The One Where The House Is Up For Sale

There isn't a "convenient" way to do this.

Back in the olden days, I used to think it was difficult moving from one rented abode (be it apartment or house) into another. Leases never expired at the right times, so you always had to beg the landlord to let you extend a month or two (or pay to leave early).

Well, that was nothing.

When you own a home, and you wish to own a DIFFERENT home, there are options, but none of them are convenient. You can:

1. Buy the new house and rent the old one (requires money and desire to be a landlord).
2. Buy the new house, then hope the old one sells (requires gobs of money for two mortgages).
3. Sell the old house, move to a rental, then buy the new house (requires moving twice).
4. Sell the old house the exact day you buy the new house (yeah, right).

Options 1 and 2 are not options for us, so we are planning on option 3, which is painful, but affordable (and likely). We actually pulled off option 4 ten years ago, and that was almost as stressful as any of the others.

To pull off the first part of option 3, we have put our old house up for sale. This means we are at the mercy of realtors. This also means we really don't "live" in our house anymore. When your house is "listed", you must be prepared to vacate at any time for a "showing" to a potential buyer. This can cramp your style in a variety of ways.

Dogs

Sorry, puppies, but you are smelly and must stay in the back yard. And we must put up a sign SAYING that you are staying the back yard so you don't lick anybody to death.

Food

Easy on the tasty (but smelly) ethnic foods and NO weirdness like liver & onions, please.

Pants

You must always, ALWAYS, wear pants. This cannot be stressed enough. Especially to our eight year old.

Mechanical Repairs On The Truck/Tractor/Car

Just don't.

All of this to sell our house. But not too soon... or too late... or for too little money...

Yikes. Where did I put the Tums.

Signing out fer now,

Big S Ranch