Making The Move by Steven K. Shapiro

These days more and more people are finding it necessary to relocate. Recently I once again became one of the multitude who have found it necessary to pack up the household and move across the country for a new job contract. This is not the first time I have undertaken such an endeavor. In the past I have moved from Detroit to Cape Canaveral to Dallas to Austin to Boston and now to Tampa (and quite a few in between). In all this moving around, I have learned an awful lot about the nature of moving, the considerations and pitfalls. I hope that by relating my experiences to the rest of you, I can in some way enlighten you about the specifics of moving as well as relieve some of the fears and apprehensions which you may have about long distance moving.

Reasons for moving vary greatly. It could be due to a change in the economy, or maybe you just want a change of scenery. One thing I have learned from all my moving is that a local move, an intrastate move and an interstate move are all vastly different things. Comparatively speaking, nothing is quite as extensive as moving interstate. Relocating brings with it a LOT of things to consider. The MAJOR tool which I have found to make the whole job of moving easier is a LIST. Make a list for EVERYTHING. There are going to be so many details to handle that you simply cannot remember everything. At some points you will be fortunate to remember your name, let alone all of the details which must be accomplished.

When considering a move a lot depends on your marital status. If you are married and have a working spouse you will have to consider the employment status of your spouse. If your spouse is employed you have to consider what your spouse should do. At this point there are 3 considerations. 1). your spouse will quit his/her job and relocate with you. 2). your spouse will keep his/her job and you will rent a small place near the new job and you will commute 3). your spouse supports the both of you until times get better.

If you have children, the situation is compounded, especially depending on their age. If they are very young (preschool) it is not too difficult, but if they are in school they have a social life and you need to respect that. When my oldest daughter was in preschool, it was no big deal; our move from Dallas to Austin was quite easy. Once she entered elementary school she had a lot more friends, activities, etc. which were important to her. As she knows the type of work I do, she expects that at some point in time we will have to move. Even then, for her, it is an upheaval and we did our best to be sensitive to her needs.

If you own a house, the situation is again compounded. You will have to either sell the house or rent it out. In a soft housing market (which usually accompanies a climate where jobs are scarce and which may be the reason for your relocation), you may find yourself losing money to sell it or negative cash flow if you rent it. If you put your house up for rent, you risk 1). getting less per month than your mortgage costs. 2). getting the 'tenant from hell'. 3). expenses to maintain a house which you no longer have the use of and which may exceed your future capital gain when attempting to sell it.

Since we move around so much we only rent houses. This way we don't have to worry about selling one in a soft market. I have found that in a soft market I get a good deal on housing and in a hard market, I pay a bit more but in the long run I think it evens out, especially since I don't lose any money by constantly having to sell in a soft market, and I have greater mobility.

I'm sure that there are more considerations than just marriage, family and home ownership to consider, but these are the "big 3" that I find affecting most people. These issues are also considerations at your destination. You have to figure out where your spouse can work, where your kids can go to school and you have to find a place to live.

Moving is expensive. We found that moving 18,000 pounds of household 2000 miles can cost upwards of $8,000 depending on where you live and when you move (rates are seasonal). In addition to the monetary costs, there are the indirect costs. The time and effort to pack yourself can be quite extensive. If you can afford it, let the moving company pack you as well. Our move from Austin to Boston took us 5 weeks to clean out and pack things up in our free time, and we were still packing the morning the movers showed up. We finished taping up the last box just as the movers were inventorying it. When we moved from Boston to Tampa, we decided to let the movers pack us. They brought in an entire packing crew which had us completely packed in 2 days. It cost an extra $1000 but we didn't have to lift a finger. Also, when the movers pack you, there is less trouble in the event that things get broken in shipment. They have no way to argue that something was improperly packed when they did all of the packing themselves.

Once the house is empty, you realize just how dirty things get. When we move into a house we request that the homeowner have the house professionally cleaned. As such, we were obligated to do the same upon move out. This cost us an additional $200 and was well worth the price. Usually the necessity to move is not timely and may result in the need to break your lease. The laws, rules and costs of breaking a lease vary from state to state and are dependent upon the lease agreement which you sign. If you do need to break your lease, try to give as much notice as possible so that your landlord can find a new tenant before you leave. If you are prone to moving, you may be able to convince your landlord to include a 30 to 60 day 'out clause' into the lease agreement.

When looking for a moving company, shop around. We got bids from 6 of the nationally known moving companies. We found it necessary to allocate at least a half day to each representative so that we could provide them a detailed walkthrough of the house showing them everything which will be moved. In fact, for our move to Boston I took pictures of our destination house and we showed them to the movers representative so that they would be aware of the conditions at the destination. What we also requested were 'not to exceed' bids. This went a long way to ensure that there wouldn't be any surprises once the move was completed. With a not to exceed bit, it means that no matter what happens, whether they underestimate the weight or the distance, or whatever, the cost will not exceed the amount specified. To this day I am certain that the weight identified by one mover included the weight of the truck itself. One thing which we did discover is that the moving companies can't guarantee 'destination charges' in their bid. NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU, destination charges are determined by the driver when he arrives at the destination. Also, arrange for some sort of 'in-transit' insurance. We found that the best deal is to go with a 'full replacement value' policy. Make sure that it is adequate to replace all of your possessions in the event that the truck falls off of a mountain while making the journey.

One type of destination charge we learned about was something called a 'long carry'. A long carry is a term used to describe the distance beyond the 'normal' distance which the movers have to carry your furniture. Find out ahead of time what the moving company considers a long carry. This is where pictures of the destination really come in handy. Some companies also charge extra if they have to carry the furniture to a second floor or into a basement or if there are 'specialty' items. For example, we have a piano so there was a surcharge for moving the piano. We also have 2 glass tabletops. Each one required the movers to build a wooden crate for shipping, which of course also added to the cost of moving. Once built, we kept the crates to use for future moves, which reduced the cost of the next move. Make sure that you bring up these issues so that there are no surprises when you reach your destination. There's nothing worse than paying $8000 and then having to spend several hundred more dollars before they will even unload their truck. So make sure you find out about ALL of the possible destination charges which may affect you.

If you decide to pack yourself, you may be able to get the salesman to toss in free packing tape, free packing tissue and free used boxes. If purchased separately, this stuff could cost quite a bit, so try to get it tossed into the moving price.

For my move to Massachusetts, I flew to Massachusetts for 5 weeks to check out the project and look into the area. I wanted to make sure that the job was a good one and I wanted to be sure I would enjoy the work itself as well as the people I would be working with. I also wanted to make sure that this area of the country would have the potential to keep me employed beyond the duration of the current contract and that the rate I would be getting would be sufficient to cover any differences in the cost of living. There's nothing more frustrating than getting more money and yet your disposable income is less than had you stayed where you were.

Different areas of the country cost more to live in than others. I discovered that Massachusetts was significantly more expensive than Austin when it came to the cost of housing and insurance, but was about the same cost when it came to utilities, groceries and dry goods. Since I have one child in elementary school, I had to find out which school she would be going to and get her registered. Meanwhile back in Austin my wife handled getting the required records from my daughters school, the medical records from the physician, dentist and optometrist.

Once we decided where to move to and had a definite destination we had to contact everyone with a change of address. We contacted the post office to forward our mail, we contacted the utilities to discontinue service and we sent our new address to all of our friends, family, creditors, etc. and hoped we didn't forget anyone. We also kept a set of telephone books from our old address. This was helpful when we needed to contact businesses and neighbors from our old neighborhood.

Once we had a destination selected, we decided on a move date. We identified each item on our list with a target date for completion of the task. This allowed us to organize the tasks in a chronological order and to ensure that we wouldn't have conflicts. These included such things as arranging to have the phone disconnected and a forwarding number installed. In the case of utilities, you will probably want to arrange to have them put back into the landlord's name rather than disconnected entirely.

Upon initial selection of the house I went to the town hall to get information all about the city regarding the various services I would need. These included trash removal, gas, water, electric, etc. and I had to arrange to have them turned on or transferred into my name. Some utilities require deposits and some do not. Since I always pay my bills on time, they didn't require any deposits. As it turned out, the cost of these utilities was about $100 more expensive per month than in Austin.

Now I had to arrange for the 'extras'. For example, how about a couple of telephone lines? How about some cable TV? There's something that Massachusetts has that Texas and Florida rarely have. Snow. My house was set back into the woods and the driveway was about 150 yards long. Quite a job to have to shovel by hand. The snowplow guy wants $30 each time he comes out. Considering an average annual snowfall yields about 10 plowings, I figured an extra $300/year for snow removal. So, I had to consider the cost of a snow blower for me to do it myself. We had a fireplace and a couple of undeveloped acres, so how about a chainsaw to cut up some of the wood? Just add that to the list. Oh, and talking about snow, how about the cost of the shovel for the sidewalk plus a couple hundred pounds of rock salt? Plus, how about some winter clothes for all of us. Boots, scarves, coats, etc. That could easily be $100 per person on the LOW end.

What about your vehicles? Every state has its own rules. There are title fees, license fees, registration fees, road use fees and more. In Massachusetts there's an annual excise tax. So, in addition to the $500 it cost to register each vehicle in the state, we still had to pay about $300 PER YEAR in excise taxes to the city in which we lived. In Florida there's the infamous impact fee, so add a few hundred dollars to register your vehicle in the sunshine state. Oh, and would you like to be able to actually get a license to DRIVE that vehicle? Well, figure on another $100. In many states you are required to have a vehicle inspection before you can register your vehicle. So add another $10 or $15 per year.

Next I had to look into insurance. Automotive as well as homeowner's (or renter's as the case may be). As it turned out, Massachusetts is one of the WORST states for insurance and Florida is not much better (must be all those snowbirds). In Massachusetts the cost of insuring my car, my wife's car and a home renter's policy was double that of Texas and Florida was about 2/3 of Texas. And gasoline, don't forget the gasoline. It costs about 25 cents per gallon more in Massachusetts than it does in Texas.

I also had to consider the cost of my salary. In Texas there is no state income tax, but the sales tax is 8.25%. In Florida there is also no state income tax but in Massachusetts there is a state income tax of almost 6%, but the state sales tax is only 5%. Also, in Massachusetts there is a minimum corporate tax. So even if I had no taxable corporate income, I still had to pay $456 per year. And lets not forget the cost of incorporating in the new state, or at the least, the costs to operate in that state as a 'foreign' corporation.

Oh, and remember that 5 weeks which I was in Boston on my own? Well don't forget to add in the cost of the 2 way plane ticket, the rental car, the temporary housing and the meals.

So, now you have to tally up all of your costs. The way I figured it, I would have to come up with about $10,000 of my own money to make this move. This is a non-recurring cost and as such I decided that I would be able to amortize the cost of the move over the next few years. Based upon my calculations for the cost of living in the new location, I determined that to move from TX to MA I would require an additional $9.50 per hour. So now I knew what it would cost me in terms of the initial outlay of cash plus the amount of cash necessary to maintain a comparable standard of living after moving.

After discussing all of the considerations with my wife we decided to make the move. So we moved. Boy did we move. We loaded up the trucks and we moved to Beverly...Hills that is...whoops, wrong song. We had 2200 miles to drive and 4 days in which to do it. I bought a CB radio for each of the vehicles so we were able to stay in communication along the drive. During the move to Massachusetts we had 2 kids. That equates to a lot of stopping, especially when one of them is 15 months old. During the move to Florida we had 3 kids, even more stopping and a lot more bickering. Now we had to add in the expense of the travel. We had to stop for lunches, dinners, gasoline, rest stops, etc. We pretty much mapped out our drive and knew where we wanted to be each day. So when we got to each target destination, we kept an eye out for a motel. Well, add another $60/day for that. Our average gas mileage for my truck and her van worked out to about 18 mpg. At an average cost of $1.25/gallon, well, you do the math.

During the move to Massachusetts the weather was pretty nice, so this made the drive quite easy. During the move to Florida, the weather was not as nice. The movers took longer than expected to load the truck, so we were 5 hours late getting on the road. As such, we got caught in a freezing rain front that moved into the area and we only got 100 miles before it was just too late and we were too tired (Never push it. If you're tired, stop. Don't try for that 'one more exit'). The next morning we had ice and rain to deal with. For the entire length of the trip to Florida we had bad weather hot on our heels. When we got to Orlando, we hit the worst rain we had ever seen (welcome to the Sunshine state). We could barely see the end of the hood let alone the car in front of us. Rather than push it, we pulled off to a rest area to let things subside. Good thing we did. We had no sooner pulled off when there was a major multi-car pileup that we would have been in had we kept going.

Make sure that you keep detailed and accurate records of ALL your expenses. This includes everything down to the last cookie purchased at the gas station. A lot (if not all) of your moving expenses that are not reimbursed by your employer are tax deductible. This includes the house hunting trip (all costs incurred during any 30 day period of temporary living), the cost of the movers and the costs of the travel. I recommend that you keep ALL of your receipts during this period and work with your tax accountant to determine exactly what is and what is not deductible. We used a large manila envelope on our trip and just tossed each receipt into it as we drove along.

As you can see, there are a LOT of details to consider when you are deciding to make a move. Aside from the emotional trauma of moving across the country, there is the financial consideration (which may be even more traumatic). It is a lot of work. No doubt about it. Even packing and unpacking is a lot of work. Planning and advanced preparation make a big difference and take most of the pain out of moving. A cross country move, when properly planned will not be as difficult as it first seems and it can be done in a manner that eliminates a lot of concern.

The List

Home - Physical:

[ ] Number of stories

[ ] Number of bedrooms

[ ] Number of bathrooms

[ ] Upstairs

[ ] half

[ ] full

[ ] Downstairs

[ ] half

[ ] full

[ ] Den

[ ] Living Room

[ ] Family Room

[ ] Dining Room

[ ] Kitchen

[ ] Basement

[ ] Garage (1, 2 car, etc.)

[ ] Porch

[ ] Deck

[ ] Multi-season room

[ ] Air conditioning

[ ] Heating. Type__________.

Home - Services:

[ ] Have Professionally cleaned after current tenants leave

[ ] Adequate wiring for all electrical

[ ] Adequate telephone support

[ ] Cable hookups

[ ] Natural gas v/s fuel oil heat

[ ] Trash removal

Local Stores:

[ ] Department Stores

[ ] Computer hardware / software

[ ] Toy store

[ ] Music/video store

[ ] Bookstore

[ ] Grocery

[ ] Health food

Conversion:

[ ] Registration in local schools

[ ] Setup electricity with local utility

[ ] Setup water with local utility

[ ] Setup oil/gas with local supplier

[ ] Newspaper

[ ] Voter Registration

[ ] Setup cable installation

[ ] Setup new corporate and personal banking

[ ] Setup diaper service

[ ] Get New Driver Licenses and Vehicle Registrations

Chores to do:

[ ] Clean out to prepare for packing (get rid of old stuff, garage sale, etc)

[ ] Get move bids

[ ] Pack

[ ] Prepare vehicles for move

[ ] Oil change

[ ] Tune up

[ ] CB radios

[ ] Other

[ ] Prepare change of address cards

[ ] Get medical records for all family members

[ ] Medical

[ ] Dental

[ ] Optometrist

[ ] Specialist

Transfers:

[ ] Auto insurance, providers and rates

[ ] Medical insurance, providers and rates

[ ] File for Registered Agent to maintain corporate status

[ ] Advise childrens Schools, Prepare necessary records

[ ] Cancel Newspaper

[ ] Cancel Diaper Service

[ ] Cancel Alarm System

[ ] Cancel Culligan

[ ] Cancel phone

[ ] Cancel Cable

[ ] Cancel Utilities (city services)

[ ] Cancel gas/oil

Stuff for the journey:

[ ] Picnic basket of stuff ( paper plates, cups, snacks, plasticware, etc.)

[ ] CB's

[ ] Box of Toys for each child

[ ] Stroller

[ ] Vitamins

[ ] Sling seat (portable high chair)

[ ] Clothes, disposable diapers

[ ] Box of banking info, medical records, passports, etc.

[ ] Baby spoons, bottles, cups, etc.

[ ] Baby and child tylenol, allergy tablets, etc.

[ ] Our vitamins, tylenol, allergy tablets, etc.

Deinstallation

[ ] security lighting

[ ] flag holder

[ ] porch swing

[ ] shower heads

[ ] electric can opener

[ ] shelves

[ ] Empty gas in grill & lawnmower, etc.

[ ] Remember to leave keys from old house with landlord.

[ ] Arrange for a set of keys to new house from landlord.