(no subject)
I'm very close to having my house ready to go on the market for sale. The walls that were damaged in the earthquake here 3 years ago have been fixed and repainted. I had new kitchen counter tops installed, and replaced the majority of the windows. Tomorrow, the contractors will install new carpet on the main and upper floors. There are a few minor wall repair/painting issues to deal with, and then I'm done with the work inside the house. If I can get someone to cheaply power-wash the outside of the house and the deck, I'll do that too. One of my neighbors wants to charge me $400 to power-wash the house. That's about 3 times the going rate around here so I told him, no.
I still don't have a place to go to after I sell this house. My realtor gave me the name of a different realtor who manages house rentals so I'm going to call that person tomorrow. I've also got a couple of possible leads from rentals.com and hotpads.com but I'm not counting on either of those sites too much since the vast majority of the listings I've checked from there have turned out to be scams.
I'm no longer going to try to buy a house here in the DC area. Property is just too expensive. Plus, I have some work intel that indicates clearly that my entire department is going to be dissolved within the next 2 years, with most of us gone next year. The last thing I can afford to do now is use the equity from this house sale as the down payment on another overpriced home here, only to possibly lose that next house if/when I lose my job. Far safer to just rent for a bit, ride out the storm of whatever happens at work, and be able to take my time to relocate out of this area entirely to somewhere cheaper. I've crossed both Portland and Charlottesville both off my possible move-to location. Portland real estate has gotten too pricy, and Charlottesville real estate has always been crazy high, and none of the salaries I've seen for possible jobs I could do there would pay enough. I'm currently taking a seriously hard look at Richmond, VA. The city has rebounded very well from the crime-ridden, rundown town it was just a few years ago. The economy is doing well there now, houses are super affordable, and there is a lot to do and see in the area. Plus, it's just a couple hours by car or train from DC so I could still get downtown and take advantage of the museums and galleries and things in DC that I love so much. I haven't ruled out the Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh area though simply because I haven't seen it. I only know of it from what I've read online. Once I get out of hell house into some place new and safe and calm, I plan to take road trips down to North Carolina and to Richmond and check out both areas.
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I still don't have a place to go to after I sell this house. My realtor gave me the name of a different realtor who manages house rentals so I'm going to call that person tomorrow. I've also got a couple of possible leads from rentals.com and hotpads.com but I'm not counting on either of those sites too much since the vast majority of the listings I've checked from there have turned out to be scams.
I'm no longer going to try to buy a house here in the DC area. Property is just too expensive. Plus, I have some work intel that indicates clearly that my entire department is going to be dissolved within the next 2 years, with most of us gone next year. The last thing I can afford to do now is use the equity from this house sale as the down payment on another overpriced home here, only to possibly lose that next house if/when I lose my job. Far safer to just rent for a bit, ride out the storm of whatever happens at work, and be able to take my time to relocate out of this area entirely to somewhere cheaper. I've crossed both Portland and Charlottesville both off my possible move-to location. Portland real estate has gotten too pricy, and Charlottesville real estate has always been crazy high, and none of the salaries I've seen for possible jobs I could do there would pay enough. I'm currently taking a seriously hard look at Richmond, VA. The city has rebounded very well from the crime-ridden, rundown town it was just a few years ago. The economy is doing well there now, houses are super affordable, and there is a lot to do and see in the area. Plus, it's just a couple hours by car or train from DC so I could still get downtown and take advantage of the museums and galleries and things in DC that I love so much. I haven't ruled out the Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh area though simply because I haven't seen it. I only know of it from what I've read online. Once I get out of hell house into some place new and safe and calm, I plan to take road trips down to North Carolina and to Richmond and check out both areas.
This entry was originally posted at http://saraqael.dreamwidth.org/12303.html. Please comment there using OpenID.