Relocation advice

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WhyMe

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After many years of marriage, my SO and i have decided to go our own way in life. Its nothing dramatic, we just split thing and she is paying me off for the house. We will still be friends

Having live in this area my entire life,45 years, i would like to take this opportunity to move to another area, and start a new life. I am semi retired and have cash in the bank with 0 debt.

Having never relocated, i was planning on moving southwest, NV or AZ. My plan was to fly down and look for a room to rent and live for a bit to see if I like it before i buy a home and move my possesions. My only concern is how long it will take for me to find a room. I would have to stay in hotel while looking for the room. Would it be better to rent at a extended stay place first?

so those that have moved, how easy is it to make new friend in a new area?? Cars/Firearms are my hobbies.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I would stay at an extended stay hotel at a known hotel brand. Maybe $1500/month. Maybe go for weekly as you may not want to stay a whole month. You will need a car to drive around and figure out if you want to stay.
 
Semi retired, can you be a caretaker for a big property? Or are you more of a city person? Is there a volunteer fire dept that will let you live in a dorm above the garage? Buy a $1000 RV and park it in a walmart parking lot? Old trailer? Rent a room in someone's house? CL is your pal nowadays.

I'd get a low key part time job, if you want lady friends work in a supermarket where 80% of the cashiers are female. Volunteer at a hospital or school. I relate better to people with a work ethic and mission... don't really make friends walking into bars.
 
AZ has the best gun laws in the country. The "snow birds" are leaving now to return north so many seasonal rental are available at great prices.
YMMV
PS Cars don't rust out!
 
Best to pick a state where your ex-cannot go back into court after she blows all her money and come after yours claiming she got a raw deal in the initial negotiations. If you think I am crazy for saying this ask a divorce lawyer. BTW, don't tell her you are leaving until you get there. My guess Florida may be your best bet. Move your cash out of State ASAP.

BTW, tons of foreclosure deals on condos and smaller homes.
 
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Texas is very gun-friendly too.

I split with my wife under similar circumstances....she wanted to move to Myrtle Beach and I wanted Houston so when I suggested we both pursue our own wishes, she agreed.

I moved back to the East Coast to add a few years onto my retirement but plan on moving back to Texas the day I retire for good. The climate is great (provided you like hot), no state income tax, and property is relatively inexpensive (excluding real estate taxes which are high near the big cities).

Good luck on the next page of your life story!
 
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^^ Cover your assets, don't be too quick to jump into a mortgage, the economy isn't positioned to make profits it could leave you underwater in a quick order.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
^^ Cover your assets, don't be too quick to jump into a mortgage, the economy isn't positioned to make profits it could leave you underwater in a quick order.


???
1. REO Foreclosures everywhere selling at rock bottom prices
2. Mortgage interest rates at 50 year lows
3. DOW at record levels
 
Flagstaff and Prescott are my favorite places in Arizona. Gun laws are very reasonable and the lack of humidity means you can keep a car as long as you maintain it. They won't rust out. Give San Antonio a shot too. It's another of my favorites.
 
Initially I would check out some of the extended stay places. i am soon to be relocating for job reason and think that is a great way to go. Short term compared to rentals and fully furnished. They are just a cheap place to stay really and sometimes noisy if the contractors around stay out all night. Try asking for a quiet part and you might get lucky. Most of the ones around here ranges from$159-209 per week. Including all utilities and no long term contract pretty good deal compared to $100/night hotels.
 
Make sure you stay through the summer before you buy a place in Arizona. The heat is bad enough, but day after day with nothing but cloudless, windless (depending on your area) sunshine can make you go crazy all by itself. By mid-September (a pleasant month every place in the world but Arizona) the Phoenicians are about off their rockers.

I like Southern Arizona as a retirement area. Its a little higher altitude than Phoenix, Tucson is a thousand feet higher, which helps a little. Other places (Cochise County) are more like 3,500 feet, and have a nearly ideal climate. Not as much riff-raff as Mojave county. That's Tim McVeigh country up there.
 
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Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Make sure you stay through the summer before you buy a place in Arizona. The heat is bad enough, but day after day with nothing but cloudless, windless (depending on your area) sunshine can make you go crazy all by itself. By mid-September (a pleasant month every place in the world but Arizona) the Phoenicians are about off their rockers.

I like Southern Arizona as a retirement area. Its a little higher altitude than Phoenix, Tucson is a thousand feet higher, which helps a little. Other places (Cochise County) are more like 3,500 feet, and have a nearly ideal climate. Not as much riff-raff as Mojave county. That's Tim McVeigh country up there.


thanks for the replys. after 40 so years of 6-9 months of rain and gloom, i would like to think that sun would do me good. I don't mind heat as long as its dry heat.
 
Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
Texas is very gun-friendly too.


Except for Austin.

And no, I'm not just saying that along the lines of "Austin sucks, you really don't want to live here. Go somewhere else. " (although I would if I thought it would stop people from flooding in here... ;-) )

But it really is anti-gun and ridiculously liberal, and is now allegedly the fastest growing city in America
frown.gif
If I hadn't been born here before all the crazies moved in, I'd be gone in a heartbeat... But as it is I'm glad to stick my tongue out at them and proudly be like people from the REST of Texas
wink.gif
 
Check out the Reno area, especially if you like the outdoors in addition to cars and guns. The forecast most days is "sunny and dry." It's high desert, so they have cold winters but not usually much snow. If you want snow, the nearest ski area is 30 minutes away. There's road racing about an hour away and a dragstrip about 2 hours. Hot August Nights is a big car event.

I don't know what their housing market looks like now, but it was way inflated before 2008. Maybe there are some deals to be had now. They don't have state income tax yet.

I would say it is pretty difficult to make new friends anywhere, especially if you aren't moving for a job where you can learn about the area from coworkers. It takes me 2-3 years to settle in.

It goes without saying that Reno is not the place for you if 24-hour gambling and free liquor will run you into the ditch. If you don't want to end up in the ditch, that is.
 
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That's interesting about Austin....I guess all of the "transplants" are making it anti. Houston is very different too...although I worked in Houston, we lived in Porter which is very much different that the city. It seems the people of Houston go way out of their way to avoid appearing to be from Texas....there's Texas and then another world called Houston. However, that part of the Great State is pro!

WhyMe - you'll make friends wherever you land.....be outgoing and friendly and nature will take it's course. My experiences have been to try to NOT act like you've always lived there....let it be known you're "not from around here" and most times...I repeat, most times, people will sort of take you under their wing and friendship is just a handshake away at that point.

A little humor we discovered in Texas; my wife and I visited Laredo one weekend and on the way out had to stop at the Border Checkpoint and the Border patrol asked for ID from each of us. She was driving and I handed her my drivers license to give to him and she handed over hers. He started laughing and said to her "hey - that works for me", handed us our ID's and wished us well as we drove away. She handed me both ID's to put away and it was then I noticed she had mistakenly given him her Texas CHL (concealed handgun license) instead of her drivers license.....Texas is truly a great State!
 
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Originally Posted By: WhyMe


thanks for the replys. after 40 so years of 6-9 months of rain and gloom, i would like to think that sun would do me good. I don't mind heat as long as its dry heat.


Move to the dry side. Find a place over by Banks or Moses Lake.
 
Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
That's interesting about Austin....I guess all of the "transplants" are making it anti. Houston is very different too...although I worked in Houston, we lived in Porter which is very much different that the city. It seems the people of Houston go way out of their way to avoid appearing to be from Texas....there's Texas and then another world called Houston.


I don't mind the liberal bent of Austin even though I'm very conservative. What starts to irritate me is the smug, holier-than-thou blow-hardedness that creeps in at times. Like if the OP's same question were being asked on the old USEnet groups for Austin, between 4 and a dozen people would have already assured the OP not to worry, that "its nothing like the rest of the hick state of Texas." And that would make me seethe. Houston's got its oddities- the 4th largest city in the US and famously never enacted any zoning laws, for example. What say we pick on Dallas next? ;-)
 
If you want a dry heat then do not even think about Florida. While there's plenty of single women in these parts, (west Central Florida - Hernando/Pasco/Citrus County) they're all 65 and older. The houses are dirt cheap, as long as you don't mind the dirt falling out from under them, (and possibly you along with it) into a sinkhole. Other than that, it's great around here - come on down.
 
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