The next couple of months, moving was the first and foremost thought on my mind.
I planned all the details and kept looking at properties. I made all decisions based on the fact I was leaving.
On the Friday before New Years, I got an email from my realtor contact in NC. She sent a listing and said, "This will not last long".
The property was listed as 13.9 acres, house with new ac/heat, new hot water heater and other than adding Sold As Is, the description was pretty vague. The pictures were worse. The selling price was under the cost of my villa in Fl when I purchased it 5 years prior. The taxes were a mere fraction of what I was paying.
I spoke with the realtor, she was aware of the property from the outside. She agreed that this was a pretty good bargain as the land was in a nice setting and had a lot of potential, it had just been neglected. As far as the calculations went, the selling price was the cost of the land alone, the house would be free. She was willing to go look at the house for me to see what shape it was in.
So while I was waiting for the realtor to catch up with the listing realtor for the key, my head was spinning.
A free house?
Why?
What did the land look like?
It was so hard to visualize.
I can afford this but can I do it?
Really do it?
I'd been talking about it forever but it had always been a retirement dream.
But I knew I needed to leave Florida but what I did not know was what exactly was I looking for?
I planned all the details and kept looking at properties. I made all decisions based on the fact I was leaving.
On the Friday before New Years, I got an email from my realtor contact in NC. She sent a listing and said, "This will not last long".
The property was listed as 13.9 acres, house with new ac/heat, new hot water heater and other than adding Sold As Is, the description was pretty vague. The pictures were worse. The selling price was under the cost of my villa in Fl when I purchased it 5 years prior. The taxes were a mere fraction of what I was paying.
I spoke with the realtor, she was aware of the property from the outside. She agreed that this was a pretty good bargain as the land was in a nice setting and had a lot of potential, it had just been neglected. As far as the calculations went, the selling price was the cost of the land alone, the house would be free. She was willing to go look at the house for me to see what shape it was in.
So while I was waiting for the realtor to catch up with the listing realtor for the key, my head was spinning.
A free house?
Why?
What did the land look like?
It was so hard to visualize.
I can afford this but can I do it?
Really do it?
I'd been talking about it forever but it had always been a retirement dream.
But I knew I needed to leave Florida but what I did not know was what exactly was I looking for?
First:)
ReplyDeleteSometimes, by not knowing what we are looking for, we find it anyway.
I'm hoping that's true for me, too.
How true, Gl- living proof right here.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think circumstances can be like vegetables.. if it comes off easily in your hands, it's ready to be plucked. If it resists, it isn't ripe yet.
ReplyDeleteI fight for things, tooth and nail, and frequently they turn out to be disasters. My farm, for example, currently resembles Lake Okeechobee with horses poking out.
Perhaps I should have waited for the right opportunity to fall into my lap, instead of wrangling opportunity to the ground and beating it senseless.
That being said, I would be terrified of a free house in Florida - can you IMAGINE the SPIDERS!?! But NC can't have spiders as big as ours. Can they?
I never had a spider issue in Fl- now cockroaches the size of Jack Russell Terriers, yep.
ReplyDeleteLast winter I had a huge barn spider spin a web between a window and the chiminy, it was kinda cool. She started right at the place my chair sat so I got to see every stage of the web development. I watched for hours as she worked. Of course, I called her Charlotte.
Now, 6 ft black snakes in my chicken coop are a thrill to see also.
US- is your drainage precipitated by US Sugars flood gates?
ReplyDeleteOurs was, amazing how quickly three feet of water can drain when the Fanguls decide to be good neighbors.