Resurrecting a Sea Scout Ship!

When I first moved here to Slidell, Louisiana I looked for a Sea Scout Ship to join, and was disappointed when I heard that they had all been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina!

A year later I found a ship fairly local (Covington/Mandeville - half hour or so) SS Ship 312/314 and asked if there were any ships closer to me. There isn't, but there WAS: Ship 1 Sea Raptor. Jacques Walker gave me the email address, name, and phone number of a Commodore who was trying to resurrect Ship 1. Yay! I called, left a message, emailed - no response.

Fast Forward a year later... I have gone through SALT leader training with ship 312/314, I have a Sea Scout Manual, I attended their first landship ceremony as a unit, took some pics, and gave some input! I was informed that the resurrection of Ship 1 was indefinitely postponed. So I could join ships 312/314 (Scout Ship and Explorer Club), but still 30-45 min away.  

Shortly thereafter, Jacques sent me a message saying he had given my name/email/phone number to that same Commodore. I don't know what I was expecting, but lunch that week, and now I'm the Ship's Committee Member, and we had a formation meeting!

Our charter is ready to submit, we have 5 adult leaders, and now only need 5 youths to join! Then we can send it all off with our application fee!

We have a couple events in November where we will be distributing informational flyers to let the community know we are back! The Commodore, she is the Commodore of Tammany Yacht Club, our ship's Charter Organization! I also have approval from some local business to bring our flyer in to post up! Including West Marine! 

Events:

Lady of Lourdes Church 11-06-18

Faith Music Fest 11-10-18

Exciting times!

I'm even more excited that technology has changed so much there is a HUGE amount of info and training aids online now! I love it!!

An Airstream Dream!

They're so discombobulated!

I dreamt that Dave and I won a dealership contest. Two big prizes:

One couple won a Vintage Airstream with a Vintage Truck to pull it.
One couple won a Modern Airstream with a Modern truck to pull it.

We accepted our prizes, but the remainder of the dream was the two of us trying to chase them down to see if they wanted to swap with us!

So funny. I was SO disappointed when I woke up and we didn't have that Airstream.     :(

I bought a boat!

I wasn't really looking for one, and then I was!

Our house came with a canoe. Dave won't get into it because it doesn't have a motor. So I went looking for a trolling motor. I found one locally for $25 and now I have a trolling motor on the back of my flat-back canoe!

But... in the search I came across a vintage sailboat in decent shape for only $1000! I was so excited!

And then... the guy was a tool. I had money in hand and he wouldn't make an appointment with me, kept dragging it out. He finally admitted that he was trying to start a bidding war. I don't play that. Ever. price, money, exchange, leave with a product.

That's how that should have gone, so I walked away. Sad face. :(

What the searching did was get my interest in getting a sailboat back up. I was in Sea Scouts for more than a decade, and have been trying to find a Sea Scout ship locally, but they were all wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

I work as a Regional Sales Rep for POP Yachts and POP RVs. So I wishlist search a lot. They have made it much more difficult for me by deactivating my public profile.

I found some sailboats I like, but... I found this, and brought it home:

1984 Shamrock Walk-through Cuddy

It has its own website here: Http://www.musebrigade.com

What has happened to good customer service?

I am finding that I have paid a good amount of money at every turn, just to find out later that so-and-so company didn't do what I was specifically paying for. It is so frustrating, as in some cases I found out literally years later.

For example, for two years I had all kinds of electrical issues with my truck. It got to the point that I stopped driving it. I found out when I started really looking into what its issues were that the parts store sold me the wrong battery group for my truck!

Needless to say, discussions with the manager, receipt in hand, and hours later - they replaced the battery at no cost. The problem? By then, I thought that I had an electrical drain somewhere so we had disconnected the alarm, disconnected the power door locks, removed door panels, disconnected the stereo and amplifier, and more.

Let me tell you, I am so frustrated, I am selling the truck. I have had it for 13 years - by the way, almost the longest stint for me for any vehicle I have ever owned aside from the '64 Falcon I am restoring very slowly.... I have owned over 35 vehicles, most only last 2 years or so.

Another fine example of customer service? Many moons ago, I had paid to setup a for-profit corporation and a 501C3 non-profit corporation. Nothing ever happened with them as my business associate moved out of state, and we let everything fall by the wayside. Now I want to put new life back into the 501C3, so I contacted the organizations to do so, and found out that they registered it as a FOR PROFIT corporation! Are you kidding me? How much liability would I have had had I actually done anything in that company's name??? omg it makes my head spin just thinking about it.

Starting anew today... with some great new business associates, great old business associates, and new life and goals, as well as follow-through!

Job Searching: The Importance of Dressing Up

 

The Never-ending Job Search

Yesterday I had another interview. It was fairly last minute, and I rushed to the bathroom, showered, changed, dressed, did my make-up and hair.... It was online with no video camera. My boyfriend was perplexed. Why was I going to all this trouble, when the interviewer wasn't going to see me?? My answer - it makes me feel better, more confident in my responses. What if, mid-interview they had asked me to video chat? It all worked out - I am fairly certain I got the job!

It also worked out that I got another interview arranged just a short while later, that was a video interview - and I was ready.

There are several things you should do for a video interview already mentioned above:

1. Clean up: If you get ready like it is a face-to-face interview, your demeanor changes. Your attitude, your awareness of self; your confidence.
2. Dress-up: they may want to see you, even if you don't think it might go there. It gives you a confidence in the process that you do not gain otherwise. Plus, they may want to see how deal with the unexpected. Be ready for anything; right now!
3. Do your hair: nicely, for the same reasons listed above.
4. Put on perfume or cologne; you like it - it gives you confidence.

Your Resume - Update it!

No, I am not interesting in insurance sales or financial adviser positions, thank you!

Make sure it is visually balanced and flows well. I now check mine every time I apply - recently I had to download it, and their interface had rearranged everything! Check, check, and recheck before applying!

Resume Skills & Bullet Points

Make sure that your skill-set has the keywords used within the posted position in it! If the company uses OCR scanning software to screen email submissions - you definitely want yours to pass the scan and get looked at! One more point: if you are emailing directly to someone to review, have bullet points, and make it pretty! HOWEVER, if you are submitting via any of the job board sites save a version that is an .rtf file so you can tell the difference, and remove all of the bullet points. I have found that when it gets uploaded into most interfaces, the bullet points don't get translated well, and end up as very weird looking ASCII text. (see above photo for no bullet points)

Bullet Points

Only use bullet points if you are sending your resume directly to a person to review! I keep multiple formats on hand, all with the same content: .rtf, .pdf, .doc depending on how it will be sent over.

What is your favorite Job Board to use?

So many choices.... which Job Board gives you the best results? (I'll limit it to the big ones... and Other)

• Monster
• Indeed
• CareerBuilder
• Craigslist
• Word-of-Mouth / Friends
• Other - comment which one below!

See results

Lastly: Beware of Scammers!!

So I have had my first real scam attempted (that I let flow a little further forward-thinking the sheriff department could actually do something). In my determined attempt to gain decent employment, a career... I had a 'wait-a-minute, this sounds too good to be true' incident. Well, thank you to my southern-California raised cynicism, I am happy to report it failed. But what a time-waster! I felt it was a scam from the get-go, but allowed them to actually send me something. Which I took to the sheriff department.

Unfortunately, there is nothing the sheriff can do about it - apparently, they get hundreds of these reports per month. So I say to you - use Google, it is your friend. Google the name of the person in the text with the company name, like this: "John Doe" "Bhushan Steel*" in the Google search bar. Then go find the company website, and in my case, I contacted their HR department and asked about the employees by name - the HR department will give you a yes or no answer on whether someone works for them. I explained what was happening in my 'Interviewing Process' and the rep stated neither of the names provided worked there, and that "X company would NEVER send you a check, or ask you to pay for X." The scammer wanted me to buy some software to connect to the company VPN... maybe $50-$100 software? Nope - they sent me $3,450.00!

My favorite part was the Nigerian gentleman who called me from what sounded like a telemarketing room, stating he was the company attorney, and that they would be suing me for not sending their check back. I told them to get it back from the sheriff department after 30 days!

Be leary... I asked this latest attempt: ...before you continue, may I ask if you require any type of fees or check to cash? to move forward if I am selected?

No response. So I sent them Bhushan Steel's warning. Stay safe out there in your search, and good luck! I believe a good old phone interview, inviting you to a face-to-face is still your best chance of not being a scam victim. The company spokesperson for the phone interview may not be local, but the location you will be working from is - and someone should be able to have a sit-down with you!

__________________________________

*I am using Bhushan Steel, a real company as my example, as they are 'on to' the scam. On the company website, they have this warning in bright red at the bottom of their website: Job seekers Alert!
It has been brought to our notice that certain individuals are misleading job applicants by claiming themselves to be employees of Bhushan Steel Ltd or as authorized job agency of Bhushan Steel Ltd. They have been misguiding the candidates to deposit a certain amount of money in lieu of providing employment or as a deposit towards travel for the final interview round, etc.
Bhushan Steel Ltd does not take any such fees/facilitation charges in lieu of employment.
Anyone dealing with such an agency/employment portal/individual will be doing so at his/her own risk and the Company will not be held responsible for such loss or damage suffered directly or indirectly.

Scammer Check

I cropped off the Routing number, as it really was their account at the company. Basically - the scammers want you to cash the check and purchase stuff, and send them the receipts. Then you're liable to repay the bank when it comes back as a fake. | Source

Prolong Your Roof Life! Repair It Yourself!

 

Fix that leaky chimney or flashing!

As having spent a few hours on my roof today to remedy an issue with our chimney I have to share that in a previous life, I worked as a roof inspector for quality assurance. We were a third-party entity that provided an RFP to roofing contractors, then enforced the SOW onsite. The end-user hired our company to represent them in all roofing matters, so for the purposes here, we were the end-user customer.

The way a roofing system works is there are several layers in this case for a ply system and aggregate roofing material on top. We provided what the system would be, the materials it was to be made of, and ensured that it was installed per our specs - which in some instances exceeded the manufacturer's specifications.

The underlayment goes down, then the roofing system on top of that, then the metal flashings, and if you're lucky - it includes the finishing roof cement, granules, and silver paint.

Repaired Chimney Flashing

Finished Chimney Flashing Repair

Fixing Flashings

On top of the roofing system, when you set metal flashings at every roof system penetration, you need to ensure that the water barrier is still intact. Unfortunately, in a residential setting, most roofing contractors do not finish the flashings in the manner in which we do in a commercial setting. What normally happens in a commercial setting is that the contractor sets the new metal flashing down on top of the roof system using tar and/or mastic (roof cement), complete with granules embedded and silver paint.

So today, I was informed I needed to get up there and fix it... since we are expecting rain. So I go up, and it is readily apparent where we needed some help at the chimney. So here is how you do it:

Supplies:

• Brush
• Broom
• Rags
• Nitrile gloves (more than a pair - this stuff gets messy, mastic is toxic)
• 2" putty knife/spatula
• Mastic - if you are expecting rain the same day or so get the 'wet' version.
• Webbing of some sort: the mesh used for drywall repair or fiberglass, or similar
• Granules: absorb, kitty litter, or similar
• Silver Paint; reflective roof paint preferred

Supplies

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Mastic - standard

How to do it:

1. Clean the debris from the area with a brush or whatever tools necessary.
2. Using a 2" putty knife or similar, spread the mastic along the area to be repaired. about the width of the putty knife, making sure there is a proper seal; no holes above the membrane.
3. Add the granules onto the mastic once completed, patting them into the mastic - not just sitting on top.
4. Paint the whole line of mastic/granules silver.
5. Do this at every area for repair, remembering that water flows downhill, including around all of the flashings*.
6. Check the flashings welded areas and rims, sealing any area that has come apart. Notate that you need new flashings, replace at next roof repair opportunity.

This should get you through the worst of it! Let me know how it goes!

Photo Gallery

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Finished Chimney Flashing Repair

Me up on the roof.....

How did it go?

How much roofing experience do you have? How was this for you?

• A lot, this was a piece of cake.
• A bit, I didn't find this intimidating at all.
• A little, I was slightly intimidated - and afraid of heights to boot!
• None, I was terrified. But I did it, ladder and all!
• None, and still none. I got to the part where I called the roofer and had them come fix it temporarily!

See results

I love reading!

I started reading very early, as my father was an attorney and had an extensive library. One of my earliest reading memories is from when I was in 4th grade. I had completed the Highlights-based assignments signed off by the teacher. During our reading session, I was sitting with nothing on my desk, reading a book in my lap. The teacher walked over and asked what I was doing, and I held up the book. She said 'there's no way that you understand what is happening in this book.' I was reading James Clavell's Shogun, which is at the very least at a 6-9th grade reading level, as well as over 1000 pages. I stated that I was on page 128 in the novel, and that she could ask me any question about what was happening in that section, and I would answered them.  Shortly after that, they pulled me out of class during the reading session to tutor the 6th graders at the school. I love reading; my entire family loves reading, and we do so on every vacation. One time, at a family reunion - sitting in a room of 19 people, the only 2 not reading were the one-year-old baby, and the person playing with her!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not usually one to make extravagant New Year's Resolutions, but this year.... I am going to raise from the dead one from 2004.

In 2004 I had written down a personal goal for a course in Managing Quality at Keller Graduate School. Here it is:

	Personal Goals
Goal 1:	Complete SCUBA certification; buy all necessary equipment.
	Take additional Advanced Open Water Diver and Shipwreck Diver Courses.
Measurement:	PADI Open Water Diver certification course is in progress, open water dive is left.
	Have purchased:  Mask, snorkel, gloves, fins, buoyancy compensation device (BCD),
	dive computer, 4mm wetsuit, compass, dive log, air tank, gauges, and dive planner.
Progress:	Equipment needed:  Would like an underwater dive camera.
	Additional courses:  Advanced Open Water Certification course will be in March, followed by Shipwreck Diver course in July.
Degree of Difficulty:	Easily accomplished

While this seems like it was an easy goal, what happened after this was written changed the course of my life. I was in a really bad car accident that year. I had to discontinue school, spent the next 2 years in physical therapy and doctor visits, and ultimately I lost my house. All of it is getting back on track finally: I feel better, bought a new home, and share it with a great man. Now for the goals again... I want to reinstate them now! 

This was one, travel was another, restore my '64 Falcon was the third. I want all of these reinstated, please!

Restoration of a Land Yacht - Academia.edu

I published another paper on Academia.edu: Restoration of a Land_Yacht

I am gathering a collection... lol.

You can view them all here: https://keller.academia.edu/KariBovasso

This one is on our Airstream:

Helping the Community; Down and Out in Downtown L.A.

This weekend was a difficult one for me emotionally.... I am trying to de-clutter my world. So I started cleaning out my truck (finally found keys that would get into it after my landlord threw out the set I had provided for them). We had never 'fully ' moved into this house, since the truck still had about a dozen boxes in it.

We have now. Just in time... to gear up to moving again. SO...... I am going through all the boxes, throwing things out, listing stuff on eBay and OfferUp in an attemot to make some money and get stuff out of my house. Good times.

The first box I opened.... a picture of my first dog Siggy. I had her from when she was 4 weeks old, to when she was 16. I miss her every day.

So that brought tears to my eyes, and I fought off crying. The next items, I found were documents, birth, marriage and death certificates, doctor notes, handwritten notes, and more, from my mother and her husband. Both have passed. These all bring up weird emotions for me. We were not a happy family. She died 01-09-08 after an accidental fall on 01-04-08; she never regained consciousness.

In the end, she was generous and giving of her time to her community, and volunteered with the homeless in downtown Los Angeles with LACAN.

But... my mom was a prolific writer. So I am going to share some of what she has written, in no particular order as there is no way to tell when it was written. Some of it was to present to others, the other parts - who knows. I have typed these as she has written them (fighting my internal urge to correct any grammatical errors she may have made). If they are dated, I am going to put them in here under their actual date.

Peggy - My mom was always laughing.

It doesn't even matter WHEN these were written, the topic is always timely. The need is always there.

~~~

Saint Jerome's Speech by Peggy Cummings

Good morning to you all. My name is Peggy Cummings and I would like to let you know what the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has meant to me.

Three years ago my husband was dying of bladder cancer. Both of us had to leave our jobs - him because he could no longer walk with the tumor rapidly growing inside him; and me, to care for him at home.

After his death, and exhausting all of our savings, I had nowhere but downtown to find a place to live.

Not only that, but Social Security was paying me a widow's benefit until they realized I was too young to collect. They put a freeze on my checking account, then took the $1,600 I had there. Also told me I had to repay the $6,000 they had given me.

Without a dime to my name, I learned that the Union Rescue Mission would allow me to stay for free until I gained an income again.

I was determined to give back to the downtown community for helping me when I needed it the most.

My case manager referred me to the Los Angeles Community Action Network - LACAN. They always welcome any help I could give.

They have been working over six years creating opportunities for low-income and homeless people such as me to gain a new start in life.

I volunteered my services for 1 1/2 years because I had finally found my place in life. LACAN's efforts to give power and voice for residents and their issues is building safer neighborhoods through our Community Watch program and providing education that allows residents to succeed in fighting City Hall to recognize that something needs to change so that needy persons are helped with housing and services.

LACAN is also providing a means of earning additional income through our Vendor Training program where they are licensed to solicit donations by distributing the only street newspaper in L.A....the Community Connection.

Six months ago, I was hired as a policy intern and organizer to work for our outreach efforts to a community in desperate need of support. With the unavailability of affordable housing, let alone nutritional food, and the horrendous "28-day shuffle" - LACAN continues its struggle to make the "power that be" change the plight of 90,000 homeless people within our city limits.

We've managed to place a moratorium on SRO hotels selling to developers to have replacement housing provided before renovations are begun, and residents are no longer forced to the streets. Our Residential Organizing Committee meetings are held twice a month.

Please help us to continue to give our low-income and homeless residents the life they need.

It's wrong for our government to continue to spend billions of dollars around the world - and depriving residents of America the same resources.

We need to help our downtown needy persons first.

Thank you so much for the caring. Please give as generously as you are able to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Those 90,000 homeless in L.A. are struggling for dignity.

Difficulty of Real Estate Searches

 

The Decision

All of my life I have made decisions that affect me, for a large part based on the desires of others: my friends and family want me to stay close; my friends say the prospects for boyfriends I have are in jeopardy if I take that job traveling. Naysayers saying “you don’t want to put all of your stuff in storage, do you?” Well, the reality is, I should have done all of the above and had some more life experiences to pull from. I recently found a sentiment on Facebook, author quoted thoughts on Pinterest, which states:

Shake Things Up

She things up, where are you meant to be? | Source

The Process

I really believe in that. For me, it is about all of the chances not taken. Had I put all of my stuff in storage, I would have traveled the world sailing for a year, and seen much more of it than I have currently. This life my fiancée and are living right now, is not the life we want: living almost paycheck to paycheck in a rental that costs us $2400 a month (outrageous). Well in order to get the life we want, my fiancée and I have decided to relocate. Where? Somewhere not in California, as we cannot afford what we want here. We both want waterfront property with enough space for our six+ vehicles, deep water access to put the boat in it off of our own property (hopefully). That is a hard ticket to find here in Southern California in an affordable range for us, so we are now gearing up to move to Louisiana.

So how do we discern what risks are involved for us in this move? Together, we (my fiancée and I) weighed all of the Pros and Cons we could figure out for us: But how do we figure this out? What kind of risks do we face? For a move like this… let’s look at the basic day-to-day and what affects you every day: friends, family, being social, where you live, where you work, necessary money to eat, clothe yourself, and stay healthy... and never mind all of the smaller incidentals: groups you belong to, activities and hobbies you engage in locally!

For this project, we establish the Inputs – my fiancée and I, the activities: project sizing (full move across country and all that entails), initiation meeting (my fiancée’s discussion with me), scope (again, a full move – everything that affects the life we have established currently), time (we established a timeline of no more than six months), cost (downpayment for a home, inspection costs, homeowner’s and flood insurance, earnest money; moving costs, travel expenses to go view the homes, and more – deposits for utilities may be necessary as well), quality (of everything – we want a decent home, we need good data to assess what we need to establish for this move, objectives – we know we want a waterfront property, and wish to keep working as we are currently (crossing my fingers for my current employer to approve it), tools (we need a car transport, movers, all moving supplies and accessories): reporting and review (my fiancée and I need to keep each other updated on any changes that affect our move in any manner to assess if the affect flows into any other aspect), definitions of scale (how is this defined? by our objectives, risk thresholds (for us, the main risk is finding and buying a home that ends up needing more work on it than we had originally thought, employment for me if I am let go), outputs (all of the answers to our questions and results of our endeavors on all fronts).

• Friends/Family/Social: Family would love us closer than we are now already. None of our friends live in the area. The few who we do many outings with may be willing to relocate, eventually. Everyone is sad about that. Plus, we are on a bowling league and participate in many activities on a regular basis as participants.
• Housing: Rent or buy? We decided to buy… but how do we see the houses? A long weekend of house viewing is in order.
• Employment: Both of our positions are nationwide, so he is certain, but mine depends upon my supervisor, and company policy.
• The Physical Move: who likes moving? Sorting, Packing, Shipping, Unpacking – while still trying to be useful/useable for your basics. The vehicles: RV, Jeep on the trailer, Boat w/trailer, five other vehicles (two to be sold). What tows what? We need transport - when can he do it? Changing our addresses on everything we receive or gets shipped to us.
• New Neighborhood challenges: not at all familiar with the area, except for the maps on Google and Zillow, and the US Coast Guard charts for the waterways available online (via http://www.nauticalchartsonline.com), new culture, new weather dynamics, and new state laws to abide by.
• Health Insurance: It used to be that you couldn’t get insurance with any pre-diagnosed conditions. At least now that everyone must have insurance that should be a little easier if my employer does NOT let me work from home.
• Hobbies and activities: We are “car” people – we go to shows, events, car cruises with our friends, and more. We will miss all of that. California is one of the biggest venues for this hobby. We also enjoy the Renaissance Faire when it is here for nine weeks. We attend regularly, and this will be missed. Sure we can go visit once or twice on vacation for a week at a time, but it won’t be the same. We live fifteen minutes from the location now!

First, on the list, we review the Housing issue. Oh, what a task this is. Rent or buy? Well, that question is a little trickier… It behooves us to buy a house. But how do you shop for one when you live 1900 miles away from where you want to move? Online. So that works… sort of. You search and search and search. Find the perfect house, figure out its costs, then try to prequalify for a loan for that amount. For us, right now, we are sitting at a proposed cost of $200,000 for a waterfront home with a boat launch/dock, and a grassy yard for our dog. Now here is the real challenge for us. Getting qualified for that $200K loan.

Two weeks ago: My fiancée has been self-employed for three years; however, he bought out his business associate and is now a Small Business Owner, but only for the last six months. So... from the Lender? We can’t even put him on the loan or factor in his salary as the rules have changed and he would have had to be a sole owner for two years worth of taxes. From me? Oh, dear. Fiancée’s salary is much higher than mine, and we were banking on that to qualify for the $200K loan we want. I send in all of my documents: W2’s the last two years, tax returns for the last two years, bank statements for the last two months. However, I am thinking we won’t even get near that $200K amount. The Lender pulls my credit. While my FICO score (your Credit Score used for any entities to rate you for approval for loans, etc) has been raised due to my due diligence on making timely payments; no late payments, getting my school loan statuses corrected on my report this last year (they were reported twice), and getting any errors off of my report. I qualify... but for how much!?!? Far less than the $200K. But wait, there’s more….. One week ago: I found the PERFECT house for us. Dock, land, garage, and a pool! $199,900. School Loans are in deferment but were only reporting out to this October. In order for them to not factor into my payments, I find out they need to be deferred out for a year. Guess what? My perfect house… falls ‘Off-Market.’ It felt like a knife to my heart. So I contact the loan provider, and yes – my school loans should be in ‘School Deferment’ with them, which is currently in progress for a date out to April 2017! Perfect! Even though we lost that house… our search continues. It could take a long while to find another that fits our needs in the area, and our price range.

The Perfect House

This was my perfect house! Off Market..... | Source

The Loan Process

Yesterday: I provided all of the school loan documentation to the lender, so now what do I qualify for? $270K. You can imagine my surprise. We now know what the payment and insurance will be, and it is far less than the rent we currently pay already. Win-win. An article I found by Suze Orman1 states that your “…housing budget should be low enough so that you can afford to make progress on all your other important financial goals.” With that in mind, we are ahead of the game, with the mortgage payment and insurance being half o what we are currently paying now, and we are still able to save.

Alright, so one HUGE obstacle is down. With all of the documents I provided, that not only gets us the pre-qualification letter (already in my hands) but also gets us funding approval already, which is a Buyer’s advantage over another buyer who may or may not get funded. In a situation where a Seller gets multiple offers, this could be a huge benefit for us. However, there is another point Suze Orman made in her article2, that I absolutely agree with: we will not compromise on the Home Inspection Contingency. Suze states one huge mistake Buyers make is ”Making a Bid That Waives the Home Inspection Contingency. In some markets where demand is high and the inventory of home sales is low, some prospective buyers make offers that waive the home inspection to make themselves more appealing to sellers. That’s insane; if there are major structural or mechanical issues you could be in for tens of thousands of dollars in added expenses. A smarter move is before you bid, shell out the money for the home inspection. If your bid isn’t accepted you’re “out” the cost of the inspection. But that’s smarter than winning a bid with no inspection and then being hit with a slew of problems later on.”

The Loan

The Money hole....

The Job and More

Next item? Employment. I mentioned above that both of our positions are nationwide. He works in a service delivery field for security/retail sales processing equipment for several large chain companies. He has technicians on both coasts, in the Midwest, and more. The only aspect that will change for him is that the area in which he personally services the locations will be around our new house instead of here in SoCal. For me, again it depends on many factors that are out of my hands. My supervisor has to decide to allow me to work from home. I work for a Cable provider that does not have a presence in the state we are choosing to move. I feel my supervisor will not be able to approve this, as if she opens it up to me, she would need to open it up to everyone on our nationwide team (we physically sit in five different cities throughout the nation). While I have a home-based business, and have a faster than usual Internet speed, and have a home office and the capability to work from home with efficiency – I know there are others on our team that would not have that advantage or work ethic.

Next item? Friends/Family/Social: His parents and mine are retired, and travel extensively – they would come to visit. The area we want to move to is a tourist attraction, so all of our friends would most likely come to visit at some point as well. The reality is that we currently see the majority of our friends and family on holidays and birthdays. That may not change – we will only be a short flight away instead of an hour’s drive. Family? Check. Friends? Check. Yes, we have even closer friends we do many events with, and I will be saddened that they aren’t immediately around us… however, some have already expressed thoughts along the line of going with us, even if at a later date. Close Friends? Check. We even offered to put up our friends while they build something after purchasing a lot near our new home (once found).

Next item? The Physical Move. As I said earlier, we have a lot of vehicles that need to be moved/transported 1900 miles. Now a couple of them may end up at a storage facility, but that is not our hope. The house we are in now is a three-bedroom with a two-car garage/storage and a lot of stuff. We currently cannot park cars in the garage due to its being set up as a workshop and the amount of stuff stored in it. That is a lot of stuff. We need to sort, sell, donate, etcetera to whittle down to what we need, and what we want to move to the new house. Packing it all up… now we need the necessities: boxes, packing tape, paper for wrapping, markers, and a clear area to start stacking them up for the movers. We also had to review some other laws for the state due to one of our hobbies: firearms. This aspect is a huge responsibility and needed to be reviewed prior to entertaining wherever we wish to end up.

Lastly? New Neighborhood challenges. We won’t know anyone there, won’t know the streets or the city layout. We cannot really ‘get-to-know-the-neighborhood’ until we move out there - which is also one huge disadvantage of choosing a home remotely. We did entertain renting a house for a year or so, but we dislike moving. Who wants to do it another year later?? Do you leave your stuff packed? Go without your hobbies for a year? That could be miserable. However, it could be done. You could just fill in your time with getting to know your neighbors, the same article from Suze Orman’s website: http://www.suzeorman.com/blog/four-expensive-home-buying-mistakes/ neighborhood – the more accessible activities and hobbies. Most importantly, in the past, when I wished to select a new home and was local enough to drive there easily, I would visit during the day: morning, evening, nighttime - and more, to see what the area is like prior to moving into it. We do not have that luxury for this move. At most, we will take an extended vacation, and schedule some house viewings with our realtor in order to make a more educated offer.

All in all, we are approved for funding for a loan, and we are now searching for a home. Our revised goal is to just get there. Once we are there, if we hate living in the house we choose on a day-to-day basis, we can keep looking and rent that first house out once we are able to add my fiancée onto a loan for someplace else. At least at that point, we will be local and be able to actually go visit and drive the areas to find the neighborhood we really want to be in, which has been a difficult part of this process, being as remote as we are. That will start the next phase of our business – property ownership and management!

The Rabbit Hole of the Internet

However, we have to find a house first. And that, my friends, is where the rabbit hole appears. Of the scams of the Internet! "Call us today at 888-888-XXXX we have your dream property! Well, if you just send us $1000..." to this address in Nigeria. No, thank you. Also, while the data is *supposed* to be fresh on all of the realty websites, driven by the MLS, it is not always so. I have had a few disappointments so far where I think I have found the 'perfect house!' and then it falls off the market, and is not really available. In some cases I think that the realty company leaves it a little while due to a number of reasons - the 'look we sold it!' aspect and the 'we can help you too!'

It is disappointing, to say the least. Plus, in addition to the stale ads, you have the oh-so-misleading labels such as Waterfront on a house that is NOWHERE near water. Oh you mean the neighborhood is called Lakefront? Really. Where is the lake?

Also, as I said earlier, we are car people. We need room for an RV, a boat, a car trailer, and 5 other cars. This could take a while. Not many of the listings I have seen a focus on the parking on the property. We may need to move twice to find what we really need.

Are you a spammer victim?

Have you ever clicked these ads...

• Housing/Apt Search: I can't meet you as I am an RN working in Nigeria, but I can send you the keys when you send me your $1000 deposit!
• Multiple ads: Hey, look at this house! It is identical to these 30 other ads. Wow, who knew they built so many identical homes!
• Contact info: When I Googled the phone number, I get "craigslist scammer' as a result.

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Suze Orman on Owning a Home