Friday, May 22, 2009

Testing The Minimalist Theory

We are minimalists...I have explained this before. We try to get by in life on as little as possible. We do not have a home phone, only have basic cable (because without it we would not have any TV!), the kids know at age 2 to turn off the lights when you leave a room, etc, etc. We are also big savers, saving a lot of Chris' salary each month (more than we did when I was working actually!). Now, with this said, we get into the moving conversation.

Now, we want to move into a new home, a new investment. Our home has been a relatively good investment. We were able to finish the basement, add a big day light window, 5th bedroom, fire place and a bathroom with a shower in it. All those things added value to our home to help us get some of the money out of the house. Things like new carpet, trees in the yard, fence, etc, look nice on paper and help a home sell faster...but do not really help in the price of a home. Anyway, as we are looking at our next home, we are looking at many things. We really want a kick ass (sorry, no other way to say it) location. Our current location is WONDERFUL and really can not be beat. We are practically within walking distance to HyVee, Walmart and Target, as well as walking trails, a park, sprinkle park and a school! WOW! There are also many churches near by. Now, we have looked and NOTHING has all of those things. This next location we want to back to trees, a pond, golf course (I know, we don't golf...but we could!), or something. Chris REALLY wants an acreage, but we really have not found anything close to his work that fits that our needs (they are on land but need MAJOR work).

Here is the problem with moving and our current minimalist theory. We set our budget and started looking. Our taxes, at least today, stand at $3500. However, we have been reassessed so they will be going up if we stay or for the next owner. Anyway, the lowest taxes we found in a home were $6500 (and that was just 1 house we found in the $6000 range)! YIKES! Most taxes lie closer to $7000-$8300!! We have looked in Elkhorn, Gretna, Papillion, LaVista, and Bellevue and they are all the same - VERY HIGH! Sorry, but paying $700 a month JUST IN TAXES NOT INCLUDING THE MORTGAGE payment is INSANE! UGH! We found a few homes we liked, all had extraordinary high taxes. Let's just say, this does not fall into our life theory or goals. I keep going back to lets just stay, Chris will drive a lot, we refinance to 4 point something percent for a 10-15 year, and we can rock this house out! Oh, what to do, what to do...

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