How early is early in moving to a new school and how late is late?

[samman1994]

Hello everyone,

At this point, I think I have a pretty good idea of where I'll probably be going for grad school, it's gotten me thinking about some future planning. As the title states, how early is too early in moving to the location of your grad school, but how late is too late?

Now each location/area will be different so I'll give some brief description of my situation. 

I would be moving basically across the country (West Coast to East Coast), and I'm planning primarily to take clothing, books, sheets and whatnot, some gaming systems, cooking supplies, and potentially a TV. I don't intend to take any furniture. I think it'll probably just be cheaper if I buy some cheap sets when I get to my grad school. Budget is a huge priority for me, so I'm looking basically to find somewhere cheap. I've had issues with upstairs neighbors for sometime, so I'm also looking to get on the top floor of whatever apartment I get into (for this, I am willing to spend a little more for). The school itself is in a rural part of town, but their is a major city (the capitol) that is basically a 10-20 minute drive away. While housing is short in the town, I'm assuming it shouldn't be short in the big city nearby, and it is someplace I'm willing to live in. Finally, I start Fall of 2018 (so I'm assuming sometime in August of this year). 

 

I'm not looking for exact dates/times, just a general timeline. I.E. I'm assuming 4 months is too early to move there, but I'm assuming 1 month is too late. I'm thinking it'll take sometime for me to find some place affordable/cheap (especially since isolating my search to top floors of apartment buildings will really limit my options), and then I'll have to move stuff in, spend sometime looking around finding out where the markets are, learning the public transportation system, getting situated into my apartment once I do move into it, etc. etc. etc. all before I start my PhD. It'll also give me time to get to know some grad students, and basically network a bit before I really get busy. 

Thank you ahead of time as always!

 

[TakeruK]

Honestly, this really depends on personal preference. Most grad students I know actually move about 1 week before the first day of orientation. 

My partner and I moved one month before the start of the program (2 weeks before orientation in one case). But for both our MSc and PhD, we travelled to the new city ahead of time to view apartments and sign a lease. In our MSc city, we knew that provincial regulations require tenants to give their landlords 2 months notice to vacate a lease, so most apartments went on the market 2 months before move-in date. Since we wanted to move in 1 month before school started, we visited 3 months ahead of time to find and sign for an apartment. For our PhD move, it was 30 days notice so we went 30 days ahead of the move-in date.

On each of these trips, we only stayed for a few days to find a lease. The cost of each trip was about 1 months rent, but we decided it was better to spend 1 months rent in this way than to be stuck in a really bad place for 12 months (or more). Also, our friends who just arrived shortly before the program started still had some extra costs for temporary housing while they found a place to live. And on short notice, sometimes they paid more than market value or got a less desirable place.

[iwearflowers]

When I moved for my masters program, I did my apartment hunting while I was in town for the visiting students day and then moved in about a week before classes started. In retrospect, I probably didn't get the best location or the best deal, but I had a full time job in the city I was leaving and wanted to work as long as I could to save up some extra money.

When I moved for my current job, I got a short term lease (2-3 months) and looked for something more permanent once I got to the city. That gave me a lot more flexibility to learn the city and really get a sense of where I wanted to live and what I should pay for it.

Currently, I'm looking at making the opposite move that you are (East Coast to West Coast). My job has a flexible remote work policy, so I'm planning to get something short term (either a sublet or AirBnB) and move out there in early July. I'm putting my stuff in a Pod and road tripping cross-country with my dog. Then I'll have a couple of months to learn the city and find a longer term spot while working remotely.

I've also heard that you can sometimes get a summer research position if your PI has funding, so if you don't have anything else going on that might be a way to make an early move.

[rising_star]

I also did the fly out in advance and scout for places then move later about a month later. It was fine and still gave me plenty of time to do things like find grocery stores, figure out transportation, etc. If you're working now, I would maximize the time you can spend working. It can get boring sitting around in a new city where you don't know anyone and don't have anything to do all day...

[samman1994]

So it seems it'd be best to go scout the area around a 1-2months in advance. How long did you spend scouting the area? A few days?  A week? Did you guys already call ahead of time and make appointments for looking at rooms at various apartments across town?

[TakeruK]

9 hours ago, samman1994 said:

So it seems it'd be best to go scout the area around a 1-2months in advance. How long did you spend scouting the area? A few days?  A week? Did you guys already call ahead of time and make appointments for looking at rooms at various apartments across town?

Again, the exact time depends on how the housing/rentals market work in your specific area. Ask some current grad students to find out the best time to go. 

We did this three times if you include my postdoc. For my MSc program, we spent 3 days; for my PhD program we scheduled 5 days and for my postdoc, we spent 4 days. The MSc trip was short because we didn't have much money. The PhD trip was longer because 1) we were anxious about moving to a new country and 2) we stayed with our friends in town so a longer trip only cost more for food, not much else. The postdoc trip length was set based on the amount of time we were able to spare (we did it during my thesis writing), the fact that my employer was paying for it, and that there is a very very low vacancy rate in the city we were moving to.

In all cases, we set up as many appointments as we could before leaving. For the months ahead of the trip, we scouted out listings online, pretending we were moving the next month. This gave us a good sense of what time of the month there were the most listings. So we scheduled our trip for that time of month when it was for real. Then about a week before we left, we called every place that had a listing to set up a visit. We checked the listings twice a day and made more calls as the trip went on. And we continued doing it while we were there too, in addition to just driving around and looking at signs. 

For my MSc and PhD programs, we looked at around 6 places before we found something that worked. And at both of these programs, the place we chose was not something we knew about beforehand---it was a place we found while we were there. However, the management company that owned them were known to us beforehand, so it was helpful to have seen ads from them before so that we knew to look for their buildings when we were in town. For my postdoc move, we ended up looking at 12 places before finding one that worked. It turned out to be one of the few places that we did schedule ahead of time. Some of our other pre-scheduled appointments got cancelled just before our time because the person who saw it before us took the apartment. There was one showing where we were one of 12 couples looking at the same place at almost the same time. 

[rising_star]

19 hours ago, samman1994 said:

So it seems it'd be best to go scout the area around a 1-2months in advance. How long did you spend scouting the area? A few days?  A week? Did you guys already call ahead of time and make appointments for looking at rooms at various apartments across town?

Timing definitely depends on the rental market where you are. Look online and also ask current grad students. Your new school may also have an off-campus housing office with resources available to you. 

My trips were typically 3-4 days in length (largely depending on how much money I had available since I was always staying in hotels). I always rented a car to make it easy/quick to see lots of places. I looked at way more than 6 places in a couple of towns, largely because I was trying to figure out where (in town) I wanted to live in addition to finding a place where I'd be comfortable. In some towns, many/most rentals aren't listed online, which certainly complicated the search. In those cases, I spent the first day driving around and making a lot of phone calls and the next 2-3 days actually seeing places. 

[hellooo]

Is it a bad idea to not go out 1-2 months before moving?  I honestly have no time (and limited money) before my grad program starts to look at apartments in person.

[TakeruK]

41 minutes ago, hellooo said:

Is it a bad idea to not go out 1-2 months before moving?  I honestly have no time (and limited money) before my grad program starts to look at apartments in person.

It really depends on your own personal preferences/priorities. I know many grad students that arrive just 1 week or even a few days prior to the start date and stay in a motel or AirBnB until they sign a lease. For me, this is cutting it way too close and I would not have the peace of mind I need to start a new program if I didn't know where I would live! In addition, I know some students who do this but then end up paying way more for rent and/or live in a really bad place because of limited availability and they get stuck with either affordable but really crappy places or decent but very expensive places. But it also depends a lot on the housing market so I'd talk to some current grad students and find out. 

Note that in one place I lived, it was a major college town and all of the hotels/motels are 100% booked the week before term starts because everyone is there to help move their kid into college. So be aware of those things too (i.e. you might want to at least go out 1-2 weeks in advance). 

I might have said this above or elsewhere, but these apartment-hunting trips can be done over a few days and cost about 1 months rent. I worked during undergrad (and my Masters program was well funded) so I had the savings to sacrifice one month's rent to ensure peace of mind and I felt it was a good investment before signing a 12 month lease (it could potentially cost a lot more in time and/or money to be stuck in an unhappy place for a year or to break the lease). However, if you don't have savings, then this might not be a viable option.

[AP]

Late: after orientation. 

[AllieKat]

3 hours ago, AP said:

Late: after orientation. 

Early: during interview weekend.

[juilletmercredi]

I couldn't afford to go out to my graduate city a couple months before starting. I did meet a roommate online who was in my department and who lived within driving distance of the city, so she did go up to scout for apartments during the summer before grad school. But with the housing market we were moving to (New York), it all fell through and we ended up finding a place and signing a lease just a week before school started.

I also knew several grad students who found temporary housing for a few weeks or even months before finding a more permanent place to live. We housed a fellow graduate student in a different program in the same school for about 3 weeks. I don't remember all the details, but somehow his housing had fallen through and the apartment he was going to rent on the first floor of our building wouldn't come available for another 3 weeks. My  roommate offered him the couch in our living room. I thought she was crazy, but it turned out all right and the three of us became close friends!

[lemma]

I think it really depends. I looked at three apartments before moving into my current one, but the current one was so much better than the others so I jumped on it. I think usually it would take longer. 

I think you need to move over somewhat early. Once we decided to apply for the apartment, we had to fill out a long application which took some time (maybe a week) because we needed professional and personal references and had to make sure they were OK to take the call. Once we signed, we had to wait 2-3 weeks to move in. 

Another major thing to think of is furniture! If you're buying new stuff it can take forever to arrive. We spent weeks without a bed and had to sleep on a mattress on the floor, but we actually arranged for the mattress to come as early as possible, otherwise we would have had nothing. We didn't have a microwave for the first few weeks, nor any cupboards... if you want to start out your PhD with a functioning home, I would try to arrive a couple of months early just so that the furniture can be delivered once you find a place. 

[TakeruK]

5 hours ago, lemma said:

I think you need to move over somewhat early. Once we decided to apply for the apartment, we had to fill out a long application which took some time (maybe a week) because we needed professional and personal references and had to make sure they were OK to take the call. Once we signed, we had to wait 2-3 weeks to move in. 

These are good points. Here are some tips that we found made our lives so much easier with my postdoc move (3rd long distance move).

1. Line up those professional and personal references beforehand. Typically, you need their name, address, phone number, email address and their permission to use them as a reference. When you do submit an application with their name as a reference, give them a heads up.

2. Ask the landlord for a copy of the application form before you see the apartment. Most big renting companies will have forms you can download online even because they use the same form for every application. Fill this form out before you see the apartment so if you want something you can immediately hand them your completed form and write a cheque if necessary.

3. In some rental markets (e.g. the one I just moved to), renting is insanely competitive. We saw a great apartment along with 14 other people/couples (they took us up in 3 groups of five). Almost everyone had an application package ready to be dropped off upon leaving the viewing. In this case, we were all sent the application beforehand and told to do this if we were interested. However, if you were not told, having this ready can show that you are serious about their place and demonstrates responsibility.

4. Have all the details typically needed for an application ready so that you can either fill out a form in person while viewing an apartment if necessary, or that night after seeing apartments so that you can submit it first thing the next business day. You can look at a few forms online to get the gist. Typically, you should know 3-5 years of previous renting and employment history. Know the addresses and contact information. Remind yourself of the previous rents you paid. Have copies of your pay stubs, bank accounts, credit history report, etc.

5. I basically made a "renter's CV" that was partly cheat sheet for me to fill out these forms, but also something I gave to potential landlords if I was interested. My partner and I also made a short cover letter (with our photos, description of our work / what we are looking for / why we would be good tenants etc.). One landlord we met was so impressed with it that after meeting him, he sent an email saying if we were interested, he'd take $100/month off our rent because he thought we would be great tenants and would rather make less money from a reliable/responsible tenant. That was a great offer but we had just signed and paid the deposit on what was our definite #1 choice (after 4 days and 12 viewings).

The last thing isn't really necessary in most places. I learned the tip from people trying to rent in the Bay Area. The place I moved to isn't Bay Area level craziness, but it has a 0.5% vacancy rate for rentals and although we saw 12 places, we actually had about 15 appointments but 3 of them called us just minutes before we were going to drive to them to say that the person that just saw the apartment decided to take it. Almost every person we called told us that there were tons of other people viewing too. So, for our case tip #5 wasn't overkill but I think it was not commonly done so it was still impressive. It might be too much for a much slower rental market.

5 hours ago, lemma said:

Another major thing to think of is furniture! If you're buying new stuff it can take forever to arrive. We spent weeks without a bed and had to sleep on a mattress on the floor, but we actually arranged for the mattress to come as early as possible, otherwise we would have had nothing. We didn't have a microwave for the first few weeks, nor any cupboards... if you want to start out your PhD with a functioning home, I would try to arrive a couple of months early just so that the furniture can be delivered once you find a place. 

If you know you will be in a situation where you won't have furniture right away, one thing that worked well for us was to buy an air mattress (spring for one with a pump you can plug into a wall, usually $50-$100 instead of $10-$30) and take that with you when you move yourself physically. If you're driving, they fit really well. If you're flying, you may even be able to compress it enough to count as carryon (we did this) or you can check it as luggage. This will give you time to find and buy a mattress and bedframe. Most mattress places will deliver quite quickly though, so if you're buying a new bed and mattress when you arrive, this may not be necessary. 

[TakeruK]

Just an addendum about the moving tips above:  They are a great fit for me and my partner because we are feel so much better and less stressed out when we maximize preparedness. If you're reading this and don't think it would work for you / would just make your life miserable then don't do it! But my partner and I are super planners and it worked out really well for us.

[samman1994]

Thank you for all the help and advice! 

I have decided to move in around a week or 2 earlier before my program starts, however I plan to sign the lease either a month or 2 beforehand (if they hold it for that long). I have currently narrowed my list down to 15 apartments, 10 of which I do plan to tour within a month (which will be 60 days before I move in). Availability for most of these places will be early June, late July, so when I visit, if I can get my #1 choice right then and there, I plan to sign same day (or following day). I already have my list of top 10, the tour is just designed for me to be able to concretely organize the list. I don't think housing is super competitive here, but it is still a bit competitive from everything I've seen so far, so I do plan to look at the paperwork ahead of time and go prepared. 

In terms of furniture, it really depends on the place I get. I have decided on an apartment, but the size is important (i.e. small studio vs. big 1 bedroom). If it's a small studio, I plan to buy all my furniture there (and that means everything, chairs, tables, beds, tvs, etc.). I will probably just ship my sheets, pots and pans and whatnot via greyhound or something. I actually like sleeping on the ground, so that's not an issue for me. If it's a big 1 bedroom, I am thinking of getting a pods and having everything (furniture and all) shipped out there. Pods delivers same day you arrive, so I should have no issue with furniture there. Plus since I'm moving in a week earlier, I should have plenty of time for any required adjustments. 

I have also not really been asked/told about any references from these places. I assume they will tell me these things when I actually plan to sign, so I will have that prepared ahead of time. Thank you again for all the help and advice!

[TakeruK]

Wish you the best of luck with moving and finding a place to live. Sounds like you have a great plan. I would just note that it might be worth having a backup plan if the pod doesn't arrive the day you expect it would. During my 2nd move, our pod was 2 weeks delayed. For my 3rd move, it was actually early! 

[samman1994]

I'm planning a road trip that'll take 2 weeks or so. So I plan to send the pod around 2-3 weeks before I actually arrive to my new place. But thanks for the heads up!

[GirtonOramsay]

This is a very helpful and insightful thread as I'm freaking out about preparing for my 1st long distance move! ?

I'm currently planning to get a 2 bed apt with a roommate, but I have no way of getting out to my new town until 2 weeks before orientation due to summer camp work. Is there any way that I ensure when searching for apartments by housing companies? For instance, would be it odd to request a "virtual" tour where I ask to see a walkthrough of the apartment via video chat, like Skype or similar service?

[TakeruK]

8 hours ago, GirtonOramsay said:

This is a very helpful and insightful thread as I'm freaking out about preparing for my 1st long distance move! ?

I'm currently planning to get a 2 bed apt with a roommate, but I have no way of getting out to my new town until 2 weeks before orientation due to summer camp work. Is there any way that I ensure when searching for apartments by housing companies? For instance, would be it odd to request a "virtual" tour where I ask to see a walkthrough of the apartment via video chat, like Skype or similar service?

You could request such a thing but my experience is that most building managers/supers don't really want to spend their time doing this and many of them don't know how to do such a thing. But it will depend a lot on the market. If there are 5+ people viewing each unit, then why would they bother with the virtual tour thing when they can easily rent to someone who will do things the normal way.

You said that you were planning on getting an apartment with a roommate---will your roommate arrive in town before you? Maybe they can check it out in person instead. Or, maybe a friendly grad student in your new program would be willing to come see one or two places in person on your behalf. If none of that works and you don't want to take the risk on it not being a real place, you can hire a broker to do this on your behalf. I've not hired such a person before but typically they charge $300 or so per day and they would be willing to do research, call up places and view them all for you if you are going to pay them for all those hours. But some of them would be willing to just spend the day visiting places, taking pictures and sending them to you in a report at the end of the day. 

It's not cheap, but if having human eyes on a location is critical for you, $300-$500 is definitely a lot cheaper than flying out there yourself and better than losing your security deposit to a scam (or being stuck in a long lease).

[samman1994]

9 hours ago, GirtonOramsay said:

This is a very helpful and insightful thread as I'm freaking out about preparing for my 1st long distance move! ?

I'm currently planning to get a 2 bed apt with a roommate, but I have no way of getting out to my new town until 2 weeks before orientation due to summer camp work. Is there any way that I ensure when searching for apartments by housing companies? For instance, would be it odd to request a "virtual" tour where I ask to see a walkthrough of the apartment via video chat, like Skype or similar service?

Something you may also want to do, try and contact the grad students themselves. I've already talked to a few who said it's fine for me to crash their couch for a few days while I tour apartments in my time there. Now you're discussing a week or 2, but you may be able to crash their place while you look for your apartment. That should be enough time to find a place hopefully. 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@GirtonOramsay I just had a grad student in my program tour 5 apartments for me yesterday. I told them what I was looking to find out from their tour and they were able to give me a ton of pictures, some video, and a lot of insight that made me much more confident when telling the property manager which place I'd like to move into in August. I did ask for virtual tours from various property managers, but all of them were much more receptive to me having a "proxy" tour in my stead. I thanked the grad student multiple times and they said to just buy them a coffee when I get there, haha.