So, I thought we would piggy back a family vacation with my conference in San Francisco... but we took it a step further and we are going all the way to Hawaii! We have already made the flight and hotel reservations. Now, we just need to look at what to do while there. We are going to be on Oahu. Visiting Pearl Harbor is a no brainer but what else do you guys recommend? We'll have our teenagers with us as well as my parents so we need to keep everyone happy. Suggestions on what we should do to ensure a great trip? This is a huge trip for us and a major expense so we want to make the most of it.

(This is a post that only purse lovers would understand)

So, Kate Spade sends me an email this morning about a purse that is $100 off today only. I looked, coveted, and drooled all day long.... but I have finally decided to just say NO because it's the right thing to do. I certainly love this bag but I certainly don't need it nor do I have an extra $200 to spend on it either. But, gosh darnit, I can't stop thinking about it.

As luck would have it though, I just sold one of my brand new Dooney and Bourke handbags that I bought for a steal (around $90) and got $160 for it which means a profit of $70. I've tried and tried to sell it over the course of the past year or so with no luck until today... the day that Kate Spade tempts me so. But, I'm holding strong and will save that $160 inflow of cash instead of spending it and then some on a new Kate bag.

The right decision is sometimes (always) the hardest decision.

This is the balance in our short term savings account right now. I know many of you have lots more than that but this is an accomplishment for us. I realize that this number may fluctuate as we need to use it for short term expenses (like annual car insurance bills, etc) but I am enjoying just looking at it today and my goal is to keep adding to it as much as possible.

I returned some clothing to Old Navy today. I had purchased them using their "Super Cash" promo just to purchase them... nothing I needed at all. So, I finally just took them all back and now I have my $82.99 back in my wallet instead of a bunch of clothes I didn't need to begin with. Feels good.

We are at $540 in sales with the consignment sale which means $324 for moi. Loving it, but we are nearing the end of the sale which means that I won't get too much more, I doubt, but we'll see.

So, I'm finally back. I didn't realize that my last entry was over a year ago but it's time to get focused again on our finances. I won't go into detail as to what our goings on have been this past year but instead put down our thoughts and goals for the present:

1) Savings:
We currently save $1200 from our paychecks each month. $250 has been going into ROTH accounts. $150 has been going into a long-term (LT)savings account. $800 has been set aside for short-term (ST) savings each month.

We currently have just $2,500 in our LT savings (a mutual fund account)

We currently have $7,600 in our ST account and I have $3,000 in cash at home that I have been socking away anytime we get extra cash. I will be depositing that $3,000 into our ST account today so our balance will now be $10,600. There have been times where we need to tap into this account for annual bills like life insurance and such so this balance will fluctuate but that's what it is for.


2) Debt:
Our debt load currently looks like this-
Mortgage loan 1 balance $238,515 (renting this one out)
Mortgage loan 2 balance $287,955 (our home)
Car loan 1 balance $13,168 1.95% (purchased Jan 2014)
Car loan 2 balance $21,645 3.59% (purchased Jan 2015)
Yes, I know these are scary numbers.
No unsecured debt.

My conundrum is whether or not to stop putting away any or all of the $150 LT and $800 ST and instead divert those funds into paying off one our car loans. We have been paying more than the minimum each month but adding more to one of them would snowball it quickly. What do you all think?

--- I was "offered" a job in a county 2 hours away for about $30k more than what I am making now. I wasn't looking or applying anywhere but the person there is retiring and recommended me as her replacement. After weighing out everything, I declined the offer. Believe me, I was very humbled to be considered but we have just too much going on here so the timing just isn't right.

--- Renters have renewed for another year so at least we don't have to worry about that house for a while longer. I think we lucked out quite a bit with this as there are so many horror stories about bad renters. This is a nice little family and they love our house so they have taken very good care of it. {{Too bad their rent payment is $360 short of paying our mortgage that we have on it, but it's better than nothing}}

--- Work has been complete chaos these past few months. Our superintendent was bought out of his contract to a tune of nearly $200k and we are now without a boss for who knows how long.

--- Slowly still making progress at the "short sale" house. We love living there but geez, it's taking a long time to fix it up. With the nicer weather these days, we have done much work outside amping up the landscaping. Plus side is that we get a nice workout while we are at it.

--- Drove by an apt complex last Sat and sitting right by the dumpster was something that caught my eye. I pulled over and tried to piece it together... turns out to be a toddler bed in the shape of a Volkswagen Beetle and it was in great condition. My parents are going to yard sale it off for around $30. Oh, and there was also a stepper machine that was just sitting there... in great shape too. Probably will sell that for around $20. Woo hoo for dumpster diving!

--- Upcoming local consignment sale next month that I will participate in. This is held twice a year and is a good way to clean out our closets without holding a yard sale. So, I've been looking for just about anything that can go toward that sale. The only bad thing is that they charge 40% of the sale --- yikes, but again, better than nothing. This is a huge deal where I live and tons of people shop this thing so it really is a good way to get rid of stuff.

--- Family is on a spending hiatus starting today. Besides stuff we need to get to keep our home improvements running along, we are not allowed to buy any "fun" stuff like clothes or dvds. I hope we can last a while because we are running low on cash as it is!

--- Family beach trip coming up in July so I am also starting an exercise plan tonight (Jillian Michaels, here I come). Wish me luck.

Ok, so my younger sister just received a great job offer.... so why do I feel so jealous of her? She and her hubby are in so much better shape financially that we are and that just makes me ache. She's making right around the $100k mark with this new job from what I can piece together (she doesn't share her income numbers with me anymore). Together with her DH, they are making about $180k I think. Now, DH and myself, we aren't making shabby incomes at around $140k but we work in a completely different sector so I have to keep reminding myself of this. I think the thing that bothers me the most is that sis will have her house paid off in the next 8-10 years (brand new house they bought in 2006)... while I'm still carrying 2 mortgages and will be for a long while. I'm just so envious. Ugh. I know I should be happy for her but it's hard to be... I'm such a bad sister

Has it really been this long since I've posted? Oh, my.

Bullet list of happenings---

*Renters are working out great. They are such a cute and happy family. They say they love our house and wish they could go ahead and buy it (their house in FL won't sell) but are happy calling it home. Their lease doesn't run out until July but they will probably renew it for another year after that. So, all is good.

*We are moving ahead with our short-sale house. I really shouldn't call it that anymore since it is our home now and has been for the last 6 months. We've finished renovating the kitchen, family room, dining room (hosted Thanksgiving dinner!), half bath, and upstairs main bath. We have almost finished our youngest DD's bedroom and are working on the guest bedroom that our oldest DD will be temporarily using as her bedroom (her "real" bedroom will be the entire 3rd floor of the house and it will take some time to redo so we are calling that our summer 2013 project). So, slowly but surely we are making headway.

*Financially, we are not in the best of positions if I were to be completely honest. I thought we had plenty of money saved up for all these renovations (most of which we are doing ourselves) but alas, we are drained out. Ugh.

*Things at work are getting better. They finally hired another person that has taking that "full-time" stuff that I inherited last summer off my plate so I can now go back to doing what I was doing before. Still though, the changes around here are just crazy but I'm so thankful to have my job!

*In looking at my 2012 goals that I had listed to the side, I can say that we met all 3 of the house goals. All the other goals were "meh" at best. I hope 2013 will be more successful.

So, it's been eons since I last reported in... the short sale house reno is going just fine. We officially moved in Aug 1 and we are enjoying actually living there while we continue with the renovations. We rented out our other house and so far so good with the renters.

The reason I am exhausted though is due to demands at work. I used to like coming to work each day but for the last several months, I dread each morning getting up and going to work. We've had 4 different lead management changes during this time period... and I've assumed an entire full-time job on top of what I currently have to do. Doing 2 jobs within a work week is nearly impossible. I am stressed beyond belief as to the amount of work that I am now responsible for getting done. I have a staff of 3 folks that I used to like but lately, those relationships have been strained as well. It's so hard to describe accurately what is going on so I won't even attempt it but needless to say, I feel like my time here is over. I am looking for another job but it's a bit difficult right now to find anything comparable to what I am doing (and at the same pay). So, I am trying to take deep breaths each day, keep myself above water, and find a way to continue with this each day. I'm so drained........

So, we took the safe route and decided to rent our house to the $1300 per month family. They seem very nice and eager to move in. I think it will work out just fine with them. The lease starts Aug 1 so we have just 2 weeks to move out (one week we had already planned to be at the beach on vacation). Yikes. So much to do. So much crap to get rid of.

We are shy $360 per month in covering our mortgage but getting $1300 is better than getting nothing so we are okay with it. They did decide on just a one year lease so we'll have to see what happens next year. Our house was much easier to rent out to sell, that's for sure!

Anyway, we are looking forward to moving on and living at our short sale house permanently. {{Big sigh released}}. I need to take some pictures to share with you but the house renovations are going great. Loving this house.

Now, I've got 4 college boys wanting to rent our house for a year at the full asking price of $1700. Anyone have any pros/cons with renting to college kids?

(The $1300 family now wants to change it to a year's lease with the option to renew for another year.)

Brief recap:

-House for sale for 4 years now
-Finally decide to put it up for rent a month ago
-Got an offer to rent it for $1300 a month for 2 years (doesn't cover all the mortgage on the house but it's much better than nothing!)
-Need to firm up this lease agreement offer TODAY

So, we were all set to go on this thing but then our realtor just let us know that he has been in talks with a family out in Arizona (we are in the Southeast). The lady has just accepted a job here at the local University and they are heading up here to look at rental houses on July 4. He said that they loved our house based on the pictures and the conversations they have had with him. If they like the house once they see it, they will give $1500 a month for a one year lease.

These $1300 people want to lock in today so I don't have the luxury of waiting for the Arizona people in the case that I would lose the $1300 offer.

So, should I take the safe bet and just lease the house to the family first in line at $1300 for 2 years? Or should I take the riskier bet and wait a week and a half so that the Arizona people can come up and look at the place. If they like it, we'll get $1500 a month for a year. If they don't like it and don't want to rent it, we may or may not have the $1300 offer on the table any longer.

**At $1300 a month for 24 months, we are looking at a loss of around $9500 over the two years considering mortgage and insurance.
**At $1500 a month for 12 months, we are looking at a loss of around $2600 over the one year considering mortgage and insurance.

I have a feeling I know the answer but thought I would throw the question out to you guys anyway... ((Oh, and the $1300 a month people will have a dog with them -- a lab, but I'm not charging them anymore for having a pet.))

Ok, so we decided to move forward with trying to get a renter for our house at the same time we are trying to sell this same house... We now have an offer from a couple wanting to rent our house for $1300 a month with first and last month plus a month as a security deposit ($3900) paid upfront. Our mortgage on the house is $1660 per month so we'd be renting it at a loss. However, we would be selling at a huge loss as well so it's not something that we were not expecting in today's climate. My CPA friend thinks it is a good idea as we could begin to claim the property as rental property which means we could claim these losses on our taxes. I think we are moving forward with these renters (have to decide today) just so we can get out from under the house. They want to move in on Aug 1 which works out for our schedule too as our "short sale" house is coming along just fine and we could definitely live there starting Aug 1. I've always wanted rental property but just never thought we would go this route to be landlords so it's a bit of foreign territory for us...

So, life has been quite hectic these past few months as we have been super busy in the renovation of our "short sale" house but it's coming along so nicely!

On the other side of the fence in "not-so-good-news-land":

-had a purchase offer on the house; buyers withdrew before we could even consider accepting it or countering it

-2 weeks later we received a lease option offer on the house; again, buyers withdrew before we could even consider accepting it or countering it

Our listing contract ends on June 30 and we are seriously considering throwing in the towel and just try to rent the house out instead. We've been trying to sell the house for 4 years now! The feedback we've received from every realtor that has walked through the doors have been so positive, i.e. great price (even as we've reduced it several times), great location, great house in general, yada, yada. So, what's the deal??!!

In researching our option to turn the house into a rental property, this is what my CPA has told me:

Since we would be selling at a loss anyway, he advises that turning it into a rental property right now might not be such a bad idea. We could then start deducting depreciation and other expenses. Our mortgage payment is currently $1600 monthly. He advises us to try to refinance it to get a lower monthly payment as the house would probably only get $1200 to $1400 in rent so that we could break even.

Given that we are planning on moving into our "short sale" house sometime at the end of July, we need to make some decisions regarding this house. What do you guys think? Apparently we are stricken with just plain ol' bad luck on this house but we aren't alone... a co-worker has been trying to sell her spec house that they built for the same amount of time (4 years) with no luck either.

Any words of wisdom out there for me?

Help! Our list price is $274,000 with a 4.5% commission fee to the realtor. We bought the house at $285,000 so we are selling at a loss but we knew we would be and we were ok with that since we grabbed a great steal with our short sale house.

The offer is $260,000 with 1.5% (or $3,900) in closing costs. Everyone knows our house is a great steal at $274,000 but buyers want to get the best deal so it's understandable.

We are thinking of countering at $273,000 and $4,000 in closing costs.

What do you guys think?

Been so busy these past few weeks... biggest news is that we are expecting an offer today on our house that we have been trying to sell for like 3 years! The folks that saw the house on Sunday apparently fell in love with it - they didn't want another showing or anything. As I understand it, they went and got their financing in order and have asked for tons of documentation from our realtor regarding our house. So, we hear that they are prepared to put in an offer sometime today. PLEASE send positive energy our way as we would love to sell our house (finally!).

So, we are at the stage now where we want to re-carpet the entire short sale house. We went ahead and paid for the family room to be done first and the second and third floors, where all the bedrooms are to be done later.

Main family room cost = $1,966 (615 sq feet) -- We've already paid for this as we thought this was acceptable BUT then the rest of the house will cost a whopping $7,325! This is for the installation of another 1,995 sq feet of pad and carpet. I realize we are carpeting a huge amount of square footage but geez...

Do you guys think this is too expensive? The estimate is from Lowes which in all honesty is our cheapest alternative where we live. I guess I wasn't expecting nearly $9,300 for new carpet (and that is with us tearing out and hauling away the old carpet ourselves!). The carpet we chose is $2.58 per sq foot so it ain't the cheapest nor the most expensive option. UGH.

So, January 2010 was the last time I received a raise (for earning my MBA). I just finished a 3 year certificate program this past summer and today I got my raise for earning that... My personnel director (love him!) asked for 5% on my behalf which was great but.... After some careful consideration and research, I went back to the boss and asked for 12.5% instead. And, wahoo! I got the 12.5%! I am so overjoyed, you don't even know how much!!! In my profession, there are no automatic raises for performance or cost of living or anything... so I have to "earn" every penny of every raise I ask for. With completing this certification, I honestly don't know what else I can do to earn another raise (short of getting a PhD) so I wanted to make sure I asked for enough and not to settle for just anything. I was going to just ask for 10% but after talking with a confidant, she suggested 15% and so I took it right down the middle. I did present both the 10% and the 12.5% scenarios to the boss and he elected the 12.5% number. It really is a fair amount (I didn't ask for the moon in comparison to my co-workers' pay) so I am very grateful!!! This goes into effect Dec 1 so what a wonderful Christmas present this is for me.

On another good news front, we have a second showing scheduled for our house tomorrow. This one sounds very promising as the couple went to the bank to talk numbers after seeing our house the first time this past Sat. I am trying to stay optimistic and am crossing all my fingers and toes that they will put in an offer --- so we can focus all our attention on the short sale house we just bought. We've only had our house for sale for 3 years now!

DH told me this morning that after some thought, he would rather us save the $8,500 that it would cost to hire professional painters to do the outside of the house and for us to try to do it ourselves. He thinks after some research, that we should be able to attempt this... and if all else fails, we may end up using the pro but at least we'll give it the ol' college try.

So, we closed on the short sale house a couple of weeks ago... we've got roofers almost done putting up the much needed new roof at a cost of $11,000! The house also is in much need of a good paint job--- that will cost $8,500 (not including the decks/porches)!! So, for $19,500, we'll have a great looking house from the street... just don't go on the front porch or back deck or in the door yet! Those were the big expenses we knew we had to get done ASAP so we'll slow down now and just do a little renovation at a time and try to slow down the money drain!

Just closed on the deal about an hour ago!!! We officially own the great short sale house now. I'm so excited. I walked through the house this morning with our realtor just to make sure it was still in the same condition and it was. So, after a very smooth closing, we now have the keys to make it our own.

I got some information at closing that I thought was interesting... there was an offer on the house prior to ours. It was for $240k and after a counter here and there, the buyers' last offer to the bank was $280k. The bank at that point just dropped it because they didn't want to play anymore with those buyers. A few weeks later, we appeared in the picture and put in our original offer of $300k. I truly believe our realtor was the reason for our ultimate success with the deal. He suggested we offer a number beginning with a 3 and not a 2 so that we could get the bank's attention... and it worked. We were glad to offer $300k and it made perfect sense not to offend the bank with an offer in the $200's. Months later, the house is now ours for just $305k. Yahoo!

OMG, how things are moving quickly since the contract was put into play!

A timeline for the curious:

June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)

June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k

June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in seller's closing costs

July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!

August 25
Finally all the paperwork is signed and completed...officially in contract now

August 31
Inspection of house with contractor went very well -- just the obvious expense which is to replace the roof like yesterday

September 1
Met with the bank to finalize mortgage... ugh

September 8
Appraisal of house comes back at $360,000 so we are good there

September 15
CLOSING DATE!!!

We have finally received the signed agreement from the seller's bank approving the short sale. Looks like we have ourselves a contract, folks! Our realtor has scheduled a contractor to come out to look at the house next week... so sit down and buckle up. Here we go!

I helped my mom do a yard sale at her company's annual yard sale event this past Sat. Let me tell ya, my mother can sell anything to anyone!! Together we made $582! She gave me $382 and she kept $200. I put $100 in each of the kid's accounts and put the rest in our savings account. Love it when we make money like that.

In other news, we are still waiting for the fully executed contract on that short sale. The realtors on both side are very positive that things are going to go through just fine. We are just waiting for the seller's bank to sign off on everything and then we'll schedule the inspection, etc... DH and I can't wait to get our hands on that house!

Ok, let's back up and review...

June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)

June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k

June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in sellers closing costs

July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!

OMG! I am happy but freaked out at the same time. Never in a million years did we (nor our realtor) think that the bank would actually agree to our lowball offer! So, we are officially in contract now and expect to close in 60 days. We can back out for any reason so we'll have to wait and see what will be found during the inspection process. Wish us luck!

Ok, so we suggested going up to $305k on our counter to the bank's counter. Our realtor suggested that we do $305k and include offering to pay the seller's closing costs up to a max of $1,500. He said for some reason, this bank is hung up on not forcing the sellers to have to pay anything at closing. I think I'll tweak it to be just $1,000 and not $1,500 just because. Here we go with round 2!

We received a counter to our offer on that short sale house. The list price was $395k. We offered $300k due to the extremely poor condition of the house. The bank has countered at $375k. The bank's listing agent is so frustrated because she tried to get them to accept our offer since it was the best one that they had received in 5 years. At least they didn't shut us down completely like they did with the people who offered less than $300k before us. So, now what do we do? Our max that we would pay is $310k in all honesty and it doesn't look like the bank wants to go down that low at all. Guess we'll go back with $310k and just walk away if they don't take it, but I so want this house!! Ugh!

Just got this email from our realtor about the offer we put in on that short sale house.

"I met with the listing agent for the house this morning and she brought me up to date on her conversations with the lender. She's pretty confident that they aren't going to accept your offer (we already figured that) but she's trying to get them to come back with something reasonable. They evidently have two Broker Price Opinions saying the house is worth $100k more than what we offered. She is telling them that it isn't, and the fact that your offer is the highest one of the only two offers they've had in 5 years is proof. She's hoping to have a counter offer in the next week or so. One thing to keep in mind, whatever they come back with, they are going to want you to pay the seller's closing costs. She said they are hung up on not allowing the seller to pay them. Not uncommon with short sale deals."

It's amazing to me how a bank sitting halfway across the country would want to be stubborn about this. On paper, the house may be worth what they say, but in reality, it isn't because of the condition it is in. It's only going to be worth what someone is willing to pay for it and apparently, our offer is the highest of the two the agent has ever received over the course of the 5 years for this property.

I am heading to the San Jose, CA area within the next couple of weeks with my parents. We are going to see some family members that we have not seen in over 30 years! This is my first trip out to CA so I'm uber excited to go. Best thing is that I have to pay zippo for the trip. My parents covered my flight costs since I'm going as a favor to them (they need a chaperone when they travel as they don't understand airports at all). We'll be staying with family so that covers lodging. I'll just spend a bit for souvenirs to bring back to the fam.

I am also hoping to have a nice small and simple vacation to the beach at the end of July. My in-laws wanted us to go with them but honestly, the chaos of vacationing with that whole side of the family is just not mine or DH's cup of tea. They are so "not us" when it comes to how to vacation, you know what I mean? We are simple and realistic, but they want all the bells and whistles (like only staying where the kitchen has granite countertops!) So, bless DH for telling his mom that we just can't go with all 11 of them again this year. I look forward to just DH and me taking our girls ourselves to stay in some modest hotel and enjoying simple family time without the roo-rah of fancy (and stupid) details.

I'm doing it folks. In one hour, I'll be heading down to the realtor's office and we are submitting an offer on the potential short sale house! Ack! I'm completely nervous because of 2 things:

1) We haven't sold our current house yet! We'll have two houses and two mortgages. Yes, our house is on the market but no telling how long it will take to actually sell it. We decided that we would offer very low (like $100k lower than asking price) on this short sale and if they accepted, then great -- we'll then adjust our asking price of our current home to rock bottom and that should sell it pronto. If they don't accept the offer, then we'll walk away because of the following reason number 2...

2) This short sale house needs a TON of work done to it. It needs a new roof first and foremost. Then there is so much more to do outside and inside. It will drain our cash reserves to do all the work but we just love the house and its location. If we do get this house, it will be our forever home and we'll have the rest of our lives to make it ours.

Call us crazy or foolish but we've been searching and searching for years. This one keeps coming up on our radar and when the price came down low enough (due to the short sale potential), I just felt like it was meant to be... stay tuned to hear how this all turns out.