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Unpopular opinion, but I'll state it as I have lived in 2 countries and 10 states. I don't think it matters. 3 of the cities that I moved to, I had visited many times before. Each one I thought, man I would love to live here! So I finally made it happen. Guess what? I didn't.
Meanwhile, the places I moved to having never even visited, I was the happiest. Part of it I'm sure is the blank slate. No expectations vs places you've visited. Another, the things that have the greatest impact on your happiness where ever you move to, can't be measured in visits. For example, you can't gauge how easy / hard it is to make friends just by visiting. Making friends and building a new social circle is a huge part of moving to a new place. Until you are there on the ground in your new life, you won't know.
Life is short. Make the leap. If you don't like it, save up and try again.
I think visiting specific areas is very important even aside from the city itself. The locals don’t agree but I really don’t care, I heard all of these amazing things about Summerlin in Las Vegas and assumed we would love it too. I’ve never been so creeped out by an area in my life. It may be super safe but it was everything awful about “family friendly,” just nothing but houses and hardly any retail or restaurants or excitement, way too far from the Strip / airport, it seemed like some 1950s housing area where everyone has some perfect little family. It was truly a nightmare if you ask me. That’s someone else’s idea of the best area, we hated it immediately and it felt all wrong. Desolate, really.
Then we went to Green Valley and MacDonald Highlands and it immediately felt right and like home. It didn’t take long to make these judgments at all, just knew it when I saw it!
I thought a week was sufficient to verify my next city. But it really took several years - after the move - to fully show that it was all wrong for me.
Those investigative visits often only show minimal and superficial aspects, and not the crucial day-to-day ones.
I thought a week was sufficient to verify my next city. But it really took several years - after the move - to fully show that it was all wrong for me.
Those investigative visits often only show minimal and superficial aspects, and not the crucial day-to-day ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greatblueheron
Had vacationed many times in the city I moved to.....visited looking for property about 4 times.
But three yrs. later I moved back to my home state. Just discovered it was not for me.
Either care to share what cities specifically? Just curious.
We spent 3-4 days initially. Then returned for a 5 day visit, with a lot of research in between. With the second visit we had a checklist including looking at retail and grocery stores. We also toured with a RE agent showing us the neighborhood options. Once we narrowed it down, we visited the neighborhood at different times of the day to check on noise and traffic patterns.
I've moved a lot for jobs/promotions. Never visited but did some research before I applied. I never apply to a place I don't think I'd like. I can make the best almost anywhere.
Remember, everywhere you go there will be those who love it and those who hate it.
There's no one / fixed answer to the question of this post. But it can be safely said that the more different the new city/area is - including geographic region and city size - the more you will need to look, research, and reflect on how life will be. I got a double-whammy with a totally different region and much smaller city size, for a really lousy end-result.
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