Helping Relocating Families Build a Life in a New City

Michelle Johann, The Gideon Group at Keller Williams, Chattanooga

For 17 years, I worked for German engineering firms that moved employees, and their families, into new countries and new industries.

Whether that move worked for those families came down to one thing: whether the family actually settled in.

I watched companies invest years and a great deal of money into someone, only to lose them because a spouse never found community or a child never adjusted to a new school.

That experience is the reason I take relocation clients as seriously as I do.

The real question is whether the city works for the whole family

The commute, the grocery store, the school, the library, the healthcare options nearby, and a dozen other daily routines decide whether a relocation actually works. These are the things that matter far more than square footage. Whether someone still feels settled two years from their move comes down to those everyday details.

Ask questions that go past the property search

Getting at those details takes real questions beyond a property tour. I want to know what a family had access to where they used to live, and what they're going to miss (maybe without realizing it yet).

Sometimes it's something as specific as living within walking distance of fresh bread every morning. It sounds small until you understand what it means to someone who has moved internationally before.

I ask these questions while staying carefully inside fair housing guidelines, aiming to understand a family's real needs.

Speaking the client's language, literally and culturally

I speak German and French, and enough Spanish to be polite about not speaking Spanish well. Those language skills matter less for translation than for the cultural fluency that comes with them, understanding that a date written 03.06 means something different in Germany than it does here, or that grocery habits and everyday routines carry more emotional weight than people expect.

Cultural fluency changes the entire relationship with a relocating family.

Be the client's eyes on the ground

Understanding how a place actually functions day to day takes someone who is physically on the ground, doing the small things a video call can't capture.

I help clients find hotels, arrange airport pickup, set up transportation, and connect with everyday providers, doctors, hairdressers, nail technicians, before they've even landed.

That's the concierge level of service I want relocation clients to expect from me, because the transaction is the smallest part of what they actually need.

Start the relationship before the move even happens

The first question I ask a relocating client is whether they already have an agent handling the sale of their current home. If not, I connect them with someone I trust in their outgoing market, because helping with the entire move matters as much as the piece that closes here.

That reputation follows you. When people feel taken care of on both ends of a move, they refer you to the next person going through the same thing.

Aim for a fit that lasts

I ask enough questions upfront that the family I place somewhere is still happy years later, long after the commission has cleared.

That's the version of relocation I want to be known for.