Relocating...without a job
 

Okay, so I've done the obligatory "search on North Carolina and you'll see a bunch of posts about relocating to the area," and I still have a couple questions for you guys.

My husband and I (like everyone else, it seems) are planning on moving to NC in the next year or so. We've nailed down our choices to:

Fort Mill, SC
Waxhaw, NC
Weddington, NC
Apex, NC
Wake Forest, NC
Fuquay-Varina, NC
Garner, NC
Holly Springs, NC

The reason we've chosen those cities is that my husband is a Realtor and wants to move to an area where the town is ripe for a real estate boom. I know a few of those cities have already experienced the boom (Apex, Wake Forest in particular).

The problem is that we'll be moving with no jobs in place. I am an exec. asst. in NYC and make a great salary that basically supports the family. My husband's RE is filler-income at this point. I know I'll be taking a MAJOR drop in pay when we move, especially since I'll need to find a job pretty quickly and won't have the luxury of waiting for the best job to come along.

As for real estate, our other concern is that it may take some time for my husband's RE business to really form. Any insight on this? He's a hard worker and his clients up here in NoNJ really like him, so he's a great Realtor. Are we naive to think that because the RE market in NC is so hot that he'll be able to leap right in and immediately begin helping people buy/sell houses?

My hope is that within 2-3 years of moving there I'll be able to quit working altogether and can concentrate on being an at-home mom to our two kids (and possibly third if all goes well in the next few months). But that can only happen if my husband has success with RE.

SO, to recap:

Are those towns really experiencing a boom in RE?
Will a new-to-the-area be able to build a RE business pretty quickly due to the boom?

Thanks for any and all responses,
Jaynee

Jobs are iffy in the areas you list.
I would not move down without a job lined up.

I hate to say this but potential employers will look at your experience and deem you over qualified for a $7.25 an hour admin assistants job.

Executive assistant positions are promoted from within usually.

I would most likely try to get a job in Charlotte or Raleigh - depending on which smaller town we move to. I contacted a recruiter in C'lotte and sent along my resume to get a feel for what I'd be able to find, and she said that based on my resume they'd be able to find me a job paying within 20% of my current salary - which is workable since our mortgage payments will be dropping by 50% when we move. Our main concern is for my HUSBAND'S short-term career chances.

Jaynee, honestly I doubt you are going to come within 20% of your current salary only if your currently salary is $40,000 a year or less.

That would put you at $32,000 which isn't much for Charlotte or Raleigh unless you don't mind long commutes.

My commute is already 45-60 minutes each way, so that's no big deal.

i think you can do it. I recently got my real estate license but haven't started working yet. I'm getting my broker license first. my neighobrs both are real estate sales people working for established brokers and are doing well.

You should be able to get a job somewhere or temp. The biggest issue I would think is how old your kids are. Childcare out here is very expensive and could possibly cost the amount of your job!

Wake Forest homes are a little more expensive than that of Fuquay or Garner.

Anything is do able if you put your mind to it!

Although there are a ton of properties for sale, there is an equally large number of Realtors in Charlotte. The first three places you have listed are essentially 'burbs of Charlotte. Many of the banks in Charlotte use monster.com, you may want to take a look on there. I'm way to old to be moving across country w/out a job, but good luck if you choose to do so.

I can't comment on the availability of jobs or whether or not you should relocate without a job lined up. Only you know if that is right for you. I can tell you that it takes time for any new business to get established - how long it takes is anybody's guess.

As someone who moved from a NYC suburb (and made the daily commute to mid-town) to a "smaller" southern city it's easy to be misled by "commuting times". A 45 to 60 minute commute from the suburbs to NYC means you probably live only about 10 to 15 miles from your office (assuming you work in mid-town Manhattan) and you spend your time mostly in traffic. Where I now live (and from what I know about NC) a 45 to 60 minute commute means you could be living as much as 40 to 50 miles from the office. You spend that time driving on highways. All that highway driving adds a lot of miles and wear & tear on your car, increases your fuel bill, and the commute only gets longer as urban sprawl brings more and more people to the area. My point is, when relocating to a new area consider distance as well as time for your commute.

I agree with A_Traveller and GoTravel. As A_Traveller said, a 45 minute commute up North is VERY different than a 45 commute down South. I used to live in Boston and it could take me 45 minutes to go 10 miles from Cambridge to my office in Downtown Crossing. Now living back home in Charleston, a 45 minute drive is about a 30-35 mile drive and my car is definitely feeling it.

As far as GoTravel's comments on salaries...she's spot on. Since moving back to Charleston, it's been challenging to find a job that pays what is necessary to live here. Contrary to popular opinion, living in the South is not as cheap as people think. If you go to www.salary.com, you can do a cost of living comparision to NYC and where you want to move. While living in Boston, I was making a decent salary and paying $1800/mo in rent. In Charleston, I'm looking at paying $900-$1000/mo on basically 1/2 my salary.

For better or worse, the housing market in the South, particularly here in Charleston has gotten extremely high...it has pretty much hit the ceiling. Most of the towns you mentioned are suburbs of larger cities (as SAnParis) mentioned and friends in Charlotte say the housing market is similar to Charleston.

I'm in no way trying to discourage your move...just want to let you know things from my perspective. Whatever you decide will be best for you and your family and I wish the best of luck!

Okay, so my husband and I spent a good portion of the weekend talking about our plans for moving to NC. We've decided to do the following:

1) Buy land in town we like best that seems to be near all areas ripe for a budding RE business
2) Come up with floorplans and get contractor bids
3) Put our house in NJ on the market
4) Upon sale/close of NJ house find and sign a 1-yr lease on 2-bedroom apartment in NC
5) Jaynee finds a job in C'lotte/Raleigh (whichever area we live near)
6) Select final contractor and begin building custom home
7) Finish home within a year, move in!

We won't be eligible to pay capital gains taxes on our NJ house sale, so our thought is that by dumping 60% of home sale profit into the new construction and the other 40% into savings, that combining my salary, my husband's meager RE and the savings that we'll be able to live at our current level for about two years. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) That's more than enough time for my husband's RE business to really take off. With any luck our savings will never become depleted again like they are now.

Also, with my husband's flexible schedule he'll be able to go to the work site to check on the builder's progress of our house, thus ensuring that the process goes as smoothly as reasonably possible.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again to those that posted - it was helpful during our discussions this weekend!

Jaynee7283: It's always easier to find a job when you HAVE a job. When you don't, you have NO bargaining chips! And, I think people wonder what is wrong with you (not that anything actually is wrong!), that you DON'T have a job! It's a deterrant to hiring.

Belle

Um, I'm not sure the following is going to happen:

>7) Finish home within a year, move in!

Good luck. And if this happens, you have a lot of luck on your side. The builders here are like most builders, everything should be ready in 2-weeks (ha!). With all the construction, it's hard to schedule the inspectors.

There are way too many Realtors around here (Durham-Chapel Hill area). I live in a 'starter' home area with a lot of home turnover. I'm getting at least 3-4 realtor solicitations a month. If you can be the agent for a new neighborhood, you'll have a better chance than trying to build a business.

Listen to GoTravel, she's a smart woman.

BEfore you make any long term plans, I would suggest taking a week or so and go to the area and spend some time there, house hunting and job seeking. I would think that the job you have here in NYC is not going to be readily comparable to a position there without alot of looking.

I would check monster.com, careerbuilder.com jobs.com and the local newspapers online to see what kind of positions are available, so you have some idea of what you can expect.

The best of luck to you!!!

Jaynee, I don't think anyone is trying to talk you out of moving but maybe rethinking your priorities.

1) Have a job before you move.

Your time frame sounds great but I'm not sure it is going to happen.

Employers down here are going to be suspect of why you are leaving such a high paying job. When I get resumes such as yours, I immediately throw them away thinking that as soon as a better offer comes around, you'll leave.

As you know we are experiencing a building boom in the south. The resort I work in has an 11 month waiting list just to start construction on new homes and we build year around because our ground doesn't freeze.

1) The problem with getting a job before I move is that I'm a secretary - no one is going to hire an out of town secretary for an in town job. It would be one thing if I was a true "career" person that a company seeks out. I'm not. The only way for me to get a job is to go down there and BE there and get one. I have no aversion to temping until the right position comes along. I've done it before, and I can do it again. It also helps that I have contacts in C'lotte/Raleigh that could possibly recommend me (in fields such as law, commercial real estate, insurance, banking).

2) I know houses take longer than a year to build nowadays. That was my optimism showing. =)

3) I know that Realtors are taking over the world - that's why my husband wants to pick an area that is only now starting to hint at future growth rather than move to one that has already become a hotbed.

wantsomesun - we're taking a trip in a couple of weeks to spend 10 days in NC specifically for the purpose of moving to NC. After we have the specific towns picks out that we like we'll begin hunting for land, taking more trips as necessary with a goal of owning land by April 2006.

Jaynee, Raleigh and Charlotte are already building hotbeds.

Checkout Lancaster South Carolina. It is about 35 miles from Charlotte over the state line.

Very inexpensive to live there.

GoTravel - I'm not the type to floating from job to job when a better offer comes. That's obvious from my resume, which shows that my last job was held for 8 years before moving to my current job. As for taking the lower salary, I HAVE to take a lower salary in NC if only because NO ONE in NC pays what I make here (heck, it took me six months to find my current job because no one in NJ pays like NYC!).

I would hope that employers would take my resume seriously - despite the "negative" of being a NYC transplant.

goTravel - we're not planning on living in C'lotte or Raleigh - we are looking to live OUTSIDE those cities in one of the towns listed in my original post, and focusing on RE in those small towns and even further out. But we need to be relatively close to C'lotte/Raleigh for my own employment needs.

""As for taking the lower salary, I HAVE to take a lower salary in NC if only because NO ONE in NC pays what I make here""

Yes, I am aware of that fact.