Look, it's a mom!

Even better... it's MY mom!

She got here just in time... after raining all weekend the sun is now out and I need some help in the garden :)

Dad will be here on Thursday for a long weekend and I'm sure we'll do some fun things but for right now I'm looking forward to turning the kids over to her for a few days :)

Sunday News!

Ok, I'm ready to spill the beans!  A while back I alluded to something that was causing a bit of stress, but that we were all "a-ok" - well, here's the big development...

FOR SALE!

As of Friday, our house is officially on the market.  It may seem as a bit out of the blue, but I'm a person that tends to stew on things for awhile quietly, but when a decision has been made, things need to happen right away, I call it "ripping the band-aid off".  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this house, I mean LOVE it - you should have seen this place when I first set foot here back in 1994, suffice it to say that it is completely different now than it was, and 100% of it was DIY sweat-equity.  That being said, I have also been a landlord for about 17 years now (I was here way before hubby entered the picture), and I'm just kind of ready to get all my eggs back in our own basket now.  Being a landlord provided us with much needed income to make the place into just what we wanted and needed, however we have some long-term plans for military retirement that most of you know don't include living here in Virginia.  For the past few years I have been content to sort of "ride out the market", feeling sorry for those that had to sell in these times, but I'm sure that you all have been hearing lately about the fact that now predictions are for this housing market to be this way for another 10 years or so.  I'm thinking that interest rates might not stay so low, however, so now is the time to try to attract a buyer while we still in no hurry to depart the area.  We have several years left before hubby's done with the military gig, but when saddled with multiple mortgages up until the end we lose the ability and freedom to even look seriously or move on a future property for us.  The best thing we could do on a future property would be to secure it a bit before retirement, as we all know it's easier to qualify for a mortgage when gainfully employed:)!


So that's it, in a nutshell - we've been busy doing things around here like the neglected weatherstripping, putting a few things into storage that were crowding the house a bit, etc.  I've also had to back off the gardening a bit by getting rid of some things that look high maintenance and spending more time on the perennial beds and such.  Now, we just need to find the few people out there that are both looking for a house AND can afford a house, no small feat in today's economy.  We are lucky in that it appraised well, we aren't underwater, aren't looking to get rich, and have steady rental income and a great tenant already in place.  We are actually hoping an investor type buyer will be interested and are willing to sign on as tenants ourselves, which would equal instant monthly profit for the future buyer.  That would be the ideal, since I could continue to enjoy my big garden and house we love without the worry about having to stay past hubby's "time's up!" day because of the house.  Bottom line, we'll spend a bit more monthly to live, BUT we would be truly free to look at our future options and act on them if the right thing came along.  Clear as mud?  LOL...


Until who knows when now, my day consists of getting the kids out the door and immediately getting dressed and ready, house picked up by 8 am "just in case" I get a text that someone wants to see the house... then I have to round up my dog's, the neighbor's dog and we go to the park and get lost for awhile.  Between little maintenance items last week, I've had the realtor here to do the appraisal, photographer to do the pics, Miss Utility to spray lines so they can spike the sign in, whew!  One nice thing is that I really like our realtor, and I'm very comfortable with her.  I've never sold a house before and it's all pretty intimidating, so a good realtor is a must - we did purchase the house without a realtor and I did most all of the paperwork, and I'm not doing that again - that only works well in a good economy when people are banging down your door to buy (I don't see any banging!).


So now you know :)... and I am very envious of all of you that are already firmly entrenched in your "forever homes", but I understand nothing comes easy so this is our first step.... now where are the buyers?!