If you are commenting on this topic, it might be helpful to title your comment like my tagline, since I'm first:
Selling in SW GA, Buying in TN or NW GA, Disabled Low Income Senior
[Selling where?] [Buying where?] [Disabled in any way, whether on pension or not] [Low Income, Tight Budget, or Downsizing] [Senior = 55 or older, or Not Senior = has a disability of any kind but not 55+]
If you put your tagline this way, it will be easier for other folk in our situation to find our posts
That way, if someone does a search for disabled or senior or budget or downsizing, your post will come up. How about that? Comments left here can help others besides me, so that's why I'm structuring it before talking about it.
If you are 55 or disabled, this thread is for you! Seniors on a tight budget who aren't exactly low-income but are downsizing are also welcome to respond. There is little information on relocation for senior and or disabled folks who are looking for houses.
Here's mine:
My daughter is moving in with her dad. We live in Rural Southwest Georgia. Seven years ago, I found out about a program to get help buying our home here. I didn't have enough income to buy in Atlanta, but if I was willing to relocate to an economically depressed area, I could afford my first house.
We are in Cuthbert, GA. Houses don't sell well here. I love it here! We moved to Cuthbert because my mother lived here until she married. I have a couple of cousins down here. I found a realtor who did a wonderful job, she took pictures of the house because I couldn't travel down there to see it, and so I bought it without ever seeing it. It was a repo. It is 1100 square feet with 3 beds, 1.5 baths. I am very satisfied with it, although my hospital bed won't fit in the rooms so I just live in the LR. People are very friendly here and helpful. We did come down for a week and stayed in a motel to let my daughter check out the college here and generally scout out how it was at the time.
The house was a mess, but folks from my Church unloaded our U-Haul and helped us clean. At the time we had rosy plans, but we did not know my daughter is disabled. Now she is applying for disability.
Because I and my daughter are disabled, we can't keep the house clean. I get Meals on Wheels, a care aide to help me with activities of daily living, and the "panic button" with emergency services in case I fall. I pay a cost share for the care aide. She is allowed to do light housekeeping only in my area. If my daughter moves out, I can get a little more housekeeping.
I use a power wheelchair but can walk a little in the house. Normal folks can walk 10,000 steps at beginner level a day to lose weight. On a good day I might hit 750 steps or about 10-12 mins. Most days are considerably less. I am considered "homebound". I mainly leave the house to do doctor visits a mile away, and mostly use my power chair to get up there. Why? Because if I am driven there, my daughter has to lift my manual wheelchair, and it weighs 32 lbs. I had a 19 pounder and it was way too small for me. I can't wheel myself so she or my care aide has to push me. Even though the chair fits me, it is extremely uncomfortable to sit in it for several hours while I wait for appointment, see the doctor, and get blood work. I am lucky if I get out in 2 hours, but my pain is a lot higher. My power chair has a car seat and is less pain for me, plus it's less time. Taking the manual chair out takes a lot of time, and putting it back in the trunk of my Saturn is very hard to do. I cannot do it.
I have a hospital bed with a "trapeze". The trapeze adds inches to the head of the bed because it is free-standing. The one that connects to the headboard was not recommended for me because of my weight, although it was an option. I chose the free-standing one. It takes up a lot of space, about 7 feet instead of the usual 6 for a regular twin bed. With rails, it is a bit wider, too. So I would need a bigger bedroom in the "new" house.
At the time, I planned to make the place accessible. Nobody but a disabled person understands that term. "Accessible", for my needs, means 32" doorways so as I get worse [Peripheral Neuropathy], I can get my wheelchairs into the rooms. Right now, I can't. I can't even get my power chair into the bedrooms after we took the doors off. We will be putting them back on. I chose an inexpensive aluminum ramp [a bit more slope than what I really need] which is not wide enough for the manual chair but fits the power chair, which is more important. My living room doesn't have a lot of space for normal living room furniture. I only have one seat, a swiveling rocker chair with a steel frame. So when folks visit me, it's not inviting to see the hospital bed and only have one seat available. I don't let them sit in my power chair [also parked in the LR] because power chairs are easily broken. People lean on it all the time and I have to remind them that it will break it.
But, there's a catch. I didn't qualify for help with the cost [about $750 to widen a doorway]. My sister helps us out with bills, but she is not getting as much money now that she has had to cut back on her work.
She has paid for updating the kitchen, putting a new roof on, and a new Heat Pump, as well as replacing the sewer line to the street. She can't help me with moving expenses or down payment on new house.
I want to put the house up for $65,000, which is what State Home Mortgage says it is worth. It is 25 years old. I owe $33,000 on it. I will be using my same realtor to list the house. We listed it before the upgrades, but took it off the market after a year. Only one person was interested, wanted to buy the house as an investment, and we never heard from him again. The market here is discouraging, and the house is congested. This time, I plan to leave it on the market until it sells, even if it takes years.
I plan to get rid of about half of my stuff. Boxes pile up because garbage services are once a week and one can, so we hire someone to haul it off and help me go through stuff when my sister can help us.
That's the selling part. Because I used Georgia Dream Program, I am supposed to sell it to someone who qualifies for it, I think. But, I was told the $20,000 second mortgage was forgiven after 5 years. The papers said 13. It very well may take that long to sell! I am not allowed to rent it out, so that is not an option. I must stay until it sells!
I am just beginning my research on deciding where to go. My daughter will live near Dalton, GA. I want to have a room for her for long visits, and if she decides to come home again. All her plans are dependent on whether she gets SSI, to help her father with extra Internet and pay for groceries if her Food Stamps don't follow her. If the rules are like Soc Sec Disability, which I have, you don't get Food Stamps and Meals on Wheels together. I like my Meals on Wheels, but she doesn't like some of them. Suffice it to say, if she doesn't get an income, he can't afford to have her because he is also disabled. Life can be funny sometimes.
I will be looking for a house for about $40,000. It may be smaller than my house, but I am hoping for bigger bedrooms. I don't have any delusions about finding an "accessible" house [wider doorways, countertops of different heights, grab bar in bathroom] but it will be a nice surprise if I find it. It can't have a lot of steps. I will bring my ramps with me, but the rise can't be more than about 4". Why portable ramps? I am told it devalues not only your house, but your neighborhood to have one of those wooden ramps. They need maintenance I cannot do. Portable ramps don't do that and aluminum will never rust or need repairs.
I have asthma, so it can't have mold. I am worried about radon. I am hoping for a house with a metal roof that was properly done. I am also hoping for an older home that has been remodeled in the past [mainly wiring] to minimize my risk of fire. I am hoping to reduce my house payment from $414 to $200-something or less so I can pay all my bills.
I will be going to see houses this time, since my ex has graciously made room for us to visit and says we can both live there until we can find something, if we sell first then look to buy. But, if there is a house payment and I'm helping him with expenses, there will be nothing left for buying. We have 5 pets. My daughter will take her dog and one cat, and I will have one dog and two cats. I am open to renting, but I want to be around folks my age who have pets, and I am not optimistic about finding a rental that would allow a service dog and two cats, much less the whole crew if my daughter moves back in with me! I have to be prepared for both situations. When she visits, she will most likely bring the pets to visit also, which I want. We are not planning to adopt any more! My older cat has kidney failure, so we don't know how her health will go. My service dog is well-trained and has never done any damage to our existing house. But, he is my daughter's dog. My new service dog is just beginning her training, but she is partially trained. Programs that train service dogs that are not seeing-eye dogs are very expensive and I can't afford the service. With peripheral neuropathy, I drop things all the time, and I plan to train her to pick up my stuff I drop. She is small, but she can do that, lay on parts of my leg that hurt so her warmth helps with the pain, lick my feet to stimulate the circulation, and maybe even pull up the sheet when they get cold, if I can figure out how to train her to do that.
I would like to hear from realtors who have helped seniors with disabilities. Low-Income programs and this price range are really much of a specialty, so I would like advice.
When people come to look at my old house, they might see it as is, in other words, not cleaned up. I have a lot of clutter. Do people in similar situations get a sale?
Are their programs in Tennesee to help reduce the cost of a house similar to Georgia Dream Program, for a second-time house buyer?
How do people coordinate a sell and a buy at the same time?? When I was married we did that, and it was very hard. The real estate was a lot pricier.
I know old houses can be a hole to pour money down. Is it possible to get an older home that is safe structurally and environmentally?
Are there ever houses in this price range in a safe area in a town or city? I lucked out here because I have a great realtor. However, she may choose to delegate me to someone else since I took the house off the market two years ago. I have lived in some really crummy areas in apartments in the past.
Urban or Rural? I know a lot of this is personal choice, but the high-speed Internet in Chattanooga is tempting, though I might have to live in a rough part of town. I get scared by myself.
I lived in Tullahoma and really liked it some years back. But I am also considering Dalton, GA; in TN, Murfreesboro, suburbs of Chattanooga or inner city. If I go to a smaller place, I will take my car. If in the city with access to buses and a disabled Paratransit pass, I might give my daughter my car.
What I want in the "new" house:
One bathroom is fine!
Metal roof so I won't have to worry about how to come up with enough money to put a new roof on someday
2 bedrooms [or more]. I would much prefer 2 large bedrooms to 3 small ones. With all my medical equipment, the more open the floor plan, the better! Even a large, undivided space would work [I could get those wooden screens or use bookcases to divide the space into rooms] as long as there is a bathroom and grounded outlets.
32" doorways on all doorways if possible, no door is ok
No mold, sewer problems, or environmental or safety hazards. I have asthma.
No carpet is preferred. We had to rip up all the carpet in my house here, and don't want to be exposed to all that again.
No or low flood risk, please. I would like flat terrain, however. I live in a flat place with sidewalks in our small neighborhood and my house sits on a slab. No crawl space. I will probably have to get another slab house to get the low rise I need for my ramps, so I am worried about flood risk.
Senior neighborhood or mixed senior and families. I don't want to go in a subdivision with partying college kids, but young families are fine.
I want to live in town with city utilities, and I really want good Internet. We have 350 gigabit service with a 350 GB download quota with Mediacom. I was a computer professional. When you get disabled, you want to do something similar to what you enjoyed at work. So, I'm always on the computer. If it's rural, I can put up with some connectivity issues.
As far as the house itself, I am more worried about structure, wiring and environmental issues than how it looks. I prefer brick or stone or even metal because of tornadoes. I like folk Victorians. And I really like unusual looking homes. If it's structurally sound and has good, grounded wiring and won't trigger my asthma, I will look at just about anything!
But what I have is a brick ranch, on a slab, 1100 square feet on a lot that is less than a quarter acre. I really overdid it on moving in, but we did a custom paint job on the dark green shutters and front door. We did white and light blue stripes on the shutters. We painted the door white, and put a thin red line to outline the rectangles in the door. Then we put a blue stripe to emphasize the deep red. We got a lot of compliments on that! I don't think I could do it now. Also, I have a black thumb. I can't do much myself and have to pay someone to do it. I've had a good handyman and a couple friends to help us clean. The kitchen is white, and looks great.
I would probably want to paint the cabinets white if they look bad, so I don't mind if they look rough. I would hope for those old-fashioned cabinets with the glass, or a lot of cabinets, period. A built in bookcase in any condition would be nice, as would mantels.
Sorry for the length of this post, but I figured I'd give enough details of my situation to get specific advice. Honesty is the best policy.
I would love to hear from other seniors who have relocated in the South.
I would love for experienced realtors to just pick a question and tackle it and advise me.
I would also love for other folks moving from one state to another in the South or moving to Tennessee or Georgia from anyplace to give comparisons of there and here.
I would also love to hear from folks who have made the move to tell how it worked out.
Glad to answer questions about being disabled, being low income, or senior programs in GA: Meals On Wheels, Care Aides, Emergency Button for Fast Help [can't remember what they called it]
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