Live happily in your dream locale
A new term has entered the real estate lexicon — untethered — referring to remote workers with the freedom to move a distance from their employer. Their ranks are growing, with a recent Redfin survey finding 13 percent of buyers are searching for homes in locations they didn’t consider before COVID-19.
John Pinto, a Realty World broker in the Bay Area, relates how an untethered seller he recently served wanted to move to the Portland vicinity, after enjoying business trips to the area.
Even with that familiarity, though, when the seller’s own Santa Clara home sold quickly, he was faced with finding just the right Portland community for him and decided to rent first.
Indeed, amenities such as how close a good doctor’s office or restaurants you enjoy will be, or whether the character of a community fits your own identity, are all factors looming large for the untethered buyer.
“Physically spending time in the location will give you clarity unlike anything else,” notes Rostislav Shetman, founder of 9Kilo Moving.
Researching online and talking with locals before physically visiting may shorten the on-theground learning curve. But “real estate agents will do if you don’t know anyone else,” Shetman adds.
With out-of-towners moving to Florida long before the untethered trend, Jeff Lichtenstein, owner of Echo Fine Properties in Palm Beach County, says the firm’s website gives “all sorts of hyper-local information,” like tabs on “lifestyle” at various communities. The site also provides stats on local sales over the past two years, with data such as the average time on the market before selling and how close closing prices are in relation to listing prices.
With the significant investment in a home, buyers should be educated on home price trends in a new market, Pinto agrees.
For example, he relates, those leaving pricey areas like Palo Alto where “anything sells because of the cachet” should be educated on resale values in less-sought-after locales.