Yes, personal use. Within the next few month to a year. As far as I can tell, it’s not a hot market. I can go there for 3-4 days. good to know I can get help with the inspection and others.
Ok, so you are not under time pressure, that’s good.
How much time have you spent in this area? Are you familiar with the local towns or even the neighborhoods? Can you narrow down the areas you are interested in?
We did everything but the closing docs by DocuSign. When we could not be there, our agent helped with babysitting small stuff like sewer scope and rat inspection; he texted us updates and questions. Could have done a Skype or Face, but who wants to look down a sewer pipe? 
We got the reports.
@notrichenough It’s a small town, basically one neighborhood. I believe the population is under 1,000. Not too many houses. I’ve been there but didn’t explore the town much.
Ok, you’ve narrowed it down to a small area, that makes things much easier for you. Narrowing the scope of your search is half the battle.
With that small an area you can easily check out every house that comes on the market. Is Google Street View available in this town? That usually provides views the listing photos don’t. The satellite views in google maps are also helpful.
Personally I like to see floor plans. I see them a lot with higher end listings, and find them incredibly helpful with visualizing the space. If you find them useful you can try to make one from the listing photos, or ask your agent to visit the property and make a rough one.
When you find a place or places you are serious about, get your agent to visit and take a lot more pictures, and have them give you an opinion about the condition. The listing photos will be deliberately hiding the warts.
Then you have to invest in a trip, I would not buy a place sight-unseen. Hopefully you only have to go there once.
re DocuSign - there’s half a dozen of these companies now, and it really makes the whole process much more efficient, especially during the negotiation phase where things change a lot. The mortgage companies are using them now, too, we never saw a piece of paper with our Cape house until the closing, and we are refinancing a place now and so far have not touched a single piece of paper. Our fax machine sits in the corner gathering dust, I can’t remember the last time it got used.
Do you know the area? If not, the standard advise is to rent first, try it out.
“Seems like a time for dreaming or making dreams come true!” - We did early turkey Sunday while out of state kiddo was home. It will be our first Thanksgiving without kids… and we will likely drive to Sante Fe for a 3 night getaway. Hmmm… I guess I shoud mention it to my own mom. (She’ll be fine with it. She had fun with us and the kids already.)
Don’t need a holiday to be thinking about retirement!
Just had an introductory meeting with a financial planner from one of the retirement fund management companies; he’s going to run some numbers for us assuming the earliest we might “retire” (career change, really) would be 2020 – I’ve committed to my colleagues to keep working through at least then, and that also happens to be the year our son graduates from college. Did this exercise 5 years ago and it seemed feasible then, but barely. At the time, we didn’t know where our son would be going to college and what the costs would be. We do now (do we ever)! Uncertainty in the health insurance landscape is now one of the biggest stumbling blocks…
An interesting perspective on the topic of renting v buying (which was discussed here):
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/homeownership-doesnt-build-wealth-study-finds/ar-BBF3A4p
A home is not an investment vehicle. It could be an investment - in your peace of mind and quality of life if there are no rentals that fit the bill.
@colfac92 we found it easiest to set our goal to continue working until we are both 65, which is 4 years in Oct. DD2 graduates in May and had a very promising job interview yesterday (degree in civil and architectural engineering, and this was considered company’s final interview - almost an all day process including visit to a job site). DD1 is making us grandparents in May as well. Between the kids’ evolving lives, it is kind of comforting to stay in our current routine and cash flow. And if DD2 lands in the city she interviewed, both DDs will be 100 miles away (one N, one S). So we will probably stay put a bit after retiring unless something strongly compels us to move.
In addition to looking where we are, we are also looking at buying a place in California. But, we have been renting there for 3-4 months a year and would never buy without visiting it several times.
Nothing causes me to think of retirement. Just too much interesting work to do. I do pay a lot of attention to what my home office would look out on. Very little has given me more sustained pleasure than drinking my latte, looking out on our little dock, Richardson Bay and Mount Tamalpais while I am working.
^ In the video that accompanies that article, it stated that in 11 of 23 cities, buying is better, and renting is better in only 3 out of 23. The rest are a toss-up. So that is somewhat at odds with the article.
The other problem with rent vs. buy studies like this is that it isn’t clear they are comparing apples to apples. In my area, at least, for what you can rent a nice 2br apartment for, you can buy a small house. And how do you put a price on what it is that makes you happier?
Plus, it is just against human nature that most people will religiously invest the difference every month. So even if renting is better, very few people will have the discipline to turn that into higher wealth down the road.
I’ve worked remotely at our Cape house a few times, it is pretty nice looking out over the water. I get distracted by the boats going in and out though. 
That reminds me, I saw a nice property in the area you are looking, that is surrounded by walking trails and conservation areas. I think it had studio space as well.
Only problem (well it would be a big problem for me B-) ) is that it was listed for $5.something million.
^ I think the rent vs buy decision often undervalues mobility (geographical liquidity). This is especially the case with young people, whose job opportunities change in one day and they’ve got a RE anchor around their neck, but it’s also the case for retirees. I like the idea of it costing me a modest amount, probably in the single digit thousands, to get up and move elsewhere. That said, DW disagrees.
Also, they are cherry-picking their data:
Sure, compare it to one of the biggest bull markets ever. It’s both amazing and alarming that there were areas where RE kept up with the stock market over this period.
IIRC correctly, historically RE appreciation roughly matches inflation, the stock market does much better.
I am biased toward RE though.
“Plus, it is just against human nature that most people will religiously invest the difference every month. So even if renting is better, very few people will have the discipline to turn that into higher wealth down the road.”
Amen. 
That’s what I was thinking. I don’t really view a house where I live as an investment. As I said, it is an investment in my peace of mind of sorts. I don’t think Mr. and I can rent anything comparable for the mortgage amount we have on the place (keeping the mortgage and the money in the bank now as who knows what the tax situation is gonna be).
I am one of those people who could easily invest the difference every month…but my difference is going to be negative by renting, and that’s giving me heartburn!
I sold my house and am set to close shortly. Rental houses here are livable; but they aren’t “nice”. The market for sale is very tight, so we’re going to rent until next summer.
I haven’t had a house payment in 10 years; my insurance and taxes are low, about 2 months worth of rent. Hmmm, writing this out is not making me feel any better about the situation 
Keep trying to remember downsizing is definitely the right decision and the county is about to impose some zoning that could have dropped my value by up to 40+%. Just have to keep that thought foremost.
Yikes. I just thought about it… Our insurance and taxes for our swamp palace are about what baby kiddo would pay for a studio on Capitol Hill in Seattle. 
Our local paper does these real life “when can I retire” articles periodically. Here is another couple:
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/couple-fear-retirement-nest-egg-might-fall-short/
Tis the season for medical enrollment. Enrollment is easy-peasy for me while working (and not too expensive, if DH and I each use our own employer plan.) We’ve been doing HSA plan, trying to save up for future years.
Someday we’ll be retired, probably before either is 65. Any feedback from our pre-65 retirees (w/o employer retiree health benefits) doing 2018 enrollment?
