Living in Seattle - Commuting to Silicon Valley 2x a Month - Doable? (Vancouver: sales)

[tekniskagal]

Hi,
I'd like to hear from anyone who lives in Seattle and commutes to Silicon Valley/SF regularly.

I'm told a flight it like 1.5 hours or so?

How doable would it be to live in Seattle (or close surrounding areas) but spend a fair amount of time in SV for networking, meetings, etc?

Seems like you can get amazing place with nice views, amenities, etc and still be able to Airbnb it to Silicon Valley and end up paying about the same about (assuming you only go 1 or 2x a month). Not to mention Seattle just being more appealing (depending on what one wants).

Can't get it all in one city sometimes....it may just play to live between the two places.

Thoughts?!

TX!

[Hemlock140]

We do that trip often with family in the bay area and it's closer to 2 hours, but with check-in/security line/wait time a lot longer. We have even gone down in the morning and returned the same night at times but it leaves little time to do much there. You also have the problem of paying to park at the airport, and ths cost of the flights which can be a lot if on short notice. There may also be times that the flights are delayed due to weather here in winter. You would definitely get more home for your money here and if your employer is here avoid the 10% CA state income tax.

[Blondebaerde]

I did similar, for awhile, maybe five years ago. Big difference was I had an explicit employment agreement, with most expenses paid. My mentor did similar weekly for about five years, based in Seattle but arriving to (big hardware company) in San Jose 2-3 days/week, with time off occasionally and working remotely remainder.

Of course it is doable, with sufficient organization. Mistakes are educational, too.

Limo or shuttle to SEA, quick hop to SJC (San Jose), off you go. Pack well. And yes, the flight is about 1.5 hrs which I personally find pretty easy. Getting through security at SEA and SJC can be difficult or easy, based on various factors.

Pet sitters, house sitters, other similar should be setup. That will sort itself, protocols will be created.

After awhile, though, it's quite tiring. A few personalities lend themselves to being total road-warriors, but after a certain point it is difficult to maintain continuity with relationships or anything else in either city. I was on the road very often in my mid to late 20s and loved it. After that, meh. One of the hardest things for me personally was exercise and eating correctly. Road lifestyles don't lend well to either, unless you have pretty strong discipline over the long haul.

Guessing you'll carefully game out cost of being onsite vs. off. Lot to think about.

[ctr88]

http://priceonomics.com/the-san-fran...ent-explosion/

Check this really cool article and tool on the rent explosion in San Francisco. It is so expensive to live down there it might make sense to commute from Seattle! It is nearing $3,000/mo for a 1 bed room apartment in better areas of SF! If you could live up here and pay no state income tax + lower rents/house prices that could pay for a lot of plane flights.

The thing about the Bay Area is you get clobbered on cost of housing, clobbered with the oppressive CA state income tax, AND you still have sales tax! It's a 3 pronged attack on your wealth down there!

[Seacove]

It's not only doable, it's common. I'm in the Bay Area all the time. I have a neighbor that goes every week, Monday through Thursday. The flight is two hours. I much prefer the San Jose airport to San Francisco but it depends where you're going.

[99Problems]

This is the exact scenario I'm looking to do starting next year. Living in the Eastside somewhere to be determined, commuting to SF either M-Wed or Tues - Thurs, then telecommute for the 2 other days of the week. I'm planning on 6-7 am departure flights to avoid some lines, etc. and returning early afternoons.

On the tax question, if your residence is Washington State, but your employer is located solely in CA, do you actually pay CA state income tax? Did a quick google search, and I guess I'd have to file a non-resident tax return, but not clear if that means I'd get the with held tax returned, or what since 50% or so of my "work" would have been performed in WA.

[tekniskagal]

Hey all,
So appreciative of the responses. A few follow up comments:
I run a startup with several people working remotely/virtually so I can pretty much be where I choose to.

I like the living potential in Seattle far more than the SV/SF area. Call me crazy but I'm probably the only relatively ambitious start up founder with no desire to be in that area. To me Seattle seems the closest city I have researched to one of my favorite cities in the world (Stockholm) - that still has a) enough of a tech community b) commuting distance to SV/SF for networking, conferences, etc...where one can maintain a balance.

There's no other city I can think of in the USA (mind you I said "I" can think of) that is a vibrant urban center (Seattle) then 20 minutes out your have fantastic natural beauty. This is how Stockholm captured my heart and why I am so drawn to the prospect of Seattle.

The only downside for me is that I much prefer to be on the East Coast, but I guess one has to make compromises.

I also like how close Seattle is to Vancouver and the prospect of being able to traveling internationally is just a shorter car trip from Seattle than from SV/SF.

It seems that with the potential cost savings too, one can easily nip down to the the Valley for conferences, meetups or anything hugely important 1 or 2 times a month. Also one or two times a month seems far less tiring than one or two time a week.

My last question/observation - it appears that Seattle is more of a place where people settle down vs. SV/SF which seems a bit like DC or NYC to me - alot of people coming there to strike it rich, loads of college students who are more transient, etc.


Is that a fair assessment. It seems like a few of the folks commenting here work in the tech sector too.

Care to comment on the "vibe" in the industry in Seattle compared to SV/SF?

[Seacove]

The vibe of Seattle vs. SV/SF is that, in all honesty, SV/SF is a more vibrant start up community. More investment funds, more people who understand start ups and are willing to invest, more people who are one their 5th start up, have learned painful lessons, have a lot of people they have worked with before, etc. That is not to say Seattle does not have a strong start up community with a lot of available resources. A lot of the Seattle tech have worked with each other before at companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc., have families here and strongly prefer Seattle's lifestyle. Seattle has a strong start up community, just not as strong as SV/SF.

So you have two tech communities that are strongly connected, where people fly back and forth all the time with companies that have offices in both locations and don't think anything about the distance. San Jose/Seattle flights tend to always be full, especially evening flights.

A local blog called Geekwire also has a link to start up resources if it's helpful: Startup Resources - GeekWire

[ctr88]

I work for a CA company but I live I'm Seattle. I do NOT have to pay CA taxes. It is really a huge savings, especially for those in higher income tax brackets. Additionally, I don't want to support the CA state governments horrible mismanagement of their finances by allowing them to parasite off my hard work in income. They have the highest paid state government workers in the country and reward them with massive generous pensions. All the while continuing to raise the state income tax and hit private sector employees. If you make $250k a year you pay 10% of your hard earned income to the state of CA!!!

[tekniskagal]

Originally Posted by Seacove;30688204 A lot of the Seattle tech have worked with each other before at companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, etc., have families here and strongly[I

prefer Seattle's lifestyle[/i]. Seattle has a strong start up community, just not as strong as SV/SF.

Awesome stuff. I feel like a self funded startup that values lifestyle vs hyper-growth-as0fast-as-possible-at-all-costs (I hate how the term lifestyle business gets looked down upon in the Valley but that's another story)....anyway Seattle seems like a better fit.


At the same time the closeness to California and the fact that there's still a lot of back and forth opens up opportunities to meet people.

TBH, I feel like I'd probably feel a bit misunderstood being a part of the self-funded/lean startup community vs. the investing-all-my-time-fundraising-vs.-serving-paying-customers crowd.

I think it's quite helpful that there are people who understand my situation who are so thoughtful giving their insights here, too.