Know Before You Go.

A lease or a mortgage is the most expensive contract your family signs, and it's usually signed on the shortest timeline. The numbers that decide whether a move works — rent, safety, schools, taxes — are public. Most people just never look at them together.

• 01Judging a city by what it used to cost. Reputations lag prices by years. The market that was cheap when your friend moved is often a different market now.
• 02Comparing rent and ignoring the rest of the bill. Two places with the same rent can carry very different property taxes, insurance, utilities, and commute costs. The monthly total is what actually bites.
• 03Visiting once and deciding for a whole metro. Crime, schools, and home values shift block to block. One weekend in one neighborhood tells you almost nothing about where you'd actually live.
• 04Deciding before the timing is set. Where you move depends on when — a job start date, a school year, a lease end. Timing changes which markets are realistic.

Returns are decided at purchase, not at exit. The demand that fills a property — in-migration, jobs, income growth — is measurable before you buy. It's also the part most buyers skip.

• 01Buying where the story is loudest. The market on every podcast is already priced for that story. Coverage is not upside.
• 02Chasing yield without checking who rents there. A cheap entry with no inflow of renters or buyers isn't a bargain — it's a vacancy waiting to happen.
• 03Using a city average for a property-level decision. Averages hide the gap between a strong block and a weak one in the same metro. Your property sits on one block.
• 04Never checking the exit. Who buys or rents from you in five years depends on population growth, supply, and job mix. All of it is visible now.

Location is the one expense you can't renegotiate. Revenue follows the people already there and the ones on their way in. Cost follows the tax and labor terms you sign. Both are knowable before you commit.

• 01Choosing a market you already know. Familiarity is not demand. The place that fits your life may have no customers for your business.
• 02Counting population without counting income or growth. A large market that isn't growing gives you competition today and less of it tomorrow.
• 03Skipping the tax and regulation check. State and local tax structure, licensing, and permitting move your margin — often more than rent does.
• 04Guessing at competition. How many similar businesses already operate in that market is a signal, and it's available.

Retirement is the first move where your income stops moving with the market. Fixed costs — taxes, insurance, healthcare, housing — become the entire decision, and they're the least visible ones up front.

• 01Moving for cheap homes, staying for the tax bill. A low price in a high-tax, high-insurance state can cost more per month than a pricier home somewhere else.
• 02Assuming healthcare access. Distance to specialists, hospital quality, and provider supply vary widely — and the gap widens every year you're there.
• 03Underestimating lifestyle fit. Community, climate, walkability, distance from family, and the social life of a place decide whether the move holds.
• 04Deciding on a vacation. Two weeks in peak season tells you nothing about winter traffic, summer bills, or an ordinary Tuesday.