All good advice and ideas, thanks fellas.

Yes Drew, we currently live in a condo. However selling it is probably not an option because I am darn sure I am underwater. I am not keen on taking our savings and paying off the difference in the mortgage for what we might be able to sell it. Our savings is our down payment on the next home. We're going to have a realtor do an appraisal just to see where we're at but I'm not confident. The units here have been selling for at least $15k less than what I owe against comparables (we unfortunately bought in 2006 around the height of the market) Some are even selling for $140-$160k's It's depressing.

I've done a lot of work to our condo and I fear I'm not going to make any of it back, if I do it'd be minimal. So we really only have the option of renting it out. The good thing though is I have my father and also my mom and stepfather all within 30 minutes of my current place and if something needed to be fixed I can call upon them (both are extremely handy). I certainly would love to sell it and get rid of it but I just don't think it's going to happen. There's a few units on the market here that are basically the same as when they were built so my market value would be higher than those but the highest one has sold for recently was 6 months ago and sold for $170k. I owe about $180k.

The biggest problem we experience now is space. Our family is growing. We have a 15 month old daughter now and are looking to expand that to another child very soon, but we cannot until we move into a bigger place. There's no storage, I have our stuff stored at my parent's basement and also my father's garage. Stuff is everywhere. It's a big pain having to keep moving stuff around, and all of you with kids know that they accumulate more and more as they grow. The grandparents don't help with that respect ya know. There always buying stuff, hahaha.

Renting for a bit is definitely an option, not ideal but could be the smart move until we get situated and then focus on finding "our place". We plan to be there for a long time. NJ is just way to expensive. I'd like my wife to be able to stay home with our daughter and if we have another child too. But in NJ it's just damn near impossible. You need two incomes. My salary down in SC would go SO much further, and quality of life will be dramatically improved.

We're familiar with the areas, 4 yrs ago (when we originally wanted to do this and then the credit crisis put a delay in that) we spent a week visiting charlotte and the surrounding SC towns we're looking at. It's a great place. I also have a friend who lives in Charlotte, and he's even an agent on the side. So that helps. Right now we're focused on Fort Mill, and from the research we've done they have excellent schools and the area is growing. It's right near Lake Wylie so we'll have close proximity to the lake. Our dream would be to get a lakefront home but I just don't think we can swing it yet. We're still young so maybe in 10 or so years. So I'd be happy with close proximity and a house that fits our needs. You just cannot get anything in NJ like we're looking at in SC. SC has lower taxes than NC (we met a couple when we were down there that suggested we look right over the border at Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Gastonia who informed us of this). And it's all within a short drive to Charlotte.

My manager is working with me to create an opportunity to work remotely which is awesome. We have a satellite office right in Charlotte so I could drop in there every couple of days for protocol, but would mainly be working from home.

That point about the furniture is a good one, hadn't thought about that so thanks for pointing it out.

Anyways, like it was said before, moving sucks and it's daunting. Researching the net takes so much time and it's like information overload. I just have to remain focused.

Thanks for all of the insights. Really appreciate it. I just hope I don't have to sell the Supra to move down there! Wife says no way but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Not a thought yet, but its possible.

Good luck to you deerfield and your family's move. Hoping it goes easy. That's gotta be tough to be away from them for so long. I couldn't do it with having my little girl.


Justin
2008 Supra 21V
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk