Relocating Safely

I often find myself daydreaming about living somewhere else, a little less hectic, a little more rustic. And because of COVID and civil unrest, I'm not alone. Plenty of my friends escaped (temporarily) to family cabins and ski homes in Park City, Mammoth Lakes, and Aspen during the onset of the 'rona (which isn't the zombie apocalypse we wanted). Still others are permanently moving to Texas or the Carolinas. Bottom line up front, the wealthiest people are moving to more rural, specifically mountain towns for those very same reasons (plus the fact that they're largely in more business/tax-friendly states with more personal and economic freedom than LA, New York, or San Francisco).

I'm not going to go over the economic and lifestyle pros and cons of moving to these, or any, mountain towns. As they say, should you move there, remember why you left where you were. This Forbes piece sums it up nicely.

If you find yourself with a desire to relocate given your experiential concerns about security and safety, there is a whole list of things to go down.

• Is relocation permanent, semipermanent, or just a place to escape to (vacation home/bugout/escape pod)
• How off-the-grid are you willing to be? Proximity to airports, hospitals, response times for the sheriff and fire departments, essential services, and distribution hubs are things.
• What is your personal commitment to resiliency and individual preparation? You could be snowed in for three days, a week, even. Wildfires, mudslides, these things happen.
• Can you afford it? (Don't get a timeshare.)
• Do you know what the map looks like? That includes the map of human terrain.

Note: I am not giving financial advice. At all. In the purest of senses, I'm not giving real estate advice, either. These are important items to think of however, they are all subordinate to this:

Before you do anything else, why are you moving?

Considerations for Your Move

Prior to moving

Before you do anything else, you must ask yourself, and honestly, why are you moving? What's anchoring you to your current home? Do you own a business or other assets? You have employees? Do you need face-time with clients? You may feel like you can't just abandon your people, so do you want to restart everything in a new locale?

Permanent Move

The hallmarks of a permanent move? You ain't going back but for vacation and maybe to wrap up some loose ends. So, what's on tap:

1. You're selling your home, never to return. This is fine and dandy, as any security/safety concerns you had now become someone else's problem (so let me talk to that person now).
2. What about your stuff? Home is, as George Carlin aptly put it, "a place for [your] stuff." Do you put it in storage and plan to move it all later? Do you move it in advance, have it go into storage, and then start moving it in? What's your living plan as your stuff is packed up and moved, and when you arrive? I'd say leave once it's packed up, and arrive in advance of it. Sure, you may be camping in the living room for a couple days, but you'll be there when your stuff comes, and can assess it for damage, loss, etc.
3. Last but not least, do you own a business or other assets? Is it something you can permanently relocate? Are you relocating from Denver to Aspen, so you're within a lengthy drive but you don't have to worry about relocating your employees? This may not necessarily apply to Denverites, but it goes double for the New Yorkers, the Bostonians, the San Franciscans, the Angelenos who are moving hundreds of miles, maybe even 1,000-2,000 miles away from home. However, you may find that you are relocating your company to Denver from New York, and you might still further relocate to Aspen.

Semipermanent Move

Maybe you can't make the full commitment for yourself or maybe it's someone in your family, but by and large you all will be living there for a long time, planning to return to LA or taking a year or two to move your business and everyone up to the Twin Falls area while you live in Sun Valley. But you still need a place in LA.

1. Downsizing -- do you do it? And do you buy or rent? Ask a real estate pro (like this guy or this other guy) and your accountant about this (maybe this guy). You may be able to establish primary residency in Idaho, and renting may a one-bedroom or even a studio may be the most frugal and wise idea.
2. How do you protect your home here while you're gone? If you're maintaining your current house, that you own, think of hurricane prep as a way batten down the hatches between trips. If you're a renter, do what you can and work with your landlord, or rent a guest house.
3. Transportation is crucial. How are you planning on getting from A to B? Two sets of cars, one for each location, flying in between? Or driving all the time, putting a new set of issues on your already full plate? Does your LA car have the ability to handle the road conditions between Brentwood and Sun Valley? That's an 862 mile drive if you go through Las Vegas -- which is the shortest route.

Vacation Home/Escape Pod

Maybe you can't relocate to Jackson Hole, but you can get a vacation home that also doubles as your zombie hideaway. Fantastic! You've gotta do the same work and more.

1. What type of property are you getting, and what size? Plenty of these luxury ranches and alpine estates have large guest houses. Are you planning to share it with others? Plenty of zombie books involve bringing people characters didn't plan on meeting to their hideouts. Hilarity ensues...
2. Get it ready for your arrival. Always be bear aware. Maintain your situational awareness. Ensure that dry-goods, especially fresh bags of amazing local coffee, are stocked, and that the fridge is cleaned out before you get there by a cleaning service, or you cleaned it until it was spotless before you left the last time. Maybe even use the cleaning service to stock it with fresh meat and veggies for your arrival.
3. Vacations are rehearsals for the real deal. If you find yourself in a "get out of Dodge situation," you'll want to know that you can do so efficiently and effectively. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Amateurs train until they get it right, professionals train until they can't get it wrong. You'll need to be able to identify things out of the ordinary, especially during a crisis. Furthermore, training helps push "bang" to the right.

No Matter What...

You have to do these things when you're selecting your new home (or once you've done so because really, it's never too late so long as you're left of bang).

• Do your own little security assessment -- or have a professional do one for you.
• Get to know your neighborhood. Now, that one you really have to do on your own. I can't make friends for you. I mean, I can try, and I think I'm pretty personable, but in the end, it's up to you.
• Build and maintain your new network. Identify the neighbors who are most helpful, who may have ulterior motives, who are suspicious, etc. You're building an intelligence framework for yourself, and eventually just getting that human terrain mapped.
• Fitness! If you're moving from San Francisco to Telluride, there's an altitude change. Get ready to adapt.

Business Considerations

Maybe you aren't moving, but employees are taking advantage of remote work opportunities and have relocated to Wyoming or Texas. Their safety is still important. I recommend tools like Commsafe [ai]'s online video learning system -- and if you can get in on it, their super secret beta program -- for your enterprise. And as always, brush up on the true meaning of Cooper's Color Code.

Wrapping it All Up

Once you've decided the purpose for buying property in a more remote location because of COVID and civil unrest, don't think you're entirely out of the woods. Trouble migrates, and different locations bring different problems in and of themselves. Remember why you've moved to Vail, and what makes Vail great, and what you can do to ensure it stays that way, and a competent security and resiliency consultant will help you do that.