Buying in a City You've Never Lived In

This one is personal for me. I have been through it twice: first on my own with my first home, and again with my wife when we moved to Houston. Both times I was learning a new city and a new housing market at once. Here is what I paid attention to.

Ninety minutes away, a different world

My first home purchase came with a move from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland. It is only a 90 minute drive, but they are two totally different worlds. Baltimore is a major urban city and it moves fast. Northern Virginia, where I grew up, is more suburban and slower paced, though congested for sure.

So I had to determine what was important to me before buying in a city I had never lived in.

Get boots on the ground opinions

The first thing was making sure I got multiple opinions from people in the neighborhoods I was interested in. The homeowners there. The renters there. The people who work there. I would often talk to the delivery drivers and the postman. I was really after a boots on the ground opinion.

Look at what is coming around the neighborhood

Then I looked outside the neighborhood. What are the anchors nearby? What long-term projects may be on the horizon? Those were the things that would tell me whether this could be a good long-term investment for me.

Ask what role the home plays when your life changes

I also considered that my life and my season would change, and I asked what role this home would play in my life when they did. If I no longer lived in that city, if I needed to move, would this make a good buy and hold? Or is it something I would need to sell?

Working backwards and reverse engineering those numbers is extremely important. It is a question to ask before you buy.

Houston: commute and community

When my wife and I moved from Baltimore to Houston, we were in a similar situation within a couple of years. A new city, and neither of us had lived there.

Our deciding factors were different this time. Commute time was big for us. We wanted to be no more than two exits away from her job.

We also felt confident about the neighborhood because it was a master-planned community. There would be enough amenities inside the neighborhood, and a large enough network there, that we did not have to go out looking for one. That mattered. When you are new to a city, there is a social learning curve and a relational learning curve on top of the real estate learning curve.

We were able to get all the ingredients in one place, because we were intentional up front about making sure we checked those boxes.

What worked for me

If you are relocating to a city you do not know, these are the things I would do again:

• Decide what is important to you before you start looking.
• Talk to the people who live and work in the neighborhoods you are considering.
• Look at the anchors and long-term projects around the neighborhood.
• Know what the home becomes if you leave: a buy and hold, or a sale.
• Think about daily life, like commute time and how you will build your network in a new place.

This is my experience, not advice for your situation. Every market is different. If you are moving and want an agent who knows the area, start at findablackagent.com.