Her landlord promised an “early moveout bonus” for being out by the 25th. She did a lot of work to get packed up over this past weekend so that we’d have a chance at it. We scheduled the movers to come last night, then found out that the “bonus” was getting your deposit back earlier! This leads to Jim’s Tips For Buying A House #46: If you are offered a bonus for moving out early, find out what it is before you prepare to claim it. Believe me, we’ll be having more of them as we go along, then I’ll get them all together. I’ve learned a ton about buying houses.

The experience with the moving company was interesting to say the least. Fortunately, Megan’s mother was able to be there early, since the movers were also early. I was just on time. At any rate, they were the only ones that I found available on short notice. They are a “christian company”, whatever that means. Megan’s mom said that they prayed to begin moving, and I can verify that we prayed when she left, and we prayed when we were done moving. This seems a bit odd to me, but Megan really thought it was funny.

Anyway, it was overall not a good experience. The home office’s conversations with Megan established a price ceiling which I, of course, knew nothing about. The movers did a competent job, but started out expensive and became more so. There’s two tips out of this one.

Jim’s Tips For Buying A House #22: Schedule your move out more than one month in advance. I recommend Two Men And a Truck. They don’t seem to be a franchise, but I had fantastic moves with them in both Houston and Virginia, so that’s something. I’m calling them today.

Jim’s Tips For Buying A House #9: Pack your own boxes before using movers. Unless you already have some degree of wealth, this will bring movers into your price range.

So, I’m for moving her out of there ourselves with some friendly help. Maybe I’ll be driving the fifteen-footer soon enough! The Pontiac Catalina gave me good training. Imagine a car that looks like this, but twice as big.