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First off, I must say that I have found this forum to be a great source of information and help when planning my move. I appreciated a lot of posts from a lot of people so it's hard to name just a few when there were so many.
As a result, I feel the need to "give back" in some way. I have decided to detail my move and trip for the benefit of others in a similar situation.
Let's get this party started...
Who:
Me, White Male, age 33, career Govt employee, USMC veteran
My lady of 11yrs, White female, age 30, Bank Executive (VP)
No kids
Tito (chihuahua), age 7, self employed pain in my ***
What:
Documenting our Lifestyle/Location change
Where:
1010oceanside (lofts)
Oceanside,CA
FULLY FURNISHED
$2300/mo (all inclusive bills, includes electric, heat, ac, water, trash, premium cable, hi-speed internet, W/D in unit, & much more)
When:
Just signed the lease for Jan 1st, depart Boston Jan 2nd 2013
Why:
Lots of reasons as you might expect, some include:
Sold our house here in Boston and had to move anyway.
Both of us are generally complacent with our moderately successful careers.
She has peaked in career advancement in her current job based off the age and dynamic of the rest of her Bank's executive board and desires to use this time to change into a different branch of finance.
As one might expect, the New England weather has grown tiresome for both of us.
Also, this is probably our last chance as financially stable and childless adults to make a major life decision such as this to pursue a different lifestyle with relatively minimal interruption to our lives.
How:
Driving
2 vehicles, VW GTi w/ Thule roof rack/Thule Ascent 1500 cargo box (15cbft) and Jeep Grand Cherokee
3,000+ miles total trip (overnight stops in OH, OK, AZ, side trip to the Grand Canyon in the winter, and finally CA)
No UHaul type rentals
No moving company
Only taking clothes, (2) 46" LCD televisions, very few large items (largest being a snowboard), various personal electronics, personal documents, and various items of personal importance.
Upon selling the house we liquidated a significant amount of "junk" or anything we could replace for minimal cost once we got to San Diego to reduce the amount of things to move.
That should cover the basics.
A little background is in order I guess...
I was born and raised in the areas north of Boston, I joined the USMC out of high school and spent some time traveling around until finally getting orders to Oceanside/Camp Pendleton where I spent 3 years until 2001 and absolutely loved it. It was similar to the rough/blue collar environment I grew up with in Boston but had the typical California beach vibe. Did A LOT of moving around once I got out and settled back in Boston since 2002.
People knock Oceanside on here for the crime and grittiness of it. Being from where I'm from this isn't an issue for me. I actually like it to a certain degree. Some also cite the heavy Hispanic population as a negative. Aside from that being racist, I have compared the Hispanic population diversity of both my area Lawrence, MA (70% Hispanic/9.9% State average) and of Oceanside (35% Hispanic/38.1% State average) Yes you read those numbers right for Lawrence, MA. So as you can see, this is of little concern for me.
My lady is actually from Ohio and after we met she moved here and has been living here in Boston with me since 2002. That is pretty much her story. She moved here and immediately saw her career advance in retail banking. After 10years she is ready for a change in both location and to finely tweak her career direction.
We both just owned a house together and just sold that as well as paid of a significant amount of personal debt. We are in a position to make the move and have taken the steps to do so.
I will be updating this original post periodically so do stay tuned...hope you find this interesting and informative and useful.
I am familiar with the area but considering the amount of time I've been away from San Diego, I think it would be prudent to play it slow, buying a house in San Diego from Boston would be quite the interesting way about buying a new house that's for sure.
I have a suggestion for making this thread useful for the long term. If after moving here you decide that you sold something you should have kept, or kept something you should have sold, letting future readers know that would be useful. Nothing beats hearing it directly from someone who has done it.
Ultimately, I found the ad for 1010oceanside on Craigslist.
I must say though, I never once went to look at a unit or place anywhere, after all I'm still in Boston. Everything I was going off of was going to be from pictures, reviews, and management interaction.
I used the following resources though...
#1 most useful... ApartmentRatings.com - Similar to yelp...wherever I found an ad that looked appealing I immediately searched this site for reviews. I found it useful to search for the address first in case the property was renamed or some other reason. Most of the reviews appear to be legit and some even have responses from the property manager regarding concerns reviewers had listed.
In specific regard to 1010oceanside, I actually have found no reviews. I don't know if that is from the building being so new or what...but from the information provided on the website and the experiences I had with the property manager on the phone, we felt comfortable signing a lease based off that. Mostly because how I see apartment ads portrayed on various sites and the actual reviews I have read that give a totally different perspective of the properties. This place seems to do a really good job of giving a fair assessment of their building. As an aside though, I realize unit pricing isn't indicative of less problems but there is an upscale quality to this property that I personally think makes up for many of the unknowns. Generally, the building is marketed towards professionals and less towards the usual military types and just filling units month to month.
#2 most useful... Craigslist (San Diego, specific city searches from there) - I found the sheer amount of listings to be quite overwhelming at first but I learned to narrow down my search and it became much more manageable. I found CL only to be a good source for the Complex type places, individual rentals are better found elsewhere.
The rest of these I can do a as a group
Move.com - used it a bunch, kinda useful MyNewPlace.com - useful, used it frequently Padmapper.com - useful, specifically in finding the individual type apartments Realtor.com - useful for house, condo, and individual rentals Trulia.com - useful for house, condo, and individual rentals Yelp.com - not as useful as ApartmentRatings.com although still a good source of info Walkscore.com - Part of our lifestyle change demands so might not be important to you Private Real Estate Agencies - good source of home, condo, and individual apartment rentals but there are so many its hard to keep track of them all.
Things I found out during my search that are of significance...
Pets - They narrow your pool of potential apartments considerably, if you aren't willing to get rid of pets prior to your move you can expect to be disappointed when you see a place you love doesn't except pets or that you have to pay more, both for rental and deposit but in some cases an actual "monthly pet rent" applies also.
Water & Trash - If you rent a house water and trash (more so water) is somewhat of a large monthly bill, same goes for larger condos. Apartment complexes vary with their policy on some being a flat fee or some being a total bill for the property then divided evenly among the tenants. Note this is either a plus or a minus depending on your specific water needs. A single person would grow tired of a huge monthly water bill whereas a larger family would enjoy the liberal use of water.
Parking - Personally for me, parking was of great concern for many reasons. Most complexes have major issues with parking. Common problems are the general lack of enough parking, property theft, damage, towing, or just generally less than ideal situations for ones vehicles or your visitors.
Location - Oceanside really saw a boom while I was gone. I was surprised to see all the development in the 76 area. That being said, 76 and 78 are where where a lot of the nicer places appear to be. That might be desirable for those looking to have a little more privacy but for us mobility towards San Diego OC and LA was a big factor, we didn't want to add 10 or 15 minutes onto a ride just to get out of town. A lot of the nicer places were commonly further and further away from the 5, most notably the Vista/Shadowridge area.
Generally, Oceanside seemed to be the most affordable out of all of Coastal North County. Vista seemed to be a little pricey for the lack of amenities although I guess its a trade off for the weather. San Marcos just seemed too far off the coast plus couple that with the worst bottle neck in San Diego County and any of the real cost savings become hard to see. As expected, the coastal communities get more expensive going south towards metro San Diego.
Laundry facilities - In unit washer and dryer seem to be like the unicorn of apartment rentals. Finding one usually is met with above average rental amounts. If you are willing to compromise on this there are numerous places I have found in my search that have everything one would desire EXCEPT in-unit laundry. Again, that is important for me. You might not care.
Rental deposits - I have owned a home most recently plus I haven't dealt with this in my rental history so I can't speak from experience only from reviews I've read. Most complexes are really shady when it comes to deposits and any expectation to see yours returned in full is pretty naive. I have read countless reviews on ApartmentRatings.com and I can't even tell you how many mention management finding reason after reason to hold back on some or all of a tenant's deposit...REGARDLESS if its left in excellent condition (in some cases in better shape than when the tenant moved in).
Kinda got long winded so I'm going to cut it there...any other questions feel free to fire away...
Last edited by BostonToSanDiego; 11-23-2012 at 07:39 PM..
Here is a little more in-depth details of my math...
1st day of trip:
Depart Boston
Drive 14 hours to SE Ohio
Stay the night at the in-laws.
2nd day
Visit various in-laws, big meal then spend the night again
3rd day
Drive 12 hours from SE Ohio to OKC, Oklahoma.
Rent a hotel room and stay the night ($150/night budget, planning on cheaper but estimated on the high side)
4th day
Drive 14 hours to Flagstaff, AZ
Rent a hotel room and stay the night (Again, planning on cheaper but estimated on the high side)
5th day
Wake up early, drive roughly 1hr to Grand Canyon NP (I have been, she hasn't, looking forward to a snow covered experience this time)
Leave GC NP and drive 7 hours to Oceanside, CA
Ambitious trip in terms of mileage in a short amount of time but we both have done long trips behind the wheel. We expect a less than fun time but nothing unmanageable.
Fuel:
Leg #1: BOS to OH
Leg #2: OH to OK
Leg #3: OK to AZ
Leg #4: AZ to CA
Total trip: est. 3300+ miles
Car #1:
26mpg highway
3300/26mpg = 127 gallons
estimate 23 extra gallons (little less than a tank and a half) for incidentals, i.e. side trips and getting lost
Total estimated fuel: 150gal
Total estimated fuel cost (premium @4.00/gal): $600
Car #2
29mpg highway
3300/29mpg = 114 gallons
estimate 23 extra gallons (little less than a tank and a half) for incidentals, i.e. side trips and getting lost
Total estimated fuel: 137gal
Total estimated fuel cost (regular @3.75/gal): $515
Food:
I was reading numerous sites for travel tips and came across a really good one that we are going to rely on heavily to cut a relatively large portion of our food expenses. We are going to both drive with coolers of cold deli meats for sandwiches and our own drinks, I plan on iced tea mix and her canned soda. We plan to use Rest Stops for picnics, gas and restrooms only. You can spend a significant amount of money in rest areas buying overpriced food and various little items. We are making a conscious effort to avoid these things by planning ahead and bringing what we need.
3/4lb Turkey @ $6.00lb = $4.50
3/4lb Ham @ $6.00lb = $4.50
3/4lb Bologna @ $6.00lb = $4.50
Rolls $5.00 for 2 dozen = $5.00
Iced Tea Powdered Mix $2.00 for 2 gallons
Canned soda $14 for (2) 24-packs
Total cost of in-car food = $34.50
Keep in mind this is for lunch snacks and dinners ONLY. We plan on starting every day out with a complete sit down breakfast and maintaining over the day with the above food supply. We anticipate being completely wiped out from driving to have any desire to go some place and eat. We also plan on sticking to the plan but as we all know things on the road are fluid and you really can't plan for everything.
That being said, we have a food budget of $100 including the food above, eating breakfast at diners, and maybe some incidentals here and there. I'm a sucker for Reese's
Incidentals - $100 I can't foresee anything but something always comes up...
License & Registration - $350 (obviously varies, this is based on ) The California .gov site has a great calculator for totaling up all your license, registration, and various fees.
*NOTE*I have included this as a travel expense because California law states if you establish residence you have 10 days to change over...since most people have a place lined up BEFORE they move it would be wise to plan for this expense since you have already established a residence as defined by Cal law and although IANAL, I'm pretty sure the juice starts running the effective day of your lease. Also, fees and penalties can add up quickly if you fail to do so.
CA Handgun registry - $19 per handgun
*NOTE* this is handguns only and does not apply to Shotguns, Rifles, or any other long gun. Also, it would be wise for any gun owner to familiarize themselves with CA gun laws as they are very intrusive. Some items may need to be sold prior to you move. Example...hi-cap magazines.
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