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After you sold your home....
Did you just leave and setup appointments to look after you got there?
Did you rent for a while?
Or did you buy sight unseen and how did that work?
I'm nervous that the homes I like online won't be available by the time we sell.
We have to sell 1st in order to get down payment for a loan.
Once it sells, we plan on headed there and I feel blind.
Not sure how to go about it so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
We have to sell 1st in order to get down payment for a loan.
I purchased my Idaho retirement home while I was still in my home in my old state. Turns out that because I told my employer that I was going to retire, they would not use my current income to qualify for a new mortgage. That meant that if I wanted the particular house I was interested in, I would have to pay cash for it. Half the funds for the new house came from my retirement savings account, the other half from a home equity loan of credit on my current house. Having both the old house and new house at the same time gave me time to effect a stress-free move. Once the old house sold and closed escrow, the HELOC was paid off as well as the current mortgage.
A HELOC might be worth checking into for your situation. Mine was through my credit union at work. Have no idea how the work these days, or even if the give them any more. Worth asking, if it will work for you.
We pretty much did what Volo did, buying our retirement home here in Sagle a few years before I retired and we moved.
Instead of using a HELOC, we refinanced our home in CA and took the money from the equity in that home together with some savings and used that to buy our home here. You will get a slightly lower interest rate that way vs. a HELOC, a 2nd on your principal residence, or financing your home here as a second home. IIRC it was about 1 point difference in interest rate. Because we had a pretty fixed timeline for selling our home we financed it with a 5/1 adjustable mortgage, with a low rate for the 1st 5 years before the first and only rate adjustment, but we sold well before the rate adjustment.
It times past it wasn't uncommon to put a contingency in the purchase contract that you had to sell your current home first before closing on the new home. In today's market sellers may not be very happy to accept that sort of contingency. A local realtor could probably tell you whether that is even acceptable anymore.
As with Volo we found it to be a very stress free way to handle the situation. If you can swing it financially I recommend it highly.
I was always passing through Idaho from UT to MT and WY, so I had narrowed the final retirement home to WY or ID. Ended up spending a week just to look for homes in the Poky area in Aug. Made an offer, eventually finalized, then came back two weeks later to close. And moved in the first of Oct.
Since I was already technically retired from Uncle Sam, I was able to have a pre-approved mortgage from Quicken that took two-days to get the paperwork and present to the realtor.
Living where I did in Moab, I knew, I would sell my home in about an hour; actually was sold before it was listed. Hardest part was a mover, finally getting a mover on dates I wanted; then had to have a vehicle shipped. Worse part was having to deal with a black widow bite, literally on the day I was to leave and drive to Idaho.
When I was offered a job in Bozeman, Mt, I was reluctant to sell my home in Idaho Falls, as I was unsure if I would last for very long on the demanding work. I had worked there once before, and after a year, developed some repetitive injuries that forced me to quit after a year.
But I really liked the job, and made a lot of friends who were still there, 10 years later. I was doing OK in Idaho Falls, but I was bored with my long-established routines. 10 years earlier, Bozeman had been a fun town, small, and a nice place to live, though expensive.
I impulsively decided to take the job despite knowing it could be damaging. The temptation of repeating my past success was very strong.
It was the worst mistake I ever made. Everything was one big calamity after another, and after a very miserable 2 years, I quit again before I was crippled. I moved back to Idaho Falls in the dead of winter, moving in the middle of a blizzard, no better off than when I left.
It took me the next 5 years to financially recover from that misadventure.
At my lowest point, when I was next to completely broke, I was forced to sell several exceptionally good guitars I had owned for over 30 years, just to make the next house payments. I had intended to keep them and pass them down to my kids.
...and I determined I would never move again. I still like my present home a lot, I was able to make the purchase affordable, and it's now worth 2 1/2 times the price I bought it for.
Though everything turned out all right, I still regret the last move I ever made. I'll never move again.
But as bad as it was, it could have been much worse.
I had friends and/or family in both places who helped me out a lot. Without them, I would have ruined my life and would be crippled by now.
My brother had moved to the Spirit Lake area and since I was taking care of our mom, he wanted me to move here up here. I got hold of the realtor he used and made an appointment with him to see some lots near Spirit Lake and drove up here with my mom in late summer of 2013. The realtor took me to see several lots and I put an offer on one that day and drove back home to the CA high desert the next day. I ended up buying it.
The realtor recommended a builder so I drove up again that November to meet the builder and have him look at the lot. I ended up giving him a deposit and drove back home. He mailed me the final plans and I gave it a OK and he got started right away. I drove up a few times with my mom to check progress and moved in right before Christmas 2014 after selling my house in CA which sold in 2 days.
I got lucky I think in how well everything went. My builder is a bit eccentric but a good honest guy who loves to go to Civil War battle enactments. He actually wears a gray Kepi hat around and other Civil War era clothes all the time. You might run into him around CdA and Post Falls. This is my builder on my porch when he came to visit several months after I moved in:
We sold our house in MD first. While we were under contract we rented an apartment in Boise, sight unseen with a 6 month lease. Closed on the MD house, hired a moving company, and drove our cars across the country. Moved into the apartment on Thursday, registered the kid in school on Friday, and she started on Monday, which was when school started. We then spent a month familiarizing ourselves with the city. Areas we liked, things we want to be close to. Next we looked at houses. Took us over a month to find one, and it was new construction which wouldn't be finished for 3 months. We closed on the new house with about 15 days left on the rental lease, so we could move in pretty slowly.
After you sold your home....
Did you just leave and setup appointments to look after you got there?
Did you rent for a while?
Or did you buy sight unseen and how did that work?
I'm nervous that the homes I like online won't be available by the time we sell.
We have to sell 1st in order to get down payment for a loan.
Once it sells, we plan on headed there and I feel blind.
Not sure how to go about it so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
aRE you using any any websites like Zillow in your search or have other suggestions?
I never researched as much as prior to getting our location and home decided in my entire life. I was on the internet every spare moment for over 6 months. Spoke to tons of people, agents, builders...you name it. Researched manufactured homes vs. stick built and more. Talked to lenders for options. I didn't miss a beat nor a detail. I had the entire plan of action all mapped out. Started in Arizona, then Nevada, then Oregon then Washington leaving Idaho at the last ironically. I was purely blessed it all came into view piece by piece.
Ruled every place out till I nearly bit on a spot far north in Washington about 40 minutes from the Canadian border. After talking to a builder got the horrid news of Washington's tax on purchases let alone their insane hook up fees and more taxes.
After that I began my quest checking out Idaho and got blessed with a really nice and knowledgeable Real Estate agent that happened to be hooked up with a builder in this small town that had a one street arrangement of 55+. Just what I had hoped for. No more screaming brats, ATV buzzing down the street, dogs barking incessantly you name it. It sounded like heaven.....and indeed once I made the arrangement to go up from Utah and look at the lots available and the town, I fell in love. All the people were like as if I'd known them my entire life. What a switch. Sat down with the builder afterward and hammered out some details. That was December 9th of 2017. I explained to the builder I had to get my home ready for sale and sell it before I could come up with $$. Unlike most builders out there, he agreed to hold onto our selected lot and would begin the build as soon as he received a down to get things started. We began getting the house we had in Utah ready for sale and put it up for sale February 20th of 2018. It sold for our asking price in 10 days. We were told to be out in 2 weeks. I then took one day up and back to the town to nail down a rental for the 4 months it would take to build the home. A miracle occurred providing us a 3br 2ba home with tons of space to store ALL our homes belongings no storage site needed. That alone was unreal. We got to see the home building process each and every day for the 4 months it took to complete the home. The builder did a great job and we laid it out with all top line goodies. I did tons of research again on all the things for inside the home such as all the appliances and fixtures picking them out and giving the list to the builder to complete in the process. A 75" Sony flat screen over the fireplace with a theater like arrangement in the living room. It all worked out flawlessly and right on time. July 15th we moved in. Our neighbors are all amazing as are the people in town. It has been the BEST thing I ever did in my entire life. Can't say enough about living here vs. ANYWHERE I lived before. Mainly thrilled to get RID of the excessive population around me. That alone is worth the price of entry.
With how things are going, depending on which area you are looking at (Idaho is pretty big and you didnt narrow it down) it would be wise to get into a airbnb or a short stay motel while you look and close so you don't end up without a plan.
Edit saw your other post, so CDA area. This hotel, Staybridge Suites is designed for your type of scenario. I think get a discount as I am a REALTOR so if you cant find a airbnb or something similar, you can DM and and I can reach out.
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