Okay, the move is happening, and it's happening soon.

[luciazephyr]

/breathes deeply


Okay, so Grandma has hurt herself and Mum has decided that waiting a month and a half is too long. We are going to leave Missouri and return to Florida as soon as humanly possible. There is quite a bit of stuff to do.

1. We need to figure out how to abandon the house. It is not really sellable and the mortgage is more than its worth by a fair amount (I'd say by $30K on the low end). It seems the best option for us is the "surrender by deed" the house to the bank, or possibly lender? I'm getting mixed signals on this.



2. We are going to sell or trash a lot of stuff. We have chairs and bedroom sets and a fairly new clothes washer and AC unit and-- a lot of things. We're going to price it all out very cheaply (i.e. the new washer will go for about $75) and just get rid of as much as possible.



3. What we can't sell, we're donating or recycling. I hate the Salvation Army for various reasons, so I'm looking for another venue to donate clothes and furniture and such. I live near Warrensburg, MO and am willing to drive a while.

I know there are other things, but this list is what's on my plate right now. If anyone has an information on any item, I'd appreciate any advice you could offer. I'm very much in the tall grass here, constantly on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and need help. And hey, if you are in the area and looking for furniture or appliances on the cheap? Lemme know. I have 'em, and everything will be under $100.

If you can help at all, hit me up here or, if you prefer, my email is luciazephyr[at]gmail.com.

Comments

[noizemaze]

Sorry to hear about all the madness. If I was still "home" in Independence, I'd offer whatever help I could. However, my brother just bought a new place, so I'll see if he might be interested in anything you need to sell.

[luciazephyr]

If he needs a fridge or a washer/dryer on the cheap, lemme know. As I said, Warrensburg area.

[lightgetsin]

I know next to nothing about homeownership, but I know a lot about debt, so. One thing you want to do is get a letter from the bank or your lender explaining that you've surrendered the deed and they are assuming title and writing down your mortgage. This is because it can take months for that sort of information to filter through to the credit buroughs, and if someone is running a credit check as part of a job application, say, it's possible they'll get a weird result if they hit at just the wrong time. Unlikely, but it's an easy thing to fix if you have documentation.

You probably know this, but the post office will forward your mail for several months. Last time I had to do it, it was just a dollar or two fee, and absolutely worth it.

You can live with very little. When I left California for good, I had three small suitcases, less than fifty pounds of stuff total. I got rid of a lot of things before I left, obviously, but I actually had very little time (like eight days, I think, and that right after a 300 mile move). I had intended to go back someday and pack more, and ship things if I had money. But after you've lived without things for over a year . . . you just don't need them. And I never ended up collecting any of that stuff. It can be this totally desolate feeling leaving somewhere for good with practically nothing -- I felt like I was losing so much, and like I wasn't sure how much I existed any more, when you take away all the things. But it was okay surprisingly quickly.

[luciazephyr]

Thank you, I will definitely make sure to do that.

Yeah. If helps that we have a set address we're going to in FL. At least for a while.

I hope I get to that point soon. It happens that this is the place I think about when I think "home" even though it's terrible and a bad situation and part of me is glad to leave. I expect we'll be leaving a lot behind. Some is going into storage though since we want to get our own place quickly, and having furniture set aside would help there.

Right now I'm vacillating between tentative excitement and curling up and sobbing a lot. This is all happening very quickly...

[lightgetsin]

Yeah. When I moved it happened very very quickly. And I knew it was probably going to be a good thing, ultimately, and I didn't really have any choices left -- I had to go for safety, if for nothing else. But I had a plan for surviving that would keep me for exactly 9 weeks, and after that was a complete blank. And all I knew was that I didn't have the money to get back to California if I couldn't hack it, even if I wanted to, which I really really didn't. So . . . yeah. Been there. But five weeks in I got a lifeline, and three months after that it led to another. Seven years on I can say it was the smartest thing I ever did, even if those first twenty seven months were really, really, really hard. It can happen.

The tax advice downthread is correct re deducting moving expenses and donations. However, I kept all those records but ultimately found that when I was low-income, itemizing that stuff didn't actually get me anywhere and taking the standard deductions or the earned income tax credit (it's a low-income thing) was a better option. It's worth keeping track though, and something like Turbotax or H&R Block online can work out what gets you the most money back.

BTW I have a package for you. Just tell me when/where.

[luciazephyr]

I'm looking at what it's going to take to get rid of the house and it's hard to see this as good. I want it to be. I want this to be my stepping stone to getting the hell out of here. It's hard to see over the initial hump of how financially fucked we're going to be no matter what.

We are also low income, so I imagine that's going to be the case. But it won't hurt to keep track, just in case.

If you think it'll get here within, say, two weeks, then the address I gave you before is still good.

[with_my_teacup]

Re: the salvation army-- Goodwill Industries isn't religiously affiliated and focuses on job placement. Unfortunately, looks like the nearest one is in Blue Springs.

Depending on what your tax filing situation is like, you may want to keep a record of what you bring to them-- donations being tax deductible.

ETA Sorry, this is Shiplizard, didn't realize I was on the wrong journal.

[luciazephyr]

Yeah, the one in Lee's Summit is going to be the one I use if any. And the tax deductible thing is a big help, so we'll do that with anything we can't sell. I have a lot of winter clothes that will be useless now.

[with_my_teacup]

Filing software like Turbotax actually has a convenient metric like "lady's blouse: high end, $7, low end, $5" that will convert your donations into an actual, defendable dollar amount as long as you know what you gave. That list is probably online for paper-filed taxes.

[luciazephyr]

Holy shit, i didn't know they did that. Okay, will actually write down all we donate. Most of our stuff tends to be good since we don't shop often and buy clothes that will last.

[with_my_teacup]

Just remember to get your donation receipt and you're golden.

You can do this.

I'm sorry I don't have much cash right now, but if there are any small items you guys need to make this easier, I'll do what I can.

[luciazephyr]

It's sadly not that kind of situation. It's a complex manner. Grandma needs care, life in MO has consistently gotten worse and worse every year we've lived here (we used to be something around middle class, not anymore), and the new job Mum got she was hugely misled about and wants nothing to do with it. We need a fresh start in an area where growth is actually feasible.

But thank you. Even the advice is greatly appreciated.

[with_my_teacup]

I was thinking more along the lines of 'buying you in a pizza/food of your choice so you don't have to cook while you pack' or 'making sure you have [x] small luxury when you get to Florida'.

[luciazephyr]

Heh. No, we should be fine? With income tax returns, we're pretty okay. Sadly, even if they were bad, Mum wouldn't allow us to accept help from "strangers on the internet." /facepalm

[with_my_teacup]

Ah, well. I can sympathize.

Hang in there.

[thene]

The standard advice these days is to simply photograph every item you donate - you can put the fair market values as part of the filename. However, without a mortgage you guys might not wind up itemising.

You can use moving expenses as an adjustment to your AGI for tax purposes provided you get a job soon afterwards - you have to be employed for 39 weeks out of the 52 weeks following the move (although obviously a lot of people claim moving expenses before those 52 weeks are actually up, which is fine provided you don't get fired right after filing your taxes.) You can deduct the cost of any hired help/renting a uhaul or whatever, one month of storage and take either standard mileage or actual expenses on the cost of moving (standard mileage is easier to document, hi googlemaps, and usually gets you a better deal). Anyway KEEP ALL RECEIPTS for moving/storage stuff.

Mind if I link MO-based fandom friends to this? Someone might want to take something off your hands, etc.

Also, M and me have pretty much decided that while we're stuck in FL we're damn well driving out to the Keys for a weekend, so I should be able to do coffee with you somewhere if you want.

[luciazephyr]

I fucking love the Keys. Would love to see you there for a while, yes.

Feel free to link, yes. When I'm less of a basketcase, I may put up a list of shit to sell.

And thank you for the info. I'm unsure how soon it will take for Mum and I to get an above the table job, but if we manage, that'd be a big help.

[forestgreen]

All the advice I could give only applies to Germany, so it's probably of not much use :( I hope things get better soon. Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least not always, but it can be scary as hell.

Me and my parents moved across continents almost two decades ago and we only had 60 kg luggage each, which was what we could afford to carry on the plane. If it's any consolation, you get used to living with very little. It wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. And I love it here. Moving was one of the best things we ever did.

Here is hoping it goes well for you, too.

[luciazephyr]

Germany is one of the places I'm looking at to emigrate to, actually. May I ask where you lived prior to moving there?

[forestgreen]

Cuba. I still have some family there, but I've lived most of my life in Germany. The few times I've visited Cuba just confirmed that it was a good thing we no longer live there. It's nice to go on vacation every now and then, and I love doing all the touristy stuff, but I couldn't imagine living there for longer than a couple of weeks. It's weird, because technically it's the place I was born, but ...

ETA: If you ever need to know something about things in Germany, or if you ever want to visit, let me know. I even have a guest room.

[luciazephyr]

Believe me, I understand. I actively loathe my country at this point. 8|

That's quite a ways off in the future, but thank you. That is remarkably generous. /getting all verklempt, aaah

[foursweatervests]

There are a couple options here:

You can do what is known as a "short sale" where you can sell it for less than it's worth to the bank.

You can hold on to the property and rent it out - this might net you the most profit, long-term.

It's hardest on the owner to recover from turning a house over to the bank, since that's a lot of collateral you'd just be handing over for nothing.

I'm not the best source of information, here, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[polarisnorth]

I wish I had advice about moving house I can help you with, but I don't really know anything about it. It looks like you're getting good advice from others, though, at least.

I know you don't have a lot of time, so shipping things might not be feasible, but if you've got anything that's not too large that you could sell -- even if only for enough to cover the shipping costs -- you could think about that too.

I could try and give job finding advice once you get to Florida, if you would like. Other than that -- I'm here if you just want to talk, and you can hit me up on twitter or gmail any time. *hugs*