18 month plan

Yes, we are planners!  We have been contemplating this for a LONG time, but we have always put it off saying next year, next year.  Well now we have a plan.  I don't know if I have ever mentioned this but, Randy bought our house when he was single, and he also bought in the height of the market.  While I have never been a fan of the house, it is a good house, I am just not a fan of DIY.  The other major negative of our house is the local school district.  It is HORRIBLE!!!  Not only are their scores in the tank, the environment is not one I want my children to be in.  As Camden will be entering Kindergarten next year, we knew that he would not be going to public school.  We found a great private school and he has been accepted for Kindy.  Last night we were going over the numbers.  With just Camden it is feasible.  When we add Dasha 2 years later, it becomes a lot harder to manage. 

The hard part of this plan is like when I mentioned above, Randy bought in the height of the market.  There were some bad loan terms and we refinanced when we got married.  We rolled the closing costs into the loan, which raised the mortgage on the house, etc.  As we all know it takes FOREVER to make a dent in a mortgage.  Then the market crash happened.  Houses started foreclosing all around us and we lost about $50,000 in our home value.  Plus we were saving for a $50,000 adoption.  So for the next 5 years we trudged along.  Then we were finally able to refinance through HARP 2.0 last year.  We lowered our interest rate by almost 2% and for the last year we have been able to pay extra on our house, we are making a dent now.  But it takes a long time for home values to rise and to pay down a mortgage to close that $50,000 gap.  So the plan, in 18 months, we are putting the house on the market with a hopeful timeline that it will take 6 months for it to sell.  We hope that by that time, the home remodel will be done, we will have paid down enough of the principle that we will only need to write a small check for closing costs and Realtor fees, and we plan on renting out in our desired school district.  We are limited by our school districts as Randy has to live in the county for his job.  There are only 4 districts in the county and only 1 is actually a school district worth sending your kids to.  So that is the plan.  We will hopefully have the house sold by the time Camden is done with 1st grade, and both he and Dasha can enter public school when he is in 2nd grade and she is in Kindergarten.

So that is the plan, here's to making it all work out!