Mother of all Moves

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar 1. Sell our Arizona snowbird condo 1a. Move Az stuff to storage 2. Buy Az house 2a. Move stuff from Az storage to Az house 3. Sell Il house 4. Move Il stuff to Az house 5. Move MIL to Az house.

How about this instead? It sounds so much easier to me, although I really don't have a handle on all the details like you probably do:

1. Major decluttering of IL stuff, 80% either tossed or donated. Put IL house on the market and sell. Then have movers move the other 20% of stuff that is left, to your AZ snowbird condo, using it as storage.

2. Say goodbye to IL. Go to AZ and live in a motel or extended stay place. Look for, find, and buy AZ house.

3. Have local movers (much cheaper!) move stuff from AZ condo to new AZ house. Sell AZ condo.

[Tom52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar We have decided to move from Illinois to Arizona. The move has a lot of parts, since we are selling 2 places, buying 1, and moving MIL with us. 1. Sell our Arizona snowbird condo 1a. Move Az stuff to storage 2. Buy Az house 2a. Move stuff from Az storage to Az house 3. Sell Il house 4. Move Il stuff to Az house 5. Move MIL to Az house. Of course, the timing of the sales and purchase may dictate a different schedule. How many fellow members moved after ER & were you lucky enough to schedule things to avoid temporarily storing your stuff? And avoid moving to temporary housing waiting to get the new place? And how did you pull off a smooth move?

We are right now in the middle of a 1200 mile move from Iowa to Florida. We purchased a home in February in Florida, then came back to Iowa to prepare for the move. As of this date we have a purchase agreement signed for the purchase of our house in Iowa, closing hopefully about mid May. We are moving only about 10%-15% of all our possessions. We are moving very little furniture as most of what we own is 20 years old and we want to purchase new in more of a Florida style. Over the last 35 days we have packed up everything ourselves that we plan to take. We contracted with Allied to come load us up next Monday April 22. We are also moving a classic car and have arranged with a car transporter to take it to Florida for us.

We sold a car and quite a few items on Craigslist, and the rest that we are not taking with us will be sold at auction at a cost of 20% of selling price. We did this b/4 when we cleaned out parent's house 5 years ago with very good result. We will be leaving Iowa the day after Allied picks up our possessions. We do not plan to return for either the auction or for closing on our house.

Only possible downside is if home buyer gets cold feet and backs out at last minute. We would then have to come back and get it listed with a realtor. The current sale was done without realtor and utilizing our attorney. Much cheaper all around that way. Assuming house sale goes thru as expected, we then pay off Florida home, buy a new golf cart, then get settled in to our new lifestyle.

Our situations are similar in some respects and different in others. The only recommendation I would make to you is leave ALL the furniture behind. Why pay huge $ to move it when it likely needs replaced due to age, or style, or size. You would save a lot of storage fees if you are required to store the furniture.

Good luck with your move. It is a ton of work but since we are on the downhill side of it we are really getting excited.

[always_learning]

OP, I agree with the others ~~ get rid of as much furniture as you can.

I am in the process of brutally purging belongings in preparation for a downsize move next year. While I have loved having the furniture I have, I also will enjoy decorating a new place from scratch. It will be a clean canvas.
Only bringing a few cherished pieces means less to move and less $$ to pay for that move. Plus, I've noticed that when I move, the furniture I bring with me either doesn't fit the new place, or it looks much older than it did in the previous home and I want to replace it. And, while I do like a few things enough to haul them with me, I won't shed any tears if leaving them behind means a smaller truck is needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom52 We are also moving a classic car and have arranged with a car transporter to take it to Florida for us.

Can I ask how you decided on which transporter to use? What is the cost for that service?

[Big_Hitter]

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Originally Posted by always_learning Can I ask how you decided on which transporter to use? What is the cost for that service?

https://www.uship.com/

[38Chevy454]

Just an added bit of information. Movers for cross country base rates on weight and distance. So if you have heavy items it can save you money moving them in your vehicle.

[Buckeye]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan I'm exhausted just looking at that list. If you don't mind sharing, what led you to this decision? On a second note, stuff is cheap and moving stuff across country is not, OTOH getting people to buy or even take your used stuff requires a lot of effort too.

When my mother moved from Seattle to Clearwater, FL to be near us, she sold or gave away everything that did not fit in a suitcase or the car she was shipping. She went to JCP in Seattle to purchase furniture and had it delivered to her apartment in Clearwater! We purchased all the small stuff for the kitchen and bath so everything was set when she moved into her apartment.

[Tom52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by always_learning OP, I agree with the others ~~ get rid of as much furniture as you can. I am in the process of brutally purging belongings in preparation for a downsize move next year. While I have loved having the furniture I have, I also will enjoy decorating a new place from scratch. It will be a clean canvas. Only bringing a few cherished pieces means less to move and less $$ to pay for that move. Plus, I've noticed that when I move, the furniture I bring with me either doesn't fit the new place, or it looks much older than it did in the previous home and I want to replace it. And, while I do like a few things enough to haul them with me, I won't shed any tears if leaving them behind means a smaller truck is needed. Can I ask how you decided on which transporter to use? What is the cost for that service?

The Allied rep that came to our home to quote the move said we could pay them $1,500 for Allied to arrange it, or we could use the same company to arrange it and save the middleman cost. Rep said he has used this broker in Houston over 50 times with great results. My cost is $850 plus 3.5% to use a charge card. Just to be clear, the outfit is only a broker, they use any one of a number of car haulers.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar How many fellow members moved after ER & were you lucky enough to schedule things to avoid temporarily storing your stuff? And avoid moving to temporary housing waiting to get the new place? And how did you pull off a smooth move?

Last week we moved from our primary home to our weekend/vacation/retirement home which we had already owned for 7 years.

So, aside from condensing down two homes worth of stuff into one, it was pretty uneventful.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski Since you mentioned moving condo stuff I didn't realize that was a possibility.... I would agree... sell the condo furnished. Do you have friend or relative in the area that might have room to store whatever little things that you might want from the condo? If you sell the condo furnished then the order or 1 or 2 doesn't much matter... especially since you think the condo will sell quick then if you do have 3 properties it wil only be for a short time.

Possibly have a neighbor who could store some things. But I would probably go the storage place route. Unless I move a car out there, a 5'x 5' storage place would hold all of our personal stuff that wouldn't be included if the condo was sold furnished.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by Carpediem Any possibility that MIL will change her mind when you're mid way into all this? That would be a kick in the pants. Best of luck.

She has started telling her friends that she is moving, and I think she is done downsizing. Took her a week. It's possible that she could change her mind, but I doubt it. And you're right - it would be a kick in the pants if she changed her mind.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry I don’t blame your wife for not leaving her behind. I would move into the condo too while looking. I would be brutal about getting rid of stuff in Illinois.

It is brutal getting rid of stuff in Illinois. I have exercise equipment on Craigs List that isn't getting any inquiries. I've tried to sell furniture before with no luck. But I got rid of an 18 year old car with 160000 miles in 2 days.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by ivinsfan OP are you looking for a casita type arrangement for your MIL. I feel that arrangement is a lot more common in the West/SW....

I like the casita arrangement, but none of the homes we are looking at so far have have casitas.

[Ronstar]

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Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Congratulations! I wondered if you were moving DW too : as I remembered your saying she was reluctant about it. Really nice for your MIL to be able to live with you in your new digs.

Thanks - DW was reluctant at first. Then I heard her telling friends that we were moving. She was worried that she wasn't going to have as nice a place in Az as in Illinois. I think visits to a few model homes showed her that living in Az could be ok.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R How about this instead? It sounds so much easier to me, although I really don't have a handle on all the details like you probably do: 1. Major decluttering of IL stuff, 80% either tossed or donated. Put IL house on the market and sell. Then have movers move the other 20% of stuff that is left, to your AZ snowbird condo, using it as storage. 2. Say goodbye to IL. Go to AZ and live in a motel or extended stay place. Look for, find, and buy AZ house. 3. Have local movers (much cheaper!) move stuff from AZ condo to new AZ house. Sell AZ condo.

I like your idea. Our Az condo is 2 levels, but only the garage is at ground level. So I don't want to move anything into the condo living area. But stuffing the garage full of stuff is an option. And I suspect that the stuff we would move from Illinois would fit in a garage.

And I like the idea of looking for an Az place while living there. It's difficult finding an Az house while sitting in Illinois.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar I like your idea. Our Az condo is 2 levels, but only the garage is at ground level. So I don't want to move anything into the condo living area. But stuffing the garage full of stuff is an option. And I suspect that the stuff we would move from Illinois would fit in a garage. And I like the idea of looking for an Az place while living there. It's difficult finding an Az house while sitting in Illinois.

That idea makes sense to me too. Because you don't want your house empty while you try to sell. You certainly don't want to pay for staging.

I'll throw out one more idea. Have you thought about a 12 month rental in AZ. Sell in IL move your limited amount of items to AZ into the rental house. Sell your AZ condo..have lots of money to pay for new house, no mortgage hassle.

You can even build new doing this because you have a 12 month window and get a casita , your DW can have exactly what she wants down to paint colors. It will probably cost more but the hassle factor with drop considerably.


It also seems that all cash buyers have leverage particularly when buying an existing home.

[socca]

I've moved many times, including internationally. It might be obvious, but a key strategy in my experience involves first sorting your stuff into two piles: (1) a small pile of critical, irreplaceable, highly valuable stuff (checkbooks, financial records, passports, personal electronics, etc.) and (2) a large pile of all of your other stuff.

During a move, I always kept the critical pile nearby at all times (a daypack filled with the critical stuff came in handy). Since you are moving three people, you might need more space for the critical stuff - 3 daypacks, perhaps?

There are so many distractions during a move that it's easy to take your eye off the ball. Having your critical stuff nearby at all times reduces the probability that this will happen.

Good luck!

[msanniee]

Sold my condo in SF Bay Area. Put everything I kept into storage and used that profits to buy a house in South Carolina. Used Airbnb part of the time, stayed with friends some of the time until my house was built.

Get rid of stuff. Donate, sell, or foster upon your friends. Don't move it. It was a nice feeling for me to have my new home streamlined. I rarely miss anything that I didn't hold on to for the move.

For me it was easier as it was just me. Good luck on your move. When you are in your forever home, you'll be happy and know the hassles were worth it.

[RHONDAVE]

Congratulations on getting Unstuck from Ill. I just got Unstuck from Nebraska also. The second time in 2.5 years and moving back to Goodyear, AZ for good, but leaving MIL here in Midwest. I recall a previous 'being stuck' discussion, do you? I placed an ad in Nextdoor.com in our old neighborhood in AZ and found some part time residents that will let me use their garage and even their furnished house and be just blocks away from our new home as its being built. I am getting real good at moving. Good Luck, See ya there!

[meleana]

Your situation is a lot better than ours will be. At least you will have something to move into before your Illinois house sells. To me- that is GOLDEN!


For us- we need the money from the sale of our only home in order to buy another in another state where the housing is more expensive and limited for what we want.Makes me sick just thinking about it. I really hate the idea of having to rent and put things in storage and waiting around hoping for a home we want (we prefer a 55+ active adult community in NH. Good luck with that I see).


Not to mention we probably won't have enough $$ from the proceeds of our home sale, meaning we will have to dip into our retirement accounts to put towards it.


I am starting to by lottery scratch offs.


Anyway, best of luck with everything!

[meleana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom52 We are right now in the middle of a 1200 mile move from Iowa to Florida. We purchased a home in February in Florida, then came back to Iowa to prepare for the move. As of this date we have a purchase agreement signed for the purchase of our house in Iowa, closing hopefully about mid May. We are moving only about 10%-15% of all our possessions. We are moving very little furniture as most of what we own is 20 years old and we want to purchase new in more of a Florida style. Over the last 35 days we have packed up everything ourselves that we plan to take. We contracted with Allied to come load us up next Monday April 22. We are also moving a classic car and have arranged with a car transporter to take it to Florida for us. We sold a car and quite a few items on Craigslist, and the rest that we are not taking with us will be sold at auction at a cost of 20% of selling price. We did this b/4 when we cleaned out parent's house 5 years ago with very good result. We will be leaving Iowa the day after Allied picks up our possessions. We do not plan to return for either the auction or for closing on our house. Only possible downside is if home buyer gets cold feet and backs out at last minute. We would then have to come back and get it listed with a realtor. The current sale was done without realtor and utilizing our attorney. Much cheaper all around that way. Assuming house sale goes thru as expected, we then pay off Florida home, buy a new golf cart, then get settled in to our new lifestyle. Our situations are similar in some respects and different in others. The only recommendation I would make to you is leave ALL the furniture behind. Why pay huge $ to move it when it likely needs replaced due to age, or style, or size. You would save a lot of storage fees if you are required to store the furniture. Good luck with your move. It is a ton of work but since we are on the downhill side of it we are really getting excited.

Can you tell me how you sold your home yourself? The details? How/where you advertised? What it cost you minus the attorney? Where did you get your For Sale sign made up? How you handled inquiries and showings? Things like that.

We are considering this also since our home has barely appreciated in our area due to market conditions (not the condition of the home, which is updated and has all the conveniences you could want, plus a lot of land).


Also- did you take out a mortgage on your Florida home then? No issues getting a mortgage being retired? If so, my fear would be that soemthing could go wrong with your sale and then you are stuck with 2 homes and the expenses that go along with that. That is what I worry about and we can't afford two houses expenses. We at least do not have a mortgage on our current home, but still...