All Forum Posts by: Thomas Weidner

@Christian Weber we at the time had 6 children living at the home with us. Currently we have 5 still at home so str really wasn’t an option. We just wanted to lower our payment as well as get into a smaller home with only 1 floor. With a smaller payment it could also lead to be able to work near my home for less of a salary. Currently I work 14 days at a time 400 miles from my home.

More than likely your home is your number one monthly expense. My wife and I are no exception to this. Three years ago we bought our dream home it was a modern farmhouse on a little over an acre of land in the country.  It had great views and was everything we ever wanted.  When we bought it we believed this was going to be our forever home. We absolutely loved this home and have had many good memories there. Over the last year our goals has changed some what. When COVID happened a year ago the oil and gas industry also tanked to the point we had negative oil prices. Well when that happens obviously there isn’t as much production and it goes down the line. I did not get laid off but took a substantial hit by getting demoted and a substantial pay cut. We like so many others were hit pretty hard and had a hard time making ends meet. We did consider selling a year ago but decided not to because we really didn’t know which way the market was going to go. Honestly it went the opposite direction that I thought it was going to go. This opened our eyes to our vulnerability to the market. We did make it through and have since got back into my original position, but it is always in the back of your mind. A year later we have seen what the market has done, so we revisited the idea of selling. We decided to go ahead and take advantage of the market and sell. We figured for our price point and area it may take a bit, well we were wrong again. We listed our home for 470k that we had bought 3 years prior for 325k. We had over 10 showings within the first few days and a full price offer on day 5, which we accepted. We wanted to down size a bit since our children are getting older and a cheaper payment to protect in the future from any down turns in the market in which I work. We also wanted to do more than just sfr that only have minimal cash flow. We want to invest in higher cash flow opportunities such as vacation rentals or multi families. It is hard letting go sometimes when you get to a certain place, but sometimes you must to get to where you want to go! So would you sell your dream home to get to where you wanted to go? Thanks

@Victor S. You are very rite about the feet to the fire when there is a deadline. Lots getting done now. We have done the demo work and installed the beams. I do what I can but with the time crunch and work schedule we have had to call in subs. I have and will be doing the tile work. As far as budget goes it is pretty much shot do to all the changes with new cabinets, insulation, and drywall.

There has been a lot that has been happening since the last update. We have hauled off 160 yards of debris. We did a lot of demo! Originally we were going to keep the cabinets  and install new doors but after finding they were the old particleboard we decided to scrap them and go with new. We took out the walls to the living area and dining to open everything up. We also took out a closet to in the master bath to add a free standing tub. And expanded the wall in the second master to make it bigger. We removed all the flooring and paneling which uncovered some water damage in several rooms. We removed the popcorn ceiling that had also been painted over with kiltz which made this a very time consuming job and during this found several places in the ceiling that was sagging. We called the drywall contractor that was going to do mudding and texture to look at the sagging. He suggested that we replace the drywall due to sagging ceilings and the mildew smell. So we ripped all the drywall out with the insulation and did a little mold remediation. This job was 2 more 40 yard dumpsters full. Next we poured a slab for a carport and back porch. We have done electrical and plumbing work installed new ac. The new insulation , drywall, and cabinets have been installed. The trim and paint is going on as we speak. New windows have been ordered but with the shortage of windows it will be September before they arrive. Flooring is ordered and tile is purchased with a install date set. The biggest thing that has changed is this has went from flip to permanent residence with a dead line. We sold our primary residence and had some land under contract. Well do to some issues with the land we pulled from the contract. This caused us to be possibly homeless. So we went back to the new buyers and rented back the new property owner until July the 12. So we are in a race against the clock to get this thing done enough to live in. We are cutting it close but I am hopeful.