Congratulations! You’ve decided – or learned – that you’ll be moving from Atlanta and to a new home somewhere else in the state or country. This is a very exciting and important time in your life, and you are absolutely up to the task, no matter how overwhelming it may feel at this moment. Don’t fall into the trap of overthinking or over-engineering your move – instead, use these 5 tips for moving from Atlanta to help guide your upcoming relocation and you’ll be settling into your new home before you know it.
#1: Prepare as far in advance as possible
Life can be unpredictable and significant changes such as marriage, growing families, health changes and job relocations can all impact where you live and when you must move. So while it would be ideal for you to have months and months of time in advance to wrap your head around moving and prepare, that isn’t always realistic. So the first of these 5 tips for how to prepare to move from Atlanta is to prepare as far in advance as possible – while realizing that sometimes, moving timelines can have a definite crunch factor.
If you have a lot of time to prepare for your move – think six months or even longer – you can truly take your time in investigating the area you’ll be moving to, exploring many different residential areas, decluttering your current home and packing at your leisure while enjoying some flexibility in your moving dates. Even with three months of advance knowledge, you can spend quite a lot of time preparing before the actual move.
When life circumstances dictate, however, that you have to move quickly, it’s time to enlist your army of supporters for some help – don’t be afraid to ask for friends and family to pitch in whether they are nearby and can come pack or far away and can help you research via the internet – and get to work.
#2: Gather your documentation
Whether you plan to buy a new home or rent a house or apartment, you’re going to need certain documentation to qualify. This second of 5 tips for moving from Atlanta really centers on your financials – your income, your debt, your credit, and your ability to gather the paperwork necessary, no matter your life circumstances, to find and qualify for your new home.
To qualify for a mortgage, you’ll need to prove your credit worthiness to a lender and have the income to back up the monthly costs. This can be easier to do if you already own a home, but many lenders also make it a fairly painless process for first-time home buyers to qualify as well. FHA loans, in association with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, could be your best bet in finding your new home.
Renting a home generally requires less documentation but still necessitates due diligence on your part. Gather information from your current landlord, your current and future employers, and be ready to grant your potential landlord permission to run credit and background checks on you as a part of the process.
#3: Travel in person or via internet
Ideally, you’ll be able to spend some time in the area where you’ll live before you move there, but if not, the internet is your best friend. It makes it possible to thoroughly research your new area, including neighborhoods, climate, cost of living, proximity to where you will work, schools in the area, nearby attractions, and how close you will be to transportation hubs like airports and train stations. Researching ahead of time can make the time you do have to spend in your new home in person run far more efficiently.
#4: Take time to say goodbye
No matter how long you’ve lived in your current area, you’ll want to take adequate time to say goodbye. So while it may seem out of place on a list of 5 tips for moving from Atlanta, it’s important psychological closure to really say goodbye to your friends and family in the area, as well as to the home you’ve lived in and the office where you’ve worked. You’ll find it far easier to embark on the next chapter of your life when you spend time saying good bye and preparing mentally to move on.
#5: Try to enjoy the process
No argument: moving is stressful and reducing that stress is important to the success of your move. So the last of these 5 tips for moving from Atlanta is to try to enjoy the process. Researching a new place to live and learning all the neat little factoids about that area can be highly fascinating. You may discover a million and one historical and cultural areas you can visit and explore, tons of great new restaurants to try, and different climates and geographical terrains to absorb. You’ll have a bunch of houses to consider, a new job or new office to jump into, and new friends galore waiting to meet you. Yes, there are many different tough aspects of moving, and you may be sad to leave Atlanta behind. But by enjoying the preparation and moving process and looking forward to all that your new home has to offer, you can turn a potentially stressful move into your next great adventure.
While you’re working to book your Atlanta long distance moving company and checking off all the details of moving to a new city or state, keep these 5 tips for moving from Atlanta in mind, take many deep breaths, don’t forget to accept help from family and friends, and you’ll be ready to hit the ground running in your new home.
