Anyone got tips/advice for relocating to another state? (CA to VA)

[Guest bastaad525]

when you say very congested, how congested is it compared to like, middle of L.A. congested? I mean... I live right in the middle of one of the worst traffic areas in the country (as far as I know, only new york is worse), so any change here is most likely to be for the better.

 

Well... this will be another advantage of how we're going to be doing this. Since we'll be moving in with my wife's friend, but under the understanding that it will be temporary (most likely, unless we really love it and all get along well) , a few months most likely, we will have a good opportunity to see what the ups and downs are, and see what the good areas are so that we can pick and choose where we REALLY want to live, more or less at our leisure.

[Synlubes]

when you say very congested, how congested is it compared to like, middle of L.A. congested? I mean... I live right in the middle of one of the worst traffic areas in the country (as far as I know, only new york is worse), so any change here is most likely to be for the better

 

I`m sure it wont be like Cali, but for us here its bad.

Again, our major roadways are out dated.

They have not grown along with all of the population increase.

[boodlefoof]

I lived in Williamsburg for a few years and really like the Hampton Roads area. And yes, it is cheap! When I was in Williamsburg, I lived in a 1000+ sq. ft. two bedroom townhouse (in a complex of mostly college kids and grad students) and the rent was $570 per month!

 

If you go West down I-64 (the main E-W highway in that part of the state) you are on your way to Richmond. Between Williamsburg and Richmond there are quite a few semi-rural housing developments with very nice houses at very reasonable prices. Just a few years ago my parents were looking to move and looked at a number of nice houses in New Kent County (just E of Richmond) that were in the low-mid $200k range.

 

On the move, I used to work for a moving company. $2k for a cross-country seems like an extremely low-ball estimate to me... even if you are packing everything yourself. Unless you have very little stuff, and they will have you and five other people's stuff in the same semi... I can't imagine that price being right. We did mostly local moves... we came in, packed your stuff, loaded it, moved it and then unloaded it at the new house... and depending on the amount of stuff this could easily come to over $5000. If you packed your boxes yourself, that would cut a bit off the price... but the company wouldn't guarantee self-packed items (against stuff inside breaking).

[Guest bastaad525]

good to know we've a couple members in the area anyways too bad I don't have my Z anymore, but maybe I'll get to meet up with a couple of you guys anyways.

 

well... I actually do believe it's possible that the traffic in those areas of VA may approach the outright silliness of L.A. traffic... maybe not as often or for as long a portion of the day as we have here... but yeah even our friend out there has said that when it gets bad... it gets BAD... out dated under sized roads as you said. But she seems happy with the place she got and feels it's in one of the 'better' areas... so we shall see.

[innerware]

Bastaad,

 

For what is is worth I have done this. 6 years ago I decided I wanted to move to CA. Me and two guy friends loaded up a Pensky 17 foot truck with flat bed (total around 1200 ) and drove out here. We had no jobs, no place to live etc. I am doing the reverse move in 4 months to go back to Boston with my wife. I am going to do the same thing. We are crashing with her folks untill we find jobs and a house. If you are trailering a car then you have a minimum truck size to work with. So you might as well fill it. In mu opinion your budget of 4 K is really good. Call around not only different moving truck rental companies but there different locations. For instance I am in Oakland CA and a friend was moving to Seattle. She saved over 40% on the truck by picking it up in Modesto as opposed to Oakland. It was a trick she used for years, and has always worked. Apparently there rates are dependant on where you pick it up and drop it off ( size of city wise ). Good luck and don't sweat it. While it seems like it will suck, and it will suck, it will be over quickly and you will be in a better place.

[Guest bastaad525]

On the move' date=' I used to work for a moving company. $2k for a cross-country seems like an extremely low-ball estimate to me... even if you are packing everything yourself. Unless you have very little stuff, and they will have you and five other people's stuff in the same semi... I can't imagine that price being right. We did mostly local moves... we came in, packed your stuff, loaded it, moved it and then unloaded it at the new house... and depending on the amount of stuff this could easily come to over $5000. If you packed your boxes yourself, that would cut a bit off the price... but the company wouldn't guarantee self-packed items (against stuff inside breaking).[/quote']

 

well the trick with these companies I've found is that yeah you are either sharing cargo space with other people OR, in the case of ABF U-pack, you get the trailer delivered to you empty, you pack your stuff in it and they charge you by the lateral foot of trailer space used, then they give you like a partition, and the rest of the trailer is used to haul commercial freight.

 

So yeah it is a cost sharing thing, and yeah we don't have that much stuff that we're taking. Almost all of our furniture, all the big stuff, is staying, except our mattress and box spring. We did an estimate using their calculator online and yeah they pegged it right around $2000.

 

But yeah nothing is 'official' until I get ahold of some live people on Monday... I'll be calling Penske and Ryder to get some quotes and also these 'U-pack we haul' companies and see who can give me the lowest estimate.

 

EDIT: Just did an online quote with Penske.... WITH AAA discount, a tow dolly to tow one car, and NOT counting fuel, they want about $2500. I imagine fuel will push it close to $3000....

[Tim240z]

For the price of moving a mattress and box spring, why not just get a new one over there. Not knowing what you own, but given your small current space, and your current life circumstances (no kids, garage full of tools and toys etc), why take anything at all. The money you will save, will more than pay for new stuff on the other side. If it were me, I would pack up the clothes and files in the trunks of the 2 cars and jump on I-10 and say Adios!

Just think carefully about whether the stuff is really worth hauling across hill and dale....

[Mikelly]

What area? Also, $500 for fuel to go well over 3K miles? I'd expect you won't get more than 10mpg with a Ryder loaded and pulling a car.

 

Mike

[randy 77zt]

renting trucks-too much money.if you can put your stuff on palets and have it shipped on a freight truck it will be the cheapest way to go.if you do rent a truck stay away from uhaul.i rented a truck with a 24' box from ryder for a local move and was very happy with it.autotrans,turbodiesel and cold a/c.maybe if you rented a 24' box truck and put 1 car inside with your stuff and towed the other 1.car can loaded on a loading dock.i am wanting to move out of california myself.

[VRJoe]

Two words on getting rid of stuff: Yard Sale !!! Turn it into cash.

 

Get any quote from a moving company in writing. There have been a number of scams where they pick it up then jack up the price and won't deliver until paid. Also be sure to include pick up date and delivery date, that's another scam, they deliver weeks late and charge for "storage".

 

I'd lean toward renting a truck and trailer. Drive one and trailer the other. You can always swap cars along the way. I like having a fixed cost and control of my stuff. See if any of your friends feel like taking a vacation and work out a deal, that way you'd both have company while driving. Make it a cross country site seeing tour.

 

The pallet idea is a good one also.

 

I also suspect that a few of the highways in that area of VA would bring back fond memories of LA traffic. But in VA it's only during rush hour, or slightly before or after, or if there's construction, or........

 

Just my two cents,

 

- Joe

[Guest norm[T12SDSUD]]

I think I have the solution to your problem.Sell your BIG stuff as has already been suggested and then ship all your household goods via FED EX HOME DELIVERY in a bunch of Big Moving Boxes 24X24X36.THEY ARE CHEAP AND FAST AND THEY WILL PICK IT ALL UP AT YOUR HOUSE!!

It takes less than 7 days for delivery and you can insure it all cheaply!

 

You can ship a LARGE moving box not exceeding 70 lbs for around $90 to Virginia.

So figure 10 big moving boxes would only cost you $900 and you may not even need that many!!

 

http://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home?cc=US&language=en&link=1&lid=//Ship//Pack+Rates+Corp

 

 

I would drive BOTH cars if I were you since they are new. It might be tiring but if you should have trouble on the road then you will have a "chase" vehicle with you!!

[Guest bastaad525]

Tim - you are absolutely right... we did today try to assess... how can we get out of here with the least amount of stuff and maybe not have to have anything hauled or need any kind of truck rental. 100% agree that for the ~$2000 estimates we're getting to haul (mostly) a bunch of cheap Ikea furniture (averaging ~$100 per piece) it would be cheaper to just replace most if not all of it. The matress and box spring are really the only 'expensive' furniture which I think cost us about $500 when new three years ago... a new set wouldn't be a bad idea at this point anyways. Very good advice

 

Norm - that's a great idea as well, I will definately look into that. I don't imagine we'd need more than 5-6 boxes of that size shipped after whatever we can fit in our cars (SRT-4 = quick AND roomy, back seat and HUGE trunk!), especially given Tim's idea on cost-to-ship vs. cost-to-replace ratio... getting rid of just about all our furniture would really narrow it down quite a bit.

 

VRJoe - yeah... well can't really do a 'yard' sale, since we have no yard but yeah... we need some way to get this stuff out... sold... rapidly.

 

 

See yet again you guys reminding me why I love this place!! Too much damn good info and advice on these boards!!! And this is why even now that my Z is long gone I'll continue to check in here on a daily or near daily basis thanks for all the great tips and info thus far guys.

 

So... so far we have completely eliminated the idea of renting a truck, and it looks like we will just try to load as much as we can in the cars and have FedEx ship the rest. Only problem now is that my wife is damn near terrified of doing this trip in two seperate cars... bear in mind she is just now getting used to driving her first manual trans car. I'm also not incredibly fond of the idea of putting 3000 miles on my new SRT in one shot... this will put me over 10,000 miles in less than half a year... watching my warranty shrink before my eyes!! Plus it's not the most fuel efficient vehicle, averaging 25 mpg's highway on high octane fuel. So I may still look into having at least that one car shipped (IF they'll let me load it up with some stuff as well!)... since I'm estimating ~$400 fuel cost, and have gotten estimates of about $700 to ship it. If I'm gonna save a fortune not having to ship furniture and actually being able to sell off a bunch of it, it might be worth the ~$300 extra to not have to drive alone and keep those miles of my car.

[Guest bastaad525]

well... just placed an ad in the local classifieds for a "Moving Sale!" so people can start coming down to our house and see what we can sell. If we can even pull so much as $500 from this I'll be soooo happy... that will damn near pay for the drive right there, and of course, massive savings not having to ship all this stuff

 

Just discussed a bit more with my wife on what all can go and she's being very agreeable... it's gonna be pretty much everything

 

Only stuff we really dont' want to sell, if only because it would be hard to sell for a decent price and would be fairly expensive to replace later, are our TV, my music equipment, our computer, our hobby stuff (video games and sewing machine and some of her finished projects), magazines I've collected over the years, our stereo... that's about it.

 

The hobby stuff, most of the music stuff (a few large items I havent' decided what to do with yet), magazines... all can be shipped in those 2'x2'x3' boxes Norm talked about. Ends up leaving not a whole lot of stuff that can easily be fit into both our cars.

 

This is gonna be fun heh... well it's gonna suck but at least it's looking to be a lot easier and definately cheaper than we first figured... a lot less headache really. Thanks again for the good advice guys.

[Mikelly]

Think of it as a BIG ADVENTURE. And I'd not sweat driving both cars across country. Here's why:

 

The Wife - She needs to break out of that shell and get used to "taking risk" and driving across country does two things in that direction... Gives her a challenge (With your encouragement that she can do it) and it will give her a sense of accomplishment When she gets there. It'll also get her intimately familiar with the car, which is ONLY a good thing.

 

Your warranty - The car would ONLY have around 10K miles on it? First year averages are around 15K miles... Quit whining!

 

You still have NOT told me where you'll be living... You know, it'll be easier to offer assistance, knowing where we're gonna offer it at!

 

Mike

[Guest norm[T12SDSUD]]

Sounds like things are coming together for you dude!!

BTW, make sure you have a good scale to weigh your boxes on so as not to exceed the 70 lbs.Once you exceed 70lbs I think the rates go up $10-$15 and you may have to actually pick them up at the Fed Ex Depot in VA. althogh they may still deliver over 70 lb packages to your apartment, but I'm not 100% on that so ask a FED EX Rep about the weight limit.

 

I would personally put the TV and Computer in my own car as long as you can fit them in your trunk. If you have a nice TV in the backseat a bandito might steal it in the motel parking lot!

 

Also, purchase a set of good $50 Walkie Talkies that have a 5 mile radius and you and the wife can talk cross country and she will be able to tell you to slow down should she lose eyesight of your car. You can recharge them in the motel room each night as well.

 

GOOD LUCK!!

[Mikelly]

Very good advice Norm. We used these with our friends when we drove down to Lake Lure, NC last year. Cheap and economical way to chat while on the road...

 

Mike

[savageskaterkid]

Move to the richmond area, its got alot of oppurtunity and some of the housing isn't that expensive, compared to Northern VA or as much as Socal

[Guest bastaad525]

 

You still have NOT told me where you'll be living... You know' date=' it'll be easier to offer assistance, knowing where we're gonna offer it at!

 

Mike[/quote']

 

YES I HAVE!!!

 

Specifically what town/ City in Virginia?

 

Mike - we're moving to the Hampton Roads (I think that's what she called it) area? Like Norfolk' date=' Virginia Beach, around there.

 

I think I talked to a guy from Fredricksburg today... I think he said that was on the other side of the gulf, or something? Made it sound pretty far away.

 

Hey does this mean I get to get a ride in a Z06?? :mrgreen: [/quote']

 

 

Just cuz ya like ta drive fast doesn't mean you should read that way

 

But I'll tell ya again anyways Hampton Roads area... I THOUGHT it was going to be Norfolk, specifically, but it turns out it will actually be Portsmouth, we're gonna be right at the beach. The way the current plan is going, we'll be showing up right around the first of April.

 

Norm - yessir I beat you to this one... The TV, computer, stereo and maybe one or two heavier objects will be going along with us in the cars. I do have a very accurate digital scale that reads up to 330 lbs... but just in case it's not as accurate as I believe, we'll aim for keeping the boxes to more like 60 lbs or less. Shouldn't be hard... it's seriously looking like we'll have hardly anything left to ship, just video games and sewing/crochet materials. Also me and my wife have already discussed the walkie talkie idea a few times, and were planning on checking some out over the weekend at Best Buy, Fry's and/or Radio Shack(my weekend, thursday and friday). Initially we were just gonna use our cell phones... we're both Verizon so we get unlimited minutes to each other (IN network, also we have a nationwide plan, no roaming), leaving the phones plugged in to the car's A/C port to keep them charged up... however we've both noticed that using the phone while it's charging results in the battery pack getting VERY hot after a while, so I told her that that wasn't gonna cut it. I don't want to spend TOO much on a set of walkie talkies either but we'll see what they have and for how much. $50 would be okay.

 

 

So yeah... things definately coming together. Very happy that the estimated cost of the move just keeps coming down as we shave more and more stuff, now I put my hopes on getting at least some decent money for the stuff we're gonna try to sell, to help out even more. If we can pull in enough to pay for the cost of gas for the trip I'll be 100% satisfied.

 

A big thing now is I'm trying to figure just how much driving we'll be able to do in a day w/o getting seriously tired. I was initially aiming for 14 hours a day and making the trip in 3 days... neither of us have ever driven that much in one shot, so I don't know that we could realistically do that. I got that number from a couple other people who have done similiar... so I dunno. But one thing you gotta understand about my wife... this woman can sleep anywhere, anytime, in any situation, standing, sitting, lights on or off... you name it. Especially if she's bored. There's been times she's driven us up from San Diego, only about 2-3 hours away, after a full nights sleep, and I swear she was on the verge of passing out. So I'm pretty nervous about letting her drive in a car by herself even for 8-10 hours straight. So... looks like our 3 day trip is gonna be more like 5... 6...7 ..... who knows.

 

This was and is one of the big reasons why I am still considering spending the small fortune it will take to get one of our cars shipped... then we take one car, drive in like 6 hour shifts, and make our trip in 3 days with no one falling asleep at the wheel.

[Mikelly]

Don't push it. Make a week of it, and take about five to six days to do it. Go ahead and plan stops at interesting places along the way. I'd not push her any longer than 8-10 hours max including stops. You'll spend a few more bucks, but it'll be worth it to not put the added stress on your relationship.

 

Mike

[Guest bastaad525]

Don't push it. Make a week of it' date=' and take about five to six days to do it. Go ahead and plan stops at interesting places along the way. I'd not push her any longer than 8-10 hours max including stops. You'll spend a few more bucks, but it'll be worth it to not put the added stress on your relationship.

 

Mike[/quote']

 

 

and ya did catch the whole going to Portsmouth thing this time right?

 

 

yeah... even my step dad who I just talked to... he's a long haul trucker for the last few years... said even his limit is about 10 hours of driving a day before his eyes start doing funny things... so yeah... week long trip it is.

 

Either that, or $1000 to ship one car, we take the other, and switch off 6 hour shifts (or 3 hours or whatever but try to make 12 hours a day) and make our trip in 3-4 days.

 

The $1000 looking more and more economical now that we factor in extra hotel stays, the $50 walkie talkies, the extra gas my SRT will suck up and such as well... still not QUITE as cheap as just driving both but it's getting pretty close.....