How/why/where did you decide to move if not job related?

[geekette]

Our business is land-based, so as long as I continue to work, we'll be staying in California. But I admit that I'm getting itchy about leaving my native state to escape the confiscatory tax burden we deal with here, not to mention the endless traffic and overcrowding. There's no doubt California is spectacularly beautiful, but it's also a very expensive place to live. Here are the options we're considering:

• Bend, OR Population of about 80,000. Good climate, with four seasons. Definitely has snow in the winter, so that would be a consideration, but the natural beauty and access to golf, fishing, hiking, and biking is hard to beat. One big downside: Oregon's property taxes are the highest in the Western states.
• Santa Fe, NM

oooooo, Santa Fe!!! there is a lot of NM I recall really enjoying. Most of what I recall of OR is Portland. My great uncle was a forest ranger somewhere near there. It was pretty.

 

[JudyH]

We are in Venice FL. Very happy here. Impulse decision.
I was raised in Southern Calif.and loved it. Dad moved us to Baltimore MD in my senior year of HS. To say I hated it is an understatement. Life interfered. I couldn’t return to California. Jobs, marriage kids, ill
parents. Had best friend on East Coast of FL we visited. Way too crowded there. Son’s in-laws on west coast. Didn’t like that either until one beautiful beach day.
2012. Dad died. We
retired. Kids wanted us to babysit full time. Favorite horses died and buried in back yard. FL beach looked good. Bargain house near in-laws. Son bought our house for he, wife, and three girls.
Moved to FL in 2013 and never looked back.

 

[glenmore]

My husband traveled a far while with his job before retiring. He really wanted to live in VA or NC. I didn’t want to be more than 4 hours from kids and grandkids

Our kids are in those 2 states and, after living in Charlottesville, VA for 15 years, we moved to Pinehurst, NC and couldn’t be happier! We have a great mix of retirees and young families. It is one of the friendliest places we have ever lived.

We are 4 hours or less from kids and share a condo in SC they also love to visit. It is easy to visit often and we love seeing them!

Good luck on looking for your new place to live.

 

[Krteczech]

For me it was this “ the mountains are calling “ thing. I grew up surrounded by mountains, later lived great life in Minneapolis for 35 years near many lakes, but had to answer the call when we retired. Two and half years in mountain town in Colorado, a lot of skiing and hiking while we can. There will be time when we will probably call it off here and look for living quarters in lower elevation and perhaps closer to our daughter if she had a family by then. Both, winter and summer are great up here.

 

[DaveNV]

• Bainbridge Island, WA This very well may the place we land. Located just a few miles west of Seattle, it's a world away from the urban congestion, with a singular beauty of its own. Housing costs are comparable to our part of California, and property taxes are among the highest in the West. But if you can get past that, it's just a lovely area to live and play.

Be aware that residents on Bainbridge have two choices when leaving the island: If you want to go anywhere east of Puget Sound, you can either drive "all the way around," or "take the ferry." As someone who lived in Washington's San Juan Islands for nine years, I'll be the first to tell you that taking the ferry gets very, very, very old, very fast. It was farther for me, because of where I lived, but every time I left the island, my life was tied to the ferry schedule. YMMV, but do your research.

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

I retired in March, so moving for work is no longer required. I did plenty of that during my twenty-year Navy career. Spouse took early retirement at the end of May. We're currently in process of moving from Washington State to Nevada. Looking forward to warmer weather, better property values, lower taxes and living expenses, and being within a few hours' driving distance to the places and people we most often visit.

Dave

 

[amycurl]

Dave, I must have missed this official update. Glad that your wife decided to retire, and not face the risk of going back. And we’d love to hear more about the move to NV


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[PcflEZFlng]

In the early years of our marriage, DW and I lived in Colorado. We had beautiful views of the Rockies from our backyard in Boulder County. I loved my work. We skied, we camped, had lots of activities, and enjoyed our friends there.

But there were two intractable issues: 1) We missed our families in CA - hers in the Bay Area, mine in San Diego. 2) Having grown up in the Bay Area, DW didn't like living in a snow climate, and after a few years, neither did I (had a lifetime of snow and cold growing up in MN). We decided to move back to CA. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!

So, we moved, and had to get new jobs (I even had to change careers). After a few years in Sacramento, which we had chosen because it was close to the Bay Area but far less expensive, we moved to San Diego. Job-searching in San Diego was difficult, but we eventually got what we wanted. That was in 1989, and we're still here. Yes, it's expensive, but we haven't regretted it for a minute.

 

[Karen G]

A friend bought 30+ acres in mountainous wilderness and is building a camp. She is seeking like minded people that want to live off grid. I have visited twice and really dig it. No other homesteaders yet.

You might be interested in following a young couple who bought a 20-acre piece of land and are homesteading in northern Idaho. They have a very entertaining YouTube channel where one can follow their experiences. They call it Good Simple Living https://www.youtube.com/user/babysownspace/featured

Their videos are very entertaining--it's like watching an HGTV show--and they are doing a great job of building their home while raising their four kids.

 

[geekette]

You might be interested in following a young couple who bought a 20-acre piece of land and are homesteading in northern Idaho. They have a very entertaining YouTube channel where one can follow their experiences. They call it Good Simple Living https://www.youtube.com/user/babysownspace/featured

Their videos are very entertaining--it's like watching an HGTV show--and they are doing a great job of building their home while raising their four kids.

oooh, nice tip!

I have been watching Homestead Rescue, it is part of why the ideas keep coming. Definitely helps to have another resource.

 

[DaveNV]

Dave, I must have missed this official update. Glad that your wife decided to retire, and not face the risk of going back. And we’d love to hear more about the move to NV

Thanks, Amy. I wasn't going to say anything till it was all over with, but...

Costco did right by their employees who were most at risk for catching the virus, and basically paid them higher than unemployment rates to stay home. My spouse was one of those people, and had been off work since early in March. (Being on the front lines at the Refund desk is probably the most vulnerable position in the warehouse. Enormous risk for contracting the virus.) Costco wanted those employees to return to their positions as of the first of June. It was a hard choice, but we feel it's the right one, to not return to work. We talked it over, crunched all the numbers, and finally decided that the retirement funds wouldn't be greatly impacted by taking retirement two years ahead of schedule. So resignation notice was given. It reduces the extreme risk of catching the virus, and we feel it was the right choice to make. We're okay with that decision.

I had posted in another thread awhile back, that I was working on putting in an offer to buy a home in Nevada that we had seen last year. We hadn't yet listed our current home for sale, everything was still way up in the air, and it was a tenuous issue of making an offer to buy, contingent on selling our current home. Many unknown things. Timing couldn't have been worse, and by the time we were ready to pencil our offer, the seller had already accepted another offer. So we stepped back and decided to hunker down and hang in where we are, and let things in the world calm down. But then, when my spouse decided to retire early, it kind of "tore off the bandaid," so to speak. It became an issue of "Why stay here if we don't need to?" If we're going to be staying mostly at home, why not do it where the weather is better? So, the discussion about moving was shuffled back onto the table.

The major questions we had to solve were things like how to arrange moving to our preferred location, selling here before buying there, maybe NOT buying there right away till we've lived there some, where do we live there, what if we decide after moving that we don't want to live there after all, and a hundred other questions. We were back and forth more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon. It was exhausting. I tried without success to find a decent home in Nevada to rent that would take us and our three pets. The only places I could find wanted astronomical prices, or the houses were rundown wrecks. And even those with astronomical rents were already leased before I found out about them. It was really frustrating. So we were back to waiting again.

And then, just a few weeks ago, out of the blue I got an email from my Realtor in Nevada. She had a lead on a brand new home that was just finishing up being built, in the exact community we wanted to live in, that was going to be offered as a rental. The owners would accept our pets, the rent was reasonable, and they were willing to do a short term lease. I just about fell out of my chair. Nothing could have been better. I spoke with the owner, and we struck a deal for us to rent their property on a six-month lease. Life suddenly got very real, and it looked like the move would finally happen.

To make a very long story a bit shorter: We're moving to Nevada at the end of the month. Lease papers have been signed, the U-Haul rental truck has been reserved, we're packing up our home here, cleaning and painting here so we can sell. Our home here will be listed for sale the first week of July, and we'll hope for a fast sale at a good price. (The market here is ON FIRE right now. Nice houses in my area are selling in only a few days, for top dollar. We're right in the mix of that.)

After we've sold here, and if we decide Nevada is a good fit, we'll start the process of house hunting there. We may even have a home built there. But with a six-month lease there is no rush, and the owners of the home we've rented have said if we need more time, they'll sign another short-term lease, or let us rent month-to-month until we figure out what we want to do. They're nice people who understand the process were dealing with.

So that's where it stands. Sorry to get so wordy. It's not a simple situation to describe. But it feels right, and as our house here gets ready to go on the market, details seem to be resolving themselves. Keeping things on track is like Project Management, something I did a lot of in my working career. It makes me feel like I have a job again.

Dave

 

[geekette]

Thanks, Amy. I wasn't going to say anything till it was all over with, but...

Costco did right by their employees who were most at risk for catching the virus, and basically paid them higher than unemployment rates to stay home. My spouse was one of those people, and had been off work since early in March. (Being on the front lines at the Refund desk is probably the most vulnerable position in the warehouse. Enormous risk for contracting the virus.) Costco wanted those employees to return to their positions as of the first of June. It was a hard choice, but we feel it's the right one, to not return to work. We talked it over, crunched all the numbers, and finally decided that the retirement funds wouldn't be greatly impacted by taking retirement two years ahead of schedule. So resignation notice was given. It reduces the extreme risk of catching the virus, and we feel it was the right choice to make. We're okay with that decision.

I had posted in another thread awhile back, that I was working on putting in an offer to buy a home in Nevada that we had seen last year. We hadn't yet listed our current home for sale, everything was still way up in the air, and it was a tenuous issue of making an offer to buy, contingent on selling our current home. Many unknown things. Timing couldn't have been worse, and by the time we were ready to pencil our offer, the seller had already accepted another offer. So we stepped back and decided to hunker down and hang in where we are, and let things in the world calm down. But then, when my spouse decided to retire early, it kind of "tore off the bandaid," so to speak. It became an issue of "Why stay here if we don't need to?" If we're going to be staying mostly at home, why not do it where the weather is better? So, the discussion about moving was shuffled back onto the table.

The major questions we had to solve were things like how to arrange moving to our preferred location, selling here before buying there, maybe NOT buying there right away till we've lived there some, where do we live there, what if we decide after moving that we don't want to live there after all, and a hundred other questions. We were back and forth more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon. It was exhausting. I tried without success to find a decent home in Nevada to rent that would take us and our three pets. The only places I could find wanted astronomical prices, or the houses were rundown wrecks. And even those with astronomical rents were already leased before I found out about them. It was really frustrating. So we were back to waiting again.

And then, just a few weeks ago, out of the blue I got an email from my Realtor in Nevada. She had a lead on a brand new home that was just finishing up being built, in the exact community we wanted to live in, that was going to be offered as a rental. The owners would accept our pets, the rent was reasonable, and they were willing to do a short term lease. I just about fell out of my chair. Nothing could have been better. I spoke with the owner, and we struck a deal for us to rent their property on a six-month lease. Life suddenly got very real, and it looked like the move would finally happen.

To make a very long story a bit shorter: We're moving to Nevada at the end of the month. Lease papers have been signed, the U-Haul rental truck has been reserved, we're packing up our home here, cleaning and painting here so we can sell. Our home here will be listed for sale the first week of July, and we'll hope for a fast sale at a good price. (The market here is ON FIRE right now. Nice houses in my area are selling in only a few days, for top dollar. We're right in the mix of that.)

After we've sold here, and if we decide Nevada is a good fit, we'll start the process of house hunting there. We may even have a home built there. But with a six-month lease there is no rush, and the owners of the home we've rented have said if we need more time, they'll sign another short-term lease, or let us rent month-to-month until we figure out what we want to do. They're nice people who understand the process were dealing with.

So that's where it stands. Sorry to get so wordy. It's not a simple situation to describe. But it feels right, and as our house here gets ready to go on the market, details seem to be resolving themselves. Keeping things on track is like Project Management, something I did a lot of in my working career. It makes me feel like I have a job again.

Dave

Wow!!!! Great story with exciting twists and turns, but Happy Ending!

Congrats on all of it.

 

[DaveNV]

Wow!!!! Great story with exciting twists and turns, but Happy Ending!

Congrats on all of it.

Thanks! If we survive things, it'll be a great "Tale of Two Cities."

Dave

 

[bbodb1]

Thanks! If we survive things, it'll be a great "Tale of Two Cities."

Dave

...hopefully not A Long Day's Journey into Night!

 

[elaine]

DaveNW, please keep us updated! that's awesome! Best wishes!

 

[Brett]

Since this appears to be a thread about future retirement places I'll chime in. (doggy bag parent's phrase !)
I'm in Virginia mainly because my last job and the family was here but that could change. Yes, we get humidity in the summer but I don't have to water my vegetable garden, mother nature does it for me.
If I had my choice I'd spend summers in New Hampshire and winters in Florida. I'm still working on that retirement game plan

 

[Icc5]

We are both retired. I retired in 2013 and my wife in 2015. I'm 69 and she just hit 65. We live in Cupertino,Ca. and have no plans of leaving. So far we have managed to get around the traffic and both love it here(born and raised here) and have family on both sides nearby. The house has been paid off for over 15 years and taxes are under prop 13 so about 20% of what our neighbors pay. The kids will someday inherit the house and then they can decide on what to do. We are about 15-20 minutes from our favorite airport which is in San Jose.
On trips we've taken we've looked at a few other places and could live in a mansion in most other states but nobody tops our weather. San Diego comes close but they have the same traffic issues and too far from family.
We both feel we have the best life right here so why change anything.
Bart

 

[slip]

@DaveNW

Congratulations, seems things are naturally falling in place Sounds familiar.

There will be a lot of excitement coming up. Enjoy everything, it’s part of the journey.

 

[Luanne]

We are both retired. I retired in 2013 and my wife in 2015. I'm 69 and she just hit 65. We live in Cupertino,Ca. and have no plans of leaving. So far we have managed to get around the traffic and both love it here(born and raised here) and have family on both sides nearby. The house has been paid off for over 15 years and taxes are under prop 13 so about 20% of what our neighbors pay. The kids will someday inherit the house and then they can decide on what to do. We are about 15-20 minutes from our favorite airport which is in San Jose.
On trips we've taken we've looked at a few other places and could live in a mansion in most other states but nobody tops our weather. San Diego comes close but they have the same traffic issues and too far from family.
We both feel we have the best life right here so why change anything.
Bart

I spent some time with our older dd in Sunnyvale when they moved into the house they are renting. I'd forgotten how nice the weather there can be.

 

[DaveNV]

@DaveNW

Congratulations, seems things are naturally falling in place Sounds familiar.

There will be a lot of excitement coming up. Enjoy everything, it’s part of the journey.

Thanks. I've moved a zillion times in my life, so this is just one more time. The difference is we've been in this house 17 years, longer than I've ever lived anywhere. So there is more accumulation of "stuff" that I've forgotten about. I'm trying to keep life in perspective. I'm finding weird things around the house, in the back of cupboards, or on shelves in the back of the garage, that I haven't seen in years. Most of it is going to the dump, because I haven't needed or wanted it for a long time. I find myself saying, "Why is this still here?" several times a day.

If there is a down side to all of this, it's that the local charity places are still closed from the quarantine. So clothes that we don't want, or excess dishes and such, are all going to the landfill. One neighbor has said he'll take any furniture we don't want, and once the charities reopen, he'll donate anything that he decides not to keep. That's something, at least.

Dave

 

[WinniWoman]

Thanks, Amy. I wasn't going to say anything till it was all over with, but...

Costco did right by their employees who were most at risk for catching the virus, and basically paid them higher than unemployment rates to stay home. My spouse was one of those people, and had been off work since early in March. (Being on the front lines at the Refund desk is probably the most vulnerable position in the warehouse. Enormous risk for contracting the virus.) Costco wanted those employees to return to their positions as of the first of June. It was a hard choice, but we feel it's the right one, to not return to work. We talked it over, crunched all the numbers, and finally decided that the retirement funds wouldn't be greatly impacted by taking retirement two years ahead of schedule. So resignation notice was given. It reduces the extreme risk of catching the virus, and we feel it was the right choice to make. We're okay with that decision.

I had posted in another thread awhile back, that I was working on putting in an offer to buy a home in Nevada that we had seen last year. We hadn't yet listed our current home for sale, everything was still way up in the air, and it was a tenuous issue of making an offer to buy, contingent on selling our current home. Many unknown things. Timing couldn't have been worse, and by the time we were ready to pencil our offer, the seller had already accepted another offer. So we stepped back and decided to hunker down and hang in where we are, and let things in the world calm down. But then, when my spouse decided to retire early, it kind of "tore off the bandaid," so to speak. It became an issue of "Why stay here if we don't need to?" If we're going to be staying mostly at home, why not do it where the weather is better? So, the discussion about moving was shuffled back onto the table.

The major questions we had to solve were things like how to arrange moving to our preferred location, selling here before buying there, maybe NOT buying there right away till we've lived there some, where do we live there, what if we decide after moving that we don't want to live there after all, and a hundred other questions. We were back and forth more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon. It was exhausting. I tried without success to find a decent home in Nevada to rent that would take us and our three pets. The only places I could find wanted astronomical prices, or the houses were rundown wrecks. And even those with astronomical rents were already leased before I found out about them. It was really frustrating. So we were back to waiting again.

And then, just a few weeks ago, out of the blue I got an email from my Realtor in Nevada. She had a lead on a brand new home that was just finishing up being built, in the exact community we wanted to live in, that was going to be offered as a rental. The owners would accept our pets, the rent was reasonable, and they were willing to do a short term lease. I just about fell out of my chair. Nothing could have been better. I spoke with the owner, and we struck a deal for us to rent their property on a six-month lease. Life suddenly got very real, and it looked like the move would finally happen.

To make a very long story a bit shorter: We're moving to Nevada at the end of the month. Lease papers have been signed, the U-Haul rental truck has been reserved, we're packing up our home here, cleaning and painting here so we can sell. Our home here will be listed for sale the first week of July, and we'll hope for a fast sale at a good price. (The market here is ON FIRE right now. Nice houses in my area are selling in only a few days, for top dollar. We're right in the mix of that.)

After we've sold here, and if we decide Nevada is a good fit, we'll start the process of house hunting there. We may even have a home built there. But with a six-month lease there is no rush, and the owners of the home we've rented have said if we need more time, they'll sign another short-term lease, or let us rent month-to-month until we figure out what we want to do. They're nice people who understand the process were dealing with.

So that's where it stands. Sorry to get so wordy. It's not a simple situation to describe. But it feels right, and as our house here gets ready to go on the market, details seem to be resolving themselves. Keeping things on track is like Project Management, something I did a lot of in my working career. It makes me feel like I have a job again.

Dave

Glad to hear, Dave! A lot of work but very exciting!! Best of luck and keep us updated on your journey!

 

[amycurl]

Dave,
That is *so* fantastic! I knew that early retirement for your wife was on the table, and it does sound like she made the right decision. (Although I will say that I think Costco, of all the retail establishments, albeit few, that I've been in since the beginning of the #quarantimes, has felt the safest to me as a customer. But her role, as you rightly pointed out, would be the riskiest.)

So happy to hear that things fell into place in NV. I'm not sure I could handle the desert--I do like seasons--but I can certainly see the appeal when coming from the PNW. It sounds kind of like Jeff's story, really: an intention is made, and then things just seem to fall into place quickly when the time is right.

I cannot even imagine moving right now, although you are at least the third person I know of who has moved since March. One of them moved from the San Fran area to Rancho Mirage just earlier this week--I think that was quite the weather shock!

Thank you for replying in such detail. Would love to see pics of the new place when/if you are ready. Congratulations on this new adventure!

 

[DaveNV]

Glad to hear, Dave! A lot of work but very exciting!! Best of luck and keep us updated on your journey!

Thanks, Mary Ann. Your situation of selling your home, moving into your buyer's home as a rental, then finally moving into your new home when it was ready was what I've used as an example of "Yes, this can be done," but also "Jeez, what a hassle!" You had a final home to ultimately move into. I don't have that yet. Since we think we've found the location and development we'll like, the only way to know is to go there and try it out. This brand new rental home that has never been lived in is a perfect situation for us right now.

As I explained to another Tugger, the Tug timeshare purchase concept mantra of "rent first, and try before you buy" is absolutely coming into play here. Tuggers are helping even when they don't realize it.

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

Dave,
That is *so* fantastic! I knew that early retirement for your wife was on the table, and it does sound like she made the right decision. (Although I will say that I think Costco, of all the retail establishments, albeit few, that I've been in since the beginning of the #quarantimes, has felt the safest to me as a customer. But her role, as you rightly pointed out, would be the riskiest.)

So happy to hear that things fell into place in NV. I'm not sure I could handle the desert--I do like seasons--but I can certainly see the appeal when coming from the PNW. It sounds kind of like Jeff's story, really: an intention is made, and then things just seem to fall into place quickly when the time is right.

I cannot even imagine moving right now, although you are at least the third person I know of who has moved since March. One of them moved from the San Fran area to Rancho Mirage just earlier this week--I think that was quite the weather shock!

Thank you for replying in such detail. Would love to see pics of the new place when/if you are ready. Congratulations on this new adventure!

Thanks very much. I keep hearing my Mother's favorite saying: "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it!"

I've asked for this, and spent three years researching, planning, visiting, monitoring the housing market there, and trying to decide whether this move is a good one. I think it is, but the only way to know is to take the leap and try it out. The rental home is nice, but we know going in that it's smaller than what we'll want. It's a great transitional step.

This is a challenge, certainly, but not overwhelming. Once we had the right place to move into figured out, the rest was just the details of how to make it happen. The fact that the rental house wasn't immediately ready to move into was a benefit, as the owners are putting the last touch-ups on things (fencing the back yard, installing ceiling fans, and so forth.) Our lease doesn't start till later this month.

The other end of things, getting our house here ready to list, is taking the much greater amount of time. All the years of watching HGTV is paying off. My Realtor here was impressed with the improvements we've made, (hardwood flooring, kitchen remodel, finished media room, etc), and how little needs to be done to be market-ready. Our house is in really good condition, but like any home that has been lived in a long time (17 years here) there are some things that need to be addressed - mostly cleaning and painting, and replacing worn carpeting. We have to live here till we move, so that can't fully happen till the rooms are empty.

In order to do that, we've rented a storage unit here to stage the things we're taking with us. Everything else that gets sorted and downsized is going to friends, family, neighbors, or the dump. If I had the luxury of selling everything at garage sales, or through online sales sites, I'm sure I could make a lot of money. But with the quarantine happening, even in its relaxed phase here, that just isn't practical. So I grit my teeth, look the other way, and send it out the door. It's actually cathartic to sit with a box of shreddable papers and watch the machine turn them into so much confetti. As I sift through the layers of "life," it feels great to see all that old weight going away. And don't ask me how many times I've asked myself "Why have I been saving this???"

The logistics of the move itself are actually the simplest - my nephew is a commercial truck driver who has volunteered to drive the rental truck, with one of our cars in tow. I'll drive our other car, with our three pets and us. It's a long drive from here, so we'll stop over one night, but it should all be manageable. Ask me after we get there how it went.

If anybody reading this is shopping for a nice home in the Pacific Northwest, let me know. I know a great Realtor who has a hot property coming available very soon.

Dave

 

[amycurl]

Dave, have you confirmed with the local charities? Goodwills are now all open here in NC; after the first week or so of the #quarantimes, they did open one or two manned, contactless donation centers because of all of the folks that were doing home organizing. (Put stuff into the trunk/back; open it remotely; staff person pulls it out, leaves receipt if needed.) I would definitely call around and see if some might be taking donations in some form or fashion, even if their retail sites are not open to the public. Habitat ReStores were doing the same thing here, even when the stores weren't open to the public. Just FYI.