As previously noted, Sean and I are in Delaware for a “workation”. We haven’t really gotten to enjoy very much being as our computers really don’t leave our sides unless we’re sleeping, even then they’re still on and downloading countless emails for the 6-8 hours (if we’re lucky) while we’re asleep. We took some time to drive around down in the Rehoboth area (by his Mom) to do some house hunting. Of course everyone that sparked my interest was in the $250k to $350k range. The difference between looking down here at houses in that price range, and the quality of the house in New York would be $500k at least. I’m looking at houses that in NY would typically be listed in the $850k range just based on the amount of property, the quality of the house, and the communities themselves. Obviously $250k wouldn’t be a bad deal down here considering everything you’re given, but it’s still out of any reasonable price range considering we’re looking for a ‘starter home’ at this time.
Now, there are a lot of manufactured homes down here, it’s kind of shocking at the amount of them honestly. Some of them are really, really nice, and in the $75k range as well. But the things that you have to factor in there, are on top of the mortgage for the home there’s also lot rent to be paid, and down here it ranges from $450 to $500 a month. So in total just to cover the mortgage and the lot rent it would amount to around $1250 a month. Now, $1250 a month on Long Island (NY) will give you a one bedroom apartment with some sort of infestation. Obviously the value of a dollar goes much further down here, but in order to justify the extra $1250 a month going out in bills, we would need to mortgage the home for more than its worth – which is something banks aren’t willing to do.
I found a very nice manufactured home for $43k, built in 2005, it’s had one owner whom is elderly with no pets so its a relatively clean home, in a nice community. However, in order to afford it we have to hope they’d accept the bid for $30k, and then hope that the bank will give us $50k because we’d need the extra $20k to pay off all of our current bills in order to afford the home itself. Banks would see this as a high risk, also factoring in that many banks (and people in general) don’t find internet contractors/freelancers to be a ‘real job’. I know that Sean and I are capable of bringing in between $5k and $8k a month depending on just how much work is needed at the time, however we also can’t really bank that money with the current outgoing bills. I know I’m stupid for wanting to bring my total debt into the $80k range, but I’m so desperate to move down here I’m willing to do just about anything.
The past few weeks of working for Dover Speedway, plus a few other clients here and there have taken their toll on me. I’ve never been so exhausted and sick of looking at code in my life. I do hope that the business maintains where it is, but a break to get down to the beach that I haven’t seen in years is really poking at me. I also haven’t gotten to get to the casino while I was down here either. Thankfully a fat paycheck is coming in Oct 1st, Sean promised we’d get to go Dover Downs, maybe Harrington (depending on where we are in the state at that time) and we’ll get to enjoy an evening out – just us.