Taking the leap to NOVA from AZ (Centreville, Chantilly: real estate, rentals)

[Renebo]

Hi everyone,
I have been reading all the posts for the past 6 months here and have gathered a ton of info from everyone. But have not seen anyone with my situation.

My wife and I have decided to quit our jobs in Phoenix and move to Northern VA. Why NOVA you say?

A little background. My wife is a Human Resources specialist and I am an Architectural drafter. We moved to AZ 12 years ago so we could see the west. We quit our jobs in NH and just packed the kids and left. We arrived in PNX, got a place to rent and had jobs in 2 weeks. We have been traveling the west ever since. Now we have nothing left to do out here in AZ and the states around us so we want to experience the Mid-Atlantic states.

We picked NOVA because of jobs and central location to traveling. We visit National parks, historic sites, cities, musuems. And its only 9 hours from NH.

We have over 1 year salary saved, no debts, kids are gone and we crave some new adventures.
We did it before AZ when we left the USAF and moved to NH with no jobs.

So we will arrive in April in NOVA, looking for a rental and jobs.
Will we have problems getting a rental, even though we have lots of cash?
I am pretty confident we will find jobs within 6 months.

Has anyone else ever taken the leap like we are doing?
Thanks for your advice in advance.

[smagid]

I would highly recommend having a job lined up before you make the big move out here with the whole family. While there are a lot of Govt. Contracting Opportunities in the area (HR usually falls under overhead costs for a company and not under a Govt Contract) out here the Construction Management/Architecture/Engineering Disciplines business has been hit extremely hard and many companies have reduced hours and salary and have had layoffs as well.

Any Property Managed Rental will require the last 2 pay stubs and other financial information. Also the cost of living is quite a bit higher in these areas so you will want to make sure on the income front.

[Renebo]

How do people get jobs in VA from AZ? We can't travel to VA for interviews.
Won't a rental agency take a big deposit or 3-4 months paid in advance?
We are just too bored here in AZ and 12 years of summer heat is too much! We are not afraid to spend our money in VA so we can see new things.

Are there any Real Estate agents that help find rentals for people like us? We are considering starting in the Chantilly/Centreville area for a rental.

[Middlin]

I know next to nothing about your profession, but your wife should contact some headhunters and get a feel for what her experience would pay in the area. Do you have any ideas about what kind of opportunities are available for you in this area? I would not move here on a whim without doing more research on the job situation. You could move, stay at a Residence Inn (or the like) and get temp jobs.

[stpickrell]

If you want to save some degree of money, then consider renting in Winchester, Front Royal, Warrenton, or Fredericksburg while you interview/look for jobs and do temp jobs in the interim.

Once you and your wife get jobs, just break your lease and find a place better for your job.

[Renebo]

My wife has the best chance to get a job first. She plans to sign with all the temp agencies first and to keep looking. I will have to go door to door to builders and Architects. I also have a side business that brings us about $500 a month (I hope to expand that).

There appears to be hundreds of jobs listed for my wife's occupation. Compared to other major cities, NOVA has the top job market anywhere.

We want to rent close enough to the major job areas. We are looking at spending $1500 for rent.

[Renebo]

Nobody has ever quit their jobs, sold the house and move to another state before? We have done it in 1992, 1998 and 2003.

I was hoping someone had done that in Northern VA.

[robbobobbo]

Originally Posted by Renebo

Nobody has ever quit their jobs, sold the house and move to another state before? We have done it in 1992, 1998 and 2003.

I was hoping someone had done that in Northern VA.

I don't know what the economy or unemployment rate was in those years, but you do know what it is now, right?

The cost of flying out for interviews for one of you to secure a job will not approach the costs to your savings if you live with no income for several months. And 6 months could be optimistic. I personally know professionals in this area who went 8 months, a year, and more without a job after company layoffs.

[Caladium]

I would never recommend moving to Nova without a job. Yes, there are jobs here but it can take longer than you think to find one. The hiring process seems to take an unusually long time here. And this is an expensive place to live while you are looking.

[Renebo]

I have seen a few posts in here where people have moved to VA with one job and the spouses find work within weeks. We are 2 spouses looking for work .

I do appreciate the advise and we have planned to start a full time job search today and hopefully get lucky.

We have learned through the years that if we wait till everything is perfect, then we would never have moved. For us, life is about taking chances to gain new experiences from new places.