The prospective of this move has been pretty strenuous on my soul and my family. I think under normal circumstances, (and when I say normal I mean when I was 25, had no kids, no bills, no wife, and no stuff) this would be a slam dunk move. However, I have stuff now. I have baggage. I have kids.

Now the last three or so entries have briefly painted the picture of our current home issue. So let’s have a comprehensive recap:

We are pretty fortunate to be in a position where we can sell our house because we want to and not because we have to. At closing, we stand to garner some net proceeds from the appreciation of our home. It will be nice to pocket that cash even if not as excessive as our home sale in Long Beach six years ago. This time around, we opted to throw our house on the market to see if any first time buyers would use their tax incentive on our humble abode. A side note is that we knew that moving was inevitable. We weren't in the school district we liked nor did we really like the surrounding neighborhood. Now that I’m growing up, I realized that I needed to make decision about our future based on the best interests of my family. Specifically; my children and their education.


That realization doesn’t come without elements of surprise and disappointment. We decided up front that we'd sell our house outright and then look for a new home in our desired areas. This would give us the greatest financial leverage in negotiations. But it also exposed us with the largest risk to be homeless. Our home sat on the market for about 45 days with a steady flow of showing appointments. But we were always the second choice despite showing well. We're in a neighborhood where the comps were Soundbuilt homes which artificially influenced value. In a buyer’s market, a seller is a price taker. So we stood to not profit as greatly as we would have hoped.

Finally, a couple placed an offer on our home at list price with very little concession. The buyer’s inspection was effortless and we had only two items to clear the sale. Following that, we knew we could begin to search out a replacement for our house. We only had one more hurdle in the form of the appraisal. We needed that to come in at list value for the buyer’s financing. We've looked at a ton of properties and it's become painfully obvious that my wife and I are very picky. While we were instructed to do a philosophical cost/benefit analysis of our must-haves and nice-to-haves, we collectively decided that we didn’t need to compromise our wants. Sure, there were areas that we could be more reasonable. But this new house is it.

While searching, the clock was ticking and we knew that if we found a prospective home by ‘this’ date, we could coordinate closing and not be homeless. Well, that point passed and we had to find temporary housing. Understanding that we had high standards for our new home, we realized that there was little chance that our homelessness would only last a week or two. So we sucked it up and began to consider apartments. I haven’t lived in an apartment in 11 years so this was going to be a significant step back.

So here we are today. We have a lease for a three-bedroom apartment signed and we are scheduled to return to the search in the near-term. We move into the temporary housing this week. A move like this makes you focus on just what you need to live comfortably as the lion’s share of our possessions will be placed in storage in my parents' garage. So we will be doing a double move; out of our house and into storage and an apartment. When we find a home, it will be another double move; out of storage and an apartment and into our new house.


What’s kept me sane during the process of not being able to sell, not generating the amount of proceeds I wanted, not finding a suitable new home, and the impending job change at work has been my very best friend; my wife. A couple of disagreements and some silent treatment are really the only issues that this pressure cooker of a move has created. We're pretty lucky. I can only imagine what this situation is doing to the boys. It seems like Son #1 is handling it like an adventure. But Son #2 has been a lot more inconsolable lately. He won’t eat much and fusses ALL of the time. He was loud to begin with but this is now a noticeable change. We can’t help but wonder if the uncomfortable nature of the environment is affecting him. I’m looking forward to getting this behind us so the boys can be happy.

So we are looking in specific neighborhoods for homes with very specific requirements. Tunnel vision like that limits your options. However, when that nugget is found and you have mitigated your compromises, you will be completely content with your purchase. It feels like we're literally ‘knocking at the door’ right now. Stay tuned.