Ebay Update

Well, my ebay selling was a hit - I sold $430 worth of stuff - and made almost $400 after Paypal and eBay fees. Wow! I am done selling stuff for a while, but I will certainly do this again.

A couple of things I learned:
You won't sell everything - I sold about 2/3 of my stuff. Some I relisted if there was interest - i.e. people had been watching items.

People are REALLY into brand names - if its not a name brand, its probably not going to sell. But if it is, there is a good chance that you will be able to sell it - even if it is several years old.

Printing and shipping labels is easy!! And you can schedule a pickup to your house. This is super easy and your regular mail carrier will pick them up from your front door - you don't even need to be at home.

Spring cleaning...the eBay way

Between TD moving to Boston, the two us moving our stuff here and putting it in storage, and finally moving into the new house, we have given away a TON of stuff. Mostly we have taken stuff to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

But I had several things that I had been dragging around, not using, but that were "nice" or at least worth something. A suit from J Crew (thought I would need it for interviews), several things from Anthropologie (purchased on sale and never really worn), my 35mm SLR camera. Etc Etc!

On a whim last weekend I gathered up all this stuff, took photos and listed 20 things on eBay. I have been pretty stoked that things are actually selling!! There are 3 more days on my auction, but so far I have made over $150 dollars. The process does take a lot of time, so this won't become a regular thing for me (and there's not much left to get rid of - unless I start in on TD's stuff). But I would highly recommend using eBay if you have some nice stuff that you are looking to get rid of.

To Rent or Buy??

TD and I had settled on renting after seeing lots of overpriced ugly houses with no character when we visited in June. Fast forward 3 months, and I am equally uninspired by the rental market (lots of ugly cheap houses with rooms painted all sorts of funky colors), plus alot of the rental homes are houses that have been for sale. That means if the market picks up, the owners will probably sell and we will have to move again. I really would like to live in one house as long as we are here - which maybe isn't realistic for renting. .....So I switched craigslist for zillow over the weekend.....dangerous, I know!

A craftsman - Almost exactly the same layout as my brother's house!!

I did a bit of exploring on Saturday and really like the neighborhoods right east and north east of downtown. They've got big trees, lots of spanish moss and most importantly -- houses with character! (i.e. built before 1950). I've found a couple that are downright affordable (a mortgage in the 5 figures - oh my!!). There is a very nice historic neighborhood (like Hyde Park?) but all the houses for sale are in adjacent neighborhoods. The one I like seems like Clarksville 20 years ago - all the houses are pretty small, some are very nice and others are falling apart. Its a quick bike ride to the university, right on the bike path that goes to the large wildlife area south of town, plus the NY Times buy or rent calculator says I should buy.

BUT there are still all our original reasons for not wanting to buy: uncertainty about how long we will be here, the extra costs of buying (insurance, taxes, extra utilities, home improvements), plus added responsibility, etc, etc.

So who knows where we will end up!! (and things are of course complicated by the fact that TD is Mexico right now) I did email my Realtor to schedule a time to view the houses. Maybe they will be terrible and that will make the decision easy!

July Net worth Update

My July networth crept up - barely. The market has continued its downward trend and even though I am in it for the long term, its disheartening to see. Also I am still waiting for about $3000 in reimbursements for moving and work.

On the positive end, TD and I are staying with family this summer. This rent-free lifestyle is allowing us sock away about $1600 a month in savings while still doing a lot of travel. We just purchased our tickets to Mexico for the end of the month - I hope those checks come in the mail soon!!

Networth Update

Unfortunately my networth has been rather stagnant for the last couple of months. I did close on my house, which ups my cash reserves, but I am waiting on about $4000 worth of reimbursements which is why the credit card balance is high for June. I do pay it off every month, so there is no interest accruing.

I have decided to put the proceeds from the sale of my condo into a high-yield CD. Boston gal posted about this CD from AllyBank that pays 3% interest and has only a 2 month penalty for early withdrawal. See her post here.

This CD is a good option for TD and I since we aren't sure when we will want the money for a down payment and since the market is still so volatile. We are thinking of renting for a few years in FL before buying.

House selling update

Our final hurdle for selling the condo was for the buyer to secure her mortgage (she is financing 80%). Unfortunately, the appraisal from the mortgage company came in low--$12K too low. According to my real estate agent, the appraiser was not familiar with the area and used some properties as comparables which were in a not as desirable neighborhood, and ignored some recent sales in our neighborhood.

We granted the buyer a 1 week extension (to April 8), and a new appraiser came out today. Hopefully the house will appraise for the listing price, and we will move forward with the sale. We are looking to close on June 1, which is a bit of a pain as its the Tuesday after labor day. I am not sure how feasible it will be to move this date, but it would be really nice not to have to move during a holiday weekend!

Net Worth Update

I just updated my net worth for the beginning of April. Happily, my investments have been doing well, so it is steadily increasing.

We have some big expenses coming up in the next few months (car repair, moving and honeymoon), but the move should be reimbursed by work, and the honeymoon is a gift from TD's mother. I save for retirement every month (right now just 7% of salary) but haven't been able to save much cash each month. Once the wedding is over, hopefully I can return to saving $300 or so each month in our emergency fund. Right now the e-fund is $9000. I'd like to have $15-$20K eventually, but I feel comfortable with it for the time being.

Living on one salary (since January) is doable for us, but we are looking forward to being a dual income household again. This should happen in the fall--fingers crossed!