Given the current economic and world developments, we've decided to sell the house...

[O.S.O.K.]

now and move into a rental (plenty of those available in our area) instead of waiting until next spring to sell the house.

This is kind of an unexpected turn for us.

The wife and I were watching the news last Friday evening - and through the weekend - all kinds of information on just how fucked up everything is.

We got to thinking about it and decided on this course of action. We figure this will allow us to gain access to our equity now so that we can begin immediately on the construction of our new home on the land that we just bought.

We thought this all through and can see no down side to it.

I am blessed to have married a very level headed and flexible woman (no jokes). :)

Neither of us want to screw with this right now but we've started doing all of the needed things. We're touching up the little things that need it - put some of the furniture into the garage, took down pictures and stuff to clean-up the walls, etc. - all of the stuff you see on the home shows (my wife is an expert "stager") - we've sold a lot of houses and know what to do.

We have flyers made up and a professional "for sale by owner" sign made up for the front yard. We stipulate that anyone wanting to look at the house must be "prequalified" by a bank for a loan. That keeps the rif-raf and nosy rosies from bothering us.

There are some other houses for sale on our street and there's a steady flow of people looking at them, so we'll just tap into that :firedevil:

We already know who will do the closing and will use standard contracts.

I now need to address my shop - need to pack the guns and ammo up and make the shop look like a generic home-shop...

The games we have to play...

[Helen Keller]

I"m gonna go with the "pre-qualified" crap on my house too.

Got my first call on it yesterday.

You're right about the "riff-raff" :dedhorse:

[O.S.O.K.]

Yep - too many busy bodies. Good luck with yours!

We're expecting ours will sell fairly quickly - we've had people wanting to buy it ever since we got the renovation completed. It's a cute house and lots for a guy to like too - 1/2 acre lot, big oversized 2-car garage, airconditioned shop, nice patio in back and a 10x12 garden shed (Menonite). The house is low-maintenence too - hardy board siding, metal roof.

We really wish we could move our house to Mississippi...

[btcave]

Awesome! Hope it works out for you. Can't wait to hear your updates on the progress of your "Homestead" in Mississippi!

[O.S.O.K.]

Well, I can tell you it's all going to be alot of work! I just got through taking my gun locker/safes out of my shop - had them all bolted together and screwed to the wall. Had to empty them, take out the nut/bolts/screws and repack em - and wheel around to the garage where they will wait until we move. Took me 6 hours! 5 of them.

That's the downside to having a gun collection - they are a bitch to move. And now I need to address the ammo... :crying:

I am really looking forward to the day that we move into our newly consturcted home - where we can stat the hell put, God willing.

[bovver]

You going to sub yourself or get a contractor?
I would strongly suggest you sub out your own work yourself unless you have a good friend thats a contractor.

[O.S.O.K.]

We will do a lot of the work ourselves and subcontract the work that I'm not comfortable with or just don't want to risk my arse doing - like roofing and the more complicated electrical stuff.

We've built several houses over the years and have done a lot of remodel and other projects as well. We've learned enough to do a lot of the work.

[Schuetzenman]

Well, I can tell you it's all going to be alot of work! I just got through taking my gun locker/safes out of my shop - had them all bolted together and screwed to the wall. Had to empty them, take out the nut/bolts/screws and repack em - and wheel around to the garage where they will wait until we move. Took me 6 hours! 5 of them.

That's the downside to having a gun collection - they are a bitch to move. And now I need to address the ammo... :crying:

I am really looking forward to the day that we move into our newly consturcted home - where we can stat the hell put, God willing.

Moving my collection from North Carolina to Georgia along with the ammo is the reason I went from weapons in 23 calibers / chamberings down to 12. I know your pain, really I do. I do not envy you the chore of moving your collection and the ammo for it.

[O.S.O.K.]

I've actually sold off quite a few of the more periferal pieces - but then, I've gone and bought some others.... But I haven't sold any ammo - only some dies and brass - but nothing compared to what I still have.

I am telling myself that once I get moved into the new place, that's it - no more moves. And instead of accumulating, I will focus on shooting more - as I'll have my own range again.

And then, over time, I'll be gifting my three kids with guns - they will all have something like 15 pieces by the time I'm done... I think - if I can bring myself to part with that many :biggrin:

[L1A1Rocker]

You're probably right about this move. With the rise in commodities across the board, construction costs are only going to go up.

[O.S.O.K.]

Well, the way I look at it, we want to make the move anyway, so there's no down-side to earlier... And you bring up another reason - the cost of building will go up too, so the sooner we start building our new place the better too.

But the biggest concern was waiting and not being able to sell our current house - or taking a bath on it...

And if worse comes to worse and things go really crazy and we have to "freeze", we have a back-up plan. This is to move into our rental house in College Station. Our son is currently living there while attending college - and he's got two more years.

So, we think we have all of the bases covered on this... as much as possible within our means anyway.