Wife and I are mulling over her applying for jobs in metro area with about 750K thousand people. Big metro area, but not Chicago big. She’s in middle management in Manufacturing and makes high 5 figures.
We own a house but we owe more or less what it’s worth. I’m not against breaking even on the house, but I really would rather not lose money.
My concerns are A) what types of help will an employer be willing to offer, B) It seems to me that if a company needs to hire someone from outside the immediate metro area tells me that maybe the company has a bad reputation and C) if the job doesn’t work out, could the company somehow look to collect on this investment?
Just looking to see if anyone has experience with this.
When I was moved by a new employer they paid the real estate commission on the house sale and for a full-service move that included packing and unpacking. They also paid for storage and for a hotel and meals for several months until our new house closed.
The theoretical idea of the full-service move is that you wouldn’t have to lift a finger, but unpacking is pretty useless since you spend more time telling the movers where to put things than doing it yourself! We mostly just had them leave the boxes in the appropriate rooms and took care of the unpacking ourselves.
When I was hired by my current employer they paid all of the costs associated with the move on their end. It included expenses for two househunting trips, a check for temporary living expenses, all expenses for packing, moving, and unpacking, and all closing costs and inspection services at the new location, including mortgage points. This was grossed up to cover taxes. It did not cover any expenses at my old residence except for the aforementioned packing and moving. An transfer for an existing employee would have included all expenses at both ends.
In both cases had I left the company voluntarily within the first twelve months I would have been required to return a pro-rata share of all expenses.
When a company wants a particular individual, they will often pay moving expenses. But it is a case by case basis and if you take the money, you commit to staying for some length of time (6 mnths in my company) or pay the $ back. There are at least two ways to handle the payments: sometimes it is a “signing bonus” which is simple and direct but the employee pays taxes on it, and sometimes the company reimburses for expenses up to a ceiling. That requires receipts and sometimes several bids, but is a business expense and not taxable to the employee.
Getting moving assistance is a nice sign that they really want you. But there are downsides (paperwork and/or taxes). If you get an offer, ask for moving assistance. It is an appropriate thing to do when receiving an offer.
We didn’t end up taking the job, but the relocation package we were offered.
We’d list the house, if the house didn’t sell in three months, the company would buy it for the mean price of three appraisals.
We would get moving expenses (they’d pay movers) plus $10,000 in incidentials to cover additional moving expenses (like moving pets or cars that the movers wouldn’t take care of).
We’d get two trips out to the new location paid for for the whole family for house hunting.
I think that was it.
There was another job we didn’t take from a big company with lots of money who felt it should be a privilege to work there - their relo package was “you are lucky we offered you a job, you’ll make so much money in stock options that you won’t care about relo” (their stock crashed shortly thereafter).
Oh, my experiences - it isn’t always case by case, some employers simply have a package they offer everyone.
Its usually a deal where if you don’t stay with the company for X long (sometimes prorated over several years) you pay it back.
Companies look outside their region for a lot of reasons - not just because they have a bad reputation. Sometimes they are looking to fill a niche position. Sometimes they feel that the region has become incestuous and they need new blood. But, if you are going to pick up and move and incur expenses you’d need to pay back if you quit, you want to be pretty sure about the job and the culture. Companies tend to understand that. Talk to employees who work there.
Companies which recruit nationally for high level positions typically pay moving expenses. Sometimes they just pay, sometimes they offer a lump sum. Before I moved to the Bay Area the company paid for a one week househunting trip and put in me touch with several real estate agents.
Back in the early 1980s when interest rates were above 10% some companies offered extra assistance on purchasing and selling a home. I’m not sure that is common these days.