Moving after just one year?

[Ravenclaw]

So I kind of hate where we live. It's not a bad place - it's just not for us. We had literally one day to look at places and 10 of the 10 we had researched online turned out to be duds in person (either gross inside or in really bad neighborhoods). A friend was living in this building and it was the last place that we saw. We ended up choosing it because it was not gross like the others we had seen, close to the hospital and in a nice area. It's still very old (like most places in NE cities).

We're not big city people at all. Parking is such a hassle here and we really don't like old places. We've only been here 2 weeks and DH seems to be giving it a fairer shot. But I'm guessing once his hours starts getting rougher, he'll get annoyed with the parking situation. If we move further out, we can probably find a newer place and easier parking. Is it worth it if we'll only be here 3 years?

I know moving is a huge hassle but, are moves within the same city just as hard? We used a full service mover this time but if we move next year, we'll probably just get a U-Haul to save money. Any advice?

[SuzySunshine]

Are you renting now?

Personally I think in town moves are just as hard, if not harder because it usually takes more then one truck load, trying to find a weekend when you can move when DH is home can be tough and then there is all of the packing and unpacking.

If you're seriously considering it, I would figure out now what you need and what you don't - leave what you can packed and then its already done in a year when you want to move.

I would have done our residency move differently. We wouldn't have moved into temp housing and then bought, but we would have done our house hunting differently.

Give it some time, you might change your mind and if not I don't think its unreasonable to move at all.

I think three years is a long time to not like where you are living.

IMO, a city to city move is harder than a within city move. BUT, going through that now, it is still a PITA to pack everything up and unpack and you still have to do the change of address, utilities, etc.

We are using a local moving company. It is around $75/hr with a three hour minimum. Sign me up!

We just did an in-city move. We moved to the area a year ago in mid-July. We liked our place but our landlord decided to sell it, so we had to be out of there by this July 1. So we were in that place one year, and just moved (a week ago) within the same city to a new rental. We'll be in this rental 1-2 years at the most. If I get into school, we'll be moving next June or July.

Personally, I thought the in-city move was a lot easier than moving halfway across the country to come to this city in the first place. The reasons it was easier were: 1) we didn't have to pack everything like we did last time, since we could take our breakables in the car over to the new place. So that meant less time packing, b/c we didn't have to painstakingly wrap all the breakables in bubble wrap, etc. b/c we took them in the car instead of them going in the moving van. We also didn't pack as painstakingly with the other stuff b/c it was just going from our place to the van to the new place instead of having to undergo the truck changes required in a cross-country move. So this made the packing easier.

Then 2) there was no waiting three weeks to get our stuff like the move here. We were able to start setting stuff up as soon as we signed the new lease, b/c we brought things over in a few trips. So that made the whole unpacking process easier--not to have to wait three weeks to get started on it.

And 3) once you know the area, (like after you've been there for awhile), you're in a better position to find a new place better suited to you. For instance, DH and I had never been to our current city before we decided to move here in winter '06. So when we came for a housing trip, we had no idea about what neighborhoods were good, etc. We were also shocked by the rental prices. After being here nearly a year, when we were informed we had to find a new place, we had a good idea of what areas we wanted to be in and had a better understanding of where to find better rental prices. As a result, we've found a much better value in terms of what we're renting now vs. what we rented last year.

Anyhow, what I'm trying to say was that our in-city move was much, much easier and less disruptive than our half cross-country move was last year. However, we may not unpack some boxes since we know there's a good chance we'll be moving again (out of state) in less than a year.

We did realize, however, that we would have saved money if our in-city movers had done a per pound pricing system rather than the per-hour we got charged. We were considering a couple of in-city movers, and they all only did per hour. We spent more on the per-hour system than we would have if they did it by pounds, we realized, because the company we used also charged by the hour for their travel time--which added up fast.

By the way, in our last place, which was in the city, we had no designated parking spot: only street parking. It was a big pain to have to circle multiple times to find a spot, and then to carry all your stuff--groceries, etc.--all the way back to the apartment. I know it's a big pain.

[DCJenn]

It all sucks.

The amount of suckage is related to the distance of the move but having done 4 LD and 3 in-city (one was three blocks) they all bit the big one in one way or the other.

Actually, the 3 block move was probably the most tedious since we 'thought' we'd just take our time and do it over weeks....hahahahaha. Yup- that was the move that ended at 4am.

Jenn

[Ravenclaw]

Yeah we have a one year lease. I know we will definitely stay in this apartment for one year. After that we were considering 1- moving into a bigger apartment within the same building, 2-moving to an entirely different area, or 3-staying put. I'm all for option 2 at this point but I know how much of a pain it is to move.

The movers did say ours was an easy job, so if we can round up some guy friends for a day and maybe get a one week overlapping lease, perhaps it won't be so bad. We could move the small boxes and stuff on our own in the evenings after work and then rent a small U-Haul for the furniture.

I guess there's no point worrying about it now. We'll see come May of next year how we feel and scope out some places. Maybe it will grow on us? (Highly doubt it though!!)

Oh my gosh I think you'd be nuts to stay somewhere you are not happy for an extra two years! Moving sucks but it sucks less than living somewhere you don't like, and it is temporary suckage too. One of the benefits of renting is the (relative) freedom to move. IMO. (I would not recommend moving EVERY year like we have for the last 10 years though!).