Monday, January 30, 2012

Craigslist v. Raffle How would you sell your house?

I'm clearly obsessed with Pinterest as of late.  I find wonderful inspiration for food, restaurants, crafts, and now even through quotes!  I resisted the urge to repin quotes for a very long time...but recently I have been enjoying how these speak to my life.

"Your life's story is the sum of all your choices."

Lately we have been making some pretty radical choices about our life, and it is so cool to see how our story is unfolding right before our eyes.  We jumped off the "American Dream" story line, and right into a new story book.  You are along for the ride with us so I want to fill you in on what we have been doing over the last several weeks since the big announcement to become missionaries.

Selling all of our possessions is the first step in being ready to move.  We will keep very little of what we currently own, and most of what we will keep doesn't really belong to us anyhow...such as antiques passed down through family.  I will keep a very small wardrobe, maybe even a few pieces of jewelry, but we will sell all of our furniture, books, cd's, cars, etc.  I will definitely keep my laptop.  There is no way I can take this journey without capturing all of it on the blog!

In a ditch effort to sell all of our belongings, I posted the house with everything in it plus cars on Craigslist!
For a week we had no responses.  Not surprisingly.  It is sorta an odd request: "Just come take over my current life as I decide it is no longer the life I want to live!" You should all know, that it really is a terrific life and it will break my heart to leave it behind.  But the new story we seek will be full of joy and hope and miracles and most important it will follow Christ in His plan for us!

This weekend we finally got a few emails of interest.  One was a legitimate interest and we invited him over to take a look at the house.  He arrived with a few family members for back up.  We also invited a friend over for back up.  You can never be too careful when it comes to online meet-ups. 

He seemed interested and left with a positive outlook.  At this point we will see if he really liked what he saw and comes back, or if it wasn't for him.  I am praying he likes it and comes back to buy the house.  What an amazing blessing that would be!  I can just envision the exchange and Forbes and I walking down the road excited but nervous for our new adventure!

If this doesn't work out, we do have a meeting with a realtor this week to list the house on the market.  We are serious and we are ready to sell!  Sometime in the next month I plan to have the girls over to sell/giveaway some of our extra clothes, linens, decor, etc.  And hopefully also have a yard sale when we get some really great weather!

That is just a quick update on how we are moving forward with house sales.  One really awesome idea I heard but am too chicken to try is to sell raffle tickets for your home.  Almost anyone would give a dollar to have a chance to win the house.  Over the course of a year you could expect to sell thousands of these tickets, and hopefully hundreds of thousands.  And then you draw a name and it is a win-win!  Of course what if you don't raise enough money to pay off the house?  I am not even sure if this method is legal.  But it's a thought!

Later this week I will post more about how we are planning to move forward as missionaries.  Where we will go and how we will get there.  Have a great Monday!

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