I would sooooo love to see a SOLD sign in front of my house. Preferably before fall. But the Michigan market seems to be slow to recover. I’ve read that Mission Beach real estate (near San Diego) seems to be looking up. I sure wish it would up here. I’ve been busy packing & purging knowing that sales will pick up when (if) warmer weather hits and we will be moving SOMEWHERE. I’ve been pondering the financial pummeling we will be taking to sell the house and I’ve learned a few things.
1. Don’t assume your income will go up.
Seriously. We’d had THREE pay cuts since building our house. And our income has not gone up AT ALL.
2. Don’t assume you will be in one spot forever.
We like to travel,–why did we build based on the assumption we would die here? And who’s to say you will be able to find a job where you are if you lose yours? Do you even want to?
3. Don’t assume you will be able to make it work on one income.
Make it work FIRST! Ask me how I know. Hmph. I’m not even going to address it further–just go listen to Dave Ramsey talk about real estate. And do what he says.
4. If you do decide to buy, be IN your long term life-style before buying.
We built the house long before we had kids. Everything I thought I’d like or how I thought things would work? Yeah, all of it’s wrong. Maybe I should just continue to talk about assumptions :). Do I need to wash 3 toilets a week? NO!
5. Think about the importance of every piece.
We built so it’s kind of different but if you renovate, think first. Did we have to spend $3000 on light fixtures? Nope. Did we need to paint the walls crazy? No, but it cost the same–paint is paint. Did we need to have expensive blinds/draperies? Nope (we did okay on that one).
We’ve decided that IF we ever buy again, we will never borrow money to do so.
Did you pay cash or decide to live in an apartment long term? Tell me about it! I want to hear your story!!
