Cents You Were Wondering: Our Relocation Costs

*Sorry this post is late, but things just got away from me. I did begin writing this in the fall of 2022, but just now getting around to finalizing it and posting it.

The excitement of moving can quickly be disrupted by the harsh reality of the cost of relocating. As they say, the numbers don't lie, so here they are; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Normally we wouldn't share so much detail, but my hope is that this information may be useful to others who are looking to make a big move. As we were considering to move, and more so, after we made the decision to relocate; I noticed it was sometimes difficult to find cost information for certain things.

For me, planning is a must, and planning for something this big was a job in itself. Having the data was important to me and I needed something to act as a guide for short-term and long-term planning during this venture.

Because I often found information to be inadequate, either vague or non-existent, we have chosen to disclose our personal expenses here for you to use as reference. It should go without saying, but I'll say it any way, the information found here is intended for use as informational only, your experience may be different.

First, let's begin with our stuff. How do we get all of our belongings from California to Florida?

We pondered driving a rented moving truck across country, but once we estimated the cost of gas, which at the time was at an all-time high due to the economy's downturn towards a recession, and hotel costs, along with food, and a little entertainment money, it was way too expensive. Not to mention the stress level of driving a large truck and potentially towing our car or each of us having to drive (one driving the truck and the other driving the car). Then there is the safety factor. Unfortunately it is not uncommon for moving trucks to get burglarized at hotels. It's an easy target and the criminals know that most-likely, you're whole life is in that truck so they get to pick whatever they want.

We never considered hiring movers or laborers. Instead what we ended up focusing on was shipping containers that also had the option to be stored onsite for a period of time. Since we were partaking in new construction, we were unsure exactly when the house would be completed, so we knew that there was the chance that we may need to store our belongings until we could move-in.

1-800-PackRat Costs

*NOTE: 1-800-PackRat, as any of the other relocation services, they make it clear that their rates are based on several factors (although they don't tell you what factors) so their prices will fluctuate at any given time, so please take this information with a grain of salt. You will need to call them yourself to find out the current rate for your situation.

Initial Costs Upfront:

Deposit - $1,000.00 (paid at time of booking)

Total Relocation costs for all 3x containers - $11,287.10 (paid once the containers arrived in Orlando, FL)

Storage Rental Costs:

Because our home was not ready right away, we needed to have our containers stored some place. This was a big deciding factor on why we chose 1-800-PackRat over other companies. Also, we did not have a firm date on when our house would be ready, so we needed the flexability of being able to rent month-to-month with no contracts.

Here is what we ended up paying:

16ft container - $285.73/mo for 5 months

16ft container - $285.73/mo for 5 months

8ft container - $253.03/mo for 7 months (items in this container were less important so we waited to unload it, hence the additional storage time)

Grand total for 1-800-PackRat came to $16,915.61.

This was almost as much as we paid for our closing costs haha. It was much needed, and they did a great job. Our belongings stayed safe and dry through a Florida summer. Only one item was broken, and I believe that was due to how and where we placed it inside, so not PackRat's fault. Overall, I am very happy with PackRat and I would use them again. I would recommend giving them a call if you are in need of relocation containers and services. (No, I am not paid or endorsed by PackRat, this is my personal opinion).

Now we had a small garage parking spot, but nothing that could accommodate the shipping containers. The street out in front of our apartment was a busy thoroughfare and the city of Burbank did not allow any containers to be placed on that street. So our only option was a small side street, which lead around to the back alleyway. This was fine, but according to the city of Burbank, you cannot place any containers there without a permit. You also needed to have cones at the far corners of the containers and on the sidewalk. The permit with tax and fees came to $143.31.

Conveniently the city of Burbank also had a "preferred vendor" who would rent you the cones at (if memory serves me) $4 per cone, per day. I think it would have come to $24 per day for 6 cones, then a minimum of 4 days (that was assuming a Friday delivery from PackRat, and a Monday pickup. So the total would have been, $96.00. Luckily for me, I was good friends with, and still am, the director of parking at WB, and he let me borrow some from the lot for this, so it cost me nothing! But what a racket if you ask me. Oh, and one more thing, once you placed the cones, with the official parking signs that came from the Burbank parking enforcement office and had a permit number on them, a parking enforcement officer was supposed to come by and inspect the setup and approve. Now, I have no idea if this step every happened, but I did do all of these ridiculous steps, called the parking enforcement office notifying them that it was ready to be viewed, but I personally never saw an officer.

Next item was our cars. After some deliberation, we decided to sell Marzz's little electric car to her dad and then we would ship my car, a Ford Fusion SE sedan. We did contemplate shipping it by train. Ultimately we decided to ship it by truck due to cost and time in transit. I chose Reindeer Auto because they were rated well online.

Reindeer Auto Transport

One-time cost to transport my car from Burbank, CA to Orlando, FL via open trailer truck.

$1,745.00

I thought this was a great rate at the time. They got my car here in 8 days! The driver who delivered it was real nice and their customer service was good. They provided updates via phone call to let me know the status. Of course I had placed an Apple Air Tag in my car as well, so I knew where it was the entire time, but I thought it was wonderful that the company provided a status to their customers.

Renting a Room (Nate)

So I'm adding this because it was a cost incurred due to us not being able to move right away. We vacated our place in Burbank, but to supplement the time from April 30, 2022 to when our house was done, I needed a place to stay. Keep in mind, this rate was definitely a friend rate because they could have charged me more. I am grateful that they did this for me.

Room Rental

$250.00/wk for 19 weeks for a grand total of $4,750.00

Renting a Room (Marzz)

Now Marzz's living situation was a little different than mine, in that, she was staying at a hotel, rather than someone's house. We did look at Airbnb's, Craigslist, and other avenues, but the Extended Stay America on Westwood Blvd, near Sea World Orlando not only had a great rate, but was in a good location where, at least originally, we thought she could take public transportation to and from work. They also allowed pets, which is what ruled out many Airbnb's.

Her room, which included a kitchenette, full bath, TV, and internet, AC (so basic utilities). She stayed there from April to Sept 2022

Grand Total $13,271.07

Ride Share (Marzz)

Before Marzz decided to rent a car, she was using ride share programs, Uber and Lyft.

Grand Total for Uber rides from April 4th, to April 18th of 2022 came to $649.47

Public Transport (Marzz)

Along with ride sharing, Marzz also tried using public transit in the form of the city bus system via Lynx city bus. She bought a ride pass, grand total $16.00

Renting a Car (Marzz)

Marzz tried to do the public transportation thing, but it was just too unreliable, difficult and frustrating. She did the ride share thing, but similarly, it was unreliable to time it so that she was not late for work, and not standing around forever after work.

So, she gave in and rented a car from Hertz. From late April 2022 to Sept 2022, she had several vehicles from Hertz. The reason for this, was they had a time limit on how long you could rent a single vehicle, so periodically Marzz would have to go and switch it out for another vehicle.

Grand Total for combined Hertz rental reservations was $13,769.79

Airfare

Now I did travel to Florida to visit in June of 2022 since our house was delayed and we were both getting a bit stir crazy. However, I don't consider that trip as part of our relocation cost because it was a personal choice to do that trip and in theory we could have skipped it, it was not necessary to our relocation, so that cost has been omitted.

Nate's Flight

Sept 10 - 11 (departed LAX at 10:32pm and landed at MCO at 6:25am local time)

American Airlines, non-stop. Coach class, seat 10E, I paid $266.60 USD, that includes taxes and fees. In addition to that amount, I paid $70.00 USD for two checked bags. I checked my full-size suitcase and decided to check my carry-on suitcase as well, just because I didn't want the hassle of dealing with it.

Total for me, $336.60

Marzz ended up flying out in April, along with our small dog, Miracle.

Marzz's Flight

April 4 (departed BUR 12:32pm, layover in DFW from 5:42pm to 6:53pm, and then landed in MCO at 10:23pm local time)

For Marzz's ticket, it was $273.60 USD, that includes taxes and fees. For this flight, her first checked bag was free. There was an additional $120.00 fee for the dog to fly. They treated the flight from Burbank to Dallas Fort Worth as one flight, and then from DFW to Orlando as a second flight for the dog.

Total cost for Marzz and Miracle, $393.60.

*NOTE - the thing that made us worried about the dog, beyond the fact that he is old, 14 years, and going blind and deaf, but also the fact that for any reason, if any of the flight crew decided that he should not be allowed, they could ban him from the flight. If that had happened, we would have been stuck, especially if it had happened in DFW. Luckily both Marzz and Miracle made it safely to Orlando.

This covers what I consider our relocation costs. Other costs that we were dealing with during or soon after this time period were things such as, closing costs on our new home, vehicle registration fees in Florida, driver's license fees, new license plate fees, start-up utility fee's for electric and water and trash removal, purchasing some major appliances such as a new washer and dryer, and full-size refrigerator. There's a few more, but you get the idea. I'm not going to spell those out here, I believe I have mentioned some of that in a previous blog post, but I do want to bring them up, for those who are relocating, you may need to see the full picture to have the best understanding of the journey you're about to partake in, and it would include these items. Your bank account or credit card statements doesn't care if it was relocation costs or home start-up costs, it's all the same on the monthly statement.

If we had to do it all over again, would we change anything? If all things were equal, meaning I had to continue working etc, yes, we would have done everything exactly the same. But, if I could have worked remotely or found another job sooner, then I would have relocated along with Marzz, or at least sooner than I did, and that would have saved us a little on rental costs. But as for our choices in vendors for shipping containers, vehicle transportation, and flights, we were, and still are, very happy with our experience and would most certainly use the same vendors again based on that experience.

I can say one thing, as of writing this in January 2024, flight prices have increased quite a bit. The best rate I can find for either a non-stop or one-stop flight from Orlando to San Francisco or Sacramento, is approximately $460-480 range for a single person. Depending on how you crunch the numbers, that can be as high as an 80% increase!

In addition to flight costs going up since 2022, gasoline has increased nation-wide, and so have home mortgage rates. I don't want to get too far off topic here, but just a note, our rate was supposed to be around 3.5%, but ended up closer to 6%, and right now in January 2024, some lenders are offering rates at 8-9%! That's a tremendous increase. I only bring this up because you absolutely must consider these factors before diving into this adventure.

So, for those playing along at home and keeping score, the grand total that we spent, that we consider being relocation costs was a whopping $51,990.45! Wow! Even I didn't realize it was that high as we were living through it. Luckily much of that was spread out over the 5 months, so we paid it weekly, or monthly. But just writing it out like that makes it feel enormous.

Obviously our situation was unique in that we were each living separately, and that our house took extra time to complete. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you, or at least, maybe you can be living together, rather than paying double rent. If I had been able to relocate at the same time, we would have had my car, plus shared the hotel cost, and if the house was done sooner, we wouldn't have rented the moving containers as long, potentially saving us the rental fees. Had we moved together and if our house was done on time, it would have saved us approximately $21,000. But things played out as they did, and in hind sight, I think everything went as it was supposed to be, even though there were some challenging times.

Full disclosure, we're still paying off some of this debt now, in January 2024. We had our relocation budget, but it was around $20,000. I don't regret anything that we did. We made it work, and by the time we did move in, it felt right. I had no regrets then, and none now. In fact, I'm very proud of us being able to navigate this journey and come out as well as we did. Having that relocation fund saved us. I could totally see how people could start this process and then in the thick of it, realize they're in over their head, but by that point, you're kind of stuck and I'm not sure what we would have done. We would have been in that situation had our house taken another 2-3 months to complete.

We chose to leave out cost of food, any entertainment that we did, although very limited, the cost of gas for my car, and monthly insurance cost for my because all of those things would have taken place regardless, so we tried to focus on elements that were strictly associated with relocation.

I really do hope that by us sharing this very personal information, it may help others budget and plan accordingly for their relocation costs. This was our first time ever relocating out of state, and we certainly learned a lot during this process. For anyone embarking on this journey, stay diligent, ask lots of questions, get multiple quotes from vendors, and never assume anything. These are probably good rules for life, but certainly appropriate for relocation. Good luck to those relocating, I hope the move turns out to be everything you want it to be and for a fruitful life ahead.