We moved, sold our home, and are starting to build a new one soon!

A lot has happened since my last post in January. After many years of searching, we just happened to find a beautiful piece of property not too far from our church in Harris County, Georgia for sale at a good price so we bought it. It has 5 acres and is wooded with a creek running across the back. So we put our home on the market in February. We knew that moving into a rental house would make our home much easier for Realtors to show since we weren’t the neatest housekeepers and we had our real estate office in our home plus two huge German shepherds in the back yard. So we moved…ugh!

After living in the same house for 12 years I had a lot of cleaning out and packing up to do. And I had to organize the move as to what I would need for the next 6-8 months and what could go in the outside storage shed or needed to be stored in the extra room of the rental house. Everyone should have to do this every 2-3 years. It will keep you from becoming the packrat that I had turned into!

So we got settled in and started praying for our house to sell. We actually received an offer the first week while we were still in the process of moving but didn’t accept it and they didn’t accept our counteroffer. Finally after reducing our price by $15,000, another offer came in which we accepted. Today (5 months later) we closed on the sale and that chapter of our life. We are no longer homeowners, but we are still landowners. And the good news is that the land is paid for! Yahoo!!

Now our goal is to build a home we can live in forever, have a lower mortgage and work to pay it off as quickly as possible. That means really watching the budget now and socking away as much money as possible to put down on the new home when the construction is completed and it is time to take out our home loan. The builder has said that it will take at least 5-7 months to build so Bob and I will be focusing on helping buyers and sellers with renewed passion as we work to earn more income. Great goals are Great motivators!

Will keep you posted on our progress!

Amazing times we live in!

G:   Bob, isn’t it truly amazing that you are able to help customers all over the world purchase and build new homes before they ever arrive in Columbus, Fort Benning, Georgia, area?  If anyone had told me 10 years ago that we would be able to sign a contract over the internet with a customer in the State of Washington or the country of Argentina, I would have said “no way!”  But you do this all the time now.

B:  Yep, and how exciting it is!  Both for the customer and for me!  With the help of You Tube videos and Skype teleconferencing, the customer gets to see and do everything as if they were actually here on a househunting trip.   If they want to build a new home, my videos on You Tube help them decide on a neighborhood, then they can view houseplans and make changes they need or want.  Once we get under contract, they are an integral part of the homebuilding process, choosing everything from bricks to appliances, flooring to wall colors…and all online!   And the really cool thing is that I get to film the construction progress and send it to them on a regular basis…so they can literally see their home come up out of the ground!

G:  And then the most fun comes when they actually arrive here and get to see their masterpiece in person for the first time.  I know that gives you as much a thrill as it does the customer, right?

B: You’ve got it!  That’s why I love this business.  It feels so good to make folks happy!    Speaking of making folks happy, what’s for dinner?  You know I’m always starving!