Our buyers backed out...

Our buyers backed out today.  They are no longer interested in our house. Feel kind of numb.  A realtor brought two men through the house late this morning, then our Realtor called with the news of the withdrawl of the potential buyers...

I slept most of the afternoon...

Tomorrow is another day...

Reverse Mortgages and celebrating "us"...Mom visited Dad...

The best thing about today, is, we felt better than yesterday...and celebrated our first meeting 10 years ago...

We decided to research the facts of a Reverse Mortgage...and found out we could stay in our present home or buy a new one, and not have a house payment...

We picked up Izzy from Boarding, and were so happy to see her little face!

Izzy and I went for a long, long walk and called it a day...

**************

Mom went to visit Dad today after she got off work.  Today was exceptionally windy.  The parking lot was full, so Mom had to park in the street and walk a couple blocks.  Dad was sitting in his wheel chair, near the nursing station.  He grinned widely when he saw Mom coming down the hallway toward him...

They chatted a few minutes, then Mom suggested they go talk in the alcove by the security doors, since it was too windy for the patio. 

Mom listened intently as Dad told her how he was working for the Fire Dept and was in charge of training and hiring.  He told her all the men have to report to him.  Dad was in high spirits and full imagination!

One of the nurses stopped by and gave Mom a hug and flirted with Dad.  Dad flirted shameless back with her, apologizing at forgetting her name.  He told her he would call her her "Pickles".  (Her name is Olivia)  Olvia grinned back and gave Dad a hint..."Olives"....Dad looked confused, so Mom helped Dad by telling him, "Olivia" and Dad roared with laughter, thinking that was so clever.

Dad's Angel, Doctor-Doctor, stopped by, again passing out hugs to Mom and joking with Dad about keeping an eye on him.  Dad just LOVES it when his Angel tells him that...and it always makes him chuckle with joy.

Dad's legs and feet look really good.  They were "normal" looking to me when my husband and I visited.  So glad his circulation seems to be better.  Guess him staying off his feet and resting more is helping immensely.

The Aide came to take Dad for his shower, so Mom kissed him good bye and went home.  She told us how pleasant their visit had been and how relieved she was that Dad was in such a great mood.  We are all so pleased with how content he appears to be...

Migraines and acid stomach...

Our Agent called us early this morning to tell us she had nothing else to show us.  She encouraged us to consider the new home communtiy we had seen in Hemet.  (We were so depressed with the resales we had seen yesterday, we stopped in to refresh our spirits, before winding up the day...)

The homes are built after purchase. They were priced $30,000 more than our budget. We noted the prices had dropped a good $5,000 since our last visit in September, 2009.  The builder was offering a $20,000 incentive toward upgrades to use their lender, 1.5% toward closing costs and a $10,000 tax break if purchases as a primary residence between May 1 and December 31, 2010.  If we purchased one, it would be ready in September....when my youngest daughter is due to deliver.

We were so depressed, I had the beginnings of a Migraine and my husband had a royal stomach ache.  We both felt nauseous.

We had planned on coming home on Monday, but instead, decided to leave for Nevada today so my husband could have one day to relax before returning to work on Tuesday...

To say our house hunt was disappointing...would be an understatement.

When I checked our messages, we discovered we had one showing the entire 4 days we were gone...

Obviously, we were totally unprepared...

In the last two days we probably averaged over 20 houses per day.  We found absolutely nothing we wanted to bid on.  99% of the homes are foreclosures or short sales.  What appeared to look promising in the online or flyer pictures, were the opposite in person.  Suffice it to say, there was some very creative photo taking by those agents!

We obvioulsy were totally unprepared for the condition of the housing market.... We would plug our noses entering many of the homes, observing the devastation and noting anything worth taking, had been removed from the house.  Often, the key was missing from the lock box, or agents would not return our calls.  The Lender and our Agent advised us to put "our best offer up front" to "win" a home.  They suggested starting with a minimum of $10,000 over the asking price.... We would not have given .02 cents for any of them!!

One home in Sun City, had an incredible back yard.  Done so tastefully like a meditation garden... but the house smelled of a foul odor, that none of us could identify...much more than, putrid!

It has been a very depressing, discouraging and disillusioning two days....

Off to California...

Hey everyone...will be checking in the next five days.  We leave tomorrow for CALI and will return on Monday...

Going house hunting, so we will see what we can find...and in the evenings spend time with the family, kids, and grand kids.  We are going to visit Dad and Mom on Thursday...

Wish us luck...we're gonna' need it, because so far, the pickings seem pretty slim...Here's hopin' a good house becomes available and we get a good offer on our home...

The adventure begins...

Just listed our home...

Our Agent just placed

a lock box on our front door.  

Our home will be listed on 31 internet sites.
The paperwork is signed.

                                                          

The sign goes up Monday....

and I can't stop crying...

Disconnecting

has always been

a big challenge

for me...

***********
 

I just read a wonderful, poetic, uplifting comment from Jerry at http://gentlysaid.blogspot.com/  (on my other blog ) which was so apropos for the mood I was in... check out his blog, you will be glad you did....

A bit of this and a dash of that...

I went to visit my Orthopedist today, and all my exercising at home has been very successful.  He told me I was 90% improved from my last visit with him.  I told him I walk Izzy with my left hand, and several times she has jerked me into breaking up the frozen shoulder fluids.  He got a kick out of my "dog therapy."  I asked if I could work with some hand weights, and he told me to do whatever I wanted.  I only need to return if I am in pain.  He told me it still may take several more months before I am completely healed.

To remind you, so you don't have to reference back as to why I have a frozen left shoulder, I had a "slip and fall" at one of the local casinos last July.  My left shoulder took the brunt of it.  So hopefully, before we move back to Cali, we can settle this claim...

This weekend, my Mom, sister, and girlfriend come for our quarterly Digital Scrap Booking weekend.  Some of us do Digital Scrap Booking, and others just have fun on our lap tops and we all take a TON of pictures.  We have a full weekend planned, so stay tuned for a full report...we have a lot planned. Really looking forward to a fun weekend!

We have decided we are taking 5 days and going house hunting in Cali the first week in April.  My husband has agreed not to put the house up for sale until we return.  We should know by then how realistic our relocation plans look... Either the houses are selling like hot cakes, or all the Realtors are putting in multiple bids on various houses for each buyer, only to withdraw the ones the buyer does not want.  No WONDER it is so difficult to find a house to buy!!

Meanwhile, I am packing up a storm, and being totally overwhelmed with the amount of CRAP I have accumulated!!  I should hang my head in shame!! I need one of my "neat nick", ruthlessly simplistic, girlfriends to come and help me eliminate stuff.  I am loosing my perspective...H-E-L-P!!

Two of my husband's sons, their wives, another couple, and us went to see Dennis De Young, formerly the lead singer and keyboardist of the band STYX.  He was at the New Orleans Casino with his new band.  Dennis is now 63 years young and you would not believe how zippy and animated on stage he is. His wife of 40 years, who was very attractive and hip looking, works with him as a back up singer. He must do Yoga!  His voice sounds as good as it did back in the 70's and 80's!!  Awesome evening!!

He did many of his big hits, including, Babe, Too Much Time On My Hands, Desert Moon, Lady, Come Sail Away, Don't Let It End, The Best of Times, Mr. Roboto,  and Madam Blue. I have to admit, I had to stuff Kleenex chunks in my ears to prevent deafness from the LOUD music....but it was really wonderful and fun!!

Packing, Packing, Packing...

Hello all you wonderful friends out there...just to let you all know, I am up to my belly button with boxes and have begun our packing mission...(no house purchased in Cali yet....but we have faith...)

It is very weird packing just to pack, in order to be READY.  My goals are:

To de-clutter and make for an nicer, more successful showing of our home.
To get my girlfriend to come and "stage" our home for a better showing.
To give myself time to organize what goes in the boxes so I can find it once we move...
To get a jump on the packing, "just in case" our home sells fast..so we will be that further ahead and more organized for the big move.

I still need to call some of the Moving Companies and get estimates.
I have made a list of all the utilities to call to cancel or postpone.
I have been putting things aside for donations, one is coming this Thursday.
I am working with two Realtors from California..
I may have to get another Realtor here in Nevada, because the one I thought I would use, is not returning my calls...(which is NOT a good sign).
I am checking the MLS listings every day and still, despite wanting to be in a nicer area, Hemet and Cherry Valley seem to be our only options...

More later...

I feel like I am on a merry-go-round and can't get off....

I talked with the Realtor, we plan on hiring to sell our house, today. She told me, starting April 1, Bank of America will release 500-600 foreclosures each month. They have an inventory in Nevada of over 6,000 homes. She suggested we put the house up NOW, to use this month to possibly get the house in contract....

RIGHT.  I am not through with my "de-cluttering" and we have not found another house...I am so weak from this miserable flu or whatever it is I have been fighting this past week...

She said if the market gets flooded again, it will drive the prices down.. The banks will list the foreclosures low, allowing the house to get into a bidding war,  which will drive up the price of the house. Often, that ends up with the property going back into foreclosure AGAIN!!.

No doubt there are other banks who have inventory too, and will follow suit.  I don't even want to think about the amount of foreclosures flooding the market here in Nevada!!!  Will they do the same in California, or have they already released their "phantom inventory"?  Our Realtor in California said she knows nothing about when they will release the inventories of foreclosed homes...she is going to investigate for me and call me back...

If might help us in getting a place in California, but not here.  When I told my husband, all he could say was,

"Can't we ever catch a break?"....