The morning news... and the end of an era

[Uncle Gump]

@Rick W I totally appreciate the advice.

Full disclosure... I sold the pizzeria on a seller finance agreement. We got everything we wanted less a 12 month pay off. We settled on 24 months. I should also say that the buyer employs my wife (he pays her very well) and myself part time (he pays me pretty good too) and she runs his entire operation of 20 stores. If he fails to make good on the agreement... we just take it back and start selling pizza again. He also is doing about 30K worth of improvements to the store that he can't take back... he also increased her expense monies by several hundred dollars a month to offset our health insurance costs.

To add an additional twist to this... a little over a year ago she entered into a five year deal with the new owner. He wanted to grow but corporate wouldn't allow him without her. She has 20+years with corporate and our success in our own store and without her on his team he was at a dead end. So... we had always planned on maintaining a small apartment here for the foreseeable future and a place to call home in Michigan.

So selling the house on a seller finance isn't really an option. I need the capitol to roll into the new homestead and we still have a mortgage but with about 60% equity.

I was really thinking I had a year to 18 months to get it all together... but if this house can sell in months for the price we discussed with the neighbor... I needed to start this process yesterday.

 

[MikeG]

Just some thoughts.....

If you aren't going to for sure get all the money for 24 months (or any amount of time), and plan B would be to make pizza again if all that falls through..... then maybe moving out of state isn't something you should rush into. An apartment is an expense, not an asset.... one thought would be to live where you are, take the money you would have put into an apartment, and sock it away for the move, or even buy something small in Michigan if you can get the monthly cost about the same on a mortgage / note, as rent would be, till you can totally bail on Illinois.

Understand your desire to move somewhere else right away.... but.... lots of loose ends hanging that might have to be tied up later, in unforeseen ways.

Knowns are things like how much tax you'd pay on what, in each jurisdiction (might need a CPA to figure out various scenarios).
Unknowns are what the real estate market will be like more than a short time down the road. Real estate is stupid crazy here, but no idea where you are.

I think I'd personally want to have at least some fair amount of the loan on the pizza place paid off, before heading out of state. Commuting, and living in two households for a while, gets old. Did it for about 6 months for a job once and have had my fill of that. Worth it at the time though.

 

[Rick W]

Hmmm, Maybe you could save expenses by sliding a camper in the back of the Ranger.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I seriously doubt the getting out of Illinois part gets any better from right now... real estate is kinda crazy everywhere.

Hmmm, Maybe you could save expenses by sliding a camper in the back of the Ranger.

I already sold the Skamper to @85_Ranger4x4 ... lol

It's going to be OK... it just all hit me at once this week.

We even own two acres in Roscommon with a well and septic... Having an 800 sqft cabin dropped off there is a strong possibility. It's near Higgins and Houghton lakes... thousands of acres of state land... blue ribbon trout streams... ORV/snomobile trails everywhere and lots of Golf. Makes it a pretty good spot for a vacation rental. That is after we live in it for a year or so.

 

[racsan]

thought about a rv? weather is getting better, you could easily live out of one while you look for a permanent place, or just do the state park thing awhile, hit the southern states in the winter and enjoy the northern border in the summer.

 

[Uncle Gump]

thought about a rv? weather is getting better, you could easily live out of one while you look for a permanent place, or just do the state park thing awhile, hit the southern states in the winter and enjoy the northern border in the summer.

An RV is part of the overall plan... but it was really a few years out for that.

 

[MikeG]

And the wife might object to you taking off in an RV, when she's still working