Living as a Corporate Vagabond

I recently caught wind that my employer will be looking for people that would help open new sites, living in new cities for a few months at a time over the course of a year. This piqued my interest, since it would allow me to have a bare-bones home address while temporarily living in places with housing too expensive for my tastes, allowing me to see some new places while saving some money for... whatever. For a bit of background, I have already transferred from one city to another in an expanded job position. This is a very fast-paced company where moving around is the rule rather than the exception, and I have the flexibility of an unattached twenty-something.

This potential position would not start until later on this year; in the meantime, I am looking to relocate closer to the site where I currently work, since I'm 60 miles away now. A few questions for The Hive:

1. What do you recommend for finding short-term housing that can potentially extend to long term (if I end up staying at my current location longer than planned)? Craigslist? Listings catering to people on med school rotations?

2. Anyone have experience rotating between cities after a few months in each? Did you enjoy it? Should I transition into the rotating role, I would probably have corporate housing, and likely move my "permanent residence" close to company HQ.

I'm currently living in a small studio, and have a single car that's paid off. I wouldn't have an issue parking the car for a few months at a time with some comp insurance while I travel.

RV? Camper? Have them pay the fuel bill.

Paying for/maintaining another vehicle doesn't really fit into my "simplicity" plan.

If your company HQ has a college campus close by, a summer sublet would probably fit in well with what you're looking for. I found one for an internship on Craigslist.

Been there done that...have the t-shirt and the full passport.

So it depends on the length you will be in a place. There are 2 ways to do it. Extended stay hotel for shorter stays (1 month or so) I like the Hyatt house for that personally. I find the suites very comfy.

The other option is a corporate style apartment. It's cheaper than a hotel but more expensive than a typical apartment. Check the hidden costs with those. It's a huge advantage if they have the cable/electric/etc all included in the cost. The hookup charges get expensive if you do it 2-3 times a year.

Most importantly...read the fine print and know exactly what your company will cover and how much help they will provide. Most apartment finders in the towns can help with that.

I lived very light. Basically, I had a small uhaul style trailer and what could be towed with my Integra. If it didn't fit when it was time to go, then it got left.

As far as liking it...Well, it depends on the type of person you are. Do you make friends easy? Are you comfortable doing things by yourself? How good at you are handling change? It can be lonely some times. The electronic world has made it easier to keep in touch with friends you meet along the way.

Where the NOHOME name came from. Everything I owned fit in the trunk of a Miata. When I was working, I had ZERO expenses since the company covered travel and food. Banking a lot of cash early in life makes a huge difference when you decide to settle down.

Do you NEED a home base? Can you get rid of the pied-a-terre and just arrive at the new company paid apartment and keep doing this from jobsite to jobsite?

Do it. The people who do it at this particular company go up faster than those that don't. If you don't... You are sidelined.

Do it for a couple years but always make sure you are getting every red cent out of the deal. This is a great way to meet new people and build your professional resume. It's not my choice for life but for a few years early on it can be a huge benefit. I've done relo's a few times with my current company and it's been quite good to me.

For my home base, it was a buddies vacation cabin and a Shed I bought for him to store things as I needed to. I used it as home base and when I went overseas for 2 of the trips, I stored my car and trailer on the concrete pad I had poured for the shed. It all worked out well and we were both happy.

So I had no rent and no bills for 3 years working a ton of overtime. I pocketed all of that money and put 60% down on my first condo when I was done. I just sold that condo after renting it for 13 years now and am bout to pay off my house, Do some renovations, and possibly build a new garage in the back. All before the age of 40 so it worked out well for me.

Lately this sounds like my perfect employment situation, although I'd rather live someplace 1-2 years than 1-2 months. 1-2 years is long enough to make friends and get involved, but short enough not to get bored or complacent.

NOHOME wrote: Where the NOHOME name came from. Everything I owned fit in the trunk of a Miata. When I was working, I had ZERO expenses since the company covered travel and food. Banking a lot of cash early in life makes a huge difference when you decide to settle down. Do you NEED a home base? Can you get rid of the pied-a-terre and just arrive at the new company paid apartment and keep doing this from jobsite to jobsite?

The latter situation is what I thought... I would see if I could swing just a PO box either in my home state or HDQ state, both conveniently without state income taxes.

Seriously, Just use a friend or families address unless you need to have a place. There is no sense in keeping an apartment if you are going to live on the road.

That's what I did. I lived in Alabama for 4 years according to the state of Alabama but only spent maybe 2 weeks total there of that 4 years. No car inspections meant I never had to go back there for much of anything. Plus, It also happened to be the lowest car insurance of any of the possible locations I could choose. Also, My company wouldn't pay per Diem for any location within 60 miles of the home address and the closest location from there was over 180 miles away on the other side of Atlanta so I was covered.

The life of a Construction Contractor can often be like that. (You simply can't move a piece of real estate to wherever you think it would be convenient to do business).

Try to negotiate a per diem that you control. It should be sufficient to stay in an average hotel.

Here's how it works for Contractors...

Company offers a fixed per diem, but they don't tell you how to spend it. Let's use $100 per day as an example.

Road warriors then decide where they will stay. Some like a nice place- perhaps a $100 per night hotel. They break even.

Most want to save a few bucks, so they choose an extended stay hotel. This may cost $250 per week (no laundry, etc). They pocket the difference ($1000 per month).

Occasionally, a guy likes a posh joint with massages and a fancy bar. $200 per night- he digs in his own pocket, but gets a massage cheap.

Then there are the cheapazzes. These guys sleep in the job site office trailer, and pinch every penny. They put an extra $2000 per month in the bank.

In your case, you could consider a roommate, etc.

How about rooming with GRMers around the country for half of your per diem?

My company also has corporate apartments in various cities where we do a lot of work.

I couldn't do it without some form of stability. For me, that means a truck that is extremely well outfitted (from years of experience) with tools, misc housewares, etc, and a backpack that is my mobile office. I always have my computer, phone, scanner, cords, chargers, even paper clips, etc.

Id love to do it in a small RV or conversion van.

In my case, I also get to go home very regularly. That place is nice, but it's really my wife's home. Mine is my truck.

We have known Mitchell for quite a while. He's a nice, honest person. I think he'd do well in this gig.

Mitchell wrote:

NOHOME wrote: Where the NOHOME name came from. Everything I owned fit in the trunk of a Miata. When I was working, I had ZERO expenses since the company covered travel and food. Banking a lot of cash early in life makes a huge difference when you decide to settle down. Do you NEED a home base? Can you get rid of the pied-a-terre and just arrive at the new company paid apartment and keep doing this from jobsite to jobsite?

The latter situation is what I thought... I would see if I could swing just a PO box either in my home state or HDQ state, both conveniently without state income taxes.

I kept the car registered in SD for just those reasons. Cheap insurance also.

Well, I am still unsure of what work will look like in 6 months.

In the meantime, I found a room in a McMansion for 575 all included, no lease required... To roommate, or not to roommate. This is half of what I'm paying for a studio, and it will cut my commute from 64 miles to 22 miles. How much is privacy worth, anyways?

Not sure what you are asking...

If you are asking what it's like to be a housemate (your own room in a house for $575), I've done it, and it worked very well. I found privacy to be fine, cause in that scenario, there is not much reason to violate the privacy of your room.

If you are asking if you should take an additional person as a roommate to cut the price of the room in half, I think that would be really tough. It's a recipe for failure, unless you are looking to get to know them much more intimately (and it is hard then too).

Mitchell wrote: Well, I am still unsure of what work will look like in 6 months. In the meantime, I found a room in a McMansion for 575 all included, no lease required... To roommate, or not to roommate. This is half of what I'm paying for a studio, and it will cut my commute from 64 miles to 22 miles. How much is privacy worth, anyways?

I've done it before and I would do it again if my current circumstances were slightly different.

If you're both mature adults, it will be fine. I only had about 2 issues in a year, and they both revolved around his religious beliefs. One I was ok with, the other I was not and said I was going to move out. He quickly changed his tune since I was paying over half his mortgage. I have a thread detailing it: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/roommate-rant-just-when-you-think-it-is-all-going-swimmingly-it-isnt-i-hate-looking-for-housing/71489/page1/

Other thing I'd say is to sell off everything you can on craigslist other than a bed, dresser, and clothes. I took too much stuff with me and stored it in my room, and it was annoying. I should have just sold most of it since we didn't use it.

Privacy is worth more than $287.50

To clarify, I'm looking for something to tide me over until I hear more about the potential travel gig; my current lease ends in early july, and I really don't want to sign another until I have more clarity about 3, 6-months out.

So, I'm searching the list of Craig's to find what unconventional living arrangements exist for working adults. Grassroots is my off-kilter reality check, so if people even here ask "You're doing what?" Then I know I'm probably going a little too outside the box.

Example, I found a place not far from work that essentially rents furnished rooms out of a historic house by the month. My thoughts here are to throw daily essentials in my car, and to put everything else in a Pod for when I have a stable place again.

In reply to Mitchell:

There is nothing wrong with renting a room from a professional establishment.

Sharing a room is different.

And renting a room in a skeezy area, or from a creep or otherwise unsavory character would also be a no go.

College town frequently have houses that rent rooms.