Tuesday, March 12, 2013

How to Quickly Sell a Home

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 75, low 48)  rain

Another cold front is moving down into Florida, bringing some much needed rain for a good part of the day.  Fortunately, it doesn’t look like anything severe, but will be a good day to go to the gym and maybe watch a movie.

I spoke to my best friend Carol yesterday. Actually, she’s my second best friend.  Al is my very best friend.  :)

Carol and her husband Mike live in Arkansas.  Several years ago, she started talking about downsizing and moving into a “retirement” type of house.  One that would be easier to maintain as they get older.  They are not RV’ers and have no desire to full time.

A few months ago they looked at a smaller home in a gated 55+ community.  They went back and looked at it again a few weeks ago, and decided it would be right for them.  They made an offer and signed a contract for the purchase.

Their intention was to buy the new one, then fix up the old one and prepare it for sale.  She’s a nurse and works nights, so she didn’t want to have to sell a house while working.

Anyway, a next door neighbor had always told them that if they ever decided to sell the house, to let him know.  She didn’t think he was serious, but it turns out he was and they bought the house after looking at it one time!

The buyers are an Air Force family and apparently the loan has already been approved.   A home inspector came out yesterday.

The best part of the deal for Carol and Mike, is that they sold the house “as is.”   They didn’t do the first thing to fix it up!   How great was that!   The new couple is allowing them to rent the house out until they are ready to move into the new house. 

Some people are just lucky!

Don’t you wish that would happen to you, Merikay and Craig?

Friday was a red letter day for me.   I signed up for Social Security!  It was easy and fast.  I decided to start collecting at 62.  I know, I would earn more if I waited a few years, but as they say on the website, if you live to your expected age, you’d get the same amount anyway.  I’d rather get a little less now for a longer period of time.

Al will be getting Medicare come November. Wow.    I did a little information gathering on that as well.  It seems the health insurance we have now, (thanks USAA) will be adequate as a supplement with Medicare being primary.   He will no longer have any deductible and it appears we shouldn’t have much or any in the way of out of pocket expenses.  Working at USAA turned out to be a very good decision on my part.  It has allowed us to have very good health insurance before Medicare kicks in.   It’s almost as good as the government workers get!

Thanks for all the tips on my virus protection.  Rick, as usual was helpful and told me Microsoft updated their Defender software and it took care of the problem I was having. I restarted Defender, and scanned my pc with that as well as MalwareBytes.  Unfortunately still having pop-up ads.   Recently I noticed  when I”m on the internet ad any site,  there are underlined” words or sentences that if you click on, or hover over, you get an ad.  Anybody else noticing that?  I never got that before.

I am still concerned about my computer.  With the pop-ups and the underlined words, I know things are not as they should be.   Paul and Marti recommended Vipre,  which was recommended by the Geeks on Tour.   I think I’ll give it a try and see if it can find anything else!   I shudder to think what a mess I would have if my computer was hacked.   

16 comments:

  1. Hope you get things squared away with your computer. I am having tons of spam comments coming through on older posts. Trying different things before resulting to comment moderation, but not sure they still won't come through. I see that underlined stuff (several sentences) coming through on my Kindle sometimes, but on a book so that's probably something different? wonder if you need virus protection on a kindle? or is there such a thing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like your header picture! It's such a moody shot to me. How did you get that boat to be in just the right spot under the sun? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Computers are fabulous when they work...otherwise they are a pain.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you are getting your computer fixed up.
    7 years ago when we purchased our coach we lived in our house a small town. A young couple cae into town stopped at the gas station and asked if there was any houses for sale in Town.
    They told them at the station that we might be selling ours. They stopped by the house and a couple hours later it was sold privately for quite a bit more than we were told we could list it for.
    Yes we got lucky too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like your header picture too - that is spectacular! Would be interested to know about your USAA time. We have always thought it to be a great company. I love the story of the quick sale. Hope the computer stuff works out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is such great news for your friend. Sure didn't happen that way for us. I agree with Judy. That header picture is fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, some sites do have the underlined ads. Hate those things. At first I thought they were links. Now I just yell at my husband "Don't Click On That!"

    Sounds like you have that popup virus. Do you know when it started? You can do a couple of things - one is run your virus scan in safemode - it does a better job then and the other is to take your computer back to an earlier time using System Tools/System restore. The second option is really if you kind of know when you started getting the popups. Just google how to use System Restore and how to reboot in safe mode and you will get lots of help. Another choice of course is to take it to someone that can rid your computer of the virus. I have had to do that too but I have a place I use all the time that is reasonable. (Check to see if you have a Computer Parts USA. They work on them and are reasonable - not cheap.)

    Good luck! I hate getting any virus!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Karen, I forgot all about those Text-Enhancement Ad Popups - they are annoying. It just might be an extension plugin if you are using Chrome. If you are, check this:

    Open Chrome, click on the Settings icon, and navigate to Tools > Extensions.
    Select the Text Enhance plugin from the list of extensions, and click Uninstall or Disable.

    If that's it, then your pop-up problems should disappear! If you don't use Chrome, let me know which browser you are using.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good for you signing up for SS early. You never know what the future holds. We're going to take it early too, hope it's still there when we hit 62. Hopefully computer issues don't put me in an early grave...

    Nice to hear your friend's house sold like that, wish ours did. We can't complain, ours took six months, two realtors and about $40K in upgrades, not to mention how many paint brushes I wore out to get sold. But it was worth it all! :c)

    ReplyDelete
  10. So good to hear of their quick sale story! Our sold fast too, 30 days to a cash buyer, no inspections, no appraisals, no banks, no nothing. Just us giving them papers showing good well water, and that we had our septic checked every three years. Closed at a title company who handled the whole deal for $220. Easy peasy!

    (but then after 5 months, we went and bought another house again---- go figger!)

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. SS at 62 is the right way to go. Compare two people that take SS, one at 62;one at 65 and think total amount of SS cash received. The one that starts at 65 has to live into his 90s to receive the same amount of cash as the one that started at 62.

    JC

    ReplyDelete
  12. We are selling my mother's house. I can only dream for a fast sale at the right price. 4 families are involved. Some will sell at almost any price. It's not an easy situation as it needs just the right kind of buyer. Oh for a house in an area everyone wants and can afford.

    Love your story and others. Reminds me there are buyers who know what they want.

    Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  13. SS at 62 yessir! Get grandfathered in while you can!! :-))

    Great deal for your friends. I finally sold my dad's house after 5 months on the market. Closed in a week. I was shocked. Put the money in his bank account today. HOO RAY! One more thing accomplished.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I sure wish I could have your friends house selling luck. This will be the third summer for us. I am with you on SS, I took it as soon as I could (first check last Aug.). A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I worked with a friend who is an interior designer to stage our home. It sold in three weeks. It surprises me when people don't take this relatively simple step which is mainly getting rid of all clutter, taking down all personal photos and memorabilia, and making everything sparkling clean. Fresh flowers and good smelling candles are also a nice touch.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I worked with a friend who is an interior designer to stage our home. It sold in three weeks. It surprises me when people don't take this relatively simple step which is mainly getting rid of all clutter, taking down all personal photos and memorabilia, and making everything sparkling clean. Fresh flowers and good smelling candles are also a nice touch.

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave comments. We love to read them! To contact me directly you can send e-mail to rvtravels2@yahoo.com