Nothing big has changed over the past few days, but I feel like blogging anyway.

We went over to the new place Saturday and I meant to take pictures, but it was raining pretty hard by the time we got there and didn't clear up until it was dark outside.

I'm sure we'll be over there a lot, so I will get some pics to share at some point! Of course I can't take any of the unit we'll eventually live in since it has tenants, but I can take some others.

Our friends have our contractor who renovated the condo coming to look at a few things, such as poor electrical wiring, installing a ceiling fan in their bedroom, and faulty drainage (going to ask if the gutter can be rerouted). Since we're not charging our friends for this first month but are letting them move in whenever they want, I figure they can pay for the equivalent of a month's rent, and we'll help pay for any amount over that.

Being over there really makes us want to start living there. But no matter how I squint at the numbers, it just doesn't make financial sense to do so yet.

We're still open to various scenarios, but one thing we're agreed on is that we can't move until we sell the condo. Even if we moved and rented the condo out instead, we wouldn't be able to make as much rent money as we do on the upper unit of the duplex, plus we'd have to worry about whether the renters would keep the place staged for sale.

Right now our condo is listed at $155K. After Sept. 1 we'll owe $151K on the mortgage, and the realtor has said she'd get $9K plus we'd need to fork over about $2K more in fees. So even if it sold at the current listing price, we'd have to come up with $7K for the privilege of getting rid of it.

We'll see how we feel if we get a lowball offer. I'll have to crunch numbers and feel it out. I did figure that if we lost $15K on the place (so sold it for $8K under listing), we'd have a $450 monthly payment on an unsecured loan. We couldn't afford to take that on PLUS kick the renters out, so if we took a lowball offer like that, I think we'd have to find a short-term-lease apartment to move into temporarily until we were on better financial footing.

So I have mixed feelings about whether I even want an offer on the condo this year. Next year will be a different story; by March the mortgage will be down to $149K, which means we'd only lose $5K if we sold at the current listing price. Our incomes will probably be way up and our expenses (tuition, dental) way down.

But staying in the condo isn't ideal either, since we spent $1400 getting the main floors redone and now have to carefully tend them. And a short-term rental if we do sell isn't a fun idea either, both because we're so eager to move into our new place, and because we wouldn't be fulfilling the FHA commitment to make the duplex our primary residence. (We are declaring it as such, and do intend to make it so when we can afford it, and will be over there all the time visiting our friends, so it's really a technicality, but it still doesn't feel right.)

Ah well. Enough meandering. Other updates:

- We took LF's advice and are keeping the litter box in the bathroom when we're home, only moving it into the closet when we're out.

- We have a showing scheduled for tomorrow.

- I'm finalizing interviewing candidates to replace me tomorrow, so hopefully we can make a hire soon and I can move into my new role/office/salary!

- The coin-op washer in the duplex isn't working, but it broke before we took ownership. The seller's agent tried to put it off on me but I wrote back making it clear I expect them to repair or replace at their expense. Haven't heard from him yet.

- He gave us the tenants' security deposit but still waiting to receive August rent. Apparently all 5 people write separate checks so he might be waiting on one or two.

- Less than three weeks until the first set of UK visitors arrives. If I don't spend any money between now and then, I'll have $800 saved up. Not a ton, but better than nothing.