We Love AL (Huntsville, Madison: apartment complexes, rental, home sales)

[deesonic]

Good luck with your house situation in Savannah. My wife and I moved to Huntsville from Savannah in 2006 just before the housing market got screwy. We lived in Savannah for 5 years (military). We're both originally from Huntsville, so we came home after my wife's military service was up. We considered staying in Savannah, but the job market was rough and Huntsville had too many positives for us not to come home. We had a beautiful home there in historic Ardsley Park though and I certainly miss it. But we definitely made the right decision to come home.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by cglover

When you buy down there, squeeze as well--the builders have spec houses, empty, sitting on lots waiting for you to put a bid on them. And there are a lot of fairly new homes on the market, very nice subdivisions, that offer lovely ammenities. We went with the spec house only because we didn't want too much hassle with changing out decor etc. We're basically used to new construction and not super handy, but honestly, if I had time and knowledge, I'd go into a pre-existing home where all the kinks were worked out in the first two years of ownership.

Exactly. That's why we're collecting recent sales data, comparing them to the list prices, evaluating price per square foot data, and basically performing our own market analysis on homes we're interested in.

One difference between what I've read from some earlier posts and our situation is, seems like a lot of people feel like they are going from a bad place to a good place (HSV). We feel we're going from a good place to a good place. The Front Range (basically the I-25 corridor between Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins) is a really nice place to live too. Unfortunately for us, our street sucks (no kids on it) and my company has a five times bigger presence in Huntsville than it does in all of Colorado - more opportunities.

[boilrmkr]

You only got 1% if you had ordered the appraisal prior to that sale, right? Had you not ordered the appraisals and you ended up selling the home, then it was 2% (up to $15K), right?

We were given a list of at least 10 appraisers in our area. We were to choose 2 for the appraisals. The company paid for that and then gave us an offer for the average of the 2 as long as they were within 5%of each other. If not they would have ordered a third. We got 2% if we sold the house without the company having to buy us out. There was no limit on the amount. I would give anything to have a buyout even without the cash back. Having the house on the market, living separate from my husband for 2 months now, getting and paying for an apartment and still paying mortgage, having to hire lawn service for current home, having to find someone to watch over the house and water my lawn, making the kids go to more than one school in a year, losing my relocation benefits if my house doesn't sell w/in 1 year of hire date-not worth not taking a buyout. I have priced my house $5,000 below what our realtor suggested and I am going to lower it another $10,000 next week. Very stressful and it has only been 10 weeks.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by boilrmkr

We got 2% if we sold the house without the company having to buy us out. There was no limit on the amount.

So even after you ordered the appraisals and received (not accepted) the guaranteed buyout offer, you would still get the 2% if you sold it yourself (and the company pays the realtor fees on that transaction)? That's good.

So, if you sold your home yourself for $1M you'd get $20K?

My relocation benefit is 2% up to a max of $15K if we don't order the appraisals. Once we order the appraisals (which we have done) we only get a 1% incentive if we sell our home. My company is paying the whole thing: all realtor fees, packing, moving, etc. They are even paying a guy to come out and take apart our kids' huge swingset playfort thing, ship it, and reassemble it. Plus they pay a guy to build a custom crate for our grandfather clock.

Some interesting City Data threads (two I wrote) on the Real Estate forum:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/real-...ght=appraisers

http://www.city-data.com/forum/real-...hlight=buy+out

http://www.city-data.com/forum/real-...ght=relocation

[boilrmkr]

For us with that move the point of the appraisers was for the company to give us a fair market value offer. That was 2 years ago and I don't know if most companies are doing that these days. The point of the 2% cash back was to save them the hastle of having to close with us and then try to sell the house and pay the mortgage themselves.

For our move this time we are getting some really good benefits. They are paying all closing costs on both ends and the full move including shipping 2 cars. They are paying for my husband to come home every other weekend, we are getting cash to help pay expenses, they will fly all 5 of us to the new location for the final move etc. It goes on and on but there isn't a buyout.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by boilrmkr

For us with that move the point of the appraisers was for the company to give us a fair market value offer. That was 2 years ago and I don't know if most companies are doing that these days. The point of the 2% cash back was to save them the hastle of having to close with us and then try to sell the house and pay the mortgage themselves.

For our move this time we are getting some really good benefits. They are paying all closing costs on both ends and the full move including shipping 2 cars. They are paying for my husband to come home every other weekend, we are getting cash to help pay expenses, they will fly all 5 of us to the new location for the final move etc. It goes on and on but there isn't a buyout.

The typical relocation appraisal (what we are writing about here) produces a probable sales price within 120 days. If the market is hot and rising then that number could actually be higher than the CMA. If it is ice cold like now then that number will be less. We expect our appraisal values to be 5% less than what we could sell our house for. Why? Because we could probably get our price - in a year but not probably in 120 days. The logic is that in order to sell the house sooner than the average days on the market (which is almost a year here), the price has to be lower.

ABout the car shipment, our relo manual also stated two cars - for the employee. What it didn't say and what our relo counseler pointed out, is that it's two cars per employee plus a car for each additional driver. We have and will ship three cars. We thought at first that they'd only ship two.

Yes, our relo is paying everything on both sides too. Pretty nice. But we are destined to take a hit when we sell our home. At least everything else is taking a hit too, even in Huntsville so we sell at the bottom but we buy at the bottom too.

[ionlife]

We got good stuff from the company but only if we sold/bought and we did a lot of our own spending to make it a smooth transition. we paid for apt. here in fairfax bc company only paid for stuff AFTER we moved to hville before house bought. lots of front end expenses, but we'll get a nice cash back on realtor fees etc after we submit the paperwork. still... feels like we bled money there for a while.

but the short term hit is worth the long term gain

[boilrmkr]

The company gave us money up front for expenses such as temporary housing but in this market it isn't going to be enough. Who knows how long we will need temporary housing. Before this whole housing mess temporary housing meant a few months and usually just for the employee until the family followed. Now it means carrying the cost of the house and then the temp. housing for the whole family. Our plan was to get a 2 bedroom for the 5 of us but I'm not sure if we can legally do that. I know the law is 2 people max per bedroom which means we would need a 3 bed apt.. That gets expensive.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by boilrmkr

The company gave us money up front for expenses such as temporary housing but in this market it isn't going to be enough. Who knows how long we will need temporary housing. Before this whole housing mess temporary housing meant a few months and usually just for the employee until the family followed. Now it means carrying the cost of the house and then the temp. housing for the whole family. Our plan was to get a 2 bedroom for the 5 of us but I'm not sure if we can legally do that. I know the law is 2 people max per bedroom which means we would need a 3 bed apt.. That gets expensive.

If you have kids, keep in mind that Huntsville is really strict about kids attending the school zoned to where they live. So it would be good to have an apartment in the same school zone as the house you expect to buy. There are exceptions if you can show the school system that you are working with a realtor to buy a home in the target school zone. We'll have to do that.

We're moving to Huntsville August 4th. Our benefit gives us 45 days (so until mid September) of temporary housing and we're going to get a 3BR furnished apartment for my wife, me, and 8y, 6y, 4y, and 7m kids. This apartment is something like $100/day, so after 45 days we'd have to pay - but we've "heard" the company will extend this on them if we need a little more time. So we need to buy a house and move in around that time.

We have had our house appraised and we are waiting on the buyout offer. Once the buyout offer is given to us (probably in a few weeks) we have 60 days (so by mid Sepetmber or so) to accept it. If we don't sell hour house by the 60 days we will take the offer even if it is really low. We just don't want to deal with selling our house and renting.

Our house hunting trip is the week of 7/13 so between then and maybe the end of August we would expect to make an offer on a house. We have two candidate homes we're looking at.

Maybe we need to start a City Data Support Group for Huntsville Relocatees Sufferers of Anxiety.

[ionlife]

Yeah, it's good you're getting the buyout and willing to take it if necessary. Better to take the short term hit for the long term gain. And with a large family in a small apartment, you will be motivated.

I'm packing up the last of my sticks starting today. Joy of joys. I am ready to get the family, the last of the stuff, and the cats all under one roof down south.

There's been so much "goodbye-ing" that I'm ready for HELLO and Welcome Home!