NGKUR: Talk to me about moving out of state

[youdontsay]

Here's the backstory:

In July, my parents went down to Tennessee to go camping. It was odd because my mom hates the hot weather but I just thought they were bored. After some prying, they told me that they were selling their house in New York and moving down there because the property taxes were getting crazy for them.

MH and I looked at what flights would be flying out of our local airport to their local airport and it would be $600 for the two of us RT which was crazy to us. But MH offered to stay home if I wanted to fly down there whenever I wanted to/needed to see them.

Then I was thinking about how when my parents get older that I can't just leave work and drive three hours to take care of what they need like I could now. It would be either a really long drive or a really expensive flight. Both equally suck.

While I was at my parent's house Labor Day Weekend they said I should look into moving to the Charlotte, NC area. That would be a 3-ish hour drive to where they plan on living which is do-able since I do it now when I see them.

I Skyped with MH about this and he was on board doing it if we have kids, sending out our resumes after the first kid is born. If no kids, we'll move whenever.

I'm so freaking excited to start this new chapter in my life, but I have so many questsions. The last time I moved out of state, I was going to college so all I had to worry about was what color comfortor I wanted for my dorm room.

So here are my questions:

Our plan is to do the following steps before and when we move down there.
1) Visit Charlotte a few days once my parents move down there (our flight would have a layover in Charlotte anyway before going to my parent's airport so I figured I would take advantage of that)
2) I would send out my resume since my job would have more availability down there than MH (I work in healthcare finance) and secure a job.
3) Once I secured a position, put our house on the market and rent down there, taking our time to find a house.
4) Get a job for MH (he works in tech support, but does not have any certifications, etc).

Is this a good plan or should I just look into purchasing a home and not renting?

How did you factor in the cost of living difference? For example, a loaf of bread for me here is $3, down in Charlotte, it could be less, but how much?

House affordability? How do you figure that out? What I pay for my house now, I could get a bigger house down south BUT wouldn't I be making less money?

How do I even get a job down there when I have a northern address? I guess resumes are scanned now, so if it's an entry-level position at a hospital and I'm sending it from out of state, won't it just get passed over for someone local?

Any thoughts, ideas, advice, ANYTHING would help. I feel so lost sometimes!

Thanks in advance!

[Ray]

re resumes - I would include in your resume that you are relocating for the opportunity. Google what local professionals are making, then check local realty listings for housing prices. even better, talk to a realtor down there to get an idea for what the market is like (they will also have more info about the cost of living)

realistically purchasing vs renting depends on you guys, what you can afford, what the market is like etc.

if you're worried about not liking it you could rent (my understanding is that the housing market is pretty much crap everywhere in the US?? if so resale might be difficult). if you know thats where you're going to want to be for a while then go for it.

Renting could also be good until you get an idea of the neighbourhoods and then you could buy after

HTH!

[Deleted]

Hi. I am swamped with paperwork because it's my last week of work. I am in the middle of my second relocation so I have lots of advice.
I will return with info.

[ironbaby]

Sept 15, 2015 14:38:44 GMT -5 youdontsay said:

<snip>

1) Visit Charlotte a few days once my parents move down there (our flight would have a layover in Charlotte anyway before going to my parent's airport so I figured I would take advantage of that)
2) I would send out my resume since my job would have more availability down there than MH (I work in healthcare finance) and secure a job.
3) Once I secured a position, put our house on the market and rent down there, taking our time to find a house.
4) Get a job for MH (he works in tech support, but does not have any certifications, etc).

Is this a good plan or should I just look into purchasing a home and not renting?

How did you factor in the cost of living difference? For example, a loaf of bread for me here is $3, down in Charlotte, it could be less, but how much?

House affordability? How do you figure that out? What I pay for my house now, I could get a bigger house down south BUT wouldn't I be making less money?

How do I even get a job down there when I have a northern address? I guess resumes are scanned now, so if it's an entry-level position at a hospital and I'm sending it from out of state, won't it just get passed over for someone local?

I live in Charlotte. HI!!!

3) The rental market in Charlotte is INSANE right now. There are no short-term rentals, at least not when we looked. Just a heads up there. The lowest you can get is a 6-month lease, but places have so many applicants for full year lease terms
4) Tech jobs are there, but there is a lot of competition.

In light of these things, I would try to go ahead and buy. The housing market is also crazy, with low inventory and lots of people moving into town for jobs. Be prepared to need to make fast decisions. I would be happy to give you some local recommendations for realtors or areas to look in.

Your bread loaf sounds about right. Gas is $2 right now. The city just south of Charlotte has the lowest gas price in the country right now.

Speaking of, MANY people choose to live in Fort Mill (SC) and work in Charlotte. It's really close, with great schools and lower taxes, but the interstate is a bitch lately. If you work in South Charlotte, go for it, but north Charlotte would just suck.

I don't think you will get scanned over. When I have done hiring, people have mentioned a recent (or upcoming) move in the cover letter, and I have clarified on the phone. It has had no effect on my hiring. We have two major hospital systems here, but I definitely don't know anything about their HR. Check out Novant Health and Carolinas Medical. They have many branches each, and we are slowly losing independent doctors' offices as they generally are being absorbed by the systems.

Anything else?

[piccyami]

We didn't move out of state, but moved 4 hours away. Even though we were moving back to the area we went to undergrad we chose to rent before we found a house to buy. It really helped us to get used to the area and find out what part of town we were interested in living in as real adults with big kid jobs. We wound up building and were in our apartment for 8 1/2 months.

When we were looking for jobs, the people that called me back didn't care that we didn't have a local address. They were far more interested in what I knew.

[samanthasays]

I recently moved from CA to OH, after only visiting OH for one weekend. My biggest advice would be rent first. If we had bought right away, which we were considering, we would have bought in the wrong area for our lifestyle. It was nice to live in the area for a year and then decide on the right neighborhood. Good luck

[wannabmama]

Everyone has great advice! I'll just pop in to say it's exciting! I love moving and getting to know a totally new city. I hope it works out for you guys!
I think I'd lean a bit toward renting over buying too for the reasons stated above, though ironbaby makes some good points there, too, especially if you think you could live with sticking it out for a few years at least and if you're in a good financial place to do it.
Exciting stuff!!

[mcktymck]

DH and I talked about moving to Charlotte back when we first discussed leaving CT, I've heard so many great things about it! I will say that if you're planning on moving soon, get your resume out there now. I am in the HR industry which is booming right now, and still had a hard time finding a job in Portland. I started applying in November and was hired the end of March/beginning of April, and my current job is one of only maybe 5 (out of over 100) I had applied to.

Also, we decided to rent because 1) we weren't sure which area we wanted to end up in, and 2) Portland is most likely not our permanent landing place, we will probably end up back in CT in a couple years. I would just not want to purchase a house in a strange state, and then end up not being happy with where I was.

[requiressnacks]

I don't know what you do for work, but there is a large aerospace company here in CT (you're in CT, right?) that has a large presence in Charlotte. A lot of my friends and coworkers have recently relocated from CT to CLT, through this large company. That might be one avenue to go. Also, I would think a lot of companies are doing video chat/Skyping for first round interviews nowadays too. Good luck!

I would also recommend renting until you get your bearings. From what I hear, there are some nice and no so nice pockets of the city.

[Andrea]

North Carolina is the BEST. I would just like to leave this link to show the many ways NC rocks. It is from the GKU awards nomination thread, scroll about halfway down to find the post. Good luck!!! 

[rungirlrun]

How exciting! Lots of good advice here. As someone who just moved across the country, I highly recommend renting at first to figure out the area. We previously owned a house so renting kind of stinks, but when we want to buy a house, at least we won't have to sell one which can be a pain.

And I'm not familiar with Charlotte, but generally places that have a lower cost of living do not pay as much as elsewhere. So it all kind of evens out.

As far as getting a job, can you get set up with a recruiter? From my experience, so many resumes don't even get looked at when there are a ton sitting in a pile.

Good luck!

[ironbaby]

Let me just add that while I did say to consider buying, I second everyone saying to rent and get to know the city first. If you have a year to rent, absolutely go that route. If you want in a house sooner, short-term rentals are really hard to find.

So exciting!

[gabride2010]

H and I moved from GA to OH almost 7 months ago. I absolutely recommend renting for at least the first year to make sure y'all like your jobs and the area.

I also work in healthcare, and I didn't find it difficult being from out of state. I applied to several jobs (7 I think). I got a phone interview from everyone. I did face to face interviews with 5 of them (the companies paid for flights/travel and hotels), and I got 4 offers. Just make sure you let the potential employers know that you are wanting to move to the area!

Good luck and have fun!

[aprilz81]

I lived in Charlotte from July 2002 - June 2010 and it is a wonderful place to live. When I was there downtown was "deserted" after working hours but they were in the middle of building a bunch of condos and other amenities to draw people to live in center city. Housing is hit or miss as far as affordability, but the property taxes are pretty reasonable (my house was valued at about $115,000 and I paid about $1,200 in property taxes).

Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools are a freaking mess. If you have kids I would be very careful about where you buy/rent because there are drastic differences in schools within the school system. If you get out into the suburbs (out of Mecklenburg County) things get a lot better.

At the time I left there were decent jobs available. Bank of America has a large office there and the hub airport for US Airways (now American Airlines) means that it is attractive to companies.

From Charlotte you can get to Myrtle Beach in about 3 hours and to the mountains in about 2 (depending on where you are going). There are professional sports (NFL, NBA, NASCAR, minor league hockey and baseball), lakes, an amusement park and lots of golf. There several universities in the area, including UNC Charlotte. Lots of shopping malls ranging from "normal" stores to outlet malls and some luxury malls.

Summers get HOT and HUMID, but the winters are short and mild. Spring and fall are beautiful!

I lived in Concord which is just north east of Charlotte and that is the area I'm most familiar with. The biggest problem I had was with the traffic but you have that in a lot of metro areas.

Cost of living is medium from what I remember. Housing is affordable unless you are looking at lake front, golf course or in a super ritzy part of Charlotte. Entertainment, food and utilities are all about the same as what I pay now in Columbus, OH.

[penguin129]

I moved from PA to FL, FL to PA (with a move from small city to Philly in there after the initial move) and PA back to FL. The first time I moved to FL I was able to transfer my job with Wal-mart so finding a job wasn't an issue. I rented. When I moved back to PA without notice I didn't have a job (moved back with my parents after breaking up with my ex) and was able to get a job after a month and rented after getting hired (hence my move to Philly). Before I moved back to FL I was able to get a job interview through a connection of mine the last day I was on vacation in FL. I got the call a few days after returning to PA that I was hired and took the position. I've been in FL ever since. H and I are still renting.

My advice would be to rent so you can get to know the area and see if you like it. That way if you don't like it you can move. You also don't know what will happen with the job market, so if something better come along or something bad would happen you could move. H and I moved to a bigger city for my job right before we got engaged. I ended up leaving that job and getting teaching job with an hour commute when I had none before. We were able to move closer to our family and still have the same commute. Now H only works 25 mins from where we rent. If we would've bought a house the move might not have been so easy.

I also think putting a note about relocating for a position on your resume is a good idea like other PP's have said. H has teachers who were hired from up north and interviewed via web cam and got the job.

Also Paging TheEleventhHour here because I know she and her H just went through a move from one state to another.

[youdontsay]

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!!

I think the plan is we'll head down there sometime next year regardless of my parents moving down there or not and spend a weekend there checking everything out.

I'm glad that I can put in my resume/cover letter that I'm relocating, I never thought about that.

ironbaby when you mean a competitive housing market, should I assume that the listing price of homes are the selling price? Up here it's different. For example, my house was listed at one price and I ended up paying a lot less than that. I just want to get a feel for what I can afford down there.

I think if/when we move down there, we'll rent for a year and see what neighborhoods we like and start the buying process from there. I don't know what I'm going to do about the house up here, sometimes homes in our neighborhoods sell really fast or they take forever to sell. Fortunately, the town I live in has a really good school district so people are all over that shit when they buy a house.

Guys, seriously, I appreciate the support here. I'm so excited to get this started. If I could, I would move today!!!!

[Deleted]

youdontsay -If you want I can send you the format I use for my cover letters.

[youdontsay]

Sept 16, 2015 10:32:22 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

youdontsay -If you want I can send you the format I use for my cover letters.

Yes please!!!!

[youdontsay]

Sept 16, 2015 10:32:22 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

youdontsay -If you want I can send you the format I use for my cover letters.

Yes please!!!!

[ironbaby]

Sept 16, 2015 10:30:46 GMT -5 youdontsay said:

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!!

I think the plan is we'll head down there sometime next year regardless of my parents moving down there or not and spend a weekend there checking everything out.

I'm glad that I can put in my resume/cover letter that I'm relocating, I never thought about that.

ironbaby when you mean a competitive housing market, should I assume that the listing price of homes are the selling price? Up here it's different. For example, my house was listed at one price and I ended up paying a lot less than that. I just want to get a feel for what I can afford down there.

I think if/when we move down there, we'll rent for a year and see what neighborhoods we like and start the buying process from there. I don't know what I'm going to do about the house up here, sometimes homes in our neighborhoods sell really fast or they take forever to sell. Fortunately, the town I live in has a really good school district so people are all over that shit when they buy a house.

Guys, seriously, I appreciate the support here. I'm so excited to get this started. If I could, I would move today!!!!

Yes, right now it is very much a sellers' market down here. Low inventory with lots of buyers, so there are usually multiple offer situations. We lost 2 houses with multiple offers, and we had several appointments get cancelled bc the buyers didn't want to entertain any more offers. It's nuts. That being said, with patience you can get a deal; we bought at 17k under listing, but we looked for about 4 months.

There is a TON of new housing going up, both condo/apartment style near uptown (in the South End area) and in the suburbs, so renting for a while will help you wait out some (hopeful) pricing decreases and determine if a suburb if the right fit. We chose to be inside the main loop of the city which made it trickier.

Schools are hit and miss, but I found the online scoring systems to be pretty good reference material. Pricing follows school scores pretty closely.

As a reference, for a 3-4 bedroom "decent" home, expect to pay $180k and up, and to be located on the fringes of Charlotte proper. The closer you get to Southpark/Myers Park or uptown, the higher it gets. My view of what is decent may be skewed, so take it with a grain of salt.

Let me know when you come down! The drive to Tennessee is beautiful, though you do have to drive over the mountains. There is SO much potential in Charlotte and the surrounding area.

[Deleted]

Sept 16, 2015 10:40:59 GMT -5 youdontsay said:

Sept 16, 2015 10:32:22 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

youdontsay -If you want I can send you the format I use for my cover letters.

Yes please!!!!

YGPM