Those who have stored 95% of their stuff, sold a house, and stayed in temp living -

[rafiki]

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[Julie in Austin]

The prepossesion thing makes me nervous. I would only do it with a pretty draconian written contract.

 

As far as storage: how about pods? I think they will store and/or move them whenever you need it done.

[TraceyS/FL]

They should be able to start school with a purchase agreement in hand. Let them live in temp quarters until closing. In todays economy i'd not want the pre-possession without a good deposit coming to me and rent.

 

We had a 7 day escrow - but it was a cash sale and an empty house. Some loans can be pushed thru in 3 weeks or so - will depend on the the person lending the money AND the willingness of your "title company" to speed things up (sounds like you guys use lawyers instead of title companies). I've seen that end be the one not willing to change the timeline.

 

Good luck though!!! :grouphug:

[Tap]

I would not allow possession. There are too many things that could go wrong that could cause you some major problems. They could back out of the contract and then you would have to start eviction proceedings (which can take many months), while they have a chance to ruin carpets and trash walls, move in 6 cats that aren't box trained, work on car engines in the living room, and leave heaps of unbagged garbage (all of these happened to my in-laws in rentals of only 3-6 months.)

 

 

They can start school with just an address, documentation and a PO Box.

 

 

 

I have lived in 'portable' mode before. We sold our house fast and closed in about 2 weeks, rented a house while the kids finished school (we were ps then), them moved to the new state and rented an apartment for 1-2 months (our apartment had a garage that we moved our storage unit into), then bought a new house. We lived in 4 houses in 3 months with a 6yo and 2yo.

 

What we did was box everything up that we absolutely didn't want to live without (but wouldn't need in the next 2 months) and put it into storage (considering that we would only be renting one large U Haul to ultimately move out of state). I wanted everything out of my way as I sorted and it only cost us $50 for 3 months. The storage unit saved me way more that $50 in sanity :tongue_smilie: We picked a unit that was close to our house and on the way into town, so every time we drove by it, we stopped and dropped off packed boxes out of our trunk. Everything else went into a garage sale/donation box. I loved the thorough purging and didn't miss anything. We kept detailed lists of what was in the boxes and marked huge numbers on the sides/tops of the boxes to find anything we needed before we unpacked them.

 

For one month in house #2, we were left with a computer, a couple toys, sleeping bags/mats, toiletries, small wardrobes for us all and slim pickings of kitchen pans/gadgets. On our last trip it all fit into 2 cars.

[KatieJ]

I am not sure what you mean by prepossion, but I assume it means, they have written a purchase agreement and you are sure the loan will go thru, it will just take some time for the paperwork.

 

Times have changed, but we did rented from an owner several times, before our paperwork was done. EAch time the person we bought from was ready to move and we wanted to get kids settled so we rented for a period of time. I would be sure the loan is approved before I agree to that. ( We were preapproved for a loan each time before we moved in and took possession)

 

When we moved to Michigan from Minnesota, our house sold in teh first weekend it was on the market. since we were homeschooling, we packed up 3 kids and a dog and moved to a Residence Inn. We lived there for 3 months while we were house hunting. they are set up like apartments. We had one bedroom, a ktichen and a murphy bed in teh dining room along with a 2nd bath room.

 

Yes, it was tough, but we made it work.

I only packed school books and clothes to take with us. Ok, a few toys and lovies and such. When I packed our belongings for storage, I made sure the dressers and such were available at teh front of the storage unit so we could access clothes as the weather changed from winter to spring to summer which it did in those short three months.

[Ottakee]

Are they pre-approved for a loan? If so, you might be able to close before then and then give them immediate possession.

 

I would be careful about possession until the papers are signed and the money was in my hands.

[ConnieB]

I would not allow possession. There are too many things that could go wrong that could cause you some major problems. They could back out of the contract and then you would have to start eviction proceedings (which can take many months), while they have a chance to ruin carpets and trash walls, move in 6 cats that aren't box trained, work on car engines in the living room, and leave heaps of unbagged garbage (all of these happened to my in-laws in rentals of only 3-6 months.)

 

 

They can start school with just an address, documentation and a PO Box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

:iagree::iagree:

 

Yep, let them take all the inconvenience and risk. I can't tell you how many people I know who allowed possession before closing who regretted it. Your property has been on the market for a mere week....so if someone was interested that quickly, there will be another along shortly with terms that will fit your needs much better. Had it been on the market for months and months taking more risk might be worth it.

 

And, it sounds like if you don't have a destination in mind, then you aren't exactly in a crashing hurry to sell, so you have the time and means to wait until the deal is right for you.

 

If you decide to go ahead anyway......price the pods but realize that they tend to be more cost effective for short term....since the delivery cost is built into the price the months that you're simply storing it they're making a hefty profit. If you're looking 3+ months it's likely worth the effort to do the moving yourself and save the difference in storage rates. Look for a storage company that lets you use their truck for free to save on the truck rental fees. Since you have no destination in mind, store your stuff at the cheapest storage center within a 15-20 drive of your house to make the moving day quick. If you knew your destination then you would need to weigh the differences to decide.

 

As for where to stay....we'd done a lot of moving and staying in temp housing for a couple months while we determine final destinations. There are "extended stay" hotels (in fact one of them is called Extended Stay I believe) that are basically furnished apartments that are rented usually with a minimum of a month. So, it will come with beds and bedding, couch, chairs, dining room, towels, a semi-equipped kitchen, etc. You'll probably want to chose and inventory one before you start packing to know what you want to bring along. Pets are often allowed with a security deposit. These are typically meant for business people who are in town for an extended period of time, or are being transferred and in limbo waiting for their goods to arrive, etc. We've been able to negotiate the price when we've known that we'll be staying for a set period of time, because they really like having steady tenants. Typically these places only provide housekeeping once a week (and sometimes very basics like vacuuming and bath cleaning, not trash take out, etc). They also don't typically take the bedding/towels for washing, some may not even provide towels or bedding. So be sure to ask what is and isn't provided (ask them to compare it to a typical hotel).

 

Or, since you'll be storing your stuff anyway, maybe look into apartments that don't have long term leases, since you can then use your own furnishings. This would make your storage needs smaller, but you probably will want to bring only the basic necessities so you're not having to pack/unpack/pack/unpack. But furniture tends to be the most expensive to store because it doesn't stack up neatly and easily and takes more room than boxed items.

 

You might call some apartments that advertise a lease requirement and see if you can negotiate better terms (sometimes you can offer an extra 10% of rent for a shorter, or no term lease). In this economy, you might find the ability to have an apartment without the extra cost. Around here, houses are selling for half the value of a year or two ago, so apartment dwellers are buying en masse, leaving a lot of empty apartments! I see a lot of banners offering free rent, reduced rates, shorter terms, etc.

 

Interim living can be as easy or as difficult as you choose to make it. Pick the level of "camping out" that your family can live with and go from there. Some families can do an apartment with no furniture except the packing boxes, other need everything including Grandma's china to survive. We were somewhere in between....I won't sleep on the floor, but I can make do with just a mattress on the floor so we aren't putting together/taking apart 7 beds (plus mattresses don't store well, bugs, dust and ick in storage places). But, I can live with having just 1 plate, bowl, cup and silverware set per person....and the kids let the adults use the bean bag chairs while they sit on the floor in the living room, so we need 2 bean bags, a TV, DVD player and our large bucket of movies as we're happy. We bring board games along, deck of cards, and all our school stuff. Clothes are usually limited to a suitcase full, just like it was a vacation, we do laundry and rewear everything.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.....remember, life is an adventure, and this is just a chapter.