Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (4)

Nancy and I haven’t house-hunted in over 20 years – since I accepted a new job here in Columbus with Huntington National Bank, and moved from northern Indiana.  Now, as we end the lengthy process of deciding to where our final move will be, we sometimes reflect on how house hunting has changed in the past two decades, along with the roles and duties of real estate agents.

For starters, the breadth of knowledge of RE agents, and their attention to detail, seems much diminished.  Perhaps the industry has seen too much litigation based on agents’ recommendations of non-core services (house inspections, etc.), or perhaps there is no longer a need to maintain knowledge because the necessary information is widely researched on the internet.  But, we have found it necessary to chase down many suppliers ourselves, and be much more proactive in nagging agents to perform a necessary action, than in any of our previous three house purchases.

On the positive side, researching and filtering the plethora of available houses in a given locale is certainly much easier using the internet instead of manually paging through MLS books in an agent’s office.  Here, we are surprised in the vast difference in the usefulness of a given realtor’s web site.  Some allow moderately sophisticated filters based on distance from downtown, neighborhood type, or accessibility beyond the standard filters of size, bedrooms, and price.  Other sites, however, employ few filters and force the viewer to look at too many houses that are not appropriate.  Given the number of real estate site templates available for reasonable prices, it is hard to understand why any realtor would tolerate such a substandard approach.

Speaking of substandard approaches, the disparity in the quality and usefulness of photos for different houses was astounding.  While some gave a wide variety of views and presented the house in a flattering light, others were obviously taken by an amateur with a cell phone and showed few positive attributes.  Again, why would any realtor allow such bad photos to be used on their site?  

As a result, I suspect that most buyers now physically look at fewer houses than in the past.  In our move to Columbus in 1993, I looked at approximately 110 houses, and brought Nancy in to look at perhaps 30 of those.  In our pending move to Hendersonville, we have looked intensively at only two houses, and only lightly looked at about 15 because we needed to compromise on some important attributes.  It was quite a saving when one is using one’s own time and money to look for housing 400 miles away.

Finally, the biggest change in house hunting might well be the availability of Google Maps.  We physically drove to nearly twenty cities in our search and looked at a smattering of houses in each.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have been driving down a street in a new town and Nancy has told me what the next store will be, or what is around the next corner.  Thanks to Maps, it is almost as if one need not ever be a stranger in a new town.  A most impressive age

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (3)

During our hunt for a house in a new locale and state, and for the associated services that any newcomer needs, we encountered a wide variety of web sites.  At the risk of seeming to be a grumpy old curmudgeon, here are business classifications in which it seems to be illegal to have a web site that gives useful or complete information:

-        Self-service storage facilities

-        Banks.  There is very little online differentiation, and it often seems the only difference is the name on the online masthead.  As an industry veteran, I also cannot fathom why there is not one bank in each market that attempts to educate consumers about financial matters online. 

-        Cable companies, in particular Morris Broadband of Hendersonville.  Unlike our cable service in Hilliard (3 options), Hendersonville’s is a monopoly.  Nobody to whom we spoke in town was at all pleased with the service or broadband quality.  When we stopped in one afternoon to obtain pricing, the CSR had to write the various prices on a piece of scrap paper.  The reason?  The reprint of their pricing brochures was late in being finished at the printer’s.  This is borderline scary – a cable company that does not understand the concepts of internet and print-on-demand.  We may be sorely disappointed in our so-called internet “service” for years.

We are rapidly finding that this area is a relative wasteland when it comes to website availability or usefulness.  Even sites such as Emily’s List have a major paucity of participation and useful information.

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (2)

In the middle of June, we left Columbus with a fully-loaded van for the 440 mile trip to Hendersonville, NC.  The purposes of the trip were to (1) buy a house for Nancy and me, (2) transport a load of china and books to a self-storage unit to avoid paying an arm and a leg to movers for these specific items, and (3) visit possible assisted living facilities for my mother, who accompanied us on this trip.

Southbound, just over the Kentucky/Virginia border on Route 23 (in the town of Pound), we had a blowout on a front tire.  (While the load factor certainly didn’t help, we found later that this stretch of road was notorious for having lane reflectors shred car tires).  I unloaded half of the van to get at the lowering mechanism for the spare tire but, being of the spare type that hangs underneath the rear of the van, fifteen years of rust and grime made it impossible to retrieve.  We would have to call AAA for roadside assistance.

As experience would have it, our T-Mobile phones had no reception in that area.  We have found this to be a constant problem outside of metropolitan areas, so at the end of our current TM contract we will swallow our distaste for Verizon customer disservice and switch to them. 

From here, the afternoon changed totally for the positive.  I hiked forward on the highway over a knoll a few hundred yards away, and came upon a Valero gas station/convenience store.  For once, I had change for the pay phone outside, but the operator at AAA couldn’t hear anything I was saying.  Inside, the clerk immediately deduced I was not a local, and offered me the use of her cell phone to call for road assistance.  This took about ten minutes, and I started the hike back to Nancy and my mother. 

Immediately upon leaving the store, a Virginia state trooper pulled into the lot looking for me – he had seen the disabled car, stopped there, called Dispatch for a service truck to be sent, then set out on a hunt for me.  He drove me back to the van, called Dispatch again to make sure they knew that my assistance call was the same as his, and continued on his duties.

During the twenty minutes until the service truck arrived, three local men stopped to see if we needed additional assistance.  Two just happened to be driving by, while the third was a regular customer at the Valero outlet and was sent by that store clerk to check on us.

The AAA truck arrived in due course.  As the driver struggled to release our spare tire, the VA trooper return to make sure our assistance had arrived.  He also informed us that there was a tire repair place no more than a mile from our location, and that he had driven by to make sure they were open and aware that new business would be coming their way.  Thanking him for his assistance, he again departed.

By this time, the AAA driver had freed the spare and mounted it, only to find that it was no longer fully inflated.  But, he was also aware of the tire repair store nearby, and told us to drive slowly on I-23 while he followed to warn and ward off other drivers.  Replacing the cartons in the back of the van, we set off on the 5-minute drive for repairs.  For most of this drive it felt as if the tire rim was grinding right into the road, and we were trying to make enough noise to wake the dead. 

The tire dealer, Les Stallard of Roberts Brothers, Inc., was expecting us and set right to fixing everything.  He had a new tire in the exact size we needed, and even threw in another fully-inflated and mounted temporary spare just in case we had another tire problem.  While he was doing this, the state trooper drove by yet another time, undoubtedly checking on us again.  The total bill for all of this, accomplished in less than 30 minutes, was under $100. 

In all, we lost less than 90 minutes out of our day to fix the unexpected problem and found a small rural town filled with people ready to drop everything to help someone in need.  While we will probably never have reason to stop there again, I have no doubt that their memory will remain with us for years. 

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (1)

Miscellaneous and Random Thoughts re: Moving from OH to NC

The summer day length in Hendersonville is actually about 30 minutes shorter than it is in Columbus.  We expected the shift in sunrise/sunset, having lived in both extremes of this Eastern time zone.  But, this is the first time we have moved sufficiently south or north to notice the impact on day length.

Changes to Make or Consider:

-        Change our college football favorite team from “Whoever is playing Ohio State this weekend” to a “local” team such as Clemson or Tennessee.

-        Consider finding a new pro football team to replace the Buffalo Bills…especially if Trump becomes their new owner.

-        Since there is only one option for cable TV providers in Hendersonville, consider cutting the cord and relying on Netflix, Roku, and the like to fulfill our needs.

-        Find a new cell phone provider, since T-Mobile is effectively a non-player in and around the Carolina mountains.  Despite their abysmal customer service, we may have to return to Verizon.