Wrong Way * No U-Turn * Dead End

So it's been awhile since I've talked about our move plans here. Lots of folks have been asking for updates. Some know the whole detailed saga, some only bits and pieces. I figured it was time for a full fledged update to bring you up to date.

The image at the left here pretty much sums up our experience to date. It's been a rough and disappointing ride leaving me with many feelings of anger, sadness and frustration.


We figured we'd have a pretty easy time of it with selling our place when we made the decision last year to move back to Chicago. Well, that was about the time the economy was starting its crash and burn. But I was still optimistic thinking that with limited housing available out here and big players like Microsoft that we'd be relatively sheltered from the fall out. Heh. Boy was I ever wrong about that! But still, I thought we'd be able to manage a sale, and we had grand plans to list the house in early spring.

Then we had the water incident. That set us back by a good couple of months. We were literally two pictures away from being done with photographing the house and listing it for sale. Talk about a blow to the momentum. We spent several weeks working with the various stages of repair and simultaneously watching the housing market slide further and further into the crapper. Our contractor got us hooked up with two very reputable and forthright real estate agents who were promised to tell us "like it is." We met with them, and they did exactly that. "Don't sell right now. Wait at least a year if you can." It wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear, but I was grateful for their honest assessment of the market.

Up to this point (we're talking May now), I'd been balking at the idea of renting. I just wanted to get this house off of our hands and be free of any ties and financial commitments to it. But it was pretty clear the housing market wasn't going to play nice with us, so it was one of the few viable options we had left. We did our research, interviewed some companies and found ourselves a property management company. They would be responsible for finding us a tenant and managing the relationship while we were back in IL.

Well, it's been over 2 months now and we still have no renters. We've had very little traffic (less than 10 viewings), and the two potentials we had both failed the background check. The most recent applicant had seemed really promising. A husband and wife with a 13 month old little girl. The wife absolutely loved the place, came back twice with various family members to look at it, and found it just didn't compare to any of the other places they looked at. We were feeling really good about these applicants and the time line was absolutely perfect - plenty of time for us to find a place in IL and wrap up loose ends here. They put their application in after the second viewing (Friday, the 17th). Monday the background check process was started. Wednesday we got the awful news that they failed the credit check. Everything else was just fine. Current landlady gave excellent feedback. We don't know any details about why they failed, but I was absolutely devastated. I can't believe that we were lucky enough to get a second applicant only to have them get rejected. There is a small chance that they will be able to resolve the situation by getting a co-signer, but as more time goes by I am inclined to think that it just isn't gonna happen.

We've also recently learned that the rental market here is experiencing an all time high vacancy rate of 20%. While we certainly aren't the only ones struggling to rent our home, it is still a hard pill to swallow knowing that the odds of us getting back to IL this year are growing worse and worse.

We have been working on revisiting the home sale option. We called one of the agents back up, and believe it or not, she actually suggested we try and sell by owner. Who would've expected to hear that from a real estate agent!? We were grateful for her honesty tho, and she offered to act as an adviser for us should we have any questions about the process. We are also looking into refinancing our mortgage to get out of the ARM we have which is set to expire at the end of 2010. Having a fixed rate would give us a little more peace of mind if we are still unable to sell next year.

So this about sums up how I'm feeling about the experience along with our prospects for getting out of WA thus far:

In the upcoming weeks, we are going to try a couple more strategies. We are going to list the house for sale by owner, and we are going to drop the rent by $100. If we don't get any more bites on the rental front, we will likely call it quits for the year and try again next year. The cost of getting it listed on the MLS gives us a 12 month listing. I'd love to be able to sell the place, but it's hard to stay hopeful when every day as I drive thru the neighborhood I see all the houses that have been just sitting on the sale block. No one has been able to sell his house. Even with crazy huge price drops.

I know this isn't the most optimistic point of view, but honestly I'm just plain exhausted from the emotional roller coaster ride we've been on with this whole process. And I can't continue to operate in limbo not knowing if we'll be here a month from now or not. I'd like to get Caiden enrolled in swim class and/or music class. I need to know if I have to start thinking about booking travel to IL at Christmas. I need to know if I should be booking a flight to go visit Summer in MN. I need a direction to focus on.

Am I disappointed? Yes - very much so. I really thought we'd be living in IL at this point. I never imagined it would be this ridiculously difficult to find a renter. This certainly has been an exercise in learning patience. And in learning that I don't have a lot of patience.

So hey - anyone want to come out and visit? :)