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Old 03-02-2017, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,835,434 times
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Renting first while looking for a home:

Quote:
Originally Posted by FiveLoaves View Post
..................... If you relocate out of state to rent while looking for a home, or while building a new one....you've added an extra layer of difficulty to the entire process.

......................... Moving to a rental and then to a final home is just double trouble.
....................
Moving twice is a lot more work than moving once, no question about it! You were able to work things to avoid moving twice, and no one can argue with that.

What I do argue with, however, is the implication that avoiding the rental stage is always the better way to go. You had a particular set of circumstances which allowed you to do that, and it worked well for you. Well done! But other people have other circumstances, and renting may be a whole lot better than making a decision which one regrets later and which may cause another move anyway down the road.
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Old 03-02-2017, 10:47 AM
 
Location: East TN
10,979 posts, read 9,619,347 times
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We moved to a rental in the neighborhood we wished to live in and then, after recovering from our cross-country move, took as much time as we needed to look for a home to buy. Many people move to our neighborhood from out of state, and it's quite common to rent while they build, or rent while they home-shop. There are inevitably things that you want to change about a house, so you can have the work done while you are still renting. It seems like the work gets done quicker and with less hassle when you aren't living in the home during a remodel.

There are furnished homes for rent in some areas (like ours), and what we did was pack everything into PODS that we weren't going to need right away, and rented a furnished home. Then leave those things stored with PODS until moving into our purchased home. Then have them delivered to your final address. Eliminates "moving twice".
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Old 03-02-2017, 11:33 AM
 
1,180 posts, read 2,910,164 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichiganGreg View Post
We had that same problem. We ended up just purchasing land in a scenic area, and are breaking ground for infrastructure (well, septic, driveway, electric, and a large barn/woodshop) shortly. In the past, we have remodeled houses by ourselves, from small tasks at first, leading up to doing our own roofing with architectural shingles and framing in and finish of new kitchens, so this time, are putting up a 'shell' with outbuildings, and will do all the framing/plumbing/electrical/finish work by ourselves. Not only is the cost a fraction of what we would pay for a custom design, but we end up getting stupid things that nobody in the world but us wants. Like individual bathrooms each the size of small bedrooms with tons of built-in storage. Built-in floor to ceiling cabinetry scattered throughout the house. And built-in bookcases. I don't see boredom in retirement as a looming issue . I will also need storage for tons of ICY-HOT and Thera-Gesic.

Downsize be damned.

That's funny Greg- we also want individual bathrooms and walk in closets etc, and my husband does the EXACT same thing customizing houses - vents in the staircase to allow the heat from the fireplace to rise upstairs, custom shelving nooks and crannies, we will have to leave an encyclopedia of instructions for the next people who own this home to figure out the custom lighting, sound system, heating, sprinklers,etc. You could land a 747 in our backyard with all the lighting he has out there.
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Old 03-02-2017, 11:51 AM
 
5,250 posts, read 4,642,284 times
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I too thought of my retirement home as the one thing I wanted to "get right." I found the town I wanted to live in, and the house we wanted, by going through the usual process of eliminating all the others on my list, a very time consuming chore, and, as this has been pointed out, not the best way to experience the vibe of a place. As fate would have it my wife passed away shortly after our move. Getting older, and having medical issues is the one aspect of "living our dream" that by necessity, has to be included in "the plan."

I've seen the huge two story homes become terribly under utilized, the once beautiful acreage become an overwhelming chore, and the dream house become someone's mausoleum of memories. Retirement has no greater promise than the everyday lives we had before we retired. I'll chime in on the view of the town and neighborhood being of greater importance than the house we retire in, after all, we are going to live in these new places to an extent not experienced during our work lives. Whatever the OP is looking for in their new home I just hope they also have a good life outside of that home..
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Old 03-02-2017, 11:58 AM
 
1,180 posts, read 2,910,164 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheShadow View Post
We moved to a rental in the neighborhood we wished to live in and then, after recovering from our cross-country move, took as much time as we needed to look for a home to buy. Many people move to our neighborhood from out of state, and it's quite common to rent while they build, or rent while they home-shop. There are inevitably things that you want to change about a house, so you can have the work done while you are still renting. It seems like the work gets done quicker and with less hassle when you aren't living in the home during a remodel.

There are furnished homes for rent in some areas (like ours), and what we did was pack everything into PODS that we weren't going to need right away, and rented a furnished home. Then leave those things stored with PODS until moving into our purchased home. Then have them delivered to your final address. Eliminates "moving twice".
Thank you Shadow, The POD idea is a good one. I do not want to have our house on the market with our stuff in it. I think you are in our target area around Tellico lake? I wish the lots were bigger there, problem is we need a extra large garage and I don't know if my husbands banging around on cars will upset the HOA there (he also restores classic Mustangs). We were/are looking around Lake Tansi and Fairfield Glade- where we have a timeshare and have golfed every summer for 20 years around the area but same issue there- plus it's a bit in the boonies for me- I need/want to be within 25 miles of a Target (which is an indication of civilization to me) and I think the one in Marysville is close to that range-I don't want a Walmart- I want a Target (if I have to explain you wouldn't understand) Told you we were picky..

Last edited by exit82; 03-02-2017 at 12:07 PM..
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Old 03-02-2017, 12:06 PM
 
3,925 posts, read 4,093,189 times
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There is no way to really know how it will work for you. My wife was so afraid that she wouldn't make any friends in our new place. We love the place, but it turns out that here, everyone loves her. She get asked to joining boards, participate in clubs, etc. She is a major social butterfly.

But me, not so much. Everything I've joined has turned out badly where I get badly used by the people. I have huge skills in many areas, but no one wants me to participate, or even asks me. I offer, and I get ignored, or they ask my wife, who will readily tell them and admit to them that I am the one who knows and will be happy to help them. But they ignore me. I'm not difficult to get along with until I DISCOVER that I am being used in an unfair way.

We still love the place, and I still love the people, and the politics and everything else is a great fit for me. But my finding a level of usefulness, compared to the ease of my wife, is astounding. It was much easier for me in the place we lived before.

And yes, I actually know the reason for all this, but you wouldn't believe me if I actually told you.
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Old 03-02-2017, 12:34 PM
 
Location: Eureka CA
9,519 posts, read 14,653,878 times
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I didn't move! Don't know why people think they have to move when they retire.
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Old 03-02-2017, 12:50 PM
 
Location: SW MO
23,593 posts, read 37,317,871 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eureka1 View Post
I didn't move! Don't know why people think they have to move when they retire.
We didn't HAVE to move. We moved because we wanted to. We no longer liked where we lived and our jobs - both in the same profession - required and had been discussing and researching where to go for a couple of years.
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Old 03-02-2017, 01:22 PM
 
12,823 posts, read 24,286,846 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eureka1 View Post
I didn't move! Don't know why people think they have to move when they retire.
Well, you don't have to move. Because you are in a moderate COL geo and you are likely not house poor.

Whereas, the Bay Area wage slave (after all, not everyone here is a Facebook or Twitter IPO-er), whose entire retirement portfolio is whatever they managed to build up in a 401K/IRA plus their house ... has few options if wanting to avoid elder poverty.

And don't get me started on Reverse Mortgages.

Talk about predatory lending.
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Old 03-02-2017, 01:29 PM
 
18,619 posts, read 33,188,568 times
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I am not looking to move, although I am uninspired by my working life area (eastern Mass.) I have my dream house built here (more house than I need). I am 20 miles from part-time work on my own schedule.

But I found I kept going back to southwest Colorado, buying western art, and remembering how I moved to New Mexico for an ill-fated year when I was 25. I haven't felt the desire for travel, routine or more adventure, since I trekked in Nepal in 1992. But I keep going back to southwest Colorado to ride horses and to just be there.

So I am building another dream house in the small town. I am working with a great deal of trust with a local builder who is connected to the kit house I'm having built. I will be selling my Mass. dream house and moving right into the new smaller house. Renting is not an option- there is almost nothing for rent out there, never mind that I have multiple adopted dogs and will continue to have them- they're a very important part of my home life.

One reason I'm moving is I feel very motivated to be part of the town community- have done a lot of research on options and am already meeting people when I vacation (am Facebook friends with the mayor!) and I don't think I'd learn more or something terrible from renting while the house is built. I am going out there in June for my likely last visit as a tourist and finalizing the house interior choices (the exterior is the kit-complete to lock-up). I might dash out in the fall just to see the almost-finished or finished house if I can afford to. (car rental, airfare,dog board).

My current dream house is a bit too big and sleek for me, although I did some things for the very unlikely possibility of resale (never say never!). My retirement house will be 800 sq.ft on a 7,000-foot town lot- walk two block to everything- police,library, downtown, community theater. I envision the house as being more funky than my current stunner, more cabin-like features than amazing contemporary house. It will be a great room with wood stove and kitchen against the wall and two small bedrooms in the back. (I currently notice that I have not been upstairs at all for months- nothing important up there, it was for resale). It helps that I lived in studio apartments until I was 42, then a 3-room cottage and now dream house. Easy to downsize stuff already.

Not sure how this town became my perfect location. I think over the 30 years I've been visiting, it has changed (and somewhat grown) into a more cosmopolitan place than it was before, and that suits me and other transplants. Being a mountain town, it's not exactly cheap, but hey, I'm coming from the Boston area. Have not found cheaper areas that remotely interest me (I am not a southeast/humid/southern person). The geography and views are perfect for me. I don't mind winter anywhere, and it's no "worse" than Massachusetts and is sunnier. Summers are magnificent.

One more humid summer in the East to go.

And that's how I found as close to perfect as I ever hoped and more.
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