New Job in a New City!!!

[burbuja0512]

Awesome news!


My main advice was ALWAYS check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) 1st before you pick a mover if you are going to hire a mover. (I think hiring a mover is a wise move because it's pretty far, and it will cost you time and a lot of money unless you have a caravan of Uhauls and 3-4 trustworthy drivers to move a house with a family. Once you pick your mover make 100% sure you have a signed contract. My parents got screwed by their moving company and were charged thousands of dollars more than they were quoted and they did not get their stuff back for 3 weeks…almost a month and when they did their stuff was damaged. If you don't have a contract, you have no legal recourse. They can charge you whatever they feel like. If you have a contract that includes all supplies and time lines, etc. you can have a leg to stand on (and some clean clothes on your back)! My parents were royally screwed, which is why I feel like I have to tell you how important this is.

Thank you - lots of great advice.. I couldn't agree more about the movers. Last time I moved was 6+ years ago and it was only a mile from a small house to a larger house and we hired movers just to help with the heavy stuff. Since we didn't need them to do everything, we decided we would just pay for three hours of work. Well, I have never seen people take SOOOOO many cigarette breaks. I'm not kidding!! These guys literally stepped outside to smoke every 15 minutes and went to the bathroom or to get a sip of water at least twice an hour. We ended up yelling at them - told them that we'd pay them for 5 hours, but they had to actually work. Was a total nightmare and I will never pay movers by the hour again... just by the job and they can take it or leave it if they don't like it.

@Mrs. B & EI2HCB- thank you for all the suburb suggestions. I've looked into some of these so far and see quite a few good options. The housing market in Illinois is bad compared to here so I should be able to get a decent place once we sell our house. The only problem I see are the mind-boggling property taxes. HOLY COW!!! Some of the properties that look like a "good deal" have annual tax bills of 10k or more!!!! OMG never seen anything like it!! We're basing our housing search around which suburbs are slightly less expensive. None of them are great, but trying to find a great place that won't charge us so much just to buy a house there.