I'm Officially Insane

Why you ask? Because I'm buying a house. In this economy. Without selling my house first. All in the same month when I plan on returning to work from maternity leave which will be stressful enough all by itself. Plus we know Jeramy will be laid off again by late January or early February. And I think this is all a good idea.

Jeramy and I have been talking for many years about moving closer to his mom who is 25 miles away. She will be watching Jillian every day starting on the 8th. While she has been planning to come to our house and either watch her here or take her home, that is a long ways to drive in Seattle area traffic five days a week. Obviously living near her would be much more convenient. In addition we simply like the area better because it is a bit more rural and offers the opportunity to purchase a home with some land. And oh how we need land, because Jeramy sure has a ton of junk. So not only to we require a large amount of space for storage, but it is best to have neighbors further away to keep your annoyance of them to a minimum. (Note that he does not consider it junk but highly valuable possessions that he would be foolish to get rid of such as quads, motorcycles, 1 Jeep, 1 Nova, 1 camper and 3 trailers all serving very different purposes). Plus we'd like a bigger house to to raise kids in, and ideally one with large garage or space to build one. This house offers all those things as it is 5 minutes away from his mom, sits on one acre, is almost 1000 square feet larger, and has a good amount of garage space plus room to build another one down the road. It is in great condition and fully renovated inside with just a few minor details left to finish. We would like to remodel to add another bedroom, but the timing of that would be dependent on how much our house can sell for.

We had thought that it would be a few more years before we make this move. However, the perfect storm of events seem to have come together. Interest rates are at all time lows and obviously housing costs are falling, putting a house that we would desire within reach financially. We have sufficient equity in this place to price it competitively enough to sell even in this crappy market. I've always aimed to keep our expenses low enough to live off of one income, which gives us the credit needed to have two mortgages at once. Plus the truck will be paid off in March leaving us with no car loans. I've done the math...we can survive this way for several months even with Jeramy laid off if needed between my income and our savings. It would not be fun but we could weather it with our credit score in tact. Oh and Jeramy should be laid off right about the time of closing, which gives him the time needed to move and get the current house ready for sale.

Obviously there is risk involved. In an ideal world, we would sell this house first but that won't work in this situation. The new house is bank owned (it appears to have been a flip that flopped), and they will not consider contingency offers. Plus our house will probably sell better vacant because we do not have a place to store all of the aforementioned junk. In addition, the combination of what we are looking for in a house are not common in a price range that we can afford. On the market right now there are two houses that meet our requirements...this one and one other newly built that lacks an occupancy permit because it does not perc.

I know that this is a good decision for us and while there are elements of risk, highly sensible. However, anybody who reads this blog regularly probably understands that I am not a person who is comfortable with unknowns. I'm type A. I'm risk averse. I want to control my environment to the furthest extent possible. Having a baby challenged me because suddenly there was somebody in my life that demanded flexibility and adaptability. Now we are delving into the unknowns of selling a house in the ultimate buyers market.

So yeah, I think I might be insane. It is going to be a crazy start to the new year between closing on the new house, packing, moving and sell this house. Oh and a little thing called being a working mom for the first time. Wish me luck. I'll definitely need it. Wish Jeramy luck too, because I'm likely to become the snappiest and most irritable wife on the planet before this is all through.