Moving to Washington? 7 MAJOR Things You NEED to Know First!

are you thinking about leaving the 49 lesser States for the great state of Washington if that's you stay tuned [Music] welcome or welcome back to living in the Pacific Northwest with Hal bird if you are new here my husband and I have this channel we talk all about our journey living in Washington moving from I'm originally from California my husband's from the east coast and we found our way to Washington and we share a lot about what life is like here what it's like to move here pros and cons of different areas we are specifically

in the Southwest Washington area and today we're going to take you through or I'm going to take you through things that you need to know before you move to Washington we're going to talk about some of the differences between the regions pros and cons and just generally how Washington State differs from other states so if that's what you thought you were getting stay tuned now if you are thinking about a move if you're considering my team and I are here to help you so if you're thinking about buying selling or investing in the Pacific Northwest

you can shoot me a text at 36818 4438 you can call email there are many ways to reach me you can DM me on on Instagram all of our contact information is in the description below as well as our Zoom link if you want to schedule a zoom consultation with myself so without further Ado let's jump into this video now to start one of the things that we loved about Washington state was the diverse life styles that are available so if you want to be in Seattle and be in like a bustling Metro very Tech

focused it's beautiful aside from you know some of the the streets but in terms of the scen in terms of the sound like the area itself is beautiful it has some less beautiful aspects to it but you can do that all the way to being in a rural desert so whether you're thinking about Spokane or Seattle or Vancouver which is the major city where we're located we're going to break down some of the differences and some things you might want to know before you relocate to Washington now out of the 100 plus families we've helped

relocate to this state there are a few things that come up over and over again as the many reasons why people want to move to Washington the number number one thing that I hear is a lifestyle change people are looking to get more Outdoors they're looking for better air quality and then you can layer in the financial aspects of no state income tax which means you only pay your federal taxes the state there's no return file or anything like that to job opportunities these are some of the reasons that people find Washington so attractive and

it's really unmatched in some of those areas when you compare it against other states I personally wasn't born but raised in California and didn't really think about leaving but now that I've been in Washington almost 7 years I think I'm going to be a Washingtonian for life I can't imagine living anywhere else and you know we travel a lot for different conferences and we have family in other parts of the country and I just love what Washington has to offer so much so the biggest thing you need to know about Washington is that there's definitely

the biggest differences between the east side and the West Side reminds me of like '90s WAP for some reason and that division is really at the Cascade mountain range which divides our state in half so we have an Eastern side of Washington and a western side the west side of Washington would be considered primarily when people think about Western Washington they're thinking about the Seattle metro area and the greater pet sound and then down south on the western side where we are we have Southwest Washington which is closer to Portland on the east side you've

got major cities like the Tri Cities Spokane Yakama and walawala Southwest Washington you've got Vancouver Ridgefield Camas Battleground and then up north you've got Olympia Tacoma Seattle Bellingham so those are kind of the the divisions I think in most people's minds when we're looking at Western Washington specifically the Northwestern part the pet sound that's where you're really getting a lot of the stereotypes about the whole state of Washington so rainy weather for instance it definitely has the rainiest climate out of anywhere except for the part of Washington that has what's called the rain shadow effect

which is basically where it rains less it's sunnier and there's a particular section and we'll show it here on the map where even though you're in in that Western and northern part of Washington you have less rain more Sunshine so that's one place that I've heard people that are you know they're kind of considering between our area and Clark County and this section of rain shadow because they don't want to have as much rain but nonetheless Western Washington auget sound is known for Rainier weather higher cost of living but also a very strong job market

in Tech Aerospace and Healthcare now when we're moving to the Eastern side of Washington you're going to see a drier climate more rural communities more affordable housing and a strong agricultural economy now in Southwest Washington we're a very unique part of the state because we are very close to Portland Oregon and we have lower home prices than the puet Sound area but higher than Eastern Washington so I find that we're kind of like a Goldilocks part of the state where the costs aren't too high but they're not so low we also have better schools um

our schools are really nice here and we get the benefit of having no state income tax in Washington and also the ability to shop in Portland with no sales tax so if climate is a big thing for you this may be a deciding factor in where you land in Washington the western side of Washington has a mild temperate climate so we do get rain we do get snow but it's not too much in any One Direction it's not too hot the summer it's not too cold in the winter not too rainy not too snowy not

too dry it's very very very temperate and that's one of the things now that I'm used to it I mean I grew up in Southern California but now that I'm used to a temperate climate when I go other places I cannot wait to go back home for the weather like we were in Florida I didn't like the weather like and we're filming this in January didn't really care for the weather in Florida it wasn't bad but it wasn't great and then we went to Pennsylvania and it was freezing like the lows at night were 7°

and so it's just nice to come back to something that's temperate again for where we live in the state I think the theme that you can take away from this video is going to be a Goldilocks housing prices are just right the weather's just right not too much in any One Direction that includes politically and in all aspects Eastern Washington experiences more extreme weather so it's more hot in the summer it also gets more snow depending obviously I mean the Eastern Washington is majority of the state land mass wise population wise not but it has

more extr weather it's hotter it's colder hotter in the summer colder in the winter then we have landscape so when you're looking at Western Washington you're going to see more like Lush Forest more rainforest more of what you think about when you think about Washington State and you're like oh it's rainy and there's all these trees like you're definitely going to have more of that stereotypical Washington landscape on the western side versus when you go to the east side you're going to have a lot more Rolling Hills more farmland and it's a much drier terrain

and you can really see this when when you're driving on Highway 14 let's say you start at the very beginning of Highway 14 which starts in downtown Vancouver Washington not Canada and you're driving east if you take Highway 14 that is that runs along the very Southern border of Washington state and along the Columbia River some of the best views you'll ever see from a car without hiking it's going to take you through Clark County into schania County and if you're watching this for the first time if you didn't know this the border of Washington

and Oregon there is a section of it called the Columbia R National Scenic area it's very long but everyone just calls it the gorge so you drive through the gorge which is absolutely beautiful once you cross into like White Salmon you get past White Salmon and you're going out towards the Dows which is on the Oregon side what is this all the cities are very small over there once you once you leave White Salmon which is a small town in of itself and you're heading out you're continuing East like towards wala wala it's all the

whole scenery changes it goes from being very green luscious you to the river on the western side to you're in the gorge you you're like in between two the Cascades you're driving through the Cascade mountain range and there's a river through it it's amazing but once you leave and you're now on the Eastern side you start to see those Rolling Hills it's it's brown it's there's all these like brown grasses it's it's totally different it's like I don't know how to explain it it's a a striking color change and we're talking about within a 2hour

drive completely different scenery so landscape is going to change then when we talk about economy and jobs you'll find that Tech Healthcare and Aerospace are the dominant Industries in the Seattle area when it comes to the job market there's also large military presence in the Puget Sound area because there's a joint base and mord Air Force Base so that Joint Base is located in between Olympia and Tacoma so you have a lot of military families that are living there and then on the Eastern side of the state you're going to have agriculture manufacturing and Engineering

sectors are going to be dominant when it comes to jobs and Industry culturally Western Washington is more Progressive than Urban whereas Eastern Washington is generally more conservative and Rural so again a lot of the differences within the state are just divided down the Cascades you can almost take any top topic and compare it to East West and it'll ring true but if you try to compare like all of the north part of the state with all of the south things don't translate that way now affordability super important I'm going put up some of the major

cities in Washington here along with their median home price for we're in 2025 so this is 2025 median home prices in these larger cities in Washington Western Washington more expensive where we are Southwest Washington specifically Clark County more affordable than other parts of Western Washington while still having a lot of access to things there are some coastal towns where you can find great prices but a lot of times people don't want to be that far away from an international airport or major hospitals different things like that Vancouver is nice because you are in proximity to

PDX International Airport pretty much everyone in Vancouver is going to be within 20 minutes of the airport you have two hospitals here plus you have access to the big hospitals in Portland like OSU so that's one of the reasons why Clark County has become so popular because you have more affordability than the Seattle metro area but you still have big city access through Portland Eastern Washington is where you're going to get the most bang for your buck you going to have lower home prices larger lots and also lower taxes while we're on the subject of

taxes the whole state of Washington has no income tax there are taxes on businesses so if you operate a business like we do you will have bno tax and that varies by industry it is very reasonable it's also on your gross receipts so there's no complex forms to file there's no writeoffs and it's very straightforward here's your Topline Revenue this is the tax for your industry so for instance in the industry that we're in rbn tax is 1 1/2% so 1 and 1 12% all of our grosser receipts go to the state and I will

link below the website where you can look at all the industries like travel agents for instance I always remember have like a very low rate and we'll also share them on the screen here so you can see so if you in a business that is something to know yes you won't pay income tax on your personal income but there is taxes for businesses and that fact makes it very appealing for high tax states like California and Oregon a lot of people don't know especially a lot of my California clients but also from other parts of

the country that are coming and they're looking at the general Portland metro area I am licensed in both Washington and Oregon so I can help you on both sides of the river which refers to the Columbia River but when people are coming from California mentally we just have a mindset as Californians of we pay high taxes probably like a lot of New Yorkers you just know you pay high taxes what a lot of people don't realize is that oregant income taxes because you're not paying sales tax are actually higher than C California so I did

a example on a recent video I will share those stats here but if I remember correctly it was like on $120,000 income if you're married filing jointly taxes out in California were like in the 3,000 range and they were 8,000 in Oregon so you're talking about an extra $600 a month to the state of Oregon every year every month in perpetuity one of the reasons we specifically chose Washington and the way that we came about it you can watch our journey to Vancouver here in kind of our thought process and relocating but we started some

people come and they're like we want to be in Portland metro or we have a job opportunity in the Portland metro area and then they're deciding between the states because Vancouver in Clark County is a suburb of the Portland metro area but where we approach it from is we want to move to Washington and then we looked all over the state in Washington so it depends on how you're approaching it that might affect your final decision now sales tax is in Washington and is high compared to the national average each count County and each City

can impose so there's a Statewide tax so your base sales tax is 62% and then each County and City can add on to it I will also link below the website where you can see each County in the different taxes and I'll share it on the screen here as well so this varies a lot Seattle is the highest I believe where we are in Clark County we have pretty reasonable it's between 8.4 to 8.7 once you add in county and city taxes housing Styles can also be vastly different throughout the state you see a lot

of high-rise condos town homes and very expensive single family homes in the Seattle metro area you also see some Craftsman the Northwest loves a craftsman style home so if you're used to other styles of homes like Spanish Mediterranean style stucco Colonial Styles you won't see a ton of that here almost I would say almost no one builds with stucco here that was a big change for me coming from Southern California where every house is STO which I didn't mind when I was living there but now when I go back I think it's really ugly I

really like I really like a good wood siding or what we use here is really fiber cement let me know in the comments if you want us to do a video on building materials and just the differences in the construction and the way homes are built here because obviously we have other things to consider like water whereas places like you know this southern part of the United States all the way from California Texas Florida totally different in Florida they build a lot of concrete framed homes like concrete block framed homes H you don't see that

a ton here so if you want that video let me know in the comments so Seattle the condos the town homes very expensive single family homes lots of variety within those but still expensive in Vancouver and Southwest Washington you're going to see more suburban homes homes that are on anywhere from like a 5,000 to a 10,000 ft lot as you go out into the rural areas so if you're looking on Google Maps and you see the areas that are green those are generally the more rural areas where you can get acreage we're talking anywhere from

1 to 5 Acres I see properties that are 20 to 40 acres as well pretty rare to come across anything more than 20 or 40 acres like I see those several times a year and then Eastern Washington you're going to see more large properties again more rural living and a lower cost per square footage so if your number one factor is affordability and you're looking at Washington State you will probably find yourself more on the Eastern side Spokane could be a great area for that we looked briefly there we also looked briefly at yak and

if you I don't do real estate over there cuz I think it's really important to have local knowledge for the communities that you're working in but if you need a realtor in another part of the state I have a great network of realtors that can help you with relocation that specialize in it so just reach out send me an email atal atome withth how.com let me know what area you're looking for and what you're looking for and I can put you in touch with a great agent that would be a great fit for you and

then also while we're on housing obviously I am a licensed realtor and relocation specialist I'm also luxury certified that's why we're talking so much about housing because it is a big factor when people are considering moving Seattle and the surrounding areas are going to be more competitive have less inventory Southwest Washington still competitive but buyers are going to get more value compared to Portland OR Seattle and at least in this market you know post the covid sellers Market it's a lot less competitive we track what concessions we're getting for each of our buyers and I'm

really really proud of our numbers we in 2024 got about 5 % in concessions between a price reduction credit or repairs for our clients across the board um which I think is much higher than our competitors just saying just you know giving a little what do they call Shameless self-promotion and if you want to see an example of the sort of money that we save clients and campaign for you can watch this interview that we did with one of our clients from last summer and then Eastern Washington generally less competitive but certain areas like Spokane

and tri cities are seeing increased demand Dem because they're so affordable and they have a lot to offer so you are seeing some increased demand in those areas now another thing you're going to need to know before you move to Washington is about lifestyle and cultural differences the Seattle freeze is something if you've been reading up about Washington you will hear in regards to the pet sound and basically the Seattle freeze says that people in Seattle are cold and icy they're not warm and welcoming this it's not the southern hospitality they very to themselves not

very outgoing they're polite but I guess more reserved is the way that I would put it so if you do move to the pet Sound area just know that building friendships can take a little more time we had some clients that are originally from Tennessee and they moved to Seattle and one of the things she said that always stuck with me about people from Seattle is she said they are the nicest people you'll never meet and I think that kind of s sums up the Seattle phrase so she's been really happy moving here because it's

a little bit easier to make friends people are not clickish in Southwest Washington they're very open I tell a lot of my clients if you find a a group or you know hobby or something that you're interested in board games or knitting or book club or running or hiking you can pretty much find a group for any interest even very Niche ones and a lot of times when you meet people there they'll be like oh you're also into this like we're going to do this next week you should come people are very welcoming to invite

you in if you make that step to put yourself out there so show up to events go to things talk to people it's not uncommon to chat with people people in the store to say hi to your neighbors to know your neighbors it's it's very common here now in western Washington you're going to see a lifestyle that revolves more around hiking skiing boating and really year- round rainf friendly activities the rain does not stop Western Washington from getting Outdoors so you have hikes going on year round my husband and I are part of a Bicycle

Club and there are bike rides going on year round the rain here is usually more Misty than heavy torrential rain so it doesn't really stop you and that's why you see in Portland and Seattle people don't really carry umbrellas because it's not raining hard enough to be worth taking out an umbrella so we put on our rain coats we throw our hoods on and we keep moving in Eastern Washington lifestyle wise it's going to revolve more around Lakes some Rivers wineries outdoor events The Gorge Amphitheater is out there so you have big music performances like

lots of festivals different little cute towns to visit each with their own different thing like 11 is a good example of that it's situated on the base of the Cascades on the east side and that's one of our favorite places to go the activities you're a part of and quality of life is important to you in your relocation make sure that the different cities you're looking at look up what things are are to do around the things that you enjoy maybe you enjoy going out and trying different craft breweries every weekend and Spokan could be

great or if you enjoy mountain biking Bellingham could be great so you want to find those things if you're really into board games for instance in Salmon Creek which is a neighborhood in unincorporated Vancouver there's a new gaming Cafe that was open this year and so whatever your interests are you just want to make sure that you're going to find groups that you can fall into easily or if you're homebody maybe it doesn't matter I mean lots of my clients are home bodies I'm like 75% homebody so I totally get it so and that brings

us to politics so you'll definitely see that more blue Democrat left side of Politics on the western side I will say that one of the things we like about Clark County is it's very balanced it's very purple if you want to really get into and politics is kind of your thing and you care about what the politics are going to be like wherever you land um The New York Times extremely detailed election maps are a great resource where you can go and you can zoom in and go really granular to see how different areas have

voted and you'll see in Clark County where we are in the 2020 election and the 2016 election how close the presidential race was it was like mind buing to me like a few hundred votes out of the like tens of thousands of people that voted it came down to a few hundred votes in our area so very purple very balanced which I personally like especially on the local level I think it creates a good environment that we have compromises being made and things getting done and I'm generally happy with our local politics there are some

things I don't like but again that's a probably a separate video Eastern Washington um you're going to see more conservatism so it's going to have a big effect on business taxes local governance and again look at that detailed election map and you'll see exactly where it splits now Community amenities if you're looking for walkability and good access to public transportation Seattle is going to be a way to go hands down tons of entertainment but heavy traffic heavy traffic is probably one of the biggest knocks on Seattle especially because the airport is south and so if

you live in like bellw Kirkland Redmond Everett like the more northern part of Seattle or on the north side of the city it can be a nightmare to get to the airport so on paper you might be 30 minutes but in real traffic in real time on the dates and times that you have to go it could be an hour and a half to get to the airport so that's something to keep in mind also if you're going to be living in like Southern parts of the sound Tacoma SeaTac different areas like that in your

community into the city traffic is terrible we um went up for a conference one day this little side this is why my videos can never be short and it took us three and a half hours almost 4 hours to get from Vancouver to Seattle which should be a 2 and 1/2 hour drive so it added an extra hour on and it was when we hit it even rerouted us around the bad traffic I thought we were never going to make it on time now Southwest Washington you're going to be closer to Portland Oregon but not

paying Oregon's high taxes you're closer to the Portland International Airport when you're in Southwest Washington than a lot of the Oregon suburbs like Beaverton and Hillsboro and we have a great food and dining scene that's definitely growing but Portland is one of the best foodie towns in the country and so it's very easy to access great food Port Seattle also has great food Eastern Washington is going to be more spread out there's fewer public transportation options so you're going to see a lot more dependence on cars in the Eastern Washington cities but you're also going

to have lower congestion so if you don't mind driving a long time but you just don't want to be in traffic then Eastern Washington might be a better fit so these are some of the key differences between eastern and western Washington I thought people had to know when they're considering Washington what else do you guys want to know about moving to Washington do you need to know about logistics more about housing do you want to find out more about the random quirky things you need to know like for instance at Washington is an open carry

state you rarely see people do but it is open carry a lot of people don't know that if there's a little random tidbits like that you want let me know in the comments we love making videos for you about what it's like to live in the Pacific Northwest it's obviously what our channel is focused on and if you need help whether you're relocating to or within the Clark County and Portland metro areas we would be happy to serve you we love working with relocation clients it's our Jam we obviously have local clients we're listing local

properties but for whatever reason relocation has just been something I've been so drawn to and passionate about after we did our own relocation that I just love how helping people through that process we have a lot of tools and support and solutions specifically for the person who is relocating from out of state or from out of the area into this area sometimes it's people moving from Eastern Washington here vice versa that are leaving so in conclusion I think that Washington is such a diverse state that has a little bit of something for everyone our particular

part of Washington Southwest Washington is great for people who want those lower taxes who want access to Portland and great schools with a little bit more affordable housing that's kind of that Goldilocks combination that a lot of our clients are finding us are looking either all over the Portland metro area or all over the state and then their landing on Clark County is the place I want to be and Eastern Washington is great if you're looking for more conservative lifestyle more rural while still having access to some bigger cities like walawala Yak Spokane without needing

constant access to an airport because if you live in some of these areas you are going to be farther from international airports so just like to keep in the back of your mind and if you like what you've heard about Washington in general and you need any help please feel free to reach out all my contact information is in the description below I'm happy to help you just reach out in the way that you're most comfortable whether that's call text email or social media you can find me on all those platforms we're just here to

serve you and make your relocation as easy and smooth and seamless as possible because it was challenging for us and i' I've been in your shoes and I know what that's like and I just want to provide people an experience that is better than what we had make sure to like this video if you stayed till the end subscribe leave a comment share this video with whoever's thinking about relocating with you your best friend your mom your spouse we'd love to see you guys all join this community that we have you can watch some of

our past client events here we really focus on not just getting a home when you work with us but getting a community so with that being said I will catch you on the next video ciao [Music]