We are back from our cruise. On our drive to Miami we were contacted by our realtor.....another person offered full price CASH and we needed a mortgage. Guess this will not be our dream home in TV after all :grumpy:

Back to hoping our Virginia home sells soon. We REALLY liked the home we offered on too for the golf front location walking distance to Chula Vista pool. So disappointing!

WELL that is just so disappointing...but..there are so many wonderful places here, I feel in my heart you will find one you will even love better. Keep all of your options open and LOOK at everything.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and many more in a wonderful, beautiful place with lots of great folks around you.

Thank you Gracie......Merry Christmas to you as well. I have read so many of your posts. You seem so very sensible and wise.....I hope to meet you someday soon!

I agree...waiting for after New Years to see if we start to get bits on our house:a040:

so much good advice
 

....we have pondered much of the same questions. One thing that has stopped us from having 2 homes is the new tax code with owning 2 homes... so check it out. I know everyone is different, but we have owned a rental before and have found that my husbands blood pressure could not handle it. hahahaha. For me restful sleep is very important...ie worry about one place or the other prevented that restful sleep. I know too that we each have to live within our own comfort levels!!!! Good you are doing your homework!

Good luck! We too live in VA. My husband and i purchased a house back in 2007 after visiting the place for a few years and we knew we loved it. Ou initial thought is to have a place and plan to retire in the Villages. (we are not retired yet). Our decision was to determine we could pay for both mortgages and any rental income would be a plus. We are so lucky and have been renting the property for the past 4 years for the same person and the renter stays 7 months there. So it helps us and we cannot wait until we move, at which point I will have to consider what you thinking about now… To sell or not to sell the VA property!

Well! Last week, we were on our way to our winter home in the Yucatan, when our realtor called to say we had an offer on our Virginia home! We quickly changed plans and went back to Virginia, where we had missed a large snow storm and power outages. After a little negotiation we came to an agreement.......now we just have to wait until home inspection, appraisal, and buyer's lending is approved.

Hopefully in a few days we will have those bases covered, and will start bringing things to a storage area in The Villages! We have our eye on a pre-owned we may make an offer on. Wouldn't it be great if all the closing times lined up? Finding a rental down there now that takes our kitty is a little tough, but we could always go to one of those extended hotel type places for a few weeks.

Hope to be enjoying The Villages in about a month! WhooHoo!

Yucatan2 -- Congratulations on the offer on your home in Virginia. Hope you will be Villagers in the near future!

I am soooooo happy for you as the financial presure is off and you can move in peace and concentrate on what needs to be done.

Best wishes as you start living the dream. :smiley:

sale fell through, but we are here anyway
 

We thought everything was going fine, the buyers were down to the pest and water inspections, the last things done. So, we made an offer on the house we'd been watching here, as the seller had lowered the price. 3 days later the buyer's financing fell through......but we knew we had a good price on our Villages home so we carried on anyway. Had the U Haul here to unload on 4/26 and are getting settled in. We love it here so far, and are keeping our fingers crossed that we get another offer on our home in Virginia soon! If you know anyone wanting a home on 3.5 acres in rural SW Virginia, near Galax, please let us know!:pray:

I bought before my home sold on Merritt Island, but then I was incentivized to lower the price and get out. I never regretted it. I retired a year later and am very happy in my downsized home in Mallory Square. From 3,000 sq ft to 1500 and still extra space. Loving the lifestyle and drinking the Kool-aid.

We bought in TV without selling in MI. It was an okay situation except that I worried having an empty house over the winter, even though it is a condo. Of course, that didn't bother my husband at all. Men's heads hit the pillow and they're gone into slumber land. I on the other hand...

And there's no home watch people in our little lake town up there. We had friends go in, but everyone up there takes off for the winter if they can, so having someone watch over it was iffy, and it was still empty and abandoned over the worst month, Feb. It was a constant worry in the back of my mind.

We finally decided to put it on the market. Having two places isn't a financial problem for us, but we feel we can use the $ we otherwise put into maintenance fees, insurance, utilities, and property tax to better use traveling while we're still young enough to enjoy that.

We said we would never have 2 homes and now we do.
A couple of things led us to do it:
1. We wanted an Ivy and there aren't too many of those and the ones
Coming up were getting more and more expensive,
2. The thought of having to sell, then rent and move twice was more then we could take stress wise.
Luckily we can financially but it wasn't our original plan.

The good news is that we got the exact house we wanted
And we can start bringing some "stuff" up.

Also we only live an hour away in Tampa
which really helps! :pepper2:

In spite of your financial situation, DO NOT buy a home, when the old home is not sold, once you pass papers then do it. keep in mind also a vacant home insurance you will not be able to afford, too many things could go wrong.
Part of my background is owning a Real estate company, and 25 years in the business.