Perhaps look at packing up a POD and have it stored till the home in ready? Believe I remember reading they would do this but I don't know how much or for how long they will keep the pod in storage.

We're in a similar situation. We're thinking that we'll put almost everything in PODS and find a place on AirBnB.

It's not ideal, but what are you gonna do?

what is AirBnB?

Same boat as you. But we are out two plus months with two kids under 3.5 and bouncing around with family living out of suitcases. We got storage units right by the new house. We had to move 1800 square feet of flooring (80 boxes) and an ENTIRE ikea kitchen TWICE. It has been LOVELY.

In terms of what to pack, we don't have a lot of clothes and it being summer helped. We are one month in and so far having one suitcase for me as been find.

AirBnB.com it's a website that has rentals that rent like hotels (but many have lower rates for longer stays). We found a house we think will work for us- the rate isn't bad, and we can leave with 30 days notice.

I just read a bunch of reviews-- we are NOT using pods.

I've used a POD for just "stuff" before -- a lot of garage items, things that are "bleachable", etc. but I can't imagine having my real furniture in a Pod. They're just a cube and I can't see my Thomasville sectional sofa even fitting in there... Hhhmmm, what to do?

HOLD IT!!!!! Do not panic yet.

Do you have a lease? If so, what does it say about terminating it? How long a notice?

BTW, Unless your lease specified that in the event of a sale, you had to be out at closing, most sales are "subject to lease", so the new owner becomes your landlord at closing and would be the ones to tell you to leave.

Check your state's Residential Landlord and Tenant Laws .... If you are paying a monthly rent, even with no lease, you have a legal "month to month" periodic rental and they have to send you legally adequate notification.

What state?
When do you pay rent?
When did they notify you?

Unless your lease was month to month and requires only minimal notice to terminate it, you're fine. Most leases do require at least 30 days advance notice to terminate. Leases survive property transfer. While a new owner can make it unpleasant for you to stay there long term, since you only need a month (or two), they should be amenable to you not moving out until the home is done.

No reason to panic at all!!

See posts above.

(But if your loverly landlords drive pickups sporting the Rebel flag in the back window and a brace of large bore shotguns on the rack, you may have cause to pack it up and move it on.)

Lease is up, folks.

This post was edited by worthy on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 11:07

Aside from tenant laws, maybe you *did* have notification, check with the new landlords to see if "rent-back" is possible. I know several people in my local area this time of year who sold their homes, then "rented them back" for a month or 2 to finish out the school year. (We have a hot market, and I think it caught some of my selling friends off guard).

Both properties I bought had renters in them and were subject to lease. As the new owner I collected rent from them until their lease was up.

I am currently renting an apartment while waiting for lease to end for the tenants in the house I move into next. For the first six months of the lease the new owners would be subject to lease and after that it went month to month, so I was worried about the same thing happening to me.

So check your lease, you may be able to stay.

I stupidly signed a 9 month lease since my builder said the house would take 7 months. After the 9 months, we agreed to go month to month unless either one of us wanted to terminate, with a 30 day notice. Well, they gave me my 30 day notice this past weekend, and the new buyer is pregnant and needs to be in the house by July 1. The part that really ticks me off is they told me, in writing, just a week ago that they would work with any potential buyers and assured me we could stay in the house until the new one was ready. I believed them. Lesson learned. But I still say, BOO, that's a crappy thing to do to this mom of 3 kids! And it's sad that my kids keep asking why our landlords lied and didn't keep their word. A hard thing to explain to a kid... :(

We are in a similar situation. We are working in one state and building in another. Sold our house and all of our stuff is packed up and in storage. So we have a friend who flips homes and we rented from him while we were waiting to move. The house was on the market and sold quickly so we had to move to another flipped home. Well, I wasn't thinking about what all I might need and it ends up it is mainly all of our kitchen supplies. Let me tell you... cutting an onion up with a plastic knife is not easy! Yeah, I know, go buy some cheap knives, but I was in the middle of making risotto and the grill was going and it just wasn't possible! So I ended up buying some cheap knives later as ours were in storage already. There are still things I find daily almost that I wish I had not packed up. All of it kitchen stuff. So I say take everything that you use consistently that is related to the kitchen.

Oh and take clothes too. Also for the kids! :-)

Good luck to you J_hack! I don't even know how to pack things like lamps and mirrors for storage! I've done many local moves, but I usually take these items by car and instantly unpack. This putting ALL my furniture in storage is new for me! I welcome any and all tips! :) I think my month of being a nomad is going to cause me to drink wine every evening! ;-)

My goodness. That would be hard, especially with 3 kids. Is the garage at your new house habitable yet? Could you store some stuff there - just not "occupy" it until your inspections are passed and you can move in? Actually live in a motel - or maybe camp - until you can live in your house? If you were camping, your kids might view it as an adventure (smores in the evening), although you might not.

We have been in an apartment since mid Feb, and are frustrated at the delays in getting to groundbreaking (should be early this coming week, though). First stupid delays with the permit, then our lender is behind on paperwork and more delays. Grrr. But we have a lot of things in boxes and storage units. We tried to anticipate our needs for the coming months and unpacking what we would really need. But that's impossible, of course.

Check the wording of your lease, specifically if it has a section that helps define a 30 day notice. The lease I use has such a section, and the 30 day termination period BEGINS on the first of the calendar month FOLLOWING the date of notice. So according to my lease, your 30 days would START on July 1st and run through the end of July since you were notified in June.

If your 30 days is defined similarly, and they notified you in writing no earlier than last Saturday, you are golden!

This post was edited by dBrad on Sat, Jun 8, 13 at 10:45

Call a local attorney. Many would talk to you for free, to give you an idea of what your rights are. If they agreed to extend your lease, particularly in writing although that probably doesn't make or break the case, you may have a legal right to stay in the space. Seriously, it's worth a couple of calls. I'm a lawyer and talk to people in simar situations frequently without charge or obligation.

Wine every evening should make for interesting unpacking! Lol!

Separate lamp bases from shades. Wrap shades in packing paper and place them in the bottom of wardrobe boxes. Be sure to tape the clothes hangers onto the rod. If there's room, lamb bases can be wrapped and placed upright in the wardrobe boxes as well. Wrap and tape a flattened moving box around the mirror. You can also use a moving blanket to protect the corners further. Stand it on its end to store. Flat is asking for breakage. ;)

Hopefully, things will work in your favor and you won't have to worry about meticulous packing.

We sold our home in January and have been renting a furnished condo while we build our new home and our lease is up July 1st and our home won't quite be done by that time. We also built a detached shed and I moved the camper in it and will be living in it until home is complete...hopefully not longer than 2 weeks.
We sold our home completely furnished except for personal items and antiques/family heirlooms cause we didn't want to move and store a 6,0000 sf house and furniture.
The kids aren't too thrilled about living In the camper :)

We survived a similar situation last winter.... spent two months in the 12' living quarters space of our horse trailer parked out on our new driveway. Me, the 6'7" husband, a 90lb German Shepherd and a cat... .it was cozy!

As far as the storage, this is what we did. There are no climate controlled storage units within 100 miles so we had to make do.

All wood pieces and furniture, books, paper and fabric things went inside the new house.

We had several rooms downstairs that we piled up the furniture in stacking some things with cardboard between them. We piled it all neatly and away from the walls so that the electrician could still work and workers could get through the rooms to the bathrooms etc. The ceiling fans and central light fixtures were installed prior to the move and the ceilings were all finished so there was never any need to get to the center of the room again. Then we draped off and covered everything with plastic sheeting.

We did the same thing in our master bedroom only it was mostly wardrobe boxes. The mechanical room was a similar situation and so was our storage room and another walk in closet.

Anything that a mouse, water or weather couldn't hurt went outside. If you pack carefully, this is more than you might think. We rented a storage unit in town, got the one pod that was available delivered to the construction site and also had part of our garage at the new house available.

All of our artwork, prints etc were packed in art boxes and went to the home of some good friends who gave over an extra bedroom to them until we could get them again.

Every single box was numbered and labeled so that movers knew whether it went to the pod, garage or house. I used a program called Evernote to keep track of what was inside each box and where each box should be located.

My husband made sure that our contents were covered by our insurance... he used to be an insurance agent so knew to look into this. I believe that we had to have some sort of residence other than our RV, so we "rented" the guest house of other friends for a dollar so that if something happened we legally had a residence. Whatever you do if you store things at your new residence or in a pod on the property, make sure that it's all covered by your insurance in case of fire, robbery etc.

As far as the building inspectors, we really didn't care. It was going to be our GC who would be in hot water with them and we were a little peeved that the house was about 4 months past our longest expected time for completion. It took us 2 years!

The inspectors really didn't care as long as they could get to all of the light switches, receptacles etc.
Our rental landlords were awesome, but we'd told them that the house would be finished in October and they'd advertised the rental and had new tenants lined up almost immediately. We had about 6 weeks to be prepared for the move so it wasn't as bad as it sounds and we truly didn't blame our landlord. New tenants are hard to find and it didn't make any sense to ignore a new year lease just to keep us around for 8 more weeks.

Good luck! With planning, you can swing it!