In the pat seven years I traveled the western part of the US a lot with my camper and if I had to live in the US (I am Dutch and currently live on Curacao) I would probably go for Frisco, Colorado. But I am pretty outdoorsy so that’s a big part of why I would like to live there. Not to big, not to small, year round outdoor activities, an hours drive from Denver and an overall good vibe.
Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
521–530 of 582 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#522My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…
Hey I also took a big chance about a decade ago buying a package of nine buildings that no one wanted. They were fully occupied, no leases, as-is where-is, no FHA, poorest zip code in the state, democrat city. I had boots on the ground on day 1 and it felt hopeless at times. From people setting up lawn chairs in front of the houses to deal drugs, to packs of homeless loitering on the front stoops, to getting fined by the city for things out of my control, etc. I managed to exit 2/3 of the properties by seller financing to the tenants I learned were cash rich, credit poor. Also the values eventually shot up because another investor started renovating the abandoned mill buildings into loft apartments.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#523I chose three rivers mi
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#524Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody saying or reading this sees this as a problem?
Sure it's a problem, but it's very real. I have experienced an inverse correlation of town size vs. corruption: in my experience, the smaller the town, the more off-the-charts the corruption. YMMV.
I can think of many exceptions to this both on large and small "towns" and depending on what is meant by corruption. E.g., NYC is very large but not exactly friendly to business nor easy to navigate unless you have lots of money to spread around to "permit expeditors"" and oddly interested neighborhood groups and of course lots of lawyers and even then it's a roll of the dice on whether you'll be allowed to operate in an economically viable manner.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#525My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…
Just skimming the Wikipedia page for that place shows red flags all over the place. The population has been sharply declining since 1970 and the homicide rate is 56 per 100,000 vs the national average of 6.5. Clearly something is very wrong with the local government and population.
One homicide in a town of 1,800 people would give you a homicide rate of 56 per 100,000. I wouldn’t read into that statistic too much.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#526Earlier quoted context omitted.
I asked if the OP was the same person that was posting on Twitter, as what was posted there was a different tone from what was posted on HN. He answered in the affirmative. I did not spend much time “digging into his background”, I clicked a link and read a few posts. Why do you care? Be as direct as possible, please :)
I’ll bite - I only care because I think it’s important for others to see what your intentions are here. Now that I’ve answered your question, can you answer mine? :) If I wanted to, I’m sure I could Google some of your online identities and find a post your made in the past and then asked in a public forum if you’re the same person. I wouldn’t do that because I think it’s a bit creepy and impolite, but if I had a ver…
> I only care because I think it’s important for others to see what your intentions are here.
Always a losing strategy in my experience.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#527Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a few dozen like-minded nerds will gentrify a small town How does one do this in such a way that it's welcomed by people who already make their home there? (I can imagine a lot of ways this could go work out badly, but don't immediately know a good approach.)
You don't. Gentrifying a place pretty inherently means removing at least some of the people who live there. Why would the people of a small town go for that? Unless you're planning on subsidising the existing residents' lives forever as rent goes up. If you have the money and influence to "gentrify" somewhere... just build a new planned community in the middle of nowhere. The US has plenty of nowhere.
Lol, what? Here is how gentrification works:
Nobody gets removed, they just have to leave. It's a subtle distinction but that's how it happens. Poor people don't own anything. Their furniture is mostly stacks of junk that is so bad that it would be hard or impossible to get someone to accept it for free (this is very nearly a tautology, since the poor person got this furniture for free to begin with, and it's was so bad when they got it that nobody else would give anything for it). They rent. At some point property values are high enough the landlord (or his heir) decides to sell. At the end of the lease, the property is no longer for rent. That's the end of it. However, keep in mind that poor people tend to move every few years regardless. They are right on the edge of falling out of the population of working people who are self sufficient, so it is very common that they end up being evicted, abusing drugs or alcohol (even if just for awhile), or just having too many kids to be able to afford childcare so they can keep working to support themselves. Properties no longer being for rent in some neighborhood has almost no effect on any given poor person who lived in that neighborhood as they are one step above transient anyway.
This isn't an apology, it's just a more accurate description of what happens, I've seen it first hand from the low prestige side of things when I was young.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#528Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have gone dozens of times on foot at 3 in the morning to get medicine. For starters, the number of times that myself or either of my former or current spouses has felt the need to seek out a vendor of medications at 0300 has been...zero. That said, and I don't mean to be trite, you deal with it by living like you live 2 hours from an ER. Know your first aid, make doubly sure to keep those fingers away from that tab…
He is in Srinagar, Kashmir. Probably the vendors live above their shops and will open up in an emergency.
nope. unlike your "idea", the picture you're painting must've been 20-30 years ago and definitely not now.
we have SMHS hospital which is a superspeciality/emergency, around 3 Km away is JVC hospital which also has an emergency and another 5 Km away is soura hospital which is the biggest hospital in the area, again, has emergency wards.
then we have some smaller, privately owned hospitals in the city itself so that is where people get treated.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#529In 2010 I moved from near a US tech hub to a small town 5 hours away. There are lots of pros and cons, but main thing I'd say is to be honest with yourself about your economic situation and your lifestyle needs, and don't make the jump lightly. Within just a few years I looked around and realized that all the young families our age that we'd met had packed up their bags and left because they couldn't make it work economically + job opportunities were greater elsewhere. Yes a lot has changed especially re: covid and remote work, but it's still way easier to find work if you are in a tech hub or major city.
Especially now being a real estate agent (which in itself is a story of the changes that come with small town life...), I meet lots of people of all demographics moving into our area. Many have never spent any time here, but are drawn to the pictures in the tourist magazine, so to speak. I'm already starting to see people who bought during covid lockdowns who are now having buyers remorse as they realize that maybe small town life isn't for them. All I'm saying is, do more than spend a weekend in a place before you decide to buy a house and shake up your life - I've legit seen people buy houses having basically never been here, and that's not a wise approach.
Frankly, if you really have the means and don't have family ties keeping you in a place, I'd ask: why stay in the US at all? But regardless of where you go, hone your research in quickly. Don't keep looking at every last little burg in all 50 states. Go rent an airbnb for a couple of weeks and live as though you live there - and make yourself a study of the tradeoffs you'd be making with each place.
Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?
#530Earlier quoted context omitted.
Off-campus housing often looks cheaper, but that's because you're often comparing apples to oranges. As you mention, the age of the property and how well it's been maintained often varies significantly. But most places you rent off-campus don't include utilities. --That old house in the Midwest or Northeast might look cheap compared to on-campus housing in August, but your electricity and gas bills in the fall and wi…
> Another thing to keep in mind is that, on average, students living on campus have higher GPAs, are less likely to drop out, are more likely to finish on time, feel a greater sense of social belonging, and are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Those benefits need to be factored in as well. The ones that don't kill themselves, sure. There's also a higher rate of suicide, alcoholism, reported s…
My friends were generally emotional wrecks and hugely into alcohol, but they survived and have productive lives now. They weren't made of fine Waterford crystal.