Need some common wisdom (Minneapolis, Rochester: apartment, rental, credit card)

[Alice Springs]

Greetings to everyone; I'm new here and will soon (I hope) be new to Minneapolis.

I'm trying to sell my house in Rochester, NY, and believe it or not, the market isn't too crummy here so it just may sell in the not too distant future. I'm thinking of putting my furniture in storage in Rochester, and then renting a furnished apartment in Minneapolis.

I figure I can have my furniture moved here when I settle on a home in a part of town I'll feel comfortable in, rather than move everything right away. I'm moving for work and experience has taught me that if the job doesn't pan out, I don't want to be weighed down with all my stuff.

My friends tell me to move it all and cram it into a rental until I decide on a house.

Any common wisdom out there -- I'd appreciate it greatly.

[Camden Northsider]

Never been in your position so can't say I have much wisdom on it, but if it were me I would kind of like the idea of leaving the furniture there, finding a furnished place in the new hometown, and giving some time to check out local neighborhoods/ areas (and the job) before taking the plunge to buy a new home/ put down roots and then moving everything out. Of course, unless your job goes completely wrong (not really an attitude that you really want to start out with), it's a stress you're going to have to deal with at some point anyway, and it might be more stressful to try to go through the process of buying a home and moving all of your furniture across the country at the same time (while having to work 9 to 5), and probably more money to do this as well (unless you are planning to return at some point anyways). I guess for me it would also depend on whether I was driving here and/or planning to hire moving guys.

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree with Camden (and your own initial feelings) that there's a lot to be said with leaving your stuff there in the short-term. We've talked about doing that (have done several long-distance moves, and they're always expensive and a big hassle - I can understand not wanting to unnecessarily go through that twice!), but in the end have always hauled our stuff with us anyway.

How about putting your stuff in storage with a company that will move it for you as soon as you give the word? I'd looked into storing stuff with a moving company in our new city while looking for a place, but maybe some will do it before you move, too? Or maybe one of the pod places? It would be a hassle to do the move after you're already established here, but if you could simply call up your storage/moving place in NY, give them your new address, and have them send everything to MN that would be easy. Or, if the job and move doesn't work out, you could then have them move it wherever else you end up.

[Clifford63]

Storage fees can add up really fast. I would get rid of stuff that you don't really have a strong attachment to. Where you store stuff is probably a matter of where you would likely go next. If the answer is back to NY, store it there.

[elamigo]

This is what I can offer:
1. Sit down and make a calculation of the money you can afford to loose.
2. Calculate how much it would cost to move your household goods and split that by price per months to find out how many months you can pay.
3. Ask yourself, can you afford to loose let us say you can pay for 6 months worth of storage if find you are going to stay in the new location since now you have to pay for the move? I would say that is the money you are willing to loose.
4. Now, calcuate the money depreciation from the time you move and the time you may have to pay to bring your household goods? You need to take this into account.
5. This calculations based on two scenarios, stay at the new site and going back.

The bottom line is to simply sit down and do the calcuations for and against moving your household goods. Keep in mind the money spent to travel, set up new home, etc. All this comes into play.

All this I base it on how much you are willing to loose on the move. I am referring to cash you may have on savings. You may want to include if you are going to pay with credit card. Then look at how much you are willing to pay a month for the expenses I mentioned above. Of course the expenses may be paid as a combination of cash and credit.

I hope this helps.

You have a great day.
El Amigo