I currently live near Sacramento but would like to move to San Diego, how do I do this? I am a bartender so I don’t think I would be able to set up a job before I get there. I don’t have much money so I would not be able to rent a place, at least not for very long, beforfe I got there.
What do I need to do? How is such a move accomplished? What do I need to consider ?
Your OP seems to be more about actual logistics and whatnot than meeting new people and stuff like that - so I’ll stick to the basics.
Before you move to San Diego, you’re going to want to find a place (even with the little money you have now). If you go there with a little money, and stay at a hotel or something like that, you will have no money. So you’ll need to find a place before you show up. Since you seem to be single, you should try craigslist and look under rooms for rent. Sure you’ll be in a room of a house with strangers - but it gives you a place to stay and instant contacts (in the form of your roommates). Getting a room for rent will keep your costs down.
You’ll want to be in a decent neighborhood - Pacific or Mission Beach, UTC, Downtown, and some others will be good because they are (a) decent and (b) packed with students/twenty-somethings who are sharing apartments and houses.
I’m assuming that you have a car, because you’ll need one in San Diego. Sure they have a great trolley system (and some neighborhoods are very walkable like Pacific Beach and the Gaslamp) but you’re going to want/need a car.
Finally, once you get here - throw your stuff into your new room for rent - take a shower and start hitting the pavement. You’ll probably want a bartending job, but those jobs are pretty competitive down here. So you might need something else in the meantime. Luckily Christmas is coming so you can find temporary work at places like Walmart/Toys R Us/etc.
Then you fall into a pattern where your income exceeds/equals your outcome. Meet friends, enjoy the weather, and buy a second hand surfboard.
Any questions?
It sounds like you are going to want to look breifly, ignore what you see, and then leap.
If you are serious, here is what I would do:
Find some type of place to live before you go: it could be a sub-let, your own apartment, or a place with roommates. You will usually get to pick a place and then have some time before you move there.
Start applying for jobs as soon as you can. You can use a temp agency for quick work. Some of their jobs pay a decent amount. Use that to buy time if the bartending thing doesn’t work right away or if you don’t get enough shifts.
You might want to stay in a hostel at first. Most are less than $20.00 a night. You can book a bed online at the site below.
Use the hostel as a base to look for an apartment to share and a job.
Also, ask your friends if they have any friends or relatives in SD. SOMEONE will know a person down there who may be able to give you a little advice. I’ve moved long distance several times, and the above advice is correct. You really need to have a place to stay ready to go, even if it’s just short term. You won’t know the new city well for about a year, at which point you can move to a part of town where you actually want to live. Before then, it’ll be too soon to tell what areas you really like.
I’ve done this three times in my life. NJ to TX, TX to HI, then HI to IN. In the move to TX, I actually never made it to my original destination (OR), where my “plan” consisted of getting a job at a ski resort. The company I worked for in NJ had an office in TX, they made me an offer, and that was that. Moving from HI to IN was due to grad school, so I had some support already in place. It was the move to HI that was the most radical; I had no clue about what it was like where I was going. Here’s a summary of my experience:
[ul]
[li]Find out all you can about your destination. This includes getting your hands on a local paper, talking to people who’ve been/lived there, etc. Much easier with the internet.[/li][li]It’s near impossible to set up housing and a job until you’re actually there. Make sure and have your rental history and work experience prepared beforehand so that you don’t have to waste time and money getting this info together at an unknown place.[/li][li]One needs about $3-4K to just pick up and move someplace knowing nothing about the destination. This should be enough for a month’s rent, cheap eats, travel costs, and basic transportation when you get there (i.e., buying a beater and getting insurance, etc.). Adjust the amount according to circumstances (e.g., if you already have a car, knock $500-1K off; if you know someone in the area who’ll put you up for a while, knock another couple hundred off).[/li][li]Spend the first week getting to know your new city – figure out how to get places, where the decent neighborhoods are, how far off your cost estimates were, etc.[/li][/ul]
Sounds like you’re not moving too far (staying in state) and that you have saleable skills; both make it much easier. I always rented a cheap hotel room when I got where I was going; the dinginess of the place gave me an impetus to get my ass in gear and find something better.
I just moved from San Diego after being there a very long time. An important thing that you might be aware of by now is that it is very, very, very, very expensive. Even a room can run you in excess of $800 a month. You might need to plan to work more than one bartending/service-industry type job if you plan on eating!
I would recommend lining up a job before you move, and not through a temp agency. In my experience, most apartment complexes will want to do a credit check that includes verification of employment. They will not give you any credit at all for temp agency work. You would be better off with just a restaurant job where you are actually an employee of the restaurant. If you want, you could ditch that job for more lucrative temp work as soon as you have the lease approved. Another alternative may be rooms for rent or renting from a private landlord who may be more flexible than an apartment complex on how he does credit checks.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator