Relocation after residency

[PNWskindoc]

Hi all,

Would appreciate your input on this. I'm finishing up residency and will be taking my first job 1200 miles away. The practice is paying $5000 for relocation but we're trying to decide whether it's worth moving our furniture or if we should just buy new. A few points to consider:

-Aside from our queen-sized bed, couch and desks, everything else (dresser, drawers, tv stand) is from IKEA although they're still in really good condition.

-We will be renting for at least a few years before we decide to buy

-We have an infant daughter

-I have a ton of student loans so I would prefer not to spend a killing on furniture

From my brief research, the cost of renting a pod to move furniture is quite pricey. We were thinking it'd be better to just sell our IKEA furniture for whatever we can get and buying new furniture. Also, my thinking is that if we're going to be buying furniture again, it should be something that is of good quality so that we can use it when we eventually do purchase a home. However, any quality furniture piece is going to be expensive and I don't know if it's worth having anything nice while we have a 6 month old daughter that could potentially ruin it. Would appreciate the thoughts of those who've already been through this. Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

[Hatton]

I did not get any relocation money.  I threw out or gave away quite a bit of my salvage store and my brother's hand-me-down furniture.  I rented a small truck and moved myself.  My office nurse has been buying what looks like some pretty nice furniture at a good price off Craigslist recently.  I furnished my house going to antique auctions which saved me quite a bit over the store prices.  I would leave the IKEA stuff behind.

[jfoxcpacfp]

I haven't been through this, but I'll chime in. hatton1 is right - Craigslist is an awesome resource, especially if you're starting out. My kids bought really nice furniture at huge discounts from Craigslist and also from their neighborhood Facebook page - some pieces better than mine. Leave the IKEA behind.

As for little girls damaging furniture, they're pretty harmless. Puppies are another story.

[Spanky]

Daughters are pretty harmless.  Sons though....

[PNWskindoc]

Haha good point.

[wideopenspaces]

I moved about 1500 miles for residency. I think it cost about 1K to have movers cart our stuff half way across the country. If you ask me, you'd be hard pressed to spend less than that on new furniture, especially since you will indeed be tempted to buy nicer, higher quality items at this point. Plus, while your daughter probably won't "ruin" any furniture, she may very well ruin textiles-like rugs, pillows, comforters, couch cushions, etc. Kids spill a lot of stuff, and it doesn't always come out! So I would wait to buy anything too much nicer than what you have right now, for both of those reasons. And from a design perspective, I think rooms come together more nicely when things are picked out over time, rather than buying a bunch of stuff from 1-2 places, all at once. Just my two cents :-)

[PNWskindoc]

Any suggestions on how to go about looking for rentals town homes/apartments in a different state?

[childay]

We moved across country with all our cheap IKEA furniture.  Suffice to say it isn't meant to be moved. Particle board breaks, things chip etc.  But it would likely be more expensive to buy new stuff depending on the size of house.  In our case the relocation was paid for so easy decision..

[Dicast]

PNWskindoc wrote:

Any suggestions on how to go about looking for rentals town homes/apartments in a different state?

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Find a local real estate agent and give them your specifications.  When we relocated from North Carolina to Texas the realtor was paid a commission by the property management company and we didn't give anything.  Just realize that they are going to operate much like when you go to purchase a new home.  The more you pay, the more they get paid...but they want your business for when you buy that first house.  Our realtor even helped me negotiate rent during the second year in our house by giving us comps in the area.  We are now using her to help find a house...

We moved a Big Lots couch, an overly small dining room table and enough stuff to fill a 3 bedroom house.  We paid way too much by not getting several companies to give a bid.  I don't think it would have been cheaper to buy new furniture at the other end.  Selling your stuff, moving, buying cheap and then replacing cheap with nice may cost more than moving cheap and only paying for it once.  If you are renting then you are probably planning on moving again in the next few years.  I would get multiple bids for movers or see who is available to help you load and unload a truck.

I'd give one more vote for craigslist/estate sales when you do decide to start upgrading.

[Zaphod]

childay wrote:

We moved across country with all our cheap IKEA furniture.  Suffice to say it isn’t meant to be moved. Particle board breaks, things chip etc.  But it would likely be more expensive to buy new stuff depending on the size of house.  In our case the relocation was paid for so easy decision..

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Second this. You have to pack very purposefully if you plan to move cheap furniture. I've done it well several times, but even having packed up everything myself last time for loading, had some help loading and result was a near total loss of furniture, and the washer/dryer among other things.

[scbunker]

This is how I'd probably do it:

Sell/give away the big stuff. Plan to 'live like a resident' for a year or two while paying off loans/accumulating savings. Get the best apartment I could, but not care too much about it, as I'm only living there temporarily. Buy bare necessities of furniture at first, more quality pieces as have the cash. After I've lived there a year or two, know I like the job and the area, know the area well enough to know where I want to live, then buy a house, move in my accumulated nice furniture, buy a few more pieces if necessary.

Don't be afraid to let some rooms go unfurnished for a while while you're slowly and reasonably accumulating furniture to fill it in over time.

[chrisg202]

I moved 1000 miles and I rented a U-Hall and towed my car behind and wife drove the other car. spent a total of a 1000K including a night rest in between.

You can easily do it for 1500K and keep the rest in your pocket.

The other way of doing it is to sell your stuff on Craigslist and re-buy them when you move... just keep in mind that you will be busy with the new job and studying for the board... you can't do everything!

I would buy my piece of mind and drive or even hire a moving company and fly with my kid to save them the hassle of the trip

[Zaphod]

chrisg202 wrote:

I moved 1000 miles and I rented a U-Hall and towed my car behind and wife drove the other car. spent a total of a 1000K including a night rest in between.

You can easily do it for 1500K and keep the rest in your pocket.

The other way of doing it is to sell your stuff on Craigslist and re-buy them when you move… just keep in mind that you will be busy with the new job and studying for the board… you can’t do everything!

I would buy my piece of mind and drive or even hire a moving company and fly with my kid to save them the hassle of the trip

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With an infant sure. With older kids you can make it forced character development. We had one of the upack moving services take our stuff and drove, hitting up several national parks, monuments, and hikes along the way. It was really fun. I saved up all my vacation during fellowship in order to have a lot of moving time and set up in the new locale.