Posted: 5/15/2007 3:17:13 PM EDT
|
Hey everybody, My wife and I are looking to move over there due to me getting a promotion. I'm lucky and will be traveling for my position from Charleston to Charlotte and over to Asheville so we can live basically anywhere. We have spent the past weekend looking at homes in Greenville around the 185/85 area. We picked this area because of its proximity to 26, 85 and 385. Does anybody know anything about this area? We don't have any kids but my wife would be looking for a job where we decide to live. She just graduated college with a bachelors in physchology if any of your companies are hiring. We don't want to be in the city but want to be within 15-20 minutes of decent restuarants and shopping. We are also from the Atlanta area so the homes there were all about $30-$50k cheaper than what we expected to pay. Are there any cities that are just starting to grow and we might be able to save more money? Sorry to ask so many questions but thank you for any help you are able to provide. I also look forward to checking out your local gun shops and ranges. JS2071 |
|
Greenville's a nice place, with a downtown that's starting to develop. It still is more of a town than a city. There's also the areas around Lake Wylie in SC. You can still get property by the water for a fairly affordable price. Charlotte's a short drive across the border if you want big city type of activities. Semper Fi |
|
The greenville area is rife with growth so finding a house won't be hard. Are you dead-set on buying in a subdivision with a home-owners assoc, or would you be interested in taking chances on buying land and hoping riffraff doesn't move in beside you? My current job, and my last job, keep me travelling through all of the neighborhoods in the Piedmont so I have some insight on where the good places are. Some are beautiful on the outside, but not so much on the inside, if you know what I mean. Were I to recommend anything, just off the top of my head, I would encourage you to look at the US-25 corridor south of Moonville. Compared to the rest of the area, this is wide-open country. If you get off on one of the secondary roads, you're in ranchland and old farmsteads. But, you are right there on 25 and can be in Greenwood in 30min or less, or downtown Greenville in 20min or less. Access to I85/385 is just minutes away, too. Get down to the Princeton area and things are a bit more spread out, but also more rural and prices are decent for acreage. The thing to remember is that this corridor is growing. All other directions around Greenville (Powdersville, Fountain Inn, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Easley, Taylors, and Greer) are thick with new developments and the resultant traffic. Head down the 2-5, and things are a lot less crowded. Look at towns like Piedmont, Pelzer, Williamston and Belton on 20, or Princeton and Moonville on 25. Were I to buy an investment property to hold for the next ten years, it would be between Moonville and Princeton on the 25 corridor. I really don't think you can go wrong. |
|
Simpsonville is also a good area to look into. It's growing and has much more to offer than it did 8 years ago. You can choose either a subdivision or there is plenty of rural area out Fairview road towards the Fork Shoals school district. You're close to 385 and can get to Columbia in a little over an hour and Charlotte about 2 hours. I'm 20 minutes or so from downtown GVL. Charleston is 205 miles from my house. Very centrally located. Powdersville/Easley is also worth checking out between exits 35-40 off 85. You'll be a bit further from Charleston though. If you have any other questions post or send me an IM. Rob |
Lake Hartwell/Anderson brotha. The ATL folks are starting to pay through the nose to get onto Hartwell since nobody down there can afford lanier anymore. I bough a lot 2 years ago and it's almost quadrupled in value. |
|
Hey everybody. WOW! Thanks for all the help. I'm amazed at the number of replies from you. Union, I will research Rock Hill. Your post is the very first that I've heard of this city. USMC, I agree with you about Greenville being a nice place. My wife and I went to a local park on Monday. I think the name was the Falls Park? That area was very nice and had some restuarants nearby. VaughnT, You and I are on the same page. We didn't look at Moonville but were very close to that area. We were just north of 185 near Mauldin. Here's the subdivision that we were looking at in that area: Any chance anybody knows anything about this builder or the exact area? There was a golf course less than a mile away that looked decent plus it was close enough to Mauldin and Greenville. We are looking to purchase in a subdivison also. We currently live in one and it has really helped out with the resell value. It's a pain in some cases but it has paid off for us. Our move will also be in the next month so we are unable to build a house and will have to purchase a built home. SC_beerbarge, we looked at the Powdersville area late Monday night but everything we found was $250+. Several people told us to check out that area but it was more than wanted to spend. We looked at four or five subdivisons between Powdersville and Easley. Is this normal in that area or did we just miss the "affordable" homes? Thanks again for the help everybody. If you have group shootings over there like they do in Georgia, I can't wait to meet everybody. JS2071 |
|
Not familiar with Eastwood homes. That area of mauldin is nice. Tons of building and developments in the last 6 years. Bonnie brea is a decent golf course. You also have Hejaz and the Donaldson center golf courses near by. Traffic depending on where your headed can be a huge pain in the morning and afternoon up and down Butler Rd. Not sure of the school system there. While it may not be a big deal for you now it may be down the road. The area has grown so fast in the last 10 years it's been hard for the schools to keep up. Just keep that in mind. Resale in an area with a crappy school system can be difficult. FWIW check out Simpsonville going out Fairview Rd. towards Fork Shoals. Good school system and some reasonably priced subdivisions going up out there. There is also a nice subdivision going up by Heritage park in Simpsonville. Greenville is a great area to live. 1 hour from many lakes. ! hour from the mountains. 3 hours to the ocean. When you get settled there is a nice gun range down 385 towards Cola called Philsons Crossing. |
|
Check out Powderhorn subdivision in Simpsonville as well. Quick access to 385, grocery store, restraunts etc. Homes are reasonable priced and usually have mature trees. HOA dues are dirt cheap and it has a very nice pool etc. Schools system is decent. Good location. Poinsettia next to powderhorn is nice as well. They're older homes(built from 70's-90's) but nice. |
|
Powderhorn sbd is very nice. I like that the road names are all historical in nature - kinda makes you think about where we come from. The link you posted is busted somehow, but I've been in a lot of the sbd's on their website and think they're doing a pretty good job with them. Traffic around Gville can be a thorough pain until you learn the backroads. There's also the Greenville Gun Club if you're game. Oh, you were advised that the newguy on the block has to provide beer and bullets as a token of good faith. It's kinda like HOA dues. (eta: I'll look around south of Moonville this weekend, but I'm not familiar with any sbd's in the area that I would want to move into. you definitely don't want to live in the area north of moonville between 185 and 85!) |
|
I don't know, I'd have to look at a map again, but I don't know if you go to these places equal amounts of time, that I would want to be 2hrs or so from ANY of them. Wouldn't it make sense to be closer to one of them, say Charlotte, and then drive a few hrs either direction to go to the remaining 2? Maybe I don't know how much time you need to spend at each place, or what the schedule of travel would look like. Someone mentioned Rock Hill, that's about 15 minutes (maybe 20 if far of highway) from the NC/SC line down 77, so about 40+ min to downtown Charlotte. Fort Mill is about 20 minutes from downtown Charlotte, but has some SC advantages. Someone mentioned lakes, there's Lake Wylie not far from I77 S in the Fort Mill / Rock Hill area. Ok, so I looked it up. Greenville for example is: 1hr+ to Asheville 2hrs realistically to Charlotte 3+ hrs to Charleston Whereas in Charlotte area it is: 2 hrs to Asheville 0 hrs to Charlotte 3+ hrs to Charleston Going to the three equally, your net savings is around 1hr, adding an hr to go to Asheville, but losing 2 hrs being close to Charlotte. So, if you go to Asheville and Charleston the most, then Gville is probably fine, but if Charlotte is as much or more of a destination, then I would recommend thinking about that. Plus, if you LIKE any of the big city advantages of the Atlanta area, then you definitely want to consider being close to Charlotte, it's the next closest thing to Atlanta in the area, but isn't as big as Atl, but still has upscale shops in S Charlotte, an every developing Downtown, pro sports, white water park, I think Gville is not big enough for me personally, but you may not like being close to a metro area like Atl/Clt, I don't know. I think a suburb like Fort Mill, Lake Wylie is best of both worlds, and puts you in the middle of your described territory. Hope that helps. Karz |
| Powderhorn/Pointsetia (SP?) are nice and are located right together. Heritage point might be worth looking in to. They have a great park in the subdivision with 6 baseball fields and some other stuff. We should all get together and go shooting. I'm in simpsonville until the end of the summer. |
|
Hey Karz, you think like me. The Greenville/Spartanburg area was determined to be the best area because of the bulk of the accounts and retailers that I would work with are closer. Asheville and Charleston will not be visited as often as Greenville, Spartanburg and Charlotte. Thanks for your help also. JS2071 |
Oh, ok. Well, your original post said working from Charleston, to Charlotte, and Asheville, and that you were looking at homes in Greenville, I didn't read anything that said you'd also have work in Greenville... If that's the case, then near Gville makes more sense. Although, like I said it all depends on what you want to have near you. I was concerned that living near ATL, you may miss some of those ameneties of a metro area, and that you may enjoy living *near* Charlotte. I've been to Gville on business a couple times and have people near Easley, and I like living up near Charlotte better than I think I would like living down there, but that's just me. I like the area, don't get me wrong, I just like being closer to a metro for various reasons. Good luck in whatever you do! |
|
JS, There's a home FSBO on Powderhorn Rd. right now. They want 150,000 for it. IIRC it's 1700 sq/ft or so. Looks like it backs up to woods. There are also a couple towards the back of Powderhorn fs as well. Not sure the asking price. I know one has a basement. Property values in Powderhorn were stagnant for quite a few years. But they have risen nicely the last few due to location and they're putting up $250,000-300,000 homes behind it. Anybody else posting in here live in the Powderhorn/Poinsttia/Heritage Point subdivisions? |
|
Do you guys sell real estate different up here? We made an offer on the house we found and we did offer them about $10k less than what they were asking. They responded by saying that they wanted $9k more than what they originally wanted 3 weeks ago  . Now we have a difference of almost $20k due to the house price being changed. Real estate must be going up quick up here. JS2071 |
Never heard of that. Typically an offer of 5% under asking is normal. But it also depends on the location. RE has not been appreciating here like it did in FL, CA etc. But it has gone up nicely the last couple years around me. IMO it's still a buyers market here. Mind saying what subdivision? |