Home Loan Focus

Getting trapped during a corporate relocation

• Author
• Brett Bumeter
• on July 12th, 2008 filed in Home Sales Tips, Renting v Buying, Saving Money, real estate

For many people in the corporate world, at some point or another your company is going to ask you to relocate somewhere around the country and offer to foot the bill. This may sound like a great deal because they’re offering to pay for you to move, but the reality is there are thousands of dollars of hidden expenses involved in this process.

When your company offers you a chance to move, you need to make sure that they’re also offering you a major payraise. If you’re not going to see a payraise of at least $15-$20000, odds are this move is going to take many years to pay off or for you to at least break even. I realize were going through a recession right now and so many people will be tempted to take what they can get and keep what they have, but with inflation increasing you definitely don’t want to move across the country for the same amount money that you received today.

You have to also watch out for all of those third-party contract companies that are there to assist you with your move. They are probably working on a very cozy contract with your company and they don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind and maybe not even the best interest of your company. Even though your company is paying for some of their services make sure that you give them a critical look at every decision they make on your behalf. They might offer to put you in corporate housing for a month for example, charging your company $4000 a month for your rent. That’s a lot of money and if you don’t get out of corporate housing on time you may have to pay that $4000 a month rent bill. So before you move in a corporate housing make sure you can get out on time!

You have to be careful when it comes to storing your stuff as well. Your company might offer to store your valuable possessions for that month while you’re in corporate housing. However if you are unable to close a deal on a house for example within 30 days you could be stuck paying the bill for corporate housing as well is paying the bill for additional storage of your stuff.

So where possible don’t sell your original house until the last minute if you can. Keep your stuff in a place where it’s cheaper free as long as you can. You might even consider trying to avoid corporate housing even if you have to pay the bill. It might not be bad for a week or two while your house hunting, try and stay away from it as long as possible.

Consider also that your company is footing the bill and that money is coming out of their budget. If your bonuses tied to the budget of the new department that you’re moving to and you are inflating the cost of that department your chances of receiving a bonus which could be worth a lot more than a couple thousand dollars could be jeopardized by your own actions.

There are many other areas where relocations can cost you some serious money so make sure you keep a critical eye open to everything that’s going on and try not to get rushed in your decisions while you’re moving. Sometimes the best move is not to move at all.  You might be better off looking for a different job, even one that pays slightly less in the location you live in now.  A move can cost you a great deal of money in the first few years following the move.  Taking a couple thousand dollar pay cut with the option of staying put, could actually enable you to move financially ahead.  Then you can use some of that money that you saved from staying put, to take the family on a couple Disney cruises or invest some money in solar panels for the house or a better telecommuting setup so that next time around, you will be prepared to not move and to work from home permanently!

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