I hate moving...

Congrats Scott! I'm right behind you. Am on my way back to Michigan right now...sitting in Drury Inn at Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Patty and I are closing on a small house at the end of September. Small 4 bedroom ranch type. Owner was selling it for $75K, we offered $60 and he took it as he needs to sell it badly to free up his VA loan and he was reassigned a couple months ago and it's been sitting empty eating him up.

Got to move from Michigan to Mississippi. Took a load down last week and put it into a storage facility. I figure another car and trailer load plus my truck and a second trailer should do it for us. Like you, it was a process to minimalize stuff, keeping only essentials.

Pictures of my new (old home built in 1977) here: https://www.trulia.com/property/4001915519-2705-E-Stevens-Cir-Gulfpo...

I decided to go ahead and buy rather than rent...it was cheaper. With taxes and insurance, the mortgage only came out to about $600/month. And the house comes with washer, dryer, fridge, stove, brand new central air, and a riding lawnmower...that made the sale for me! Look out old people...there's a new driver in town!

o.O
You can buy a 4 bedroom house for £47k o.O

I just checked and the cheapest 4 bedroom house around me that I could find has an asking price of £535k ($686k)

Looks good though!

There's no such thing as a "small" four-bedroom house. I've never had more than three. When I saw 60,000 USD I thought for a moment, Maybe I ought to consider moving there when I retire next year. Then I remembered it's Mississippi.

Nice find, Rich. Housing prices are crazy high out here in Portland, and we're not near as high as Seattle or San Fran. We bought our first house in 1993 for $70,000, and it was 680 sf with one bedroom, plus 680 sf with two illegal bedrooms in a partially finished basement. We legalized the 2 basement bedrooms and added a bathroom, and sold for about $130,000 five years later. It last sold in 2015 for $330,000, and Redfin says it's currently worth $405,000.

Yeah, my dinky little 1400-square-foot house is worth over half a million now, and I bought it for 200K at the end of 1998. Location, location, and location.

Location is everything...of course California, New York City, Miami...you pay premium for the land. In Alaska, my home back in 1982 was $114,000, and the home was only 20% of that costs...the lot, only 80'x120' was the majority of the expense.

Now I have a little lot...which is nice, because I hate mowing grass. 2 bathrooms are a must...because if you ever followed my wife after she came out of one it would curl your hair...she can stink it up! Damn animal that she is...

Sell your house and move to Mississippi CEGeek, for half a million you could have 20 acres and a 6 bedroom house with triple garage...and down south they are still on CE3...

I think I'll pass. Between the hurricanes and the humidity (I'm a guy who sweats while showering as it is), not to mention the still-existing evidence of the Jim Crow era in some places - probably not a particularly friendly atmosphere for a white guy with a Black girlfriend.

Hurricanes are not really an issue a few miles off the beach. Humidity...yes, you would die. Black girlfriend? Pretty common sight these days, really not unusual at all...though Mississipli law would require you to live in a house trailer...

More importantly, the state is predominantly republican...you might find that disturbing...

LOL

So last week I moved a ton of boxes to Mississippi, which included all my handhelds. I have nothing up here in Michigan...I feels so naked, so empty...

Being without H/PCs will do that to a guy.

Things are going well so far with the move... Great thing bout a smaller house is a much smaller electricity bill! Bill last month for old house was over $215 and this month in new home was $72... We are changing out all of the windows to high efficiency windows and I am switching out light bulbs to LED as well.

I've gone total LED in my house...even pulled the ballasts from my 48" fluorescent fixtures and replaced them with long LED lamps which are not only faster turning on, but much brighter with nearly double the year life expectancy. I've even gone LED in mycars and trailer doing the same swap outs.

Tomorrow our new windows are finally going to be installed. Look forward to having the new windows. It will be nice when Fall arrives to open the windows. Also yesterday we ripped the carpet out of one of the rooms. Beautiful hardwood underneath. Soon we will get the carpet out of the other one as well. When we moved in I noticed that the AC seemed to stay on all of the time. After looking at the issue a bit I realized that the thermostat was located in the hallway far away from all of the vents. So the AC would run until the air traveled to the hallway. Problem was that when the bedroom doors were closed the AC would not turn off even though all of the other rooms were cold. So Saturday I relocated the thermostat to the dining room. So much better! The AC now turns off when its supposed to.

Rich, how's it going for you?

We expect to close on the house this Friday. Have my trailer all packed up, renting another from U-Haul...$185 one-way for 1300 miles. Plan on leaving Michigan Oct 23rd and moving in on the 25th.

Pattie will drive the LeSabre with my 4'x8' homebuilt behind it, I'll be pulling a 6'x12' behind my F-150.

Got my new door locks in the mail yesterday. Really cool. You can use a key, or the keypad, or use an RFID keychain fob to unlock and open the door. The locks relock themselves after a few seconds. Another great eBay buy.





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