Where we work
The Birmingham metro, honestly described.
Eight areas we know well enough to talk you out of. Each one opens a live search on our MLS platform — but read the description first, because the search won't tell you what a street feels like on a Tuesday evening.
Birmingham
The city proper, and the most interesting real estate in the metro if you're willing to look closely. Avondale lofts and brewery blocks, Forest Park bungalows with real architecture, Southside brick, Crestwood on the way up. Wide range of price and condition on the same street — which is exactly why you want someone who's walked it.
View homesHoover
The metro's biggest suburb, the city our office sits in, and the one we live in ourselves — our house is inside Riverchase. Ross Bridge and Trace Crossings for newer builds, Greystone for the high end, Bluff Park for the ridge and the sunsets. If there's a price point you're after, Hoover probably has a version of it.
View homesMountain Brook
Old money, older trees. Tudor and English cottage architecture, three walkable villages, and the school system a lot of people relocate for. Inventory is tight and it moves on reputation as much as on listing photos, so being early matters more here than anywhere else in the metro.
View homesHomewood
Bungalows, sidewalks, and 18th Street. Edgewood and Hollywood pull young families and empty nesters competing for the same 1940s charm, which keeps prices firm on anything renovated well. Small lots, big walkability, and the shortest commute downtown of any suburb on this list.
View homesVestavia Hills
Ridge-top lots and a lot of mid-century ranches getting thoughtful second lives. Strong schools, steady resale, and topography that means two houses on the same street can have completely different views. Worth touring in person before you fall for a floor plan.
View homesHelena
Old Town down by Buck Creek, newer construction up the hill. Small-town feel with a real main street, roughly twenty-five minutes from downtown depending on how you feel about 280. One of the better value plays in Shelby County right now.
View homesTuscaloosa
An hour southwest and a completely different market — driven by the university, football weekends, and a rental economy that changes the math on almost everything. If you're buying for a student or as an investment, the questions you should be asking here are not the questions you'd ask in Hoover.
View homesNorthport
Across the Black Warrior from Tuscaloosa, quieter and generally cheaper per square foot. A genuine downtown, more land as you move out, and buyers who want proximity to the university without living inside game day.
View homesWhere we actually live
Out of all of them, we only get to claim two.
Everything above is where we work. These two are the ones we belong to — two entirely separate clubs, in two different states, that have nothing to do with each other beyond the fact that we're members at both. It's where our girls ride in the back of the cart and where we'd still be on a weekend if nobody were buying a house. One is home. One is the mountain.
Riverchase
Our house is in here, and we belong to Riverchase Country Club — the Joe Lee course that bends along the Cahaba River, twelve tennis courts and pickleball on 192 acres, open for play since 1975. We golf it, Chelsea plays tennis on it, and most Saturdays end with all five of us riding the cart around the neighborhood until the girls get hungry.
Homes in Riverchase Lookout Mountain · GeorgiaMcLemore
Our second address, and the one we bought as an investment before we admitted we just wanted to be up there. McLemore sits on more than 2,000 acres atop Lookout Mountain, where Golf Digest named the 18th the best finishing hole built in America since 2000. Two courses now, the Highlands and The Keep, plus the Cloudland lodge on the brow.
See the cabinWeighing Riverchase, or just trying to work out what joining a golf club in Birmingham actually involves? We wrote the honest version — the four kinds of club in this metro, what each one costs you, and what to ask before you sign.
Why this matters when you're hiring an agent. We've owned five houses, held one as a rental, and bought one across a state line. We've been the nervous buyer, the seller staring down a deadline, and the out-of-town owner trying to run a property we couldn't drive to. When we tell you how a neighborhood actually feels on a Tuesday night, it's because we've lived that version of it.
Near the good stuff
Or start with a place instead of a price.
Sometimes the search starts with a golf course, a trailhead, a coffee counter or a table you can walk home from instead of a school zone. We've hand-mapped live MLS searches around thirty-six of them.
- Golf courses
- Trails & parks
- Breweries
- Coffee shops
- Restaurants
- Cocktail bars
- One-level living
- See all pursuits
Don't see your area? We work across the whole metro and beyond it — Leeds, Pelham, Alabaster, Trussville, Chelsea, Calera, Gardendale, and the lake. Ask us and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right team for that specific street.
Not sure which one you belong in?
That's a fifteen-minute phone call, not a spreadsheet. Tell us how you want to live.