TransnationalElite

So, we have to do a house hunting trip to MA in about 2 weeks time.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to go about it as we are planning to be there for just a week, and would like to know from experience;

1. Is one week enough?
2. Are real estate agents, private advertisers willing to do viewings on a short notice and without a permanent address or credit history?
3. Has anyone had success contacting people beforehand and agreeing viewings?

We're trying to find a hotel closer to neighbourhoods we are interested in so we can get a feel for the area... although hotel choices are a bit limited it feels.

TransnationalElite

Forgot to add, we are looking to move in by mid October.

Pulaski

The bigger question is whether you're going to get a mortgage or not? Unless you're a cash buyer, no body is going to take you seriously unless you have had some contact with a bank or broker and have at least a pre-qualification letter, and preferably a pre-approval letter in your hand. A realtor (estate agent) is unlikely to put themselves out driving you around without a pre- letter.

Before you come you should spend a lot of time looking at city and neighborhood data on city-data.com, and at house listings on realtor.com.

TransnationalElite

MY APOLOGIES!

I should have made it clear that we are looking to rent initially so the house hunting trip will be to find a rented accommodation to move to in October.

Pulaski

The problem you face then is that the rental market moves very quickly, and that anything you look at in August will be long gone by October, unless you are willing to sign the lease immediately and start making payments soon, perhaps from Sept 1. ..... And I'm not sure about MA, but in my part of the US most realtors don't "do" rentals.

TransnationalElite

So how do people go about finding rental properties then? Craigslist?

Pulaski

Rent.com, zillow.com, trulia.com, etc. Google is your friend. I would not recommend Craigslist - too many weirdos.

TransnationalElite

Thank you for the replies!

So maybe, if we plan to move there mid October, then a mid September visit is better so we can reserve a place and pay from the 1st of October?

Pulaski

I would think so. Hopefully someome who lives up in that area will be along soon, such as Moderator "Bob". He usually has some good tips on renting in MA.

Meanwhile checking city-data.com and several of the rental sites will give you a feel for the areas and how far your budget will go. Pay special attention to the performance and reputation of local schools as that drives a lot of the demand and therefore the price/rent. Then trying getting route directions from Googlemaps to see how far you'd be from work and shops.

kodokan

If that's doable depending on any visa requirements (your passport may be being processed), or work, or money for flights, etc.

Otherwise most people (including us) seem to move out, live in temporary accommodation for about 6 weeks whilst their furniture is being shipped over, and use that time to arrange their rental. Use the housing market sites listed above, and be prepared to pay first and last month's rent plus deposit, and have a letter from your employer confirming your salary. Lack of credit history in the circumstances of 'moving overseas' isn't usually then a problem; our landlords didn't mind at all as they figured if hubby's company was willing to pay tens of thousands to relocate him, he was probably the sort of reliable, professional tenant they wanted!

The whole process of finding a house and getting it signed is usually all done in under a week, so there's plenty of time.

TransnationalElite

Wow really? We're kind of really stressing out between trying to find a compromise on location and how much we're willing to spend on rent/save for getting a mortgage later on.

We have a small sum to spend for temporary accommodation but timing just doesn't work out for us to be in the US before mid October and yet we have to have the furniture and goods shipped out 2nd week of September. So we're planning on spending some time at MILs before doing the one way trip.

kodokan

Well, it depends on what's on the rental market at the time, of course! But yeah, we did it in a matter of days: arrived in US mid-October, stayed in a rental holiday villa through Homeaway, had a couple of weeks chilling and settling in, then started looking early Nov (with our furniture due to arrive end-Nov). We looked at 3-4 houses over 1-2 days, picked one, popped into the property management company to do the paperwork later that week... didn't take long at all. We rented it from mid-Nov, so we could start buying a few bits, organising mail and so on (it was handy to have a fixed address again, we didn't have one for a month or so). It was all quite straightforward - I think the longest delay was to get a cashier's check mailed overnight from HSBC on the east coast, because we hadn't opened our local Chase account by then. All the houses we looked at were empty at the time; I don't know if that's the norm here or if we just lucky, but it might be - viewings for rental and sale houses are usually done at almost no notice using a lockbox system, so I imagine tenants wouldn't tolerate no notice viewings, having to lock away all their stuff every day before work, etc.

We were quite specific in where we were looking, as I'd already done all the leg work online based on school districts. I was only interested in houses in a 2-square mile block, so that helped focus the process and speed it up. It's a rental, for a year, so we didn't really care too much what it was like (pretty nice, but not our dream house) as long as it 'bought' my kids places at a particular school.

TransnationalElite

Aaah! The schools! See, as we don't have a big pressure on that front at the moment, we're kind of circling around being close to hubby's work (always lived within walking distance so far) which could mean living a bit rural-ish and living in a small town place with a more pedestrian day-to-day lifestyle for us while hubs drives or commutes to work.

We can't seem to decide which to prioritise at the moment so thinking of leaving it to chance when we get there and base the decision on housing options available at the time.

Can I ask how your experience with HSBC has been? Did it take long to get an account with them in the US?

WEBlue

Someone above has already mentioned the City-data Forum. It can be invaluable for long-distance research on a city/town/area. Commuting times, public transport, crime statistics, "feel" of neighbourhoods--lots of that kind of info. Use the search function to find threads covering questions you have, or else register yourself and ask different questions of your own. There's a Boston sub-forum too.
Massachusetts Forum - Relocation, Moving, General and Local City Discussions - City-Data Forum

If you want some idea of walkability, the Walkscore site can help. It's not infallible (--its score is off for my neighbourhood's walkability) but it can give you an idea of how everyday life will be that you can test out later when you do arrive "on the ground" ....
Find Apartments for Rent and Rentals - Get Your Walk Score


I think this isn't "leaving it to chance" so much as a wiser move all round. You'll need to see a place first, and see the surroundings, to feel comfortable--even if you'll only rent for a year or two while saving up to possibly buy a house later.

Unless you or your other half have done a lot of travel to the new area, and know it fairly well--how can you decide on anything more than a short-term holiday let type of place until you can get an idea of what you want (and where) in the longer term?

kodokan

Good a way as any! If school-age kids aren't an issue, it's quite easy to try it one way for a year, and know at the end whether it's the one that's working for you or not.

We set it up from Switzerland, before we moved. It was quite straightforward - think at one point hubby had to go into their branch in Geneva to prove ID and sign stuff, from memory - and they mailed all our checkbooks and cards to us in Switzerland some weeks before we moved over. We were applying as Premier customers, so they went out of their way to be helpful: we got a named Relationship Manager, a credit card with a generous limit despite no credit history (they looked at our UK one, I think, or perhaps got info via our UK First Direct accounts, or simply decided multinationals typically don't move flaky people thousands of miles ), etc.

We only used them as an interim bank, to get us over here and get the credit card from Day One. After a few weeks, we opened local accounts with Chase, as it's much more convenient to pop in and sort things out with real people, and they gave us a free safety deposit box where we keep the passports and so on. Any of the Chase-a-like banks will open you an account once you're here, and have an address and a job offer letter - takes about an hour (during which they fawn and make you coffee). After around 12 months, we had sufficient history with Chase/ the US for them to give us a credit card too, so now we no longer use the HSBC one.

We still have the HSBC account, but since we bought our house, we don't have a 6-figure sum in cash knocking about to keep Premier status without paying, so have downgraded it to an Advance one.

So yes, no problems at all with them, but long term the distance thing will be a hassle, so you'll also want a local relationship.