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Handling a Cross Country Move?
Tarin.n asks: "For the past 2 years, I have worked remotely from the East Coast for a Silicon Valley company. The company is now considering moving me to the west coast, so that I can be closer to their headquarters. I'm trying to make a list of questions to ask of the company as we discuss this transition, as well as a list of items to take care of personally for such a move. What experience have others on Slashdot had with a cross-country move? Specifically, what should I ask and watch out for?"
How much are they paying for your move?
How much more are they going to pay for changing costs?
Are they going to give you money for temporary expenses while you are looking for permanent housing?
Oh, and Money??
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
One thing that they might not be to open about (or even aware of) is the cost of living differences. Living on the east coast with the salary you're making might make you feel wealthy. Moving to the west coast with the same salary might put you in the poor house.
Be aware of the cost of living differences between two markets (even within the same metropolis on occasion!).
If you can plan for a zero-downtime move, I'd suggest you do it; since it looks really cool to even people like the CFO who think it's magic.
I'm not sure it is unwise to ask others for what questions to ask the employer as well as gain some knowledge in the caveats of a move.
From what I can tell, there is actually a decent number of people on slashdot who have been in similar situations and would be happy to share the positives and negatives.
Watch out for tunnels in the Rocky Mountains. They are pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. Or a Balrog. Either way not fun.
Shades of Grayden
- One-time relocation expense reimbursement
- Bump in salary if new location is more expensive than old location (salary calculator)
- Assistance with finding a house or apartment
More important is how this will affect your family. Being single will make the decision easier, but being hitched with kids will make this truly a life-changing event.
Your company should cover costs of packing and freight of your belongings and pay for your vehicle(s) to be moved on a truck.
Second, you should also ask for a Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) based on the differential in, well, the cost of living between where you are now and Silicon Valley. It's not cheap there!
Lastly, it is reasonable to expect your company to put you up in a hotel/efficiency suite/corporate housing for 1-2 months while you look for a residence in your new home town.
That's why you don't post as AC. Surely you can Google the average cost of living for the county you'll be in. Add to that any research you can do into the crime scene. All depends where on the West Coast you'll be. I can say for sure that most of Oregon is fairly affordable. California you seem to pay by the square inch for a place to live.
Make sure to get a list from them in writing of all expenses that they will cover. This includes gas/mileage/meals/hotels for the drive. Also make sure that temporary expenses are covered for your arrival (eg, 1 to 2 months apartment rental if you're looking to buy a house). If possible, try to get a chunk of this upfront. If they won't do that, ask them how long reimbursement will take. Some places won't reimburse you until you've worked there for 6 months or a year. This is to make sure that you don't have them cover your moving costs and then bail on them. Oh yeah, and did I mention to get the whole agreement in writing?
This guy's the limit!
You're probably much better off selling/giving away all of your large things (beds, wine cabinets, couches) and purchasing new ones at your new home. I moved from one end of New York State to the other a while back, and the cost of trucking my worldly possessions downstate was only slightly less than buying new worldly possessions. Consider the cost of a large enough truck, diesel fuel, time, food on the road, et cetera, and it adds up.
As for the rest, pack your bags as though you were going off on a long trip, and ship everything else.
Now, if you can't divest yourself of your current furnishings, or have large, difficult-to-move things that you -must- retain, you're pretty-much boned from the start. Being mobile in the modern world means travelling light, not amassing tons of "stuff," and generally being willing to lose it all and move on.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
When I moved, I did so very haphazardly... in retrospect, I should have picked a storage place that would help facilitate moving whatever I placed in storage. If you're going to have things put in storage, pick a storage-locker-place that'll help with the shipping of said items to a place near your new home. And when you store things away, make sure you do so as if you were packing them up to be moved.
Other than that... ask your employer for reputable realtors/apartment managers in your new area, as well as the usual (Utility, phone, cable, broadband) provider info. If driving, plan out what will go with you in the car... use your square inchage effectively. You can always pack a cooler/box/tub/whatever and stick it where the passenger's legs would go. Presuming you don't have passengers. If flying, narrow things down to the pure bare essentials and buy a sleeping bag when you get there for until furniture arrives.
Techies should know this, but cell phones, especially ones you can hook up to a computer via USB/Bluetooth, are a lifesaver to keep you in touch until connections are in place.
Ha, i would research some well known bar and rest ... Friday night is what you would like after you are adapted to new place.
i would check if i am getting this too ... :-)
Why are you moving cross-country for a job? Is the job THAT great that you're going to destroy any local ties that you have jsut to keep them happy? Call me nuts, but work comes secondary to the rest of my life, and something as critical like where I live isn't decided by work.
I don't respond to AC's.
I recently moved cross country for a job six months ago.. (NorthEast to SouthWest)
Insurance... Verify with your home owners/renters insurance that your stuff is covered during the move... My GF's mother is an insurance agent and figured out that the stuff that is offered by the moving company (PODS, decent experience, except that the stuff was late, due to Katrina) was useless.. We then inquired our home owners, and at least with mine, I was covered.. Otherwise... Your stuff may not be covered during the move..
Do not buy a place right away.. Rent first to learn the area... Make it known that you will be renting.. Otherwise everyone and their cousin will be telling that someone they know is a realestate agent in the area you are moving too..
Order of operations... First, fly out there to pick out a house/apartment.. Same trip/Next trip, stay in new apartment, --buy a new bed--.. Its a new start, might as well start over.. Dont go cheap.. Plus if your stuff shows up late, at least you're not sleeping on the floor.. This was our saving grace..
Make sure you get a decent salray adjustment.. You will spend more money than you think on the move, maybe over budget.. I know I did..
I'm sure others will have good advice...
Slashdot is like Playboy: I read it for the articles
Assuming that you're happy with compensation, benefits, etc... in a perfect world, you want:
- You stuff moved by professional movers
- Some cash to handle incidentals (rent deposits, hotels, various fees for starting utilities, etc)
If they aren't paying for anything, then get as much money as you can, sell whatever you can part with and stuff all of your crap in a POD (www.pods.com) or something similar.
I wouldn't move for a company unwilling to pay for relocation, unless I was two years out of college and didn't really own anything.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Dont go for any of those deals where they load it onto a truck and carry to your location. A friend of mine working for Boeing had a car get *totaled* because they droped another car onto hers during the unloading process... 6 weeks after she last saw the car. Thats when it was scheduled to arrive, and boeing paid for a rental car for the entire time she was waiting for her car, and while she shopped for a new car, and didnt have to pay anything out of pocket save for her time and trouble. I have 7 other friends who got their cars moved, with time spans not less than 2 weeks, and one of these guys got his car back with a cracked windshield. His company also took care of him, but still.
The moral is I wont ever trust one of these companies with my car.
"California you seem to pay by the square inch for a place to live."
In the Bay Area there is an up front flat fee of $500k, then you pay by the cubic inch (vaulted ceilings cost extra)!
First, compare the true cost of living with their COL adjustment (if any).
Then look into what it will take to live the way *you* want to there. If you're moving from say, NYC to SF, it's probably not drastically different. But if you're moving from somewhere like Augusta or Raleigh (or to some extent Atlanta), and want to live anywhere near the country, or have a decent sized place, you're in for a shock.
Check into transportation issues (parking, mass transit, etc). Consider local laws (gun ownership, vehicle inspections, home schooling, pets, whatever matters to you.)
If you have any odd medical issues, fine out what the local hospitals and doctors ar eliek. Don't just assume everything will be the same.
and change your address with netflix. You don't want to miss any movies.
A few years ago my wife's cousin went out to the Silicon Valley area to potentially transfer. I made sure that he studied the housing market versus any increase in pay. He stayed in PA and eventually moved onto something else. The company was fine - no problems there. I would make sure (in writing!!) they pay for most everything, but also be aware of the cost of housing and the two hours each-way commute time (I kid you not). If you are cool with that then go for it. I am a graduate of the University of California and I never regretted leaving California :).
I have no experience with this although I do remember one of the news shows (20/20 perhaps) running a story on this happening. I'd recommend doing some homework before selecting a moving company.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
Sometimes, and at least once in every life, you should completely uproot yourself and move on. Better still if you can go to a different country. If you can get your employer to pay for it then that's even better still.
And yes I do have some ties to the old home town. Every now and again I go back and visit my father (mom died a few years back) and I'm glad I got to really see some more of this world. Vacations aren't enough. You have to go out there and live.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
I once moved from TX to NY. My Salary doubled. After rent (Cheapest dump I could find after 3 months looking) and utilities, I had less spending money available. That included Car payments, Gas, food, etc. After 6 months, I quit and moved back. Best decision I could have made! Better luck than me!
In an attempt to keep the moving van's cost down ($25,0000 for 15,000lbs), I crammed 14 vanilla box PC computers into the back of my SUV prior to being shipped via auto-freight truck (the kind that holds 8 cars) from east to west.
When the SUV finally arrived (3 weeks later) on the very top and back of a multi-vehicle carrier, RIGHT where it is perched dangerously downward and backward from the auto-freight upper deck, the driver opened my SUV's tail door and all my worldly and precious stuff came crashing down and scattering around in million pieces.
Now why did he do that? He said he wanted to crawl into my car to drive it out.
Needless to say, all the MOBOs were a total loss (but insured anyway), but the hard drive content were all salvageable.
Caveat!
Also consider that the state taxes in CA are on the higher end, and when you're making more, you also pay more. Property Taxes through the roof!
Keep this in mind when asking for salary adjustments.
I moved to the Philadelphia suburbs from Michigan several years ago. At a volunteer function, somebody was going to make run over to a sandwich shop to get lunch for everybody. I ordered an Italian hoagie.
"With oil or mayo?", asked the person who was making the run.
"Neither. I'd like mustard on my sandwich. Brown if they have it, otherwise yellow is OK."
I swear to God, all conversation stopped and everyone stared at me. These were all people who had grown up in the Philadelphia area, locals for at least 5 genereations.
"Mustard? On a hoagie? You want me to ask them to put mustard on a hoagie?" She sounded like I'd asked for a crunchy frog with a side of anthrax ripple.
Asking for mustard on a sandwich was apparently such an outrageously bizzare concept that, it took me a minute or two to convince them that I was serious about it, and did not want oil or mayo, but mustard. This was such heresey, that one year later, at this same function, this woman's son referred to me as the guy who wanted mustard on his hoagie.
This, in a place where they put mustard on pretzels, and eat it with a straight face.
Your biggest problem won't be computer, work or salary related... it will be cultural.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
1) Make sure that you are cool with downsizing your place. Not sure where you are coming from, but in almost every case you will get a smaller house/apartment for the same $ out here in Silly Valley.
2) Find out about opportunities and resources to participate in the things that you love to do in your time off of work. In most cases you will find that this area is great for all sorts of pursuits, but make sure.
3) Make sure that you enjoy interacting with an incredibly diverse cultural group of people. This is one of the coolest things about living in California. I have however seen a lot of instances of people that move here from out of state and have trouble relating to the diverse ethnic groups (generally this does not seem to happen with east coast transplants - it seems to be more of middle-america thing). One of my favorite things about the Bay Area is that in most areas you are virtually unlimited in the new types of cuisine you can try on a daily basis. It's kinda cool to be able to eat your way around the world without leaving your own town.
4) Make sure that you like to drive. Unless you are in the middle of SF, public transit is only useful in very specific cases. It just isn't deployed widely enough to be a full time option for many people, so traffic is a part of life. This brings up another related point - when you are plotting out how much more pay you will need in order to make the move, be sure that the increase includes enough to be as close as possible to your office. In California a lot of people are moving farther out into the central part of the state and driving huge distances to get to work due to the availability of (somewhat) cheaper housing. Try not to be one of these people. :-)
All in all, this is a wonderful place to be. Hopefully these items will help you to decide if it will be the right place for you.
Good luck!
\/\/oobie
What's wrong with sleeping on the floor?!
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
A couple of recommendations:
-- While some relocation expenses are tax deductible, a lot aren't. If your company is paying for them, they'll tax you on anything they pay out. Consider asking for a bonus to cover these expenses.
-- With any movers try to get something in writing which guarantees delivery by a certain date with penalties for not making that date. Especially with auto movers. Auto movers made my life a living hell for over a month. During a hectic time such as a relocation, it's just not worth the headache.
-- Make sure you have full coverage insurance with the movers. Not just replacement value.
-- Don't use DAS auto shippers. Just don't. Trust me.
Having been moved by jobs on 3 different occasions, every time across the country, there are a couple things that I have learned. First, it will cost more than $5k to move, if you include a car. Every time I've moved it has ended up costing me between $6k-$8k. Second, I won't take reimbursement anymore. I take money up front, and never reimbursement. The problem with reimbursement is that you will have a lot of expenses that need to be paid up front. Its quite annoying to have to front that money yourself. In addition, there are always little expenses here and there that you didn't think of that aren't covered. I can guarantee it. This varies from finding out that certain moving expenses aren't being covered, some security deposit doesn't count, to things like you need extra trashcans because you now have extra rooms in the house. It has been difficult at times to negotiate, but I highly recommend just getting the moving expenses paid out as a bonus up front before you move.
I just completed a job-related cross-country move (~1000 miles) with two small children. We did the 3-month lease thing while we house hunted and then moved again into a house. It was a huge pain to move twice, but we found a much better house than we could have otherwise. Plus, you'll have no contingencies (other than mortgage) on your bid for a house. 3-month leases can be a pain to find, but they are out there. Try an apartment locator service - they often can do lots of the legwork for you and most are free. Make sure you visit the apartment complex when most people are home from work to make sure the parking situation isn't horrendous and everything seems on the up and up.
Talk to your accountant about which moving costs are and are not tax deductible at the federal and state levels, and be sure you understand how the reimbursement from your company fits into the picture. All of my moving expenses were deductible for the IRS, but only a portion were for the state. Keep your receipts in a labelled folder so you'll have them handy for next year's tax time. Keep your gas receipts and track your mileage if you drive your car.
Try to see if your company will negotiate for one of those relocation companies to buy your old house from you so you don't have to hassle with selling it and pay huge commissions. As far as house hunting, find out if the MLS service or your realtor has a nice website for searching on your own time (so as to be not so dependent on your realtor for weeding things out long-distance). Be realistic about what you want and need. Often, the housing market is so drastically different that you can't decide what you want because you aren't really sure what various things are like. Make sure your realtor is readily accessible via email as well as cell phone (tech-savvy).
Using professional movers will cost you 2-3 times what it costs to do it yourself, assuming you have friends at both ends that can help with the loading/unloading in exchange for pizza and beer. However, moving yourself, especially twice, is a gigantic pain. If you have more money than patience, perhaps pro movers are worth the premium. To me, they weren't.
Watch out for lots of unexpected costs with moving. In my old state, sellers pay for the plat of survey at closing; in my new state buyers do -- ergo we paid for a survey on both ends of our deal. There are lots of little things like that due to differing state rules, and they can add up to quite a bit.
We got a great deal on a house here in Michigan because the previous owners signed a contract with a relocation company. Among other services (actually moving your stuff, helping you find a new place to live, etc) they also help you sell your old home. The essential deal is that if you can't sell the house within a time frame, they buy it from you. This seems good except for two problems:
They buy it significantly below your asking price.
They do not accept offers with contingencies (ie, if someone wants to buy your house, they can't make an offer if they still need to sell their old house, don't have a pre-approved loan, etc)
Apparantly the previous offer was not valid, and they only had 2 weeks to get a valid offer before losing nearly 20% of their home's value. We still had a place to sell, but were able to get approved for a bridge loan (a high interest short term loan from the bank so we could buy the new house before completing the sale of the old house). We were able to sell our house in the time between having the offer accepted and closing on the new house, so we didn't need to use the bridge loan, but this sort of deal apparantly drove a lot of buyers away.
Relocation companies, I assume, are good in general, but be very careful about accepting their terms, read everything and don't be afraid to tell the company that you'll relocate yourself for the same money they'd be paying the relocation company.
Also, as other noted, the cost of living is *significantly* higher. A house or apartment can easily be twice as much as what you're currently spending. Gas is a little higher. Food and services are higher. Do your homework before you go.
-Adam
"I crammed 14 vanilla box PC computers..."
You bring up a point that I needed to address simply to move across the state.
"Do I really NEED this?"
I've moved 4 times in 6 months, its about to become 5. I'm a college student doing work at other schools in the state and the next one will be out to Germany. Each time I've moved I have found things like old computers, empty shell casings, "project enclosures" (old liqor bottles and neat metal boxes, old notes from classes, clothes that don't fit, clothes that I never wear, sex toys from ex's that were angrily thrown somewhere, pots/pans that were totally redundant, glassware (I was living alone and had nearly 150 glasses, mugs, and cups), the list goes on.
The thing is, I donated, recycled, sold, and disposed of nearly 70% of my posessions. I still have the things that have value to me, either useful value or sentimental value, but I don't have all the clutter and the 'stuff'. Open space, and not having a self-stor unit crammed to the gills with scrap is incredibly liberating.
You want the following in your move package:
1) Some portion of the price differential on an equivalent home in an equivalent neighborhood. You'd like 100%, but will probably have to settle for 50%, or less, depending on how desperate they are.
2) Home sale and purchase costs. You probably have to pay a realtor on both ends, and you want the company to pay for this.
3) Salary adjustment to the new area.
4) Moving costs paid with a minimum and a maximum. The minimum makes sure you don't get screwed out of the small costs if you are able to find a cheap way to move, the maximum tells you just what you can afford when you get your binding estimates from the movers. Aside: be sure your estimates are binding. Alternatively, you might also ask for a base relocation bonus (ie they give you $5000 as an immediate bonus for moving), plus moving costs covered to $X ($7500-$10,000 would not be unusual for a full cross country move for a software developer making >$60k). This would be better than the min/max since you can then try to push as much as possible into the moving costs by keeping your receipts carefully.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Do I really need this 14 vanilla PC boxes during the interstate move?
This is SLASHDOT! News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters.
These PC stuff DO matter to this nerd, dude! My livelyhood... My babies...
You testing my geek-status, aren't ya?
I did a cross-planet move recently to Hong Kong (and back again). Some of the lessons we learned might be appropriate.
1) Moving fees. Does the firm pay a cash amount or the actual expense. This can come into play in that you might be tempted to cut corners and save some of the cash, or go to town and get the best movers you can find (i.e. who do the packing for you). If you are a busy or disorganized person, you may want the kind of movers who show up and pack everything right out of the closets so you don't miss a beat.
There are always incidental expenses you don't think about, like...well...say you just abandon your iron (assuming you are the type that irons your clothes). You then have to buy a new one and that costs money. Or a spatula. Or some hangers, or a screwdriver. Stuff you forget to pack.
2) Insurance, transfering over to a new state--have them sort out all of this (but it isn't a big deal I suspect).
3) Car registration. Some firms actually pay a person or a service to re-register your car. Saves you a day at the DMV.
4) Salary adjustment. Cities cost different amounts.
5) Return travel. More likely in overseas assignments, but we got two rndtrip tix to go home for the holidays as part of our deal.
6) 1-2 months rent at a corporate apartment. I'd really push for this if possible. Lets you see where the office is, investigate schools, neighborhoods, etc. One of the WORST things you can do on a move is move, and buy a house immediately. Always take a month or two to get the lay of the land if possible, even if you used to live in that town (times changes, traffic patterns change, nearest groceries move, etc).
7) Educational assistance for your kids (if you have any, but you may need some help getting them into your first choice school mid-term).
8) Auto transport. Why put 3,000 miles on your car? Have them ship it (or sell and rebuy).
If you can afford it, you can also look at this time as 'garage sale' time to empty out a lot of stuff you just haven't gotten around to dumping yet. We sold off a lot of furniture and things before our move, and bought new stuff on arrival. Saved on shipping and was kind of fun to have a new look to match a new town.
hope this helps
- Get the company to put in writing everything they will pay for
- House hunting trips (you need at least 2)
- Moving expenses (a lump sum? a percentage of total expenses?)
- Do you have to give back the moving allowance if you quit within 2 years? If you are laid off or fired?
- Will they pay to move you back to the East coast if they lay you off within 2 years?
- Sell everything you can. Beds, couches, dressers, tables, dishes and other items can all be bought again. It's usually cheaper to sell everything big and buy new stuff than it is to pay to have it moved across the country. If the company is paying for everything, then you don't have to worry about this. Beware that you can't deduct the cost of buying new stuff from your taxes - it might be cheaper in the long run to move everything after the tax deductions (it all depends on the value of the stuff you are selling!)
- Hire a company to move the stuff you don't sell. Don't even bother renting a U-haul or something like that. It doesn't save you that much money, and it's a huge pain in the ass. Look for a company that will drop a trailer/cargo container off at your house and let you pack it yourself. These are nice because all of your stuff stays in the one container until it gets to your new house. If you hire a company to pack and move your stuff, it will likely get moved between 3 or 4 trucks and warehouses by the time it makes it to your new house.
- Get extra insurance. The insurance that the moving company offers is usually just a bulk freight rate - a few pennies per pound. Check with your home owneres insurance to see if you are covered during the move, or if you need to buy extra insruance.
- Drive you car across the country. Not only can it be a great trip, but at least here in Canada the government gives you a living allowance plus a per-km rate you can deduct from your taxes. It's probably the only tax deductible vacation you are likely to ever get.
- Find some way to organize all of your receipts. Keep receipts for -everything- from now until a few months after you get into your new house. Let your tax accountant decide what to use and what to discard. Get into the habit of requesting a receipt for everything you buy, including a pack of gum at the gas station. It might be tax deductible.
- If you can, time your move to ensure you are living where the tax rate is the lowest when it matters. In Canada, you file your taxes in the province you are living in on December 31st of the tax year. Moving 1 day later could save or cost you thousands of dollars depending on what the tax rate difference is between the two locations.
My move was fairly smooth because the answer to all of the above were Yes, except for the last one. It caused a little pain after the storage place (that also did my move, BTW) dropped a $1600 bill for two months of storage. Needless to say, my wife (the general), made sure we did not pay that!
Final Piece of Advice: Get everything in writing! Good luck!
Ask your company to hire a relocation company to manage the move for you. It will save you many headaches, and is possibly cheaper than your company reimbursing you directly for moving expenses (Relo cos. get special rates on tons of stuff).
If you aren't getting reimbursed, talk to your tax accountant, or get one if you don't already have one. If you're moving more than 60 miles, the expenses are tax deductible -- but not all of them.
Depending on your salary, you may even want to hire a relo company for yourself, if the company won't pay for it.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I had a friend move from Ohio to California awhile ago. I forget which moving company he used, but it took over 2 weeks for his stuff to arrive. So make sure you have enough of your stuff to live on for a week or two just in case. Make sure if you use a moving company that they are bonded and insured (I don't know who wouldn't be these days).
Also cost of living is probably one of the biggest issues. I will be moving from college to the "real world" soon and was stuck with choosing a 64k salary in Sacramento where I could maybe buy a double-wide in a trailer park for around $200k, or a 60k salary in Austin where I can get a 2000-3000sq ft home in a nice neighborhood for the same price.
I don't know how you approach this, but I know of an individual who had such a move proposed to them a while back. The move was from East Coast to Central Plain states. The individual was considered a top performer by all definitions (insert Subject Matter Expert in multiple fields here). Because the corporation was making changes and the local East Coast group was not happy, the manager losing the individual gave a "lowest rating" for him on departure. As a result the individual who was helping the corporation was put on a long-term pay freeze. I guess my point is that I would probably consider talking to them about what kind of guarantees would be put in place to avoid the "team losing me stabs me in the back" issue. Maybe something like, performance review from time of announcement until after you are there for 3 months do not get considered or something like that; maybe something along the lines of a raise or bonus for doing the move so that you are guaranteed something.
I did an international move a few years ago (UK to US) and the single biggest mistake I made was in bringing too much stuff with me.
1. don't ship furniture. I brought desks, a sofa, shelving units, all sorts of bizarre things that I would have been better off either buying when I got here or simply not owning at all. Having so much stuff meant I had to rent a house straight away, which for a single guy is absurd.
2. don't ship crap. Did I really _need_ my entire library? No. Since I've actually got rid of more than half of it since, I would say that was an objective error on my part. My most stupid shipping mistake was to ship my entire VHS video collection, all PAL tapes. I got a multi-standard video player when I got here, but I still have a wall of Star Trek tapes which I don't watch any more and which I cannot possibly sell here.
Can't offer much advice on cars, although if I were doing a cross country move now I would probably sell my car here and buy a new one at the destination. I don't fancy driving 2,000 miles.
Obviously these guiding principles are suspended for particular things which have sentimental value, but be very careful about over-extending that umbrella.
It doesn't matter whether your employer is paying for the shipping: the less you ship, the less you will have to worry about unpacking and putting away at the other end when you will already have a huge amount to contend with.
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
Keep detailed records of what you spend and what you spend it on. Keep receipts if at all possible. Read the IRS guide on moving expenses. Your company will likely cover slightly different things than the IRS allows, so you need to keep records carefully in order to maximize your reimbursements. The IRS gives you a credit (even better than a deduction) for some moving expenses, which can make a hefty difference in your tax return. If you have to pay the movers, be sure to work out in advance how they want to be paid. I was on the road the day my movers decided to tell me they needed to be paid before they would deliver anything, and then decided to tell me they don't take American Express. Changing banks is a huge headache. The likelihood of having the same bank in both locations is low, so you will probably need a new account at a local bank after you move. Unfortunately, you also have to close accounts at the old bank in person. One other hitch, large deposits made when opening an account often take quite some time to fully clear, meaning your money can be stuck in limbo for a week or more. If you plan right, you should open the new account while on a househunting trip, make a sizable deposit so you have some cash to live on, pay rent, and write checks with when you arrive. Then, just before leaving your old town, you can close that account and take the balance with you. This way, you'll never be without a valid ATM card and checkbook.
Regarding the taxes, check this site on the IRS web site to know if the moving expenses are tax deductible:
2 5,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=1321
Dateline and similar news magazines have covered moving horror stories repeatedly. You should see if you can find information at their websites.
Some of the pointers I remember are:
0) find a reputable mover. If unsure:....
1) pack it yourself. The problem is that they charge for materials used... and you'll find yourself paying for two, no three, rolls of bubble wrap being used to wrap your alarm clock.
2) get a binding weight before you sign off on them leaving. A common abuse is to quote a cost at 10,000 pounds, say, and then telling you that it actually weighed 18,000 pounds and you owe a few thousand dollars more than you expected.
3) several other points regarding storage, labor costs moving your stuff to/from the moving van, etc. Definitely try to find their reports somewhere.
I haven't seen any reports post-PODS, but I think it addresses many of the problems reported with other movers.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
You either need to find a place to live _before_ you move, or else deal with a moving company that also does storage. I've done the moving bit when working for a large company, where this was standard procedure, but it's probably tougher these days, especially with small companies. One of the times, my wife drove out with me and I lived in a hotel for a month while starting work, and she flew back and got the house ready for sale, but we already had a buyer lined up who was flexible about timing.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Why do they want to move you into an area where The Next Big Earthquake could destroy all of Silicon Valley?
I recommend talking them into moving out, so that they will have a chance of still being in business, afterward.
The Quake is inevitable, and like an A-bomb, the best way to survive it is to not be there when it goes off.
Dude, painful way to learn.
Our auto-transporter specifically told us to ship empty, or they wouldn't take it. I guess this kind of thing happens all the time.
-EvilMagnus
I finally ended my excile and returned to Las Vegas last summer, with two more children and much more stuff than when it started.
#1. Don't use U-Haul. The web pages about disaster experiences aren't exagerations. Your "reservation" is issued automatically, without even a cursory check as to the availability of trucks. They finally found me one an entire day late--90 miles from where I should ahve received one. The average age of their fleet is significantly older than all of their competitors.
#2. Throw it away. Unless you're absolutely certain that you'll actually use it, toss it. Then do it again. Then toss everything, and only take out what you *really* need. Then throw a bunch more away.
#3. Don't use U-haul. Few people have had positive experiences with them., and the horror stories are common.
#4. Avoid U-haul at all costs.
#5. Be *entirely* packed and living out of suitcases and a couple of plates a full week before you leave. You *will* run over.
#6. Did I mention not to use U-haul?
#7. Film your old rental housing for when your former landlord comes up with "interesting" charges. Insist that the landlord do a final walkthrough with you--but the place needs to be empty for this.
#8. Most importantly, don't use U-haul.
#9. If using a rental truck and there are any mountains in your path, or even those little bumps that the easterners fancy to be mountains, you want a diesel and not a gas engine. The difference in fuel consumption is significant, but the diesels are much better on grades.
#10. Don't use U-haul.
#11. Consider alternate starting and stopping points. Rates are based upon the amount of trucks going each way. By going 60 miles further east to pick up a truck and overshooting Las Vegas for Orange county, I knocked more than a third off the rental price. Everyone was leaving my part of PA, whle everyone goes *to* Las Vegas, and everyone is fleeing California. There's a discount for bringing a truck *to* California, and a surcharge for leaving one in Vegas.
#12. Pay the damage waive ron the truck. Really. It's a dumb move on a car, but you're driving something big that's easy to bump and scratch. I'm, umm, well ahead of the game on this one. It also helps when the equipment malfunctions and damages itself; there's no issue of them charging you (On my previous move, the hitch failed on myU-haul trailer and rammed the truck, ruining much of the equipment on the tongue).
Now, for an unfortunate, sad, fact of life: Only uhaul rents large closed trailers one-way. This is why I ignored my past experience and used them last summer. What I *should* have done was rent a Penske truck and a U-haul trailer, slapped a hitch onto my van (which has Class IV towing), and moved it to the Penske at the house. There hav ebeen many reports of U-haul refusing to hand over trailers to those who show up in competitor's trucks, claiming that that model doesn't appear on their list of approved vehicles (5,000 pound towing capacity needed).
Aside from being over a day late, our u-haul broke down three (3) times. After a thousand miles, it threw the trailer off the hitch. According to the repairman who came out, the hitch was properly attached (besides, we *had* travelled 1,000 miles by then), and couldn't have come off unless the ball was undersized.
Then, coming over the first major downgrade on the Rockies, the transmission *selector*, not the transmission, broke, leaving me stuck in thrird gear. Massive damage to the brakes (completely smoked), and the truck sp0ent a week in a Uhaul depot waiting for a part (again, old trucks).
Once it was ready, it turned out to be massively overweight, and we had to rent a Penske to offload 5,000 lbs. With the U-haul and Penske approximately equally loaded, we attached the trailer to the Penske. Even with the trailer, it would blow past the U-haul, even uphill.
Finally, approaching Vegas, the uhaul started overheating. We ended up dumping it in Vegas, as it wouldn't have made it to Orange county, anyway.
hawk, who never wants to move again.
Somebody mod this guy/gal up. This is the most insightful comment in the whole thread.
You have a good point. People in the US forget how big the country really is and how different the cultures are. Depending on where this person is moving from it could be huge. It will not just be the culture but the weather. A California Christmas may be odd to someone from Maine.
When I was working in Detroit I couldn't get over people calling sodas pop and subs grinders. Being from Florida which seems to have a little of everything I have seemed to have an easier time adapting to different locations than most.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
2001 Chicago to Dallas
2003 Dallas to Toronto
2004 Toronto to Seattle
Things to watch out for:
1. Cost of Living. You did do a cost of living analysis (including differences in income and other taxes, insurance, housing), right? Because, no amount of relocation assistance (unless it is extreme) will make up for some place you can't afford to live.
2. Moving Expenses. Are they footing the whole bill, or reimburing you to some limit? I've done it both ways, and getting a mover within your budget is just another headache to deal with while you are very busy. When I moved from Chicago to Dallas, with a fixed moving allowance, it still cost me $1600 (over the $8500 (IIRC) my employer paid). I suppose I could have found a cheaper mover, but that would take time, which I didn't have.
3. Temporary Housing: for how long? Typical is a month, and that's way too short if you need to sell a home and buy another one. It's damn hard to sell a house and buy another one within 30 days. I've done it, but only by pricing my home agressively.
4. Storage. 30 days is typical. After that, it's on your dime. $500 to $1000 a month is typical for a home's contents.
5. Selling/Buying a home. This only applies if you own, not rent. If your employer will buy your old home at a reasonable price, don't hesitate to accept! Some will guarantee a price, if you can't sell it within 90 days. If you have to sell it yourself, price your home to sell... fast! While that may seam foolish, realize that every month your house does not sell is another month that your're renting temporary housing (or chosing to rent for a mid-term, like 6 months) and either paying for storage or accepting that you'll have to move twice, and paying a mortgage and insurance and someone to look after your old home (most insurance policies require that the house be checked every 24 to 48 hours if vacant, if they're that flexible). Pricing your house $10k under market might make the difference between selling it in two weeks or four months. Don't forget that you will pay comissions to sell your house.
Here's my experience in this regard:
1997: Montreal, Canada: bought US$75k in 1991. Sold US$70k to relo company on the spot. Lost $5k. Of course, the market was horrible and houses typically took over a year to sell.
2001: Lake Zurich, IL: bought $179,500 in 1997. Sold $221,500. Paid 5% to sell. $30.9k profit. Sold in 8 days. Closed in 21 days.
2003: Allen, TX: bought $189k in 2001. Sold: $189k. Paid 3% to sell (buyer came unrepresented. Lost $6k. Sold in 2 weeks. Closed in 30 days. Big telecom bust, and many homes were being foreclosed upon. Neighbour held out and lost around $20k more in similar circumstances.
Had to rent a house in Markham for 6 months because one can't buy a house in Ontario with less than 120 days employment. US$1480 rent/month. Had stuff delivered, but kept all but essentials boxed for 6 months. Paid US$2800 to move 20 miles into Whitby home.
2004: Whitby, ON: bought 2003 for US$189. Sold: US$194 in 36 hours. Closed in 3 weeks. Paid 3.75% to sell (I paid 1.25% to list on MLS and stick a sign up). Lost $2.3k, but was offset by signing bonus which helped with move. Negotiate this if your are selling a house on your own!
Today: Monroe, WA: bought 2004 for $225k. Currently appraised at $320k.
It might look that I sold fast and cheap. But, figure $3-4k a month for every month your house does not sell to (a) rent, (b) put your stuff in storage.
6. House hunting trip. Ignore if renting. Try to negotiate a house hunting trip over a weekend. Even if you can't do this, budget extra time after your last interview, and if it goes well, get a realtor to take you around to get a feel for the market. The idea is that you hit the ground running to find a house as soon as you're in temporary housing.
Ideally, you want to have your old home sold, and your new one purchased, and
You could've hired me.
No kidding. I grew up in St. Louis (poor boys and soda), moved to Chicago (heroes and soda pop), then to East Lansing, Michigan (grinders and pop), then to Philadelphia (hoagies and soda).
Salary, housing costs, public transportation issues... all of these things are big picture that you can address ahead of time. It's the little stuff that gets under your skin and will determine wether you are comfortable in your new surroundings or not. Culture shock will be a far greater adjustment than anything else.
I've lived here six and a half years, and this stuff still gets me. Even worse, my kids are growing up speaking with a Philly accent, which continues to sound strange and ill-pronounced to my midwestern ear.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Essentially your company is asking you to make a lot of commitment and invest a lot of effort. The least they could do is finance the whole thing.
/. so you must care about that).
I recently moved to Finland (from the Netherlands). This was my third international move and I have some experience in this kind of thing by now. Basicallly you are going to run into a number of problems:
- finding an appartment in a place you don't know to which you have limited access until you move there. Sort of a chicken egg problem. You'll need all the help you can get.
- You have a busy job. That means little time to do stuff like organizing a move; finding an appartment; etc.
- bureaucracy & culture. I had to deal with the additional burden of strange new culture, lots of bureaucratic stuff I knew nothing about, etc. I imagine things like taxes, insurance, etc. work differently on the west coast than on the east coast. Having someone to advice you on that is quite handy.
- You are going to waste a lot of energy on tedious things like making sure the phone is disconnected at the right time and getting a new one in your new place.
- there's going to be either a period where you either have two houses or a period where you have no house at all and are effectively homeless. The latter case can be quite expensive (hotel) and the first is as well.
- You are going to be offline for a few weeks (you read
Things your employer can help you with:
- getting you settled in. Depending on your status in this company this can actually range from doing just about anything for you (really, there are companies specialized in this kind of thing, think door to door service) to paying for a moving company (that would be the bare minimum). In my case, I got a pretty good deal which ensured minimal stress during the whole procedure. I had help finding an apartment, i was escorted to the various government offices, I spent two weeks in a very good hotel, my flight was paid for, etc. Also I was compensated financially for the moving cost.
- Giving you some time off around the time of moving. Not having to dive into work related stuff for a few weeks gives you some opportunity to settle in properly. Just getting your stuff packed
- Financial security. You are making a commitment that goes beyond paying for the moving company. It is not strange to ask for compensation for that. You are giving up friends, family. You'll be making lots of trips back and forth visiting them. You are maybe selling your house, car etc. You'll be buying new stuff for your new place, etc.
Of course it all depends on how badly they want you. It could be like move here now or you're fired or it could be like we would really like you to move here and continue working for us and hey here's a nice raise in salary. Bottom line is that full compensation is going to cost the company quite a bit. Are they willing to do that? Rule of thumb is that you have to ask for it before you agree, not after. It's part of the whole deal.
Jilles
We used NorthAmerican Van Lines to move from Mpls to Austin, and it was absolutely horrific. Like "Lost our stuff for two weeks, didn't know where to find it, destroyed a reasonably nice desk, and balked at paying us for ANOTHER two weeks" horrific.
In passing along our tale of woe, we've heard similar stories about most of the other major carriers, though. The overriding lesson being that if you use a company along those lines, you have to set it up through a company account. If it's just a single household move, you're subject to all sorts of abuse, as my understanding is that the carrier is different from both the company that packs your stuff and the company that unloads it. Good luck figuring out where the damage actually happened, so you're stuck taking the settlement, which is chump change compared to what you paid in the first place to avoid exactly the kind of hassle you're getting.
Unless your house is very big, or you're moving out of or into a walkup, don't use big carriers. Your mileage may vary, but for me, they're absolutely not worth it.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
If your work is looking to save money. Will you move out west to loose your Job on the next round of cost savings. The best career move you can make is the one you plan, not the one your employeer plans for you.
ZoOnI
"Never say Never."
You need to consider two main things: First, is this move good for you? Does it allow you to do more interesting work or is it merely whats necessary to keep your job? Second, unless you're moving from Manhattan all the noise about rental expenses and shipping will be just noise compared to the housing price whack upside the head you're about to get. My family all lives in the bay area, I live in Boston suburbs. What $750K - $1,000K will buy here is a great - really great - place to live. What it will buy in Palo Alto or San Jose is a crapbox 2 BR condo or a really pitiable house. This is not baloney - check out realtor.com or even better www.propsmart.com (very cool Google maps hack).
This concept of "cross country moves" is stupid. A lot more people move across bigger countries with a lot more people, and most of the world has to move over 8000 miles to find employment, yet you've been brainwashed into thinking moving over 3000 miles and 290 million people is considered a big deal.
Living in Silicon Valley to work in software is the reality of the business. Luxury living in exotic locations like Arizona and North Carolina was a 90's excess. If you don't need to be in the location, your function can be bought from India.
Avoid driving through Iowa. I got lost whenever I drove through it.
You should choose a transfer protocol which is reliable, though it need not be ordered. If you select a connectionless transfer protocol you should make sure you have a good error detection and recovery plan in place.
The RTT will be high, but that's acceptable. The Interstates have high bandwidth, but U.S. highways often have fewer collisions and hops with nicer food. Make sure you set your TTL high -- frequent hops make collisions less likely.
I suggest using physical private key protection for your content. Every standard implementation at the automobile layer supports this.
Consider generating a checksum for each delivery unit. That way you will be able to tell at a glance if any packets or boxes are dropped en route.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Oddly enough, a bunch of us were dicussing cross-country moves at lunch a few days back and many of us who had done so, wished we had sold, donated or made going away presents of most of our furniture and replaced it, new or used, or even did without when we arrived.
Somethings like clothes or matresses (if you paid for quality) ship well and are worth taking. Other things like hobbies or heirlooms have a replacement value (money or other) that makes shipping worth while. On the other hand, most of your stuff is crap and will be crappier when it arrives (even if not overtly damaged) and you'll like it less when you've paid for it again (shipping costs).
Seriously, you'll probably be happier making a new start on collecting a bunch of crap.
This post brought to you by the word: undergo
hi,
I've moved cross country twice, east-to-west and west-to-east.
the first move, the company hired the moving company directly, and that went rather well. the company offered to move my household, up to one car, travel expenses (if i chose to drive or to fly), and put me up in a hotel near the office until i found a new apartment. the moving company came and packed my items, and delivered them to my new apartment. the only lost one box and a vacuum cleaner and destroyed one vintage PC green screen monitor... all of which was reimbursed by the moving company in a reasonable time.
the second move, i was offered a flat fee to relocate. i hired a moving company which all-but commited fraud in their estimate. changed me for each box supplied, each box packed, and for each cubic foot of truck & storage space above their initial estimate. to make a long evil story short, they were evil and cost me a bunch of money.
other long moves i've done i packed myself, rented a u-haul, and towed my car. i called local moving companies to rent their muscle to load and unload the truck at the start and end of the move. this was, by far, the cheapest route to pursue. the disadvantage is that you have to have a place to move into before doing the move.
your best bet is to have the company hire the company and provide your complete relocation. let the company deal w/ the purchasing and legal nightmares potentially involved.
otherwise... i've found only use reputable, by referal, well known moving companies.
oh! and buy lots of boxes and packaging tape. and those hand or appliance dollies are sweet!
sTc
Most things worth doing are worth doing twice. -- me I think or was that my boss' methodology?
With my cross country move the movers took a month to get our stuff there, no joke. Try to move when it's not the busy season (in other words, not during the summer). Our company used Bekins, and it was a miserable experience. They kept moving the date back, only after we were waiting at home all day for the movers to arrive when they said they would. On the plus side, they had a policy of paying like $100 a day for every day they were late after some grace period. They tried to get out of that, but they finally paid up.
When I had to move from Ohio to Idaho to start a job in 2000, the company was offering a full service relocation package which included about everything--packing and moving, transport cars, house hunting trip, cash allowances for leaving current lease in the old place and for setting up in the new place, etc. Or the other option was to take a $13,000 cash option and move ourselves.
So ask the company if they offer a cash out choice and how much that would be. Then it is up to you to evaluate how difficult and costly you think moving yourself would be. For us, we were just graduating college, so it was a no brainer to take the cash and just spend a few thousand to move our small amount of stuff.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
>Unless you are in the middle of SF, public transit is only useful in
>very specific cases. It just isn't deployed widely enough to be a full
>time option for many people, so traffic is a part of life.
It's not the deployment that's the problem, it's the way the population is spread out. SF is about the only city west of Chicago with dense enfough population for most mass transit to practical.
hawk
Even the stretch of interstate 24 just north of Chattanooga proved to be quite a challenge for the 24-foot U-Haul I was driving.
My wife's little truck didn't have an issue with the grade, and it doesn't seem like much at all when driving a car, but the big one was going walking speed for quite a while on the uphill side of the big hill, and it was an interesting ride down the other side. At least they had a couple of side ramps for runaway trucks in case there were any issues.
Driving a 24-foot truck for a couple of days through various cities during rush hour has given me a new respect for those folks who drive *real* trucks for a living...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
As others said, check your homeowners insurance to see if it covers the move.
Also, be sure to videotape your stuff. Open every drawer, closet, shelf, pile, everything. It makes checking that you got everything easy, and provides proof for insurance claims for missing/damaged.
And I found a couple of things:
If you have a set amount of relocation money, remember that when you get your hands on that money, the IRS is going to tax the hell out of it. It sounds weird, but when your first paycheck is 4500 dollars, including the relocation money, the IRS looks at that and says, "wait a sec! this person is going to make a buttload of money this year!". It turns out that 45% of my relocation bonus went to taxes. I ended up slowly getting out of that debt (went to credit cards), and it was because I didn't stop to think about the whole deal and ask for more money for relocation.
The other thing to remember is that moving companies are pretty much hit or miss. Even the reputable ones that your friend used last month can screw you over. There's a reason that there are so many horror stories about people losing their stuff, or their stuff being held ransom, or the company not willing to make good on their promises if they have a clause to reimburse you for each day they're late. I ended up just getting a budget truck and a flatbed trailer for my car, and stuffed everything I owned in them. After finding out about the tax thing, I was glad I did it myself.
Remember that you will not have some income for a short period due to having to get a new place (rent + deposits, or mortgage stuff), and moving out of your old place (breaking the lease or last month's rent, or putting your home up for sale). You're paying on both ends of the move.
Many employers help out new hires when they are bringing them in from far away. I am fortunate enough to work for my current employer; they helped point me in the right direction for getting a new apartment and where to go for things in town.
I moved almost two years ago from Pennsylvania (about an hour from Philly) to the suburbs of Seattle. Talk about culture shock...
The physical moving of the trappings of your life from one location to another is fairly simple. The pros and cons of DIY vs. paying someone have been pretty well covered. In the end, you'll take better care of your stuff than someone else, regardless of legal liability.
The financial side requires careful consideration. Assuming that you have a place to live, do a mock-up of a budget for one month of living there, exactly as you do where you are (same amount of electricity used, same amount of phone service, same amount of clothing purchased, etc) and compare the final numbers. This is your true financial impact.
The emotional side of things is something only you can know, and you may only truly be able to evaluate in hindsight. Moving to Seattle was better than making my wife miserable, despite the fact that it imparted a fair amount of misery on myself. I hate the city, I hate the traffic, and I hate how everything is so darned expensive. I hate not being able to stretch my arms without hitting someone. I hate the pollution (light, noise, and air) and the "hurry, hurry" feel of everything. On the other hand, it beats having an unhappy wife or no wife, so I deal with it. Although I miss my friends, I'm a fairly solitary person. The thing I hate about the suburbs is the difficulty in finding solitude outside of four walls.
Anyhoo, in the end, you need to decide if it is worth it. If not, you need to figure out what the company needs to do to make it worth it.
This space for rent.
Having spent five years in California (3 in LA, 2 in SD), I can say without a doubt it is the most obnoxious place in any country you can live in on this continent. Nobody knows how to drive, read or think for themselves, few speak English (it wouldn't surprise me to learn more people speak English in Tijuana than San Diego County), the weather blows goats for bus money then walks home (80+ and smoggy 350+ days/year), traffic is perpetual and save for a very small portion around San Fransisco, there is no (functioning) public transit system, everything's expensive and there's nothing to do for under a day's wages. If living in a polluted urban wasteland with brainless, illiterate assholes for neighbors and replace your car once a year after some jackass totals it while it's parked, the Californian Wasteland is right for you. For everyone else, what you *really* want to do is move to Nevada and telecommute from there. Better people, better weather, better traffic, better skiing, better camping, lower prices, less air pollution, people speak English, and you're close enough to The Wasteland to make a day trip most major Wasteland city.
Help us build a better map!
1. Get rid of everything possible.
2. Pack almost everything into storage crates and ship it to the destination city, to be placed in storage.
There are two companies I know of that do this: PODS and DoorToDoor / CityToCity. I went with DoorToDoor, http://www.doortodoor.com/, as they were much cheaper and their containers were smaller, so you could tailor the size of order more closely to the amount of crap you have.
3. Keep back enough stuff to survive on for a few months. Some clothes, a laptop, and so on. Make sure it all fits in the back of the car.
4. Road trip to your destination city. Enjoy it, because you're not driving a 15' Ryder truck.
5. Stay in an extended stay hotel while you sort out your permanent home.
6. Get DoorToDoor or PODS to deliver all your stuff from storage to the new house.
7. Get some roach motels. Inevitably, your stuff will have gained a small number of six-legged friends while in storage. Unpack cardboard boxes as soon as possible.
This way you only have to move all your crap once, you can enjoy the journey, and you can pack and unpack on your own schedule, so you don't have to trust anyone else to do it.
The only damage I had to my stuff was some hex nuts that came off some bar stools during transit and got lost. I went to the hardware store and bought a dollar bag of hex nuts, end of problem.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I was moved from the East Coast to the Midwest for a new job. New employer paid for everything: I even filled out expense reports for the meals I ate living in a hotel while searching for an apartment. The only catch was that I couldn't quit for a year or I would have to repay the $12k+ in relocation costs. That was reasonable.
So understand what you may be getting into.
Other points:
- Focus on making the move as painless for *you* as possible. I assume you're being moved professionally? Just pack up a few things you need for the trip + a few days and let the movers do the rest.
- At the destination, unpack promptly and inspect everything. Usually you have only 30 days to file damage reports with the movers
- Let them move your car. You take the plane to the destination and get a rental. Save the wear and tear on your own vehicle and the hassles.
- They should help you find a new place (and sell your house if you own one). Again, a professional relocation company expects to do this for you.
- You *have* checked out where you expect to move to, haven't you? At the very least, fly out there and look around to be sure it's a place you can live happily and comfortably. Stay the weekend and do some stuff you'd normally do. Go to clubs or a park, whatever floats your boat, to be sure the place "fits" you. My east coast friends simply couldn't understand why I would move to Minnesota, but I love it here.
I moved from the Chicago area to The Hague. This doesn't apply much to a cross country move, but purge as much as you humanly can, and purge more. I moved with two suit cases and a bicycle in a box. If you can get it to that, remember, they always make more.... Yes, I know this is environmentally abusive, but if you can sell or give away to friends or donate, you will not be so horrible. 90% of what didn't sell at my midwest yard sale, was on the curb at dusk, and by dawn it had been pretty much picked clean! And when you think you have purged enough, think again!
Good luck, make the best of what comes your way, that's life.
Sig Hansen?
I'm going to assume that you have some leverage with your employer when you start negotiating the transfer. If they approached you with the idea of moving, you must have some skill or talent that they really value. Relocating an employee isn't cheap, and the number of formerly stable employees who quit their positions within six months of a relocation is surprising.
Much of what you'll experience will depend on the size and age of your employer. Larger, diversified companies that relocate employees as a matter of routine are likely to have a standard list of what they will and won't pay for, and that list usually varies according to your job description and pay grade. If you're working with a smaller company, or one that neglects its HR functions, you may have to negotiate some of this yourself. Here are some things to consider:
1) Preliminary visit: If you've never been out to that area of the country, they should pay for a preliminary visit of a week or so. Visit HQ, talk to the people you'll be working with, get a feel for the area. Basically see if that's an area you want to live in. My former employer used to relocate employees from Pennsylvania to Texas fairly frequently. We learned pretty quickly that employees who had lived in PA didn't like the 100+ degree weather that typifies Texas summmers. We also had one possible relo that suffered horrible allergy problems in Texas, something which had never bothered her in PA.
2) Packing/Moving: They should pay for a professional company to pack up all your stuff, move it, and unpack it. No, it's not cheap. On the other hand, calculate the productivity loss involved if you try to pack up, move yourself cross-country, then unpack in a strange city. There will probably be a limit on how much stuff they'll move for you. You'll get two or three rooms worth of stuff, but they're not going to move a mansion unless you're a senior-level VP.
3) Finding a new place: A lof of this depends on how tight the housing market is where you're going. You should have a reasonable amount of time to find a new abode. If the relo is urgent, they should put you up in a corporate motel type place, and put your possessions in storage, and give you a couple of weeks (or months) to find a new place. If it's less urgent, they should put you up before the move and let you find a place, then have your stuff moved straight in.
4) Cost of living change: Mentioned by others, but worth repeating.
5) Misc expenses: Add them up. The cost of driving cross-country if you keep your car, or the cost of flying otherwise. If you have a lease signed where you currently live, you may have to offer them some money to buy out of it. Maybe you have other long-term commitments (health club, storage room, whatever) that you'll be abandoning.
5) Waiver: Some companies will ask you to sign a waiver that you'll pay back part or all of the relo expenses if you don't spend at least six months (or a year) on the job after the move. Don't sign, especially if they're requesting the relocation. They probably won't try to nail you on it if you do quit, but who needs the headache?
Bottom line - They're asking you to move cross-country. They're not doing you a favor, you're doing them a huge favor. It's in their best interest, and yours, for them to try to make the move as smooth and stress-free as possible. That will enable you to return to productive work as soon as possible.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
Everyone seems to be assuming that you're single/unattached. Well, I guess this *is* Slashdot. If you have a spouse and/or kids, things get more complicated. They should come along on the initial scouting trip. If your spouse works, your company may or may not offer help in finding them a new position.
Anyway, good luck and send us a postcard.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
For using the phrase "my broad". It made my day a little brighter.
Shoddy equipment is an understatement. Fortunately my move from Orange County to Phoenix wasn't too eventful, except that U-Haul didn't have my equipment ready on time. I also ended up being "upgraded" to a slightly larger truck - good thing though as I needed the space. Going from a 50mpg Prius to a 7-8mpg U-Haul (gasoline :-() was a shock! $150 in gas just blew me away - only to move most of my wordly junk and posessions into Storage for the next 9 months while my new home was built (stayed w/ in-laws to save on rent, but lost some to storage fees). As for the truck, a diesel would have done better on some of the hills between Indio and Blythe, and probably faired slightly better fuel economy to boot. The door lock on the driver's side was damaged, so the only way to lock the truck and leave it for short periods of time was via the passenger's side.
9 months later (in the heat of late August) I did a local move in AZ and had reserved the same size truck I had been upgraded to in the past, and they had "upgraded" me again to an *old* International 26' truck diesel (non-turbo) w/ Manual transmission (I hadn't driven stick in a year or so). One rep behind the counter said the truck was out of service and they may have to find another vehicle (which confirms above posts regarding checking whether or not truck is actually in good repair). Another said the truck was fine and handed it off to me. It was already 10:30am and the day was wearing on. I wanted to get my stuff moved before the afternoon heat peaked, so I accepted it and left. They managed to throw in a free set of pads and an extra dolly (I only ordered one and no pads), so I didn't complain.
The moment I pulled out of the U-Haul driveway into traffic, it became apparent that the first rep knew more about what was going on w/ that truck. I went from Grandma gear which was almost instant over-rev for an unloaded truck and tried to shift to 2nd, only to find out that 2nd gear was broken (wouldn't engage). So then it's on to third which almost stalled the truck. I finally got used to starting off in third while unloaded, and had to get really good at shifting quick when the truck was full. Fortunately, the entire move didn't use more than 10 miles on the truck, so it wasn't a huge deal - but the fact that they let old equipment out like that is unreasonable.
As I also mentioned, it was an end-of-August move, which means in PHX, it's 105F+ - turns out the A/C didn't work much, if at all.
There is a good side to the story, however. In the end, my credit card was never billed for the rental, but likely because I wrote in red ink on the return slip that 2nd gear was broken, and that the A/C didn't work.
Hopefully those of you who also had problems didn't get billed as well, or got some sort of discount for faulty equipment.
$ man woman *
-bash:
...to people in the East. You just don't deviate from normal patterns and expect to get away with it. There's a cultural freedom in CA that we take for granted until we go elsewhere. The rest of the world is not like that. Dare I say it, it's a big reason CA has been such a font of innovation. People feel free to try anything, without a bunch of naysaying from the peanut gallery. In CA, doing new things, or old things a new way, is encouraged, rather than disparaged.
...the country. How could anyone think they could save money doing this? Just the truck rental, mileage, and gas would be more than paying a mover, let alone hotel bills, food, and doing all that work yourself.
Renting a U-haul trailer would make more sense.
But...
The best solution is to get rid of all your stuff, especially the big stuff. If it still won't fit in your car, rent a minivan. Or buy a cheap van or pickup, and sell it when you reach your destination.
Having moved around a lot in my technical career... Be very careful of moving into any unknown situation. Arrange to go there and work temporarily for a while. That way you get a chance to say, I really don't like this, and I want to go back to NYC, or where ever. We once moved to Florida, thinking of buying a house, only to find that half the houses in central Florida are always for sale, and three years is an average sale time. The job only lasted 18 months, so it is a good thing we rented. Then we moved to Cincinnati, only to discover that the "most affordable city ever" was actually the most expensive place we have ever been. It was so affordable because parents there tended to give their kids a first house as a wedding present. No house payment makes any place affordable, but everything else will be more expensive. People you work with over the net or phone may be / or find you very annoying in person - so have a plan b. Make sure you are not being dragged from an inexpensive area (Winston-Salem, NC) to a very expensive (Silicon Valley), without the necessary improvement in compensation. There are ways to check this out on the net, but be prepared for those number to be twenty percent or more low. Remenber real estate and HR people are very postive when they want you to agree to something... its their job. They will be missing in confusion, less postive, and even negative when thing do not work out. If you are moving with a family, go check it out first, then after a few weeks, make a decision to either move the family or go home. Don't let a family situation drag on for more than a few weeks, unless kids are in high school, in which case you should probably find a new job where you are. Be prepared for working hours to change. High tech areas are always in transition, so be prepared for most everything to change, because it probably will. Look for a competitive offer at home, unless you are single and they are offering temporary housing, a bonus, and a salary which will support your existing standard of living in the new location.
...say there is. Food, utilities, property taxes, and almost anything you buy in a store is cheaper on the West Coast. But figure 3-4 times the cost for housing in the Bay Area compared to Pittsburgh, and driving at least 20k miles a year. No salary calculator I've seen even comes close to this reality. In fact most of them are a joke.
OTOH, if the housing bubble hasn't burst, you can do what most Californians have been doing for the last several years -- buying any property they can, with an interest-only mortgage if necessary, and making more in real estate appreciation than they do at their jobs. CA is still the land of opportunity...
Having lived in Iowa for 10 years now, I can't understand how you would get lost travelling through Iowa. We've got 2 interstates going in perpendicular directions, and it's pretty hard to screw up following the one road you're on. As for the other roads, well, in case you hadn't noticed there isn't much geography here, every road is pretty much straight.
They drop off a 28-foot trailer. It's as wide and tall as any normal 18-wheeler. You get two days to stuff it, though some of the local workers will pester you to grab it early. (be sure they don't drive off early!)
You stuff it. Crisp new boxes are highly suggested because...
You put up a super-awkward barrier to partition the truck. Commercial goods will go behind your stuff. This barrier is some awful cardboard-and-steel contraption that you jack to pressure-fit against the sides of the truck.
The truck goes. It's fast. You can track it by phone or on the net. You get the trailer. (you'd better be there!) You unload. They take away the trailer.
All said, it's a good deal. They are fairly cheap. Remember, use crisp new boxes!
Kin ya get me any of those cool teeny weeny NEN bottles with the lead cases? Lost the last of mine ages ago.
-Rustin
p.s. Mustard on an Italian hero is sacrilege. Evil. Especially brown mustard. At least go with a nice Kosciusko.
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Say what?
Seems to me that Los Angeles had a thriving lightrail system until the auto industry and their friends came in and sabotaged it. The heavy rail they've put in recently is going gangbusters. Portland has excellent buses and lightrail. Vegas is building a system - already worried that it won't be enough to handle capacity. Seattle has the same issue. San Antonio is building an entire light rail systemright now - they sure disagree. Phoenix is doing the same.
Dallas, Denver, Galveston, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose all seem to be under the impression that mass transit works for them. They're all planning to add more. Maybe you just need to explain their mistake to them, help 'em out.
Of course I could mention about fifteen more cities that are working to put more mass transit in place or the increasing trend for real estate developers in places like Brentwood (that's in L.A., folks) to build "New Urbanism" oriented housing developments placed with the assumption that their buyers will be mass transit-focused, or how profitable such developments are turning out to be.
But that would be crass. Snarky, even.
I'd never do that.
-Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
U-haul knows how to take a reservation, they just know how to HOLD it!
Seinfeld S03E11 4-DEC-1991
In my experience, this is hardly an accurate generalization. Californians can be just as resistant to challenges to their worldview, especially to the notion that California is not the best place on earth. I was once visiting family in San Francisco, in July. I woke up one morning to see that it was raining. I commented on this over breakfast.
"It's raining", I said. [not the wittiest thing I've ever said, but it was early in the day.]
"Oh, no, it never rains this time of year.", said my Mom.
"Look outside. It's raining."
"No, it never rains this time of year. That's just fog."
"How do you define 'fog'? Water is falling from the sky in drops. If you stand outside for three minutes, you will get wet from the water falling from the sky. Water falling from the sky is not 'fog', it is 'rain'. Water is falling from the sky, therefore it is raining."
"No, it's just a heavy fog. It never actually rains this time of year."
I gave it up at that point. Later in the day, I mentioned to my brother and sister-in-law that it had been raining in the morning, and got the exact same reaction. It never rains this time of year, therefore, despite the drops of water falling from the sky and splashing on your hair, glasses and the pavement at your feet, it cannot possibly be raining.
A year later I mentioned this interchange to someone from San Francisco. He agreed with them, that I must have been mistaking an unusually heavy fog for rain, since it doesn't rain in San Francisco in July. Even outside the rose-colored glow of California, he did not accept the definition of "water falling from the sky" as equivalent to "rain".
I've come to the conclusion that Easterners are hide-bound reactionaries, Californians are loopy lotus-eaters.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
I had to Google NEN to determine that it stands for New England Nuclear. Sorry, no can do. The only isotopes I use are permanent fixtures of my irradiator, just over 50,000 Curies of cesium-137, behind three feet of steel and lead. *Warm* steel and lead.
I didn't see 28 Days, but I can certainly understand the sentiment. Irradiated food is not only safe, wholesome and nutritious, it is ofter safer, healthier and more nutritious than non-irradiated food, since the spoilage organisms and any human pathogens have been eliminated. This is especially important for commodities that have a history of foodborne illness outbreaks, or in an environment where multiple foods may pose an increased risk of harboring pathogens.
This isn't just me spouting the party line because I drank the Kool-Aid. There's more than 60 years of research by industry, academia and government on the safety and nutritional adequacy of irradiated food, and it's culminated in as solid an endorsement as anything could receive.
I'm presenting a talk on the subject at the Institute of Food Technologists's annual meeting in Orlando this July. Any Slashdotters who are registered for the meeting may want to swing by.
Plasma treatment of food is also deeply, deeply cool. There are some exceptionally fascinating aspects to this technology, not just for food, but for lots and *lots* of applications. You'll be hearing more about it in two or three years. As it happens, I'm writing a book chapter on non-thermal plasma treatment of food. It's open in another window, and I should be working on it instead of procrastinating on Slashdot.
I like my job. It's fun being a scientist.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Maybe in the Aluetians or Greenland, but I've never experienced that. I've been through a lot of blizzards, and three days is a very long one.
Most of the time a blizzard is a minivacation, the kids are off of school, work is closed, and you just sit at home in your pajamas taking it easy, snug, warm with cable TV and broadband.
It's less. Not by a full order of magnitude, but it's close.
If you factor in paying people to pack and unpack, you just might hit the full order of magnitude.
I *checked*. I ran down every lead I could. Nothing else came within $5k.
hawk
Actually, it's three time zones :)
:) The lawns hadn't been watered in three years (but are actually growing back! I have some very tough stuff in there). Numerous holes in the wall, and damage to the drywall above the garage. Dishwasher trashed. strange boards nailed all over the place iand in a "treehouse" that was an advertisement for tetnus. Food just left on the counters--which is why there were roaches even in the bedroom, and we spent a full week in a casino before they were down enough for us to come in at night. (Now, eight months of professional bugging later, they're nearly gone). Oh, and the doors to the garage cabinets were missing, more holes in the wall near the foundation for the mice, front door frame partly missing, paint stripped from part of the master bath door, sliding patio door and other windows badly abused with insulation/caulking pulled back, strange cable/satellite wires running all over the place, stapling of a phone line that caused a near short and its removal, and I've had to cut through the slab to get to the drain from the shower in the master bath, which I still need to finish fixing. Aside from that, the house was in pretty good condition . . .
My daughter was starting high school this year, and another next year. I'm not willing to make them move during that, and I wasn't willing to stay in the east (or with the Penn State system!) another five years.
So when nothing came up in the west, I just moved home anyway.
I put my kids in the only Catholic school I could find that had room for second graders, and the Wednesday before school started I called to see how big a check I needed to send. I somehow lost control of the conversation, and ended up teaching fifth grade for the year. (Seriously; I am not making up or exaggerating any of this!)
Come fall, I expect to be in the private sector; teaching elementary was never part of my plans, but my kids' school needed it, so . . .
I suspect I'll end up in the casino industry in some form; we'll see.
hawk
p.s. As hellish as the move was, including two days stranded in a primitive campgraound and then driving 8 people the last thousand miles in an overloaded seven seat van, the house was worse. It will be two more years until we're done with the repairs. Just materials will be well past $10k by the time I'm done. Even the oven was ruined, with mice nesting in it, using its insulation (I finally found one that would fit last weekend). All of the exterior panels need replacing (I've started that). Half the roof needs redone. All of the carpets (which were less than three years old) had to be immediately torn out due to infestation. The drawers in the kitchen, a bedroom door, the ceiling fan, and the birdbath were missing (I found out from a neighbor's kid that they managed to break it rather than stealing it). Every wall had been colored upon. The sprinkler system was jammed due to massive effort--they managed to shove a full six inches of crud into a 3/4 inch pipe through the little hole! The tile was pretty much destroyed. Appliances and other garbage were just abandoned ($900 for the disposal bin and workers that cleaned the basig garbage out!)--but this did give me two spare refridgerators, one which will ferment beer, and the other to laager in
The moral of the story is that if you ever get foolish enough to rent out your own house, go for the high-end market. Charge high rent, and include the landscaping and weekly maid or cleaning service--just to have your own people in that often. OTOH, had we sold it, we wouldn't have been able to buy it back today with what happened to housing prices here during the exile--they went from well below average to somewhat above.
It is amazing see how many Indian programmers need to move to the west on short-term projects. Most of them get very little support from their organization. There is little acknowledgement of cultural issues and soft issue. Many of us know US only through holywood movies. I believe most Indians go through severe mental agony (By western standards) in the first few months before coming to terms with their surroundings. Most of them cope and get out of it and a few fall by the way side. In this context, it would be difficult for us to relate to this topic. What's the big deal in moving between East and West Coast. We do it all the time !!!
Then, after over five years in the U.S., and moving from a suburb of Dallas to a suburb of Toronto, I had to "learn" that (a) no one understands what a "20 oz Coke" is (it actually took me about a minute to realize that it was the "20 oz" instead of "600 ml" that was confusing people), (b) it was dangerous to try to order "a side of grits" with my breakfast, (c) asking for a receipt at a fast food place could get me arrested for "holding up the line".
I also learned that while wearing an NRA t-shirt and cap let me be accepted as "one of us" in Texas (my NRA card got me a discount on an oil change, once!), it was an invitation to be arrested in Ontario (my NRA bumper stickers ("Crime Control not Gun Control" and "Freedom is not Free") got me flack from BC border guards as well).
You could've hired me.
You came from Philadelphia to Seattle and you're complaining about air pollution?
That's interesting. We have cleaner air up here than just about any other major metro area in the US. Are you sure you didn't get lost and end up in Tacoma instead?
The thing I hate about the suburbs is the difficulty in finding solitude outside of four walls.
That is a really unusual complaint up here, where most people are total outdoors freaks. You may wish to talk with a counselor or therapist to make sure that your downbeat attitude is really due to moving away from what most people up here would consider a hellhole.
Most border guards / customs officers are pricks to most of us, so don't take it too personally, even people driving regular cars and wearing plain clothes showing no political leanings get the third degree.
It's actually quite interesting how while one gets older, one becomes more and more aware of how truly racist / prejudice etc people are. In elementary school you play with all your classmates, in high school you start to form your cliques, and by university / college the asians stick with the asians, indians with indians, whites with whites, etc, and finally by the time you have kids of your own you're cursing one culture or another, but I digress...
Driving a 24-foot truck for a couple of days through various cities during rush hour has given me a new respect for those folks who drive *real* trucks for a living...
Ah, hell no, it's not that bad driving a big truck. I have my Ontario DZ license, meaning air brakes, etc. - just not buses or semis. And I've driven extensively in Toronto (2 million proper, lots more in the burbs - comparable driving to a cross between Los Angeles and Chicago). Used to drive around a lot of big-assed Hughes video projection equipment when I was a technician.
The key is that when other drivers see a U-Haul or other rental truck, they know you're just a poseur. But when you're driving a Top Kick or International with a company name on the side, they assume you're familiar driving trucks and don't have the "big vehicle paralysis" typical of unfamiliar drivers. You know what I mean: you don't try to do shoulder checks because you've learned to use and trust your mirrors.
Anyone who drives an old full-size domestic pickup truck knows this feeling - cars tend to be afraid of the shiny new Rams, but my '76 Ram with its primer spots and aluminum grille over a steel bumper is a frightening wall of metal in the rear-view mirror of a Honda Accord.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
If your vehicle will pull a trailer (even cars can pull a small one) consider having a hitch (about 100-120 dollars) installed or putting one on yourself.
I am *so* glad I'm a pickup truck guy. An *old* truck guy. Constantly I find myself towing a friend or carrying sheets of drywall. Pre-move inspection of the truck included cooling system, brakes, ball joints, universal joints, tires, fluids, engine timing and mixture. Basically, the stuff you should check weekly to monthly if you actually care about your vehicle, but stuff which is especially important when you know you're going to make a heavily laden long trip.
1976 Dodge Ram Heavy Half, then with a 400CID V8. Moving from Toronto to Ottawa, getting onto the second busiest freeway in the world (Hwy 401 through Toronto, second only to Santa Monica Fwy) with all my crap...
5,000lbs in the bed; massively overloaded. On the Class 4 trailer hitch (biggest type of ball hitch) was a four-wheel float car trailer with electric brakes; conservatively 2,000lbs. On the trailer was a 1974 Plymouth Valiant Brougham (3,000lbs) stuffed full of crap (~1000lbs) and my 1954 Maytag washer and 1967 Maytag dryer (~250lbs for the pair) strapped between the Valiant's bumper and the trailer tongue.
I took her slowly up the Don Valley Parkway and got onto the 401 East, express lanes (less people weaving in and out, more professional truckers). I checked the mirror, put on the left turn signal, and stomped on the gas.
The transmission (TorqueFlite 727 automatic at the time) kicked down, the big block V8 roared at me through the firewall, and the damned thing still threw me back in my seat as I crossed the continuity line and merged. The speedometer went from 60km/h (ramp speed with overloaded truck) to 120km/h in what felt like the blink of an eye. My monitor had been sitting on the stack of my computers in the passenger seat footwell, and it fell face forward onto my cat who promptly freaked out and retreated onto my lap where she remained, claws fully embedded in my legs, until the first fuel stop.
Of course, I had to refill the tank in Belleville, then again in Brockville. It takes fuel to make power!
Not cross-country - I wouldn't brave overloading her like that if I didn't know where the cops like to hide - but I'd do it with that truck if I could jettison about 2,000lbs from the bed (mostly damned books and old electronics magazines) and attach the Valiant with a tow-bad to save the float. Hell, it's just me, I'd probably sleep across the bench seat and shower at truck stops!
(Truck's new motor is a 1983 Slant-6 and A-833 overdrive manual four speed; ~25MPG, towing acceleration is like driving a semi-trailer but it gets to speed just fine.)
If you're planning on towing stuff, get an oversized hitch. Make sure you're dealing with a tough vehicle - forget the cute little Honda or other junk. You need rear wheel drive with a full frame - either a pickup truck or a Crown Vic or old Impala. Domestics which share drivetrain components with large numbers of other vehicles over a long production run are the best, since getting parts for anything else in the middle of Kansas might take a while - GM and Ford parts like engine parts, alternators, starters, water pumps, are popular in lots of farm equipment! You need to go over the brakes and cooling system with a fine-toothed comb. If the vehicle doesn't have AC, buy and install an AC radiator since they have more cooling capacity. Add a transmission fluid cooler. Consider adding an engine oil cooler. Add gauges for oil pressure and engine temperature if you don't already have them - idiot lights are too little, too late. Double-check engine timing and mixture are set according to specifications, though if you are crossing high altitudes you might want to tweak the mixture a little rich to help reduce pinging. Plugs, leads, cap, rotor. *ALWAYS* have a spare fanbelt, basic tools, and a fire extinguisher. And make sure the transmission or clutch don't slip even a little bit.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
This post is about happiness.
First order of business has little to do with the IRS or moving company, but making connections. Give yourself a little time to make connections where you are moving to. Moving is lots of work. I've done it too many times. When you get there give yourself a break before you start work - negotiate this in advance. ("Oh, you arrived today...see you at work tomorrow!") Get to know the area where you live - the hip hangouts, the fellow expert homemade banjo craftsmen - or whatever you thing is besides being the geek in demand. The success of your move will not be determined my what you bring, but by who you spend your time with.
Another thing West Coasters posting here have described the East as depressing, but its a matter of perspective and what feels comfortable. I missed the seasons, old friends and family when I was on the West Coast. I also found Silicon Valley a vastly depressing suburban wasteland with absolutely nothing to do, so I lived in Oakland and mostly worked in San Francisco. But, hey, some people like suburbs. I'm city or country, but not in between. No regrets about going, though. I had a good time and like someone else said, you have to move a some point to get a little perspective.
Good luck!