The test I run in every new town
After thirty-plus moves, I developed a little test I run everywhere I land. I pick a grocery store, a coffee shop, and a park, and I live my ordinary Thursday near them: a morning walk, an errand, an evening loop around the block at dusk. If a place passes the Thursday test, it usually passes the next five years.
You would be surprised how many beautiful neighborhoods fail it. A neighborhood can have gorgeous houses and no place to buy milk after 8 p.m.
Walk the block at night
I say this to every relocating buyer: see the neighborhood after dark at least once before you commit. Night changes everything. You will learn about streetlights, parking pressure, barking dogs, and whether people actually sit on their porches or hide behind their garage doors.
A block with lights on and bikes out is a block that feels safe. You cannot read that on any map or any listing.
Follow the school at 3 p.m.
Even if you do not have kids, drive by the neighborhood school at pickup time. You will see the parents, the crossing guards, the after-school crowd. It tells you the age of the neighborhood, the rhythm of the streets, and whether there is a community that shows up for each other.
For buyers with actual children, I say it even more plainly: the school district is the address. It will anchor resale value, your kid's friendships, and your afternoons for a decade.
Commute honesty
People lie to themselves about commutes, and I get it, I used to do it too. The truth is that a commute is lived twice a day, five days a week, year round, in rain and roadwork. An extra ten minutes each way is more than seventy hours a year.
I now ask relocating buyers to do the drive they would actually do, twice, at the times they would actually do it. Not the Sunday-afternoon version. The Tuesday-morning version.
The rule that never fails
Here is the rule thirty moves taught me: buy the neighborhood you want to live in, then find the house you can afford in it. Neighborhoods hold their value in ways houses cannot, and the best predictor of whether you will love a place is whether your neighbors do.
Every move taught me something, but that one is the lesson I now pass along to everyone I work with.
About the author
Dawna Capps
Dawna is a Greater Seattle real estate broker with eXp Realty who loves discovering what makes a home—and the community around it—special. Having moved more than thirty times herself, she brings a personal perspective to relocation, homeownership, and finding the right place to call home. Through Things I Notice, she shares observations, local insights, and practical information to help readers feel more at home in Greater Seattle.
