moving tips?

[Jayvn]

So... The only real moves I've ever made in my life were pretty much pre-set and stable...as in I had a place ready (military stuff) or family was close and set it up... jobs were waiting via family friends or military.. For the first time we plan to move to a place that's a good hour or so from the closest relative.. Paula can more than likely transfer work to that local area, I'll be getting a job hopefully in the field to which I just got my certification..if not.. fuck it I'll find a crappy job till I can find a better one... We're still looking at the different rentals in the area eventually planning on buying something... So I need help...cause I honestly don't know wtf how to go about doing a move...
It's not like I can just go down and check out rentals and apply for jobs because it's 350 miles from where we're currently at.. I'm totally lost as to the order in which I should be getting steps of this whole process done. Do I need to take a trip down prior to moving to do these kinds of things? I know lots of people don't use online rental sites plus I could actually check the neighborhoods and stuff of the listings I have found. With gas being like 4 dollars a gallon though that would be a kind of expensive trip just to scout shit out...

Jayvn/daniel

[Trouble]

Check out city-data.com's forums: www.city-data.com/forum/. Each state and region within a state has its own forum topic (Northern VA has a separate forum, for example). You can pose your questions there and people are generally helpful (much nicer than the PC :) ) about neighborhoods to avoid and can even give you insight on the job market in the area (like if your cert is in demand or over-populated).

The regular part of the website also has lots of demographic and geographic information about any zip code in the country.

I definitely recommend checking out a rental place before you commit, unless it's a temporary (non-lease) situation.

[diethx]

I would also suggest making a trip down there to check everything out. Maybe after you've sent a few resumes out, so while you're in town to scout, you can also interview. That way maybe you can get a job set up before your move, which will take a lot of pressure off the whole situation.

[Killer Kitten]

I'd be sure at least one of you has a job prior to moving.

When Mike and I decided to leave New York, we picked the places we absolutely did not want to live, and he sent resumes everywhere else.
His job search took 18 months, but he finally found the perfect job in a terrific town.

We went there for a weekend visit, and while we were there he lined up a month-to-month apartment and we chose a realtor and started house hunting. I stayed in New York to pack and to sell our house. He came back once to help with some heavy stuff, otherwise I joined him every weekend to look at houses. He started his job in late August, I moved there the day before Thanksgiving.
We had to find a house because of all of our pets, nobody was going to rent to us with 12 cats. The timing was a little hairy, the cats and I were driving to Ohio the day he was supposed to close, but it all worked out well. It was a real team effort.

The best advice I can offer, besides having employment before moving (and with the sagging economy nowadays that one is pretty vital) is: United Van Lines. They were awesome, VERY professional and got all of our things delivered very quickly.

[kookiegod]

If you are going to be renting, I think this is the best of em...

www.rent.com

A lot of my customers are using SureDeposit instead of a traditional security deposit, you can find information about that here:

http://www.suredeposit.com/Public/Residents/default.aspx

And of course, if you are going to be renting, most management companies do at least a credit report, and most do some form for landlord/tenant records check and criminal backgrounds check.

To get a free copy of your credit file go to: www.annualcreditreport.com

Disclosure upfront is the best way if you got issues, and if a criminal or record that pulls up that is not you, they are required by law to give you a notice of which company did the search and the dispute center's phone and address.

As far as moving, I saw a couple things lately that are interesting, and one I used in the past.

For discount moving, you pack and load:

http://www.abfs.com/default.asp?bhcp=1

Basically they drop a trailer at your place, you load, nail a bulkhead in place, they fill it with cargo and ship it, empty cargo, then drop it off for you to unload. It worked pretty good when I used it. They only charge by the cubic foot, not weight, so if you can pack well, its very economical.

They also got a pod solution the same as PODS.

This last one is really cool, one stop shopping for all your utilities...

http://www.allconnect.com/?referrerID=31061&cid=RL1004

Hope this helps!

~Paul

[Allereli]

Congrats on finishing your certification, D! One day you'll have to tell me what happened with New Guy.

You can also contact real estate agents in the area you're moving to, and you won't (or shouldn't) have to pay the agent any fees. They help with rentals, too.

[Revalos]

Not to ask the obvious question...but, where are you moving to? Maybe one of us PC denizens can help scout the area.

[Shifted]

I'm moving soon too, going to the baltimore area. I already have the job lined up, but no help on the housing situation. Anyone familiar with the area that can help out?

[Allereli]

I'm moving soon too, going to the baltimore area. I already have the job lined up, but no help on the housing situation. Anyone familiar with the area that can help out?

Federal Hill is awesome. Very close to the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards

[g++]

And insanely expensive...unless your a drunk frat boy check out north Baltimore around the hopkins campus, there are some cheap good places to live in Hamden and Charles Village.

If you do have a lot of money to burn I would recommend Mount Vernon over Federal Hill....Mount Vernon is kind of a gay area...but I find that prefereable to having people fighting and throwing up on my porch every weekend.

[Jayvn]

So we're moving to the Ocala or therabout area, central florida..Paula pretty much has her job able to be transferred, I want to get a cabling related job so that I feel I took this course for some reason other than to kill a year. Apparently Ocala has blown up in the last 15 or so years, I left in about the 8th grade, now there's all kinds of new growth there. I've got one friend sort of checking the listings out for me that I find online, and looking for rentals that aren't listed online.
Is it really better to use one of the companies that drives your crap for you? I was just gonna load it up in a Pesnke or Uhaul or something..
and ARRrrghhh I found the coolest 3/2 condo with pool for 550 a month.... and it turns out it had been rented... but the girls hasn't put down the deposit yet...so it's kind of in limbo... I'm crossing my fingers.
Thanks for the advice so far
~Jayvn/Daniel