Relocating to Rochester

It's been 19 years since I relocated to Rochester, NY from Laurel, Maryland (same town as Rochester's current police chief!) To me, it was huge! I was in my early 30's and had never lived outside of the state of Maryland. I remember being here about a month and one day simply breaking down and crying. I was so tired of being lost and among unfamiliar surroundings and people. Obviously, I got over the homesickness, and learned to love Rochester.

This past week, many memories of relocating came back to me as I helped a new client buy his first home in anticipation of moving to Rochester this fall to take a job with the University of Rochester. My contact with him started with an e-mail in which he inquired about one of my listings that had already sold. I offered to e-mail him some similar properties that were on the market and from there, we began to correspond several times a day.

I encouraged him to come to Rochester to spend a day looking at houses and becoming familiar with the different neighborhoods and what various types of houses cost. He accepted my invitation and so I set up a tour of nine homes, that started in the city, then went to W. Brighton, Chili, Irondiquoit, Brighton, Penfield and Henrietta. We saw colonials, capes and ranches. And much to my surprise, by the end of the day he found the house he wanted to call home.

Once back in New Jersey, Ted e-mailed me and said he couldn't stop thinking about that house and wanted to put in an offer. And so I drew up the paperwork, e-mailed it to him he signed it and faxed everything back. I then presented the offer to the listing agent and then we had about 24 hours of pins and needles waiting to hear the seller's response. She accepted!

The next day, Ted headed back to Rochester so that he could attend the engineer's inspection. Once the house received a relatively clean bill of health, we headed over to Premium Mortgage Corp so that he could complete his mortgage application.

Relocating is not that new for Ted. In 1996 he relocated to the United States from Japan. In the back of his mind, he always thought his first home would be in Japan and so making the decision to put in a purchase offer was not a simple one for him.

It was a whirlwind two weeks, from the time he sent his first e-mail until he had bought a home and applied for a mortgage. Fortunately, Ted has several friends in Rochester and has visited here many times, which should make his move here much smoother than mine 19 years ago!