Thread by @sweatystartup

In December 2017, after 5 yrs, my wife and I got tired of our 600 sf apt in Boston MA for $2,500 a month.

So we made a list of what 20% of our activities that brought us 80% of our joy and set out to find a city that had all of those things.

Here's what we did...

I made my list:

Craft beer / cycling / music scene
College vibe / sports
Fishing / hiking
Affordable country club (golf)
Lakes / Mountains nearby
Entre community

She made hers:

Restaurant scene
Beach within 5 hrs
Yoga
Coffee culture
Family friendly
Live music

Our criteria:

Less than 1:20 from major airport + city
55+ in January
100k+ ppl
New build 4 bedroom for under $300k, less than 12 minutes from downtown
East of Mississippi River

I was investing every single dollar I had to my name into self storage so we needed to live cheap..

My partner and I made the decision to take the management team for our service business (yes, an in person sweaty service) 100% remote.

No office. No geo footprint. No more high cost, city living.

On January 2nd 2018 we packed up our 6 month old and went on a 45 day journey to check out some cities that had a lot of what we wanted.

We visited:

Asheville NC
Athens GA
Bloomington IN
Columbia SC
Charlotte NC
Raleigh NC

After a few weeks on Zillow (and 7 days in the town) we chose Athens GA. On July 3rd 2018 we closed on a 3,000 sf home 9 mins from downtown with an unfinished basement and 2 car garage for $289,000.

The only problem was we didn't know anyone at all within 5 hours of Athens...

Turns out the tribe makes or breaks the location no matter how much there is to do, so we got to work.

We introduced ourselves to people at church, in the co-working place i rented, and even at the park and grocery store.

It was uncomfortable and it was WORK.

Soon enough we had our tribe and fell in love with the city.

The cost of living
The hospitality
The culture
The food

And on and on...

And my business didn't skip a beat. We bought 5 self storage properties in the first 12 months (all in the northeast). Our service business had its best year ever.

And we had a yard and we wore shorts in January and our mortgage was $1200 a month.

Baby #2 came. Covid came. The world changed for us and for everyone.

And we felt lucky every day that we had a garage and back yard to spend time in.

The entire journey was scary as hell. Every few hours my wife and I would look at each other and ask what the hell we were doing.

Leaving the comfort of where we were telling ourselves we needed to be wasn't easy.

But it was so freeing and exciting at the same time.

If you're considering taking a leap, do it.

Life gets fun when you get out of your comfort zone. And creating an entirely new environment, with new people, living how you want to live, is as rewarding as it gets.