Our situation was as I've outlined from August 2009 'til April 2010. It felt, many times, as if we were living what Thoreau wrote of in Walden--"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." We WERE quietly surviving and desperate for anything resembling a normal existence. My hubby would go to the various sub jobs and witness what others did or did not do for the 'visitor' in terms of accomodation and preparatory materials. I would go to my campus, teach, observe office hours, and fumble through the 'new campus' learning process as I've done many times prior.
In early April 2010, our situation changed a bit. Our realtor in Georgia notified us that we had a buyer--A BUYER!!!--who would want to rent the property while in the mortgaging process. As we discovered that we could rent out the property and, by doing so, qualify for a new home in Texas, we agreed. The paperwork was duly executed in time for them to additionally qualify for the $8k tax credit, they moved into the house, and we signed up with a realtor in Texas and started scouting neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, in that same time period, the public school year was ending--and so, too, were the sub jobs. Times were about to 'feel' desperate all over again albeit we had reserves and we now had a steady source of income on the Georgia property to supplement the pre-existing mortgage. Our focus shifted from daily survival to future success. I volunteered to teach four summer classes--three of which successfully 'made' at the college--to supplement what we would lack from the loss of substitute teaching offerings. The applications (which had never really ended) were sent with renewed vigor. That my hubby had now made very positive contacts in the area ISDs through subbing was a major positive force...he had a pseudo-inside track into soon-to-be openings and availability. And they (the ISDs) now had name-recognition on his applications. (*As of today, his search is still going, but there are some strong contenders and initial calls ARE coming in finally.)
I took the 'lead' on the house search thus allowing my hubby to concentrate on the re-energized job search. We prequalified for a comfortable and sensible mortgage, started the paperwork (the last of which is still ongoing as of 15 July 2010), and I went looking with our realtor. There is an overabundance of properties in this area far below market value (thanks to the economy) on the foreclosure and short-sale market. We (our realtor and I) chose to focus our attentions there. Culling through the nasty bits was both fascinating and terrifying--there are some significantly irate people out there (understandably so) whose former homes are on those markets and who, before vacating their properties, assured through physical defacement that the properties would be virtually uninhabitable for the next owners. We saw walls punched in, torn wallpaper, missing light fixtures and outlets, broken attic ladders, missing kitchen appliances, and even one backfilled swimming pool (yes...the former occupants of one house completely filled their oval pool with dirt and planted a lawn in the pool).
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