Relocating to Santa Monica

 

I've worked with relocation clients for nearly 15 years now.  

Buying a new home while relocating is among the most stressful challenges many people face in the course of their working life.   You're changing your job, your family will be accommodating huge changes, and you're moving into an area you may know very little about.

As experienced relocation consultant, I can help you with a number of aspects to reduce the stress.

—  Orientation to the area.   Not just homes and prices, but commuting patterns, schools, recreational and cultural opportunities, restaurants, churches and temples, restaurants, grocery stores, dance studios...the list is very long and is tailored to your needs and what you want to know.  If I don't know the answer to a particular questions, I'll almost always know who to ask and will get back to you.

If at all possible, I like to have a phone conversation with you to get a feel for what is most important to you long before the plane touches ground at LAX.  It also helps me enormously to understand what people like about where they live now.   An essential truth of relocation is that I can't duplicate the lifestyle you may have in Denver, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, or Charlotte, but I can transpose the elements of your life style that are most important to you in a way that makes Southern California work at least as well, if not better, than in your current location.

Of course, it's usually a mistake to try to duplicate your surroundings in a new place. Santa Monica isn't a suburb, so you're not going to find big tracts of new construction. On the other hand, in many ways Santa Monica isn't urban, either - the city has strict height limits and tough zoning, so you don't find Manhattan-style density.

—  I make real estate suggestions based upon where you'll be working, how much you can afford, your recreational preferences, and other needs of your family.

If I know you like to eat out, I can make a point of showing you restaurants in your areas. If schools are a major concern, I put those on my driving tour.   If the area where you want to make your home is a 30-40 minute commute, I can tell you the best routes at various times of day or, if you want to limit your commute to 30 minutes, identify those areas and properties that might best accommodate your needs.

—  Short-term housing.   Finding a house in a narrow time window linked to starting a new job often is just too stressful.  I can give you options for temporary housing, for periods ranging from two months to a year, if a two-step process will make the transition easier for you.

—  I can be your guide to 1,001 items of interest or concern about moving to Southern California, from the best route to drive to Disneyland to how to work the permit parking system for neighborhoods requiring permits.   Have a question?   Just ask me...it doesn't have to be related to real estate.