Money Matters
lbonga1
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Sort of MM-related...applying to jobs
Just out of curiosity...would you ever apply to jobs in a location you've never visited?
Re: Sort of MM-related...applying to jobs
I moved to Charlotte after college for an unpaid internship and stayed there for 8 years, but I wouldn't recommend making a drastic change without seeing the place first.
A company called H to phone interview for a job and there were a few different locations he could move to if offered the job. A couple were really far away and HCOL and we wouldn't be interested in anything there but then there were also a couple that would be about 5-6 hours from where we are now and not a big change in COL. We figured those options were acceptable as possibilities and if it actually came to an offer we would make a decision about moving at that time...probably with at least one visit before accepting a job, like @als1982 mentioned.
I would, but would also do a lot of research to try and get a feel for things like entertainment, traffic, food, attitude, COL, etc. I'd also make sure to visit, at least once, before accepting an offer.
However, I'm also a "glass half full" kind of person and look on the positives, make the best of situations.
Either way, looking to see what's out there and applying for something doesn't lock you into anything, so I say why not?
Having four seasons is awesome and the climate overall is moderate. It doesn't get extremely hot or extremely cold. We do get a fair amount of snow at times, but it usually melts quickly.
Depending on where you are looking in Colorado will greatly dictate COL. We live in Colorado Springs, which is about 1 hour south of Denver. It's a very family friendly city, MCOL, larger homes, easy access to trails, open spaces and the mountains and it's still growing.
Denver on the other hand is in a huge growth spurt. It's one of the most inflated markets in the country. So while it is is not as expensive as the Bay Area, it is still very difficult to buy a home or afford one. My brother lives there and has put in 8 offers (the day he saw the homes) and all cash buyers picked them up. He was shopping in the $250k-$350k price range for a 3-4 bedroom home in the outskirts of Denver. Our friends bought a 4 bedroom, 3,000 sq ft home the day it went on the market for $415,000. It's really outdated, they have to redo all the bathroom (plumbing issues and carpet in them) and do other updates.
If you have any questions about Colorado, I would be happy to answer them for you.
Our friends are buying a house right now in Denver proper, it's like 900sq ft with a sort of finished basement (so 1800ish total), and they're paying $400,000 for it. It's in a pretty prime area close to downtown, restaurants, shops, etc., but Denver Public Schools aren't that good. Some other friends just closed on a house up in Thornton, which is a large suburb north of Denver. They paid $375,000, and the house is pretty big, like 2700 sq ft without the unfinished basement. It's decent, but pretty dated as it was built in like 1998. The schools are much better there. Our own house, which is a new build on an acre on the very far northern reaches of Denver metro, about 30 minutes from Boulder, is 1850ish sq ft with a full unfinished basement and a panoramic view of the mountains, appraised this summer for $512,000. If we were on the west side of I-25, ie, closer to Boulder, we would be well into the $600s, and we couldn't get a full acre. Oh and we're not in a great school district.
Both sets of friends had to put offers in on multiple homes, and the one in Thornton even gave up for awhile. The only reason they ended up with this house was because the listing agent didn't post any pictures online, so they didn't have as much traffic as they would have if the listing agent did their job.
My new job is in Louisville, which is just south of Boulder. It'll be a 30-40 minute commute for me to go about 20 miles. No way could we ever afford to live over there unless we lived in a tiny condo and sold our cars and toys. The average home price in Boulder proper is $950k, and it's not much lower in the close by towns surrounding it.
Also, since you have kids, childcare is pricey here (although it is everywhere I'm sure). I've already researched it for the northern area near where we live and we'd be looking at at least $1200/mo for a baby, at a facility like Kindercare.
I can't speak much to schools here, but I've never heard anything negative about them either.