About the Author

Relocation consultant. Writer behind RelocateRight.

Max Shepard

Relocation consultant.

CEO of RelocateRight

A few years ago I got a call from my friend. He sounded excited and full of emotions. “Max! Finally, I am moving next Friday! It was so hard to pick a destination. The internet is flooded with useless SEO articles made just for search rankings, containing no useful content for someone actually moving. But I managed to find all the info I needed and made a decision!”

On my question “So where are you going?” I got a confident “Houston, Texas.” “Wait a minute,” I said, and opened a browser on my phone. “Did you know that Houston ranks near the top of the most unwelcoming cities for gay residents?” “...actually, no.” My friend was gay, by the way.

“Also,” I continued, “the crime rate is extremely high in the neighborhood you’ve chosen. It’s a bad area to drive through, let alone live in.” He owned a Lamborghini Urus. A pretty expensive car to park in such "crime-ish" area.

The conversation ended with him canceling the truck, losing the apartment deposit, and starting the whole process over. That is the reason I built this site the way I did. I wanted to create a resource that is actually useful for people making real decisions, not just another collection of generic lists and outdated data.

Most relocation information online is written to rank, not to help. It recycles the same lists of best cities, uses data that is two or three years out of date, and treats every reader the same. Someone leaving a California tech job is not making the same decision as a nurse relocating for a new hospital contract, or a family trying to find a good school district on a tight budget. Generic advice fails all of them in different ways.

I’m Max Shepard, a relocation consultant based in the US. I’ve spent the last several years working directly with people through one of the more stressful decisions of their lives. Every guide on RelocateRight is researched and written by me personally. The numbers come from real sources: Census Bureau migration data, IRS Statistics of Income filings, and local real estate market reports. I try to observe topics with different angles and be honest about what a place actually costs, what the tradeoffs are and who it is really good for.

A guide can only go so far, though. If you are still trying to figure out where to move and the research feels like too much, or you have already decided and need someone to walk you through the process step by step, I offer one-on-one consulting.

This is a one-person operation. There is no team of advisors, no account managers, no phone queue. You work directly with me, and I stay up to speed on your situation because I’m the only one you’re talking to.