From Homescape

I recently ran into a family friend who told me he was in the middle of negotiations for a new job. The position, which he considers a definite career boost, would mean he and his family (which includes an 8-year-old and two toddlers) would have to uproot from Austin, Texas, to Houston. The prospects of starting a new job in a new city are great opportunities, but Chris said he was really stressed over trying to sell his home in an ailing real estate market.

Chris isn’t alone. According to a USA Today article published this week, “Employees are more reluctant to move, because they worry about their ability to sell their homes without taking a loss.” But employers are now shelling out some big bucks to help get their newbies settled in.

It’s estimated that 14 percent of employers say they’re more willing to pay to relocate new hires from another area to their company’s location this year compared to last year, according to a joint survey by Harris Interactive and released by CareerBuilder.com and Apartments.com. The survey included 2,417 hiring managers and 5,727 employees. The survey showed that about 40 percent would spend more than $1,000, one-third would spend more than $2,500 and about 10 percent said they would spend more than $10,000 to relocate an employee.

In addition to relocation costs, some companies are extending temporary housing allowances from two to three months to an additional six months. Bigwigs like Home Depot are even going the distance by offering to buy the new employees’ home once it’s been on the market for 90 days.

But one of the more popular incentives employers seem to be pitching in today’s troubled housing market involve a company laptop and a really comfortable pair of pajamas. More and more businesses are letting employees work from home or have flexible hours for long-distance commutes into the office. USA Today reports that “40 percent of IBM’s global staff of 355,000 employees work from a remote location — about 50,000 in the United States, up from 10,000 in 1995.”

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, advises that “job seekers shouldn’t be afraid to ask about relocation expenses during the interview process. The key to getting the best deal is really showing the hiring manager how much of an asset you’ll be to the company during the interview portion so that they view spending money on relocation as an investment rather than an expense.”

Chris is currently negotiating the home closing costs into his relocation bonus, before he accepts his new job offer.

In today’s housing market, would you think twice about accepting a job if it required a long distance move and selling your home?