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We bought our new house in Florida in July, then went back up north, chose a moving company, got our house ready for sale and moved down at the end of September. We left the house up north in the hands of a realtor, continued to pay for the utilities and insurance until it finally sold in January. We didn't want to wait to move until our house was sold, and I believe it would have been more difficult to go through all the realtor showings while living there. Good luck with whatever you decide!
This plan worked well for us, except one time when we did not turn the water off when we left and got a leak which caused damage.
Yes- be careful of this, especially since most homeowners' insurance policies have a limit on how long they will cover a vacant house. They're more vulnerable to break-ins, vandalism and water damage if a pipe bursts and no one is there to notice. You may be able to buy a more expensive policy which will cover long vacancies, but check with your insurer.
Yes- be careful of this, especially since most homeowners' insurance policies have a limit on how long they will cover a vacant house. They're more vulnerable to break-ins, vandalism and water damage if a pipe bursts and no one is there to notice. You may be able to buy a more expensive policy which will cover long vacancies, but check with your insurer.
We did a 1,000+ mile move two years ago. I stayed behind to sell our house, while hubby rented for a couple of months while our house sold, and to give him time to buy us a new house.
It took us three months to reunite in our new town, with our old house sold, and our new house bought and ready to move into.
Had we not had multiple pets we probably would have rented longer before buying in the new town, but with seven animals you won't find any renters willing to let you move in, and getting rid of our pets was not an option.
Kudos to you for being so considerate towards your animals. Best wishes!
Wife and I discussed this the last 2 years or so already. The plan is to purchase our final destination home at least a year prior to putting our existing home on the market. Since we both love the four seasons we will move out of our current heavily taxed state to southern Delaware. Not too far but far enough from here.
Good luck OP
I'm going to have this same issue as I'll be moving across country to retire but I still have 2-3 years to figure it out. There are only maybe 3-4 houses at any given time for sale in the area I want to move to that I might want to buy given size, price, condition, location. It's a small town with not many people moving in or out. So, when the right house comes along I feel like I should take a chance and buy it because there may not be another for a long while.
Luckily, as things are now, 99 percent of the houses for sale where I currently live sell within 2-3 months with most selling much faster than that, so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to sell mine within 90 days. It's going to be a balancing act.
Hi, we are planning our pre-retirement move, also 1000 miles away. I wish we could do what you are describing but will need to sell our place first. Welcome and good luck with your move!
If you have to sell first, then rent for 6 months in your new city so you can figure out the real estate market and don't get scammed by realtors and sellers, even if you have to put stuff in storage.
Started building the "retirement" home 1,000 miles from cold weather house. Put cold weather house on market about six months before new house was completed.
Cold weather house went to contract so we moved furniture and one of us stayed behind to baby sit cold weather house while other went to organize new build.
Contract fell through so we continued with one in new house and one behind in cold weather house.
We would NOT leave an empty cold weather house. To us it was important that the house was cared for--snow shoveled, ice dams dealt with, grass cut, heat working, etc. We kept it lived in and in tip-top shape for buyers to observe.
Finally sold and we reunited in new build house. Never looked back. Never heard from buyer of any problems with cold weather house. Old neighbors did call to say buyer, who said she bought the house because gardens were so beautiful and she loved to garden, had never pulled a weed nor deadheaded a single plant. Gardens have since been plowed under after neighbors had an "intervention".
Yes- be careful of this, especially since most homeowners' insurance policies have a limit on how long they will cover a vacant house. They're more vulnerable to break-ins, vandalism and water damage if a pipe bursts and no one is there to notice. You may be able to buy a more expensive policy which will cover long vacancies, but check with your insurer.
Heh. I contacted our insurance agent about getting a "vacant house" policy on our rental. Basically he hinted that we should not disclose the vacancy to the insurance company. He asked if we would be selling it in the next couple of months, we said yes.
The house ended up being vacant for three years before we put it on the market. We weren't worried about break-ins or squatters -- the neighbors would notice. The house was truly empty. There was nothing inside worth the effort of breaking in. Any property damage caused by our own idiocy we would have paid for.
We did a 2300 mile retirement move from Ohio to California. To minimize moving expenses we sold about 75% of our home furnishings. Very stressful as we had accumulated a lot of stuff in a house we had lived in for 22 years. We paid to have our car transported. We were simultaneously selling our Ohio home and buying a place in CA.
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