My Atlanta visit : follow-up,opinions & results

[donkir]

Thanks MYFASK for your detailed thoughts on your visit and future move to Atlanta. I have been reading these boards for a couple of months and have found them quite helpful, but your posts seemed to "hit home" the most. I was esp. intrigued by your comments on the basements and the fact that the lots looked larger on the screen than in real life. It didn't make sense to me that the lots looked decent because I could read that the lots were 1/4 acre and that's pretty small.

We may be moving to ATL from Cleveland early next year but are still waiting for my husband's company to make offer, present relo package, etc. so it's still questionable as to whether we will be moving at this point. Needless to say, we will also be taking a trip down before we make any decisions as well.

We have considered the following areas: Alpharetta, Cumming, Suwanee, Duluth, Sugar Hill but we think we have settled on Alpha for two reasons. The first one is that, based on some other posts, if you are Catholic, the further up north you go, the more your kids might be excluded. It seems like there are no Catholic schools further north than Alpharetta. We have 4 boys and they currently go to a Catholic school. While I don't feel that they HAVE to go to a CS, I don't want them feeling alienated, excluded...our first and foremost concern with this move is our kids!!! They are 13, 13, 11 and 5.

Second, the traffic from Alpha is going to be bad for my husband. Going any further north would be worse. While I hear that Alpha is a beautiful area, we will be spending a bit more on a house there.

Do you have any input on any of these issues?

[Karla with a K]

Donkir
Thanks for your nice comments
Because of your kids and school that is going to be important. My biggie was easy access to the backyard for my dogs and myself.
Traffic was a concern but once my husband realized no matter where we ended up traffic was going to be traffic. So let see how we could make it the least amount of impact that we could.
Where will you husband be working?
Don't you love "corporate " we are still waiting to find out the details on our relo package so we can list our house (yeah I know we did things backwards)
If he is transferring,he will have a wealth of information from the people that work in the Atlanta office lol he won't even have to ask, my husband didn't everyone just offered. It was easy to find out the travel times and options available for different areas.
For example from where we will be living to Midtown where he will be working he has 3 options
1. drive in - that won't be happening
2. drive 35 mins to the North Springs MARTA and 25 mins or so on the train
3. take the express bus to the NS MARTA and 25 mins or so on the train
He currently drives 30 to 40 mins to work here in Jacksonville so driving that then taking the train won't be an issue. He said the NS MARTA station is clean and even has a secure lot for his company - that tells me that "a whole bunch of people" that works there lives in the area.
What answered allot of my worries was we traveled the route during the "rush" ours to see what actual driving time was.
There was one house that I really wanted to see in Alpha so we got off exit 11 headed west and like how everything looked until my husband said "forget it. I can't imagine what this 2 lane road would be like with everyone heading in the same direction at the same time". lol we turned around.
Your best bet at this time is to continue to do your research, call some of the Catholic churches and ask where the schools are.
Have a list of the areas that appeal to you and visit them most of the areas you mentioned are off of 400.
Know what you want and more important what you don't want. I could tell just pulling into a subdivision if it was what I was looking for. Many time we would pull into a neighborhood and I would say "ok next" because I saw things that were on my don't want list ie: houses to close together, lots not level, RVs or boats parked and so on. Yes,I could be that picky because there are so many houses for sale.
We lucked out in the fact that our old neighbors has done months of research, If you had told me 2 weeks ago that I would go to visit them, fall in love with one of the models and find the perfect lot and sign a contract, I would of laughed silly. This was a "fact finding" trip but when you find the right house you know.
Also having a great Realtor helps I was lucky because our just happened to be an old friend. You need one that is there for you, not to try to "upsell" you to make a higher commission or steer you to houses that offer Realtor bonuses. They way I feel is, sure you may spend 4 or 5 days driving me around but that could result in a $5 to $9 k commission. not a bad trade off.
If you want send me a email and I will tell you some of the hints I found out
Karla

[BYEMIAMI]

My wife and I also took our first visit there about 8 months ago. We're from Miami, FL. We were amazed at how beautiful it was there. I've never seen so many trees! Yes, Miami is really nice if you're around the water or happen to live in the highend areas. But the majority has no space for trees. It's just house after house after strip mall. It's just a completely different look around Atlanta, and it's not flat! We hope to be there some time in the next 6-8 months.