wobblyoldgeezer

Anyone else like St Bob, and enjoy his most recent as much as any previous?

Anyway, as one of the titles of his recent record, I feel a change coming on, and the fourth part of the day is already gone!

So, thinking of realising idle house capital

And, thread relevent, staying close to our bike riding friends in Kingston UK, spending time in Bike friendly Santa Cruz CA, and buying in road and mountain bike paradise in Turkey

Emerging plan; sell the family house (as the younger family are now flying free) on the edge of Richmond park, Kingston, to our current tenants who like it, buy a maintenance free pretty riverside flat in the same area to stay in touch with our best UK bikey buddies, and buy this <www.tufanproperties.com/89.htm> within a spit of sailing, biking and windsurfing, and hold on to Santa Cruz (little Victorian cottage which my smart wife bought for 25 k dollars in 1974)

Ok mods, I'm typing and thinking aloud here, but there have been similar retirement threads previously and I've appreciated advice on health, location and many other subjects in the past

So, just a message in a bottle!

oilman_15106

All I can say is that owning long distance real estate can be a pain in the #$$. Get on your bike and take a long ride to think about it.

stapfam

All I can think of is that it is not the time to sell and downsize in the UK at present. House prices have dropped in the last few years but give it 3 or 4 and they will come back up. One of my neighbours was thinking of moving but he has been told to drop the Price by £20K to even get people interested in looking at the house. It is already £5k below what he paid for it 3 years ago. But the house he is trying to buy is £35K less than 4 years ago when it was last bought.

Take it is the Thames that the Flat will overlook. Hope it is a Top floor one. Several years ago I heard of a house by the river that had a large concreted area below it. The house had what looked like a Car Port underneath it for about 8 cars. The car port was lower than the river and it flooded most years. That car port was just the Area that could not be used for housing or a cellar.

Come to think of it- And back to cycling- The Big "H" runs round the Park perimeter some years. Bike ride from Hampton to Hove and is a well organised ride. Run for charity but I have not done it for a few years now. So if you are staying in the area- When you do retire- you will not have the long trek up for a 7am start.

solveg

owning short distance real estate can be a pain in the @#$, too. Seriously....you cannot imagine what a hassle it is. I have a seasonal home in kansas, and one of my best friends lives next door and can keep an eye on it. If it wasn't for her, I would have sold it about 3 months after I got it.

BluesDawg

Must be nice to have such problems. I'm just trying to hang on to the one modest home we live in.

Bud Bent

But that's a double edge sword. If you wait for house values to go back up, the replacement house will cost more, too.

With all the empty houses around right now, there are some buys. I downsized last year. I found a good enough buy on my new house and had enough equity in my old house that I came within $10,000 of having enough to pay for my new house. I scratched that up, and now, for the first time in my life, live in a paid for house (and it's less than 4 years old). A good first step toward retirement, I'm thinking.

Wogster

Sometimes I think that if your not in a home on a semi-regular basis, the answer is a condo. I think to translate English to American, that this is what the OP intends. Worst though is trying to rent out a place when your not near by and can visit occasionally to deal with problems, because then you need to depend on someone else.

SaiKaiTai

I don't know... but you need to spend some time down the coast so you can see me at The Store.

CrankyFranky

Wow. Nice plan! To great biking locations, plus Turkey. Are you asking us for more than envy?

stapfam

Great to see you back Solveg.

solveg

Thanks! Now to get back on my bike regularly.