Need ideas how to empty house in one day before moving to Canada

[Snowisland]

I am visiting Canada with a return to US flight in May. Got DM sooner than expected so need your experiences or suggestions on how to get moved fast. Here are my restrictions..

1. husband gets no more than two weeks off work. It is 4500k drive from tx house to BC house, and we are bringing two cats. So we fly to tx (I already had ticket but he doesn't yet) and have less than a week to empty house completely, clean it, meet with realtor to put on market, get cat rabies shots, get my 2009 Honda ready for import (what do I have to do?), refill prescriptions, and hit the road.

2. Is there anything I am forgetting? We are mailing a couple of boxes of momentoes , bringing medical records and any important paperwork, and the cats and the car and that's all.

3.We do not have the time for yard sale, craiglists list etc and we are not able to move furniture ourselves.
Is there some type of company that would come take everything and give us any money at all? Again, we would not be there more than a day or two before we need it removed. It is a four bedroom house.

4. I mentioned selling it with contents, but if it doesn't sell that way, I will be long gone with no way to empty the house. Selling it empty can be done anywhere from two days to two months.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Ponga]

Or...you can consider one of these options:

1. Land anytime between the day that you receive your COPR in the mail and the expiry date of the COPR (likely to be one year from the date of your medical exam). Return to Texas to take care of things, knowing that you could [in reality] be gone for 3 years and still maintain your PR residency obligation.

2. Land in Canada (if you're already in Canada, flag pole at the nearest land border that has immigration services)...and then return back to Texas to handle things properly.


Either of these will give you plenty of time to do this the right way.

*[EDIT]*
Be sure to complete the B4 Goods to Follow forms for your personal items that will be coming with you into Canada.

You might consider selling your car and buying something in Canada. Because of the low loonie, you'll [in essence] get an extra 25% for you car if you sell it now.

 

[nmclean]

You might consider selling your car and buying something in Canada. Because of the low loonie, you'll [in essence] get an extra 25% for you car if you sell it now.

It's an extra 33% (25 cents US = 33 Canadian), but car prices in Canada are so marked up that this still isn't worth it in many cases. I did some quick checking and it looks like the average asking price of a 2009 Civic in the US, converted to CAD, is still about C$350 less than the price in Canada. Import fee is only $195.

 

[Ponga]

It's an extra 33% (25 cents US = 33 Canadian), but car prices in Canada are so marked up that this still isn't worth it in many cases. I did some quick checking and it looks like the average asking price of a 2009 Civic in the US, converted to CAD, is still about C$350 less than the price in Canada. Import fee is only $195.

How do you figure 33%, when the exchange rate [today] is closer to 25%?

IMO, for $155...it's not worth the hassle. Besides, you didn't calculate the cost of getting the car from Texas to Canada did you.
I suspect that would eat a big piece of that $155 savings.

 

[nmclean]

How do you figure 33%, when the exchange rate [today] is closer to 25%?

Because that 25% is 25 cents in US money. Imagine if we were at $1 = $0.50 US. We would need 2 loonies to make $1 US, or in other words a 100% difference, not 50%. At $0.75, we need $1.33.

IMO, for $155...it's not worth the hassle. Besides, you didn't calculate the cost of getting the car from Texas to Canada did you.
I suspect that would eat a big piece of that $155 savings.

Well there are costs and hassle associated with buying a new car too, not to mention selling the old one. That $155 is based on averages, so it's more like a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money, slightly in favor of losing at least $155, but possibly much more. It's a gamble. By comparison, importing is pretty clear cut and risk-free.

 

[Ponga]

Because that 25% is 25 cents in US money. Imagine if we were at $1 = $0.50 US. We would need 2 loonies to make $1 US, or in other words a 100% difference, not 50%. At $0.75, we need $1.33.

Hypothetically, if the car sells for $5000 in USD, the OP can exchange that $5000 for CAD and get ~ $6250 (today), right? That $6250 might just buy a comparable vehicle in Canada, today.

That's the point that I was trying to make, but thanks for the math lesson.

 

[nmclean]

Hypothetically, if the car sells for $5000 in USD, the OP can exchange that $5000 for CAD and get ~ $6250 (today), right? That $6250 might just buy a comparable vehicle in Canada, today.

That's the point that I was trying to make, but thanks for the math lesson.

Well, I just wanted to warn to be aware of the full cost of the options, and not assume the low loonie is a free bonus. There's a reason Canadians will drive hours across the border, eating the cost of gas and hotel stays just to shop in the US and still come out ahead, even today. I actually did that myself in January when the loonie was below $0.70! Price gouging is insane for some things here.

Also with selling and buying a car, you need to consider that you will pay sales tax on buying the car, but I'm not sure if you would be able to recover the tax on selling it. Normally you would also need to pay tax on the value of the car when importing it, but immigrants importing their belongings are exempt.