Quick update

I'm behind in my posting again!!!!

A quick update for those wondering.... At this point I'm still living in Illinois and traveling back and forth between here and Connecticut. My CT have been more once a month this year due to weather, and other meetings. My last trip I had to DRIVE home thanks to the crazy snow storms in the Northeast in mid February. Not really looking forward to having to drive back - except of course that I'm planning the drive back to stop and PA and see my friends there for a few days! Haven't been there since June so I'm really looking forward to that!

I have so far had one househunting day in CT. I'm really not happy with the quality of the single family homes in my price range - so I'm probably looking at condos. Sadly, most of the condos in my price range are way smaller than what I have..and without garages. Which means getting rid of a bunch of stuff or renting a storage space. And in some cases both...I may not be able to use my washer dryer in CT..and I really don't want to sell them...but without a garage to store them I won't have much choice. Anyway, from my previous trip there are two strong possiblities for condos there...and next week I'm in town all week and have most nights planned with my realtor to look. Plus now that I have my buyout offer/date in Illinois - I feel confident making an offer on something in CT next week.

On the Illinois end things aren't going as well. The house was listed for sale Jan 25. We listed it higher than what I was expecting us to, based on the comps - though it was still less than what I paid. In the first 3 weeks I had about 11 showings. Since then...nothing. I realize of course that the market is not good right now. However, since I moved in about 18 months ago...there have been 4 or 5 houses on my street go on the market and all have sold within 1-2 weeks. So okay, you are thinking...things msut be worse now right? Thats what I thought. Until my next door neighbor, with EXACTLY the same house, put his house on the market 2 weeks ago - for $1000 less than me. AND SOLD IN A WEEK! My realtor hasn't said two words to me about it. Nor has he dropped off the new fliers with my now lowered price that he promised to drop off 2 weeks ago. And I'm realizing he pretty much hasn't lived up to ANY of the promises he made during our initial meeting which is why I went with him...so....I think the relocation company will be exercising our "non-performance" clause to get rid of him. Unfortunately I'm headed out of town Wed for 10 days....and in meetings all week the week after that...so not sure when we'll be able to get me relisted with someone else. Also, my buyout price SUCKS. To come up with the buyout we get two appraisals to estimate what the house will sell at and average the two. My two appraisals came in more than 5% apart so they had to order a third. Turns out...one of them SCREWED me. The first and third appraisal are within $2000 of each other and close to my current list price. The second appraisal...nearly $20,000 less. And they average all THREE to come up with the buyout price...so that took my average way down. Now before you get too upset for me....Its still within our loss protection guidelines...so I'll get back what I paid eventually. But it makes the transactions more complicated because its less than what I currently OWE on the house. And it takes some time to get the loss protection check which means I need to have the cash to close on the new house on hand. Fortunately I do..but it will wipe out my savings until that loss protection check comes. Hopefully I don't have to spend a lot of money on stuff for the new house. Anyway, I get to accept my buyout at the end of April if I so choose. So hopefully by end of April / early May I'll be headed out to CT full time.

Thats it for now folks....will try and come back later this week and post about something fun...like my upcoming trip to WDW and the Disney Wonder!