Thanks for your replies to my post. I'll check the yellow pages for one one these liquidation companies.
Loydstuts said
05:37 PM Jan 21, 2012
My wife has Lupus, Fibromyalgia, and a whole list of other stuff. We have been full timing for almost 4 years, albiet locally, while I get ready to retire! It looks like 1 April will be the day, if I can't figure out a way to do it sooner. What I really want to tell you is the the IMMEDIATE loss of stress was the deal clencher for me. DW is actually doing better as well. Best wishes, and Happy Trails!
Parrish said
07:39 PM Jan 21, 2012
Great question, I have been pondering. Circular saw, I may want to build something. Certainly a drill. Chain saw for cutting wood? We like to boon dock. Howard spoke about some 300 or 500 piece craftsman tool set and I have one of those; but only use a small portion of it. Will I need a recipricating saw.
Mostly I am thinking that I should stay with a shovel for putting out camp fires, maybe a rake to clear a camp site, a compressor for sure with a Dually pickup, three axles on the trailer, a boat and a four wheeler I work on tires a lot. Jacks for changing a tire on the trailer, I've experienced two blow outs and when it is the center axle it is difficult to raise the trailer. plumbing, minor carpentry tools and electrical stuff for working on the rv.
What about a come a long, I hope to have to clean another Elk or Deer someday.
Obviously, I can't take the table saws and other nice stuff.
Neil and Connie said
12:07 AM Jan 22, 2012
Parrish wrote:
Great question, I have been pondering. Circular saw, I may want to build something. Certainly a drill. Chain saw for cutting wood? We like to boon dock. Howard spoke about some 300 or 500 piece craftsman tool set and I have one of those; but only use a small portion of it. Will I need a recipricating saw.
I figured a saber saw . . .for the size of lumber in anything I need to make for the trailer that seems more useful than a circular. One can always clamp on a straightedge and get a reasonably decent cut. I'm taking a drill and hand tools as well . . .shovel and a pruning saw along with an splitting maul. Not sure about the usefulness of a chainsaw . . .at many state parks in the east you can only burn firewood you buy there and it's already cut and split. Unless you're boondocking in the middle of nowhere I wouldn't think that you would really need it. I'll keep a selection of my hand tools as well; definitely not keeping all of them though. OTOH, if you're planning on working some then the appropriate tools for the job need to go to.
RVRon said
11:19 PM Jan 22, 2012
We're in the process of "purging" our house of stuff in preparation for fulltiming. I swear some of this stuff has grown sentimental roots and won't let go! I too was wondering about what tools to take along. We do plan on some workamping and volunteering and I'd assume there will be the normal amount of home fixup projects in the RV, same as in the S&B. That would mean an assortment of hand tools for mechanical, carpentry, plumbing and electrical repairs. Power tools I've thought of are a cordless drill, cordless circular saw, saber saw and a small electric chain saw. Am I overplanning or does anyone have any additional thoughts?
sdman said
01:01 AM Jan 23, 2012
We started getting rid of our stuff a little over a year ago. We too have had to touch every thing we owned. It started out as overwhelming but we just bit off a little bit at a time. We had 2 garage sales and 6 charity pick-ups. We also maxed out our town garbage pick up limits every week. We have our storage stuff down to 6 15 gallon plastic bins. Most of the storage is made up of familly pictures and videos. This stuff is for the kids when they want it and it will be stored with them anyway, no cost to us!
Our house goes up for sale this week and it still has furniture we will use and for show. The plan for us is to donated all of it to my son and charity. Most of our stuff we either donated or gave to family and friends. We felt we didn't purchase the stuff for investment but just for our enjoyment so we already got what we paid for.
Our plan is to be FT when the house sells. No idea how long that will take!
Terry and Jo said
02:40 AM Jan 23, 2012
OK, Tool Guys.
Consider carefully what you choose to keep and what kind of RV you will have and whether that RV will accomodate the weight that tools take up. I sold/gave away a lot of power tools and wrenches and only kept what I felt was necessary. I bought back a Craftsman set with both metric and standard, kept the previous wrenches that were larger than the ones in the new set. I also kept a socket set in 3/4 inch drive for the larger sockets.
I now have two small toolboxes of tools (not even full), a 1/2 inch wired power drill, an "old school" manual hand saw, a bow saw (for firewood), a hack saw, and a set with various "bits" for screwdrivers and other associated types of drivers.
Even some of that stuff will be gotten rid of when we finally get to travel. The reason for two toolboxes is so that not all are over one particular part of the basement. (50 lbs in two places is better than 100 lbs over one set of "supports.")
Beyond that, I have one bottle jack (probably too small now) and a foot long piece of railroad iron that serves as my "portable anvil." Before we begin to actually travel, we will likely buy combination toolbox/fuel tank for the back of the F450, and the majority of the tools will go there.
Terry
BruceandTrisha said
02:55 PM Jan 23, 2012
I remember when we had the difficult task of going through my parents' house after my Dad died - sorting through a lifetime of stuff. Of course, the sentimental items were shared and divided among the six siblings, but there was more "STUFF" left than we knew what to do with and it felt almost like we were dishonoring our parents - for something that had been very sentimental to them was tossed to the junk pile. Oh how we wished we could ask Mom where this or that came from - what was the story behind that china plate . . . That process of sorting and deciding was difficult for all of us.
When Bruce and I decided to downsize to move into our camper, I realized what a tremendous service we were providing to our four kids. When the time comes - they won't have to deal with a house and garage filled to the brim. They won't have to wonder why on earth Mom liked this ugly china plate. They already have been given the sentimental items to treasure and keep.
Fullswedge said
01:38 AM Mar 3, 2012
Luvglass wrote:
Mark & Nancy, Yup! It's just stuff.
I agree it's just stuff, but geeezzzz...it's tuff gettin' rid of the STUFF!
Neil and Connie said
02:55 AM Mar 4, 2012
laubenthal wrote: Our son picked out a few things she wants . . .and we will get a small storage unit for the stuff my wife "needs" to keep . . .although I would imagine that in a few years we'll do what others have done and sell it all. Other than that . . .I'm craigslisting some stuff and goodwilling some stuff but the majority of it will go via an estate sale. Local companies charge 25 or 30% commission but they price everything, negotiate with the buyers, pack up the donatables and deliver to charity with a receipt back to us, and have a liquidator come in and take everythng remaining for a fixed price.
Turns out the estate sale isn't happenin'. We had them out this last week to look around (4 different outfits). Two said no thanks and the other two said there was only 3000-5000 worth of stuff after subtracting the stuff family is taking and that we want to keep.
On one hand . . .bad that the sale is out. On the other hand, good that the sale is out…lots easier to declutter for the house sale by donating and we've already found a couple of local military related charities that will take just about everything. Spent yesterday and today getting a big pile ready to go for Am Vets this week and will probably have a pick up every couple of weeks until late April when the house goes on the market; then another big pickup before we hit the road in July. Picking up our new New Horizons in June…production is in progress, moved to flooring this week.
Seems like a lot of stuff to do…but after today and yesterday we decided it isn't as big a job as I thought…still big, just not overwhelming. Luckily we've never really spent a lot of money on furniture so most of ours is either falling apart or out of style and we'll get more tax deduction for donation than we would selling it.
RVRon said
04:07 AM Mar 4, 2012
We now both have full time jobs getting our stuff ready for the big tag sale this coming weekend. It seems like every time we think we have a handle on it we find another box of junk we should have thrown away a long time ago! Once we're past the tag sale anything that's left will get donated or thrown out. Then we'll be FREE!!!! Free of the opression of STUFF!!!
Parrish said
04:42 AM Mar 4, 2012
Our Estatate Sale went great, I never dreamed of so many people going through my stuff. Not too bad, clearing near $9000. I bought most of the stuff at garage/estate sales so I may have made money may have lost some. Got more than I was asking for some things and less for others. Don't know if we need one more sale or load this remaining stuff on a trailer. I know I wish we were fishing or up in the mountains. Day one of the sale it was obvious we were full time living in the rv with our bedroom suits and couches sold. We've lived in the camper a week without giving it much thought, comfortable enough.
I meant to resign from work last week; but I had a couple people recommend that I apply for disability insurance based on depression from a toxic work place and dealing with a disabled wife. Figured I would give that a try for 70% of my salary for a while.
Ckerr said
06:32 AM Mar 4, 2012
We're in the middle of the same process Ron. Everything must go by the end of the coming weekend! So glad your house sold and you are ready to hit the road.
RVPAINTER said
06:50 PM Mar 4, 2012
We purged - donated - gave away - threw away. We still ended up with an 8x10 interior storage unit. over the past 30 years we have collected a LOT of antiques. Along with the current condition of the economy the value of Antiques has hit bottom as well as the numberof buyers.
Example: Antique pew like bench - only 4 know in existance. Valued (appraised) at $5,000 - $7,000. 3 Antique dealers said we'll take it but the chances of selling it are very slim and if it sold don't expcect more than $800!!!!! YA --- RIGHT!!!!
So we decided to store our Antique collection in a climate controlled unit along with some other stuff as well.
We seem to think we will F/T for r4 - 5 years and then get a nice condo someplace warm and only RV when the spirit moves us. I would be approaching 77 at the end of 5 years TWT as to how moved I am at 77 - I would hope to be rearing and ready to go. I can see us RV-ing 5-7 months of the year.
So our decision to store STUFF was based on the bad economy vs the real value of an extensive antique collection as it relates to switching to P/T Rv-ing down the road.
TWT
RVRon said
04:55 AM Mar 11, 2012
Ckerr wrote:
We're in the middle of the same process Ron. Everything must go by the end of the coming weekend! So glad your house sold and you are ready to hit the road.
Well, we made it through a 2-day tag sale and got rid of about 95% of our "stuff" in the house. It was hard work just getting everything ready to sell and more hard work dealing with all of the people who came for bargains. We had several "dealers" come first thing Friday morning who bought a lot of stuff from us so in the first couple of hours about 30-40% was gone. By the end of the day over half was gone. Saturday morning we reduced the price of what was left and by 2PM we had sold all of the furniture but one chair and consolidated the small stuff down to 2 small tables.
I will say it was very weird seeing our possessions go down the driveway in the hands of strangers! Some things had been part of our lives for decades as family treasures. Other things were just everyday tools for living our lives in the house. What was our stuff is now someone elses stuff!
We are starting to get the feeling of being "reborn". We're giving up a lot of our earthly belongings and moving on to a new "life". A very exciting feeling!
HomeSweetRV said
10:14 PM Mar 20, 2012
We are finally free of all our 'stuff', happy full timers now. Don't miss a thing!
HomeSweetRV said
07:21 PM Mar 24, 2012
heyduke wrote:
Rockinmotion mentioned the sock drawer and it is funny but it is a microcosm of all the stuff in your life... if you are like me you have a pair of socks in there that are at least 20 years old... you have at least 5 pairs of socks you can't remember wearing in the last 10 years ... and worse you have at least on pair of socks you wouldn't be caught dead wearing but somehow they are in your drawer... it is just stuff so get rid of it... :)
Or, pour on your creative juices and make sock puppets!
RVRon said
02:38 AM Mar 28, 2012
Well, our stuff does not control us any more! In about 30 days we were able to rid ourselves of all the "stuff" we had accumulated over the last 40 years. We proudly showed a completely empty house to our new buyers for their final walk through before the closing tomorrow morning. One more day and we'll be FREE!
HomeSweetRV said
03:00 AM Mar 28, 2012
How exciting for you! See ya on the road...
caribbeach said
03:15 PM Sep 7, 2012
Hi Ron, I'm a newbie and we made our decision to full time a couple of months ago. We are purging and planning our first garage sale in a couple of weeks. I went over to take a look at your photos and see that you are from around Jax - which is where we are. Just wondering when you started trying to sell your house and how long it took, also if you don't mind what area you were in. We have set our date to full time as Nov 1, 2014 and plan on putting the house up for sale by owner with the first garage sale. If that doesn't work we have already chosen a realtor..
Thanks
Gregg & Debbie
GENECOP said
07:54 PM Sep 7, 2012
RVRon wrote:
Well, our stuff does not control us any more! In about 30 days we were able to rid ourselves of all the "stuff" we had accumulated over the last 40 years. We proudly showed a completely empty house to our new buyers for their final walk through before the closing tomorrow morning. One more day and we'll be FREE!
Ron that is great I am so HAPPY for you.....I sit a Dream of the day I stand in your shoes...
RVRon said
10:42 PM Sep 7, 2012
caribbeach wrote:
Hi Ron, I'm a newbie and we made our decision to full time a couple of months ago. We are purging and planning our first garage sale in a couple of weeks. I went over to take a look at your photos and see that you are from around Jax - which is where we are. Just wondering when you started trying to sell your house and how long it took, also if you don't mind what area you were in. We have set our date to full time as Nov 1, 2014 and plan on putting the house up for sale by owner with the first garage sale. If that doesn't work we have already chosen a realtor..
Thanks
Gregg & Debbie
Gregg & Debbie, we were extremely lucky in selling our house in Middleburg. Believe it or not we listed it on Saturday, had our first showing on Monday afternoon and Monday evening we had a cash offer just a couple thousand off our asking price. Twenty-eight days later we were at the closing (which took 10 minutes) and we were fulltimers! We were ready to go... already had our motorhome and although we were shocked that it all came together so quickly we were ready to roll.
We interviewed 4 realtors and asked them some very pointed questions:
1. How will you market our house? We understand the power of the internet and wanted a company with not just local connections but with global reach. All of north Florida is in a very depressed real estate market. Folks who are selling their homes are not getting the money they wanted out of them. Consequently they don't have the money to buy their new home. We wanted to attract folks who have sold their homes in better economic areas and have more money to spend on ours. Don't be fooled by your realtor telling you that the MLS does it all. Within 4 hours of listing our house I Googled our address and got hits on multiple home selling websites. Our buyers were folks from Michigan who had already sold their home and had cash in hand.
2. What is our home worth? It's important to realize that the best opportunity to sell your home is when it is first put on the market. It's like "only getting one chance to make a good first impression"... if you put too high a price on it you won't even get showings, let alone offers. Two of our realtor candidates came up with the same price, while the 2 others suggested higher prices. Comparables were worthless because of all the short sales and foreclosures. We trusted the consensus of 2 very qualified realtors and it worked to sell our house.
Selling "by owner" has the big advantage of not having to pay the realtor's commission but the disadvantage of not having a professional do the crucial pricing and marketing. We decided that the commission was well worth the benefits derived.
Write me a PM if you want to know who our realtor was. Good luck!
Wildrose Acres said
08:16 PM Apr 10, 2014
I know this is an old thread, but since we had our auction last weekend it was good to read and reassure myself that we did the right thing. Almost everything we had on the auction sold, but one guy left a bunch of what he bought behind. In all of that was an 8"x8" glass dish I had put on the auction. Then on Monday I thought of a need for it. I went out to the garage and found it, cleaned it up, and brought it into the motor home. I actually found a home for it today. We still have a lot to get rid of, the things the guy left, things they didn't get around to auctioning, stuff we still have to go through, and the house! We are living in the motor home, but will stay at the house, in the country, so we don't have and issue with neighbors, etc., until the house sells.
WendysPhotos said
06:27 PM Apr 11, 2014
Ken & Sarah wrote:
We still have STUFF, but we are three boxes lighter after today. I have pruned down my books to those I am going to read over the summer. I bought a Nook and plan on utilizing it to read all other books. I just wish more magazines and newspapers were available for it. I will have to do more research. If anyone who has a Nook knows of other sources than Barnes & Noble for material I would appreciate a heads up. I haven't checked but maybe a new area for discussion eBook readers.
I have a nook and any pdf file can be downloaded also here are some other extensions that it will download too. If you have the tablet version you can download the kindle app and also have any amazon books. If you can stand to read on a tablet you can get both apps on it and read from both sources.
My husband and I are gadget collectors. we have a kindle for him and a nook for me and 2 Samsung Galaxy tablets for when we want to read off them and just have a table. Ohh and I have the kindle and nook app on my phone too. We love to read and getting rid of the 350+ book library is hard. Only keeping books that are not in e-form. we have a lot of out of print stuff. Not sure where they will all go, but those we will make room for.
Lucky Mike said
06:50 PM Apr 11, 2014
I have been looking at the kindle fire Hd for the same reason......I still have a fixation tho and need to be holding the book in my hand......I know Im going to get separation anxiety out of this!!
Talensnana said
08:05 PM Apr 11, 2014
If you have any local shelters, senior homes or jails in your area, they may take some of your books. This is what I am doing. I use my iPad with a nook and kindle app on it. I do have a few books like my bible which I will always keep in book form.
WestWardHo said
08:43 PM Apr 11, 2014
And books can be donated to most RV Parks as you go. Either for a permanent lending library or for a book exchange library. Always books out there to read.
Sherry
Terry and Jo said
02:20 PM Apr 13, 2014
Being that this is an older thread, be aware that folks that have posted before may have already found a solution to their questions. Also, on some old threads that get "revived," some to the information is out of date. Thus, it is generally better to start a new thread than revive an old one.
Terry
jrzygrl64 said
05:05 PM Apr 13, 2014
I took my daughter's books from her teenager years to a local orphanage. My daughter wasn't interested in keeping them. It made me sad to let them go, but knowing that the teenage girls living there, who have NOTHING, would be able to read and enjoy them made it easier (a little).
My wife has Lupus, Fibromyalgia, and a whole list of other stuff. We have been full timing for almost 4 years, albiet locally, while I get ready to retire! It looks like 1 April will be the day, if I can't figure out a way to do it sooner. What I really want to tell you is the the IMMEDIATE loss of stress was the deal clencher for me. DW is actually doing better as well. Best wishes, and Happy Trails!
Great question, I have been pondering. Circular saw, I may want to build something. Certainly a drill. Chain saw for cutting wood? We like to boon dock. Howard spoke about some 300 or 500 piece craftsman tool set and I have one of those; but only use a small portion of it. Will I need a recipricating saw.
Mostly I am thinking that I should stay with a shovel for putting out camp fires, maybe a rake to clear a camp site, a compressor for sure with a Dually pickup, three axles on the trailer, a boat and a four wheeler I work on tires a lot. Jacks for changing a tire on the trailer, I've experienced two blow outs and when it is the center axle it is difficult to raise the trailer. plumbing, minor carpentry tools and electrical stuff for working on the rv.
What about a come a long, I hope to have to clean another Elk or Deer someday.
Obviously, I can't take the table saws and other nice stuff.
I figured a saber saw . . .for the size of lumber in anything I need to make for the trailer that seems more useful than a circular. One can always clamp on a straightedge and get a reasonably decent cut. I'm taking a drill and hand tools as well . . .shovel and a pruning saw along with an splitting maul. Not sure about the usefulness of a chainsaw . . .at many state parks in the east you can only burn firewood you buy there and it's already cut and split. Unless you're boondocking in the middle of nowhere I wouldn't think that you would really need it. I'll keep a selection of my hand tools as well; definitely not keeping all of them though. OTOH, if you're planning on working some then the appropriate tools for the job need to go to.
We're in the process of "purging" our house of stuff in preparation for fulltiming. I swear some of this stuff has grown sentimental roots and won't let go! I too was wondering about what tools to take along. We do plan on some workamping and volunteering and I'd assume there will be the normal amount of home fixup projects in the RV, same as in the S&B. That would mean an assortment of hand tools for mechanical, carpentry, plumbing and electrical repairs. Power tools I've thought of are a cordless drill, cordless circular saw, saber saw and a small electric chain saw. Am I overplanning or does anyone have any additional thoughts?
We started getting rid of our stuff a little over a year ago. We too have had to touch every thing we owned. It started out as overwhelming but we just bit off a little bit at a time. We had 2 garage sales and 6 charity pick-ups. We also maxed out our town garbage pick up limits every week. We have our storage stuff down to 6 15 gallon plastic bins. Most of the storage is made up of familly pictures and videos. This stuff is for the kids when they want it and it will be stored with them anyway, no cost to us!
Our house goes up for sale this week and it still has furniture we will use and for show. The plan for us is to donated all of it to my son and charity. Most of our stuff we either donated or gave to family and friends. We felt we didn't purchase the stuff for investment but just for our enjoyment so we already got what we paid for.
Our plan is to be FT when the house sells. No idea how long that will take!
OK, Tool Guys.
Consider carefully what you choose to keep and what kind of RV you will have and whether that RV will accomodate the weight that tools take up. I sold/gave away a lot of power tools and wrenches and only kept what I felt was necessary. I bought back a Craftsman set with both metric and standard, kept the previous wrenches that were larger than the ones in the new set. I also kept a socket set in 3/4 inch drive for the larger sockets.
I now have two small toolboxes of tools (not even full), a 1/2 inch wired power drill, an "old school" manual hand saw, a bow saw (for firewood), a hack saw, and a set with various "bits" for screwdrivers and other associated types of drivers.
Even some of that stuff will be gotten rid of when we finally get to travel. The reason for two toolboxes is so that not all are over one particular part of the basement. (50 lbs in two places is better than 100 lbs over one set of "supports.")
Beyond that, I have one bottle jack (probably too small now) and a foot long piece of railroad iron that serves as my "portable anvil." Before we begin to actually travel, we will likely buy combination toolbox/fuel tank for the back of the F450, and the majority of the tools will go there.
Terry
I remember when we had the difficult task of going through my parents' house after my Dad died - sorting through a lifetime of stuff. Of course, the sentimental items were shared and divided among the six siblings, but there was more "STUFF" left than we knew what to do with and it felt almost like we were dishonoring our parents - for something that had been very sentimental to them was tossed to the junk pile. Oh how we wished we could ask Mom where this or that came from - what was the story behind that china plate . . . That process of sorting and deciding was difficult for all of us.
When Bruce and I decided to downsize to move into our camper, I realized what a tremendous service we were providing to our four kids. When the time comes - they won't have to deal with a house and garage filled to the brim. They won't have to wonder why on earth Mom liked this ugly china plate. They already have been given the sentimental items to treasure and keep.
I agree it's just stuff, but geeezzzz...it's tuff gettin' rid of the STUFF!
Turns out the estate sale isn't happenin'. We had them out this last week to look around (4 different outfits). Two said no thanks and the other two said there was only 3000-5000 worth of stuff after subtracting the stuff family is taking and that we want to keep.
On one hand . . .bad that the sale is out. On the other hand, good that the sale is out…lots easier to declutter for the house sale by donating and we've already found a couple of local military related charities that will take just about everything. Spent yesterday and today getting a big pile ready to go for Am Vets this week and will probably have a pick up every couple of weeks until late April when the house goes on the market; then another big pickup before we hit the road in July. Picking up our new New Horizons in June…production is in progress, moved to flooring this week.
Seems like a lot of stuff to do…but after today and yesterday we decided it isn't as big a job as I thought…still big, just not overwhelming. Luckily we've never really spent a lot of money on furniture so most of ours is either falling apart or out of style and we'll get more tax deduction for donation than we would selling it.
We now both have full time jobs getting our stuff ready for the big tag sale this coming weekend. It seems like every time we think we have a handle on it we find another box of junk we should have thrown away a long time ago! Once we're past the tag sale anything that's left will get donated or thrown out. Then we'll be FREE!!!! Free of the opression of STUFF!!!
Our Estatate Sale went great, I never dreamed of so many people going through my stuff. Not too bad, clearing near $9000. I bought most of the stuff at garage/estate sales so I may have made money may have lost some. Got more than I was asking for some things and less for others. Don't know if we need one more sale or load this remaining stuff on a trailer. I know I wish we were fishing or up in the mountains. Day one of the sale it was obvious we were full time living in the rv with our bedroom suits and couches sold. We've lived in the camper a week without giving it much thought, comfortable enough.
I meant to resign from work last week; but I had a couple people recommend that I apply for disability insurance based on depression from a toxic work place and dealing with a disabled wife. Figured I would give that a try for 70% of my salary for a while.
Example: Antique pew like bench - only 4 know in existance. Valued (appraised) at $5,000 - $7,000.
3 Antique dealers said we'll take it but the chances of selling it are very slim and if it sold don't expcect more than $800!!!!! YA --- RIGHT!!!!
So we decided to store our Antique collection in a climate controlled unit along with some other stuff as well.
We seem to think we will F/T for r4 - 5 years and then get a nice condo someplace warm and only RV when the spirit moves us. I would be approaching 77 at the end of 5 years TWT as to how moved I am at 77 - I would hope to be rearing and ready to go. I can see us RV-ing 5-7 months of the year.
So our decision to store STUFF was based on the bad economy vs the real value of an extensive antique collection as it relates to switching to P/T Rv-ing down the road.
TWT
Well, we made it through a 2-day tag sale and got rid of about 95% of our "stuff" in the house. It was hard work just getting everything ready to sell and more hard work dealing with all of the people who came for bargains. We had several "dealers" come first thing Friday morning who bought a lot of stuff from us so in the first couple of hours about 30-40% was gone. By the end of the day over half was gone. Saturday morning we reduced the price of what was left and by 2PM we had sold all of the furniture but one chair and consolidated the small stuff down to 2 small tables.
I will say it was very weird seeing our possessions go down the driveway in the hands of strangers! Some things had been part of our lives for decades as family treasures. Other things were just everyday tools for living our lives in the house. What was our stuff is now someone elses stuff!
We are starting to get the feeling of being "reborn". We're giving up a lot of our earthly belongings and moving on to a new "life". A very exciting feeling!
We are finally free of all our 'stuff', happy full timers now. Don't miss a thing!
Or, pour on your creative juices and make sock puppets!
Well, our stuff does not control us any more! In about 30 days we were able to rid ourselves of all the "stuff" we had accumulated over the last 40 years. We proudly showed a completely empty house to our new buyers for their final walk through before the closing tomorrow morning. One more day and we'll be FREE!
Hi Ron, I'm a newbie and we made our decision to full time a couple of months ago. We are purging and planning our first garage sale in a couple of weeks. I went over to take a look at your photos and see that you are from around Jax - which is where we are. Just wondering when you started trying to sell your house and how long it took, also if you don't mind what area you were in. We have set our date to full time as Nov 1, 2014 and plan on putting the house up for sale by owner with the first garage sale. If that doesn't work we have already chosen a realtor..
Thanks
Gregg & Debbie
Gregg & Debbie, we were extremely lucky in selling our house in Middleburg. Believe it or not we listed it on Saturday, had our first showing on Monday afternoon and Monday evening we had a cash offer just a couple thousand off our asking price. Twenty-eight days later we were at the closing (which took 10 minutes) and we were fulltimers! We were ready to go... already had our motorhome and although we were shocked that it all came together so quickly we were ready to roll.
We interviewed 4 realtors and asked them some very pointed questions:
1. How will you market our house? We understand the power of the internet and wanted a company with not just local connections but with global reach. All of north Florida is in a very depressed real estate market. Folks who are selling their homes are not getting the money they wanted out of them. Consequently they don't have the money to buy their new home. We wanted to attract folks who have sold their homes in better economic areas and have more money to spend on ours. Don't be fooled by your realtor telling you that the MLS does it all. Within 4 hours of listing our house I Googled our address and got hits on multiple home selling websites. Our buyers were folks from Michigan who had already sold their home and had cash in hand.
2. What is our home worth? It's important to realize that the best opportunity to sell your home is when it is first put on the market. It's like "only getting one chance to make a good first impression"... if you put too high a price on it you won't even get showings, let alone offers. Two of our realtor candidates came up with the same price, while the 2 others suggested higher prices. Comparables were worthless because of all the short sales and foreclosures. We trusted the consensus of 2 very qualified realtors and it worked to sell our house.
Selling "by owner" has the big advantage of not having to pay the realtor's commission but the disadvantage of not having a professional do the crucial pricing and marketing. We decided that the commission was well worth the benefits derived.
Write me a PM if you want to know who our realtor was. Good luck!
I have a nook and any pdf file can be downloaded also here are some other extensions that it will download too. If you have the tablet version you can download the kindle app and also have any amazon books. If you can stand to read on a tablet you can get both apps on it and read from both sources.
My husband and I are gadget collectors. we have a kindle for him and a nook for me and 2 Samsung Galaxy tablets for when we want to read off them and just have a table. Ohh and I have the kindle and nook app on my phone too. We love to read and getting rid of the 350+ book library is hard. Only keeping books that are not in e-form. we have a lot of out of print stuff. Not sure where they will all go, but those we will make room for.
If you have any local shelters, senior homes or jails in your area, they may take some of your books. This is what I am doing. I use my iPad with a nook and kindle app on it. I do have a few books like my bible which I will always keep in book form.
Sherry
Being that this is an older thread, be aware that folks that have posted before may have already found a solution to their questions. Also, on some old threads that get "revived," some to the information is out of date. Thus, it is generally better to start a new thread than revive an old one.
Terry