Am I stressed?--you betcha!

[Shelley]

The RE market here is frothy.  Never seen the like.  Things selling in hours with multiple offers.  Just like you guys in CA.  

My friend the RE broker said, "do it now.  won't last.  Interest rates going up.  Californians will quit coming soon".  So, we did.  Two houses.  Sold in 24 hrs.  Have to give possession 7/1.  They did sell for about 20% more than I thought they would

Now what?  Metal building/shop won't be done.  Rental market in new town almost non-existant.  Yikes!  We have nowhere to live!  Don't even have a PO box to forward mail.  Time to get into high gear.

[glenn kangiser]

Roll of plastic, logs, boards, dirt, Mike Oehler's book = shelter Shelley.  

 

Could you rent a trailer and put it on our land?  Keep us posted,  Shelley.  

[John Raabe]

Here is one solution:
http://www.carliving.com/

Here is another:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4549128873&category=50059&sspagename=WDVW

The RE market is hot up here as well. I have a lot for sale on a local golf course. Lot's of interest and every builder on the island is busy hammering away in the background.

[Shelley]

Don't think they rent around here Glenn.  Have thought of buying a used one, if we can buy it right.

Trouble is, used MHs seem to be like used condoms...who wants one?  Don't want to acquire something that we can't get rid of.  That's on our list of options, however.

NM has more MHs per capita than any other state.  What a prize!  I said to himself yesterday....pretty appealing...go to the mobile home store and order up a double wide.  Instant house.  Too ugly for me, but appealing none the less.

I could live in a Cabela's side wall outfitter tent....but it's getting to be summer...and I forgot to tell you we have to take my 87 year old mother with us.  Can't leave her beside the road, can I?
She was never too hot on camping.  Gotta have some plumbing and a few amenities.

Just got off the local newpaper web site.  3 rentals listed.  Holy Moly.

Meanwhile, since we listed the houses 90 days b4 we thought we would....we're continuing to do the honey-dos that we think one should do b4 one sells a house....even tho they're sold.  Top dressing the crusher fine, painting, staining, making sure that no faucets drip.  Stupid, but that's the way we are.

Tomorrow, my job is to spread 9yds of crusher fine.  Wish I had some of your big yellow, but I've only a shovel and a wheel barrow.

[Shelley]

John,  you're tooooo funny.

I could live in my car...well truck...two trucks.  My dog might not like it.  And, I am besotted with my dog.  My first in 15 years.

And, to top it all off.  We have purchased a new puppy from a gal in Tombstone.  Ready to be picked up just about the time we arrive, homeless, in our new town.  OMG

[Chuckca]

Have owned just about all the different RV's that are out there....we now have an 89 Westfalia (Westy) VW Camper (2 burner stove, 3 way frig, sleeps 4)
....take a look at:


www.gowesty.com  ask for Lucas...

www.roadhaus.com  

They have  my highest recommendation....they sell them and repair them...they only do the campers....take a look at their web site

Not cheap....but....right now they're hot....you could even make a few thousand....

Another idear:

http://www.cruiseamerica.com/  They rent and sell motorhomes....

[Shelley]

Chuck,

Got a friend up in CO that loves her Westie.  Comes down here to have it serviced.  And, you're right, they are hot.  If you buy them right and do a little work you can do all right.

Got to stash my momma somwhere.  She's been very game about all this....one last great adventure.  But, I can't ask too much

[glenn kangiser]

Shelley, John may have a point-- with a wireless laptop you could drive around back alleys getting free DSL off unprotected wireless systems, then you could still keep up giving us free advice on the CP forum.

[Shelley]

OK, OK,

I am moving to Deming, NM.  Population 26K.  I-10.
A dried up, ranch/farming town 30 miles from the border.  Why?  

We love Mexico.  It's like living in Mexico with the signs in English.

Bet you could do a survey.  What is Wi-Fi?  Bet you'd get <10% correct answers.  So, I could cruise the alleys all I want and only get millitia men for company.

[glenn kangiser]

Shelley, Ive flown to Mexico 16 times - deep Mexico is great.

I got a ticket in Demming, trucking - gave a broken down immigrant student motorist a ride - he wasn't an authorized passenger in my Peterbilt according to the officials although they let him continue on with me- as long as they got their money.  

I got held up at the scale house at Shiprock, NM by an unscrupulous weigh station official.  He said I was one bag of onions overweight.  I didn't get it right away so he said he was just kidding then asked for my papers and wrote me a 50 dollar ticket.

Funny how similar NM is to Mexico.

I was abducted by aliens in Roswell........................

[Amanda_931]

Travel trailers are good, IMHO.  All the comforts of home including AC (AirCon for those in parts of the country) that needs mains electricity, three-burner stove, dual fuel refrigerator, small water heater, full (sink, shower and tiny tubette, airline-style toilet) bath, and generally a serious propane- and electricity- gobbling furnace (a tiny Vornado electric job works for me).  Bath might even be usable if you are parked so it's downhill to the septic tank inlet.  And there's water you can run at pressure to the trailer or fill the tank with a hose.  Emptying the graywater tank by hand is awful.  Especially if you wait until it turns into evil-smelling blackwater.

Prices range all over the place.  From "Get it out of my yard" to "It's in perfect shape, all it needs is a ____." (those may always be way overpriced).  But I'd think you'd need at least 27 feet--which in the case of the slightly larger version of mine, gives you a set of bunk beds that live in relative privacy.  Otherwise, for someone who is not going to share the--short--queen bed, you get to do non-starters like take the top of the dinette table off, remove the pedestal and stow it, lower the top to the level of the seats, and then rearrange the cushions to make a semi-honest-to-gosh bed.

Acquaintances on another list are "storing" some friends' travel trailer for them.  I.E., not anywhere near their friends' lot, but up near their house site in Colorado.  (In an RV park--with running water, mains electricity, WI-FI and a handful of other people building in the area).

[trish]

Shelly--Speaking as an ex- real estate agent, the rental market usually opens up a bit  in July, if you have that long to wait.  People who are going to be moving are waiting for school to be out in June so this time of the year not much selection.  However, here in Calif I counted 18 places for rent in my little town.
  Landlords fix up and usually have the place ready around 10th of the Month.  Try to land something permanent before August; that is the busiest month of the year as people are trying to get settled for the coming school year.

Every locale has at least one rental management company. Contact them; they will know what is coming up.  Also, real estate companies.
 
Actually, your dogs may be the biggest problem to overcome.  Our area has a lot of rentals, but most don't want to take pets.

Good luck.

[Shelley]

Know what Glenn?  We were in Portugal.  Driving down the road.  Someone had painted on the back side of an official road sign.  Other side of the road, easy to see from our direction.

The typical Roswell alien picture.  Underneath, it just said, "Roswell NM".  SweartoGawd.

[Shelley]

Spread my 9 yds today and yesterday.  

Talked to the well driller this evening.  Punched the well.  Hasn't tested it yet, but guesses that it's producing 30 gpm.  Yeah!  Himself witched it.  And, NM hasn't yet restricted pump size on residential wells.  This is good.  Water at 202'.  Went down to 350' in case the farmers draw it down.

Still have no place to live.   60's (real wood, not formica)  Airstream in Abq paper today.  20'.  All original.  Hmmmm.

My yard is so beautiful.  Everything's in bloom.  Worked like a dog getting it ready to show.  I'm congratulating myself, neighbor is admiring me, then the wind comes up.  Thunderstorm.

[glenn kangiser]

Roswell's pretty famous.  

Glad to hear your well looks good Shelley.  That really beats my 1 gallon per minute-- but there are a lot of minutes in a day.

[Amanda_931]

Airstreams are a) collecter's items. b) require some maintenance (seam sealing every year or so), from what I've read.

Keep that in mind--both for purchase price and for eventual resale.

[Amanda_931]

Here you go--they look right wonderful!

http://www.shelter-systems.com/

Never heard of them before, but thanks to the new, mentioned by John, google catalog lists, I found this page.

And besides some of their designs were used in a Star Wars flick.

[Amanda_931]

And if that wasn't silly enough (although some of their products look semi-wonderful--thinking about greenhouses and grow-tunnels)  there's this one.  

Even less expensive.  More than suitable for a tool shed. or something.  But I'd hate to try to live in the little one.

http://www.aidomes.com/foam_dome_homes.htm

[Shelley]

Right.  Can't stick my 87 year old mother in a tent Amanda.  Ripstop=nylon to me.  Also not going to stick her in an apartment by herself in a strange town.  Not fair.

Called the two RE companies that do property mgmt.  Looking grim.  Told them what I was looking for and they laughed.  Told them I was willing to compromise, but what little they have is way off from my dream rental.  Figure I need to run down there next few days, establish a relationship, and tell them about my dog after I've made friends of them

Talked to the metal building guy.  His timeframe is very close to our arrival....but all we'll have is a shell with roughed-in plumbing.

Problem I having is preparing to move.  Do I need furniture?  How much?  Do I need to be able to get at winter clothes?  Do I store here or there?  If there, no moving company wearhouse.  Will have to get u-store-it units.  Who moves it to the property?  No moving companies there.  Football team?  Can't store tools here, need tools.  Which tools?  Do I let some 18" necked kids move my grandfather clock?  Arrrgh.  If I had a place to move to, I could make all those decisions.  Right now, I'm paralyzed.

Back on the phone tmo....right after my gum surgery.

[Amanda_931]

Here's my story.  I'm no stranger to everything has to be done before anything can be done.

I thought I was still a couple of years away from retirement when I bought the first parcel of land down here, got a travel trailer--not on the land here--had a septic tank and a driveway put in.

I was laid off and likely to be for a while, though.

Then I got burned out of my house.  After a bit of tearing out my hair, somebody took me by the ear and we put my dogs into an expensive but wonderful  kennel (they calmed my over-the-top guy down to more-or-less manageable proportions, partly because he reminds them of their huskies)  I had a pet-sitting sevice feeding the by now all outside cats.

Moved down here to the motel in tpwn.  (inexpensive as such things go--well under $200 a week but the insurance company paid it for a while) built a dog pen and a tiny storage building from a kit.  Found out how much land I had to clear for electricity.  Then had the trailer moved, moved me, the dogs, and the cats in.  Felt stymied--did a little land clearing, but I am NOT COMPETENT to take down a three-feet-in-diameter hollow beech tree right next to the road.  The local crew didn't return calls.  I think I had already gotten the phone in before someone told me about a crew in the next county that was both good and looking for work.  They were drinking my spring water, so I started to.  Read the Humanure Handbook, thought I can do this!

Then electricity--connection to the Internet! (which I must say has probably slowed the building process down a bit!)

I've got a barn--mostly--built at the bottom of the hill, with some water harvesting so I can shower and wash clothes--in the summer.  (there's a community center not too far away with showers!)

Bought another six acres up the hill, so I can get a driveway either into that bit, or even to the back of the original property (the alternative was a forty foot bridge!).   If that company ever returns my calls.  They're the people who put the driveway here in, do pretty good work.

I'm thinking right now that I'd like to have my own year-round bath and more room enough, and I could build one of John's houses with minimal help.  No electricity, though, keep the trailer, or even the room in the barn, for internet access
Already have the house site and the septic tank marked in the large field where I can actually see a neighbor's house.  But I want a lot out of it, can't just throw together a plan, I have been trying.

Don't know if this will help the stress.  You might have to have somebody take you by the ear and tell you what you need to do next.

(probably not me, although I think that a single-wide trailer is usually easier to get rid of than a double-wide.  Used ones can be really very inexpensive, moved and set up.)

[Shelley]

If we were to buy a trailer, would be a single wide.
Can buy them more right.  Did discover a law recently...don't know if county or state.  Trailer over N years, can't be moved.

Talked to a friend about it.  He lived in a SW for 2 years, on the site, while he built.  Bought it right, still had a terrible time getting rid of it.  Finally just about gave it away.  We could find someone in his position if we had more time.  Would have to dispose of it.  Not our thing.  Bought 80 acres in order not to see any MHs in the distance.

Travel trailers don't bother us.  Probably the reduced size.  Called about the Airstream.  Still for sale about 160 miles South.  On the way to Deming.  Thinking about getting it if it looks good, is fixable, and using it for something.  More guest quarters.  Sun shade, patio.  Fix it up like that place in Bisbee AZ. Who knows.

However, Have my choice of not one, but two, count-um, two houses.  Both on an acre.  Dogs not a problem.  Neither has a garage.  One is fenced, one is not.  Have pics of one, will get pics of the other tmo.  One I haven't seen is older, but 33% larger.  Will have to see how old is old.  Sent her a check to hold one of them.

So we sat down today and did what you suggest.
Decided every time the movers touch the stuff it's more $$.  So the movers will move to Deming where we will rent some # of storage units.  When the time comes, we'll move the small stuff ourselves and then get real movers from Las Cruces to move the heavy/tricky stuff.  It's a plan.  Too bad we have to go to a storage unit every time we want a tool or a MC...but it's a plan.  Soon as the shop is finished and alarmed we can move the every day stuff there.

[Shelley]

Living space secured.  2000 sf.  Old farm house.  Even big trees.  About 1 mile from the property. No garage, no fence.  We'll deal with that.

Realtor said the carpet was "pretty ratty".  She suggested that they replace it.  I hate carpet.  Haven't had it in decades.    What's under the ratty carpet? says I.  Hardwood in rough shape, says she.

How 'bout this?  Have the owners remove the carpet.  I'd rather have rough HW.  "Deal", she said.  Moving along.

Had the whole house inspection done on our current house today.  A+.  Nothing to fix.  Whew.

[glenn kangiser]

That's great Shelley -now I don't have to worry about you finding a place to stay,

[John Raabe]

Shelley: Sounds good!

Glad you didn't take my advice  

Go desert girl - and keep us posted.

[Amanda_931]

Great!

Much more comfortable.  Hope you're not like me and maybe too comfortable.

Around here I could probably scrape up a handful of people with a high-cube truck to help move, plenty of odd-jobs people around.

(if you enlist friends and a U-Haul don't break out the beer until it's unloaded.)