T-Minus 424 Days: We found A Real Estate Agent

It feels like it is starting to get real!

I spent part of today updating our Trello board to account for everything that went on hold during the Pandemic. Our yard sale? Is moved from May to July. Cleaning out the garage (which we started and completed 20%) is moved form April to June. It feels good to see the momentum returning.

I sold my first item on Facebook Marketplace! That has motivated me to post some more toys. The challenge I have is between a driving desire to just get rid of everything, and the interest in getting some money to help support the move.

I read a recommendation somewhere: the time leading up to the move should be spent purging and preparing your house to sell. Getting the house ready to sell means painting, repairs, and other activities. I have one area of my yard that I need to do something with. I read that a patio has an 80% return on investment when the house sells, so, I'm hoping to take advantage of some out of work masons and get a deal. I am waiting on a price and then I'll decide what to do. It is difficult because I don't want to put a lot of money into the house, but something needs to be done, and a patio would be the perfect something.

One item on our list for April was to find a real estate agent. I don't want to say who it is because I don't know if they are any good yet. They specialize in moving people from out-of-state to Florida, and they come highly recommended by people who made the move.

I believe there is a tremendous opportunity to help people move to Florida. Hundreds of thousands of families make the move every year. They all need housing, doctors, schools, jobs, and more. I was looking for someone who had experience with the complete picture, and I believe I found that person. The initial contact with the agent seemed positive and she will be sending me a roadmap that will take us through the next 424 days. We will be meeting with her when we go to Florida in August.

That is the update for today! Progress feels very good.

T Minus 426 Days: Trying Marketplace

It seems like it was a year ago that we prepared to sell items on Facebook Marketplace. And then the pandemic hit.  Everything in our life went on hold.

Life is slowly starting to get back to normal (very slowly) so I decided to start with Marketplace. I decided to do just one quick and easy item: a toy for $10. I followed all the advice I had read previously on how to sell on Market place: I had ten really good pictures, a great description, and (what I felt) a fair price. I even bundled My plan is to do a porch pickup so no one has to worry about the Corona Virus.

It has been three days, 21 views, 2 saves, and no inquiries. I had hoped it was going to be a quick and easy sale that would encourage us to find the time to do more. But so far? No luck.

I might try putting a few more items on Marketplace. Hopefully something will sell!

T Minus 427 Days: Planning a trip to Florida

We have our plane tickets! We will be traveling to Florida in August to shop towns and developments. We will be in Florida for six days. There are several places at the top of our list, and we want to try to stay the night and spend time in as many of them as we can:
Clermot
Davenport
Apopka
Winter Garden
Lakeland



Our next step is to plan out the trip
Where to stay in the towns?
Car rental?
Realestate Agent?
Built houses or new construction?

Stay tuned for more updates!

T Minus 428 days: Disney Fireworks

Does the pandemic leave you missing the Disney fireworks? Disney is streaming a pre recorded copy of the fireworks, giving you a front tow seat!

T-Minus 429 days: Purging the Garage

According to our master plan, we needed to clean out the garage on day 429. Well... there were many things we needed to do according to our master plan, but plans were thrown out the window when the Pandemic hit. Nevertheless, day 429 was arriving... and we decided to stick with our garage plans.

Unfortunately... we underestimated the size of the job. We thought we could have that garage purged in a weekend. It is a two car garage with just barely enough room for one car. The sides of the garage are packed nearly to the ceiling with much of my Dad's stuff plus 17 years of living in our current house. There are tools, antiques, bags of cement and sand, roof tiles, camp chairs, barn boards, gardening items, extension cords, car repair, grass seed, weed killer, and a very long list of more than you could possible imagine.

We decided to start with an 8 foot by 3 foot corner. We would get that corner cleaned up, and then build some shelves that would aid us with going through the rest of the garage. It took seven hours to purge just that corner!

I regrettably don't have a picture of what it looked like before we got started, but it was piled nine feet high. Two old picnic tables were stacked ontop of each other and served as shelves for all kinds of  useless treasures. 

We puled everything out and into the driveway where we made several piles: Trash it, sell it, give it away, and store it.

We filled five trash cans with garbage. In addition, we put a pickup load out at the street for anyone to take for free (which went immediately). The items to store (... store for now... as we continue to purge) went into buckets and tubs.

When we were finished, we cleaned the entire area and brought the storage items back in. We'll build the shelves next weekend and then keep working on the rest of the garage.

T-Minus 433 days: A Pandemic Update

It is an odd thing to see our neighbors working on their house. There is an idea that people are bored, binge watching TV, and cleaning out their houses. My wife and I are working from home full time, and helping to home school our high school and college aged boys. We are as busy as we always have been.

Because we have been so busy, we have had no time to do anything to prepare for the move. We have talked about, perhaps, selling on Facebook marketplace - but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

On the one hand, I am very happy we still have our jobs. On the other hand, we sure could use the time to prepare for the move! In the end, I know it is better to be working.

We had planned to visit Florida in August to meet with a realestate agent, but now we aren't sure. Direct flights are very expensive, and indirect flights would increase our potential exposure to COVID-19. Also, right now, Florida requires people visiting from New York to be quarantined for two weeks. While I wouldn't mind being quarantined in Florida.... our plan is to only be in Florida for a week. If the quarantine requirement lifts and COVID-19 dies down, we might try to go.

There are many things we wanted to do during our last year in New York. We wanted to go to New York City again, Niagara Falls, drive down to Washington DC, and a long list of other things that will become impossible or very difficult once we move to Florida. Now, with COVID-19, I'm not sure any of this is possible. Our trip to New York City was supposed to be this month... and that isn't happening!

That's the update. Not much going on, but we are looking forward to our lives getting back on track!

T-Minus 447 days: waiting...

It feels like the world has stopped spinning due to the pandemic. We have made no progress on our purging nor preparing for the move. We planned to go to Florida in August to meet with a real estate agent and scout out some towns - that trip is now on hold. We wanted to sell some things on Facebook Market Place, but I don't know that anyone is buying from Market Place (I honestly haven't checked). We want to clean up some old toys for sale, but we don't have any more disinfectant wipes and there are none to be purchased anywhere.

So we wait.... and expect things will get better so we can get back on track with our Florida Move plans.

T-Minus 451 Days: Pandemic and Groceries

Instacart was booked for a week and we needed groceries so.... watch how we decontaminate our groceries and deliveries.