind of like attacking
Speaker 1: the market to try to find what you wanted specifically.
Speaker 1: That I think that's why it's so helpful to know
Speaker 1: exactly where you're hoping to land right, because you can
Speaker 1: go literally it's a specific homes, which is what we did,
Speaker 1: and we got to meet and even though it didn't
Speaker 1: work out right in the end, we actually ended up
Speaker 1: purchasing a home that we hadn't specifically targeted, but it's
Speaker 1: still an awesome house in this right neighborhood that we're
Speaker 1: hoping to land in. But even though it didn't pan
Speaker 1: out for you know, for those specific homes that we targeted,
Speaker 1: we're still we're at least friends with those folks and
Speaker 1: they are now our neighbors, and we have, like we've already,
Speaker 1: we've still been in touch with them. But the fact is,
Speaker 1: were they on the brink of considering to move or not,
Speaker 1: I think there's a good chance that we may have
Speaker 1: been able to to do a similar off market deal.
Speaker 1: And basically that's a tactic that real estate and message
Speaker 1: use all the time, like they're they're farming the market,
Speaker 1: they're on door, they're sending out flyers trying to find
Speaker 1: that one percent of people who are willing to sell
Speaker 1: them the house based on getting that in their mailbox.
Speaker 1: And you were looking for the same thing, but as
Speaker 1: a primary homeowner. And I think that's actually really interesting
Speaker 1: tactic that that some people who are looking for a
Speaker 1: specific kind of property can use. It's not always going
Speaker 1: to work, but it's it's worth a shot. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about moving for a second map, because when we're talking
Speaker 1: about finding a place that you want to live, moving
Speaker 1: is clearly a part of the hassle. And it can
Speaker 1: be expensive to using your own vehicle or a U haul,
Speaker 1: asking for a few friends to help you move in
Speaker 1: exchange for like pizza and beer. That works really well
Speaker 1: in your twenties and not so much as you get older.
Speaker 1: You know, you and me, we were knocking on the
Speaker 1: door forty and so we had to budget more for
Speaker 1: our move. Especially, by the way, if you're not staying local,
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna cost more. And and I actually like
Speaker 1: the idea of running your own U haul and then
Speaker 1: hiring someone actually you hall has a moving help service.
Speaker 1: That's great for finding local folks. I've done that myself,
Speaker 1: and you can get a few people to come help
Speaker 1: you move relatively inexpensively, and you rent the truck yourself.
Speaker 1: And you did that a couple of times in the
Speaker 1: past few years and multiple times. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Finding a good mover for a bigger trip, especially one
Speaker 1: that's taking you to a new state, is actually something
Speaker 1: that can be fraught with peril. Though, So if you're
Speaker 1: hiring movers, professional movers, make sure they are certified pro
Speaker 1: movers at moving dot org. This this certification is awarded
Speaker 1: by the American Trucking Association to companies who have to
Speaker 1: pass like a rigorous set of standards and so ethical
Speaker 1: standards as well. Right, Yeah, and so there's uh. Plus,
Speaker 1: they look at the history of the moves they've done,
Speaker 1: they talked to previous customers. They are thorough, and so
Speaker 1: if you find a moving company who is a vetted
Speaker 1: pro mover, you can know with relative certainty that this
Speaker 1: is a company you want to do business with. Matt,
Speaker 1: you and I, we of course prioritize that we found
Speaker 1: high quality, certified pro movers who happen to be really
Speaker 1: affordable and are helping us move up relatively inexpensively. So
Speaker 1: I just want to put that out there. If you're
Speaker 1: looking to hire a mover, it's easy to get taken
Speaker 1: advantage of, but just only confining your search to pro
Speaker 1: movers is one way that you're going to ensure that
Speaker 1: you're doing business with the good guys. And by the
Speaker 1: way movers are, it seems like they're thrilled to give
Speaker 1: you estimates, but you want to make sure that you
Speaker 1: get a binding estimate, and because this actually protects you
Speaker 1: from extreme deviations that can occur if a mover only
Speaker 1: provides a non binding estimate. But by doing that that
Speaker 1: puts you in the best position. And don't ever pay
Speaker 1: a down payment to a mover for their services. This
Speaker 1: is a big, big red flag as well. And one
Speaker 1: other thing worth mentioning when it comes to your move
Speaker 1: is that you should try to purge as much as
Speaker 1: possible before you leave. Joel, I think this folks might
Speaker 1: also other sharp listeners out there might be may have
Speaker 1: picked up on the fact that we have been selling
Speaker 1: a good amount of stuff that you've basically meant to
Speaker 1: sell yourself. Challenge and I kind of reverse half for
Speaker 1: myself because I was like, Okay, we have to start
Speaker 1: unloading things because I don't want to be in a
Speaker 1: situation where we're either donating things to charity, which is
Speaker 1: totally fine, but I would rather see it to go
Speaker 1: to someone who's willing to pay me a small fee
Speaker 1: where they're really excited to have that item and cash
Speaker 1: to charity instead. Man, that is true, but this can
Speaker 1: be a perfect chance to donate and sell that old
Speaker 1: stuff that can help even pay for this move. Fewer
Speaker 1: boxes means a less expensive move overall, and since the
Speaker 1: average move it costs something around, cutting that bill down
Speaker 1: in any way that you can is wise. But definitely
Speaker 1: don't sell your stuff in order to buy all new
Speaker 1: stuff when you get to your new place, and that
Speaker 1: would probably be far worse from a money standpoint. Try
Speaker 1: as much as possible to keep your old stuff that
Speaker 1: is still in good working order. We just want you
Speaker 1: to resist the urge to just completely upgrade by all
Speaker 1: new furniture. We're gonna get this room to deliver like
Speaker 1: brand new house where new people now. That is that
Speaker 1: is what we want you to try to avoid. Well,
Speaker 1: that's one of the downsize of those much larger homes Matt.
Speaker 1: That's why I like the fact that we're staying in
Speaker 1: a very similar square footage because it's like, there's not
Speaker 1: much need for us to buy anything else. We kind
Speaker 1: of have all the stuff that we've got, the beds
Speaker 1: and the couches and chairs and all that stuff already.
Speaker 1: We don't need to upgrade anything that you don't have
Speaker 1: those How are we going to outfit the west wing? Questions?
Speaker 1: Or the basement that is the size of my current home, Like,
Speaker 1: when are we gonna put down there? I have no idea.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's a that's a good A
Speaker 1: good call is is selling things that you can so
Speaker 1: that you're moving less overall, so it's gonna cost you less.
Speaker 1: And so let's talk about moving to matt in a
Speaker 1: hot market when prices are high. They have been rents,
Speaker 1: rents have gone up to and I've even seen people
Speaker 1: talk about bidding wars for certain homes when it comes
Speaker 1: to renting. So people are just that desperate for for
Speaker 1: certain houses in certain areas, and so it's I will
Speaker 1: say this was a massive needle that our families had
Speaker 1: to thread over a series of of multiple months, or
Speaker 1: a tiny needle we had a thread. It was the
Speaker 1: smaller the needle, the harder. That's that's a good point, yeah,
Speaker 1: and thank you for that. So, yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of uncertainty along the way as we were moving forward,
Speaker 1: and you might actually be thinking that maybe we've lost
Speaker 1: our how the money cred because we seem like you're
Speaker 1: buying at the wrong time. I bought homes at the
Speaker 1: peak of the market. Maybe. But a couple of things
Speaker 1: to note on that front is, well, who knows whether
Speaker 1: this is the peak or if we're going to see
Speaker 1: home prices continue to climb maybe for the next few
Speaker 1: years or even the next decade. It's tough to know.
Speaker 1: And we've talked about the underlying demographics and the housing
Speaker 1: shortage that we think they're there. We're not. We're definitely
Speaker 1: not in how bubble, but it's hard to know whether
Speaker 1: home prices are going to come down in the near
Speaker 1: future or not. And the other thing is we're fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to already own our own homes and that means
Speaker 1: that we have the ability to take advantage of the
Speaker 1: hot housing market. On the flip side of the equation, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're having to pay a premium, right
Speaker 1: to get our homes, but we're also getting a premium
Speaker 1: so for I mean us specifically, like we're we we
Speaker 1: sold our home, we are under contract, were pending, and
Speaker 1: so we're we're kind of swapping one seemingly overpriced home
Speaker 1: for another. Even though that being said, we are moving
Speaker 1: to a more affordable location, so we're actually paying less
Speaker 1: overall four our housing costs. And I'm doing the crazy
Speaker 1: thing and trying to rent out our current home so
Speaker 1: at all ending another unit to my rental portfolio. So
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where we're trying to make
Speaker 1: lemonade out of lemons with the hot housing market, and
Speaker 1: it's it's certainly a hard time to move. It's a
Speaker 1: really hard time to try to get two families to
Speaker 1: move within a relatively uh short distance of each other.
Speaker 1: But unreal we pulled it on somehow. It Yeah, we
Speaker 1: you have been able to manage it wild maintaining our friendship,
Speaker 1: uh the podcast and continuing to release good content. So
Speaker 1: I mean, picking the right place to live. It's it's
Speaker 1: more of an art honestly than a science. Um. But
Speaker 1: that being said, if you're a type a person, you
Speaker 1: might even want to create something a little nerdy or
Speaker 1: something like a weighted scale that considers all of these
Speaker 1: factors to help you to numerically represent which communities and
Speaker 1: which specific houses make sense to you. And remember, money
Speaker 1: is an important factor in deciding where to live. Of course,
Speaker 1: we don't want you to rent or buy somewhere that's
Speaker 1: going to bust your monthly budget, but money is not
Speaker 1: the most important reason to move or to stay put.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be moving here in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of a stressful time moving. It's
Speaker 1: widely considered to be one of the most stressful life events.
Speaker 1: It's up there, I think, with the loss of a
Speaker 1: loved one. And so here's to hoping we don't move
Speaker 1: again anytime soon. And for those out there who are
Speaker 1: also looking to move in the near future, we wish
Speaker 1: you the best of luck in finding a home and
Speaker 1: specifically in finding a community where you your family can
Speaker 1: thrive as well. Yep, so hopefully we dished enough personal
Speaker 1: information and also gave you a lot to think about
Speaker 1: when it comes to buying or renting and when where
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up. And I think, Matt, more people
Speaker 1: have been thinking about it, and more people will continue
Speaker 1: to think a little more deeply about why they live
Speaker 1: where they live. They'll start to question is this is
Speaker 1: actually this is actually where I want to be, Or
Speaker 1: do I actually want to live in a small town
Speaker 1: on the edge of a national forest, or do I
Speaker 1: want to live in the heart of downtown in a
Speaker 1: studio apartment because I'm walking distance to three great craft breweries.
Speaker 1: I mean like, it's all going to be individualized and
Speaker 1: everyone's going to have a different take, which is great.
Speaker 1: But factor these things in for yourself. We'll we'll have
Speaker 1: a list in our show notes on how to money
Speaker 1: dot Com of all the factors that we mentioned, so
Speaker 1: you can kind of come up with a chart for
Speaker 1: yourself as you're making these assessments. But Matt, let's get
Speaker 1: back to the beer that we had on this episode.
Speaker 1: This is called Stuck Ease Pecan log Roll by a
Speaker 1: Wild Heaven. What were your thoughts on this beer. I'll
Speaker 1: say it was pretty tasty. It's a fairly unique beer.
Speaker 1: Like they don't say on the can what type of
Speaker 1: beer it is, but if I had to just cry it,
Speaker 1: I would say like it has more brown ale characteristics,
Speaker 1: uh than than a stout because it doesn't have some
Speaker 1: of those big, robust flavors that come with a stout.
Speaker 1: Drinks more like a brown ale to me, like a
Speaker 1: light nutbrown ale, you know that's true. And I feel
Speaker 1: like it kind of has a fluffy nous to it,
Speaker 1: like it almost tastes like there's a little bit of marshmallow.
Speaker 1: A lot of times marshmallow can be added to stouts,
Speaker 1: typically as an adjunct, to kind of give it some
Speaker 1: of that white fluff flavor. And it makes sense too
Speaker 1: specifically for this beer because this is so stuck ease.
Speaker 1: It's like a gas station. It's like a truck stop
Speaker 1: chain that originated down in South Georgia, and they have
Speaker 1: these pecan log rolls that you could buy there at
Speaker 1: those gas stations. And so this is actually a collaboration
Speaker 1: with Stucky specifically in Wild Heaven, to create this beer
Speaker 1: that makes it taste like you just pulled over in
Speaker 1: South Georgia. I guess it got a snack and got
Speaker 1: a log roll from the gas station, which I don't
Speaker 1: even know if I've ever even had one of these.
Speaker 1: I think I have. You have seen them before, did yeah? Right?
Speaker 1: Just to be a true Georgian, we would always if
Speaker 1: I was ever wanted, like the splurge when I was
Speaker 1: growing up was if my parents got one of the
Speaker 1: deep fried apple pies like in the wax paper. That
Speaker 1: sounds good, dude. Those were my jam and I still
Speaker 1: love those to this day. It's why my favorite donut
Speaker 1: is an apple fritter, because you get that deep fried
Speaker 1: with the apple flavors and the cinnamon. So I can't
Speaker 1: imagine myself going for the pecan roll pecon log roll
Speaker 1: over a deep fried apple pie. But the next time
Speaker 1: I see what, I'm gonna have to get one just too.
Speaker 1: I give it a shot, no doubt. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: this one was was tasty and pecans they're a classic
Speaker 1: Georgia staple, and so is on this episode where we're
Speaker 1: staying put in Georgia. It's only appropriate migrating a little
Speaker 1: bit north. Uh, it was only appropriate, I agree. So
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode. For folks who
Speaker 1: want the show notes and links to some of the
Speaker 1: things we mentioned in this episode, you can find those
Speaker 1: on our website at how to money dot com. That's right,
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be it for this episode, Joel. Until
Speaker 1: next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out, m