How did you go about relocating your family? (Virginia Beach: apartments, rent)

[lady katie]

My husband and I are getting our house ready to go on the market, and we're trying to figure out how we would like to go about the process of relocating our family. If you have relocated a family, how did you do it? Did you relocate before your house sold? Sell your house and then rent in your area temporarily while lining up a new job? We're trying to figure out what is best and least stressful.

We're leaning towards selling the house and renting here afterwards while we catch our breath and take our time with job hunting there, then renting an apartment there while we get to know the area and make absolutely sure it's where we want to settle. Of course, this involves moving our kids into two temporary apartments, and then finally a house. It's a lot of work, a lot of transitioning. But it also sounds very difficult to try to line up a job/apartment there while selling the house here. We're just not sure what's best.

What do you think? What did you do? How long did the process take you?

Thanks!

[fmac]

In our case, my wife came to Virginia Beach (from New York) and spent 7 days with a Realtor (back in 79 before Zillow . The Realtor was able to help shape the search. When she had narrowed the search to 5-6 properties, I came down with the children staying with Grandparents. We decided on a house and submitted an offer. As the Navy was transferring us, we did not have much say as to when we moved but we had made the conscious decision that is we did not move during the summer recess then we would try to wait for the mid year school break. We were not prepared to deal with 2 mortages, so we sold before we bought. We did however buy with the contingency of selling the old house first. We arranged for the movers to pack and move when most convenient at old place. Children stayed with Grandparents for part of the transition and then we stayed at a motel in Virginia Beach for 7-8 days while closing on new house and having furniture moved in.
The biggest difference between our situation and your's is that we knew (based on what other Navy families/friends had told us) was which general areas my wife should look at...and then as I said, the Realtor helped to narrow down the search and that we planned to buy vice rent.
Perhaps it would be the least disruptive if you moved to the area during the summer and rented for a year. You could then buy in a new school district but at least your children will not be uprooted mid school year. Depending on the market where you live now, you could rent your house out if it would be advantageous to do so for the year.