Looking to Relocate - Please provide some insight (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: condo, house)

[teebruin]

I'm looking to relocate from the Los Angeles area to Atlanta. My husband will be flying back and forth a lot, but it's not important to be too close to the airport. I'm not worried about the schools since I homeschool my children. I will be running a tutoring and college counseling business, so it's important to me to be in close proximity to locations where people would value and have money for those types of services.

I would like to stick to a house budget of $200K - $250K. It's fairly important to me to live in a nice, family friendly city. I prefer an upper middle class neighborhood, so if you think I would need a higher house budget, please let me know. I would like to be as close to Atlanta as we can be and still live in a good neighborhood and be in a location where I can build my business. I don't have a preference between urban and suburban. It's hard to tell from Internet research, but Fayetteville and Mableton seemed like places that would work for us, but they don't seem close to Atlanta. Do anyone have any recommendations?

[dagadawgs]

Avoid Mableton like the plague. Fayetteville is nice on the soutside and you can take Highway 314 all the way to the airport.

[sith]

i don't think your budget should be a problem. but what size house are you looking for? house or condo?

[lorilove]

Mableton would definitely be in your budget and is close by Atlanta standards. You may also want to consider Smyrna which is very similar and right next door. There are several members here that like both of these areas so unless dagadawgs can back up his comment, ignore him.

I am not sure how strong the market is for tutoring and college counseling. Both Mableton and Smyrna are relatively close to several top private schools in Atlanta they are also both easy commutes to the airport.

[roxyrn]

I agree that you should easily find a nice home for $250,000 but it won't be "upper middle class."
If your husband flies a lot, as my husband does, you can also look at Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Roswell locations close to 400 so that you can take the MARTA to the airport.

I have a few friends with kids in private schools who are very happy with the counseling they have gotten from the schools themselves. It seems that parents here are not willing to fork over money for things like that here, at least compared to the New York area where spending $10,000 for college application help was not unusual.

[lastminutemom]

This^^^^

Most private schools have excellent college counseling. And because of HOPE scholarship even upper middle class families are using state universities.

[lorilove]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

... And because of HOPE scholarship even upper middle class families are using state universities.

I would call this an over generalization

Based on family and friends in Johns Creek/Alpharetta/Duluth area, I know for a fact that many upper middle class families at least use private SAT tutors.

Yes, the HOPE scholarship makes in state universities desirable but that assumes the student gains admission to their school of choice. If you are in a top school district, you also have the disadvantage of competing against other students in your own school. If there is an abundance of qualified students from your high school, you may not get into UGA or GA Tech.

The neighboring states offer very attractive scholarships which makes schools like Alabama, Auburn and South Caroline very desirable compared to smaller or less prestigous schools in Georgia. There are many excellent students from Georgia that continue to enroll at these schools even though they qualify for the HOPE.

[teebruin]

Thanks, we're looking for about a 4BR 3BA house for that budget. I will look into Dunwoody, Sandy Springs and Alpharetta as well...thanks. I have had very good success with the college counseling in Los Angeles, and California definitely has some of the top colleges in the country. The problem is every student that applies to top colleges are all over qualified, so what I teach students and their family is how to stand out from the crowd. We work with students on how to construct college essays, financial aid counseling with the family, how to select the best fit college (only about 60% of college students obtain a degree within 6 years), and many other services. I'm not talking about $10,000 packages, more like $500 - $3,000 depending on the service. SAT and ACT prep has also been a booming business, and I doubt it's any different in Atlanta. I assume the students are still taking college prep tests and trying to get the best score possible. I definitely believe that people are paying for these services, I just want to make sure I start in an area where people have discretionary income to spend on these items.

[lastminutemom]

Originally Posted by lorilove

I would call this an over generalization

Based on family and friends in Johns Creek/Alpharetta/Duluth area, I know for a fact that many upper middle class families at least use private SAT tutors.

Yes, the HOPE scholarship makes in state universities desirable but that assumes the student gains admission to their school of choice. If you are in a top school district, you also have the disadvantage of competing against other students in your own school. If there is an abundance of qualified students from your high school, you may not get into UGA or GA Tech.

The neighboring states offer very attractive scholarships which makes schools like Alabama, Auburn and South Caroline very desirable compared to smaller or less prestigous schools in Georgia. There are many excellent students from Georgia that continue to enroll at these schools even though they qualify for the HOPE.

I took college counseling to mean college counseling, not ACT/SAT counseling. In all my years, I can only name a handful of families who have used a private college counselor. Now SAT/ACT tutoring is huge. You are absolutely right about the excellent students being scattered about. But most of those parents aren't hiring a college counselor to end up at Auburn or other big southern schools.

[roxyrn]

College counseling is big business in the Northeast and very costly. But, their are so many students in the tri-state area who go to great high schools, and they all want to go to the same schools- starting with the Ivies and then the top tier schools that the competition is extreme. I do not get the same feeling here in Roswell that parents are as competitive and don't expect their kids will go to Princeton,Stanford, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Duke.....
It appears to me (and I have a junior in high school), that families are more rational here when it comes to the college application process and not willing to pay out a lot of money. And those in private schools have a lot of support from their school counselors.
I am happy that I have had 3 daughters obtain private university degrees in 4 years, plus one grad school in two years (UNC) and a son in his fourth and last year of college before law school. Not quite sure why/how (unless parents just keep forking out $) that kids take 6 years to get a diploma.
I think that the north Fulton area would be a good place to look if you want to be in an affluent area where a larger population of kids attend public schools. Or maybe East Cobb.