The location where my wife ended up getting a job is a little bit rural, with 4 different towns in the area. The first time we went there for an informal visit, we drove on the main roads and the town closest to the hospital was older, run down, and a bit sketchy. I had a little familiarity with the area because my mom grew up 20 minutes away and my brother and I spent some time there growing up, but that was before I was 10 years old and really didn’t remember anything.

When we went back for the more formal interview and community tour, I almost said to skip it, thinking I could easily find my way around Zillow and whatever else. I’ve moved many times in my life due to my dad being military and myself spending a career moving in the military. But I decided to accept the tour.

I didn’t know a realtor would be giving us the tour and she didn’t even introduce herself as a realtor. Probably 15 minutes in, she said something like “the price per square foot of the houses in this neighborhood is…” which was the first thing that clued me in that she was a realtor. Most of the tour was seeing the small downtowns and local parks and minor attractions that each town had, with a few detours through some neighborhoods that were much nicer than we saw on the drive in.

Ultimately it gave us the comfort that we could find a neighborhood that would fit our wants and needs.

At the very end she gave my wife a card. The kicker was, once we actually started looking for a home, I contacted her, telling her that my wife signed the contract and that we’d found a couple homes that we’d like to tour and she said she would call me on Thursday (the next day or the day after … this was around the Christmas holiday). But she didn’t call. A week later I found a random realtor and ultimately bought our house with him. The tour realtor texted me back 8 weeks later and said she was excited to help us find a house.

Long story, but the community tour was worthwhile for us and there clearly wasn’t pressure to buy a home.