Hey everyone,

If any of you guys have been the MOTD the last couple years, I'm the guy who has put on the Brew Swap.

I've put in a request to my employer to work remotely from home and if so my wife & I are looking to relocate East. The Greenville area came up on our radar for many reasons.

We love the Carolinas. Housing is very cheap (out here a decent home in a decent area with a reasonable commute runs about $300,000 minimum). There's a MINI dealer. It's close to the Dragon. We have family on the east coast and in the South.

But what I really want is to hear from people in the area. What do you love? What would you change if you could? Why come to the area? Why would I want to avoid the area?

We're considering all of the areas between Clemson, Laurens, Union, Gaffney, Landrum, Traveler's Rest and back to Clemson. In looking at housing, Laurens had the most homes we desired, old and cheap. We love the older homes with original wood floors and the style. Any other places loaded like Laurens with those types?

Thanks in advance
Matt

 

You want cheap?

I have a 1400 square foot ranch on 1/2 acre in Shelby, North Carolina for $105,000. Built around 1980.

No garage, though.

 

Depending on the price of the home I can deal with not having a garage. If the price is near the upper end of our budget then I would expect a garage.

Still waiting on approval of my request. Target date to begin is May 2008.

 

My parents have started looking into that area now to retire (as I live in Charlotte and my sister is moving to Columbia.) I would agree that housing can be very inexpensive. Greenville itself is going through a bit of a rebirth after loosing a ton of textile jobs over the past couple decades. The have done a lot to create a very nice downtown area and in general seem to be trying to clean things up. As I recall you can still get some very nice older homes toward downtown for relatively cheap if your into doing the "This Old House" thing. Can't speak to how the individual neighborhoods are as my time there has been limited to the downtown and the zoo.
My parents found you can still find some deals NW of Greenville toward the mountains as well which is a little better from a climate standpoint if you can get some elevation. (Not to mention that great roads abound!)
Good luck with your search

 

No, he needs to live in Shelby. Because I need to sell my house!

We moved to Shelby from Yuma, AZ. If you've been a desert person your whole life, you'll notice some striking differences (besides the fact that it is VERY humid and VERY green.)

Everything moves more slowly. Everyone in town knows everyone else. The roads are better, the accents are thicker, and it is much more relaxing.

I loved living out west, and I really liked North Carolina.

Wisconsin, well, I hope it grows on me.

 

Yellow'...have you been through a winter yet? I lived in Chicago most of my life and I seem to recall that it gets a little chilly up there .

Actually Shelby's kind of a neat little town as well. Not too far from Charlotte. There's a Classic Mini dealer based out of Shelby and a really good British Car mechanic also in Shelby. Can't be all bad

Also forgot that downtown Greenville as a mico-brewery/restaurant that has some pretty good food (closest thing to decent Chicago style pizza that I have found down here.) Given your involvment in the "Brew Swap"

 

I've only been in AZ for a year and if we do this next May that would mark 2 years here. I was born and raised in Philly and then spent a decade in Louisiana. So the humidity is no bother. And I desperately miss the slow atmosphere, the southern people and the green. The South is definitely where I like to call home.

Tall, thanks for the write up. We'd love to get closer to the mountains NW of Greenville. Only catch is where ever we buy MUSThave high speed internet availability. Since I'll be working remotely from home that's something we can't do without.

Yellow, can you tell me any more about Shelby and the area? Just checked and saw some nice homes there as well.

 

One thing to concider... Verizon Wireless Broadband covers a good chunk of that area until you get way out into nothing. I use it for my trading laptop and have found it to be very compairable to my DSL line at home. Just a thought...

 

yeah, I grew up in Indiana, so the winters aren't anything new to me, although they last a month longer up here


As for Shelby, it is a pretty quiet town that has its good and bad. Housing is REALLY cheap in Shelby, (FWIW, my house would be about $200k here in Milwaukee) mainly because unemployment is up. Schools are pretty good, but not great, I'd say. Nightlife is non-existant, but Charlotte nightlife is great.

The best part about Shelby is that you are just over an hour from Asheville, right at an hour to the Blue Ridge Parkway, 40 minutes to the Charlotte Airport, and 3.5 hours to Myrtle Beach, SC. Shelby is also just at the beginning of the foothills for the smokies. I really like visiting Charlotte, you can find/do anything you want yet it is not a 'big city' like Chicago with all of those issues.

High speed internet is available through the cable company and the phone company in most of the towns so long as you are not 'out in the country'.

Seriously, though. $100,000 for my house and it is yours. You can even pick out the flooring we are going to put down at the beginning of next month.

We have really nice neighbors and are only a short walk to a $7million dollar YMCA.

You can get a lot of house in that town for the money, though. My friends bought a two story, finished basement, 5 bedroom, 3 car garage on an acre just outside of town for like $185,000. It is crazy.

 

Seriously can't afford to do it now for many reasons. But I am curious about your house, is it listed on the MLS? If so, what's the number or address?

 

I haven't lived in Greenville since I was little, but it's a great place!
Easy access to Charlotte and other NC cities.

You should try:
Mice on Main
Hidden downtown are nine bronze mice for you to find. The activity is based on the popular children's book Goodnight Moon. Start at the fountain in the Hyatt Plaza to locate the bronze book and mouse number one -- the other eight mice are installed along a nine-block stretch of Main Street.
http://www.greatergreenville.com/vis...miceonmain.pdf

 

We live in Greenville. It is a great town and has lots of stuff to do. Affordable housing in many areas of town, but you really ought to check out the Easley/Powdersville area. You would only be about 15-20 minutes away from downtown Greenville and the home prices

I've bought 2 MINI's and a 330i from the local MINI/BMW dealer and have always been pleased with their service.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have other questions. Oh yeah, our house is also for sale...and it's listed on the MLS

 

We live in Greenville (Taylors actually) and think it is a great location. Greenville has grown considerably since we moved here from Six Mile (near Clemson, anybody heard of Six Mile?). Greenville is close to the mountains (you should check out hwy 276 out of greenville and up through Caesers Head along with hwy 178 out of Pickens). We are only 4 hours or so from the beach.

I spent over a year commuting to Union. It was a long and booring drive. There isn't much in Union (one of the higher unemployment rates in upper SC). Not a whole lot of attraction even though they have a Disney distribution center and also the Dolar General distribution center.

My parents live between Greer and TR. A very nice rural atmosphere and cable broadband! There are housing developments poping up all the time in that area.

I would also agree that you should take a look in the Easley area as well.

Greenville has even gotten into the brew pub scene with Blue Ridge Brewing. There is also Barley's Taproom downtown. They wasted no time bringing in high gravity brew after the law was changed!

Charter comunications is the local cable broadband provider. They have their issues but are stable enough for telecomuting (my wife telecomutes part of the week). The local telcos do have DSL available in most areas.

 

It goes on the market again in two weeks. We've had it off doing some work (which is difficult being that we are in Wisconsin!)

I'll PM you the information when it is back up.

 

Greenville area is really nice and we have 2nd largest Mini Moting Club of the Carolinas registered there. Also check out www.euroautofestival.com which is every fall. Its gotten so big there will be cut off on enteries this year. Go for it whether its Shelby, Greenville, Spartarburg, Laurens or even Asheville but the Floridians have driven up the cost of housing in Ashevile. Welcome to the South, Luke, President Mini Motoring Club of the Carolinas.

 

DSL is my preferred method of Broadband since whenever I've had cable there are always stability issues. I had DSL for two years and it went down twice for a few minutes and that was it.

I've also been told to check out the Rutherfordton, NC area.

I'm guessing housing is going to be the decision maker. We don't want to end up in a new subdivision and we hate the cookie cutter homes they're throwing up these days. We want a home with some age and character.

We did look at Asheville, and as was noted, the price for housing there is higher than what we are looking for. It isn't so much affordability as the desire to have a low housing payment. Rent right now is $1100 so getting a housing note below that is very appealing.

 

just watch the neighborhoods you look at. We found that it can go from 'nice' to 'scary' on the same street sometimes.

 

Just to add my two cents worth...
I moved to Greer, South Carolina two years ago after coming up to visit family. I had no intentions of moving here, but after my visit I went back to work and put in for a transfer from Orlando, Florida.
The housing prices seem to range from 50k to 250k on average.
I noticed that Spartanburg is about 20k cheaper than Greenville with more land for your money but Greenville has a better downtown/night life.
When I was shopping around I also noticed that North Carolina was on average 40-60K more for the same type homes.
The nicest towns around vary on what you might be looking for but I would recommend the following:
Greer, SC - Newer homes starting at 105k
Taylors, SC - Many older homes starting at 45k
Simpsonville, SC - Newer homes starting at 140k
Travelers Rest, SC - Older homes starting at 60k
Cleveland, SC - Older homes unknown price range.
Spartanburg, SC - New homes starting at 100k w/larger lots sizes than greenville. Spartanburg lacks a real downtown, but they do have the BMW manufacturing plant which means that when you order your next Mini it will arrive in less than 4 weeks like mine did.

If you need to come out and visit, we will be more than happy to accomodate and tour you around town.

This realestate company has one of the better websites for looking up homes. www.coldwellbankercaine.com