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Hello all! I have been reading a lot of the info on here and wondered if anyone could give me some advice...First, a little about us...My husband and I live in a medium sized town in NY, where my husband grew up, I was born and raised in a very small town in Iowa...we met in college in Virginia. My husband is a self-employed custom home framer, I am a stay at home mom of 4 kids, ages 10, 7, 4, and 2. My sister lives in Cary and LOVES it. She and her husband have been trying to get us to move down there for awhile, and we just visited them recently and looked around a bit. We love the area, love the friendly people, LOVE the weather and lower taxes, and are considering relocating there. We had our kids in Christian school, but when the economy tanked we could no longer afford it, so I am currently home schooling. Needless to say, we would rather have them in a Christian school or a good public school, be in the warmer weather, lower-taxed area, with lots of family-oriented things to do. I guess where we could use some advice is: I see on the threads that everyone says a person should have a job lined up before you move, especially with kids...it gets a little complicated when you're self-employed. My husband would like to phase out of framing if possible, maybe focus on building decks, additions, screened-in porches, doing small renovations, etc. He has 15 years of experience in many phases of building besides framing, and does excellent work, is basically a "Jack of all trades" (of course I'm biased ). Is there a demand in certain areas for contractors like him? If so, what areas more than others? He has always sub-contracted off of a large builder up here, and has had an excellent relationship with him, we've never had to advertise or look for work, which has been nice. So we realize this would be new territory for us, but we need a change!! We feel we're spinning our wheels with the high taxes and oppression we feel here, not to mention we strongly dislike the cold climate. We also would love to be in an area where the schools are good, and where we would feel comfortable in either a Christian or public school setting. We would like to live maybe on the outskirts (Holly Springs?) with a small acreage, where we could have horses and a decent house. We figured we would probably rent the first year to get familar with the area before we buy or build a house. If we are able to sell our house up here, we would be debt-free with a nice down payment and cushion. Are we crazy for thinking of moving down there hoping for enough work to live on? Any advice would be great. Thanks!!!
The recession is here, too, and from what I understand, it has strongly affected new-home construction. For the same reason, I would assume that deck builders and home remodelers aren't rolling in dough, either.
I would strongly agree with lovebrentwood, new home building is definitely in the tank so people who where framing are now doing any type of building to pay the bills, also with out local recommendations he may have a hard time booking work, there still is a trust issue its like he will be starting a new business from the ground up.
I have a good friend that has his own general contracting business. He says that stuff is flowing downhill. . . .i.e., houses aren't being built, so those guys are switching to home additions and big remodel projects. But that gives more competition to the remodel guys, so they start picking up jobs to build decks and screened porches. . . . which means those guys are now building. . . . .I dunno. . . . swingsets?
A general contractor who is doing a big addition on my neighbor's house says his business is down 60% since 2008. I have also talked to some of the subs (concrete, foundation, and HVAC) who are saying the same thing, or even worse. It's a tough business, but at some point it's going to turn around. Personally, I'd rather be here for that turn-around, than in NY. I'd say go ahead with the move, you have other reasons for wanting to do it, but realize it's going to be a lean year or 2 (or more - nobody can predict the future) until things are rosy again. Good luck!
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). Is there a demand in certain areas for contractors like him? If so, what areas more than others? He has always sub-contracted off of a large builder up here, and has had an excellent relationship with him, we've never had to advertise or look for work, which has been nice. So we realize this would be new territory for us, but we need a change!! We feel we're spinning our wheels with the high taxes and oppression we feel here, not to mention we strongly dislike the cold climate. We also would love to be in an area where the schools are good, and where we would feel comfortable in either a Christian or public school setting. We would like to live maybe on the outskirts (Holly Springs?) with a small acreage, where we could have horses and a decent house. We figured we would probably rent the first year to get familar with the area before we buy or build a house. If we are able to sell our house up here, we would be debt-free with a nice down payment and cushion. Are we crazy for thinking of moving down there hoping for enough work to live on? Any advice would be great. Thanks!!!
