Our Expert Unpacks The Greenville SC Hype!

hey everybody and welcome back to my YouTube channel I'm Reed gray with burshire hathway seed and Joiner Realtors and I'm excited to bring you this video today you might be wondering who this guy is and this is Mike Cru and what we're going to talk about today is his tour which is make Greenville yours so with that it's going to be helpful information for someone who may be watching this video uh considering relocating to Greenville South Carolina we're going to cover a little bit of history and then we're going to cover maybe where Greenville is headed so Mike thank you so much much for joining us today thanks for having me Reed this is great I always enjoy getting the word out absolutely so Mike you run make Greenville yours right can you tell the people who may be watching this a little bit about what that is and what you do sure make Greenville yours is a three-hour tour of the greater Greenville area starts in Downtown Greenville goes through Malden Simpsonville Taylor's Greer and travelers rest and those are the primary towns where people will locate when they move to the area not the only ones but the primary ones and after the three-hour tour folks will have a better idea of what it means to live in Greenville sure what what does it cost to take your your three-hour tour it's $75 per person a minimum of two people now one person can take the tour and pay the price of two but uh they'll find it well worth or while it's worth the investment yeah absolutely I know several people who have taken the tour I know people just like you who are watching the channel right now that have already taken Mike's tour or have planned to do so um what has been kind of the experience of people who have taken your tour and then ended up relocating here or chose otherwise well it's been fascinating because when I meet them they generally don't know much about Greenville it may be their first trip to the area so I always joke with them if it's the first time here it really makes my job easier because I can make things up and they would know the difference well that's purely a joke uh I'm I'm well invested in the accuracy of what I share with our folks but I might tell you uh really at this point how this developed I'm a semi-retired pastor about 10 years ago I to steep back from full-time to part-time due to some health events in the previous years and from that point on I started taking my wife to work she was a nurse and uh she was working 12-hour shifts and i' take her and then I'd stop at soe steamer a great sandwich restaurant in downtown Greenville and so's a good friend of mine well worth a visit but I'd stop there a couple times a week get a bite to eat and I'd make phone calls work on my iPad and I'd meet people being a pastor that's my heartbeat is people so one morning October 2015 I met three people from Miami Florida a young couple in the girls mom they had always lived in Miami we're tired of it we're thinking about moving to Texas or or but they saw Greenville on the internet and decided to check it out I said well what are you going to do today I said we're going to try to make sense out of Greenville I said well I'm going to make you a strange offer you're willing to get in my full-size Tundra truck I'll show you Greenville they didn't know me I didn't know them they got in my truck really now think about that I don't know how many places you would see that take place only in the South really so I gave them an informal impromptu tour of Greenville then I dropped them off at our Visitor Center I said you know go in there and they'll let you know what to do while you're here well the young gal she got out of the truck she said you know we started out with an interest in Greenville now we love it and they moved to Greer one of those towns two months later became good friends of ours even came to church with us a couple times and the mom in the course of that little tour had told me that her and her husband are thinking about retiring to Buford South Carolina on the coast when the tour was done she said we're not retiring to Buford we're retiring to Greenville sure enough a few years ago they retired to Greenville and uh that put thought in my little pea brain that there was a need people were being attracted to Greenville but it's hard to appreciate on your own should I raed to have coffee with the mayor I'd known him for a number of years just enough to say hi to and I bounced the idea off of him and he thought it was great and so from that point on make Greenville yours became a reality and I started reaching out to Realtors and letting Realtors know that uh we could have a great relationship that they could do what they do best and I could do what I do best I'll show show off Greenville so that when you take my tour you're better equipped to know whether this is the area for you or not and then you go on with a guy like Reed who will find the house so we work very well together yeah that's awesome so a couple of things I want to dive into off of that specifically is one if you had to say the primary areas that people are coming from have you noticed a trend there is uh the Northeast M Chicago area yeah you know the Illinois pocket uh the West Coast I'm getting more from California and organ and then Florida believe it or not you hear a lot of people moving to Florida but a lot of people moving out of Florida and often times you'll you'll see folks particularly from the north who will move down to Florida and they might be disillusioned it they might find it to be too hot too buggy too long they might miss a change of seasons one hurricane gets her attention so they move halfway back to the north and of course we call them halfbacks yeah so I'm curious what are some typical questions of people uh who have taken your tour that are not from the area that those who are watching right now may also be thinking well people will ask about weather and we get all four seasons and it's moderate so none of the seasons are overwhelming but you do get an honest change of seasons they'll ask me about where the best area is to live so out of all those towns I let them know that I know folks that live in every one of those towns and they love it for different reasons which is why it's important that anybody think about moving through the area gets exposed to each one of those towns so they have a better feel for what it would mean to live in Malden or Simpsonville or Taylor or Travers rest or Greer so kind of talking about best areas I think that's really interesting because Greenville is a great City but the Simpsonville is far different than you know traveler's rest and the downtown area is going to be far different than Taylor's it's something really great that if you're thinking hey I love Greenville and then you reach out to me and we start talking about Taylor you're going to be like Reed what in the world are we talking about I want to move to Greenville not tayor sure and there's just kind of the surrounding areas right and and and I do tell people that the tour begins using down Greenville is the Hub and basically does a circle and wraps around through those towns and comes back to Downtown Greenville and there's a symbiotic relationship between Greenville and those other towns uh with greenville's success the rule supply and demand kicks into gear real estate prices go up people move further out to get more bank for their buck so those five towns that I'm showing off they all are benefiting and they all have Master plans so they all have a vision an energy A personality that you can't appreciate unless you go through and hear the perspective that I'll share with you and so with that I want to talk about the hottest areas right right that that people kind of think that they want to be in and then where do you think that your tours May expand to uh as Greenville grows so if you would let's go with question number one there what are some of the hottest areas that after people take your tours uh that they're like yeah this is the neighborhood I want to be in often times they really are drawn to that pocket from Greer to travel's rest when I take them along Highway 290 and you're going out and all of a sudden the Blue Ridge Mountains pop and you're seeing the border to North Carolina and if you're attracted to outdoor activities that's more of where that's going to be uh more readily available and so they may not have even considered that area before the tour and traveler's rest is really a a small town that's that's beginning to explode people wan to move out there and the inventory is not available but there are new builds going up hey I'll be going out to Travelers Rest this evening at 5:00 to show a couple of places yeah it um I was in Travelers Rest this weekend right and I'm driving through their little Main Street and it's not so little anymore it it's still charming and quaint oh sure but there's a lot of activity going on there is and what what people don't understand if you're driving through it on your own you may see a little town that's quaint as you said but you don't have a sense of what's behind the scenes the the the energy the vision The Pride that the people have in that town of travel's rest that's why that perspective of understanding what's H happening now and what's the plan for the future comes into play because people one of the concerns you ask about what people ask me one of the concerns is they're impress with greenville's growth greenville's become one of the top communities in the country to live right now and with that there's a concern that maybe they're growing too fast and it'll be overwhelming I often advise people be careful you never want to move to a town that's stagnant or dying you know they're stagnant they're going they're going to be dying right that's just what happens you want to go to a town that has energy Vision vitality and so the challenge that comes with that is having intentional growth and we've been we've been blessed with intentionality with it's never perfect but I think I'd compete I'd put it up against any community in the country in terms of really trying to be deliberate in how they develop and how they expand sure I I think that that's great that you said that because uh I'll give you guys an example I've got a client he relocated from Florida and he's a great friend now he he cracks me up he's going to watch this video he's going to give me a hard time about it um and he says Hey Reed I know you have your YouTube channel where are people coming from are they coming from California and I said well yeah I had two conversations this week from California and you know his kind of concern is greenville's growing so quickly he's been here for six months right how is it going to look in you know a year versus when he moved here right and I think with what the local government has done they've been intentional about our growth um you mentioned you know marinox white personally um and I think that they're growing well they're growing properly they're growing quickly I'll certainly admit that the one thing that I want them to do and I don't know that they ever will at at Church Street in Augusta let's put in a little overpass right there cuz it gets back yeah yeah and people will have all kinds of opinions you know it's never going to be quite good enough for them but I do advise folks if you move here uh embrace it and help enhance it and you'll be warmly welcomed that's awesome people are proud of what they have and uh when the cities do plan and they they have their master plan like Greenville city as a master plan 20 240 that's been placed for a couple years now and it's not a plan that gathers dust they really strive to follow it but they take time to get community input yeah absolutely now one thing I want to kind of discuss a little bit further is the outdoor activities I think that's one main thing that drives people here to Greenville you mentioned it briefly so we have the Swamp Rabbit Trail we have the Lakes we have Paris Mountain and things like that is that something that you discuss on your tour oh I do especially when I get out to toward trav's rest because within a half hour to 45 minutes from travel's rest Beyond the re ready availability of the swamp rabit Trail you have access to Table Rock State Park Caesar's head State Park Jones Gap State Park Devil's Fork State Park you have Lake Jassie that pours in the lake kiwi that pours in the Lake Hartwell so all kinds of outdoor activities are are available additionally in that in that pocket uh the Swamp Rabbit Trail right now is a 26 Mile paved uh running biking trail walking biking trail and it's patrolled by police on bike or motorcycle they're the only ones allowed to have motorized vehicle you're allowed to have ebikes but that's been fascinating I tell people to me it's a sociological phenomenon wherever it lands it stimulates development oh yeah and I mean Rails to Trails are common throughout the country everybody's familiar with that concept but I doubt that there's many that have had the impact that the swamp rapid Trail has had the community I think that there's people who have moved here in the past specific speically for the Swamp Rabbit Trail and what that would enable them to do in all of what Greenville offers um I know that when you may be watching this video you think that I just sit on camera and just kind of play realtor I think that's possible that you may have that you know idea in your head but the reality is is later today as I mentioned to Mike earlier going out to Travelers Rest and I have people relocating from Florida right now and they've determined they only want to be where the husband can bike to the swamp rabbit right and that's a main kind of driving factor in where they end up purchasing um so I think that's kind of the reality of it there now we talked about Greenville growing and the areas that your tour covers where do you think it may expand to if your tour expands yeah good question and uh fountain in is obviously on the on the radar they're doing things there that's a little further uh several miles Southeast of Simpsonville uh Tesla is going to put a uh a distribution center there that's going to add you know several hundred jobs and it's going to be a big deal uh so that I can see that being added to it also Easley in Pickins County uh they're starting to build out there and uh Easley is the town that you drive through to get out to uh Clem University I think easily often gets kind of overlooked as well and really it's if you're kind of looking at it on a map right it's you're not that much further away from downtown Greenville and Easley than you would be in parts of Simpsonville oh no no question about it now now uh Easley structures a little bit more I say Helter Skelter it's not a Greenville but they're doing things I mean they have resources there and they are doing things and they're trying to adapt to this this growth powersville is another area uh just south of the city that's that's coming up and growing more definitely tell me what you think about Woodruff Woodruff I had a I had a family from uh Minnesota a couple years ago to take my tour and great family and the woman was just a ball of fire and she's influenced a number of families from Minnesota to move here matter of fact I've probably had half a dozen tours through her getting friends to move down here uh matter of fact last November I ran into a passenger van and I took eight girlfriends of hers on the tour they represented eight different families and she lives out in Woodruff now Woodruff is uh about 15 miles out of Greenville but it's a little more open area you might be able to get a little more land out there uh maybe a little more 15 miles 15 18 miles yeah I I think that Woodruff is something that I wanted to to bring up because of the amount of new construction going on there the amount of kind of industrial and manufacturing jobs out there with BMW uh no question about it um if you're moving here from somewhere else that may be a good opportunity for you no question about it and these towns we're talking about they're not all that far from they're within a half hour of downtown Greenville so you're not that far from tapping into the resources I will say one thing uh to give you a total picture um the name of our Minor leue Baseball team is the Greenville Drive yeah it sounds like a strange name but the word Drive is a tribute to the influence of the automotive industry in Greenville back in the early 80s Michelin located North American headquarters here in 92 BMW did the same and in 2007 the International Center for Automotive Research came to town but the word Drive is also a tribute to the people of Greenville uh who went from being the textile capital of the world in 1960 to losing it all overseas to cheaper labor to Reinventing itself to being one of the communities in the country to live so that word Drive reflects their energy Vision resilience to come back to be who they are today we have cities all the time that visit Greenville to tap greenville's uh resources see to see what the secret sauce was to reinvent themselves from what what they what they once were and losing it to become what they are now and as we talk about what they once were what we once were is I would love to put up on camera right here a picture of what falls park used to look like oh yeah and then what falls park looks like today marox white have actually kind of sat in on one of his uh public speaking events before right and he mentioned that other cities I think Birmingham Birmingham Alabama was one that they came and kind of did a study of our space and the overwhelming response was we love our green spaces here um so I think that that's really cool and something that we take into account and that brings up a point that I tell people we've had a history of leadership with vision and backbone willing to pursue the vision um you know textile Town 18 textile mills prior to 1920 and so that really defined our economy to a large extent yet all these M Villages that have uh in the meantime been repurposed so when I moved down here in ' 86 Greenville wasn't anything to write home about I moved down from Philly to go to Seminary and the only reason I came to Greenville is I knew some men that went to Seminary that I respected I was looking forward to being Don Seminary and found the Lord wherever he led me hoping would not be Greenville but I tell people God does have a sense of humor and he did keep me here but that allowed me to see the transformation that Greenville went through and today I'm so glad he kept me because I can't imagine living anywhere else and to have seen that transformation has been fascinating but it's because of men like Tommy We a lawyer back in the early 70s who was concerned about the demise of Greenville with the Mills starting to go overseas for cheaper labor department stores leaving Main Street going out to the malls you had closed up factories boarded up storefronts people out of work and he's reading a magazine he sees a picture of a large fountain in Portland Oregon a big elaborate attractive Fountain he thinks boy that's what we need something like that to attract people back to downtown and he talked to a city planner brought a Consulting team came into town they looked over the city and told the city planners the city leaders that you don't need anything like a large Fountain what you need to do is wide your sidewalks narrow your main street from four lanes to two and you need the landscape well the mayor at the time was a man by the name of Max heler a Jewish man who escaped Vienna Austria in 1938 prior to Hitler invading and he was just rounding out his first term as mayor but in 1938 he just escaped Vienna Austria prior to Hitler invading he had met had a woman a year before who was on a tour of Vienna from Greenville her name ironically was Mary Mills okay and he contacted her to see if she could find somebody to sponsor him for a job and she talked to her boss Shep Saltzman who owned the pedmont shirt factory in Greenville and Shep was a Jewish man who made it his mission to help Jewish immigrants get established so Shep hired Max Max came over did great in the industry eventually moved up the ladder became vice president sometime after that he went out on his own and his own shirt factory did so well with that he retired in his mid-40s and then he got involved in politics on city council then when he was rounding up his first term as mayor is when that Consulting team was making his recommendations so he guide the local business owners together and said listen I'll run for mayor second term if you all agree to pursue those recommendations well they did and he did and that's how we have our downtown yeah that kind of leadership and then mayor Knox white this is his 29th Year's mayor and talking about Falls Park and Liberty Bridge going in back in 2004 2005 M that was very controversial and if it did not turn out the way it did I don't think mayor Knox white would be celebrating his 29th years's mayor that next election might have cost him that position and it's turned out very very well been amazing it it has it has stimulated all that development downtown and is it is a center point for Downtown Greenville it definitely is so I just learned something new that was awesome on your tour should you come to Greenville and visit and consider relocating here I know you're going to learn more great new things about our our city here uh I want to touch on this kind of pay homage to to my grandmother real quick so she lived in Nashville Tennessee about her whole life okay and my mother was the first person to to relocate to Greenville um I went to school at Lander University which is in Greenwood about an hour away from here um but my grandom said to my mother when she moved here she said why are you going to that tire little old mil toown and that was her perception of Greenville and it's the furthest thing from that I think the amount of people that are that are moving here but also who thoroughly love kind of our city and the environment that it that it creates is really cool so it's no longer a little old Midtown grandom one last thing and then we'll cover anything that we missed your tour when you have people ride around with you you mentioned a van and then you mentioned your truck what is that accommodation look like for people who take your tour typically it's a a comfortable eight passenger Toyota Sienna van and I'll take up to if it's a family five if it's uh they're not related up to four people at a time got if I need to get another vehicle I have access to a 15 passenger vehicle gotcha so I that's not your primary vehicle is it the 15 passenger one no no you're not driving around a school bus all day no matter of fact I got rid of the truck when I started the business I missed that truck I will tell you one thing I will tell you one thing um for the first 20 years down here just my wife and I have four children so often times at Thanksgiving and Christmas we'd invite Strays for dinner people didn't have family so our kids never knew who was coming to dinner it was like a hodge podge well that changed about 17 years ago because two of my brothers from the Philly area realized we had a good thing down here and they moved down here six months apart from each other and the last about 15 years ago our best friends moved down here from Philly and then their three sons eventually followed them down and then in the last 10 to 12 years four of my nephews one of my nieces mve their families down here I was just looking at a family picture at Thanksgiving we were having dessert together there's now 56 of us in Greenville that started out with just six of us and there's not one of them that want to leave yeah wow that is really cool so Mike I appreciate your time today is there anything that we missed there's so there's so much but but I think I think we've given them a good picture and a sense of the value of both uh Greenville area and checking it out and the value of doing my tour Absol and the value of working with a guy like Reed absolutely well I appreciate that and I appreciate your time guys thank you for tuning in to our Channel um I'm so excited for each and every one of you that watches and takes the time to do so but also those who contact me um and the opportunity to help you with moving here to Greenville South Carolina so thank you make sure you like And subscribe and as always always thank you to Harrison Williamson for sponsoring this video any mortgage needs that you may have make sure you reach out to Harrison we'll catch you next time

Channel: Living in and around Greenville, SC

Views: 3,899

Keywords: Greenville SC, the worst places to live in south carolina, worst cities in south carolina, south carolina, moving to south carolina, should i move to south carolina, south carolina realtor, south carolina history, greenville, greenville south carolina, greenville realtor, upstate south carolina, greenville sc, downtown greenville, best places to live in greenville, greenville sc tour, living in greenville sc, moving to greenville sc, things to do in greenville sc

Id: oMvztO2bOI4

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 24 2024