There's an understanding that employers will pay at least some of the moving expenses of employees who are hired or transferred from a distant place. But the current decline in home values has made relocation much more difficult. If selling your home is a barrier to relocation, can and should you ask your employer for financial help?

QUESTION

Here's an exchange that took place on our Forum, where ExecuNet members can pose "Ask the Expert" questions and get them answered:

I've been offered a job that includes relocation, but I'm curious about what I can negotiate for. I don't have a lot of familiarity with relocation details.

Here's the situation. I own a home here, but in a declining market such as we are experiencing, I'm not sure what it's worth. The company has agreed to pay moving expenses.

How would you bring up the house question? And how would you approach the idea of having the relocation company buy my house, rather than my fighting a sale from 900 miles away?

ANSWER

Here's how another ExecuNet member answered the question:

Relocation packages vary. Larger companies (over approximately $500,000 in sales) provide better packages. Most companies will pay for household moving (and packing) expenses and temporary living expenses (up to six months) until your home sells. This is usually an apartment. They will also typically pay for weekly or bi-monthly trips on weekends back home.

The larger companies will use a relocation company, which will hire (with your approval) a real estate agent to sell your home. The sales commission is paid by the relocation company. Depending on your area, this will save you 5% to 6% of your home's selling price. Your company may also pay for closing costs on your new home. There are a few programs where the relocation company will buy your home if it doesn't sell within 90 days. The price will be based on three estimates.

In any event, I suggest you begin discussions with your new employer with their agreement of using a relocation company as described above. If you need additional information on relocation companies, I suggest you contact a local real estate firm and ask to speak with a top relocation agent.

Conclusion

Uprooting a family to take a new job is literally a dislocating experience. And in the current economy, the financial burden on homeowners is even greater. The good news is that if employers want you badly enough to pay your moving expenses, they're likely to be ready, willing and able to shoulder part of your home sale burden.

Wishing you career success,

Lauryn Franzoni

ExecuNet, www.execunet.com

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

July 11, 1804

by Glenn Demby

See if you can wrap your mind around this. Vice President Dick Cheney decides he wants to run for president. He assembles a formidable campaign. His longtime political enemy, Robert Rubin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration, writes an editorial calling Cheney a scoundrel and unfit for president. Cheney's presidential bid is foiled. Cheney challenges Rubin to a duel. Rubin accepts. The two men fight it out with pistols at dawn. Rubin is fatally wounded.

Such a scenario sounds like pure literary fantasy - except perhaps the part about a person's suffering a gunshot wound at the hands of Dick Cheney. But something like it actually happened on this date in 1804.

The feud between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr started in earnest in 1791 when Burr defeated Philip Schuyler for a U.S. Senate seat in New York. Schuyler wasn't just Hamilton's political ally; he was also his father-in-law. But Hamilton would get even nine years later. When the deadlocked presidential election reached the House of Representatives, Hamilton's political maneuvering ensured that Thomas Jefferson would become president and Burr would be relegated to the number two slot. The fact that Hamilton would go to all this trouble to help Jefferson, a man he despised, made the affront to Burr that much more personal.

Things came to a head in 1804. Jefferson dropped Burr from his reelection ticket. So Burr decided to run for governor of New York instead. Hamilton waged a vicious campaign against Burr and helped the rival Democratic-Republican win the election.

The spark that finally lit the powder keg was a series of nasty letters that Hamilton wrote about Burr to an Albany newspaper editor that found their way into print. Burr demanded that Hamilton retract his vitriolic words. Hamilton refused. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton accepted.

The famous duel was held in the early morning hours of July 11, 1804 in Weehawken, NJ, on the banks of the Hudson River. Two shots were fired, although there are conflicting accounts about who shot first. Some say Hamilton deliberately fired into the air. Burr did not. He shot Hamilton in the lower abdomen just above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's ribs and smashed into his internal organs. The wound was fatal. Hamilton died the next day.

Burr fled to South Carolina but later returned to Washington, DC, to serve out his term as Vice President. Burr, his political career apparently over, then moved west and hooked up with a renegade general. The plans of Burr and General James Wilkinson to stage a coup to make Tennessee a separate republic and seek protection from the Spanish in Florida were found out and Burr was charged with treason. He would be acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the States of New York and New Jersey charged Aaron Burr with the murder of Alexander Hamilton. But neither case ever made it to trial. Burr died of natural causes in 1836.

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