LivingAlmostLarge's Personal Finance Blog

We signed our purchase and sale and are solidly underway on selling. We have a 5% deposit and are getting work started tomorrow on the foundation. Cross your fingers. we have 7 weeks left for this to all pan out. But now it's harder for them to run away from us....

After test driving the minivan, it wasn't bad and I liked the roominess. But pricing out the shipping it is $1350 for Sonata and $1500 for the subaru. At that price I'm really not sure it's worth shipping the Sonata worth maybe $6500. And the subaru it is, but perhaps to save $1500 it's worth just driving that and deciding if we need a second car when we get there.

Further calculations on moving. Of course we do what we do because we're OCD crazy researchers trying to figure out the cost of our stuff. So my DH calculated the cubic feet of each pod and the cost to move each pod. As well as calculating ABF Uhaul the linear foot cost and the size per cubic foot for that linear foot. A linear foot is actually 1 x 8 x 9 for the truck but we have to decrease the walls. We also got the interior dimensions of the pods we were considering.

We have a complex excel spreadsheet and it works out to Door to Door Pods are $3.72 per cubic foot to move (223 cubic feet) , Packrat/Pods is $6.05 per cubic foot (1024 cubic ft), ABF Upack is $9.95 per cubic feet for first 5' minimum but then goes to $2.13 per cubic feet (we used 16 linear ft). But we obviously have at lest 5 linear feet so really our cost will be $2.13 per cubic feet.

Further thoughts are that using movers even transporters like Budget Van Lines is hiring is $5800 = $6.76 per cubic foot or $5.13 per cubic foot doing it ourselves. Now this is doing their suggested 6000 lbs and approximately 857 cubic ft. So using movers isn't necessarily more expensive than doing it ourselves.

Of course without selling single more piece of furniture we are at approximately with our storage and measurements 857 cubic feet. But we both know that is going down since we are selling more stuff off.

But the question still lies what the most economical way for us to move and what is worth moving?

So we have to further balance out the cost per cubic foot which we did to all our furniture since we could measure it. And we have that on a spreadsheet and we are currently evaluating costs. Most stuff is worth more than $2.13 per cubic feet. However we are between a rock and hard place.

If we move and our stuff doesn't fit in our rental what do we do? And we are definitely moving into a rental before buying so we have to move again. So is it worth purging to buy new stuff we may decide to purge in 1 year when we move into a home we buy?

These are questions hard to put a price tag on. Hope I haven't bored you and made you question the price of moving stuff.

So I've mentioned the plan has been to drive our 2010 Subaru Outback cross country and ship our 2006 Hyundai Sonata. We started discussing other options and one that's come up is selling it where we are and buying a second used car when we arrive.

It will cost $1k to ship. So I've been thinking what about us selling the 2006 Sonata for $6500 and buying a used minivan for around the same price instead?

And we drive that cross country and perhaps keep it for a bit and then sell it? The plan has always been to keep the sonata 3-5 years and it's been 3 years exactly. Then replace it with something else after we decide about more children or what we need.

Would this make sense?

Okay checking again nearby places and seeing what it will cost I found I could rent Penske Truck for $2400 for 11 days. I estimate with 3k miles and unfortunately 10 mpg according to Penske website @ $2.50/gallon we are looking at $750 for the gas at a minimum. Add in hotels at $50/night and minimum if DH drove with someone else, at least 4 nights so $200 + food/drinks and plane ticket for someone else ($300 one way). We are looking at a ridiculous $3700 to move our stuff ourselves in a truck, but we do get to keep everything. There will be no purging.

Also with driving ourselves we will not have a place to live when we get there. We will have to either unload it at a family or friend's house (not wanting to do this) or storage. Since my DH won't rent a place without seeing it. Another option is for him to fly out in June for around $500 RT and find us a place. But that adds to the cost of self-moving.

Now I researched a lot of different pods. Packrat and PODS (name brand) are each $6215 and $6596 respectively for 8x8x16L one huge pod. ABF U pack would be for 3 pods $8837.

Best rates goes with Uhaul and Door to Door (DTD). Uhaul 1 pod is $2217, 2 pods $2868, 3 pods is $3815. These pods are smaller 7x5x8L but we've measured out stuff and we can easily do 2 pods if we throw out the couch and if we keep the couch we can do 3 pods. Ubox charges $144/month to store for an extra 30 days per pod.

DTD is what I've reserved so far just in case. It is 1 pod $1831, 2 pods $2809, and 3 pods $3640, 4 pods is $5950. It is not equivalent per pod as you can see because it appears there is a pick up and drop off cost whether you have one or two or three. The jump in cost for 4 pods I am pretty sure is because it goes on a separate trailer that holds three at a time. It will be only $59/month per pod to store for 30 days. This will give us flexibility to find a place and unpack.

ABF U Pack where they sell by linear foot the truck space is 17" linear = $5226, 12" = 4456, and 5" minimum is $3400 with $154 per linear foot add on. Again I think this is less efficient but I have to call and figure out what the dimensions are.

Right now we are leaning towards 2-3 DTD pods and shipping one car and road tripping for the month. The lack of a mortgage payment will pay for the move. Then driving will be a vacation.

Right now shipping a car is $1k it appears but we aren't sure it's worth shipping. My DH wants a new car when we move but I think waiting a year, settling in, figuring out what we need is more prudent. Yes while his car 2006 Sonata is probably worth $6k and $1k to ship I think it's still the right move for us right now. We are moving without a job and what if we don't need a 2nd car? Or what if we do? Too many factors.

Do you think we should ship our car? Next up calling full service movers. Perhaps they are going to charge us less.

So what happened now? Our attached neighbors are buying a new place. They haven't listed their identical unit yet but they will. What'd they buy? Lol well only a $1.749 million dollar single family home two miles from our current house in the same town.

What can I say? Way out of our price range. Gorgeous and perfect. But good thing we are leaving the area since it's obviously too expensive for us. Good luck for them. And I assume they are listing as soon as we sell. And I know why they have been so cooperative.

We are moving onto the next step in our home sale process...signing the purchase and sale. Easy? no. But we finished negotiations yesterday at 5 pm and then had to negotiate with our neighbors.

We are doing the repair #1 with a range of $5-10k. We are doing it for less money out of our pocket than if they had taken the cash we offered $15k. We were willing to go up to $20k. Yes that's right we were going to throw a ton of money at the problem and they wouldn't bite. They didn't walk away but they instead they said less money and you deal with the headache. And my head does ache thinking about doing my construction project in the next 8 weeks.

We then negotiated with our neighbors about starting IMMEDIATELY as in yesterday. I already sent an email hiring the structural engineer to draw up the plans. I'm hoping they are done next week so I can bid out the project around memorial day and start the work projecting the 1st of June. That will give us a month to do the week, which is estimated at 1 week (I am guessing 2 weeks) and having the bank come out to reassess the repair and give the mortgage a final stamp of approval. Unfortunately this may impact their ability to get a mortgage which will in turn potentially snag our home sale.

Again I'm working as fast as I can. I have contractors coming out this week to look and see if they'll do the work, give an estimate off a report, I've explained about the building plans being worked on, and see what their time frames are and estimate on time to do project.

Talked to my lawyer this morning and he was in disbelief we negotiated with our neighbors in less than 24 hrs to start and pay for a large repair. How did we do it?

Well Neighbor A has an identical unit and is our direct comp. They plan on selling next year and this will tie up their sale and if we put it back on the market and dump it for say $679k they'd get that next year. It was in their best interest for us to not lose our buyers and to keep our comp extremely high. They are hoping to get our $720k pushed higher and next year they may hit $729 or $739k. Who knows. They know which way the bread is buttered.

Neighbor B only holds a 20% equity share in the property because it's a smaller unit. They are in financial difficulties and Neighbor A was calling to see if they could afford it because they agreed. They said yes, but that's not the whole story and we told neighbors A the truth.

The truth is we are giving Neighbor B a 0% personal loan. We are fronting the cash at most $2400 for them to be able to afford the foundation work. We decided privately that we can afford to eat $2400 to sell our home. Right now they are into us for around $1100 anyway because we've paid for association work (painting the house $4k) and other stuff $625 (hiring engineer) out of our own pocket. And our other neighbors owe us something like $2200.

The association owes us and both neighbors agree. Yes we are seriously throwing around money left and right this home sale. The association will need to settle up with us.

But what else can be done? Only thing I can say is thank god we have a ton of cash right now on hand. Thankfully my DH just stashed a lot of cash around $200k for us to move without jobs. We don't need to touch retirement and investment accounts. And while we were debating investing some of this $200k we've been revisiting whether or not we should keep 3 years of expenses in cash.

Right now who knows what our future holds.

OMG I can't believe how expensive it is to move on our own. Getting a Penske Truck (cheaper than uhaul and budget) is $3049 for 10 days assuming we rush and pack and move and drive. It's closer to $4k if we add extra days.

Now everyone who suggested moving using the rental truck, it's expensive because of the cities we're moving between. If I were to flip the cities and drive from where we are moving to where we are, the exact date and rental rate is.....$1389 for the same size truck. Also moving the dates around doesn't help, it actually goes up. Basically no moving company has enough trucks where I live because a lot of people are using them and they need people to bring trucks to our city.

So packing a truck will cost me at a minimum $3049. This does not include gas, hotels, or food on the driving trip over.

So my next step is research PODS and movers myself. From tentative work it appears that it will be cheaper to use pods or full service movers (the price differential won't be so great) since our rental truck is so expensive.

We are in the process of negotiation home repairs that came up during the home inspection. We already had a structural engineer come out and give us a report. Repair option #1 is $5-10k with $1500 engineering work. This is recommended repair and option #2 is $20k including the engineering and only recommended in 5-10 years if there is movement of the crack after repair #1. If we choose to do repair #2 then repair #1 is not necessary. We are responsible for 40% of any repairs as per our association.

Buyers asked for repair #2 started immediately. Our initial response was we will give you $10k to do the repairs. Our realtor said that wouldn't fly they don't want cash (we offered $15k) they want us to deal with the problem. We didn't want to hassle with a construction project and negotiating with the neighbors and just all things that happen during construction.

But that being said to not lose them we then offered repairing the crack at option #1 because that's what our association (2 other owners) agreed it. Yes it's less money our portion would be $5k instead of the $15k we offered them. But I'm about to have a headache embarking on chasing the engineer, bidding out the work, supervising the work, and packing/moving, and trying to close. If they had taken our cash offer I would have been extremely happy.

So now we are waiting. Waiting to see if this offer is acceptable to them. They may still demand repairs and option #2. In which case we have to decide what to do. We don't want to lose them because we can't start the process over again. But at the same time our neighbors are correct in not wanting to pay for more than $10k repairs which is the suggested repair and not jumping the gun to the $20k repairs which he said are unnecessary and not typical. $10k repairs are expected and typical. And $10k is high end.

We should hear back by the end of close today. Cross your fingers, I never knew selling my house would be so hard. I knew we'd have to pay but I never expected I might be running a construction project to sell my house.

Further thoughts are that my realtor said it does make our association look not penny pinching and proactive by agreeing to do this work and doing it quickly. But who knows if the buyers even want to work with us.

Okay people across the US give me ideas. This is a sort of list of towns I was thinking we could road trip and I've mapped out miles, driving, and times but can't format it. So instead here's the list and we start in Yarmouth Canada and drive the way the list goes downwards.

Yarmouth Canada
Halifax
PEI
Saint John's
Bangor Maine
Quebec City
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Ann Arbor or Detroit or Cleveland (similar distances from Toronto)
Chicago
Madison WI or should we go to Des Moines IA?
La Crosse WI
Sioux Falls
MT Rushmore (3 days)
Sheridan
Yellowstone (3 days)
Missoula
Spokane

And we should be around 21-22 days on the road. I calculated 20 mpg and 4287 miles driven so we will spend at least $500 on gas and wear and tear on the car. Of course hotels and eating out will cost more.

But am I going the right route? I know it seems like a lot of cities and little driving but I was thinking no more than 4 hours a day driving for the kids.

People help and any suggestions appreciated.

The home inspection did not go well. Well I guess overall it did. But a crack was found in the foundation and the buyers are obviously worried. This happened Wednesday afternoon. The one pro is that this is all they are worried about. They haven't really asked about the roof, the water heater, furnace, which are all original to when we bought 2005. Now all they are focusing on is the crack in the foundation.

So yesterday (thursday) I had our structural engineer come out and tell me what was wrong. He said he couldn't tell really without taking down the wall because from our crawlspace there was another wall three feet away from the original foundation. What he thought was it's coming apart because it's 1880s house and it's par for the course and area. Nothing uncommon or unknown.

So he said he really couldn't tell anything until taking apart but he said he could give a report on what he thinks is the problem and could be done. The price? $5-10k and $1-2k for his stamp as an engineer.

Now we're on the hook for 40% of the costs and our neighbors are concerned because they want to sell next year. We're okay shelling out the $5k as a credit to the buyers.

The problem? We don't want to deal with the construction. We don't want them to walk away from the deal because it's PIA to do construction. We are on the hook with them and right now my DH and I are planning on moving and they have given us the time frame.

I don't think we can do anything else but wait and see what they want. They are obviously waiting for the report.

They were unable to get a structural engineer out to our property yesterday. They sent an email stating that they were calling and no one could come until next week. When we did it they were pretty excited that we were just moving forward with our own report.

I'm thinking that perhaps they want to work with us and aren't running for the hills yet. Keep your fingers crossed. My DH and I have always been on pins and needles selling our place. There has always been problem we've worried with an old home and I will never, ever do this again.

We got an offer and accepted it. We got $720k with a home inspection and mortgage contingency of course. Home inspection is Wednesday 3 pm. We'll see what happens. They are preapproved with wells fargo as priority buyers.

Today my DH chatted with recruiter and we are moving in July back to the west coast. It appears to be clear. Things are moving along they way they should.

We need to now clear the home inspection and we should be good to close end of June.

Okay so we ran our second open house which had issues since half the road to my house was close. Hence why we ran even two open houses. That is not my realtor's strategy normally.

But it wasn't bad there were 11 buyers who came. 1 was a broker/buyer she was expecting Saturday. 1 was a broker who came for a family who came and sent him on Sunday! She said she was trying to pump him about his clients but he didn't want to chat with so many people about. Apparently they all came at the same time probably due to traffic the last 30 minutes of open house.

Today bids are due on our house. I am have severe anxiety. I realized last night we are seriously underpriced compared to the market. We are sitting at $360/sq ft and everything else on the market (ie my town) is pricing at $400+/sq ft in our price range. EVERYTHING. There are 12 other properties both condo and SFH between $600-800k. Most are 3 bedrooms and some are 2 or 4 bds. VERY few have as much sq ft as we do. Most are much smaller around 1200-1500 sq ft.

So by that simple metric and not considering that ours are in better condition from the photos (updated kitchen/baths, etc) we could easily have priced at $380/sq ft = $733k, or $400/sq ft = $772k. I'm nervous what a fair price for our house might be. I know my realtor's strategy was to underprice for a bidding war and she's sure that the market will correct us to what we should be. But all three realtors we interviewed suggested $699k and said we'd end up in the $700sK+ guarantee. But where?

Now a lot of our competition went under agreement the first weekend for above asking like a condo that was $729k and 1790 sq ft. They were 3 bd/3ba but with an underground garage. So they were around $405/sq ft and new construction 2010 versus 2005 renovation (us). But our location is superior by FAR, they are across a busy main road from McDonald's. Not that there's anything wrong with that but we are off a main road on a dead end that's on the superior side of a highway for our town. My views are much quieter and nicer. And two units from that complex went on the market 3 and 4 weeks ago and sold the first weekend for $729k+. How much I have no idea.

Garage and newer is definitely worth a lot. But superior location and slightly bigger and better street is worth something too. Especially since nothing close to our location is on the market. And homes on my street go for $1M plus usually versus the other area doesn't touch that. I live where a lot of SFH go for $2-3M+ and my street has "smaller" older homes that are "only" $1M. Actually the multi-family on my street for sale is under agreement for $1.8M+ and needs a gut rehab.

According to redfin we are a "hot" home with over 250+ views and 30 favorites. I'm not sure how they predict that we will sell in 8 days and we are "hot".

Let today's anxiety begin.

Our open house was apparently a success. We had 17 buyers, 3 came with brokers. Two were expected and 1 was an unexpected broker/buyer. 12 were serious buyers apparently and two were return showings. One was a woman who came back with her dad after coming with her mother on Thursday.

Something funny apparently people couldn't believe that we were living in our house it was so staged and clean. I have to say I'm pleased with that comment.









Perhaps I can learn to always live like this who knows. It's insanity to have to clean but the organization I could live with.

Tomorrow another open house and DH is working and me and the kids are going to the zoo for the day.

So last night we were discussing more about the future. Everyone asks us where we are moving to and the answer is "when the house sells we'll decide." It's the truth. Last year alone I had two friends whose condos (one in our town) that didn't sell.

Friend W didn't sell because she priced it too high $629k for her 2 bd condo that this year she listed at $539k. But last year she wasn't willing to drop it that low. Friend K had massive repairs that they did over the summer and winter and no one wanted to take on. This year they listed for $339k versus $359k and got an offer and are selling. So for reasons beyond or within their control I can see how homes don't sell.

Well I'm not about to sign onto a lease without guaranteeing I don't have to cover it and a mortgage. I don't get why people don't understand the financial aspects of planning. If we don't sell, we stay. If we sell then we can easily find a rental if we needed too because we are flexible in the sense I don't "need" more than a 2 bd/1 ba and can live with the kids in a 1 bd if need be.

But we were talking more and last night I think we've figured out we're moving out west. A few things have clicked recently and we should be moving July 1st out west.

Next on my agenda figuring out where we are going to live out there because my DH wants us to rent in a town we are likely to buy in. Since his job prospects are looking up that changes our financial picture short and long term. I'm looking at us clearing around $300k on the home sale which we haven't decided yet if we'll pay cash for a home or we'll put down 20% and invest the rest. Plus we've saved another $200k cash for living without a job. Financially I think we could pay cash for a house but I'm not sure I want to.

I'm starting to research movers because our situation is slightly different in that we're moving cross country, may need storage for a year while we find a permanent place, and we certainly aren't renting the size of what we are buying.

Finally the RV thing is a dream, but we've talked and think we've come up with a pretty good compromise. We were thinking maybe rent an RV for a week and go on a vacation on the East Coast. Then start our relocation. So the RV rental is $895 for the week including 100 miles/day and 25 cents a mile over. So we are looking at 2700 miles (on the high end) so we will be paying $500 extra for mileage. Then gas and food. $1395 for RV and I'm guessing $1k for gas and $500 for food? All in for a week $3k and an opportunity to see places we'll never see again?

Well today we have our first open house 11-1. We had two showings yesterday 6 and 6:30. 6:30 person had to cancel and is coming to open house but she had wanted to see it last Sunday when we weren't ready. The 6 pm couple came with their two small children and they loved it and stayed over an hour. My realtor had another appointment and she had to leave but they were standing outside and she had been waiting for them to scoot. They currently rent in the next town over the same layout of townhouse. Crossing my fingers.

I think this plan of waiting until Monday for offers is more stressful than accepting them as they come in. Of course if we were accepting them as they come in and nothing was coming in then I'd probably be more stressed out.

We went on the market Tuesday afternoon for $699k. We had a broker showing on Wednesday and yesterday a broker open house. Three buyers came with their brokers to the open house, and one returned with her husband. We had another showing and she already returned with her husband Thursday night. Late last night my broker called me and said that one of the couples wanted to know our closing date because they were putting together an offer. Keep your fingers crossed. We have our open house this weekend and no showings scheduled as of yet today. But mostly we've been out and I haven't been able to post photos.

It's been incredibly hard to live show ready and be out of the house all the time.

Just some odd and end stuff. My realtor pulled up in her blue porsche sports car. And my painter says "are you sure it's a good idea to hire a realtor who drives a nice car?" I say she literally two weeks ago sold my friends house for $886k for a 2 bd condo listed at $799k (same town as me) without a home inspection or mortgage contingency the first weekend. And that's the 5th deal she's done for my friend including selling two of her previous homes, one multi family rental, and buying her current property. And each time she's got full asking price, twice before it hit MLS and sometimes without home inspection contingencies. So I think she's a smart realtor. And I'm hoping she'll want to work hard enough to get the biggest commission so she can buy her next porsche. Perhaps I'm crazy but in realtors I don't mine fancy cars.

So my friend Ms S comes over to see my place and give an honest evaluation. Her quotes to me are "You should have hired the painter to do the whole house. Then you wouldn't be stressing out about getting the place listed. You should have hired a stager they would have brought in furniture, your stuff doesn't match. You should have hired an organizer and hired a babysitter so you could have been faster in purging you place." All true point. But the real truth Ms S doesn't get and will NEVER understand is that "with what money?" Her response "you have to spend money to make money."

The truth is that when you are rich you buy what you want without care. Really, really rich, ie you never worked a day in your life and you never need to because you have a trust fund big enough to support you rich. A trust fund that can pay for private school for your kids at the tune of $50k/year and you not blink an eye. Big enough that when you have your kid you set aside $250k from your trust fund for her college fund. Big enough that you can buy a home cash at 25, be a single mom going to graduate school making $25k/year, and still pay for private school for said child and drive a new leased car every couple of years. That's really, really rich. Ms S is and can be very nice.

But her one fault is she doesn't truly understand how the poor lives. She likes to think she does because she volunteers doing birthday parties at shelters once a month. So she "sees" how they live and takes her kids there. But when I suggested she teach her teenager daughter about being "middle class" by putting her on a budget she said why? I'm sending her to habitat for humanity for teenagers this summer for 2 weeks to learn how to rough it and see how the poor lives.

I said shouldn't you teach her how the middle class lives? That an average family of 4 lives on maybe $800/month groceries (according to FDA) but she spends 3x that plus eats out most meals??? That most people can't afford only organic food? Her response was "oh E understands that. I don't just give her money. She babysits." So when you are that rich that you send your kid to "poverty" but haven't even taught them middle class budgeting it's hard to understand your friends counting their pennies.

So Tim Ferriss wrote the book the four hour work week. My DH tells me he's the reason why he's quitting his job. It resonated with him the idea that you can make more money you can't get back time. So he's taking the risk now to quit and do something else with the opportunity to have more time.

I figure Tim Ferriss is a lot like Mr Money Mustache but not frugal. He lives the life of luxury and isn't ashamed to admit it with lots of consumerish. But at the same time he's preaching working smarter and valuing your time.

Lots of good news yesterday. First off my DH still has his driver's license. He has not lost 15% of his peripheral vision but according to the specialist he's got splotches. So when he'll have to give up driving is next to impossible to say. He does this all day testing with the top researchers in the world every 2 years. He's been going now for almost 10 years and they love him. They've been able to see the progression of the disease and determine his rate of loss of eyesight. I don't know what that means for us but for now it means that he can drive but will continue to not drive at night and minimize daytime.

He also mentioned after we move and he gets another job, depending on if he rides public transit or drives he'd like to start leasing cars. He wants the newest technology and ideally would like to eek out driving until the self-driving car is sold. He wants the car his brother just lease a Subaru Legacy with all the safety features. I think this is something we are headed too. I'm just happy he's happy and feeling less stressed with worry.

We had our photos yesterday so our house was photo ready but not show ready. Anyway my broker let another realtor come see the house for his buyer. Apparently they wanted to come in this weekend before we hit MLS to see it and see what they think. This woman is a very serious buyer and has been hunting hard and knows my broker by first name since she's visited every open house this season in my price range my broker has done.

So who knows? I think this is a first positive step. My broker told them she isn't sure we're ready for showings this weekend (I told her no it's giving me anxiety). But come Tuesday she's expecting this woman to come see our place.

So onward home sale!

I was reading about credit card free organizing blog and GREATLY enjoying it. I admires the photos and admit that getting my house show ready is making me desirous of an organized home. But I fear it at the same time.

I am not a person who keeps to a routine easily. I am not someone who plans menus or keeps a grocery list. I don't even budget. Yet surprisingly I am organized in one and only one area of my life. My finances.

Sounds strange and my DH would agree we both are hoarding clutterers who keep tons of crap in piles. We tend to toss mail around and our mail sorting and organizing consists of throwing all mail into a paper bag and looking at it once a week. We do that with the kids art to boot. But our finances? Its weird I am completely on top of and organized.

I can tell you probably pretty accurately bout balances and what we are spending. I can tell you how we pay our bills. All our bills are electronic or scanned in and saved to our hard drive. And monthly we back it up on n external hard drive. We also back it up to a CD in our fire safe and we backup our photos from our phones and cameras once a week.

Our bills are on a spreadsheet we creates in excel and you have to input date due, amount, and confirmation code. We have all statements in files organized for the last 10 years. We also scan in medical records and file all immunizations and stuff for us and the kids.

And granted the bulk of our investments are on auto debit before it hits the checking. And actually to make us stick to a hard and fast budget we deposit $5k a month into bank of america and the rest with capital one. So we spend $5k a month. On what? Well I know $2500 mortgage and a few of the other general bills and utilities on balanced billing. But beyond that I don't want to see why mint says I spend my money on. If I had to guess eating out and groceries.

But the rest of our crap? I wouldn't have guessed that my DH and I had $1200 worth of stuff worth selling a and still more to come.

But I am not wondering how can I organize the rest of my life? Perhaps I need to join that organized friend group. But it'd be weird wouldn't it to be live on Facebook away from being LAL?

Are you organized? Are you organized at home or just financials or both? How did you do it?

This is the big push weekend for getting rid of stuff. Next week I am cleaning and painting more but this weekend I am selling as much as possible. I have to admit it's kinda a high to sell all my stuff. Granted a bunch of it is still going into storage but DH admits that it's pretty amazing to see us purging so much stuff.

So our stuff has never been expensive. Most stuff has been used or bought cheap. We haven't ever really spent money on adult furniture and stuff. So our stuff hasn't owned us.

But at the same time it's hard to let go and upgrade and spend the money on buying new/better quality stuff. And even just purging and being more thoughtful instead of just keeping it "just because". Sounds nuts but it really is hard to let go of things, even things you can't give away!

But I've sold $1k worth of stuff and I bet if I were more serious I probably could sell another $1k if I had more time and did a yard sale instead of just donating. But on friday I went to a couple of consignment stores and dropped a big pile of donations.

The relief I feel from seeing things leave the house is unbelievable.

Update on house...The front is getting painted and we'll see how the rest looks. It is aluminum siding so seriously the back was never painted and I'm not sure if the sides are going to be done. But it's costing us 40% of $4k = $1600 plus potentially a few more repairs. We'll have to see how much more the other repairs cost.

I still plan on taking a brush to the neighbors crappy stairs. I also plan on washing and staining our deck. My DH calls me nuts. But I will have no children and time to clean our house. I am doing this as of Tuesday. Four days to clean like no one's business.

Wish me luck. I might if I can figure out how to post pictures, post of our place.

So this is why you don't buy in a condo. Right now we are getting the front of our condo painted, railings, wood rot, etc. All in $4k. We had quotes from $2700 to $4k, and the guy I picked was $3200 but he fell and broke his leg on Monday. The $2700 guy couldn't do it till the end of May. There was a quote for $3500 but they kept not returning my phone calls though they said they could start Monday. My DH and I decided upon approval of my neighbors given Monday we would move forward. The neighbors gave approval for work for wood rot and repairs. Not necessarily painting.

Now we list April 28th and our realtor had people drive by who said they wouldn't come into our condo because it looked poorly maintained because of the the paint. So my DH and I decided we would either have the front of the house painted and done by April 28th no matter the cost. Or we would hold off and do the whole house for $11k potentially or nothing.

It would depend if the home buyers wanted it painted or we wouldn't be willing to pony up any money. As it stands our condo breaks down common maintenance as 40%, 40%, 20%.

So it's become contentious because the 20% owners do not want to pay. They also want work done for stairs leading to their unit which was exclusive use and which they never maintained. I don't want to pay for their stairs and neither do the other 40% owners. BUT my DH and I are willing to do so to get out of this situation (ie selling our condo). But the other 40% owners are not.

So things are quickly disintegrating. I find it hard to deal with both parties. We want to throw money at it and make it go away but the others have to fork over something, they have to agree, and they have to live with each other after we leave.

So we are needing to discuss the situation and determine whose responsible for what. All I can say is I'm dying and ready to get out. I was the only person who calls, meets, chases down contractors. I meet all repair people for gas, water line work, rescheduling tree trimmers, gutter cleaners, termite inspection, etc. My DH pays all the bills water, insurance, etc.

So the bulk of responsibility falls on us. I admit to liking the control but at the same time I can't wait to fully control my own destiny. This has been a privilege because we couldn't afford to live where we live otherwise. But at the same time we are ready to move on out.

Well I've been selling off the house left and right. Truthfully if I had time and the weather would cooperate I could probably sell a lot of stuff at a garage sale. But as it is, I haven't the time and the weather hasn't cooperated so I'm going to donate. It's definitely not worth taking things to storage to take them out again to sell. Some stuff it is worth it so I will move to storage.

Anything worth selling has already been sold. So how much have I sold? According to my spreadsheet $905.

The bulk of which were two items my maclaren double stroller for $160, I bought it new in 2013 for $169. Yes I looked up the receipt on Amazon. Great I rented it for traveling for $10.

And a Dining Table Set we bought in 2005 to sell our condo in San Diego. We bought the entire set for $99, I sold it for $160 this weekend.

I made another $90 at consignment stores selling stuff and I'm doing another consignment store run today. So from that we made $410.

Rest were odds and ends I sold like a rocking chair and ottoman for $70. Got it free from a neighbor who moved away. A cosleeper I bought for $40 I sold for $50. And a lot of other kid stuff.

I've still got a lot listed including a huge lot of thomas trains I'm trying to sell for $450. Yes it's a lot to be asking but it's a lot of trains and a huge lot of tracks. After we list I'll probably break it down into 2 lots and sell for $250 each. I think it might work better.

What I haven't sold is a Versagate baby gate for $75 NIB + 2 extensions, worth $150 according to amazon. A bookcase for $25, $10 Ikea Coffee Table, Shoe Rack $10, and wooden high chair $25, area rug $30. I'm thinking they will sell eventually but the rest I'll trash.

But on the other plus side everything I'm donating is a tax write off so we'll have quite a bit written off.

How do you decide what to sell and what to donate?

So I am counting down the days till we list. We have 12 more days until photos of our place. We have 18 days until we list, then 25 more days until the open house and then hopefully it's sold by 27 days from now May 5th. I am praying we list, we have showings, then open house and all offers/bids come in on May 4th. One week of being "show" ready in our house and living like crazy people then we are done.

Some expenses we are spending on getting the house ready is a storage unit at $70/month with 1st month free. We painted the interior and have to get the exterior painted. Now the interior if we had decided 6 months ago we were going to sell this spring we could have done it ourselves. But deciding 6 weeks before listing we were going to sell probably wasn't the more financially efficient thing to do. Of course all the painting the = eating out because we were avoiding the painters and fumes all day. Plus we had to send the dog to daycare so he wouldn't be in the way.

I'm feeling rather indulgent because the week before we list I got the two kids into camp for 4 days all day 8-6. Pricy but $160/day for 2 kids and I have a chance to clean up as a last push. Right now I feel a lot of guilt letting the kids watch too much tv and not making as many playdates or activities like we normally do.

But I feel like as of April 28th we'll be free. No more playing in our house for that week but we won't be as busy. We've been up most night until 1 am packing and cleaning and up again at 6 am getting ready for school and the day.

I am going crazy with the potential sale of my house. I am getting an ulcer and unable to sleep over the amount of stuff I have to clean and do. I feel constant anxiety over it all and I can't help myself.

But I'm happy with the changes and excited with our move. I feel secure knowing we are doing what's best for us and while it's unknown and uncertain it's still pretty good and exciting.

Now I have 4 friends whom real estate is making crazy. First up the insane/crazy Ms A. Her mother has given her the boot (we'll see) and said she needs to sell her multi-family house and Ms A has to move in June. She said I've given you three months notice and I need to sell. Ms A is freaking out because she doesn't know where to move and what they can afford. I told her she needs to rent since they haven't filed their taxes in years, her husband has an IRS Lien, and they have no budget. She said that since they only occasionally pay her mom $1500 for a 4 bd condo, where can she live? I seriously want to ask what happens to the rest of their money if they aren't really paying rent? To put into perspective where I live, a 2 bd/1 ba condo on my street rented for $2500/month. So not only is Ms A getting a steal of a deal, she doesn't even have to pay. So it's a rude awakening and it's making her insane to even start looking. $1500 barely rents a studio where we are.

Next up Ms W and Ms K. Both friends tried to sell their condos last year and they must have been overpriced. Neither one sold though they dropped their prices. Both have done extensive renovations and are hoping their condos sell. I am praying for them because they desperately want to move but are in situations where I guess they either have to take a lot less or stay put. I think both are pretty conservative ladies so they won't make the mistake of buying before selling. But I hope they find the right buyers and haven't overpriced it again or perhaps they'll just have to accept less.

Finally Ms C, well they are getting into deep, deep water. I didn't say anything, but I did congratulate Ms C on putting an offer in on her dream house. That's how bad situations probably always start.

So Ms C and her DH decided they didn't want to sell their condo first because they didn't like the uncertainty of not knowing where they would live. So they offered on a house and it's been accepted. They did not make an offer contingent on the sale of their condo. They make a series of bad decisions.

When I first met them Ms C and I were chatting and I said "oh use my refi guy and get a good rate." She said "oh we didn't put down 20%, only 10% so we can't refi". Okay probably a bad decision at the time. It was further compounded when 3 years ago they built a 3rd bd onto their 2 bd condo and renovations cost $50k to add on because they had to switch out their furnace to support the extra bedroom and vents. They renovated their bathroom (necessary for a leak, and they found mold and mushrooms) this past summer for another $15k. They finished their basement when they moved in, no idea what that costs. But without a doubt, the husband said they are losing a lot of money on their condo. They bought for $275k in 2009 and are hoping to sell it for $319k if they are lucky. I have no idea if they are even able to sell. So bad financial real estate decision they likely make because they choose emotion over logic.

So I was nodding along with the purchase and just asked innocently enough "you did offer contingent on your sale?" Ms C said "no we didn't. We can carry the two places for a bit. And besides we are cashing out our 401k for the DP on the second place, then when this places sells we'll pay it off." I nearly choked on my spit. It got worse when she said "we can always do 0% CC and pay them off when the house sells DH says."

Now it's one thing to buy a new house with a DP you've saved and still carry both places if they aren't too expensive. But when you have to borrow a DP from retirement, CC, or your parents (and yes their parents gave them money for all their home renovations Ms C said so, and thus why she doesn't feel like they are "losing" money on their house, but her DH does); then you can't afford to buy without selling. The electrician they had walk through said that replacing nubbin (1920s electrical) to 200A will be $10kish. I don't know if that means starting or total, but I assumed it'll probably starting. So they are buying a fixer with borrowed money and gambling on selling their home. Ms C should chat with Ms W and Ms K about how it can be difficult to sell a condo.

People are giving me grief for not knowing where we will live after we sell. For not having anything lined up. But seriously? How hard is it to find a rental or even a house?

Real estate makes people crazy!

So I've been selling stuff on Craigslist. I mostly meet people nearby at a parking lot since I live close to a freeway. I sold yesterday 3 things and two of them in the parking lot. Anyway the 3rd item was a Arms Reach Cosleeper and the woman said she was trying to arrange meeting me at 2 pm but I never heard from her.

I heard back at 3:15 she could meet at 4 pm but we were out the door to go swimming at a friend's pool. So I said "I'll leave it outside on my front door step with an envelope written LAL, leave the money in the envelope in my mailbox. Thanks." In case you were wondering it was $50. She said great. I said enjoy.

I figured that either way the item was gone, whether I made my $50 or not. DH felt that people are more honest when people aren't watching. I said we are purging so either way it's out of our home. I polled my friends about half felt I'd get the money and half said I wouldn't.

So what happened? We got home at around 9 pm and the money was in an envelope in our mailbox. Not only did the lady leave me the money, the mailman didn't take the cash. So I guess people are very honest.

Did I think she would? Yes,I certainly would. But I'm also the crazy person whose personally lost my wallet 3x and had it mailed back and given back to me all three time. Twice with the cash inside and once not, but still pretty good.

I feel like good karma is watching. I've returned a wallet of like $500 cash and coupon book at the grocery store. I hope the person got it. I turned it into the customer service desk since it was in a grocery cart. So I didn't personally send it back, and I hope the customer service didn't take it.

Either way it made my day that the lady gave me my money, the mailman didn't take the cash, and I got rid of another item in my purge.

So more than one friend has commented that my DH and I should turn our current house into a rental. That we should cash out some equity for the DP on our next place and then rent it out. Truth be told we probably have enough cash on hand to buy our next place with a 20% DP without cashing out our current home.

But I don't think it's a good idea. I haven't calculated the OAR or done a spreadsheet of the analysis. But just my gut says it's a bad idea.

I am going to do a rough analysis now. We could rent out place conservatively for $3500/month or $42k/year gross income. Our mortgage on it is $2250/month PITI is $27k/year. We'd only net $15k/year not including HOA $250/month ($3k/year), utilities say $25/month ($300/year) since it's only when vacant.

Obviously it's not a very profitable rental in the sense it has very little cash flow. Another Reader has said in HCOLA people are counting more on appreciation than on cash flow. Sounds reasonable but I think it's really risky to be investing in real estate where I live then. Because you need to have a large cash flow to be able to carry these types of rentals if something goes wrong and there is very minimal cash flow. If something major breaks or is not rented for months then what?

Perhaps if we lived somewhere that renting it would generate 10-15% return on cash I'd do it. But at barely breaking even and counting on appreciation as the way to make money. I think I'll have to pass.

Perhaps more savvy real estate investors will explain why I should or shouldn't keep it as a rental.

Moving means upping the food budget. Why? Because right now we are in mode of eating what we have but at the same time not stockpiling sales. Instead we are trying to create meals with stuff both in the freezer and pantry that need to be used up since it's not worth moving. Plus since we are moving at the end of June, the idea of buying in bulk meat or making food and freezing food seems wasteful.

I think I freaked out my DH a lot because this week we finished off a bunch of food in the freezer and it's starting to look empty. I can definitely say that we have one shelf clear. Our fridge we are eating the permanent residents and not replacing them, ie hoison, bbq sauce, etc.

Usually I buy meat and portion out the meals and freeze them. I also usually cook in bulk and we eat half and freeze for lunches the leftovers like curries, stew, chili, etc. But I've decided to stop doing it though we have three months and instead focus on cooking stuff we have and keeping the freezer lean. Before I might have bought 2 bags of fish, 2-3 meats, but now I'll keep only 1 bag of fish and 1 bag of fish.

No more stockpiling toilet paper or paper towels. I'm done with cleaning supplies and laundry detergent. Before I usually buy a backup when i'm on the last of something but now I'm running everything out and not looking for sales.

You can see the difference in the amount of stuff in the house. And while I haven't seen the difference yet in my grocery or shopping bills I bet it'll increase the amount I'm spending. Plus just eating out more for convenience of painting and packing.

So we interviewed three realtors. One DH just didn't like and rubbed him the wrong way. We became stuck on the other two. One of them E sold us our house and we felt she was very professional and smart. The second realtor S, came highly referred by two different people and seemed again very professional.

After interviewing, seeing their Comparative market analysis, and marketing plans we were stuck. All three came in with the same number $699k to list our property to generate a bidding war. All three had slightly different methodologies with coming up with the number.

I was very torn. I felt loyal since E sold us the house and had kept in contact updating us on the market. She also I felt was the least pushy and nicest realtor. E analysis was more basic but from her 20+ years of experience and gut she told us what she'd list for. She also didn't give us any ideas for staging our house to sell. She did ask about the HOA and capital improvements.

But S I felt had a much more comprehensive analysis of our competitors and our comparisons for our list price. She went back and teased out true comps of townhouses without garages and their sales prices over 12 months. She also specifically suggested renting a dinner table because our is too small for the space and turning the bed, and making office back into bedroom. She took pictures and noticed all of the small details of labeling the power box.

But the real difference was their marketing plans. E was going to list on Wednesday, broker open house on Thursdays, then no showing to build excitement for the open houses on Saturday and Sunday. Then all offers Monday. Her explanation was no showings would generate buzz and excitement and pressure people into seeing how many others were interested. Also her experience showed that people who came to see in Thursday, Friday had a hard time waiting to present an offer on Monday. They would be annoyed and off put to know that their offers wouldn't responded too until later so what is the point of early showings. Also people could come Monday on for private showings.

S said she would list on Tuesday since the market was getting flooded (36 new listings this week!), showings Tuesday-Friday, Broker open house Thursdays, and open house on Sunday. And then wait to respond to offers till Tuesday. She felt that the savvy, most serious buyers would come during the week by themselves or with a broker. They'd seen everything else in their budget and wanted to see new stuff early. Then they'd come back with their moms, sisters, boyfriends, contrators, etc to the open house. That people want a chance to see property alone and by allowing them time to come see it multiple times with different people, we'd have a buyer who didn't have buyer's remorse or one who'd waive all contingencies.

My DH of course said both ladies were fine. He didn't think we could go wrong. As hard as it was, I decided I preferred S because of her marketing strategy. I felt terrible last night writing the email saying we chose someone else, but truth is this is business and thousands of dollars are at stake. I didn't want to be in "Bed" with a realtor whose philosophy on home sales didn't align with mine.

I believed in S marketing strategy. I think that open houses might generate more offers but people also make offers they don't mean impulsively. I believe serious buyers have been going out every weekend and know what's on the market and they are only looking at "fresh/new" stuff and have a firm grasp of the comparison. I think that giving people more opportunities to come back with friends and family means they are less likely to back out than after the offer and coming back with mom/dad who say they don't like it.

Yes I could have told E "show it", she said I could. But I felt that then if it didn't work out she could say it's because I didn't follow her marketing plan. Whereas with S, I agreed to her marketing plan, but it's still her plan and if our place doesn't sell then it's firmly on her shoulders.

Do you think I was wrong it picking money over a previous relationship? I do feel guilty but at the same time it's a lot of money at stake.

Seriously my DH and I are hoarders. We have a lot of trouble getting rid of stuff mostly because we are lazy. Not because we don't want to, but because we just push it to a corner in the house and say we'll take it to sell or goodwill later. We actually can let go of stuff and have boxes of stuff to get rid of but never actually take the effort to do it. No more.

This move is motivating me in an unreal fashion. I have in less than 5 days done 3 trips to good will and donated over half dozen bags of stuff. I sold at consignment stores $60 worth of stuff which is about 4 bins. I donated to my kid's preschool toys and books about 8 bins since goodwill doesn't take it and it's not valued high enough to sell.

I've also given away an infant bucket and pack and play that were super old. And I've possibly sold my infant swing and double stroller.

Oh and I've listed a ton of other items like train set, high chair, rocking chair, and other furniture. Neither DH nor I can believe how much stuff we purged in a week.

I've also packed up all the kids books and started on purging their clothes. That's next up and the storage unit should be starting to be filled this weekend.

Where did all this crazy motivation come from? LOL.

Right now life is moving faster than I ever thought possible. My DH is unhappy at work and dying to get off the hamster wheel. What can I say? The sadistic VP says things like "those people laid off are lucky...at my previous company we'd fire one person a month and not pay sevenrance. That'd keep people in line. I mean they really deserve to be fired given a gift." Yes telling people commentary like that when it was called a layoff of "realignment of company values" is lovely. This guy is a real "gem". But it's okay since he'll have his comeuppance when he's fired in 5 years, since VP get that long to prove themselves. The previous VP didn't get fired he "resigned" after being called back during a vacation and the board "talked" to him and he decided to spend more time with his family. Not true he was fired, but given a very nice golden parachute. So assholes abound.

If it matters the department culture has shifted a lot and I've known since last May when this VP started my DH has been getting more unhappy. And a lot of negative things have been going on. So this was just the push he needed.

Anyway since we are becoming more serious about moving in July after we sell our house (cross fingers and knock on wood). He mentions he wants to rent an RV and drive cross country. He says it's his dream and something he'll probably never be able to do again. I'm wondering should we do this? He's salivating at the idea of me, the kids, the dog in the RV.

We've researched it because previously we discussed vacationing for a week in an RV to Eastern Canada (hello prince edward island). It's not cheap like $250/day plus gas and incidentals. I'm guessing the trip for 10 days cross country at least $5k.

But at the same time it's an opportunity of a lifetime. I RV one summer for 2 weeks with my best friend's family to Yellowstone and it was so amazing and cool and fun. We did so many great things and my memories are phenomenal. It was an opportunity I am so glad I got to experience. Granted I spent a month in Las Vegas total with her mom and her. I can't believe looking back how much my mom trusted her parents and sent me away for a month! I was 14 though and she was already my best friend for 9 years and we lived at each others houses.

I'm wondering what about driving in our subaru cross country and towing a uhaul hitch? We'd have to have a hitch put on our subaru for $1k, and rent a trailer for $600, then hotels. I wonder would that be cheaper? We could camp or stay at hotels?

What are people's thoughts? I'm willing to listen about the experience of RV.

It's crunch time...We are on a timeline and I think I'm going crazy. I met with 3 painters and 2 tilers today. My thoughts are we start painting March 30 or 31st. That will give us a little over a week to get cleared out a bunch of stuff. I found a storage place yesterday but we haven't started putting things in it yet.

I am struggling because my DH isn't ready to put stuff away. He thinks we should instead focus on donating and organizing. My thoughts are we put into storage the low hanging fruit of things we know we are keeping but don't need, ie my kids books. We borrow enough from the library they can live without their books. We go more than 1x/week.

This will free up tons of shelf space and tons of space period. Then we can cull through what toys to keep and what to sell or donate. That in turn will clear up space for us to work on organizing and donating.

Today I already did my first goodwill run and donated 2 bags. I lined up someone to take away for free an old pack and play and infant car seat. I also listed my maclaren double stroller and a few other items. And I donated 2 boxes of stuff to the YMCA.

I'm seriously crunching on cleaning, but I feel like my DH is dawdling on trying to "organize" rather than just accept that the more we get out the easier it'll be. It'll give us more space to work with and analyze what we can keep or not.

I've been told we should use a professional stager. Already we are paying for painters since we don't have time or energy to paint. For what I'd pay a sitter to watch my kids while I paint makes it not worth it at $30/hr then I'd still have to paint!

Do you think a professional stager worth it?