Hello world from Austin

Hello World from Austin.

Finally, my new site is up and ready.  I just got the email that this is finally live. I wanna thank Matt & his team from Turbo Social Media for building this site for me. I met Matt through Twitter and what a treat it’s been to work with him & his staff. They are truly top notch.

I plan on using this site to share with you anything and everything thats on my mind. After all it is seanmalarkey.com! In all seriousness you can expect content ranging from Twitter, Internet marketing, my ramblings, social media, real estate, etc.

Why am I in Austin?  I decided earlier this year that I wanted to move.  Ohio has been great to me, but for the first time in a long time I am no longer tied to a business that requires me to be in a physical location. For the last 10 years I have been working in the real estate indusrty and did not really have the freedom to move. So almost exactly one year ago to the date I decided to make some changes in my life that would allow me to have more freedom.  The freedom to choose where to live was a big part of that decision process.

So prior to going to Argentina in a few days, I decided it would be nice to break up that long ass trip. We fly out of Houston to go to Argentina – so I thought this would be a good opportunity to check out Austin and cut some travel time off the usual 30 hour trek to S. America.

So far my wife and I are really liking Austin. We did a ton of research on the city and I think it could be a great place to live. It reminds me a lot of my current home town Columbus.  Both cities are the capitol of the state. Both cities have huge univeristies (OSU #1 largest in the country and UT is #2) The universities are key in feeding smart young people into the city, which give it a progressive feel and provide it with smart young talent for the workforce and economy. Also they are similar in size. The main difference is the climate. Here in Austin it is a lot warmer than Columbus.  I am tired of cold ass winters in Columbus where we see the sunshine a total of 11 days the entire winter. I know it will be hot in Austin in the summer – but the humidity is so bad in Columbus that I am sure the dry heat here will be bearable.  Plus we have been looking at houses with pools – so I am not too concerened.

Ideally I would like to live on the west coast, but for many reasons  Austin I think could be a great place to relocate to.

#1 – It is warmer & has almost twice as many sunny days compared to Columbus.

#2 – Austin appears to be a cooler/hipper, more open minded place than Columbus.

#3 – The cost of living is very cheap here compared to the west coast (you should see what 3k a month gets you here for a house, heres an example  http://lp.realtour.biz/?P=52406 )

#4 – I hate lists – so heres a few more reasons – low crime rate, good government, economy is doing well, schools are good, only 3-4 hours to the beach, the landscape is beautiful, tech minded city, home of sxsw,  the housing styles are beautiful – think tuscany, medeteranin, spanish, modern etc.

All in all its a pretty neat place. It will be hard leaving family and friends behind, but I feel confident in the end it will be worth it as the quality of life will be a lot better.  And I dont have much to lose as we plan on leasing our house in case we dont like it and want to move back.

In April I am speaking at Than Merril’s Web Wealth event in San Diego and I am taking the family with me. We plan on taking a week or two to check out the west coast. I used to live in California and I really liked the coast between Laguna Beach and Monterey – so we are gonna rent a car and go check it out.  I have a feeling I am gonna want to move there when we go there, but there are many reasons already why were leaning towards Austin. So we shall see what happens.

That’s it for my first post here. If you have any thoughts on moving, Austin, the west coast, leave them below. I would love to here your thoughts / feedback.