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Relocation: How To Buy A Home in Upstate SC When You Don’t Know The Area

By
Real Estate Agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices - C. Dan Joyner 21498

 

 

Conflicted: It’s the perfect description of how homeowners feel when faced with the reality of relocating from one city to another. It’s both exciting and mind-numbing, frightening yet courageous and it brings up feelings of both melancholy and elation.

 

Moving from one home to another is a life-disrupter, but moving from one town to another is a major upheaval. Watching that moving van drive down the street, fearful that it’s the last time you’ll see your belongings, is just one of the moments of angst you’ll face when relocating.

Between then and now you’ll need to find a real estate agent and a neighborhood and, finally, a home – all in a town that may be thousands of miles away.

 

Relocating to Upstate SC doesn’t have to be a ghastly process. Let’s make a plan and get you into your new town, neighborhood, and home, without many of the hassles.

 

Your Ideal Home

Knowing exactly what type of home you want is the first step in your relocation process. From single-family to multi-family homes to condos and townhomes, get clear on exactly what you want. 

Then, decide on how much room you need - both in living space and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

And, don’t forget the exterior. With a condo, you may not have much of a choice about outdoor areas, but if you’re in the market for other home styles, determine what you require outdoors.

  •          Do you need a garage? If so, how big?
  •          Is a backyard important?
  •          Do you need outbuildings?
  •          Is a swimming pool on your wish list?
  •          Do you need a fence for your dogs?

 

Choosing Your New Neighborhood

Your preferred home style may help narrow down your choice of neighborhoods. For instance, depending on which of our wonderful cities you’re headed to, condos may only be available downtown.

If you’re in the market for a luxury home, you may find them only in certain parts of town. If you’re bringing the horses, the boat or the golf clubs and cart – all will help you choose a suitable neighborhood.

In general, however, you’ll need to answer some questions to figure out where you want to live:

  • What is your priority? Is it a quick commute to work, being located in a quality school district, close to public transportation or recreational amenities?
  • Do you crave city living or are the suburbs more to your taste? Rural living has a lot to offer as well.
  • Do you love the sound of kids playing outside your window or does it grate on your nerves?

 

Research Is Your Friend 

If you don't know yet how much you can afford to spend on your new home in your new city, we would be happy to refer you to one of our trusted lenders. They can help you know exactly how much home you can afford. 

 

When you have a handle on your budget, you'll find the home buying process immensely more manageable. 

 

But, you must also take into account that the cost of living where you are now may not look at all like the cost of living in our area.

How much do groceries cost where you are now? What about gas? Utilities? Even taxes can be very different from one area of the country to another!

 

To get a handle on your future costs, you can go online to a cost-of-living comparison calculator, such as this one  at CNN Money or one with more detailed results at Bankrate.com.

 

Let’s Find A Neighborhood

Now you have an idea of how much you can afford to pay for a mortgage every month so it’s time to check out what’s available in your affordability range.

On our website, you can search any town in our area and any price range you wish. Just go here and you can even sign up to receive new listings as they hit the market. 

One final tip:

Don't rely on the information about homes that you find on the really big real estate portal sites because much of their info is unreliable!

Although they would like you to think that they have all of the active listings in any given area, they don’t.

The only accurate listing of homes available is in a region’s Multiple Listing Service database, which you can have access to on our website.

We look forward to working with you on your relocation to the UPSTATE of SC! We cover the following Counties: Anderson, Greenville, Pickens, and Oconee.

 

Posted by

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the  Anderson or Greenville SC real estate areas, visit our website at www.SheilaNewtonTeam.com for tons of great information.

 

   
Sheila Newton   
Sheila Newton Team 
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices -
C. Dan Joyner, Realtors
864-225-1205 (direct)
864-940-6377 (mobile)

www.SheilaNewtonTeam.com    


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Upstate Real Estate Team

 

       
    

Comments (3)

Lottie Kendall
Compass - San Francisco, CA
Helping make your real estate dreams a reality

Hi Sheila -- you and your team did a great job for my clients to relocated to your area from across the country. You have a knack for helping them understand life and real estate in the area. Nice post with good information. Happy holidays.

Dec 19, 2017 04:44 PM
Sheila Newton Team Anderson & Greenville SC

Hi Lottie! 


Thank you so much for the referral and the kind words.. the Gunthers were great to work with!! I had you on my list to call this week, but have been out sick the last couple days! Much better this evening so hope to be back at it tomorrow! Have a wonderful holiday! Hope we can work together again next year~

Dec 19, 2017 08:07 PM
Robert Vegas Bob Swetz
Las Vegas, NV

Hello Sheila,

I wrote a new post about reaching out to ActiveRain members that are following me at the AR network, your name showed up 19th on my list ;o)

May 25, 2018 09:26 AM
Foster Smith Summerville
Carolina One Real Estate - Summerville, SC
Summerville & Charleston Homes for Sale SC Realtor

Great comprehensive article that works for my clients in the Lowcountry of South Carolina as well! Hope you can enjoy the mountains during the summer heat!

Jun 29, 2018 05:04 AM