Under contract

Countdown to the new house has started.

We were a little worried about not selling our current house before moving in to the new house. We prepared ourselves financially to pay two mortgage payments for a bit.

Over the last two months we started getting our current house ready to show. We painted every room except closets and one bathroom. We also had 1300 square feet of carpet installed to replace the vinyl flooring we put down ourselves a few years ago. The flooring we put down was fine for us, but had a few issues.

We rented a storage unit and put a lot of (mostly my stuff) in storage. We also had a garage sale and sold stuff at fire sale prices. How low? Well out kitchen table and chairs sold for $50. That low. We just wanted it gone.

Beyond that we also replaced our roof. There was a really bad hail storm last April. I had the roof inspected and was told we were okay. Well we had our house pre-inspected for sale to be proactive. I'm glad we did as we DID have hail damage. A lot. I filed a claim with our insurance. The adjuster stated if I called a week later it would not have been covered as it would have been more than a year out. Lucky us.

During the garage sale a neighbor showed interest in our house. We gave them an early opportunity to see it. They viewed it twice....and nothing. Thankfully our house was priced right, in a great location and in great condition. We had about 9 other showings and got an offer after just the second showing for a little under list price. We were very happy. Then two days later we had an offer for full list price.

We were on cloud 9. In addition to full list they agreed to let us leaseback our house until June 20th. We close on the new house June 17th.

Kelli and I aren't financial wizards. We are just really, really , really lucky.

When we bought our current house 9 years ago...we did it on a whim. We were literally driving around and decided to buy a house. Marriage had not entered the picture yet.

We bought sight unseen, all based on a floor plan. The builder paid for the remaining payments for our apartment (4 months!) so we could move in without breaking our lease. After we signed prices went up by more than $20K. Lucky.

When we bought our 2010 Prius they had 0% interest, $2500 off and free maintenance. About a month later they cancelled no interest and they were going for full sticker.

For our next house we signed for a starting price of $263,990 back in December 2012. Today prices start at $282,990. We are going to have almost $40K in upgrades ($25K of that was "free" as an incentive). After all said and done we are paying $284K for the next house. Just $2,000 more than current list. Lucky.

It is kinda sad moving out. We've been together for 11 years. Nine of those years were in this house.