Our first move – how exciting.  In theory it is exciting; in reality it is a lot of work especially with a 2 year old and a newborn.  In the coaching world, when you get a new job you better be prepared to start that job the day you get the call letting you know you are hired.   And because your husband has to start his new job ASAP you are left in the old town to do everything yourself – sell the house,  contact the movers, cut off utilities in the old place, set up the utilities in the new place, find schools, arrange car insurance, arrange house insurance, find new doctors, find a new dentist, decipher the new health benefits and life insurance.  The list goes on and on.  The first thing on the list was to sell the house.  We were lucky because it was a seller’s market at that time.  We actually had two offers on our house within two days.  Next on our list was to buy a house.  I must have been sleep deprived from having a one month old and a 2 year old because I told my husband “just go ahead and buy one”.  I didn’t even look at it.  Wow, I can’t believe I did that!  He knew the budget and we have similar tastes and honestly, I just did not feel like dragging two young kids across the country to drive around all day looking at houses.  I have to say he did a good job and the house fit our family well.  I also would have to say that for our first move things were moving along rather smoothly until . . . closing day.

The day before we were supposed to close on our house in St. Louis we heard from the buyer’s realtor that they were backing out of the contract.  That is when I got my first lesson in real estate and contracts.  Basically, those contracts don’t mean squat.  A person can back out whenever they want without any repercussions.  Sure, you could probably sue them for lost utility costs and any mortgage payments that you have to pay because the house has to go on the market again but I was told the cost to us for attorney fees, court costs and the time it would take to get to court would not be worth it and we would end up losing more money than just taking the hit.  So, we took the hit.  However, we were able to go after the earnest money that they put down when they signed the contract.  Two years later we were able to collect half of the money – $500.  Whoopee!