Common Questions and the Right Answers regarding Touring Cleveland, Akron and Canton
Corporate Client: We offered our candidate your services, but he wants to explore on his own. Is this a good idea?
EA: Cleveland and Akron/Canton are not easy places to drive around and understand easily the first time around. There will be plenty of time for the recruit to explore on their own, but first they need a good, solid base of knowledge from professionals who can offer the insider’s scoop on the region.
Recruit: I downloaded a tour on Google Maps and after looking at Zillow and finding a few houses that seem right, I’m going to do a self-guided tour. Do I still need to spend a day with Executive Arrangements?
EA: While staring at your iPhone screen and driving to see houses you found online doesn’t sound like the absolute worst way to experience a new city, it’s probably in the top 5! If you’ve never been here you do not have necessary context, and a self-guided tour could be misleading about the region. Your smart phone won’t tell you if
the neighborhood you are driving through is safe, has demographics that will make you feel at home, has schools that match your children’s need, are close to the amenities you need for weekly errands and fun outings, what the real estate taxes are, whether the school district passed its last few levies, or whether the commute to your office will be on rush hour clogged freeways or can be easily done on back roads. This is what EA brings to the table. We are the local experts to help guide you to make educated decisions about this move. Last week a client asked us to show them a home they found on Zillow, and we accommodated the request, almost to prove a point. We knew the street and the neighborhood, and it did not match any of the criteria they had shared with us at all…but we went there anyway. They took one look at the house (the ONLY nice house on the entire street), and they said “ok, we get it, we are in your hands from here forward”.
Corporate Client: Six hours seems like a long time to spend in the car. Can you do a 2 hour tour and get them to their airport after their interviews?
EA: If you’ve only set aside a few hours for your recruit to make a huge life decision about whether or not to relocate their family for a job, you are doing them a disservice. This is a huge life decision. Just getting them from the hotel or airport to the suburbs that match their criteria often takes 30 minutes of driving, which leaves precious little time for us to do a deep dive into the neighborhoods or schools themselves. And we don’t stick to the main roads, we veer off on sidestreets to show school campuses, shopping pockets, playgrounds, etc. This all takes time. We also arrange for behind the scenes tours at schools, museums, the theater district…whatever matches their interests. It all adds up to make sure they say yes to your job offer and to insure they are enthused about the upcoming move, not overwhelmed and stressed out. We generally suggest 4 to 6 hours minimum to take full advantage of the services and assistance that Executive Arrangements can provide.
Recruit: I’m spending a day with a realtor seeing homes before I go out with Executive Arrangements. Which neighborhoods should I tell them explore for listings?
EA: This is why it is important to have your EA experience BEFORE you go out with your realtor…we help you narrow down the neighborhoods that are the best match for you before you start seeing individual homes. Trust us, the realtor will be so happy that EA will have educated you about the area, helped you narrow down your choices to 2 or 3 neighborhoods, and have already shown you all the arts, culture, parks, lakefront, museums, shopping and restaurant districts so they can concentrate on their specialty…finding you a house that you will love. Realtors by law are not allowed to tell you about the demographics of the neighborhood or the quality of the schools. Don’t you want all that info before you fall in love with a house? Realtors show the what (4 bedroom house on a cul-de-sac) while EA shows the how and why (does the school district offer lacrosse? Do young professionals live on these streets or just established families? How close am I to the nearest bike trail?).
For more information on how the advantages of incorporating Executive Arrangements into organization’s recruitment & relocation of employees, call us at 216.231.9311