walkinwood
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I wrote this post over the past few weeks. I am happy to answer questions or elaborate on points. Thanks for reading
When we ER'd in 2008, we knew we would move from the town we were living in (in NJ), but didn't know the timetable or the future location. As we traveled, we kept our eyes open for possibilities. Our requirements were- an urban location
- socially and environmentally progressive
- lots of things to do with easy access - especially outdoors
- employment opportunities in case we needed to go back to work
- and of course, affordable.
A few cities we traveled to met the criteria in varying degrees. Portland OR won our hearts; we loved Seattle, Asheville NC was nice, but a bit too small for us. Friends of ours suggested Boulder, so we went to take a look. While there, we spent 3 days in Denver and decided that it was a good candidate. We deliberated for a couple of months & decided to move.
As I have written before, we went back to work for most of 2010 to shore up our portfolio.
We sold our NJ house in mid-2011 & moved to Denver. Not knowing much about the city (or even if we'd like it), we rented for a year while we explored the neighborhoods and the available housing stock. We love Denver! After living in a 1925 house for 15 years, we knew we wanted something new, so after much looking, we bought a new house - and moved in last week.
I thought I'd share some of the things we learned along the way:
- Take your time deciding on the place. While we made a decision after visiting for just 3 days, we had been thinking of it for years and knew what we were looking for, so when we saw what we wanted, the decision was easy.
- Be honest about what you're giving up. Know that you may never get some things back. In our case, it was our wonderful neighborhood & neighbors & proximity to (imho) one of the greatest cities in the world (NYC). We are also far from most of our family & friends, but again, we made a conscious decision & also decided that we would make the effort to stay in touch.
- There never is a right time to do this. Life intervenes, and you just have to take a decision and do it.
- Prepping your home for sale, selecting a realtor, selling it, selecting a mover, packing your belongings, moving them & yourselves, buying/renting another home, moving in, filing moving-damage claims (there will be damage), unpacking, settling in - is a lot of work and a major PIA. Don't underestimate the physical & emotional effort involved. I am glad we did it while still young and energetic.
- The cost of living sites are generic - you need to live somewhere to get a feel for your own personal cost of living. With the huge exception of health-insurance cost (50% less) and property taxes (35% of our NJ taxes), the other expenses were more or less the same. A small surprise - our auto insurance went up a bit!
- Renting is expensive if you want to live in a place that is comparable to a house that you would buy. Since we've just bought, I don't have actuals on our housing costs, but estimate that it will be about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost or renting. The main reason is that safe investments (the proceeds from your home sale) are making nothing today. On the other hand, making a mistake with a real estate purchase is way more expensive. We are glad we rented.
- If you don't know people in your new town, you need to work at making friends. IMHO, there are friendly people (your type) everywhere, and you just need to make the effort to find them. The effort pays off big time in the long run. We have made a small group of friends here that we just love. meetup.com is a great resource.
- We found the change invigorating. DW commented that it was like dating again. We loved our old neighborhood & neighbors, but we had our set of friends, our set of restaurants, things to do etc - in other words, we were 'settled' - almost in a rut. This move made us go out and explore and we love it. And we keep an eye out to make sure we don't fall in a rut again - time will tell.
When we ER'd in 2008, we knew we would move from the town we were living in (in NJ), but didn't know the timetable or the future location. As we traveled, we kept our eyes open for possibilities. Our requirements were- an urban location
- socially and environmentally progressive
- lots of things to do with easy access - especially outdoors
- employment opportunities in case we needed to go back to work
- and of course, affordable.
A few cities we traveled to met the criteria in varying degrees. Portland OR won our hearts; we loved Seattle, Asheville NC was nice, but a bit too small for us. Friends of ours suggested Boulder, so we went to take a look. While there, we spent 3 days in Denver and decided that it was a good candidate. We deliberated for a couple of months & decided to move.
As I have written before, we went back to work for most of 2010 to shore up our portfolio.
We sold our NJ house in mid-2011 & moved to Denver. Not knowing much about the city (or even if we'd like it), we rented for a year while we explored the neighborhoods and the available housing stock. We love Denver! After living in a 1925 house for 15 years, we knew we wanted something new, so after much looking, we bought a new house - and moved in last week.
I thought I'd share some of the things we learned along the way:
- Take your time deciding on the place. While we made a decision after visiting for just 3 days, we had been thinking of it for years and knew what we were looking for, so when we saw what we wanted, the decision was easy.
- Be honest about what you're giving up. Know that you may never get some things back. In our case, it was our wonderful neighborhood & neighbors & proximity to (imho) one of the greatest cities in the world (NYC). We are also far from most of our family & friends, but again, we made a conscious decision & also decided that we would make the effort to stay in touch.
- There never is a right time to do this. Life intervenes, and you just have to take a decision and do it.
- Prepping your home for sale, selecting a realtor, selling it, selecting a mover, packing your belongings, moving them & yourselves, buying/renting another home, moving in, filing moving-damage claims (there will be damage), unpacking, settling in - is a lot of work and a major PIA. Don't underestimate the physical & emotional effort involved. I am glad we did it while still young and energetic.
- The cost of living sites are generic - you need to live somewhere to get a feel for your own personal cost of living. With the huge exception of health-insurance cost (50% less) and property taxes (35% of our NJ taxes), the other expenses were more or less the same. A small surprise - our auto insurance went up a bit!
- Renting is expensive if you want to live in a place that is comparable to a house that you would buy. Since we've just bought, I don't have actuals on our housing costs, but estimate that it will be about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost or renting. The main reason is that safe investments (the proceeds from your home sale) are making nothing today. On the other hand, making a mistake with a real estate purchase is way more expensive. We are glad we rented.
- If you don't know people in your new town, you need to work at making friends. IMHO, there are friendly people (your type) everywhere, and you just need to make the effort to find them. The effort pays off big time in the long run. We have made a small group of friends here that we just love. meetup.com is a great resource.
- We found the change invigorating. DW commented that it was like dating again. We loved our old neighborhood & neighbors, but we had our set of friends, our set of restaurants, things to do etc - in other words, we were 'settled' - almost in a rut. This move made us go out and explore and we love it. And we keep an eye out to make sure we don't fall in a rut again - time will tell.