Moving for dummies

Shadowfire

My wife and I are looking to move to southern New Jersey in the next few months. However, we have two issues. One is that we've never moved long distance before (or at least, not in at least twenty years), so we don't really know how to do it. The second is the job situation while trying to buy a house. To break them down:

She can transfer through her work so she has a job all but guaranteed right now. However, I cannot transfer to the area and would have to seek new employment. I have already been looking and have submitted several applications/resumes over the last couple of nights. However, an employment agreement isn't enough to enter into a mortgage, so I would need pay stubs showing my income. This creates a bit of a circular problem where I need to be working at a job to buy a home, but I need to live down there to have a job. Finding month-to-month leases is damn near impossible it seems, but I could just not know what I'm looking for. Possibly making matters worse is that I've never had to job hunt before, so this is a process that is not only outside of my home state, but also my comfort zone.

The second bit - we live in Vermont, and are moving to NJ to help care for two sick family members. I'm a bit concerned about the moving process here. A bit of knowledge on that part - we have four cats and a dog. Finding a place to rent, particularly a short term one, will be impossible with that many animals I'm sure. My in-laws may be able to watch them for a couple of months while we're in the process, or in a worst case scenario, my wife lives with them for a bit with the animals while I start situating things down there.

Basically, I'm looking for a shitton of advice. I really don't know how to go about much of any of this, where to start, etc.

davidsdurions

Does your wife's company provide moving company benefits? What I've dealt with before is pretty amazing with a third party company that handles selling previous house, buying new house or finding a suitable rental, filling moving truck and driving the truck to destination and unloading it.

Jasconius

how strong is your financial sitution

if you have serious savings then you can probably get over that employment hurdle since your wife does have stable employment

ceres

We moved from the Philadelphia area to Las Vegas with two cats. My husband came out first and basically did some apartment hunting and filled out an application or two in the few days he was here. We moved for his job so he definitely had employment, but it will probably be so much easier to rent for a while until you have some pay stubs and a good offer on your current house. If you find an apartment that will take a couple of your animals (especially the dog) your in-laws may be able to take care of the rest for a little longer so you can rent, but I would not try to go through the home-buying process in that area a) from a distance and b) unless you are very, very certain that that is the house, neighborhood, and state you want to be in forever or else at a huge loss.

kaliyama

Also, wouldn't south NJ be a lot more expensive to buy in than VT? Anyway, consistent with what Ceres said,
(a) you don't know if you want to live in PA/DE/NJ forever;
(b) home buying is impossible to do at a distance;
(c) in any event, getting to closing takes at least a month in most cases.

So you're going to need to be renting for a few months no matter what.

What if your relatives die in the next six months? Would you move back to VT? I'd think probably so, if you like it there now. Not sure what sense there is in buying a home.

ChopperDave

Job searching advice: Put your relatives' home address on your resume when applying for jobs local to NJ. Employers will often favor local applicants over out-of-state applicants.

You said you have family (maybe friends as well?) in the area, so I would ask them if they are willing to help you with the pets.

If you're feeling more adventurous, you can go on Craigslist and see if you can find a pet lover to temporarily rehome one of the pets to while you're looking for a place to live. I know a guy who found people to care for each of his 3 cats while he spent a few months subletting and looking for a cat-friendly apartment, and it worked out for him in the end. A lot of pet owners have been through a similar situation when they moved so you can often find people who will do long-term cat/dog sitting for a reasonable price.

Look for sublets. They're often more flexible than leases, and often you get to live in a fully-furnished apartment.

IIRC, NJ doesn't have rent-control laws, so you could try to ask for something between a 1-month and a 1-year. Next time you check out an apartment, ask if you can sign a 6-month lease... it almost never hurts to ask.

Consider getting a storage unit for your stuff. Not having to shlep everything around from apartment to apartment can be really helpful when your situation is still in flux. If you put your stuff in storage, it'll be a lot easier for you to sublet (or even crash with your friends/family for a bit) while you continue to look.

As for the move itsel, I usually recommend that people get a self-drive truck like UHaul or Penske, but hire movers to help you get stuff in and out of the truck. Hiring movers to do load AND drive gets very expensive, especially for interstate moves, but their help and experience can be invaluable when it comes to lifting heavy stuff, dealing with obstacles like small doorways and narrow stairs, and properly loading/unloading things into a truck. Driving is the "easy" part, so you can do that yourself.

Enc

On the other side of things, if the move is for ill family members how likely is it to instead have those dependents move up to you where you are presently stable? Having a solid economic and housing setup would likely help the ill family members more than taking a hit on your ability to provide support in going to them.

CelestialBadger

It'll be easier to find a landlord that will allow 5 pets than buy a house at short notice from a long way away.

Try dealing direct with a landlord, and offering to pay extra for each pet. The reason they don't like pets is that they can wreck the place, so they need to be compensated for possibly having to do a lot of repairs when you leave. You'll probably have to sign a long-term contract, too.

illig

Definitely live down here for a while to get a feel of the place before buying - Jersey is a strange place: one of the most densely populated states which also has huge rural areas and almost uninhabited spaces (pine barrens in the south).

We have the wealthiest towns in the country (mostly in the north) - as well as the poorest and most dangerous in the country (mostly in the south). i.e. you can live like a king in Saddle River or Millburn or fear for your life in Camden and parts of Newark.

Basically - it's very easy to buy a place and be stuck in an undesirable area (while paying ridiculous property taxes) if you don't look carefully.

So rent a place (even if it's for a year) near your wife's job - and look around.

Oh - and really pay attention to property taxes - in some places they're higher than what you'll pay in mortgage (like mine ) which shocks people from out of state.

hsu

I'll chime in to agree with others here, rent for a year.

Additionally, the time required to travel a given distance differs quite a bit between dense cities and sparse countrysides. Without a year to adjust, you won't understand how far you can actually travel in say 30 minutes (the maximum commute I would recommend).