Moving to Hilo Area June 2009 - What are we missing? (rental car, sales)

[mdand3boys]

Yes, we have been to the island several times to visit and look around, including the kids - 3 times in the last 4 years...

We are moving to the Big Island, South Hilo area the last week of June 2009. Although my login name suggests 3 boys, only 2 are moving with me and the wife. The oldest boy will be attending school on the mainland. The younger ones are 11 and 14 - will be 6th grade and freshman in high school. Both are very high end on all testing, etc. and I do not worry about their schooling or being able to get along with others.

My wife has 2 relatives on the Big island already so we will have some help - not sure how much help though as he is an engineer and very busy as to his available time.

Wife is transferring thru her job. It is a voluntary xfer and we will get no relo assistance. I plan on doing computer consulting to small business and individuals as I do here, in Illinois. I realize that I will have to advertise and start up a client base. I have not ruled out working for another company if I can find something decent.

We have saved enough to allow for a year's worth of rent, etc. on a house and have no other debts such as car payments. Both car's are Honda SUV's in nice shape, etc.

We plan on shipping my car the first week of June and then all of us flying out of Oakland, CA the last week of June and shipping her car from the Matson port there. I figure this will allow us to have 1 car already on the island, saving the cost of a rental car. BTW, flying one-way out of Oakland saves us almost $300 per plane ticket over LAX!

From advice on this forum: (in no particualr order)

Birth certificates, car titles, registration, insurance proof, etc. all ready to go and will be in hand.

We are opening a bank account now via a Hawaii bank even though our address will be mainland until we get there.

Getting our kid's school records, having new physicals done now (including the TB test we have heard about) They have had all Illinois required immunizations over the years.

We will be shipping very little - what we do ship will be via USPS flat rate box or parcel post, shipped to our relatives address. We are maintaining a nice storage unit back here that will hold all of non-shipped items for when we most likely, in a year or 2, return to Illinois.

We want a 6 month lease on a furnished house (3BR) just in case we do not like either the house or area/neighborhood we end up in. We want county water and electric available. While it would be fantastic to move right into a house, we expect a delay from when we arrive until we can move in.

We are preparing a project plan with detailed tasks and dates so that we do not overlook anything.

Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated!

[mdand3boys]

Someone? Anyone?

Beuhler?

[PacificFlights]

First suggestion is to dump the mainland attitude. You posted yesterday and already looking for a response. Get use to Hawaii ways. Peiople are not obsessed with their computers and don't spent hours on end posting on-line. They would rather be sitting outside taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of Hawaii.

One thing you may want to consider is if you have an escape plan. Unless you have a written legal contract for employment spelling out that you will have a job from start date to end date, don't count on the job. There are many who relocated for employment with their same employer only to get to Hawaii and the job was eliminated during their trip, or a month or two after arriving, lay off! So have an escape plan. Plan for alternative employment or in an alternative fields of employment.

Hawaii is unlike the mainland in that it has no "interstate" type commerce. The bulk of the jobs are for Hawaii or supporting Hawaii operations. If Hawaii's economy hits a slump, the slump has a domino effect. The sad thing is as national companies start consolidating and closing offices they have on Hawaii and shipping the backroom stuff to the mainland or contracting with mainland companies to do the work, those jobs may never come back.

Look at the health, financial and hospitality industry, they both took massive hits when jobs were stremlined into operations on the mainland.

[nwcountrygal]

South of Hilo is quarter of island... where...do you have a place to stay until then?
Try craigs list for rentals... for the most part a rental short term is go buy a futon for couch and air bed lay on the floor....
Not sure what kinda of help your looking for?

[hotzcatz]

It seems you have a really detailed moving list. I'm sure you already have "medical records" on the list of papers to bring.

What about swimsuits? Beach gear? You can use a cooler as luggage, they are pretty indestructible and much more useful than an empty suitcase once you get here.

When you put things in storage, you could pack a few things you think you may want shipped later in numbered boxes at the front of the storage. Keep the inventory list and then if you decide you want one of the boxes shipped, you can have someone get box #XX and mail it to you.

[KonaKat]

Tax returns. You might need the past 2 or 3 years' worth.

Arrange for temporary housing upon arrival such as a turnkey furnished vacation rental for 2 or 3 weeks. Then, personally look for your more permanent home. I wasn't quite clear on what you had lined up.

Be sure your wife's job is in writing.

[Sweetbeet]

If you like certain brands of cosmetics, toiletries, shampoo, soap, etc., it might be worthwhile to pack a box with enough for a year or so. Those things are more expensive out here and it can be hard to find the brands you like. Sounds silly, but I did that and I still have bottles of shampoo, conditioner, etc., and have saved a lot of money buying that stuff, because I'm picky about what I use (and so are the rest of my family members). This has given us time to find sources for what we like, acceptable substitutes for what we can't find, and also to keep the budget down for the first year.

I maybe went overboard (I've been here 7 months and still have lots of everything) because I had a whole container so I figured what the heck and really stocked up. If you double-bag the stuff and pack it well in boxes it arrives fine.

Now, if you're shipping boxes individually it might not be worth it to send the stuff. But there's an idea for anybody packing a container.

Be sure to get copies of medical records and x-rays if you have them, esp. dental. Your dentist might be able to e-mail them to you, most have them digitized these days. My mom has been fighting with her Dr. here and the hospital in NY for weeks (maybe months) to get a single CT scan report sent over. So if you think you might need it, get it now.

Find out from you local DMV what you need to do to "unregister" your cars. I almost had my license suspended because after I got here I obtained HI insurance and canceled my NY insurance. Turned out that it was illegal to have the NY plates w/o NY insurance (even though I had HI ins.). Fortunately, I sent the plates back in to NY right away and all was good. But to re-register your cars (I think you have 30 days), you will need to pass a safety inspection here; to pass the inspection you need HI insurance first. So, I suggest get HI insurance; go to DMV here and get the form for the safety inspection; get the inspection; get your HI plates; and if your state requires it, ask for your old plates back so you can mail them in yourself (otherwise HI DMV will keep and destroy them - I got $$ back from NY for sending mine in). THEN cancel your old car insurance.

Find a dentist BEFORE you need one, they schedule WAY in advance and it might be hard to get in if you wait too long. If either of your kids has braces figure out what you are going to do about followup while you're here. Find out what's going on with your health insurance - is it a PPO? If so, are there participating doctors here? Will you change to HMSA or Kaiser while here?

If you are going to be self-employed while here, find a lawyer when you first arrive to go over the basics of such things as collecting and paying the state GE tax - it's a little different than most sales taxes, registering your business, etc.

I found it helpful to keep all my moving documentation (paperwork for the car shippers, goods shippers, new school info, pet info, etc.) in one notebook (I used a 3-ring binder with pocketed dividers).

Good luck! If I think of anything else I'll post again.

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by KonaKat

Tax returns. You might need the past 2 or 3 years' worth.

Arrange for temporary housing upon arrival such as a turnkey furnished vacation rental for 2 or 3 weeks. Then, personally look for your more permanent home. I wasn't quite clear on what you had lined up.

Be sure your wife's job is in writing.

Nice idea on the tax returns. I will add to the list...
No issue with the wife's job. It is a major corporation.

[mdand3boys]

Sweetbeet:

We plan on registering both cars in HI asap since both plates/registration expire at end of August anyway.

On that note, what are people paying for Hawaii car insurance? Full coverage, $500 deduct?

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by PacificFlights

First suggestion is to dump the mainland attitude. You posted yesterday and already looking for a response. Get use to Hawaii ways. Peiople are not obsessed with their computers and don't spent hours on end posting on-line. They would rather be sitting outside taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of Hawaii.

One thing you may want to consider is if you have an escape plan. Unless you have a written legal contract for employment spelling out that you will have a job from start date to end date, don't count on the job. There are many who relocated for employment with their same employer only to get to Hawaii and the job was eliminated during their trip, or a month or two after arriving, lay off! So have an escape plan. Plan for alternative employment or in an alternative fields of employment.

Hawaii is unlike the mainland in that it has no "interstate" type commerce. The bulk of the jobs are for Hawaii or supporting Hawaii operations. If Hawaii's economy hits a slump, the slump has a domino effect. The sad thing is as national companies start consolidating and closing offices they have on Hawaii and shipping the backroom stuff to the mainland or contracting with mainland companies to do the work, those jobs may never come back.

Look at the health, financial and hospitality industry, they both took massive hits when jobs were stremlined into operations on the mainland.

I wasn't trying to have a "mainland attitude". With no responses and my post slowly slipping into obscurity, I wanted to get it back into the limelight.
That worked...

We do have an escape plan. We have about a year's worth of cash to spare and both vehicles are paid for. We could always sell the older one and move back on that money, and have money left to ship the newer one back.