T-Minus 398 Days: MarketPlace Sales

Purging and selling. Purging and selling. As we cross over $500 in MarketPlace sales (money that is going straight into our move budget) I have discovered something about Facebook Marketplace that I really don't like: Ghosting. That is when someone says they want to buy something and arranges a time to come get it, and then they fall silent and you never hear from them again. In the meanwhile, you have reserved the item for their pick up, and then do follow-up communications - when it is all said and done, you've lost 3 or 4 days!

  Not every sale results in ghosting. But probably 20% of them are. It is a huge waste of time! And very frustrating.

Somewhere between 25% and 30% of everything I have posted so far has sold. Each week I lower the price a little. Once it hits $5, I figure it isn't worth someone driving to my house to get it and I will either combine it with a bunch of other things, or, put it in our July Rummage Sale pile. In my experience, if it doesn't sell within a day or two of first being posted, it isn't going to sell. I can reduce the price and relist it, but that if fairly ineffective.

We have also started a "Free Pile" out by the road. Anything we don't think is worth any money? Someone will treasure it. Sometimes they take it just for the scrap metal. Sometimes to throw it on a burn pile. And sometimes they have a real use for it - I don't care. It is out of my house!

It becomes very difficult and challenging to keep everything straight. Who is coming when to pick up what? I keep all the details in a spreadsheet, but that becomes difficult because everyone in the family is asking me all the time for information. In response, I created a family calendar in google. Every time there was a pick up, I added it to the calendar so everyone would know. Even that was a challenge because no one wanted to log into the calendar to get a simple question answered. The solution came when I started using a white board that hangs in the kitchen. The white board is divided for every day of the week and tells what is for dinner and any appointments or activities we have. I added the Marketplace Pick ups to the white board and that was the answer.

It does get very confusing. One day I had seven pick ups. My front porch was lined with items and people were pinging my facebook account with questions. One lady needed the legs removed from a table because she was coming with a car. Well... I got that confused with another person that was buying a table and took the legs off the wrong table. Luckily, I figured it all out before anyone arrived and fixed it. But it does get very confusing arranging all these different pick up times.

Seven pick up in one day is not normal. Often it is just one or two. But I have a feeling that as we get better with Market Place, we'll have more days with many pick ups to coordinate. I hope so because we have soooooo much stuff to get rid of.

Purging and selling has become our second jobs. It is a lot of work to purge, clean the item (we like to disinfect the items and then put it in a plastic bag), advertise it, manage the communications, and then get it on the front porch on the right day at the right time. This has become our second jobs, filling our weekends and evenings. It is a little addicting and exciting to see that money roll in. When a few days pass with no sales, it is discouraging but then a sale will happen and we are re-energized.

In addition to selling our items, we are assisting my mother in selling the items that came from her antique co-op. She has made several hundred dollars in a relatively short period of time. The challenge is the lack of a strong antique market in Market Place. There isn't a group for antiques and I don't see a lot of people advertising or buying them. Hopefully that changes because she has hundreds of items to sell.

Hot items? Exercise related items. Pretty much everything sold within 30 minutes of posting it! A dud is board games - no one is even looking at them. Toys are hit and miss - great success with Little People, mediocre results with the rest. The most important thing for toys is cheap prices. Parents are looking for good bargains.

This is a great time for porch pickups because it is warm and dry. When we get into late fall and winter, or early spring when it rains every day? I can't imagine how porch pick ups will work. This is the time to get all of our stuff out there and sold!

T-Minus 410 days: Practice Move

Today we did a practice move. My mother has been participating in an antique co-op for thirteen years. Due to COVID-19, she has decided not to return when they re-open. She needed everything wrapped and boxed, and all the furniture moved out.

Her area within the co-op wasn't very large, perhaps the size of a very small bedroom. Even though it was small, it was a lot of work. Four people wrapped everything and boxed it.  I carried the boxes to the cars. Some of the boxes weren't very heavy but some, such as boxes filled with books, were a back breaker. Luckily, I didn't have to go up or down any stairs. It was probably 100 feet from her booth to the cars. The entire process took several hours, maybe three hours all together.

I was continually walking between the cars and the booth. By the time I returned the next box was ready to be carried out. I filled a minivan and a car. I was careful on how I packed the vehicles in attempt to use every available inch of space. When the boxes were done, we carried out the furniture and filled a pickup truck.

It felt great to sit in the car for the drive home after all that walking and lifting. Hydrating with a ton of water helped a lot too. Once we were home, myself and another unloaded unloaded everything into my garage.

When finally done, I was exhausted. I discovered that I am not physically prepared to move an entire house to another state. When I imagine days and days of packing and loading all day, not just for several hours, I can understand why people hire movers to do this work! But I have two adult sons and a family - I have to believe we can do this ourselves and save the money. One thing is for certain.... we all need to get in better shape if we are going to be successful.

T-Minus 412 Days: Purging And Selling Update

It amazes me how much crap we collect over the years. Americans fill their house, fill their garage, and fill their basement. When they run out of room, they buy a shed. When the shed is full, they buy a storage rental. All of this worthless treasure just unintentionally builds up over years and years.

Just looking at my desk right now: I have a USB toy on my desk that changes colors, a holder for my cell phone. a gizmo that tells me the temperature in my office, beaded necklace from some trip I took, a shelf full of Disney memorabilia, a collection of sea shells and coral from various trips to Florida beaches, and the list just goes on and on.

Purging has become our life! And now, selling on Facebook Marketplace. In just 15 days we have sold 16 items and made $250. We are simply selling old toys. When the kids got tired of a toy in their bedroom or living room, we moved it to the toy room. When they were tired of it being in the toy room, we moved it to our "tub city" storage to be sold as some future yard sale that never happened. And now these are the toys we need to purge and we are selling. I have done 33 Marketplace Postings and sold nearly half of everything I posted. And I have thousands more things to post!

We do plan on having a rummage sale. However, the great thing about Marketplace is that something that might only fetch a dollar at a yard sale is getting $5 or more on Marketplace!

Our worthless junk becomes someone else's treasure, and their money goes to help fund our move to Florida!

T-Minus 417 Days: Twelve Questions Answered By A Real Estate Agent

We had a call with one of the Florida Real Estate agents. Funny thing happened. We described the kind of house we were looking for in significant detail. He responded 'I just sold that exact house you just described to your friends in Florida'. The agent answered a dozen questions for us. Please note: you should ask your agent these questions to get answers for your unique situation.

1. Can Properties be shown in Florida given the Pandemic?
Yes, there are no restrictions. We should have no problems seeing empty houses and looking at neighborhoods.

2. How difficult would it be to build a house?
If we want to find property and find a builder, it will be very difficult. If we want to go into a new development that is presently building houses, that won't be a problem.

3. How difficult would it be to build a custom house?
A custom house in a development will be impossible. They are building the houses out as fast as they can, and they don't offer custom floor plans.

4. What is available for multi generational houses?
Finding a multi generational house with a separate entrance is difficult. They exist, but there aren't many. What may work better is to get a house that has more than one suite.

5. How should we prepare for our Florida trip in August?
He will send us some houses that he thinks we will like. We should use google maps to drive around the neighborhoods to see what the neighborhoods are like. We should plan to see four to six houses per day.

6. Should we get pre-approved with a bank that is local in Florida?
It doesn't matter. Any bank will be fine. It doesn't have to be local to Florida

7. Will we be able to move from our New York home directly to our Florida Home?
Unlikely. People usually rent until they get a house purchase completed. Our items can be moved to climate controlled storage for $200-$300 per month, or, we can move using PODS.

8. Where can we get the most house for our money?
The further away from Orlando we can get, the more house we'll get for the money. Clermont is good. Some parts of Apopka is good.

9. What do you think about housing value forecasts?
He ignores the pandemic information. There is so much housing pressure from people moving into the region that the housing market is, and will remain, strong. Prices will continue to rise.

10. If we decide we want to look at Assisted Living for my parents, can you help us?
I can tell you about some places I am familiar with, but I don't have any connection to them.

11. If we decide we want to look at apartments for our adult children, can you help us?
Not really. He will be able to tell us about apartments he has heard of, and areas that are better than others.

12. Should we bring our furniture with us?
It depends. He sees younger couples with better and newer furniture will bring their stuff. Older couples will often want a fresh start.

T-Minus 420 days: Eight Financial Advisor Questions About Moving To Florida

How much of a house can we afford when we move to Florida? How can we afford the moving costs? Should we move our furniture or can we afford to buy new when we arrive? How much should we have saved before making the move? Those answers might best be found with a financial advisor, so, we had a call with ours.

Here are some of the questions we asked and the advice we received (note: don't blindly follow this advice. Talk to YOUR financial advisor about your situation):

1. When we sell our New York house, should we put all that money into the Florida house? Answer: No. Mortgage interest rates are at historic lows. Put down the minimal 20%, then invest the rest of the money into something that will earn more than the mortgage interest rate. The earnings on the investment will pay for the mortgage interest with money left over.

2. Should we move our furniture to Florida?  Answer: No. It is expensive to move items to Florida and the furniture usually arrives damaged. Sell everything, then buy used furniture when you get to Florida.

3. When should we get Pre-Approved? Answer: Typically a month before you plan to buy. Pre-Approvals expire after six months.

4. What does the housing market look like now? And in 420 days? Answer: The housing market is down, with values dropping anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. And they are going to stay down deep into next year. That is good when buying a house, but not good when selling a house. Luckily, I live in a depressed housing market, so, the dip in housing values in my area is only down 3 to 5%. My adviser doesn't believe we'll see much market improvement until a vaccine has been widely distributed by which time the economy be in trouble.

5. How much should we invest in our house to get it ready for sale? Answer: Aside from just sprucing things up, only do things to the house that will increase the house price equal to the cost. For example, if a patio will cost $3300, will the patio increase the value of the house by $3300? Unlikely.

6. Will we be able to sell our New York home and move straight into the Florida home? Answer: Unlikely. Florida is a hot real estate market and it will be difficult to purchase a home based on contract. It will be much easier to purchase a home in Florida without it being contingent on selling a home elsewhere. This is another reason why we want to sell off our possessions because the possessions may have to be kept in storage for a period of time.

7. Should we purchase the Florida Home before we sell the New York home? Answer: No. We should avoid having two mortgages to pay. Also, we shouldn't purchase now to take advantage of low interest rates because interest rates will have to remain this low deep into 2021

8. How much of a house should we consider buying? Answer: That will depend on the results of the financial plan. However, keep in mind that property taxes are very high in New York. We should be able to turn most of those property taxes into house equity, thus buy a more expensive house without increasing the monthly cost. Building more equity will build more wealth.

t-minus 421 Days: Couches and Patios

I have a couch that was purchased around 1970. The couch is still as comfortable today and I ever remember it being. Fast forward to the couch and love seat recliners we purchased in 2011. It has not held up well at all. My wife wants new couches and I keep telling her: you can get new couches when we get to Florida, I don't want to have to move new couches.

As a compromise, we decided to have our 9 year old couches repaired. The repairman came today and found a number of broken brackets. I wouldn't be surprised if a kid was jumping on the couches at some point and broke the brackets, who knows? Anyways, they are broken. The good news? They are covered by a Lane lifetime warranty. The bad news? Lane declared bankruptcy seven years ago.

If we are able to convince Lane to supply the parts, the repairman will fix the couches and re-stuff the cushions for $200. Two hundred dollars for an extra 14 months with these couches? That sounds like a really good deal!

I received an updated price on the cost of a patio for the side entrance: $3300 for a 330sqft patio. Alternatively, I could rip up the grass, put down weed barrier, and cover it with marble chip stone for only $500. A patio would have a lot more function but... I won't be here to use it! We are on the fence between doing what is right and what would be the cheapest.

In other news, I reached out to a second real estate person. My wife didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket, and, the basket we picked hasn't been very responsive. I am sure agents hear from people all of the time with big dreams that never come true and perhaps that is why we haven't received very much information. We'll have a bit of a competition between two or three agents and pick which ever one wants our business the most.

Several months ago, I had the heavy thought of leaving our house for the last time. This is where our kids grew up and where we have spent 17 years of our life. Every dent in the wall and every scrape on the floor has a memory attached to it. The idea of leaving that last day knowing that I'll never be coming back was troubling. I'll never be able to walk through that front door, grill on the back deck, or look out the window at the farm fields. That was difficult for me until I resolved to the idea of starting a new chapter; looking forward, not backwards; getting excited for what lay ahead instead of thinking what will be left behind.

We all come to these thoughts at different times. While it struck me several months ago, it just struck my wife this past weekend. Rather than work through it, she has decided to bury it and not think about it.  Eventually, it will come back and she'll have to work through it. While I believe I have already crossed this bridge and put it behind me, I suspect there will be some things I'll still need to work through as well.

We are selling items on Facebook Marketplace like hot cakes! There is so much going on that I've had to keep track of it in a spreadsheet. Many items are posted, many more need to be posted, some have been sold and picked up, and others are waiting for pickup. So far, it is all small toys, $5 to $20. We do "porch pickups" which means we leave the item on our front porch with an envelope. The person buying the product will put the money in the envelope and put the envelope under our door mat. I am trying to put two or three new items into MarketPlace every day, but I realized with only 420 days before our move, that isn't hardly enough! Somehow, I'll need to find a way to really ramp this up, and get some more family members involved.

That is today's update. Come back soon to find out how we get ready for this massive move!