Sunday, January 17, 2010

I Need Your Help!!

Yep! That's right!! I need the help of the blogger community because I may have a "situation" and I'm not quite sure how to solve it.  So here it goes...

There's a chance that I may have a job offer which requires me to relocate & I'm not sure where to start looking...for apartments, condos, lofts, whatever.  I don't know where I want to live - directly in these cities or on the outskirts, so blogger friends if you live anywhere in the areas, please please please help me out!

My choice cities:
  • Boston, MA
  • Chicago, IL
  • Hartford, CT
  • Florham Park, NJ
  • San Francisco, CA
  • NYC
I've crossed San Fran off the list, I do not want to live on the west coast.  Not that there's anything wrong with the west coast, I just don't want to live there.  I would love to live in NYC, but I don't think I could afford it & lastly Hartford - well that's just off the list cause it is.  I hate Hartford lol.

All of the cities above are pretty expensive & I'm not sure if I can really afford to live in the city right now; I'm thinking outskirts would be much more affordable.  Here's my problem though: I own a home (which I would have to sell or rent out), I have a lease on a pretty new Acura TL so I think I've crossed NYC out totally because it doesn't even make sense to take a car with you to NYC. 

The company is only offering $10K in relocation, which isn't bad, but for someone like me with a mortgage payment and a new car payment, $10K isn't much.  In essence, this means I will be making a mortgage payment, car payment, rent in a new city, and all of my other bills that I have to pay.  I think it's probably best to sell the house & I will definitely look into that!

So folks - right now my top choices are Boston, Florham Park, & then Chicago.  Does anyone live close to or know anyone that lives close to these cities?  If so, are there any suburbs around them that are fairly safe AND inexpensive?  And by inexpensive I mean $800 - $1000 a month in rent.  Because this job, like my current job entails quite a bit of travel, I probably won't be driving my car much; however, I need to live somewhere that is accessible to public transportation - (train/subway) so I can get back & forth to the office and the airport.

My next task is finding a moving company that can come to GA, pack my stuff up & move it to one of these cities.  I know of a couple of moving companies such as UPack, Allied Van Lines, & Mayflower & need to contact them for a quote.  

Nothing is finalized yet; I had my 3rd interview on Friday, January 15th, but the guy that I interviewed with said I did an excellent job & he was quite impressed.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the best!  My recruiter has already advised me that she wants me to fly into Charlotte on 1/29/10 for my final interview if the 3rd interview went well.  I'll know more on Monday hopefully & when I find out, I'll be sure to give yall the low down! :)

Thanks in advance for all of your help, I definitely need any help/advice I can get right now!

10 comments:

Soph! said...

Unfortunately, I have never lived in those cities, so I can't offer any advice. I do want to say congratulations! Can't wait to hear the results!

Amanda Wissmann said...

Woohoo! CONGRATS! I wouldnt know where to tell you, since I have never lived any of those places... Although, I hear Chicago is fabulous!

Laura&Chris said...

Unfortunately I'm not much help up here in Ontario ...unless you ever have a job offer for Toronto and feel like moving to Canada! ;) Wishing you the best of luck!!

quarter-life lady. said...

Congrats! And good luck. I hear they are fun cities -- Boston and Chicago -- but kinda expensive. I hope you find a good and fun place to live!

Becca Christensen said...

I think I can help...

If you want to keep a car than cross Chicago off the list. Rent on keeping a car in a garage at a complex there is usually about the same as renting a place to sleep. Boo.

We used to live in Boston and though I hate the cold it is a BEAUTIFUL place to live. The have the prettiest falls. : ] And you could live near water which I think is always a bonus.

Those are my thoughts.

Proud of you.

Becca

Becca Christensen said...

Ps: In my finance class they just did a real estate lesson on how to do little things to ur house ot make it easier to sell. I'll see if I can burn you a copy...

Jill said...

Congrats! How exciting!
My sister goes to college near Boston and loves it. She takes the train into Boston about once a month. I don't know how much rent or anything is though :/ She describes Boston as a smaller NYC.

michelle said...

my friend just moved out of boston (for grad school), i remember there being decent public transit. i'll pick her brain :)

Kristina said...

Boston is a good city but it's quite expensive. Chicago is the best! Very diverse, fun and cool, not as pricey as Boston or San Fran. Where is that town in Jersey? North or south? I live in Philly so if it's a south Jersey location, then Philly would be your major city but if North, then NYC. Good luck!!!

Jill said...

I just gave u 2 awards on my site :)