Selling a home, and buying a home at the same time, calls for all an hands on deck readiness 24 hours a day. While we have been trying to get things done each and everyday there comes a point where either through exhaustion or frustration that your efforts and accomplishments wax and wane day to day. Throw in day to day stuff, like work, and maintenance around the house, and we're left feeling we're not doing enough. And then there comes a point, like now, where things are out of our control and we're left waiting for the normal processes to develop.
Yesterday the last big items that we sold at the estate sale were picked up. It was our bedroom set that we contemplated taking down to South Carolina. We had, of course, found it on Marketplace some years ago for $500, and let it go for the same price. In the end we just rented it and we look forward in getting something new, or newer, that fits in the new place like it was designed to. One thing we see on a lot of the listings on Zillow is all the people from NY, PA, and NJ who lug their furnishings down from the north when they set up shop down south. And most times it just doesn't fit the house style or the room size and layout. It just looks out of place. So for that, and the 1,000 pounds the pieces weighed, it was good to let it go. Theresa watched as the set got loaded into the bed of a work pick-up truck before it's new chapter in life, and let's just say the operation wouldn't have received good reviews on Yelp!. But it's gone. Last night I reached over to put my phone on my nightstand only to hear the phone hit the floor. We're down to the bare bones here which is good in preparation for the move.
We've already decided that the move down south will be handled by the professionals. I put a post out on the Sun City Facebook page and asked for moving recommendations. A couple who just moved from Central Jersey to Sun City recommended "Piece of Cake Moving and Storage" so I dropped them a line and they got back to me. While it was hard to actually to outline all that we are bringing they came back with an estimate of $2,500. I'm sure that will go up as we finish up packing but at least the balls in motion.
Physically and financially it makes sense to have movers handle it. The thought of Theresa, me, and Luke in the front seat of a 26 foot box truck with the Jones Brothers towed behind it just seemed like a recipe for disaster. I dodn't need any more content for the blog, there's enough of that already. And one day, I swear, this blog will return to being all about fly fishing!
And as we do what we can do, it's time for the actually business of the sale to begin its snail-paced journey. We have a lawyer, as do the buyers, and now it's out of our control. We still don't have a signed contract because it's a little different when you sell without a real estate agent. There's no agent contract, with the usual three day review period with inspections thrown in, this is an attorney's contract, so it gets finalized first, and then signed, and then it's binding. The pace is killing me, and my attorney let me know that we're still far away from this being done.
Selling a home on your own means you have to be in the know and handle everything. Lawyers prefer real estate agents involved because they know how to guide the process and hit all the things that have to be addressed. When the lawyer asked me about septic inspections and well water testing I just about died. So, we're waiting for someone to check out the septic, which is luckily eight years old, and have the water tested, which we have scheduled at a price of $1,300. New septic systems run about $75,000, so luckily, and hopefully, we're good since ours is new. But it's another thing to sweat.
And while things are still fluid with the sale why not throw in a buy at the same time. Some advise that we should sell and rent down there looking for our final chapter of life home, but that's not the way we roll. We have seen a bunch of places while we were down there over the past few years so we had a good idea of what we are looking for. Couple that with 1,000 hours on Zillow and we've been honing in, and we may have found what we think would meet our needs.
These 55 and over places, especially ones that are newer or currently being built, are done so on clear cut swaths of land. So that means the homes are squeezed in there like sardines and there's not much for trees and landscaping, or privacy. We found the above house which checks off a lot of what we were looking for. Interestingly it sits on a cul-de-sac and it has the
biggest piece of the pie as far as property, a 1/4 acre with the neighboring homes sitting closer to the street, which makes you feel you're kinda all alone.
While we're hopeful this could be ours, but we know there's a ton of 55 and overs around the country surfing Zillow each night looking for their next home. But I could do this one. The backyard opens up to woods and water views which is perfect. But no doubt Luke will be eaten by an alligator if he wanders too close to the lagoon, so we had to consider that. So we had our real estate agent preview it and are going to make a sale and buy contingency offer in the next few days. That means another contract, and inspections, and things and a timeline that are out of our control.
And we know to not get all that excited about the above house. It's light years away and only takes a glitch to waylay the purchase, and the sale of our home as well. Right this minute, all our buyers have to do is flake out and everything is over. And with our contingency offer having a $5,000 Ernest money attached, we could be out that money if things were to fall through. And I haven't even talked about the cost of getting this all done, and frustratingly, all of our worth and monies will come at the closing at the sale of our house.
So in the meantime I spend what could be productive hours teaching class, in the psych units at the hospital and TPH, and writing exams and grading papers. This Saturday I have to head down to Cape May to open and spruce that place up before it looks abandoned and like an eyesore. That means pressure washing and weeding and making it look like a summer home. While it would have been easier to just unload it I think having that will still allow us to have a Jersey place to return to. We can visit friends and family, escape the Lowcountry summer weather, escape from each other if needed, and still allow me to come back and fish the Delaware Bay and River during the spring. So while the timing now is rough, I think it makes sense to hold onto it, at least for another year.
We're looking forward to this next new chapter. Small house, manageable, affordable, and simple. And I can't wait to spin around Sun City in our new golf cart between trips to the gym, pool, restaurants, shopping, and fishing. And while the decisions about us and jobs will come later it's too early to make any decisions as of yet. So in the meantime I'll just picture us sitting in the lanai or on the back patio enjoying the sunset and a Guinness and watching Luke get chased around by the alligators.
And just some advice for someone who's pulling the trigger. If you're getting up there in age or nearing retirement start the process now. Get a dumpster and get rid of all of your past, the truth is no one cares or wants it, have a yard sale, start hitting the donation bins and
Goodwill drop off locations, and start planning for the future. Do it before you get too old, or locked in to commitments and other people's life plans. "Get busy living or get busy dying", and yes, you're now closer to the day you will die then the day you were born.