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The time for my family and I to make a big move is quickly approaching and the anticipation is heightened. I'm very anxious but thinking about it also overwhelms me. I am hoping to get some good information, almost step-by-step so as to be sure all bases are covered. Some of the answers I'm looking for are to these ?'s.
* Did you rent a place and how easy was it for you in terms of not being scammed?
* Did you have a company move your belongings for you?
* Did you drive or fly to the new residence?
* What did you forget to do or what do you wish you would have done?
* My biggest concern is finding a job and trying to find the right place to live so that I'm in close proximity to work.
* What were all of your expenses?
I did it alone several times west coast to east coast and back again. No moving company, no rental lined up and no job. I packed everything in the back of my car. Slept in my car in rest stops and washed up in Mcdonalds bathrooms. Saved every dime. No expenses except for gas and food. Simplify everything and it is very easy. Ounce you get to your destination meet with a proper realtor and have them show you places.
Matzoman, I love and appreciate your comments and I thought about how much more complicated it is for me. I admire your courage and certainly want to simplify as much as possible. There is a total of 10 altogether and we all have stuff and there are children too.
The time for my family and I to make a big move is quickly approaching and the anticipation is heightened. I'm very anxious but thinking about it also overwhelms me. I am hoping to get some good information, almost step-by-step so as to be sure all bases are covered. Some of the answers I'm looking for are to these ?'s.
* Did you rent a place and how easy was it for you in terms of not being scammed?
* Did you have a company move your belongings for you?
* Did you drive or fly to the new residence?
* What did you forget to do or what do you wish you would have done?
* My biggest concern is finding a job and trying to find the right place to live so that I'm in close proximity to work.
* What were all of your expenses?
Thank you in advance for any information!
Yes, we rented. Easy terms, rented from a home broker company in AZ.
No, we moved our own stuff.
We drove. Took two days.
I wouldve shopped around more. Turns out Idealease rents out trucks cheaper than Penske.
Jobs were lined up beforehand. Thats important! Dont move w/o a job, unless you have a big stash of cash to rely on.
Our expenses (truck, gas, hotels, food, etc) came out to around $3,500.
* Did you rent a place and how easy was it for you in terms of not being scammed?
* Did you have a company move your belongings for you?
* Did you drive or fly to the new residence?
* What did you forget to do or what do you wish you would have done?
* My biggest concern is finding a job and trying to find the right place to live so that I'm in close proximity to work.
* What were all of your expenses?
The last time, the new employer paid for a full service moving truck. But for the housing - I flew out for a few days and found a rental in the school district that I wanted. The house was through a big company; I wasn't concerned with getting scammed. I also flew ahead of time with the kids (one of whom was starting school) while my husband finished up old house business and drove our car x-c to the new location, with the pets.
The time before that was even more complicated. But again - we were moving for a job. It seems like you have a big unknown with regard to best location if you don't know where your work will be. We again rented housing in person. We hired a smaller moving company that has you do all the packing. I forget how much it was - $2-3K, maybe? That was 10 years ago. Husband was working, and I was unable to drive at the time (medically), so we hired my sister to drive our car w/pets to the new place. (I flew - had a newborn).
I can't think of anything we forgot or wished we had done differently.
* Did you rent a place and how easy was it for you in terms of not being scammed?
Seemed easy to me to avoid being scammed. Looked up apartment complexes websites from online and conducted the transaction over phone/email/fax. Got a place that seemed nice but was available for a 3 month lease in case it wasn't (much more expensive that way, but it was worth it to me).
* Did you have a company move your belongings for you?
No. Moved myself and took what I could in my car. Left some things with a friend; he shipped my library to me.
* Did you drive or fly to the new residence?
Drove. Took 3.5 days. From Las Vegas to Western North Carolina
* What did you forget to do or what do you wish you would have done?
Wish I could have taken my time driving there, but had to start work as soon as possible. If at all possible, try to have like a week to get to your new destination. It would have made the cross-country trip so much more enjoyable.
* My biggest concern is finding a job and trying to find the right place to live so that I'm in close proximity to work.
I knew where I was working so I found a place real close to it.
* What were all of your expenses?
Maybe $1000 or less, don't remember exactly now. It wasn't very expensive at all. Just cost of gas/hotel/food and the shipping cost of my library.
I moved from San Jose, CA to Bremerton, WA in 2001, so that was a while back. The Bremerton newspaper was online, so I was able to look at pics of apartments and rent one in advance, sending a cashier's check for the first, last, and deposit. I'm not sure a person could do that today, or knowing what I know now, that I would rent a place before seeing it.
But I hired a U-Haul truck - a small one - and a trailer to put my car on and just loaded everything up and moved.
My biggest regret is that I was so tired of loading some stuff, that I left a bunch of stuff behind, like all my house plan magazines and plants.
I paid for the whole move myself, including the truck, the trailer, and the gas, plus a motel room I rented that night when I hit Bremerton. It took 12 hours to get up here. I left at 6am and didn't get into town until about midnight. I only got lost once and of course, that was when I got here.
I don't remember exactly, but I think it was between $1000 and $1500 to move up here and that didn't include what I spent on gas. But it was fairly simple. I went down the the U-Haul place, let them load my car on the trailer and hitch it to the truck, drove the truck home, unhitched when I got there and loaded the truck, rehitched the car back up, and took off. Did the same thing in reverse when I got here.
I didn't even think of being scammed - glad I didn't or I would have worried about it all the way up.
I had already applied for and been accepted for a transfer in my old job, so I had a weekend to drive up, unpack, get settled, and find out how to get the ferry over to Seattle, where I worked for the next 4 years.
Am I understanding this correctly . . . you're going to move 10 people across the US, but you don't have a job lined up? Assuming this is a real thread, not a troll . . .
Here are the potential problems:
1. It will be very difficult to find anyone who will rent to you without a job, let alone with 10 people with you. Most landlords are worried about "wear and tear," so you'll have that problem to overcome, as well. A lot of landlords tend to think 4 is the max, two adults with two children. It will take time to find the right living situation.
2. It can take up to 30 days to get a legal job, even "entry level" because of the many places that now require drug testing, and can add a lot of time. You can't expect to walk into a place anymore and be hired that same day. It could happen, but the odds are greatly against it.
3. If you have savings, you will blow through them fast in this economy. Since you aren't a legal resident of the new state, you won't be able to get any food stamps or help for at least 1 year in most places (have to establish residency) -- you won't have that safety net if you get in trouble.
Again, if this is real, you're setting yourself up for many unnecessary difficulties.
A. Stay where you are until you have enough money to send an "advance team" to the new state. That might be you and another adult.
B. Both of you stay there 1 - 2 weeks in a hotel and job hunt. Go to the temp agencies, etc. *IF* you can get jobs, then move the family.
C. If you can't get jobs, go back home and try again when you have more money.
Under no circumstances move that many people to a new state without a firm job offer. People are tired of helping out "stranded families" who find themselves on the street, and 10 people is just too much to be potentially subjecting to homeless shelters and all the nasty stuff that goes along with being broke in a new place where one has zero connections.
1. Did you rent a place and how easy was it for you in terms of not being scammed?
2. Did you have a company move your belongings for you?
3. Did you drive or fly to the new residence?
4. What did you forget to do or what do you wish you would have done?
5. My biggest concern is finding a job and trying to find the right place to live so that I'm in close proximity to work.
6. What were all of your expenses?
I've moved several times cross country, abroad, and back again. This is all from the experience of a single person with no children, so some will not apply or will need to be modified for your particular situation.
1. I've gone several ways. I've had no place lined up before arriving, though a general idea of the locations and costs that I'll look when I do arrive. I've had something lined up with an employer. And I'm also set up a lease before arriving. I've never had an issue with any of these routes. I've never worked with private landlords, almost always through a management company and/or large apartment complexes. They are easier to verify and research backgrounds. The two times I've secured housing beforehand, the lease wasn't signed until I arrived. I could have easily backed out if I didn't like it. The worst thing that's happened to me is that I've had an annoying neighbor, but that's usually always true.
2. For in town moves, I get a company. Long distance moves I pare down my belongings so as to fit entirely in my car or a small trailer. If I take a larger vehicle, I just hire labor at both ends. For overflow, I'd mail stuff, like my library. If I could afford to hire a moving company for long distance moves, I absolutely would go that route.
3. I usually drive, but I've flown several times as well. Depends on the destination.
4. I often forget to really check out the businesses around the areas I intend to rent. Google maps, street view and yelp makes this easier. Grocery stores are really important to me and I get so irritated with myself when I realized I signed a lease in an area that has few groceries, all of poor quality.
5. I rarely move with a job, therefore I can't really address this concern. I don't have anyone else to support which is how I can do this.
6. I'd guess anywhere from $250 (just gas and sleeping in car) to maybe $3000 (including transoceanic airfare). Extra costs I'm not including will be individual specific. These are application fees for rentals (around $25/adult), security deposits (many complexes often have specials for this), pet deposits ($250-$500), first and last month's rent, hooking up utilities. Sometimes I've had basic utilities companies charge me a deposit if I'm a new resident of the state, always ruins my moving budget. There are also the costs of restocking your house. Even if you brought everything, you still need to restock your cleaning supplies, fridge, pantry, bathrooms.
I think my biggest advice would be that if you have the money, at least hire laborers on both ends to load and unload your stuff. Moves are always exhausting. Long distance moves are even more so. I've found it easy to make too many costly mistakes when I'm physically exhausted on top of the mental exhaustion that happens during moves. Hiring labor is worth the expense.
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