05 · Relocating

Moving to MA or NH from out of state.

A new job. A return to family. A change of climate, taxes, or zip code that finally made sense on paper. Whatever brought you here, the hard part isn’t the decision. The hard part is choosing a town you’ve only seen in October, picking a neighborhood from a thousand miles away, and trusting the answer to questions like “is this commute actually doable in February?”

That’s what we do. Massachusetts and New Hampshire are not interchangeable, and the two-hour radius around Boston contains a hundred small worlds with very different schools, tax bills, commutes, and personalities. Some are right for you. Most are not. We narrow it down the way a friend who happens to do this for a living would — honestly, with context, and with a calendar that respects the fact that you can only fly in twice.

Out-of-state buyers move at a different rhythm than local ones. The work happens on the phone, in shared documents, on FaceTime walk-throughs, and in long emails at the end of long days. The trip is the punctuation, not the whole sentence. We’re built for it.

What we do for you

The work, itemized.

Representation isn’t a feeling. It’s a list of decisions made on your behalf, in the right order, at the right moment.

Our role on your behalf
  • The pre-search conversation. Budget, taxes, schools, commute tolerance, climate, lifestyle. Where you want to be in five years — not just where you need to be in five months. The right town for your family is rarely the town the recruiter mentioned first.
  • A short list, not a region. Greater Boston is not a market. It is a hundred markets. We narrow the search to the four or five towns that genuinely match your life — including the ones that didn’t make your initial list and shouldn’t have made it past ours.
  • FaceTime, video, drive-throughs. We tour homes you can’t physically see, narrate honestly, point the camera at the things photos hide, and walk the neighborhood at the time of day you’d actually be home.
  • One choreographed visit. If you can only fly in twice, those days have to earn their keep. We build a schedule that uses every hour — multiple homes, the actual commute timed at rush hour, school drop-offs observed in person, grocery stores, coffee shops, the things that make a town feel like home or feel like a hotel.
  • Smart negotiation, accounting for distance. Out-of-state buyers carry harder logistics — we negotiate inspection responses, closing timelines, possession dates, and rent-backs with that reality factored in. The wrong concession schedule can cost you a moving truck.
  • The local network you don’t have yet. Vetted lenders who close on time, attorneys who answer the phone, inspectors who explain what they find, movers who don’t go missing, insurance agents who know New England-specific exposures. approaching 2,000 sales built this list — you get to use it from day one.
Common situations we see

What this actually looks like in practice.

No names, no case studies — just the patterns we recognize before you finish describing them.

The two-hour radius problem

Your new job is in Boston, Cambridge, or one of the 128 belt offices. You’ve been told to look in any of forty towns. Every list online is different. Every friend has an opinion. The map is not helping.

We narrow the radius the right way. Not by drawing a circle. By starting with what your life actually looks like — commute reality, schools, lifestyle, taxes, weekend habits — and removing towns until what’s left actually fits.

The dual-state question

You’ve been told Massachusetts has the schools and New Hampshire has the taxes. That’s mostly true. It also misses about a dozen variables that matter more in your specific case.

We’ll lay out the real trade-offs — income tax, property tax, school funding, commute, infrastructure, healthcare networks, the things that don’t show up in a comparison article.

The relocation package

Your employer is covering moving expenses or offering a buyer benefit. There are timelines, paperwork, and approved vendors involved.

We’ve worked with most of the major relocation companies operating in New England. We know what they need, when they need it, and how to keep your purchase from getting tangled in their forms. You don’t have to manage the seam — we do.

Questions you should be asking

The smart questions to ask before you hire anyone.

If an agent can’t answer these clearly, that itself is an answer.

How do I pick a town if I’ve never lived in New England?

By talking through the life you live, not the life the website tells you the town has. We ask about how you spend Saturday mornings, how long your tolerable commute really is in winter, what kind of neighbors you want, whether you cook or eat out, whether your kids are athletes or artists. The town list emerges from those answers. It is not a national ranking.

Is Massachusetts or New Hampshire better for me?

There is no universal answer. Massachusetts has higher property taxes in most towns, an income tax, and (broadly) stronger public schools. New Hampshire has no income tax, high property taxes in many towns, no sales tax, and an entirely different culture. The right answer depends on your income structure, your family stage, your commute, and what you value. We do this comparison live.

What does the commute actually look like in winter?

Different from October. Different from the Google Maps estimate. We tell you, road by road, what the real February drive looks like — including which routes flood, which back up after snow, and which towns plow well. This is the kind of local detail no national portal can give you.

Can you really represent me if I can’t be there?

Yes, and we do it often. The work shifts to video walk-throughs, detailed notes, neighborhood drives, FaceTime open houses, and shared documents. We become your eyes and ears on the ground. We don’t show you houses we wouldn’t bring our own family to.

How do I avoid choosing wrong?

By visiting the short list before you commit, not the long list. By timing your trip for a weekday so you can experience the commute. By talking to your future neighbors. By writing down what you need a town to do for you, and not letting a charming open house override the list. We’ll keep you honest to the list you wrote — that is most of our job from a thousand miles away.

When you’re ready

A conversation about what’s next.

A call to talk through where you are, what you’re thinking about, and what a smart, sensible next step might look like. We’ll take it from there at your pace.

— Lisa Sevajian

lisa.sevajian@exprealty.com · 978-457-3406
Top 1.5% of over 1,500,000 Realtors · Brokered by eXp Realty

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Lisa Sevajian Group · Brokered by eXp Realty · In business since 2007 · Approaching 2,000 sales
Lisa Sevajian · MA License #9500355 · Team also licensed in NH (Adrianna Leone, Alex Greenwood, John Burns, Molly Smith, Steven Wallace) · eXp Realty Boston, MA + Portsmouth, NH
Equal Housing Opportunity. We comply with the Fair Housing Act.