Relocation costs / tips

I'm curious to get others experiences with relocating with a family (spouse, children, pets). How much it cost, and how you went about doing it.

I relocated about 4 hours away for my current position. It was close enough that I stayed in a hotel during the week and drove home on the weekends while I looked for a place to rent and have the family come down with all our belongings in a uhaul (well, budget). Needless to say, it was expensive - $100/week in gas, another 300 for the hotel & eating out all week (and I went cheap for both) above the normal expenses still being incurred where we were living before.

I'm looking at relocating again, but much further this time. I expect the expense will be considerably higher so I'm just checking if others have gone about this in a different (more economical perhaps) way.

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Comments

networker050184

I've moved a few times and usually kept it in the $2,000-$4,000 range depending on the COL in the area I was moving to. I don't remember the exact break down of cost, but this includes packaging material, moving truck (I moved my stuff myself rather than hiring a company), some amount of temporary housing at times, food, gas, etc.

Devilry

Are you trying to get relo cost as part of your offer? Or do they know this upfront has to occur?

bermovick

I've actually never encountered a place that offered it. This current opportunity is through a staffing agency (contract to perm with the end business), so I'd be surprised if it was available.

My friend was lucky - his first real networking gig he managed to get them to pay for his hotel for a month - I don't know how people pull those kinds of deals off.

iBrokeIT

Have you tried speaking up and asking or are you only taking what the give you without discussion? You should be factoring in these costs into your compensation before you accept the offer.

tprice5

I would feel very uneasy about moving somewhere for a position without relocation assistance. If I am willing to uproot my family and leave friends to move across/outside the country to work for a company, it is important to me that they show some sort of reciprocation in the form of relocation assistance. It's a show of good faith that they aren't going to drop you within 2 months and leave you up a river with a freshly signed one year lease.
I just put an application in to Dell in Atlanta for the hell of it, because that's just what I do, and their first email response was ...
"You applied for a SCCM position with Dell. The position that you applied for is located in Atlanta, GA. Are you relocating? The position does not offer relocation assistance."
She might as well have come out and said, "We are really just looking for someone to fill the seat."
If you're entry level and you need something on your resume than take the 2k-4k hit and move on. If you're looking to work for a solid company who cares about it's employees, then everything is negotiable, starting with relocation assistance.
I hate to deal in absolutes, because I would imagine some contract positions simply don't have those expenses written into the contract, but the lack of relocation assistance is a deal breaker for me.

bgold87

Just did it 2 months ago. I got on U-Hauls site and you can get movers on there for a bargan. Like $80 for 3 hours, so I hired them for where I was going and found the cheapest truck I could. Went with diesel to save a few extra sheckles. Spoke to the utilities companies on waiving any startup fees by showing them previous bills where I never missed a payment. Just little things like that. I moved 9 hours with family and dogs for around $3.5k. I also did temp to perm so there was no relocation money, but they gave me as much time as I needed to get down here and time to get stuff squared away like drivers licenses and such. Best move I've made.

networker050184

tprice5 wrote: »

I would feel very uneasy about moving somewhere for a position without relocation assistance. If I am willing to uproot my family and leave friends to move across/outside the country to work for a company, it is important to me that they show some sort of reciprocation in the form of relocation assistance. It's a show of good faith that they aren't going to drop you within 2 months and leave you up a river with a freshly signed one year lease.
I just put an application in to Dell in Atlanta for the hell of it, because that's just what I do, and their first email response was ...
"You applied for a SCCM position with Dell. The position that you applied for is located in Atlanta, GA. Are you relocating? The position does not offer relocation assistance."
She might as well have come out and said, "We are really just looking for someone to fill the seat."
If you're entry level and you need something on your resume than take the 2k-4k hit and move on. If you're looking to work for a solid company who cares about it's employees, then everything is negotiable, starting with relocation assistance.
I hate to deal in absolutes, because I would imagine some contract positions simply don't have those expenses written into the contract, but the lack of relocation assistance is a deal breaker for me.

Agreed. I don't think I'd make a job with a big move without significant relocation assistance.

SteveLord

Figure a few thousand for sure.

bermovick

Thanks for the info everyone.

I'm not exactly entry-level but the network I run is pretty basic, and there's NOTHING else nearby so moving will be necessary if I want to move on & up. On top of that my paycheck size & living expenses make it hard to save - hence my asking how others handle it.

I never really thought of trying to negotiate some type of relocation assistance or anything into an offer where it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the description. I mentioned how my wife and I were discussing a move with our current financial situation and the guy mentioned that they have been known to help people when needed, so I guess some extent of assistance is possible.

From my experience from moving here, the actual "moving" wasn't the expensive part (a few hundred for the budget truck and a few days loading/unloading it). The expense was in living in the hotel and paying the deposit & first months rent on a new place -- basically tripling my living expenses for a month (after having doubled it for the previous month, as I lived in a hotel for 2 months). For those of you that have taken advantage of it or negotiated it, what do you negotiate? Just cash up front for you to cover the estimated expenses?

To be specific, the move would be from mid-Missouri to the RTP area. It's about a 13 hour drive.

networker050184

I've had both bulk payment up front (actually it came in the first pay check, but I just went and started before I moved my family) and reimbursement plan where everything must come out of pocket initially. So kind of just depends on how the company does things.

kriscamaro68

If they don't want to do relocation assistance then you could always ask for a signing bonus of a few thousand.

SteveLord

A few hundred for a truck? Have you been quoted that? I am admittedly skeptical unless you're picking the smallest truck, doing it middle of the week and have some special coupon or rate.

Six years ago I did an 18hr/1100mile trip and had a 16' truck and trailer for a few days. Cost was closer to $1000 if I remember. And that was with a military discount.

networker050184

The last time I rented a truck it came to around $600. That was the largest size for the weekend and about an eight hour trip.

bermovick

Pretty sure it was in the range of $200-$300, but I think the price was based on mileage, and a 13-hour trip would be considerably more than a 4-hour trip, so yeah - we are probably talking about $1000-$1100, once you factor in gas.

NicWhite

Moved from IL to GA. The cost was somewhere between 1000 - 2000 for truck and accessory rental. Also had some guys to help us load and unload furniture. Gas included and hotel fees for one night. Make sure you factor in the cost of rental property (rent and security) and about $250 to get electric, water, and cable started. Add the an extra $200 for any last minute items that need to be purchased when you get to your new residence.

I now most people think about only the renting of the truck and gas but I see all these additional things as part of the moving cost.