To sell or not to sell?

That is the question.

Whether tis' noble in the mind to suffer... (and spend money to sell)

... Or just suck it up and risk to rent it out.

That is exactly what we plan to do.


Here's why:


Last night we had a meeting with our Realtor, Beverly, who sold us the house when we moved in 4 1/2 years ago. We love this lady for so many reasons. I worked for her at one point, actually. It was pretty cool; about a year after living here she called me up one day asking if I would like to work for her new office. She said I made an impression on her when we went through the process of buying our house and it stuck with her. I was very flattered and excited for the opportunity. Since I wanted to continue my job at Chilis, I agreed to work 8am-3pm at her office then from there I would go work the night shift at Chilis at 4pm-10 or 11pm. That went on for about 4 months before I got pregnant with Emme and went back to having just the Chilis job. (Looking back I wish I chose the Realty job over Chilis- live and learn, right?).

Beverly is the most down to Earth old school person you could ever want to sell your house. In our meeting we discussed originally how we wanted to sell. After weighing the options and finding out that Cove dropped 10% in home value we were devastated to learn that after closing costs, Realtor fees, and any repairs buyers might ask for, we would be in the hole between 5k- 9k.

Ouch.

We have a savings for these exact reasons. But in the end, you want to KEEP your savings.

The meeting started off rough.

Options #2:

Wait for the market to raise back in value where it should be and rent it out/pay off more principal while doing so.

Sounds amazing right?

Except for the whole renting our first house- my love and pride and joy- to strangers, it is.

In the end, we could rent our house out and possibly make money off Renters, and that would go straight to paying more principal off so when we do sell we wont be upside down.

We trust our Realtor and her company to rent it to good people due to their process of finding renters. It includes extensive background checks and payment history's. Also, since we continued our Realty service with her, we get an amazing discount so the property management fees are perfect.

Eric and I decided in one years time we would reassess our situation and see if we should sell then.

One things for sure though, we are not prepared to spend a good chunk of our savings just to get rid of it and be burden-free. For most people, there is a cost to having that burden taken away. In our opinion, the cost was too great.

We both feel good about this decision. Although this is not the outcome we expected, we understand that this is the economy today, and soon it will turn around. Us, along with the rest of America, have been in a similar situation.

If our plan works and we are able to rent it to good people for a year or two, then we won't take a hit and actually depending if the market is ANY better we could be a success story.

The next step is pretty simple, actually. We fix up the outside and do some things here and there in the house and come October 1st - our house in up for rent! =)

My wonderful in-laws, Dennis and Debbie, are coming out soon to help with making our baby shine again. We are so grateful for their visits and help throughout the years.

I am still so proud of our story. Buying our first home when I was 19 and Eric was 21, was rewarding. We want to tell our kids one day our story and be an example... Ya know, how the American dream is still reachable. Knowing what we know now, we still wouldn't change our decision with buying the house. Our Realtor said if the 10% drop didn't happen, we would have sold our house within the month and had a couple grand in our pockets. Even though it's not in our favor now, we still hope to be an example and not only survive, but gain in the end. If not money, experience will be a nice trade off. We want to look back on this one day and think to ourselves "We made the best possible outcome out of a non-favorable situation".

Wish us luck during this trial and , of course, I will keep you updated on the new developments.

Just when you thought you were stuck forever

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

The Jaeger's have some awesome news...


WE'RE MOVING!

Just as I stated above... It seems like anytime we told family/ friends our "plans" with the Military, we would soon find out that wasn't going to happen.

Anytime we went home we would end up telling them something different, from " We're getting out of the military" to "Eric's not only re-enlisting.. he wants to go Special Forces."

=D

Our family has been on a roller coaster right along with us.

We agreed after the SF interest came and went that it was better for all involved to just hear news when it actually is in writing or they are at the house with the moving van.


Then-

Then, the unthinkable happened!

We finally got orders!



For those who don't know what a big deal that is... well, it is.

Fort Hood is the largest Military facility in the world.
This large base is located in Central Texas and is home to the Army.

Well- mostly Army.

There are a handful of us Air Force stationed here due to the fact that my Husband is a Meteorologist and Army has the Air Force do that side for them. So here we are, 4 1/2 years later, literally stuck at this Army base with no end in site. Because, funny enough, it turns out Airmen don't really want to be stationed here. Ha! told you it was funny. That being said, it seems like Ft Hood was ALWAYS short-manned so no one was getting out of here. Unless of course you decide to get an over-seas assignment like Korea or even the occasionally lucky Germany.

So the question is.. How did we get orders?... to a non-overseas assignment??

I'm glad you asked. =)

I feel it's kinda a secret...


We outsmarted them.

(well I think so anyway)

Ha Ha!

And here is how I think so.

Long story short-
We knew we had to chose a place that needs people. Also, this place that we applied for is a non-deploy-able spot. Pretty cool, huh?

There is one little thing.

Hurricane Katrina did a pretty good number on it.

Biloxi, Mississippi.

Yikes, I know.

BUT

We are totally stoked for SO many reasons about this wonderful assignment.

First and foremost, we will be out of the never ending Ft Hood.

Second, this controlled assigment is an Instructor job at Keesler AFB.
Eric and I lived there for a summer while he went through some training, so we do know what to expect.

Third, if we didn't get out of Hood before May- Eric was due to deploy again for the third time since stationed here. Not a big deal because, frankly, I don't really like it when families complain horribly when their spouses are due to deploy. I feel it shouldn't come as a shock and yeah, it sucks, but it's what our men signed up for and it is part of the job. Not to get too much off topic but I also feel so incredibly proud of my Husband that he is involved in something so big that people say "they could never do". In the end though, someone does. For that, I will always be supportive and raise my Children to appreciate what Daddy does.

Anyway, back to the reason we wanted out of here when we did.
Right around that time is when we (hopefully) expect to have our second child.
We knew it was risky to try for our second one right around the time he would leave again, but we were looking in the long run and the grand scheme of things and we wanted our children to be close in age. Although this decision was hard, it was what we wanted.

Thank the Lord that this is something we don't have to stress about anymore as we are due to report to Keesler AFB in January 2011.

I prayed about this assignment and spent many nights crying over the possibility to have it.

We wanted it that bad.

Our prayers were answered.

We have been blessed in the past with Military things coming to our favor..

Example:

Even though we saved most of our bonus from the re-enlistment, if that didn't come back (Air Force took it away from that career field for a while and actually I just heard it was taken back once again)
If it didn't come back, I would have had no choice but to go back to work part time. I would have, of course, if that is what was needed to have my family thrive and it almost came down to that BUT the bonus came and helped us enormously through that tough decision.

With that said, I know how blessed we are with the career we have chosen.

All in all we are very excited about this new change and looking forward to our future.

I will update with any new information. Wish us luck!! =)





Now to sell our house....

Made me smile

(Click to enlarge)

Something pretty big in the works!

Some know, some don't.


Here it is.

Eric and I made the decision a few months back that we thought it's about time we add another (most likely last, for reasons I'll explain later) baby to our family!

We always knew we wanted at least one more and wished for the age gap to be close together so they will grow up with a great bond. Not saying that an older age gap isn't bonding.. Eric and I just know from experience the difference a 2 1/2 year age gap had on us as kids and we want that for ours.

Some family/friends already know that we are actively trying for #2. So far our first attempt came back a no. Which was a definite surprise to be bc when we tried for Emme, we knew we were blessed when we got her on the first try. So after wasted money on pregnancy tests and high hopes, I got a good wake up call that has humbled me. I wasn't mad or upset that the first go round didn't work but I def was a little to cocky in KNOWING I was pregnant. I even had the date August 11th memorized so I could tell the doctors the question you get about 100 times while your pregnant "When was the first day of your last period".

We are understanding that things happen for a reason and whenever it is our turn to be blessed with another baby, is when God knows it's best for us. We are leaving it in His hands and stay looking positive towards the future.

I'll keep ya updated with the process.

Wish us luck!

Potheads

Hi, my name is Emmeyln...and i'm a binki-holic.