274. Buying a Home in the Best School District: What You Need to Know

Join us on this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, as Casey Smith and Paul Montaperto from Family2Family Relocation discuss tips for families looking to buy a home in a great school district. We explore how to evaluate school quality beyond online ratings, considering factors like administrative stability, private school options, and future zoning changes. Paul also gives practical tips to help families make informed home-buying decisions.

Related Podcast Episodes:
- Ep 136: Financially Preparing for Your High Schooler to Go to College
- Ep 168: Everything You Need to Know About 529 Plans
- Ep 267: The 2025 Housing Market: Trends, Changes, and What to Expect

Connect with Paul Montaperto:
- Family2Family Relocation
- The Right School Matters Podcast

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- Schedule a Complimentary Consultation: Discover how we can help you achieve financial freedom.
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This podcast was produced by Wiser Wealth Management. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

School Districts and Home Values

Speaker 1 0:00

When you're in a better school district. Based on the data that most people utilize now, that equates to a higher value of home and getting more return on your investment.

Speaker 2 0:17

Welcome to the Wise Retirement Podcast. Are you curious about buying a home in the best school district? I'm Casey Smith. Today I'm joined by Paul Monteperto, owner of Family to Family Relocation. Each week, we bring you practical advice on retirement, investing and planning for your financial future. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. Let's get started. Hey Paul, hey Casey. So thanks for coming in, Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Let's talk about you for a second, because this is your first podcast with us, so you're a realtor I am.

Speaker 1 0:48

That's the full-time gig right now.

Speaker 2 0:51

I know you as my child's former middle school principal.

Speaker 1 0:56

That's where we first met years ago. That is true. Which?

Speaker 2 0:59

makes you an expert on housing and schools. That is the niche Cause. Yeah, you, you literally now are masters of both.

Speaker 1 1:09

So well trending that way. I don't know if you ever get to mastery, but on that journey for sure that's right.

Speaker 2 1:16

That's right. So tell me a little about your business and what you're focused on uh in the real estate space and how that relates to education.

Speaker 1 1:23

Yeah, absolutely, uh. So, um, full-time real estate space and how that relates to education, yeah, absolutely so. Full-time real estate now, with family to family relocation and real estate, and leveraging over 20 years of experience in education to really further develop a niche in that school space. Looking at best fit schools for families who are moving, and so, when you are moving, we have found that most people consider where my kid's going to go to school. Even for families or people who don't have kids, school districts relate to resale value.

Speaker 1 1:57

That's kind of the nature of the beast and it has been for many, many years. But I will tell you that what I've found in these last 18 months to two years of really diving into this and looking at the way that the direction that education is moving is, it is, in my opinion, becoming a little bit less about the rating of that school district and more about what's the best option for my child, because public schools are only one small piece of the puzzle Private schools, charter schools, hybrid schools, online schools. The education landscape has changed drastically, and so my goal is to educate people about what their options are first, which is where we branded schools, first real estate that's my hashtag that we're putting out there and then, once they decide where they want to consider for schools, then we'll start looking at homes. That's what we do.

Speaker 2 2:50

Okay, so when you go, I haven't moved like since 2007 because there's too much stuff in the basement and my wife won't give anything away. So I've just determined that I'm going to probably go out feet first, because I, you know, but but I do look at houses all the time. I think, man, if we didn't have all this stuff, that'd be a really cool place to move to. Well, moving is a good excuse to purge too. We can't we can't purge, paul, you can't purge.

Speaker 1 3:15

I understand that hurdle is big.

Understanding School Ratings

Speaker 2 3:18

Yes, I. I. I was purging when one day and my and my son comes down the steps and he says, why is mom crying? I mean, I don't know why mom's crying. We go upstairs and in in uh, even my oldest son. He's like mom, why are you crying? And I'm standing going, I don't know what's going on right now, and all of a sudden she goes. Your dad's getting rid of all my memories. I don't know what it was. I was like there's a box of stuff we haven't looked at in like 25 years.

Speaker 1 3:45

Yes, but to her that needed to stay, Because there might come a day there might come a day there might come a day.

Speaker 2 3:53

That was the day I realized I was never moving, sure, but I do look at houses all the time, and so one of the things that you see is the school rating number, and I grew up here. So I kind of know right, sure, but most people haven't grown up here. So what are those ratings really mean? Is it a legit scale, is it? You know, how do they come up with those numbers? Is it all the people who failed classes, or the teachers that have poor grades, or I don't know, how did that?

Speaker 1 4:23

get there? That's an awesome question, casey, and it's huge because when I'm working with folks that are moving and they want to consider schools, greatschoolsorg is one of the first places that they go to.

Speaker 2 4:34

I didn't even know about that.

Speaker 1 4:36

Greatschoolsorg that is one of the most popular sites where it's a ranking out of 10. So you know some people are like, well, it's an eight out of 10. I feel good about that. Ooh, it's a two out of 10. Hmm, we're going to go somewhere else, right? Uh, zillow posts those right on on their platform where, you know, when you're looking at the different um criteria of the house, you can see the great schoolsorg ratings. A few others are schooldiggercom, um private school review for private schools.

Speaker 1 5:07

Nichecom is another big one and I will tell you that schools, especially in the private school world, where it's competitive and you're trying to draw people in, they will leverage the opportunities to share their data with those companies so that they can elevate their rating. Now to your question is are they real? Do they matter? They are real. It's. It's a compilation of tons of data, typically based on uh in the in the public school world test scores, because the kids in grades three through eight all have to take that end of class or end of year test every year in April or whenever they do it. In high school they have to take the end of course tests and all of that, that data is public record, so these sites pull that in and then they rate the schools based on their performance and sometimes with regards to the standard deviation, and we won't get into all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 5:54

But I say all that to say this, I caution people because that is just one small piece of the puzzle. And the reality is let's take Walton High School, nationally recognized for many, many years, right here in Cobb County in East Cobb, I believe they're the fourth or fifth ranked high school in the state right now Top public school ranked in the state. Maybe Lassiter and Pope are right up there with it. But Walton High School may be great for some kids, but for other kids it's not, because it really depends on what their needs are, what kind of learning resources or instructional plan that those children need, because every kid as you know you have three they all learn very differently. Their experiences at the same school have all been different over the last several years, and so that is another piece of the education part that I'm trying to impart on the general public through the launch of my own podcast and certainly when I meet with new clients, and that is hey, let's take that rating that you're latched onto with many grains of salt.

Speaker 1 6:57

I'm not saying it's not accurate or not true, but it's just one part of the puzzle, because if your child has a certain set of needs based on what they're looking for whether they're gifted or have dyslexia or whatever it is we've got to make sure that that school that's a 9 out of 10 has a program that best suits your child as well.

Speaker 1 7:15

As we see a lot of mental health stuff with high school kids anxiety, depression, it's just, it's magnifying based on the pressure that a lot of schools are putting on kids in order to get into college. Right, you know that world, right? I mean, you've done it with your son, you're looking at it with your daughter now, and some kids struggle with that anxiety and depression and if they're in a school that's a high pressure cooker, it is not good for them, you know from from their mental health. And so I try to look at that whole big puzzle and, with my background in education, I have a system in which I can evaluate and analyze what a child's academic profile is and then, you know, point parents in directions of things that they should consider and others that they shouldn't.

Speaker 2 8:01

Typically what you see is the higher ratings have higher home values because people are gravitating toward public education with a higher uh with a higher rating right where, like in east cop versus west cop, so in west cop the ratings aren't as good. Uh, there's also fewer schools and um values are a lot higher than they were five years ago, but but nowhere near like what East cop would be for the same house.

Speaker 1 8:31

Yeah, there, there's some truth to that. Um, I think, with your specific example, uh, east cop was developed longer before West cop and I think when you see kind of the suburban sprawl that many cities have, um, further in, usually higher value as you move further out and the values decrease. But to your point, uh, I mean West Cobb has a few high schools that are nine out of 10. I mean, I think Hillgrove high school and Harrison high school are two of the top in Cobb County, similar to what I call the big three in East Cobb and and that's Pope, lassiter and Walton, and I would say there's you could take that idea and translate that to any other system or county, at least in the Metro Atlanta area. Right and so. But there's other factors that highly influence home value. You know convenience there's. You know, obviously, the various architectural details of a home or the size of the lot, you know. But the reputation of school districts is one of those criteria that does influence the home value. So you are right.

Speaker 2 9:40

What about? How does private school work into all of this? Because you, you know, you have, uh, just in our area, you have a Mount Perrin, you have a Walker, you, you have a, I guess, north cop Christians kind of emerging as a, as a school. Uh, people want to go to what. What you know, if you're going to private school, does it even really matter? I mean, other than your commute on where you buy your house?

Speaker 1 10:01

Yeah, I mean again, I think it's the only piece that may matter is when you turn around years later to sell it, because, to our point, when you're in a better school district, based on the data that most people utilize now, that equates to a higher value of home and getting more return on your investment. But I will say this when you think about what's best for families with children who are looking for schools just looking at the Metro Atlanta area there's over 100 private schools just in the Metro Atlanta area and some that you and I have never heard of, and then some certainly that we have and with school choice continuing to trend upward both in our state and, I would say, nationally, now, with kind of what's on the table with the current president in office and what they're looking at for the Department of Education, private schools are going to continue to trend up. When we went through COVID five years ago, people were fleeing the public schools and chasing private schools simply because the private schools had a reputation for number one being open.

Speaker 1 11:11

Parents were tired of teaching their kids at home and fighting with them at the breakfast table and having them stare at a screen, and then they realized that a lot of the private schools had the resources and the capability to provide the best option they could under the circumstances. Well, those families didn't leave. They stayed, most of them, yeah. And so private school enrollment became extremely competitive in the last five years, and so private schools had to pivot and figure out okay, so now we're all of a sudden on a waiting list. Do we build out? Do we, do we want to grow? Are we kind of in our happy place?

Speaker 1 11:48

But you know, with regards to real estate, parents should consider private school options geographically when they're buying their house. And again, that's a part of what we do when we say, hey, we're, you know what part of the, the city do you want to live in because of your commute? And you know those things are real. Um, what are the different aspects of a school that are important to you? Well, public school is great, but hey, did you know there are four or five great private schools in that same area. So if those are contenders, then take a look at that, and if you want to consider those, then let's look at buying a home with a commute that's realistic for getting to those schools as well.

Speaker 2 12:26

Yeah, Is that where special needs comes into? Or maybe just special needs seems kind of harsh, but even like just dyslexia. You think about Grace Point.

Speaker 1 12:37

So we call it neurodiverse learners. Neurodiverse learners have that population of student has grown tremendously in the last few years.

Private Schools and Special Needs

Speaker 1 12:48

You mentioned dyslexia yeah, it's one in five, now one in five people, yeah, globally has dyslexia. I mean, that's 20 of our population, and so you, you matriculate that down to kids. Well, we've got to figure out ways to best serve those kids whose brains are wired differently because they don't learn how to read and write the same way as someone who does not have dyslexia Right, and so schools and teachers and programs had to pivot. I mean, the state of Georgia didn't even recognize dyslexia as a special education eligibility until 2019. That's six years ago. Wow, there were kids that had dyslexia for many, many, many years and so they weren't able to provide the state resources because it wasn't identified as an eligibility.

Speaker 1 13:35

But, to your point, when you think about those kids who need a different type of learning program, there are some public schools that do that really well, but there are some that don't. There are some private schools that do that really well, but there are some that don't. There are some private schools that do it really well, there are some that don't. There are private schools that are designed and built just for kids with dyslexia, like the Skank School down in Buckhead. They're nationally recognized for what they do.

Speaker 1 13:54

You mentioned Grace Point right here in Marietta, a Christian school that focuses on working with kids with dyslexia, and so the reality of all of that, casey, is the general public just doesn't know. That's what I found that people don't automatically know about all these opportunities that are out there. They just they go on Zillow, they start looking at homes and they see what the great school's rating is for that home and then if it's like an eight out of 10, they're like, oh, let's look in that school district. So they just start looking at homes and that, but they don't know anything other than that there could be two great private schools around the corner that you know might be a good fit for them.

Speaker 1 14:35

And so, again, that's where we come in and try to educate them in that.

Speaker 2 14:38

I think people who have resources um, we're mostly people who are listening to this podcast, who use a wealth manager firm.

Speaker 2 14:46

Sure, I think choosing your kid's education is one of the hardest things to do. We had our daughter at a private school in East Cobb. It was a small school, I guess it went through eighth grade and they totally botched a bad situation where a teacher quit mid, mid year and that's what still do that You're supposed to like punish them for that. Actually, nothing happened. They let her leave and then next you know our daughter's not learning any math, yeah, and and so all of a sudden it became okay, we got to, we got to make a change, like you're pretty quick, and so you just never know what's, what's going to happen, even when, even when things are running really well for years, all of a sudden it'll just, it can switch on you. It could be one teacher, it could be, it could be a lot of different things, different principle, different leadership.

Introduction to Paul Monteperto

Speaker 1 15:31

Yeah exactly All of that matters. And and I'm glad you mentioned that because that's where I think it's critically important when parents are making decisions about where their children are going to go to school you got to get on campus, whether it's a public school or a private school, because when you walk into that building, whether you know again, it's due West Elementary School, which is a public school here in West Cobb, or it's, you know, mount Perrin Christian School, there's a sense of feeling you're going to get and talking to the people, seeing the people peeking your head in classrooms to get an understanding of what are their priorities. You know how do they kind of handle their day to day. Um, ask the right questions. That's another thing. Is we, we arm people with the right questions to ask that are beyond your hey, what's your class size? You know what you know? Those which are good questions. But we got to dig a little bit deeper, specifically around who your child is, to see if that's the right fit.

Speaker 1 16:30

And then values to different families have very different values and it's hard for you know at least for me, it would be hard to drop my kids off at a school if I know that they're being infused with values that are heavily different than what my values are, whatever they are, and so you know, I think it's important that parents consider that.

Speaker 1 16:52

You mentioned the affordability too, too, and that is one thing that I would really encourage. Parents to not shy away from. A private school that they deem expensive or even potentially elitist is sometimes how that perception is, because there are lots of resources financial that are available through the school. So schools have endowments, they have opportunities to provide financial aid, but also, at least in the state of Georgia and I think we're going to see this continue to develop across the country with grants and opportunities to take state funded money and apply that to a private school tuition. If a child has special needs and they're identified with having a uh, one of those 13 special eligibility criteria, then they can take that funding through Senate bill 10 and apply that to a private school tuition.

Speaker 2 17:45

Now, it's likely not going to pay all of it, but it helps, um, they just just here at wiser, we pay our corporate taxes, uh, or a portion of it, into the Georgia goal program.

Speaker 1 17:56

Yes, the Georgia goal scholarship program.

Speaker 2 17:58

You can pick the school. So we, we choose our kids school. It goes, it goes right to the school. And I mean I, I don't get to choose who is used for I don't know, I wouldn't even know, right, I couldn't pick the person out, right? But? But the idea is that it's tax money that gets rerouted and there's a cap on it every year every year the cap is met typically by summertime, so if you enroll after the summertime, you can't do it.

Speaker 2 18:21

Individuals can give $10,000 a year of your state taxes. It's not a tax deduction, it's just you get to choose where your money goes. Exactly.

Speaker 1 18:29

You're going to pay your taxes, but now you can have it pushed towards helping a family somewhere at the school that you choose. And the great thing about the Georgia Gold Scholarship is every year it's under legislation for increasing the ceiling and I don't know that it's ever gotten turned down. I mean, it's in the Senate right now, and so I see that, as the state of Georgia believes in school choice, correct and they want to arm every family with the opportunity to contribute to that, as well as access, that and so that affordability, that I forget the number, but there was a Senate bill that was passed last year that identifies any family who's in a school district who is in the lowest 25th percentile, lowest quartile, based on test scores, can choose to take their child to any school, including private school, with their state funds. And so that's another way for helping folks who are struggling, their kids are struggling, to give them something so that they can subsidize whatever the cost is at their school of choice, their school of choice.

Speaker 4 19:43

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Speaker 2 20:27

Going back to ask, asking the right questions. Even in my own kids' school, I see kids with with certain needs that can't be met because the school's not really equipped to handle uh, children of of that manner and the parents. I don't know if the parents are asking the right questions or they just they just assume just because you pay a big tuition, does it mean that your kid's actually getting what's best for them? Absolutely, and so that's something that's super important, because you have to understand a private school is a business and therefore they need to fill seats, and so they might say yes to somebody to fill a seat, but their child's not going to get the help that they need. So you have to be very careful of that. Don't equate paying more for something as the best.

Speaker 2 21:23

Sure, and not just paying more, but the the grandeur of the facilities or all of that kind of stuff that you can really get enamored by, just because the basketball court and baseball court or baseball field are really nice. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 21:36

And you know or you know, the the volleyball teams won three state championships or um. You know?

Speaker 1 21:41

they serve, you know, in the cafeteria or whatever it is yeah, You've got it's easy to get really enamored by that, but that is a huge point and something that um I I speak with with folks all the time, and that is you've you've got to do your due diligence. Hiring an educational consultant, which is part of what I do as related to real estate, can be a great asset to making sure that the right questions are being asked, Because sometimes schools think they can serve a certain type of child yeah, but the reality is they aren't, because they don't truly understand the nature of whatever that learning disorder is that the child has, or the training that's needed and the person that they're hiring to put in front of that child or that group of students. And unfortunately, for years and this still happens we equate compliance with learning Child's good, they sit, they listen, they're not a behavior problem. You see this more in private schools, right?

Speaker 1 22:46

Because, private schools don't have to put up with behavior and while the child is sitting, compliant and good, they're not necessarily learning, and so kids have struggled and now, two to three years of that, they've lost all that learning.

Speaker 1 23:04

And so that's where it becomes again very critical to make sure that a school has the right instruction and program to teach your child, not just a child who has a learning disorder, but for kids who are twice exceptional, kids who are gifted, learning disorder, but, you know, for kids who are, you know, twice exceptional, kids who are gifted, and they get bored real easy or whatever it is. Those are the things that you really want to peel back on that onion to make sure that we're not just, you know, sticking everything in front of everybody and everyone's doing the same thing and we're checking the box and then we move on to the next unit and all that which is kind of the traditional model of education for many, many years. With that said, I applaud many schools today who are becoming much more innovative in their approach, and innovative does not mean just hanging a TV on the wall instead of a dry erase board.

Speaker 1 23:50

It doesn't you know putting a computer in the kid's hands and doing a worksheet on a computer. That's not being innovative. It's innovative in focusing on the metacognition of how kids are learning and building lessons and projects and opportunities for kids to to ingrain themselves in learning that is relevant to what's happening in today's world, that's exciting and interesting to them but also is allowing them to, you know, become a better reader, a better writer, you know, a better mathematician or whatever the case may be Become a better reader, a better writer, a better mathematician, or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 2 24:20

What do you think most people are overlooking when they evaluate schools?

Speaker 1 24:25

I think I'll go back to where they are, just trusting what they see on a website or they see on a rating, and the kid will go to the bus stop in the morning, or they'll drop the child in carpool at the curb and they've never stepped foot in the building. Um, they haven't introduced themselves to the teacher or the principal or uh, and I don't know if that's asking a lot.

Speaker 2 24:49

I you know, I know the busyness of life, but for me, my, my kids are the most important thing in my world, at our old school, uh, there was a new headmaster and I remember um going in to meet him just briefly and I said, um, so what benchmarks are you guys using in looking at other schools and where this school sits as far as education and things like that? Because there are some. There are some issues that are starting to kind of appear sure there's always going to be issues.

Speaker 2 25:24

It's just how, how does, how does leadership react to it? And and his response was oh, we don't look at what anybody else is doing and I don't know that it really matters. I was like, whoa, okay, okay, I can't imagine running my own firm and not doing benchmarking. Heck, we benchmark on price. Am I more expensive, less expensive than the competition? What services is the competition providing? What's my growth rate? I could get down to a whole list of how you manage a company, sure, sure.

Evaluating Schools Beyond Ratings

Speaker 2 25:52

So I just remember thinking I went home and I was like, hey, I don't know about this. I said we have no standards other than we teach the Georgia standards, which drives me crazy. If we teach the Georgia standards, why are we here? Why don't we go somewhere else or somewhere that's free? A couple of things. Let's talk about zoning. I've never had to worry about zoning because my kids have been in private schools, but when you get rezoned, is this something that happens a lot. I don't think McEachern High School has a very good rating anymore, but when I was a kid, mceachern High School was like, if you went to McEachern, oh my gosh, that's amazing. But somehow it changed in the last 30 years.

Speaker 1 26:37

Yeah, well it changed with the population growth. You know, Hillgrove High School wasn't there? Okay, Right. And so you know, with population comes the building of new schools. Yeah and so. And then you know home values, like you said, they're tied to that, and so a certain demographic can afford a higher home value versus another demographic that can't afford that, and those are typically tied to those areas. But with regards to zoning and changing zoning, but let me go back to that.

Speaker 2 27:06

It goes back to my shiny example again. It's a shiny new school. Okay, the other school is just fine. It used to be mcketron, used to be a former college. I mean it's a very nice facility.

Speaker 1 27:16

Well, it, I mean it was I haven't been there, but no, it still is. They got a beautiful new gymnasium oh, did they absolutely so?

Speaker 2 27:22

so what? So? What made that happen? I mean, I understand the population grew, but did they drive the districts to a troubled area and said, okay, they're going to go to mcketron, if you in McEachern district, because that's where the school needed to be for your kid, right? And now, all of a sudden, because teachers probably change, right, teachers leave, they go to other schools, sure, sure.

Speaker 1 27:44

Well, I'll tell you this If there, if you want to get people really upset, then tell them that their child is no longer going to go to the school that they like going to, because they're being rezoned. Yeah, you know and it happens because of it's. It's the fallout of of population growth.

Speaker 2 28:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1 28:03

You know, a school has a certain capacity based on the size of which you can hold in the number of students, and when you reach that capacity actually most schools will go over that capacity- so so what happens?

Speaker 2 28:15

in new areas today? The homes are much more expensive. More expensive homes means more affluent families, and that's how you end up with that situation. Then you end up with more affluent families going to one school, which means they're also writing checks to the school annual fund and supporting the school, checks to the school annual fund and supporting the school where, in the other district, those affluent families have now left and there's no extra investment.

Speaker 1 28:43

Yeah, I mean, that is obviously a byproduct of that.

Speaker 2 28:48

You think the counties would know that?

Speaker 1 28:50

Yeah, I mean, I've never been on a zoning committee or anything like that, but just being in that world for many years, my understanding is that number one. They try to handle it sensitively.

Speaker 2 29:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1 29:04

But I think we'd be lying if we didn't know that they're looking at specific neighborhoods, right, and when they draw a line that goes crooked and around and all of that, that is maybe something that they're doing to prevent a riot or to keep a certain neighborhood in a certain school. But at the end of the day, we've got to figure out what other schools are we going to pull from to now feed that school? Obviously, it's geographically based, but they are looking at every little neighborhood, because if you get on the map and you look at the attendance lines, they're not straight lines. No, they're not.

Speaker 2 29:50

They draw them like politicians. They do Republican, democrat, okay, the we're going to give you the democrats. We're gonna give you this district and we're going to take this district and then it guarantees that their people get reelected, instead of being a really close district right where you maybe you could go either way. Right now I will say like cobb county does.

Speaker 1 30:05

Uh, in my experience and I graduated from high school in cobb county and left this area for a while and then came back but they, um, you know, they, they have, they have hearings. You know, they announced it a few years ahead of time and people have an opportunity to be heard and you know, but if you're buying a house, that's something you should pay attention to.

Speaker 2 30:22

Hey, there's a new school going in over here.

Speaker 1 30:25

Oh, absolutely. Not only that, but you should pay attention to the. The density of that area, with the school that you're looking at, you know, is if the capacity of that school is 3000 kids.

Speaker 2 30:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 30:37

And so they've got 3,600. Well then, rezoning is coming soon, you know, and so, and you can find out by contacting the district office uh, if we're talking about public education on, you know what, what are their plans for building a new school? Cause they, they start that process years out, um and so, but, to be honest with you, I don't know that I've ever had a client, a buyer, who's ever gotten we, we've ever had to really unravel that. But it is real, and um, and you know, if you plan on hunkering down for raising your family in a space for many, many, many years, I don't know that you can prevent that, because it just depends on how quickly that area grows.

Zoning and Neighborhood Growth

Speaker 2 31:18

So how do you help families choose between pricing of a house and and then the school district and the commute? I mean you have to get. There's probably a sacrifice somewhere. You're sacrificing the commute for the school or you're sacrificing the price that they're going to spend more money than they should on the home, maybe there's no perfect scenario.

Speaker 1 31:39

And um, you have. You said you haven't shopped for a home in a while. Um, it's, you know it's. It's like um, you think you know what you want, but until you get out there and start looking, it changes. You know, for example, you, I work with a client and I have a questionnaire that asks you know price range and do you want a basement? What size lot? You know all that kind of stuff. What area, how important are schools? You know what are the factors of school that are important, and we'll fill all that out and we use that to then start looking at homes. Well, if they said, you know they, um, didn't want a basement, well, all of a sudden we're looking at basement houses and you have to say, well, hey did something change.

Speaker 1 32:16

Well, yeah, I kind of like a basement now.

Speaker 1 32:18

And so that certainly happens. But to your point, there is no perfect scenario. But in my opinion, and where I'm really leaning in hard on this part of real estate is, if you have children, educating them is one of the most important things that you'll do for them. And not all schools are created equal. And if you think that you can only afford public school, think twice, because there are a lot of ways to subsidize a tuition for private school. But there are various ways to evaluate both any school, and I can help you with that by the system that I've created to look at those different things.

Speaker 1 33:03

Geography is important If, if you work in Lawrenceville, you're not going to live in Cartersville you know, I mean that that's it would be very difficult, you know, for whatever you know or you're not going to live in Fayetteville, and so geographic components matter. But even within that geographic area, there are going to be a ton of schools to choose from. There's going to be a ton of houses to choose from. You know, at mean, at least that's the way Metro Atlanta is laid out is you know? It's not that just one area of Metro Atlanta has million dollar homes, there are multiple different areas. And then, on the flip side. You know houses, you know starter homes which are around. You know three to $400,000 now, and so, um, looking at the school piece, first, whether you have children or not is is how we've built our system.

Speaker 1 33:53

And then I've had folks saying, you know it doesn't matter. Okay, so we'll put that aside. What matters most, uh, what matters most is, um, me not having an HOA. Okay, so then we're not going to look at neighbors with HOA, and so, you know, everyone has their different spin on what they're looking for and, like I said, that sometimes changes through the process. Um, even with price range, you know they, they, they get pre-approved for a loan if they're using a mortgage to, to to purchase a home, and, um, you know there are different ways for us to structure those opportunities and negotiate prices. Just one element of negotiating on the purchase of a house that you know sometimes people need their, their timeframe's important, or, um, you know the, the things that are on the property that they don't want to move, or a variety of different things.

Speaker 2 34:44

What do you think are some best kept secrets? Locations, housing locations, school district maybe somebody hasn't really valued as much. You think of the metro Atlanta area. Where would you think, where would you, where would you go? Areas yeah, just yeah.

Speaker 1 35:00

Yeah, you know I. That's a great question, casey. I mean it really depends on on what you like, um, you know like for me, um, I, I want space, you know I, I, I want a little bit of space. I always have a dream of having a little bit more land than what we have now. And, like you were saying earlier, I always look at houses too. I know we're not going to move. We love our neighborhood. You know, my kids are entrenched with the kids in the neighborhood and, you know, until Ben graduates from high school, there's really no reason for us. I mean, we have a 2.75% interest rate.

Speaker 3 35:31

I don't want to trade that for six and a half, right, you know, because that's where we are right now.

Speaker 1 35:37

But I will say this when you look at Metro Atlanta, what what's really cool that's happened in probably the last 10 or 15 years is the the downtown areas of all the towns are being revitalized.

Speaker 3 35:50

Yeah, absolutely, you know around here.

Speaker 1 35:52

You just look at downtown Kennesaw and what they've done there.

Speaker 2 35:56

Passed through there recently I was like, wow, this is Cartersville. I had no idea, sure.

Balancing Schools, Price, and Location

Speaker 1 35:59

So you look at Kennesaw, um Marietta square, which is, you know, uh, been a staple in this community, but it looks a lot different today than it did 30 years ago. Uh, downtown Ackworth the mayor's done a great job there. Cartersville, Canton, beaufort downtown coming just built a new city center. Um, lawrenceville in Gwinnett County has done a great job with revitalization, and so, um, I would encourage people to always go and take a look at that, because you can still enjoy suburban living but have like a tiny little town city center. That's kind of cool to go walk and and visit shops and things of that nature, which is very different than living in Midtown or Atlanta, which is where my son lives right now and he's living his best life as a 26-year-old.

Speaker 2 36:41

They all go down there, absolutely, they all come back, but eventually he's going to come back or go somewhere else, because he's going to want land at some point, right?

Speaker 1 36:51

So, yeah, I think best kept secrets. It's really just paying attention to the development of what's happening right now and deciding, you know, how far out of the city do I want to live? Do I want to live close to a lake? You know those types of things.

Speaker 2 37:07

Okay, what's the name of your podcast? How do they find it?

Speaker 1 37:10

So the name of the podcast is the Right School Matters you can find that by searching for that or the YouTube channel is Family to Family Relocation Okay, you can find that on there, and I have a pleasure of talking with heads of schools, principals, teachers, even business owners, and it's all based on various aspects of educating the public around. What do you want to know about schools? And so you know one topic might be about dyslexia. You know how to figure out if your child has dyslexia. What do you do? You know if you're looking at going to a school that has, you know, a hundred acre campus and all the great facilities and all of that stuff. You know well how do you build your candidacy for being competitive on getting into a school like that, and okay, so that nature.

Speaker 2 38:00

we'll link that to our show notes for this. Let's actually want to follow more. And then let's uh uh. Your website for your company uh, wwwf2frelocom.

Speaker 2 38:12

All right, and then, uh, we'll also link to that, as well as your contact email, in our show notes. Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks for joining us, paul. Just a few extra things. Related episodes Episode 136, financially Preparing for your High Schooler to Go to College might be a good listen for people. Everything you need to know about 529 Plants that's episode 168. And episode 225, we had Tom Townsend on talking about housing market trends and changes and what to expect in the housing industry. That's episode 267. We've linked to Paul's website and podcast here as well. Thanks for listening and we'll see you guys again next week.

Speaker 3 38:59

Thanks for listening to a Wiser Retirement Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you don't miss any new episodes. We'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review. If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today, head to wiserinvestorcom and reach out. This episode was produced by Rachel Dots. Thank you. Any other investment vehicles or a basis to make any financial decisions? Wiser Wealth Management Incorporated is a registered investor advisor with the SEC. The host and or guests may personally own securities, digital assets or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast. Neither the host nor guests of the show are compensated for their participation and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients, listeners or similar interests. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated or not guaranteed, be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, insurance professional and or legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.