sherbert

Be prepared for things costing more money than advertised as you do not have any credit history. Expect upfront payments and deposits for utilities and mobile phones.

Pulaski

I did two years ago, and printed NOTHING, not a single page. We did the whole process by e-mail and Adobe PDF software. Of course there still the lawyer's stack of papers to work through at closing, but my imput to the paper mountain was "zero".

FWIW the mortgage is with a small niche player in the mortgage market, that I doubt you've heard of, Wells Fargo.

Tip: aside from the software you need, if you want to do this, create a custom "stamp" in Adobe Acrobat Professional that is your scanned signature, then apply it to any PDF that you have to sign.

Chrisdc

Also - If you have a mac you can use Preview to capture your signature via the camera, and then attach it to any PDF.

Pulaski

This, and my use of scanned "stamp" signature (above), is entirely legal. Laws on what constitute a signature now say something along the lines of "anything which the signor represents as their signature is deemed to be their signature for contract purposes, including photocopied, scanned, photographed and electronic representations of their signature.". It might still be a little unusual in the retail market, but there is rarely any need for a document to be printed and signed these days.

GeoffM

We had 2 inches. The same stuff twice after they muffed up the dates on the first batch.

About 5 hours for us. Ridiculous really.

All the realtor stuff was done online for us, digital signatures. Which was great as the wife wasn't always present when something needed signing...

The mortgage, OTOH, as noted above was a completely different story. I even had to buy a ream of legal paper for just two sheets - they would have been far too small reduced to fit onto letter size paper.

Initialling stuff is a PITA too, and I've skipped odd ones on numerous documents (the relatively unimportant ones). Nobody noticed.

Bob

Who the utilities are, what the high/low/average costs are per month and depending on location an average over winter/summer might be more useful.

Rubbish collection, how's it done.

Parking, more a case of cold locations but is there zoned winter parking, who does the ploughing, stuff like that.

Local banking options and mobile phone options while you're at it. A lot of these things are going to be pretty localised.

loubiblu

Thank you, it's these sort of issues that don't occur to you until you have to deal with them.

We're going to be in the Chicago area so winter is a big issue.

Mallory

You need to read Bob's thread about chopping wood!

retzie

I can tell you right now: watch our for the ****ing street sweeping! The larger streets have regularly scheduled sweeping (every Thursday, the second Tuesday, etc.) BUT smaller ones tend to have a seemingly random schedule that is only advised by temporary signage a day or two in advance. Sneaky money-spinner

The comment about stores is a good one. I would ask for a run-down on the grocery stores in your area to give you an idea of the price/quality available. On a related note: expect to be horrified by the bread (cake) and cheese (orange), so if they have any pointers about more 'artisanal' fare in your area, you could get a head-start!

If you plan to drive and/or own cars, have them talk you through the various steps of title, plates, licensing, insurance, etc. Don't expect to be able to achieve everything in the one place. If you can get someone to hold your hand at the DMV, all the better!

Oh, and if you want a window into the Chicago food/restaurant scene, you can't go past lthforum.com

sherbert

Oh yeah, the cheese, the cheese, as Retzie says...you got to hunt around to find the decent stuff and be prepared to pay a fortune for it. Check all packaging to make sure the orange rubber you will inevitably need to buy occasionally does not contain milk that contains the growth hormones banned in the EU. I've found that Sprouts sells Port Salut for $4.99... compared to $8.99 at other shops.

Pulaski

Your streets get swept!?!? I have never seen either a street sweeper, nor any sign the streets have been swept regularly (on any sort of schedule) in any of the cities near me.

Bob

They do it a lot in cold weather places.

Clears up the massive piles of salt/grit and general crap that builds up around the snow banks.

sir_eccles

And in hot weather places too, particularly after monsoon rains.

retzie

Yup, both in Chicago and now NYC. Causes havoc with parking.

As far as I can tell, the main indicator is the row of orange envelopes

Bnet36

For me...
Health insurance terminology- even if work is handling it. They usually rush through it with terms like HSA, PPO, co pay, deductible, HMO so study up on the acronyms and terminology.

Along the same lines make sure you all understand tax deductions. You never want to owe taxes.

Not sure if you will both be working but make sure you are close to a good after school centre/day care just in case.

Find out about car registration, car tags and taxes. Find your DMV etc.

Find your nearest Target. Wonderful one stop shop.

Good luck!