In 2021, I retired at the age of 75. My wife and I lived on the East Side of the Twin Cities, in St. Paul. I wanted to get rid of lawn mowing and snow removal. My wife did not like the neighborhood, or the house we bought when we moved here to be near her aging parents. Her parents are gone. Mine both died on January 6, 2021, complicated the horrors of that day.
I had to be the executor of their estate, which I did, in the smoothest possible way I could. Everyone was good with how it all went, and we had some extra money to make retirement more attractive.
So, as soon as the estate was settled and distributed, I asked my wife where she wanted to live. She told me where her Twin Cities friends lived, mostly in Western suburbs. So we called the realtor who sold us the house we were living in, and told her what we were planning. We wanted a townhome in a western suburb that didn't cost too much more than our current house was worth. She went to work.
It took a month, but we found a townhome in a development in a prime western suburb, close to every major Interstate and to my wife's friends' locations.
This was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, so I wanted to limit our exposure as much as possible. We had our vaccinations. She showed us half a dozen townhomes that could work, but each had some problem, in my eyes. then, she showed us one that exactly matched what we were looking for, and at a lower price than we were willing to pay. Houses were all getting multiple bids at that time. We saw it the first day it was listed. We liked it. It was perfect. We had a limit set for what we would pay, so I told our realtor to bid that limit. It was 12% over the asking price. But, I said we had to have a decision from the seller within 24 hours. She advised against that, but I held firm. It was going to be a cash sale and I waived the inspection and did one of my own, based on my experience.
The seller went for it. He had already moved. We closed in 21 days. Then, we turned to getting our current house, which was paid for, ready to sell. I contacted a roofing contractor and the realtor engaged a painter and flooring outfit. The entire interior got fresh paint, along with the kitchen cabinets. I replace the older gas range and refrigerator. All of this took place after we moved. I wasn't there. The realtor monitored the work for us. She was acting as our broker and sales person and would get the entire percentage of the selling price after the sale.
We moved. We hired some folks to clear the house and garage of junk. Other stuff went on the curb with a FREE sign and disappeared within 24 hours. The painters came. The flooring people came, the roofers came. I was on the phone making sure all that happened ASAP, and paid the price as soon as that was done. The house got listed, for the same price we paid for the townhome. We hired a local moving company which packed and moved everything from one suburb to the other for only $2500. We moved in the same day.
That was two weeks after we closed on our new place. It took a couple of weeks to find a buyer for our old place, and we had to drop in price a little. That sale closed 30 days after the purchase agreement was signed. I gave in on a couple more requests.
It doesn't work like that now. Just five years later, it's a lot harder to make that kind of move quickly. I'm glad we did it when we did.
It's a lot of hard work to make a quick buy, sale, and move. But, if you have good help, it can be done without too much stress.
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