Finally I present the biggest highlight of 2008: our move to downtown. This one event was the most profound change for us in 2008.
Over the past few years, I’d been pondering what life in Raleigh would be after cheap gas was gone, or after I had become too old to drive. I wanted to live someplace where amenities were close by, and by that I don’t mean a faceless strip mall. I wanted to find a place where we could retire, knowing that if we needed to we could get around without driving.
We first began seriously considering a move downtown when Hallie was accepted into the magnet program at Conn. We were living off Durant Road at the time and wanted to be closer to the wonderful parents we’d met from school. It seemed so unobtainable at first as we were well aware of the price of homes downtown. Even so, we bided our time by saving money and building up equity in our home.
Another trigger was when a “for sale” sign appeared in the yard of our neighbor across the street. Though that house didn’t sell for what I thought it was worth, it showed that the time might be ripe to consider it.
A couple of other things fell into place for us to push us along further. First, I got a job at the address place which included a hefty boost in pay. Its office was also in downtown Raleigh. When work and school was there, how long would it be before home was, too?
Then one day I found an ad on Craigslist for a seemingly-affordable 100-year-old home in Oakwood. We fantasized about it, crunched the numbers, and found we might be able to swing it, especially since it was a triplex with renters on either side. The owner was a little squirrelly, though, but in spite of that we made an offer on it (and did it ourselves).
We were crestfallen when we learned that the owner decided to pursue another offer, but we also breathed a sigh of relief. The owner had expressed his strong reservations about getting the home inspected and we sensed trouble, as there was no way in hell we were going to buy a 100-year-old house without getting a thorough inspection. We moved on, I commuted from North Raleigh to downtown for a bit, and we continued looking around. Its now a year later and that house is still on the market – and we’re still tickled pink we didn’t buy it!
Not long after the Oakwood house, Kelly came up with seemed like an impossible real estate listing: a home only 2 years old and within two miles of downtown. It seemed too good to be true, yet there it was. We called in an agent we’d worked with before and spent the day looking at a couple of homes, saving this one for last – almost not expecting it to amount to much.
We saw it, we loved it, and we made an offer on it that very evening. I knew the instant I saw it it was our new home. I just knew.
Finding a new home is only half the battle (and the fun part of the battle at that). We still had to sell our North Raleigh home. Fortunately, we had some experience at that, selling our Garner home ourselves. We set out to do it ourselves, posting road signs, ads to Craigslist, and creating a website to showcase the home. Adding an MLS listing pushed us over the top, and we soon found a happy buyer. We packed most of our things ourselves, left some furniture for the POD people to move, and “>waved goodbye to life in North Raleigh.
To this day, Kelly and I still marvel at how we sold our old home ourselves, at the top of the market. And we found our new home on our own, too, and probably could’ve done so without an agent. I don’t think we could’ve timed things any better.
Our new house (and living here) has proven to be everything we thought it would be. We love the people around us and we love being within walking distance to the school and downtown Raleigh. We’ve got room to grow and we’re delighted to see the interest building in where we are.
It’s so much easier to be involved in things here: so many passionate people from whom we can learn. It’s exciting, and we’re glad to be a part of it.