by David Portney
Stiles Associates
So, you just accepted a new role in a city or state you’re largely unfamiliar with. First, congratulations on the job! Now comes the hard part.
Whether you’re single and doing it entirely on your own or with a family — picking up and moving your life is among the most stressful life events you’ll ever have. This doesn’t even factor in the hectic nature of closing out your responsibilities in the current role while completing the piles of paperwork required before starting the next one. While previous generations had limited resources, you now have countless free online tools you can use to help alleviate some of that pressure.
You’re probably already familiar with this app to help with directions to the new restaurant in town, but it’s actually much more. When entering in the new address to your new company headquarters or a potential new house, clicking on the image of the building that appears will take you to the street view, which provides an authentic look at the address from the time the image was taken (typically in the last few years). The best part is you can continue to click up and down the street to simulate a driving experience around the surrounding area. This allows you to get a good look of the neighborhood from your phone or computer screen, and is the next best thing to physically being there.
From large cities to small towns, this website is the place to go for information on the best neighborhoods to live in and the top schools in the area. It breaks it down by assigning them overall grades A through F, while assigning them rankings based on data from the U.S. Census, FBI, BLS, CDC and other sources. They also have subgrades if some aspects of a town or school are more of a priority than others. If, for example, there are no children in the picture, then you may be okay with a poor neighborhood public schools grade but high marks for nightlife. Additional neighborhood subgrades of high interest are housing, diversity, jobs, cost of living and crime and safety. The popular school subgrades include academics, college prep, diversity, teachers and clubs and activities.
Any tape measure app
Odds are you have a tape measure laying around, but is it always within reach when you need it? If not, as the saying goes: “there’s an app for that”. The Measure app is probably already on your iPhone, but if you want a more authentic tape measure look and feel, simply download any number of tape measure apps in the App Store. Android devices also have plenty of free measuring apps available on the Google Play store. This especially comes in handy during the moving process when the physical tape measure is packed away or being used by someone else.
Rental cars aren’t only incredibly expensive right now, but are sometimes impossible to get, especially in more rural and suburban areas. Ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft are more than capable of filling that gap in a pinch, but if you need to spend several days or weeks in an area interviewing and / or house hunting, you simply need a car. Turo.com is a car sharing marketplace, different from ride sharing in that you rent a local’s car for the day (or days) instead of a single ride. Yes, it sounds complicated – and maybe a little strange – but Turo upholds the same high standards for its drivers as those major ride sharing companies. Vehicle selection can be extremely diverse depending on the market, from your typical economy cars all the way to high-end luxury and electric options.