Scouting Visit Strategy (Raleigh, Durham, Holly Springs: relocating, transplants, showing)

[sneezecake]

My girlfriend and I are considering relocating from CA (sorry!) to the triangle area and have scheduled a 2 day visit to the area to see if we are ready to pull the trigger.

Moving date would be around November 1, and we are not committed to buying immediately upon arrival, but would rent max 6 months.

My question is, what would you recommend as the best strategy for our visit this month? Look at houses/neighborhoods? Look at apartments? Just drive around and see the city?

Are there any cant-miss things to see?

Should we involve a realtor at this point, even though we are unsure A) that we are even moving to the area, B) whether we will buy or initially rent, and C) not knowing if we'd buy a resale home or a new construction home which might not require a realtor?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
sneeze

[MikeJaquish]

"Should we involve a realtor at this point, even though we are unsure A) that we are even moving to the area, B) whether we will buy or initially rent, and C) not knowing if we'd buy a resale home or a new construction home which might not require a realtor?"

Wellllll, that's one way to draw a crowd. Like wolves to raw meat or Toddlers to Easter eggs.

Check your private message folder count. It will only hold 400 messages, spam or solicited........

Seriously,
You will have no trouble getting agents to line up for the chance to give you the half or full day tour.

Some won't want to help with a rental, and some will be glad to help you get a rental.

[leighbhe]

Originally Posted by sneezecake

My girlfriend and I are considering relocating from CA (sorry!) to the triangle area and have scheduled a 2 day visit to the area to see if we are ready to pull the trigger.

Moving date would be around November 1, and we are not committed to buying immediately upon arrival, but would rent max 6 months.

My question is, what would you recommend as the best strategy for our visit this month? Look at houses/neighborhoods? Look at apartments? Just drive around and see the city?

Are there any cant-miss things to see?

Should we involve a realtor at this point, even though we are unsure A) that we are even moving to the area, B) whether we will buy or initially rent, and C) not knowing if we'd buy a resale home or a new construction home which might not require a realtor?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
sneeze

I think, since you don't know anyone in the area, that it is nice to have someone "show you around" for a half a day or something. Find a realtor, tell them the real deal, and let them make that choice. Sometimes it is invaluable to see the town with someone who knows the area.

There are also people who can just go around and strike up a conversation and get local information that way as well! I would say, the must sees are:

farmer's market - eat breakfast at the restaurant, it is great!
Duke gardens on the duke university campus, absolutely beautiful and a nice place for a picnic
downtown raleigh for some beers and cool restaurants


I am basically brain dead at this point in the day, so that is all I can come up with.....hopefully others will come up with more!

Leigh

[Wanna Leave Penciltucky]

2 days? Holy cow! Do your research before you even leave. Do not just show up and not know where you might want to look. Where are you going to work? Do that research before you even get there. So many on this forum want to move but cannot find a job with pay they find acceptable.
If you have jobs lined up then do your homework there. 2 days goes by fast.
I spent 5 days last week and I wished I had spent a full week.
Cross country move is hard work.
When you arrive you should have already contacted someone if your renting and be scheduled to see apartments.

[SALUKI_LOVER]

Wow..2 days?...that's not enough time to scout out the area.
My husband and I made the trip last month and 9 days was hardly enough. First off, make sure your car has a GPS SYSTEM or bring one (that's what we did). We're from So Cal too and the streets/signals was quite an eye opener so without a GPS my friend I think you'll be overwhelmed even more.
We thought we could "just drive around and look for open houses"...YOU"LL NEED A REALTOR if you're looking for homes. They have a sign ordinance so you wanted see the landscape littered with signs like you do in So CA.
Good earlier advice - do your homework before you get here.
Hate to be a downer but trying to be helpful.

[JebediahScooter]

Actually, we had a quite successful scouting mission in one day. Granted, we are relocating from 2.5 hours away for a job one of us took and my fiance's sister lives in Raleigh. So we were already somewhat familiar with the area.

Anyhow, our strategy involved researching for weeks. I read countless posts and also put up questions about neighborhoods on this here site. Also, I'd recommend signing up on a local realtor's MLS site. You can punch in all your search parameters and the site will automatically email you whenever something comes on the market. We came prepared with a decent idea of what the areas of Raleigh were like and what houses were going for.

Granted, we knew that we wanted an older house in an established neighborhood with a fenced or fence-able yard at a certain price point, so it limited our options a great deal. We ended up seeing about 12 places in Raleigh and Durham with two different agents and found one we loved. Jumped on it and had an offer in by 9pm.

I guess having the job lined up and knowing exactly what we were looking for in a house simplified things a great deal. I guess we were lucky that we found a place that suited us in a neighborhood that we really liked. But yes, employ the help of a realtor. She didn't really have a great idea going into the day about whether or not we were just looking or ready to buy, but she was still eager to get out and show us around.

Also, make sure you're checking Craigslist. We found a beaut of a house on there right before we left for Raleigh and ended up really liking it (although multiple bids already in on it were going to drive it out of our range).

Best of luck.

[sneezecake]

Thanks for the input so far!

Let me also state that part of the reason for this trip is to decide if this is where we want to move in the first place, versus other areas (Southern Virginia, for example).

Should we decide that the triangle area is our choice, then we will no doubt come back for a second visit.

Additionally, we have no jobs lined up, but we are both qualified to get decent "on your feet" jobs fairly quickly.

We're not looking to make any permanent decisions here, and with regard to an apartment rental, we are fine showing up and just picking one of the complex places with a leasing office as it will just be temporary...but the biggest goal here is to see if the area, as a whole, feels acceptable to transplants from LA (who are used to big city living).

I've definitely been doing research on houses and where the new subdivisions are being built, and right now I am just more concerned that rental car prices for the 2 days we will be there are minimum 60 bucks/day for a freaking Chevy Cobalt!

[StillLookingToo]

Try Thrifty, I got a mini van for $215 (plus taxes) for a week.

[sneezecake]

Just a bump...still contemplating what to do.

[needhalc]

Where in So Cal? We moved from West Garden Grove 2 years ago this month. We absolutely love it and have zero regrets (other than the mexican food, see other posts : ). I also had considered S. Virginia, and interviewed in Lynchburg and got the job, but it was just too much of an adjustment and my gut said no way. I came out to Raleigh for 2 days about a month before our move and had a realtor show me around and help find a rental. If you can buy a house and move right in, it will save you a ton of hassle. But we didn't think we had jobs (I got a contract the day of our move in CA). Realtors put a slant on things...they have their preferred area to deal with and I feel they tell you things to keep you in it. We have settled in Holly Springs and are very happy with it tho...wouldn't change towns. We wanted a country feel with the city close by. I think this board will help you as much as anything, and check out each cities websites and demographics...and of course the WCPSS website for school info if you need it. Best of luck to you!

A couple of other thoughts: If you see a house & fall in love with...drive around it ALOT! Use Google Earth to really see whats around. Ask lots of questions. There are so many trees here that hide things like city sewer ponds, dumps, and all kinds of things you don't want around your home. Apparantly the realtors don't have to tell you about this stuff.

Also...finding a house or apt. with a short term lease (under a year) is difficult...we lucked out and found a 3 mo lease, but honestly it was a dump.

Last thing...almost all new construction is purchased thru realtors here...not like CA.