The End?

We purchased a townhome back in 2005. It turns out we bought at the worst possible time in one of the worst possible housing markets in the nation. The collapse of the housing market has definitely impacted our family.

When we moved to Richmond back in March 2008 (been here almost two years now!), we had tried to sell the place, but had no luck. So we opted to rent it out with the hope that we’d be able to sell it at some point in the future. Unfortunately, the rental market had also essentially collapsed in that area as well. With so many people unable to sell their homes, they turned to renting them out, which in turn drove down rental prices across the board.

We were eventually able to rent the place out, but at a great cost. Just to hang on to the place, we’ve lost several thousand dollars over the past two years (not to mention the severely declining value). With John’s recent unemployment and potential childcare costs for when he does go back to work, we made the decision to do a short sale on the property to ease some of the financial burden.

Even doing a short sale has come with its share of difficulties, mainly in the shape of our tenant and management company. Now that some of those difficulties have been ironed out, we are finally starting to progress slightly. The home was finally shown this past Saturday. We are praying, and would covet your prayers as well, that this process would proceed quickly, that the right buyer would come along, and that we could lay this piece of our past to rest.

For me, it’s a wonderful relief to finally be so close to lying that part of the past to rest. It’s no secret that those 4.5 years we spent living in the land of constant summer were incredibly difficult on many different levels. Moving to Richmond brought a sense of relief and sheer freedom that I hadn’t felt in years. It’s given me the opportunity to start healing and processing things from that former time. But despite finally being in a much better place locationally, we’ve still retained ties to our former place through paying a mortgage on a house there and dealing with all the fun issues that come up with a management company and tenant.

Now that the end is finally in sight, I feel like the day we’ll get to sign the closing papers will bring some much needed closure and give me the ability to finally (fully) move on. Now we just need a buyer and some divine intervention in this short sale process!