To Sell or Not to Sell: The Finale

I had a post all typed and ready to go on Friday. Blogger ate it. I'm sure it was Blogger's fault and that I had nothing to do with it. Now it's been a week since I last blogged. Each night as I turned out the light for bedtime, I felt like my day wasn't quite complete since I hadn't blogged!

We got the realtor results back and they were what we thought they would be. Taking ALL things into consideration, including the wonderful advice that y'all gave in the comments, we have decided. . .

NOT to sell. For now, anyway.

Without enough money to purchase a piece of property and build a small home on it debt-free, selling and moving would put us pretty much where we are right now. Except that we would START paying all the interest off the top again.

So now we're on to Phase 2 of our Get-Out-of-Debt plan:

• Create and follow a stringent budget (already in place and working well)
• Sell anything that isn't related to us and we no longer need (Son is safe.)
• Throw any and all extra money at the consumer debt as fast as we can

We haven't given up on our dream of 100% debt-free living, but we need to get in a better position for that to happen.

And so ends the saga.

Next up: Anyone want to share their budget? I love reading other people's budgets. Is that just me?

To Sell or Not to Sell: Realtor results (and a poll)

The realtor FINALLY got back with us with the numbers. They're pretty much what we expected. Now we have to begin phase 1 of the the decision process.


In order for our house to be ready to sell, we would need to accomplish the following:

• Replace the roof on the back of the house and the whole garage. We already have the materials, it's just a matter of labor--and decent weather. Cost: currently unknown. (Our roofer is in the hospital with his wife today--they're having a baby!)
• Replace the carpet in the downstairs. We are going to try to rent a cleaner and see what that will do first. Cost for cleaner: $50. OR Cost for replacement: ~ $300.
• Paint interior. Since my husband is a paint contractor, the labor would be "free." The realtor said my kitchen blue had to go! He thought the "pudding" color in the living room would be fine (since it's a neutral). The rest of the rooms just need a fresh coat. He actually thought the powder room faux finish could stay. Cost: ~ $200 for materials.
• Paint the exterior. Again, the labor would be "free." Time and weather, of course, would be the issue. Cost: ~ $500 for materials.
• Finish the basement stairs. They're still raw wood and taped drywall. Husband's labor would be free. Cost: ~ $50 materials.
• Finish shed. SIX years ago my husband added a tool shed to the back of the garage. It has been useful, but not pretty. It needs siding, a roof, and a door. We've got the roofing and siding materials, but still need the door. Cost: ~ $50.
• Odds and ends throughout the house. Cost: ~ $100.

That means we're looking at a LOT of man hours and around $1200 for supplies. That doesn't include the roof. That could be another (guessing here) $2000? That would bring the total to ~ $3200.

Granted, all of these things have needed to be done for quite some time. The reason we HAVEN'T done them is because of the money! Ironic, isn't it?

Now, about that powder room.

If you were searching for a home and saw this bathroom, would you want to keep it as is, or would you prefer it to be neutral? The walls are a deep red with faux finish stripes. One stripe is shiny, one is matte.

Would you vote on the sidebar, please? I'm really curious what YOU would find more appealing.

Thanks!

To Sell or Not to Sell: Still waiting and Option 4

The realtor came LAST Tuesday. He has not gotten back with us yet regarding what we're looking at, number-wise, to sell this house. Once we have those figures, then we'll know what direction to take.

• If he thinks the amount we could sell the house for (minus the realtor fee, minus the amount of money that it would take to get it ready for sale) is considerable, then we'll begin the process of getting things ready for sale.
• If it's not a decent amount of money, then we won't.

If it's the second option then I'm ready to formulate a plan to reduce our debt as fast as possible.

If it's the first option, then we've got some major work to do!

Either way, I'd just like to know.

I mentioned in my last post about "Option Four." Here it is in a nutshell:

Our IDEAL situation would be to find a piece of land to purchase where we could park the camper for the spring/summer/fall. During that time we would sell the house and use the profit to build a 2-car garage with an apartment at the top. We would live in that apartment and build our house as funds become available, thereby building debt-free. It would not be a large house, but we would use plans that would allow additions. That would enable the next owner to easily increase the house size if desired.

IF our ideal were to actually work, we would own property and a house, live within our means, and no longer be in debt. At all.

A girl can dream.

To Sell or Not to Sell: If we sell, then what?

If we do indeed decide to sell our current home, where will we go? We plan to get rid of a huge amount of our belongings either through selling or by giving them away. There will still be a for some sort of storage for my husband's contractor equipment and any belongings that we decide to keep. That will certainly be an expense to consider in our search for housing.

We want to be out of debt. We ALSO want to own a house debt-free. The profit that we would make from selling the house would be put aside as a down payment for our next home. We would live on our present income, living in such a way as to add to our funds for the next home.

With that in mind, here are the potential housing choices:

Option One: Rent.

If we were to rent, it would have to be a place that would be BELOW what we're currently paying for our mortgage by about $200. That would allow room for renting a storage unit.

PROS: Lower than renting a house; reasonably comfortable.
CONS: Apartment living, in general; an apartment with the low price we want would not necessarily be in the safest areas.

Option Two: Spend the warmer part of spring, summer, and fall in our camper.


Here's a picture. It's approximately 16 x 8 not counting the tents.

PROS: CHEAP!! Long-term campground rental is very low, much lower than renting an apartment. It has all the amenities, just on a small scale.

CONS: Ummm, it's kinda small. Can we stand that much closeness for so long?

Option Three: Live with my sister. (JUST KIDDING, Sis!)

Option Four: Purchase some land.

I'll talk about Option Four in my next post...

(Thank you to those who have commented. I appreciate the ideas you've already given and ask that you continue to make those suggestions. I'm finding it VERY helpful!)

To Sell or Not to Sell: Other options...

In my last post, I talked about our debt load and how we were considering selling our house in order to free of the "slavery" that being in debt feel like. I know we're not alone in this. So many circumstances can contribute to excess debt that can take YEARS of our lives to get rid of. We've lived with this debt for several years already and we're ready to make a violent, drastic move to get out of it!

So, what are our options? In order to get out of (and stay out of) debt, we need a plan. We were NEVER in debt until our mid-30s. We always paid our credit cards off each month. We bought used everything and paid cash. I was the coupon queen when it came to groceries.

We KNOW how to live within our means.

The problem is that our means aren’t enough to cover what we've accrued and the cloud hanging over us is quite stressful. I know many of you know exactly what I mean about that cloud. So, what to do? Here are the thoughts we’ve come up with:

• Be more frugal and buy nothing that isn’t needed. (We haven’t gotten down to the bare minimum yet, but we’re moving in that direction.)
• Pay cash for everything so as not to add to the credit card load. (We’ve been doing that since May. I LOVE paying cash!)
• Husband could take on a third job. (Here is where it starts to get sticky. He already works 55 hours a week on his paint contracting business. As a part-time pastor, he spends 20+ hours a week in church related time, 6 hours go to the commute, and then there’s always that pesky need for sleep…)
• I could get a paying job. (I homeschool full-time and do the books for my husband’s business. Neither brings in income, of course. If I were to work, then my husband would need to be home to take care of Son. I would have to find something that I could do FROM home in order for this option to be remotely feasible.)
• We can sell everything (except Son) to gather up the greatest amount of funds as possible. (That would possibly result in about 25% of the amount we owe. Definitely what I'm getting ready to do. And I thought my yard sale last spring was my last . . .)

OR

• We can sell our house which will pay all debt and leave approximately a $30,000 profit.

In my next post I will attempt to compare and make SURE that selling the house would make sense.

To Sell or Not to Sell?

That's the question we've been batting about lately.

We bought our house 10 years ago. House prices were just beginning to rise and we were able to get this at a VERY decent price. That means that it's value has risen about 70% (woo hoo!).

When we moved into this house, we were in our mid-30s and had never been in debt (except for a small student loan that we paid off as fast as possible, making minimum wage!). We'd ALWAYS paid all of our bills on time, drove used (sometimes dilapidated) vehicles, pinched pennies, worked multiple jobs, etc., etc. Then we bought our house. We had a down payment and everything. It was our only debt.

In the last 8 years, though, we've had interesting things come up. We had between 2 and 12 employees for a couple of years. That experience was so expensive that there were many, many weeks where we paid them, bought the supplies for the customer, and had zero take-home pay.

We had a baby, but he didn't cost too much. I guess we'll keep him.

Then, there were two trips south to visit previously mentioned MIL that racked up several thousand in expenses. There were other little things, but the latest financial setback was last winter when my husband had almost NO income for 4 months. Yet, we still had to pay the bills.

That 8 years of "interesting" events resulted in credit card debt that is so high I'm too embarrassed to type the number!

We are SO VERY TIRED of being in debt. Really, it's being in slavery. Frugal is one thing. I'm happy to be frugal and make our dollars stretch. What I'm tired of is paying the card companies for YEARS making my dollar stretching only a futile effort in scratching the surface.

That's the background. Tomorrow I'll post what our "Plan A" possibility is. I'll also post the pros and cons, because it's not as clear-cut a decision as one might think it should be.

I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experience of getting out of debt if you're willing to share. Hearing others' plans might result in a "Plan B" for us!