Come to think of it, it's been nearly two years to the date since the first iteration of this post. My, how time truly flies.

In that post, we'd just accepted an offer on the home we were selling and began the process of buying the home we're in now. Today, we accepted an offer to sell this one.

In both cases we received an offer for our asking price right after we began showing. In this case, the house hadn't yet been formally listed before we received our first visit, and that was the offer we accepted. The major difference here is that we sold from a position of strength the last time. Today, we sold to avoid having to sell from a position of weakness.

It's a bitter pill in that in many ways this was the culmination of the mistakes we made within the last year and a half, which came after a five year upward trend of prosperity and stability. This is not necessarily a negative experience though. We're exceptionally blessed as we came into this home with plenty of equity to start and the value has increased a fair amount in that time, so we're walking away with more than enough to get things back on track.

But now it's onto apartment life, and if there's any example of how good things are, it's the fact that I'm fucking depressed at the idea of leaving our pretty, spacious safe home to go "slumming" in an apartment complex. Oh, the hardship. I'm not sure how I feel about this feeling, since I vividly remember wishing, praying and dreaming of an apartment of our own for much of my childhood and a fair amount of my young adulthood. Further, the apartments we're looking at are in a respectable range of quality within my personal definition of the word.

Frankly, there are some very nice benefits of apartment living. I'm just bummed that we weren't able to maintain without things getting tight to the point of suffocation. Worse is that we can afford everything just fine if we weren't playing from so far behind, which isn't really that far from a pure distance perspective. Still, I'm glad we had this card to play. I have plenty of friends who wish they had an asset to flip at a moments notice like this. We decided to put it up on Thursday, listed on Saturday and had an informal offer for our ask in place before it was ever submitted to MLS. Certainly nothing to cry over.

That said, it's a good day. There's plenty to reflect on in the decision department. There's plenty of room for course correction, and plenty of slash marks in the "pro" category. In fact, I couldn't come up with a single negative to the move. It just "feels" bad, I guess. The apartment hunt is fun and my daughter is excitedly hoping for(ahem: demanding, lol) a place with a pool, which is all but a certainty.

All in all it's a net win and yet I can't shake the cloud of abject failure. I know it's all in my head though. I think this may well be a proverbial live and learn experience, and ideally provides an extra boost of wisdom and perspective down the road. I've been too cynical in recent years to be much a proponent of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" cliches, but I think this is genuinely one of those "that sucked but things worked out and you're still in a good position, so learn from it and take this as a net win" periods of time.

It be's that way, sometimes. I'll take it.

Its something you saw coming, made the changes you had to, and while it feels like a downgrade at least you had the life boat to pull to fight another day from a position of strength(when most niggas drown) as opposed to having no idea what to do.

Sometimes we our own worst critics


>Come to think of it, it's been nearly two years to the date
>since the first iteration of this post. My, how time truly
>flies.
>
>In that post, we'd just accepted an offer on the home we were
>selling and began the process of buying the home we're in now.
>Today, we accepted an offer to sell this one.
>
>In both cases we received an offer for our asking price right
>after we began showing. In this case, the house hadn't yet
>been formally listed before we received our first visit, and
>that was the offer we accepted. The major difference here is
>that we sold from a position of strength the last time. Today,
>we sold to avoid having to sell from a position of weakness.
>
>It's a bitter pill in that in many ways this was the
>culmination of the mistakes we made within the last year and a
>half, which came after a five year upward trend of prosperity
>and stability. This is not necessarily a negative experience
>though. We're exceptionally blessed as we came into this home
>with plenty of equity to start and the value has increased a
>fair amount in that time, so we're walking away with more than
>enough to get things back on track.
>
>But now it's onto apartment life, and if there's any example
>of how good things are, it's the fact that I'm fucking
>depressed at the idea of leaving our pretty, spacious safe
>home to go "slumming" in an apartment complex. Oh, the
>hardship. I'm not sure how I feel about this feeling, since I
>vividly remember wishing, praying and dreaming of an apartment
>of our own for much of my childhood and a fair amount of my
>young adulthood. Further, the apartments we're looking at are
>in a respectable range of quality within my personal
>definition of the word.
>
>Frankly, there are some very nice benefits of apartment
>living. I'm just bummed that we weren't able to maintain
>without things getting tight to the point of suffocation.
>Worse is that we can afford everything just fine if we weren't
>playing from so far behind, which isn't really that far from a
>pure distance perspective. Still, I'm glad we had this card to
>play. I have plenty of friends who wish they had an asset to
>flip at a moments notice like this. We decided to put it up on
>Thursday, listed on Saturday and had an informal offer for our
>ask in place before it was ever submitted to MLS. Certainly
>nothing to cry over.
>
>That said, it's a good day. There's plenty to reflect on in
>the decision department. There's plenty of room for course
>correction, and plenty of slash marks in the "pro" category.
>In fact, I couldn't come up with a single negative to the
>move. It just "feels" bad, I guess. The apartment hunt is fun
>and my daughter is excitedly hoping for(ahem: demanding, lol)
>a place with a pool, which is all but a certainty.
>
>All in all it's a net win and yet I can't shake the cloud of
>abject failure. I know it's all in my head though. I think
>this may well be a proverbial live and learn experience, and
>ideally provides an extra boost of wisdom and perspective down
>the road. I've been too cynical in recent years to be much a
>proponent of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"
>cliches, but I think this is genuinely one of those "that
>sucked but things worked out and you're still in a good
>position, so learn from it and take this as a net win" periods
>of time.
>
>It be's that way, sometimes. I'll take it.

Thus far in the process, things have worked out fairly well. I think once the dust settles on everything we'll both definitely feel better about the situation.

Maybe I didn't see a sacrifice paving the way for that but I'm glad you guys were able to make that move.

And trust, as you said, there's definite benefits to moving away from ownership. Also, it's not the end of your opportunity there. Next few years might prove fruitful and you venture back into those waters...or who knows, maybe you all love the community enough at the new place that you stick it out.

But yeah, equity to cover any backlogs and hopefully providing a little surplus is a great thing.

Congrats man and don't feel too bad about selling. We've all had similar thoughts when things got tight and it was definitely an option.

____________

>Maybe I didn't see a sacrifice paving the way for that but
>I'm glad you guys were able to make that move.

Yeah. Truth be told, we actually made a profit on the deal, at least in terms of what we paid and got back for the house itself.

>And trust, as you said, there's definite benefits to moving
>away from ownership. Also, it's not the end of your
>opportunity there. Next few years might prove fruitful and
>you venture back into those waters...or who knows, maybe you
>all love the community enough at the new place that you stick
>it out.

>But yeah, equity to cover any backlogs and hopefully providing
>a little surplus is a great thing.

>Congrats man and don't feel too bad about selling. We've all
>had similar thoughts when things got tight and it was
>definitely an option.

Yeah. My realtor was kind of surprised at our assertiveness. He said most people seem to wait until they're up against foreclosure before making this move. I'm definitely feeling better about the decision after some time.

I'm in a similar situation but my wife refuses to move into an apartment. My thinking was sell the house, move into a townhouse and pay the rent for like 6 months in advance, pay down debt and then buy another house. We have a nice amount of equity in the home at the moment but my wife loves the house/location and she ain't trying to hear me. lol...

She would rather do like you guys with your first home and immediately move into another house cause she isn't about that apartment life (we've lived in a lot of apartments over the years).

That being said.. it's good to have something to sell vs just renting and having to move into a smaller apartment. My cousin lives in a nice 3 bedroom townhouse with a gym and saltwater pool. I can't front, shit was niiiiice.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

>I'm in a similar situation but my wife refuses to move into
>an apartment. My thinking was sell the house, move into a
>townhouse and pay the rent for like 6 months in advance, pay
>down debt and then buy another house. We have a nice amount of
>equity in the home at the moment but my wife loves the
>house/location and she ain't trying to hear me. lol...

That's rough. Hopefully you can tell her about us and it could give her some food for thought.

>She would rather do like you guys with your first home and
>immediately move into another house cause she isn't about that
>apartment life (we've lived in a lot of apartments over the
>years).

What I will say is that if we had just decided on her sticking with her job, barring any other significant changes, from a pure economic standpoint we'd be fairly well off right now. If you guys have the ends to stick it out it, staying put might be a good option for you. But if it's crazy tight and you're at zero at the end of payday, I definitely hope your wife is open to being proactive and not waiting until you're absolutely drowning.

>That being said.. it's good to have something to sell vs just
>renting and having to move into a smaller apartment. My cousin
>lives in a nice 3 bedroom townhouse with a gym and saltwater
>pool. I can't front, shit was niiiiice.

Yeah we've seen some incredible places during this whole thing. Some of these places are strong enough that I've genuinely reconsidered our entire future plan.

but if our backs were against the wall it's definitely an option.

Good luck and congrats

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

"All in all it's a net win and yet I can't shake the cloud of abject failure. I know it's all in my head though. I think this may well be a proverbial live and learn experience, and ideally provides an extra boost of wisdom and perspective down the road. I've been too cynical in recent years to be much a proponent of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" cliches, but I think this is genuinely one of those "that sucked but things worked out and you're still in a good position, so learn from it and take this as a net win" periods of time.

It be's that way, sometimes. I'll take it."

It appears you and your wife have worked hard to have options. Resorting to a plan where you step back to eventually move forward again with greater strides is nothing to be down about. You have the options to choose how this may play out for you and yours. Some don't.

Continue to be blessed with options and the ability to make sound decisions.

>It appears you and your wife have worked hard to have options.
>Resorting to a plan where you step back to eventually move
>forward again with greater strides is nothing to be down
>about. You have the options to choose how this may play out
>for you and yours. Some don't.
>
>Continue to be blessed with options and the ability to make
>sound decisions.

Thanks. Hope you're doing well, fyi.

The process was a bitch though. I had no idea about this whole market rate business. One place quoted me $1514 on Friday at 3:30 and gave me a quote for $1625 for the exact same place at 10:30 on Saturday morning, citing "market rates".

I was like FOH!!!

Turns out every single place we went to operates that way. One curious thing though, one apartment said that the rates don't change on the weekend so I don't know if that was that one spot or the entire industry, but nobody else changed rates from yesterday to today, even without written quotes.

Anyhow we wound up getting a spot that's in the process of a full upgrad from the laminate flooring to the paint to stainless steel appliances and came in under budget at one of the best reviewed apartments in the area. The only downside is we need to spend two weeks at her moms since it's not ready until a few weeks after escrow closes, but that's minor.

Certainly can't be mad at that. So far it's more or less a best case scenario.

Going from home to an apartment is understandable given the high amount of money people are charging for living spaces. The Trump administration is not giving you any leeway with their draconian policies either. There's no such thing as being too cynical as cynicism keeps your mind alert. It's people that haven't even moved out of their parents' homes yet so you're far ahead of them and you started a family and you got a home to live in to begin with. This is you reallocating resources to build a better future. Yes, it would be nice to live in a 10000 square foot home but the costs of that home wouldn't be worth it for the peace of mind that comes with getting back to your roots and interacting with jane schmane on the street.

Like you said you're in a better spot to fix things than you would've been if you weren't cautious. Keep your head up and I have no doubt you'll get to where you want to be.

The exact opposite of the last experience.

There was a slight bump when it looked like the buyer was backing out but his realtor had jumped the gun. I panicked and took a day off to get the house back in listing condition but wound up speaking to the buyer directly and hashing out the issue. I threw a few bucks at his closing costs and it was a wrap.

She was a first time realtor and he was a first time buyer so it never occurred to either to ask for it. This is my third rodeo in 7 years so I handled it like pro. Yes I'm over-doing rhings with that "pro" line, but I was happy as fuck to fix the issue so I'm dancing on the W.

Had a brief repo scare on my car last week with a punkass Ford rep who wouldn't get me a supervisor until I told him it's a big ass country and if they really wanted to press me for money I would have in 8 days, I'd make sure they spent more money to find and recover the car than was owed on the loan and I'd also make sure Ford understood that his wack ass attitude was the catalyst.... So if they didnt want to find their precious collateral three years from now in a fucking river in south dakota or some shit, please get me a supervisor. Problem solved.

But yeah... Its been a good month.

Glad to hear things are going well.