What should a relocation package include?
 

For those of you who have been relocated or have taken a new position with a relo included, what did it all include? I know the higher level positions (director level on up) cover more. I'm looking for negotiating points. What should a standard package include, how much, etc... ? Here are some of categories I'm thinking of:

Household goods moved - most likely covered
Amount of time kept in storage - how long?
Temporary housing - how long?
Lump sum of money - how much?
Transaction cost of new home for title fee, legal etc..

Point reduction on a new mortgage and having my home bought from the company are definitely out of the picture. With our economy now, I guess, I'd be lucky to see any of the above.

The biggest risk I see is the amount of time to sell my home.

I'm not sure what a typical deal is, as I've only been relo'd once.

I got:

Guaranteed sale of my house and company paid all transactions sales fees (commission and others).

Moved my stuff to new place.

There was no provision for temporary housing, but I did get a $25,000 bonus at signing. And the company "grossed up" all of the above so that the taxes were essentially not paid by me.

But that was in 2000, very different economic environment.

New domestic partner? ;) :D

Why not rent your home pending settling in on the new job? It's nice to have a familiar place to go back to if things don't work out. That is unless you're done there.

`Witness Protection ?

I moved in early 06 and got 3 months in furnished apartment, my travel expense, 4 roundtrips for family, full payment of packing and moving expenses, $5000 for miscellaneous expenses, pay commission and expenses to sell existing house, and a slightly preferential mortgage rate for the new house (went to work for a bank). All grossed up for taxes. To be repaid if I quit within a year. Which I did, so the new employer agreed to indemnify me for the liability, I nego'd it down to 50 cents on the dollar and it was paid and indemnified. That was then, this is now. Today, I'd think the relo package would be smaller.

Relocation package? In this economic client?

Probably a set of Mapquest directions to the new office... :(

angela

Oh Angela, you're so cheerful . . .

I got $3K and they helped find a local apartment, and payed the first months rent.

I felt lucky with that.

I relo'd for the same company twice. Once when I took the job - that was a short haul from Jacksonville FL to Orlando. I got $5000 grossed up (this was in the late nineties), they would have bought out my lease (but my landlord was cool) and they paid the movers to come and pack me up and move everything except my car which I drove down to Orlando. They paid for 2 house hunting trips, I felt at the time it was a good deal. Short distance, I had little work to do really. 1 year repayment contract.

Next was a move from Orlando out to LA - significantly further. They paid for another 2 house hunting trips. Moved my stuff and this time gave me $10,000 grossed up. I was still a renter so they bought out this lease (not cool landlord) and set me up with a realtor in LA. This was in early 2000. Same - 1 year repayment contract.

Not sure what I would expect in this climate...I did try to get that company to relocate me back to the east coast a couple of times but they said they were done moving me. :D

Depends on the job level and industry. You need to post that info to get decent input.

George

when i moved to Holland,

i got

5 grand (euros) relocation budget, to spend on moving costs or new furniture and what not, i had to produce bills, albeit mostly for the dutch taxes, not for the company.
Either way, i typed up my own bill for a fictitious Sony Home theatre thing that cost 4.999, from a non existing company in a non existing street of a non existing town in Belgium...
guessing the dutch tax office would not bother to check such things, and i guessed right :D

Got 1 month salary as settle-in fee

And 3 months furnished company appartment

Had to do 2 years minimum else i'de have to repay a bit.

That was 2001... not sure if that would be easy to get in 2009...
It depends on type of industry, the level of the job, and how keen the company is on getting you on board..

Oh jeez, you're right - that was pretty negative of me. Sorry...

Just seeing alot of ugly stuff right now.

angela

My move to AZ was pretty much my own choice, though my boss did want someone out here. Company not only didn't pay a dime for anything, they even counted as vacation days the time it took me to drive out here.

Good point. In the medical field, you usually don't get much. When I signed on about a year and a half ago, I got $6K for moving expenses. That about covered the movers (and we packed our own stuff) and a motorcycle. The rest (cars, personal transportation, etc) was up to me.

Snow tires!

someone had to say it ;)

As said, it depends on industry and position. The point of a corporate relo is to keep you whole - you should not really pay any expenses that you would not have incurred had you not agreed to relocate on behalf of the company. The general package tends to include full cost of packing/moving, 2-4 family trips to locate new housing, any interim housing until new home is able to be occupied, payment of all and any RE fees, taxes, etc. for sale of your existing home, plus some pocket money for incidentals. And the most important two words: "gross up." The tax hit on relocation can be very significant.

Thanks for all your input, this is consistent with what I'm seeing - with the exception of seeing the RE transaction. Milt, I like your suggestion, and it's something I've thought about as well. I'd like to keep my home for rent if I can make it happen.

If you are not 100% in to the company/job/career, it's hard to justify selling your home and relocating your family. And if you worked for me and wanted to keep your old home and rent it out, that would be setting off alarm bells in my head. So tread carefully.

For a high performer we'd have an un-do clause: If terminated other than for cause, we'd unwind the package so they could move back.

Several years ago I got relo'd twice. To Denver with one company, back to Seattle with another. Denver was supposed to be a 3-4 year deal so we kept the house and rented it out. Ended up being shorter with dot.com bubble bursting and the Denver thing was going downhill fast so I got out. Was very glad we kept the house.