Mother of all Moves

[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?

[ShokWaveRider]

Good luck with your move, getting it all coordinated unless you have a place to stay in the interim is a challenge. We have always secured a rental or something so we did not have to rush anything. If one is in a rush, one will tend to take offers on one's home or property that normally would have been turned down.

Personally I would do it the other way round. Use the AZ condo as the interim. Then sell it at your leisure when the IL home is gone and the new home is purchased. Again allowing you time to move etc. Just my 02c

[HarveyS]

Last time I moved domestically (1998), the professional moving firm (Allied) held my goods for 30 days as part of the package. That allowed me time to find a house & close without incurring additional cost. Everything was moved out of house 1 onto the truck, off the truck into the warehouse, onto a different truck and into house 2. Yes, there was some damage and it was all covered by the moving company. I don't think the damage was due to the additional moves, rather poor packing.

What about MIL house and MIL stuff? Is she with you now?

Just to throw a wrench into this.... how much of your IL stuff will go with the AZ house? Are there furnished homes in AZ (I am familiar with FL) that if purchased would minimize the amount of stuff moved from IL to AZ?

[snowboarder]

Ah the dream of leaving Illinois!! Is is the taxes or the terrible drivers on the highways? Pritzker perharps?? Good luck with the move!!

[Cassius King]

Feel like #3 and #1 should be reversed. Use your condo as homebase until the other pieces are done.

[FlaGator]

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?

Wow! Congratulations on the move, I know it's taken a while to make the decision.

I moved from S. FL to the Panhandle (600 miles), but only had the S. FL house to sell, and just wanted to rent for awhile before buying in the 850. My sequence:
1. Find the rental
2. Clean out S. FL house, move the balance into rental. It was a substantial cleaning out and reduction of possessions.
3. Paint, clean up and do some deferred maintenance on the SoFla house before listing it for sale.
4. Closed on the house in the 850 about 10 months after moving, so had plenty of time to move from the townhouse.

There was some cost and inconvience with this approach, but it also elimanted the hassle of trying to sell a house I was living in and allowed me to move on my schedule.

If you can swing it, I would buy the AZ house first, vacate and sell the condo, then deal with the IL house. Don't think there is an easy or cheap way to pull this off.....

[VanWinkle]

I'm jealous that you are getting to leave Illinois. Congrats on the move and I agree that I would keep the Arizona vacation home as base to purchase a new home there. Maybe even move the MIL there first...

[ShokWaveRider]

When we moved back rom the Cruise Boat in the Caribbean after living aboard for ~3 years, we rented in the 904, moved all our stuff from storage at sisters place in Canada. The rental was furnished so all good.

THEN we started our house hunt, that took us 3 years also as prices were silly at the time. Then we closed on the hone 3 months before our rental lease terminated. Gave us lots of time and really was not that much of an additional expense for the peace of mind. Also gave us time to do some general move in changes to the new home.

[steelyman]

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?

I moved after ER and wasn’t able (didn’t try, actually) to bypass using a storage facility. I also needed temporary housing and would have loved to have an existing condo like you have.

I wouldn’t characterize my move as smooth but in retrospect I wish I’d downsized MUCH more in my former state (coincidentally, IL). The more stuff you can jettison, the less that has to be lugged around while you get settled.

[ADDED] I’m still tossing stuff out at a snail’s pace, asking myself, “what were you thinking?”.

[REWahoo]

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.

And now we know the answer to the old early retirement question, "But what will you DO all day?"

[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.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassius King Feel like #3 and #1 should be reversed. Use your condo as homebase until the other pieces are done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider Good luck with your move, getting it all coordinated unless you have a place to stay in the interim is a challenge. We have always secured a rental or something so we did not have to rush anything. If one is in a rush, one will tend to take offers on one's home or property that normally would have been turned down. Personally I would do it the other way round. Use the AZ condo as the interim. Then sell it at your leisure when the IL home is gone and the new home is purchased. Again allowing you time to move etc. Just my 02c

Selling the house first and moving to the condo is a possibility. I like the idea, but fitting any more in the condo would be tough. And I would need to rent storage space and garage space to pull this option off. We are going to use the condo soon as a base for finding the house.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarveyS Last time I moved domestically (1998), the professional moving firm (Allied) held my goods for 30 days as part of the package. That allowed me time to find a house & close without incurring additional cost. Everything was moved out of house 1 onto the truck, off the truck into the warehouse, onto a different truck and into house 2. Yes, there was some damage and it was all covered by the moving company. I don't think the damage was due to the additional moves, rather poor packing. What about MIL house and MIL stuff? Is she with you now? Just to throw a wrench into this.... how much of your IL stuff will go with the AZ house? Are there furnished homes in AZ (I am familiar with FL) that if purchased would minimize the amount of stuff moved from IL to AZ?

Wow - didn't know that moving co's would hold stuff.
MIL lives in an apt. and has minimal stuff. She would probably only want to keep a couple pieces of furniture.

DW wants new furniture in the Az house. So we shouldn't have to move many big items. And I doubt that we will find a house furnished to DW's liking - but it is possible.

[38Chevy454]

I retired and moved 1500 miles cross country. I have a big detached garage, several old cars and lot of tools and car parts, so it was a bunch more stuff to deal with. I was able to negotiate an extra month to stay in old place, paying the buyer a 1 month cost. My new house here was still under construction, so I still had to put stuff into storage for about 6 months. Yes it meant having to handle stuff twice. I used movers to do all the house stuff from old house to storage, then local movers from storage to new house. I moved all the garage stuff myself, that was lot of work with heavy items and boxes. Being from the storage unit, I could do it on my timeframe and was not required to do it all in one or two days.



Moving companies will hold your stuff, but the cost is high. Because they unload into a warehouse, then reload once ready to bring to your new house. You are paying for the convenience. I would go for self storage route and even if you do like I did and hire local movers, it will be less cost.


Good luck with the sales and working out the logistics of it all. I think good moving out of IL, does not seem to be much good news coming out of there vs the amount of bad news.

[pb4uski]

I would reverse 1 and 2 so I didn't need to move stuff (or pay to move stuff) twice.... so buy AZ house and then sell AZ condo/move stuff from AZ condo to AZ house.

If house closing is first you can always move some/many/all things from AZ condo to AZ house before AZ condo closes.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowboarder Ah the dream of leaving Illinois!! Is is the taxes or the terrible drivers on the highways? Pritzker perharps?? Good luck with the move!!

Thanks - I paid $0 income tax in Illinois, but the real estate tax more than accounts for the $0 state income tax. Pritzker hasn't done anything to cause us to move - yet. And the drivers are worse in Az.

[ckelly78z]

Somehow, I have this picture in my mind of the MIL on the roof of the family truckster, in her rocking chair.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski I would reverse 1 and 2 so I didn't need to move stuff (or pay to move stuff) twice.... so buy AZ house and then sell AZ condo/move stuff from AZ condo to AZ house. If house closing is first you can always move some/many/all things from AZ condo to AZ house before AZ condo closes.

This only works if the OP doesn't intend to use the proceeds from the condo to pay for the house. Basically they are going to own 3 homes at the same time.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlaGator Wow! Congratulations on the move, I know it's taken a while to make the decision. I moved from S. FL to the Panhandle (600 miles), but only had the S. FL house to sell, and just wanted to rent for awhile before buying in the 850. My sequence: 1. Find the rental 2. Clean out S. FL house, move the balance into rental. It was a substantial cleaning out and reduction of possessions. 3. Paint, clean up and do some deferred maintenance on the SoFla house before listing it for sale. 4. Closed on the house in the 850 about 10 months after moving, so had plenty of time to move from the townhouse. There was some cost and inconvience with this approach, but it also elimanted the hassle of trying to sell a house I was living in and allowed me to move on my schedule. If you can swing it, I would buy the AZ house first, vacate and sell the condo, then deal with the IL house. Don't think there is an easy or cheap way to pull this off.....

Thanks for the details of your move. Buying the Az house first would work nicely. I just need to find one that DW approves of. I think the condo will sell fast, so I could get from 3 dwellings to 2 in a hurry, but I think the Illinois house could take a while.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VanWinkle I'm jealous that you are getting to leave Illinois. Congrats on the move and I agree that I would keep the Arizona vacation home as base to purchase a new home there. Maybe even move the MIL there first...

I've been wanting to leave Illinois for a while. DW says that she will not leave her 90 yo mother here alone. Convinced her mom last week that she needs to move with us. Moving MIL there first would not work - she is afraid to drive anywhere, and our walkability there isn't the best.