Nuts and Bolts: Selling our house (part 1)...goo.

Lest you all think we are doing nothing over here but talking about lost chickens I thought I would throw something "real" into the mix by talking about our house, and how we have to sell it.
 Are you yawning yet? I am.

In fact, it's all we've been talking about lately (insert more yawns here), but unfortunately, that's all we've been doing...talking. It's kind of an overwhelming thought, so I think we've kind of been putting off pulling the trigger. PLUS, it's probably the third worst time in the 20th/21st century to try and sell a house, so that also causes a bit of indigestion around here.

As it stands, we have but two options.

1) Rent the house out until the market gets better so we don't lose money.

2) Sell the house realizing that we will probably only break even, if not  lose money. 

1) People, my people, we DO NOT want to have any type of real estate to manage from another country. Are you kidding me? Among all the other tasks and responsibilities, and new life changes we will be going through, the last thing we need is a property with tenants emailing and calling us every month asking us to fix something or refund something, or hold their latest payment another 10 days, or whatever. No thank you. PLUS, I have this sneaky feeling that the economy is not going to get any better any time soon. The amount of money we would be losing every month on the rent plus fees to a property manager, (unless the economy takes a major upturn int he next 2 years), is just going to come out to be the same amount of money lost if we sold the thing right now. Are you with me here? Is this making sense? It makes sense to me. 

2) Well, selling the house (heck, even renting the house for that matter) comes with a lot of preparation and planning. Duh. I know you know this, but please, I'm just workin'  it out here, bear with me. We have to find a realtor, we have to fix up the house, we have to decide on a price, and we have to be willing to negotiate and not get ticked that the buyers don't agree that our archaic microwave is a "vintage original" and instead call it a piece of junk. How dare they!  The list of tasks to be done before March 1st (the *very* unofficial listing date) is longer and more complex than my Stuff Board, and we haven't done a single thing on it. If you've ever sold a house you will know why...

They might be dressed as Saint's but their ability to scuff paint jobs, back up plumbing and destroy  any outdoor landscaping would have you think otherwise. (Obviously Lina is not trying to fool anyone)

And, to go through all of that, and hope and pray for an eager buyer in a most definitely unfriendly seller's market, and come out losing a little, or a lot, of money on the house will be disheartening. But, we are fortunate. Blessed, really. If we lose money on the house, we'll be okay. And that makes selling the house, even with a loss, the most attractive option. When we bought the house we did not plan on keeping it longer than 5 years, and this is our 5th year. We did not plan on such a cruddy economy, but honestly, that can't be helped. It's life. "Hope for the best..."

So, in the end, of course, as most of you know, we are selling the house. Going with option #2, and I am eager to get started. Very eager. Like, I've already packed up most of the things we are going to keep but don't use right now and have given away loads. Everything has been pulled out of closets and in the process of being organized into piles. Our house looks like a train wreck. And Christmas is coming.

Goo.