Jason1978

Hello group,

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself,

Am Jason 33 from the UK and have just been offered a position of full time employment in NJ with a full HB1 visa.

So your probably curious as to why am here?, basically I have been given 8/10 weeks to get to the US.

Therefore am asking for a huge amount of help off anyone who can offer it, i have to find somewhere to live off my own back which will allow 2 sml dogs and is unfurnished apart from White goods preferably close to a nj transit line as I will ve working in Secaucus.

I understand this site isn't really for this kind of help but if anyone knows of any good sites or estate agents etc I would be eternally grateful.



Many thanks in advance


Jason

RayM

How far have you got with the H1b? If you're only just starting then 8/10 weeks is possibly doable but would be very tough.

Nutmegger

Lots of recent threads for you to look up with regard to shipping dogs and the necessary shots, etc.

Jason1978

Hi

The company am going to work for did one recently and said 8 wks max they are a huge multi national company so leaving it totally in there hands, am taking care of the finding done where to live.

Jason1978

Hi,

The dogs moving is already underway and nearly sorted a container..... My biggest problem is finding some where to be honest

Bob

Welcome to BE and good luck with the move!

The wiki, it's a good starting point to cover a lot of info, especially relocation questions, shipping, especially smaller stuff.

Go back a few pages and you'll see a lot of info on bringing dogs over.

Use the search function and search for posts by Englishmum, she has posted loads of info about places to stay in and around NJ.

Might also help if you mention what you're looking for, house, apartment, condo and coming on your own or with family, kids etc...and rough budget.

Also, check out city-data.com

Jason1978

Hi Bob,

thanks for the info we are looking to use a company to relocate the dogs so hopefully have that covered, will look around for a removal company.

my main concern is a home basically we require the following

2 bed house with white goods if possible, and a yard fenced
dogs ok to live there
will be me and wife thats it
looking for close as possible to Secaucus or dont mind travelling with say 30/40 mins on the train
so if above applies house next to or walking distance of train stop

Budget around 1200-1500 max, will go top end if bills included etc are the rents when advertised usually negotiable?



i know its alot to ask for help with but living in the uk and having limited time is proving to have problems

many thanks for any help in advance anyone......

jason

Nutmegger

Then they should be hooking you up with a local realtor who does "relo" (corporate relocations) and knows all the ins and outs of the relevant area. Why don't you ask HR for a referral? You would be very lucky to find a furnished rental, utilities will be on top of rent (the amount you suggest is rather low for a house), and your commute is most likely to be by car. Public transport is rarely an option in the US unless you live within a major city.

goldenstate31

visit city data forum there is a wealth of knowledge there in regards to where to live etc good luck

RayM

My experience on rentals is that they don't negotiate. Certainly the area I'm moving to there is strong demand for rental property. Finding a rental property that takes 1 pet is tricky, somewhere that takes 2 is much more difficult. Depends a bit on the size of the dogs. You'll almost certainly have to pay either a substantial extra deposit because of the dogs or I have seen a few that increase the rent. You may well need help from your employer to rent somewhere or have to pay a significant deposit.

Poppy girl

If the company is that big do they have a company employee/community link on their web-site for accomodation, for sale items etc etc....try calling the HR dept and getting them to post a Ad for you on the break room wall. a GF of mine recentaly got her rental by HR putting the word out might be worth a try!!

Weeze

Agreed. Ours (big multinational) got us a relocation company and it made everything much easier. They sorted serviced apartment (where dog was allowed) while we found our own, took us for our SSN, got us a realtor, gave us info on areas etc. It took us 3 months to find a house that would take a dog. Worth asking them. Otherwise what are you going to do while your wait for your stuff to be shipped over, unless you are buying everything here I suppose.

laety

i find hotpads.com quite good, and also www.zillow.com and trulia.com
but if its like us, we went there last week, looking to move end of september and its too early, they are all looking for people now.
(but this is in California so perhaps your place is different?)

Phoodilicious

I also work for a huge international company and once I accepted the relocation offer it took 9 weeks in total to start the visa process till landing in the US (Texas) and that was over the Christmas/New Year break which didn't help.

My company, likes yours, organised all the visa processing and they also organised and paid the shipment of my goods, Airpets for my two pets (the cost of travel and associated overnight kenneling at Heathrow etc but not the rabies vaccination process and pet passports), up to 2 months temporary accommodation and 2 months car rental to help me get settled. We (husband, myself, 2 cats) chose to stay in an extended stay hotel to begin with to allow us time to do the house hunting and learn which areas were good, commutable, traffic conditions etc. There are several extended stay type hotels around the various states and they allow up to 2 pets (websites often say one pet but on inquiring each told me 2 was ok). They were fairly basic accommodation (we chose a place that did the whole month on a special offer for just over $1,000!) but clean, functional with studio style bedroom/sitting room, small dining area and also kitchen with cooker, microwave, fridge etc and although we booked in originally for 2 months, we found a place to live and got the paperwork in order that meant we were actually only in the hotel for 1 month. This also tied in with when the shipment arrived and cleared customs so we didn't have the issue of finding a place whilst still in the UK then getting there and having no furniture for a month till it arrived. The hotels we looked at also did larger apartments with separate bedrooms too but the studio arrangement worked just fine for us. We used various websites to help find a house, not sure you are allowed to post names but guess the moderator will cut them out if need be, we used rentals.com; realtor.com, zillow and trulia then used a realtor to show us the shortlist of places and to help negotiate the terms, pets etc. (no cost to us to use a realtor).

Good luck, we've been here 6 months now and although the whole move was stressful, we survived and are enjoying life!

Jerseygirl

Secaucus is not a particularly nice area to live. Look at Mont Clair...one of our members Elfman used to live there. Because of the area's proximity to NYC it will not be cheap. I don't think your figures will go very far but it depends on personal choice.

IMO finding a rental that will allow 2 dogs could well be your biggest problem.