We have 3 posts/videos for this blog that have been in progress for a while now – longer than we’d prefer but sometimes things happen that require more attention. So here’s the story on that… (and note – if you just want the short version, scroll to the bottom here and click on the video).
We have a house back home in Washington State that we’ve lived in for nearly 20 years. This past year we’ve rented it out while we downsized and prepared for van life. At first we were pretty nervous about renting it – Shannon rented out a home of hers years ago and had a very bad experience. She’d hired a property management service to handle all the details and upkeep, but they just took her money and let the tenants trash the place.
But we had list of folks with great references and finally decided the young couple with 2 kids would be the best fit. And wow did they exceed our expectations!
They rented for just over a year and then we were surprised when they gave notice to move out. They had bought a house of their own. Here we were in Arizona, with a soon-to-be-empty house in Washington and we didn’t know what to do. They had raised the bar so high on what we could expect from tenants that we began to fear worse outcomes from someone else. Or problems with the house.
Imagine arriving at a beautiful national park or BLM land somewhere, planning to spend a week or so, and getting a text that the water heater burst. Or any number of other things that could go wrong and require our immediate attention. The house began to feel like a ball and chain.
We considered how much it was worth compared to how much we still owed (we’d refinanced a few times) and also how much debt was hanging over our shoulders. It soon became apparent that if we wanted to travel the continent and see new places for an extended time, that maybe being free from debt and commitment would be a good thing.
However we also really loved that house. The kids all grew up there. It’s the longest time any of us had ever lived in one place, and we’d done numerous remodeling projects to make it just the way we liked.
But after carefully considering all the angles, we finally decided to put it up for sale. First though, we needed to do the exit walk-through with our renters to check everything out and see how much of their damage deposit they had coming back to them*. So I (Tim) got a flight from Phoenix to Seattle and set about taking care of things.
And then a wonderful thing happened. My folks told us they would like to buy the house!
They had sold their previous house about 5 years ago, hoping to buy another house that was for sale in our neighborhood. Things didn’t work out with the purchase of that one but the house they were in was sold, and they had a short timeline to find a new one, so they took what they could get and bought something else.
Having them buy our house will be a blessing for all of us – They will get to live in the neighborhood they were hoping for 5 years ago, in a single-level home closer to town and the grocery store, etc., and we get to sell our house, get out of debt, and yet the house is being kept in the family.
So it’s all in the works – my folks are already moving in; their house is for sale with realtors showing it to prospective buyers. And Shannon and I are together again in Arizona looking forward to the next travel gig.
(*More good news – our renters got their entire deposit back. Nothing wrong with the house whatsoever!)
So stay tuned – we have a few things in the works that will be published shortly:
- 10 things about our van build we’re not too happy with
- 10 things about our van build we ARE really happy with
- And a new project in the van – overhead cabinets
Thanks for staying with us!