Driving Across Country to Move to St Thomas USVI - 4-23-12

Well everything was packed up, cleaned up, items donated and what we are bringing was packed into the container that arrived! We have a 40 foot sea container that will be shipped to the Virgin Islands with our personal effects and furniture we wanted to bring! It will take about 6 weeks to arrive and ask me about the cost, which was very hard to swallow! Sold the camper at the last minute and the Honda.

After sleeping on mattresses on the floor for five days and eating off of paper plates on a makeshift table, we finally are going to hit the road on our cross country journey in our Toyota Tacoma which will be shipped from Jacksonville, FL, then rent a car to Miami, FL where we will fly with the dogs to St Thomas. On our last night, all of friends stopped by for our last happy hour in the garage!

Leaving on the road trip!

Our first night in Wells, NV at Motel6 (which never asks questions about our dogs, but we found a new chain called the Red Roof Inn).

Next day was our 3 day stop at my Sister's house in Teton Valley, ID (Victor, ID, Shannon and I lived here up the highway in Driggs, ID from 2000 - 2004). She and her Husband have a new baby boy and it was the first time for me to see my new nephew!

Next stop was to see some old friends who used to live in Driggs at their home in Laramie, WY.  We haven't seen them in 8 years!  They now have 3 kids.

Of course it had to snow while we were there, and yes this will probably be the last time our dogs see snow!

The next three days were in truck driving across country all the way to my father's house in Cedar Point, NC! We spent the night at Motel6 in Independence, MO, Nashville, TN and Charolette, NC.

Of course I had to stop at White Castle in MO, I haven't had one of their burgers in 18 years!

Nashville, TN at the honky tonks watching a great band, River City Gang. We both really liked Nashville, for dinner we were so sick of eating crap food we found a Whole Foods for their salad bar!

We went through Gatlinberg, TN through the Great Smokey Mtns, and I can see why it gets the name it does!

Finally we made it to NC and we were treated to temps in the mid 70's and a trip to the beach on the boat!

Next we will be driving to Jacksonville, FL to drop the Tacoma off at the dock for Sea Star Lines where it will be shipped. Rent a mini-van and down to Miami for the big flight. Should be fun considering that there are no rental cars available in St Thomas as it is Carnival. At least the temperature in Miami will be below 85 as over that the dogs can't fly!

Continuing to Pack Up for Move to St Thomas 3-20-12

I don't know how people can retire, I am getting very antsy?

I am down now to 14 listings of which all are now pending, so there is not much time needed for those properties. Both of my agents have moved on to other companies. We finished our last garage sale over a week ago, and funny how no one shows up at the end, even though most of the items were 50% off. We have still been selling our left over items on Craigslist (including our California King Bed, much to Shannon's dismay!). Made a trip to NV Humane Society to donate some pet items. The MS Society truck refused to come pick up our garage sale left overs as we were not on their map book, apparently an extra 5 miles was not worth it to them. We had the United Cerebal Palsay truck come instead!

So now I have room in the garage now to start packing up all our items we are bringing! Speaking of which, the container to move from Reno to St Thomas is going to cost about $18,000. Yikes! But after doing a cost analysis of selling our current stuff (we have learned from the garage sale that your stuff is not worth anything!) that the cost of replacing all our furniture, not to mention, the family heirlooms, was going to be more than the cost of the container. So I ordered our container to come on April 6th.

What we have found to be interesting is how many people hear you are moving away all of a sudden want to hang out with you, some you never hung out with for the last 3 years? We have been busy with our garage happy hours entertaining (and empying out our liquor cabinet) old friends.

Still trying to sell the Travel Trailer, no one has even looked at it? Lesson learned, don't ever buy a new camper, bought it new in 2006 for $22K. I have the price down to $11k and still no bites. The Honda CRV was held off the market for 2 weeks as my neighbor was going to buy it. He was going to sell his truck, but assured us if he didn't sell his truck he would buy it anyway. Well, he informed us yesterday that him buying was contingent on selling his truck. Translation: He isn't buying the CRV. Lesson learned here, don't trust your friends, get a non-refundable deposit no matter who they are.

We also thought it would be a good idea to get health checkups before we leave to make sure we are up to snuff (dogs are going today to their checkup). I went and results are back, borderline high cholesterol and vitamin D deficiency. I think it is safe to say I will be getting more exercise in the VI with my snorkel swims at Sapphire Beach and walks at Megan's Bay. Vitamin D deficiency requires more exposure to sunlight, hmmm, that will be tough in the VI?  Shannon goes in for her exam next week.

We have bought our one way ticket from Miami to St Thomas for April 26th. We can't believe how quick we are going to be there full time! We plan on leaving on April 10 or 11th from Reno, driving the Toyota Tacoma with the dogs to Miami. Here is the tentative itinrary:

Jackson Hole, WY to visit my new nephew Ryan and my sister Caryn.
Off to Laramie, WY to visit old frineds when we lived in Teton Valley, ID.
Independence, MO -  a night at a Motel 6.
Spending a day in Nashville, TN as we are country music fans.
Cedar Point, NC on the outer banks to visit my father.
Jacksonville, FL - drop the Tacoma off at the dock to be shipped to STT.
Rent a car and got on a plane in MIA.

First offical guest has booked their visit to St Thomas for May 26th. Larry, my well guy and his girlfriend are coming to stay in the apartment. I have a feeling we will be seeing many more friends and family in St Thomas then we ever did in Reno, most if any came once, and that was enough for them for a lifetime I guess?

Other than that, there really isn't much more to pack. I have been so used to working 6-7 days a week, that having this much down time, and I hate to admit it, but I am bored and ready to start our new brokerage in St Thomas. Which leads me back to, how do people retire? I need to be busy, and it is looking like I am never going to be able to retire!

Garage Sale Time for Our Move to St Thomas! 2-28-12

Well the results are in for a 3 car garage filled garage sale from the weekend! Well we hit our financial goal of recovering $1000 of beloved junk! Unfortunately, our big items, Honda CRV, tractor and RV didn't sell. We will keep trying with another sale this weekend!

Moving to St Thomas! 2-20-12

I arrived back to Reno, NV on Feb. 7th, 2012, to the cold weather. My wife Shannon and I had a wonderful time and with the news of limited foreclosure activity in Nevada, this would make a perfect "getaway" time?  After losing 3 of our labradors this Summer and with the slowdown in new REO inventory, this decision was easy!

These pictures from our latest visit also made it easy?

St Thomas Property Fenced! - 1-18-12

Cyclone fencing, fenced the back of our property for the recycled labrador retreivers! This should make it easier on the dogs for moving to St Thomas, VI

The one on the left is Bristol, the right is Bo Peep (Pig)

Here is what is going to be their new digs!

Foreclosures Coming to a Halt in Nevada! 1-16-12

I am guessing in three to four months I will be out of business in Nevada since that is our main source of listings?

 

Foreclosure starts drop across the West Coast

by KERRI PANCHUK

 

Friday, January 13th, 2012, 7:59 am

 

Foreclosure starts across the West Coast plummeted in December as California, Nevada and Washington reported double-digit declines in new mortgages entering the process, according to ForeclosureRadar.

California, in particular, saw foreclosure starts decline by 30.6% to 16,465 filings in December, while foreclosure sales grew 3.2% to 11,097 transactions. The time it takes to foreclose in the Golden State also fell by 16.9% to 250 days.

The Discovery Bay, Calif.-based firm said California experienced an unexpected 45.8% spike in foreclosure cancellations from November.

ForeclosureRadar said the sudden rise stems from the closing of trustee sale locations in Norwalk, Calif.

"This closure caused more than 5,000 sales to be cancelled in December," the company said. Those sales are expected to resume at other trustee locations in California.

The states of Nevada and Washington saw foreclosure starts decline 14% and 17.3%, respectively, while Arizona reported a drop of 24.2%.

Oregon went against the grain, reporting a 5% increase in foreclosure starts.

ForeclosureRadar said changes in the regulatory landscape are still playing a role in the final foreclosure numbers. For example, Nevada's new foreclosure law led to a decline in both foreclosure starts and sales, with foreclosure sales alone falling 27%.

"Nevada's new foreclosure rules appear on track to bring a near complete halt to foreclosures in that state," said Sean O'Toole, founder and chief executive officer of ForeclosureRadar.

"In the near term this will certainly help homeowners who were facing foreclosure, eviction, and potentially deficiency judgements. Longer term, we believe there will be unintended consequences for the state as business declines for the many real estate related companies that would normally service, resell and finance those foreclosures."

 

 

Life in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands - 1-12-12

Well Toyota 4Runner come, and no, there were no issues with the vehicle. All was the same as I had left it in Reno, NV, except greasy and this random glove on the passenger floor? Viking delivered it to me at the Airport where I have for the last time have given up my Hertz rental car. Wendy was sad and asked I stopped by and say hi whenever I was at the airport. Total cost for having my own car: $5200. Having my own car real value: PRICELESS. I know what I have, know its maintenance and its mine!

As I was driving down the hill to the airport to drop off the rental car, I saw a cruise ship docked at Havensight, it was the ship that Shannon and I first visited St Thomas in January 2009 the Norwegian Gem, the whole reason for how we ended up buying here! Karma?

Well, as I was driving from the airport to go home, Shannon called me about the conference call with our largest client in Reno, NV. They had said with NV bill AB 241, that it would 2-3 years before we would start seeing any new foreclosure inventory! I was like just as I had predicted, we have 30 of our 40 listed REO properties pending. The client was not going to seek judicial foreclosure, only non-judicial. It took me about 1 minute to decide to pull off to the DMV to get my driver's license as mine was expiring in NV in April and I think we both know what the writing is on the wall for NV.

So when you go to get your license, you walk in and there are all these windows with plexiglass, no real direction? So after asking, I finally made it to a window that asked for all my stuff. I showed it to her, she say, "go to cashier". Went to cashier and paid my $45 with my Mastercard and you go wait. So I waited for about 10 mins and then you step into this office. It was so crowded with a desktop pc, digital camera with a mini tripod, finger print machine, eye tester etc. The gal there was so nice, she first asked me, "Mr. Wiseman, how long have you REALLY lived here?" I was laughing, I said, "I honestly just had a whim that I would be living here full time after what happened today. We began talking and told her that I just lost 3 dogs in 4 months, these were our kids and needed a change after our client basically told us we'd be out of business. She was like, "I love my dogs too!" So we both spent about 20 minutes sharing dog stories and pictures from our IPhones!

Here is what you need for the license:

Passport
Social Security Card
Current US Driver License
Driving record for the state you live in (most have it available on-line, just print it out).

Ahhh, guess this is going to be home now! Won't mind with views like this from our home!