Our adventure officially begins!

[STx]

For Sale sign went into the yard on our suburban Houston home last night so we've now begun what will be an exciting couple of years. Over the last year I've managed to restructure my business so that I can run it remotely which has given us the opportunity to move to our land in South Texas (Duval County) and still have the income. The recent growth in Houston has caused property values to appreciate to the point that we would be foolish to wait any longer and with my daughter graduating last year, schools are no longer a concern for us so it's presented the opportunity to make this move much sooner than expected.

Everything around us has been under contract in less than 10 days so I expect (hope) this process will go pretty quickly now that we've started. Since my daughter is only 19 and doesn't need to be moving to rural America at this point in her life, we'll be renting something here for a couple of years (with her pitching in on the rent and bills) so that we still have someplace to come back to when we do need to be here for the business and she can get a feel for being on her own without having to move into a bad neighborhood and doing it completely on her own.

At the property, we'll be putting an addition on our current 300 sq/ft cabin to bring it to 600 sq/ft and building an approx 3,000 sq/ft shop. This will give us a comfortable place to live and the room I need to do the things I do while we decide what we're going to do for a big house.

The best part of it all is that because of the increase in property values, we're going to walk out of this house with enough cash to retire ALL of our debt and pay cash for the shop and cabin addition with some money left over.

I've got a lot of mixed emotions, it's a big change and there's always some fear when those occur but I'm overall excited and optimistic about the future. I just hope it all goes as planned without too many major hurdles along the way.

Wish us luck!

 

[MoKelly]

Good luck. Sounds exciting for you.

MoKelly

 

[AaronS]

Sounds great! Looking forward to following your progress.

 

[oosik]

Good luck. Sound like you are well on the way to a more exciting life. Enjoy your freedom.

 

[rekees4300]

The best part of it all is that because of the increase in property values, we're going to walk out of this house with enough cash to retire ALL of our debt and pay cash for the shop and cabin addition with some money left over.

Good luck with the big change in your lives. If you haven't already done so, it would be a good idea to study the tax implications from the sale since the gain may be taxable.

Publication 523 (2014), Selling Your Home

 

[KennyG]

600 sq. ft house, 3000 sq. ft. shop. Sounds like you've got your priorities right in line.

 

[MH8675309]

I bet you wind up wondering how you ever lived in the suburbs

 

[dave1949]

Have fun!

I think the capital gains exclusion on a primary residence sale are fairly generous but yes, it would pay to be sure about that.

 

[txdon]

A fellow escapee from Houston, congratulations and good luck on the lam. TBN is the secret underground communications network.

 

[STx]

Good luck with the big change in your lives. If you haven't already done so, it would be a good idea to study the tax implications from the sale since the gain may be taxable.

Publication 523 (2014), Selling Your Home

I wish we were making enough for this to effect us but alas, we're under the cap...

 

[STx]

I bet you wind up wondering how you ever lived in the suburbs

I already do, I hate the suburbs. They're the worst possible compromise between city and country living, you get all the traffic of the city without the amenities (museums, good food [all we have are chains], etc.) and still get to drive to town to do cool stuff like concerts, etc. without having the open space of the country.

I've come to the conclusion that I either want to be IN the city, like within walking distance of things, or in the country. If I'm going to have to drive to get what I want anyway, I'd just as soon have the space and be able to do what I want on my property.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Good luck in your move. We moved from Crosby Tx. 5 years ago, has it really been that long, gosh how time flies. We are about 3 miles from a little country grocery store and 12 miles from Hot Springs which is really expanding with lots of retirees moving in and 12 miles from Arkadelphia. We are really out in the country but really no further from local hospital than when we were in the 'burbs' of Houston and timewise we are closer by 20 minutes to a hospital. They just put in an annex clinic in Bismarck so we are just 5 minutes away from that. We really like it here and I hope the same is true for you in your move.

 

[JRobyn]

Hoping that it all goes smoothly for you! Sounds like you have a solid plan. We are in a similar spot; listed the house in Atlanta 12 days ago, so will be spending MUCH more time at the TN place.

- Jay

 

[STx]

600 sq. ft house, 3000 sq. ft. shop. Sounds like you've got your priorities right in line.

I have a VERY good wife. I've tried to downsize my shop to 2,000 sq/ft a couple of times but she keeps insisting that I need this much space (I currently lease a 3,000 sq/ft shop in Houston) and that it would be silly to build smaller because I'll just have to add on or build something else later.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have a VERY good, wise wife. I've tried to downsize my shop to 2,000 sq/ft a couple of times but she keeps insisting that I need this much space (I currently lease a 3,000 sq/ft shop in Houston) and that it would be silly to build smaller because I'll just have to add on or build something else later.

There, I fixed it for you.

Good luck in your new place. It's always encouraging to hear about somebody who is reaping the rewards of busting their (tails) all of their lives.

 

[STx]

Thanks for all the well wishes. There's still a lot of work ahead of us but it's work we want to do. Not having any debt and being able to keep our income is going to make it so much easier. I feel so fortunate to be able to do this at only 41 while I'm still in good physical condition.

 

[sseelhoff]

Congrats and good luck!

 

[STx]

Well, things haven't gone exactly the way we hoped but nothing worth having ever comes easily. We left the house on the market until Thanksgiving with only one offer below what we were willing to accept so we're on to Plan B, we're just going to keep the house and move anyway. Our daughter is staying here and we were going to help her with rent for a year or two anyway since we will still have a business here that will need us to return periodically so we're just going to hang onto the house for now. We only have 10 more years on the mortgage and it's a little less than a rent house would be anyway so ultimately, it'll probably be the better decision and at some point, we'll probably just give the house to our daughter.

In the short term, it means a bigger adventure since the proceeds of the house were to fund building on our land and now we'll have to do that with our income instead, so it's going to take a little while. Getting rid of my leased shop space is going to help a lot with that though, we've paid enough in shop rent over the last 5 years to have built a VERY nice building.

So Plan B officially started this morning with the delivery of a 40' high cube shipping container to my leased shop. Next month, everything at the shop goes into the container and at the end of March, we move it to the land and use it as the first wall of a shop down there. Funny how reaching certain milestones makes things seem more real sometimes, the delivery of the container this morning was definitely one of those milestones. I knew how big it was but seeing it in person, it feels so much bigger but, part of that might be the changes it represents.

Let the fun begin!