Did anyone Relocate to another State when buying a home?

[terrys wifey]

My DH and I are thinking about relocating and although I am excited I am also scared especially trying to buy a home at the same time.

I wanted to know if anyone here relocated when they bought their home and what was the process. Did you buy first then looked for jobs etc...? How was the experience?

[daener]

We relocated from Phoenix to Chicago in January....both of us without jobs when we arrived. We sold our home in Phoenix before we moved to Chicago, then rented an apartment for six months while we got jobs and became more familiar with the city. We are now buying a house, we close in two weeks.

Unless you know the city you're moving to really well, I highly recommend renting for a few months to get a better feel for it rather than buying a house right away. I am much more comfortable knowing a bit about the area in which we're buying, rather than just what I knew as a visitor.

The most stressful part of the move was the job search, and it took a bit longer then we anticipated for me to find a job. DH was working within a few weeks of our arrival, but it took me nearly 4 months to find a job. There is no way I was comfortable buying a house without both of us being gainfully employed, plus I just don't think we could have gotten a mortgage in that situation.

It has been a great experience for us! We chose Chicago because we both wanted to live here - DH left his job of 7+ years so we could make this move. I highly recommend taking the plunge - it's frustrating, scary, exhilirating and rewarding all at the same time.

Best of luck!

[flygirl]

We moved from CA to Dallas about 18 months ago. We knew nothing about the area & chose to buy a house immediately. We thought about renting for 6 months, but with real estate so inexpensive, it just made sense to buy. DH's job moved us & they use a relocation service, so we did have a tramendous amount of help in learning the area. And we are extremely happy with our house.

All that said, now that I know the area a bit better, I probably would have advocated buying somewhere else. I'm not sure DH would have gone along with me, though; he rreeaallyy loves it here :).

I'm going to move this thread to regular forum where you'll get more traffic.

[hockeybrat]

When we moved from Colorado to Washington, we rented and then found the neighborhood we loved and eventually moved there in November.

[Annette]

We rented first also and then decided to do new construction. We moved from NJ to Austin. Like the others said, its scary and exciting.

[boilermaker]

We have relocated twice and bought homes each time. However, both times were for our jobs, so we did not have to worry about that aspect.

When we moved to a small town in Texas, there were only 3 areas that we were even remotely interested in and we definitely preferred the one. So, we found a house there and bought it..took a week to make the decision and we closed about 45 days later. We stayed in a corporate apt during the interim.

When we moved to OH, there was a much bigger area we could live in. We did two 1-week house hunting trips and just couldn't find what we were looking for. So we got a 3-month lease and took our time. We ended up finding the house and closing on it about 4 months after our move.

That being said, how picky are you about a house? I'm not really picky because I know we'll only be here 5 years max...and more likely closer to 3. But it still took us 4 months because we wanted a newer smaller house on acreage, which is kind of rare around here. If we had been willing to forego the land, we would have found a house in the first week we were looking.

I personally love moving, but I know some people who can't handle it. So it can be fun, exciting, terrifying, emotional, etc all at once. Good luck with your decisions.

[MLA]

I'm in the same boat, sort of. DH has already made the move, and I'll be going in about a month and a half. Before he moved out there, we'd visited the area a few times and met with a really good realtor. We figured out exactly what neighborhood we want to live in. So, we plan to buy so that hopefully we'll have a house when we make the big move. I really don't want to rent because I don't want to have to pack up and move again for a good long while, and I don't want my kitties to have to go through 2 moves so close together.

I'm probably not much help, but I thought I'd share my experience. If you really want to buy right away, I suggest you visit the area a few times and definitely meet with a realtor on a "fact finding mission" of sorts. It's very helpful!

[tinkerbelljenny]

We moved from California to Montana. My husband liked it up here so he came to visit and interviewed for a job and they offered him a position and on the same day he called up a real estate agent from the phone book and told her he wanted to look at houses that same day. The 5th house he looked at he made an offer. This all happened in one day. The next day he flew back to CA and we found out we got the house about a week later so we moved. Crazy!

[jeeplover]

We will be moving from MA to VA at the beginning of October. DH is working for the same company just from their VA office and I have yet to find a job!

We thought about renting but since we have 2 cats it is too expensive so currently we are looking at houses to buy! It is really tough since I can't be there every week with DH to look at places. So he goes out one night a week to look at houses and while he is looking at them I go online and find them to check them out. It is not the ideal situation but right now it is what is going to have to work!

Good luck with your move!

ETA: At first we looked at houses on our own but it was too time consuming so now we are working with a realtor and DH saw 9 houses :eek: last night!

[PLNUBRIDE]

Hello everyone. It appears that this thread is not active everyday, but I though I would post anyway.

My DH and I have been toying with the idea of moving out of Orange County, CA for about 1 yr and in the last 6 months, we have gotten very serious about it. For awhile, we looked into Austin, TX but decided against it for a variety of reasons (of which nothing had to do with the city itself… it is great place).

Well, in the last few months we have been considering a move the Las Vegas (Henderson, NV to be exact). My DH approached his employer about a transfer...but it did not happen. However, we have decided to go ahead and make the move anyway! WE will both stay in CA, while doing the job search. Luckily, we have quite a few family and friends that already live there…so the job leads are a bit better than going to a city where we know no one…but it still doesn’t guarantee a job.

We plan to buy something right away (new home), but we plan to live in CA until one of gets a job out there. Matter of fact, we just listed our house today! So, it looks like we are on our way:0

I am excited and nervous...some days I am good and some days I freak out...oh well, such is life I guess

[tinkerbelljenny]

Congrats PLNUBRIDE! You will love Vegas especially if you already know people there. We looked at moving to Vegas back in 2001. I still remember a house there that was amazing, I cried when we flew back to CA where we were living at the time because I wanted to move into that house!

[jeeplover]

PLNUbride-Congrats and good luck! How exciting that your house in on the market! And I have to say that I am jealous that you are moving to Las Vegas! I love it there and in fact DH and I were toying with the idea before this opportunity came up!

[PLNUBRIDE]

Hey TinkerBellJenny and JeepLover…

Well, we just got back from a weekend in Vegas and over the weekend we got an offer on our place and we submitted an offer on our new place! How crazy is that?!?! So, it looks like we are moving ~ Sept 25. The escrow on our current place should be closing Sept 21st (which just happens to be our anniversary). The cool thing is, my husband has decided to take a step back at his job, and thus they will transfer him without a problem. Stepping back was a hard choice, but it guarantees a paycheck (actually quite decent for Vegas) and health insurance. Anyway, just thought I would share the update. Needless to say, it was an very emotional weekend!!!

If anyone has advice…I am all ears:)

[KaliLily]

We will be moving from MA to VA at the beginning of October.
ETA: At first we looked at houses on our own but it was too time consuming so now we are working with a realtor and DH saw 9 houses :eek: last night!

I moved from WA to VA last December. I flew out the first weekend in Nov to houshunt with DH and we looked at 18 properties our first day. :eek: Fortunately, we only had to look at 3 the second day and made an offer on the second house we saw that day. We've now been in the house for 8 months! It's amazing how fast you can get things done when you have a deadline.

[Winter Biscuit]

ETA: At first we looked at houses on our own but it was too time consuming so now we are working with a realtor and DH saw 9 houses :eek: last night!

My DH and I relocated earlier this year, but it was just an hour away and it did not involve moving out of state. I just wanted to throw out an idea that worked for us. I was still working in our old city an hour away and we have a young daughter so it wasn't always feasible for me to drive down and look at houses with him. He would take our camcorder with him when he toured houses. If he liked the house, he'd tape it, and show me later. It saved a lot of time, and made it easier to decide which ones we wanted to go through again. Also, we went through over 50 houses and after a while we started to forget which house had which features. Reviewing the video was a tremendous help.

Good luck to all of you :)

[julesp313]

Stumbled across this thread and wanted to let PLNUBRIDE know that we moved from LA to Henderson in April of this and couldn't be more thrilled that we did. We absolutely love it here and compared to the cost and stresses we were dealing with in LA, this is a haven. I moved with my firm and it took DH a month to find a job (technically he had it a week after he started looking but logistics messed things up and he eventually started three weeks later).

Let me know if you have any questions about Henderson or the relocation issues from CA to NV (and there are some!) and I'll do my best to help.

[PLNUBRIDE]

Jules…thank you SO MUCH for posting. It is great to hear from people that have already made the move to Henderson and actually don’t regret doing it.

We are actually moving to a condo off of Wagon Wheel…it is a bit out of the way, but we both like that….plus I liked the price:)

Geese…I don’t even know where to begin my questions. I am in the middle of the job hunt (using family connections) but not going so well. So, my husband and I are debating whether I would have better luck quitting my job (when our house closes) and doing the job search full time. How did your DH do it?

My husband has decided to transfer with his Company…he will take a bit of a pay cut, but having the income and health insurance is a big plus. Plus, he has been with them 8 years, so it is hard to leave them since even with his pay cut he will make more than the most jobs I have seen.

I am not sure where in Henderson you are at…but are there a lot of stores, shopping etc…..

My list can go on….

[Guinness]

We relocated from Phoenix to a midsize Texas town. We moved for my job, DH didn't have anything. We came out 6 months before my start date to see what the housing market was like and show DH where I was moving him to ;) We drove around with a realtor to get a feel for neighborhoods we would want to live in so we could buy a house before we moved. She took us to a new home site and we loved it. Turned out we only had to put $2000 down and we could pick the lot, house, and all the fixin's. 6 months later we moved out here to a completely built house.

I will say however that this was our 1st house, so we had the attitude of 'we got to pick more on this then we would have been able to an already built house'. We love it, but if I had watched it being built I would have probably had them do a few little things (i.e. plug/phone jack placement). I definitely made the move easier to have a place to come to. Now finding DH a job is a whole other story :rolleyes:

[julesp313]

(Warning - this post got LONG...)

Hey, no problem. I know when we were thinking of making the move, it was daunting and I didn't know anyone in Vegas to ask questions. There was one girl on the WC who was living in Vegas and answered a bunch of my queries and then with the firm having relocation assistance, that helped too. Also, I talked to a lot of the people in the Vegas office of my firm (my "firm" sounds so grand - I'm an accountant, it's not that grand!) and got some advice on where to live. Most people suggested either Henderson or Summerlin for families (it's just me and DH right now but we're hoping to expand). Summerlin is very nice but it was a little over our budget for the house we wanted, and I'd heard nightmare stories about the homeowner's association there, so we looked in Henderson instead.

We live off Wagon Wheel too - in what appears to be the equestrian area (some horses but mostly because the streets are all named after horse breeds). We bought a house because we made a great profit on the sale of our townhouse in the San Fernando Valley and because we wanted somewhere that we could stay for a few years, having moved every couple of years for the last ten or so (me, at least - DH was less of a mover). We looked at 15 houses during one weekend, found two that we liked, offered on one and closed three weeks later. So far, we've been very happy with it. The neighborhood is nice, our neighbors in particular are great, there's an elementary school and park right near us, and shops not too far away.

As for job hunting, here's what we were told by everyone - if you don't live in Vegas/Henderson, don't job hunt in Vegas/Henderson. Because so many people are moving here and so many are transitory, a lot of employers are reluctant to hire anyone until they are actually living in the area. What we did was my DH quit his job when we moved and then we both took a month off to get the house together. I went back to work and he started job hunting. He found a job in the first week but then with the politics and problems, thought he didn't have it, kept looking, got another offer, and then got the first offer back again (if that makes sense!). Bottom line, it took him about a month to start working, and it was stressful during that time - he was feeling miserable about not bringing money in and was getting frustrated. But it worked out well and now he's very happy where he is. So my suggestion is if you can manage to be out of work for a few weeks (financially, emotionally, etc) it would be easier to job hunt once you move here. But obviously it all depends on your situation.

Shopping - hmm, not so much down our way! Right near us on Boulder Highway is K-Mart, Walgreens, Lowes, Food for Less. If you go on Horizon Drive towards the 95, there's Albertsons, some fast food places, but not much. When we need to shop, we head to Sunset Road - from Wagon Wheel, you would take the 95 north to Sunset, about eight miles. There, you have pretty much all the stores you want - Costco, Target, Home Depot, WalMart, Borders, Best Buy, DSW (gotta have my shoes!), and there's the Galleria at Sunset mall (not a bad mall - not huge but not bad). There's also a lot of shopping in the Green Valley area of Henderson (95 to the 215 to Green Valley exit). There are some very good outlet centers but they're all in Vegas - the one north of the Strip, just off the 15 at Charleston, is really good. Can you tell I have bad habits?

When you do move, you may want to take some time off (both of you) to do the "administrative" stuff. We spent a few days working through the DMV to get licenses and register the vehicles, get car insurance (do that first - can't register the cars without it!), get smog checks ($18 here instead of the $60 in CA), open bank accounts, etc etc. It's not hard but it's a pain if you only have weekends to do it. By the way, the DMV on Warm Springs is really nice compared to most CA DMVs... we were shocked!

OK, I think I've said enough for now! If you have any specific questions or if you just want to know more about something that I may be able to help with, let me know!

ETA: just wanted to mention about being out in the boonies, as we are. My office is located near the Strip (near the Wynn monstrosity) and even in rush hour it rarely takes me more than 35 minutes to get to work - in LA, that 18 mile drive on freeways would take an hour or more. So don't worry too much about being out on the edge of the city - traffic isn't nearly the problem it is in LA and probably in the OC too!

Julie :D

[PLNUBRIDE]

Guiness….that is great that you actually had the opportunity to build your 1st house from the ground up….that must have been neat. It seems like moving when at least one person has a job is a huge help….


Jules:
WOW! Thanks so much for the detailed response. It is kind of ironic because I work in the finance/accounting field as well. I was a cost accountant for a few years then moved into business planning at the same aerospace company. I was told by a family friend who is an assistant controller for a major hotel that the accounting/finance field doesn’t make very good money in Vegas….I am not sure how true that it though; I guess I will soon find out

We are expected to close escrow on our new condo ~Sept 25th. Although it might be a bit tight, I think we could swing me not working for about 1 month. It sounds like having some time off to do the “administrative stuff” is well worth the pay hit. We don’t have kids, so it is just DH and I for now. Plus, the cool thing is with the sale of our place, we will have quite a bit to put into savings…which will give us a bit of a cushion.

As you describe the areas for shopping I can totally picture them…that is good to know, thanks for all the info

You are such a great help… I will definitely be posting more questions as I think of them, if you don’t mind :D

[PLNUBRIDE]

This thread has been quite for awhile, but I really need a place to vent. All is well on the relocation front for the most part. I got an e-mail from my realtor and she informed me that we are set to close on our CA condo Sept 21st. It might get bumped a day, but all is looking extremely well.

However, the purchase of our new condo is not going so well. We signed all the final papers then did a final walk-through on the place yesterday. First off, the house still had a lot of work to be done (mainly cosmetic…painting, touch-up scratches and what-not) but no way is it 3-days away from move-in like it is supposed to be on a final walk-through. Then to top it off, it was the first time we had seen the property with all the fencing up and the backyard is WAY SMALLER than we had envisioned. This is something that is really bothering me. Now, the trade-off is we have a master balcony with a view and no building directly behind us. I am just so bummed that I am actually considering switching lots….which means I withdrawal my current offer, loss my deposit and put a contract with a new deposit on a new place in the next phase that will cost more and it pushes back my move date. (plus, ALL the paperwork would have to be resigned) The only bummer is there are no other lots that I like better than mine….besides the one that my parents put a contract on. The only bummer thing is theirs does not have a balcony or a view and they have neighbors directly behind them. It is just that their actual backyard is about 5-6 feet deeper than ours.

I guess I am just looking for others that have found something about their purchase that they were not thrilled about but learned to live with…..

[julesp313]

Sorry to hear that you're having some issues - that's never fun. I'm quite surprised, though, that a condo comes with a backyard - that's pretty cool. I think for the most part, yards on newer developments are rather small, but that doesn't help when you thought were getting more than you are. Personally, I wouldn't change my purchase is that's the only thing you don't care for - it's a lot of work and possible additional expense to back out of a contract and it may not be worth it - you may not get a condo that you prefer. Also, you may find you don't spend as much time in the yard as you first thought - we have quite a large yard and basically only spend time on the patio or at the BBQ, so we probably don't use at least half our yard. Again, not that it helps you, but it's just a consideration.

What does your realtor in NV say about your possibly backing out of the purchase? Does he/she think it's wise or viable?

[PLNUBRIDE]

Jules....thanks for the post. My DH and I have talked about it some more and we came to the same conclusions you did....that the backyard may not be used as much as we think and that it is not worth switching since we like everything eler about the condo. It is just good to hear it come from someone who is an outsider looking in, so to speak. :)

About the NV realtor's advice..well, we are not using a NV realtor...we are just working with the sales person who works for the bulider. He in essence is our realtor. He was the one that informed me that if I really disliked the lot he understood and that I had the option to pull my contract, but then I would forfeit my deposit. Plus, he said that since we are so close to closing simply switching lots is probably not an option.

All in all.....I think we are going to have to stick with what we got. We are 100% happy with everything else, except the yard. I just have to start thinking of creative ways to layout the backyard that give us the most usable space.....something I didn't think I Would have to worry about.

Jules....can I ask another question....we have been getting alot of questions about how much it costs to register a car in NV. We are trying to figure out how it compares to CA. Also....we noticed that tags on NV plates go for like 4 years....so when you register do you pay 4 years worth at one time? WE are trying to figure out what the registration is based on. In CA i think it is based on the purchase price....in NV is it based on the value?

[julesp313]

Sorry for the delay - I'm not getting email notifications for some reason!

I know it can be really frustrating to have everything you love in a house except one thing - and then you worry that the one thing will cause you to dislike the rest of the house (or is that just me???). Anyway, I'm sure you can find some creative ways to use the space you have - there are a lot of patio and back yard stores that have all sorts of furniture and ideas (we don't shop there because they're expensive but we do poach their ideas!).

On the car thing - you have to remember that in CA, the registration is actually only a third of what it "should" be, based on the vehicle purchase price. Remember all that hoo-hah when Gray Davis "increased" the car tags but in reality all that happened was the original discount period had ended (not that Arnie was going to tell you that but I won't get into politics now!!!). Actual car registration had been discounted by two thirds for some time... So, Nevada is cheaper than CA for registration based on the full price you "should" be paying in CA. Having said that, in actual dollars, I think it's more expensive. We registered a 2003 Mazda and a 2004 Ford F150 and paid $750 for the two (including personalized plates). I believe in CA, when we purchased the cars, we paid about $550 to register them both (but I can't remember exactly). It's based on the retail value of the vehicle - not what you actually paid, which sucks butt because DH works for a Ford dealer and we got killer deals on both cars!

I'm not sure where you got the info about registering for four years - the tags are only good for a year. They're color coded for the year and have the month stamped on them (very different from CA where you get a year sticker AND a month one) - took me a while to figure out how they worked! But as far as I know, you still get to pony up the cash annually.

Also, out here, you have to have a smog certificate for any vehicle over one year old - my Mazda was purchased in August 2003 but we had to get it smogged as it was over a year old at the time we wanted to register it. Smog certs out here are about $18 - a nice change from the $60+ it costs in CA. You also have to have a VIN inspection - takes 30 seconds and you can get it done at almost all the DMV locations (you just drive up, they confirm the VIN on the vehicle, and you go) - is a pain only because you have to get all vehicles inspected so if you and DH are going to register two cars, you both have to drive to the DMV.

Jeez, I'm rambling on... let me know if you have any other questions! I'll try to be more succinct in future replies!

[jeeplover]

Our move from Boston to VA is going to happen a week from today! The movers are coming on Wednesday to load up our stuff and we pick up our u-haul on Tuesday. We will be leaving on Thursday morning and spend the night at our IL's house and then Friday we have our walk-through and then later in the afternoon we close on the house! I can't believe that in a week we will be leaving our lives in Boston behind to start new in VA!

Our process went really quickly. We found the house on the 11th and made an offer that day and the owners accepted our offer with us standing in the house. Then we signed all the papers and they agreed to move out by September 29th! It is really amazing! We love the place that we bought and it is in the neighborhood I loved.

I will be glad when this moving process is over cause I am sick of all the boxes!

[PLNUBRIDE]

JEEPLOVER.....that is SO crazy!!! I can't imagine having such a quick close process....

It sounds like the process has been quite "painless" so to speak:). Congrats on that. I haven't had a chance to read all the past posts...but do you have any family in VA? It is kind of weird, I always thought that I would not have a problem moving to a different city/State regardless if I knew anyone. However, I am finding myself becoming a bit nervous with the move...even though I have family where I am going. It appears that you are more excited than scared....do you have any pointers for me..... :D


Jules....thanks for the post....it really does help out. No worries about "rambling on"....I have always felt that more information is better than not enough...so ramble away:). It is good to have someone who is able to compare NV to CA.....I guess we will probably try to go as long as possible without registering the cars...since we just did both this summer.....it figures.

Yeah...about the house; I am just like you...I wonder if I am going to hate the house b/c of the one thing....I guess only time will tell. Although I am hoping that will not be the case. I just remember my mom telling me about a house they bought when I was growing up.....she hated it the minute the moved in (matter of fact, she cried the first night we moved in) and HATED it until the day they sold it. She knew she didn't like it the day they put the offer in, but felt they couldn't afford more...so they settled. Great story to come to mind in the midst of this, huh?

Oh....by the way, we got word this afternoon , we just closed escrow on the property we are selling! So, our funds will be wired to the new home builder tomorrow! I am very excited that this process if finallyh coming to a close.

Is it just me, or is buying a house not as fun as you would thought....it has been more stress than anything....hopefully the fun will come soon:)

[cheeky chica]

Does anybody know where to find out of state neighborhood info. DH and I will be moving from northern CA to near Pontiac MI next summer and we don't have anyone out there to give us info. We checked out stats on city-data. However, we also used it to compare some towns here in Nor Cal - and it doesn't really give you a great idea of their "character."
Moreover, for those of you in the Detroit metro area - we've noticed that a lot of the new housing (and some older homes) lack fencing. This is something that is really important to us, for privacy and to keep our doggies safe. Is this really a trend there - or are we just searching the wrong areas?