Moving to Delaware?

[Dash man]

Pensions and 401k/IRA withdrawals are taxable in New Jersey too.

 

[W2R]

Hey Kat, I'm with you here.

My house sold in two days and I have no where chosen to go yet. And I haven't started packing yet, let alone figure out what furniture to keep or what to give away. My house closes on the 21st of this month.

But I'm not going back east!

Good luck!

Hot dog!!! The adventure begins. I can't wait to hear how your move goes (as well as Katsmeow's move.) Take care, don't overdo, and enjoy! I'll be looking forward to reading your posts, and Katsmeow's posts, about moving..

 

[W2R]

Yeah, if I don't start making something happen by the end of this coming week, I will go into panic mode.

If it gets to that point, then one option might be to just pack a suitcase, have everything else put into a storage unit, and then check into an extended stay motel until you have had a chance to decide what to take and where to take it.

 

[Al18]

Depending on where you live in the state, NJ property taxes can be just slightly more expensive than Texas. The power grid is much better and much better snow/ice removal on the roads and if you don’t live near the shore, there’s not much flooding compared to Texas.

The NJ state income tax I mentioned above includes lots of IRA withdrawals and a pension.

Delaware property taxes are 1/2 of NJ on average. I worked in Delaware for years - there are many nice places to live. I’m not a fan of Wilmington - it’s a big city.

 

[Montecfo]

Depending on where you live in the state, NJ property taxes can be just slightly more expensive than Texas. The power grid is much better and much better snow/ice removal on the roads and if you don’t live near the shore, there’s not much flooding compared to Texas.

Delaware property taxes are 1/2 of NJ on average. I worked in Delaware for years - there are many nice places to live. I’m not a fan of Wilmington - it’s a big city.

Is that a selling point?

If I were moving from Texas I would take for granted that one thing I could bank on is much lower property taxes.

But the grid in Texas is challenged for sure. But better snow/ice removal means there is a lot more snow and ice to remove.

But I think the view that Texas has great weather is starting to change with weather impacts on things like the grid, tornadoes, hurricane risk, plus folks focusing more heat as a weather concern.

I do think NJ is a beautiful state. Love the beaches and boardwalks and just the countryside outside of the urban areas.

 

[Al18]

A couple of articles I’ve read say people are moving from NJ to Texas to save lots on property tax. The reality is Texas has been jacking up its property taxes for years - it’s no longer a good deal IMHO. On the other hand, NJ has passed big tax deductions for middle income retirees. There are additional deductions for veterans.

 

[Montecfo]

A couple of articles I’ve read say people are moving from NJ to Texas to save lots on property tax. The reality is Texas has been jacking up its property taxes for years - it’s no longer a good deal IMHO. On the other hand, NJ has passed big tax deductions for middle income retirees. There are additional deductions for veterans.

Texas has had high property taxes forever. People miss that, wowed by no state income tax.

That people would move to Tx to save property taxes means they are fleeing extraordinarily high taxes.

 

[target2019]

We are currently now scheduled to close on our house in less than 3 weeks. We have so much to do that we can't possibly visit Delaware before we leavel. So we have decided on the following process. We will drive (with our 2 cats) to Delaware after closing on the house. I have researched and located several potential corporate short term apartment rentals. They are very expensive, but are furnished with everything you need (including kitchen stuff and linens) and typically can be done for only 3 months. However, because we are not familiar with the specific areas I don't want to sign a lease without actually seeing where they are located (and ideally seeing the an apartment in the building).

So we tentatively plan to check into an extended stay hotel while we check out the short term apartments. When we do, we will hopefully sign a lease for 2 to 3 months (with options to extend). This might take 3 days or a week or so. Once we move in, we will focus on just learning the areas and seeing how we feel about it. If we like everything then a month or so after getting there we will start looking for a house to buy. All of that is subject to some change. That is, if we loved it and found the ideal house at week 3 then it might be a little earlier. If we needed more info then it might be a little earlier.

If we end up hating the area (which I doubt will happen) then we will probably look at some of the nearby states that are not tax unfriendly.

Sounds like you'll be starting the journey in 1-2 months, the long days of summer. Humidity in Delaware is milder than in the swamps of Jersey. The bay and ocean weather moderate things a bit. In Philly we called the weather "muggy."

But we're in a drought for sure. Rain in May was almost nothing. We've had three significant forest fires in South Jersey in the past week. If you check out fire.airnow.gov you can see that half the country is covered with some smoke due to big events elsewhere.

Delaware is definitely considered a tax haven by some. You'll just have to run some estimates of each prospect you find there and see how it all feels.

Every state is tax-unfriendly in some way, I feel. Over a long period my feelings about NJ R.E. tax burden has changed. I definitely see the current burden now as fairer, because the services we've received and the environment around us is so pleasant.

Some people really love Pennsy, including the city and suburbs. NJ, MD and DE -- it's all good, in my opinion. Many parks and trails, historic sights, and 4 seasons. Within 100 mile radius you'll never run out of attractions.

 

[Out of Steam]

One item I forgot to mention is that some retirees move to Southern Delaware, as it is less populated, and that is where specific retirement communities sprouted in the 90's. When we've looked at those type of communities, we always found a problem of one type or another.. For us, we have our dream location, and don't want to give up the wooded yard, closeness to Philly, and so on.

I once had a friend who moved to the Milford area. He had a home built, not too expansive, and it had access to water, which was his thing. He loved to go out in his small craft at the crack of dawn.

It adds another hour of distance, though. It could be a real bother to get to medical care in the Wilmington area.

A number of our friends, mainly from the DC area, have moved to Southern Delaware, and three that I know of have had issues with access to medical care there. One had to go to Pennsylvania for a hip replacement, and two more have been returning to their former homes near DC and Philadelphia to see specialists.

To my knowledge, the Wilmington area would not have similar issues, and that it is just an issue with growth around Rehoboth Beach.

 

[Katsmeow]

talking about tax friendliness...

Well, that probably leaves out New Jersey and Maryland.[emoji23]

I expect you’ll like Delaware.

New Jersey is definitely out which is sort of sad as there are things I like about it. Maryland is a little better than I expected. Or to put it another way, it is less tax friendly than Delaware but is still better than Texas.

Hey Kat, I'm with you here.

My house sold in two days and I have no where chosen to go yet. And I haven't started packing yet, let alone figure out what furniture to keep or what to give away. My house closes on the 21st of this month.

We are on pretty close to the same schedule. If you recall we used to live in Montgomery County (in an acreage subdivision more north of the Woodlands. So I am still familiar with the general area. If you think you will be moving a long distance (i.e. farther than the general Houston area) it usually does not pay to move furniture unless it is very new and very expensive or it is something that has great personal or sentimental value to you. Accordingly, we are moving almost no furniture -- a few expensive chairs and a couple of items of sentimental value. We are moving some decor items, electronics and probably 50 boxes. We don't know what kind of layout we will end up in so no reason to pay to move furniture we may not need. We will have a mover store our goods until we buy.

Depending on where you live in the state, NJ property taxes can be just slightly more expensive than Texas. The power grid is much better and much better snow/ice removal on the roads and if you don’t live near the shore, there’s not much flooding compared to Texas.

This slightly more expensive property taxes than Texas is a killer. One reason we want to leave Texas (not the only one) is because the property taxes are too high! The two states we rejected on property taxes alone were New Jersey and Illinois.

A couple of articles I’ve read say people are moving from NJ to Texas to save lots on property tax. The reality is Texas has been jacking up its property taxes for years - it’s no longer a good deal IMHO.

Texas has never been a good deal on property taxes! It is a bit better for those over 65 as your school taxes freeze. Even so, our taxes will go down a lot in Delaware.

Sounds like you'll be starting the journey in 1-2 months, the long days of summer. Humidity in Delaware is milder than in the swamps of Jersey. The bay and ocean weather moderate things a bit. In Philly we called the weather "muggy."
...


Delaware is definitely considered a tax haven by some. You'll just have to run some estimates of each prospect you find there and see how it all feels.

Every state is tax-unfriendly in some way, I feel....

Some people really love Pennsy, including the city and suburbs. NJ, MD and DE -- it's all good, in my opinion. Many parks and trails, historic sights, and 4 seasons. Within 100 mile radius you'll never run out of attractions.

We need to be out of this house in 2 1/2 weeks. Yikes! I did run numbers. Another big savings is that homeowner's insurance is much less in Delaware than Texas. The big negative is the transfer tax when we buy a house but that is only one time. Delaware doesn't freeze school taxes for people over 65 like Texas but even so their rates are much lower. Yes, all the stuff to do relatively nearby is attractive. I also like the idea of taking the train to NYC or DC. Just lots to do.

A number of our friends, mainly from the DC area, have moved to Southern Delaware, and three that I know of have had issues with access to medical care there. One had to go to Pennsylvania for a hip replacement, and two more have been returning to their former homes near DC and Philadelphia to see specialists.

To my knowledge, the Wilmington area would not have similar issues, and that it is just an issue with growth around Rehoboth Beach.

I have read this too. Southern Delaware is not for us for many reasons. Lack of amenities is just one of them. My understand is that up in New Castle County there is much better access to doctors although still not enough of them. I understand that many people do have specialists in Philadelphia. That is fine for me though because it will be close for me. The main hospital Christiana Care is between Newark and Wilmington and is good for most things as I understand it. But there is Philadelphia if you need something really special.

 

[Al18]

New Castle County seems a nice place - I worked there for years. Philadelphia is just a short drive away if need a specialist. There are quite a few in NJ also. Tax free shopping at Christiana Mall. Only real negative is US95 North can get really backed-up with traffic on Friday afternoon, as a lot of Washington DC folks head to the Jersey shore for the weekend.

 

[Katsmeow]

New Castle County seems a nice place - I worked there for years. Philadelphia is just a short drive away if need a specialist. There are quite a few in NJ also. Tax free shopping at Christiana Mall. Only real negative is US95 North can get really backed-up with traffic on Friday afternoon, as a lot of Washington DC folks head to the Jersey shore for the weekend.

One good thing about being retired is that you can usually avoid the high traffic times. I am eager to get closed on my current house and to finally get there and check it out.

 

[Scuba]

Congratulations on making your move decision! I recall at one time you were considering Nevada. I’ve always thought that Nevada was one of if not the most tax-friendly state. Did you decide against Nevada for tax or other reasons?

 

[Katsmeow]

We closed on the sale of our house and arrived in Delaware today along with our 2 cats. The plan is to do a short term rental while checking out the area. Real estate agents here have told me there is low inventory and it is very competitive so I should expect to take 3 to 6 months to successfully buy a house.

I have much more to say about the sale of our house and how we got here, but am exhausted after the trip. More later.

Congratulations on making your move decision! I recall at one time you were considering Nevada. I’ve always thought that Nevada was one of if not the most tax-friendly state. Did you decide against Nevada for tax or other reasons?

See post 1 in this thread. To briefly recap, I found out that I have coronary artery disease including 4 blockages that are not bad enough for stents. This made me think more about health and really research emergency health care in Nevada (as my big risk now is that I have a heart attack or other adverse event). I knew before that Las Vegas had a shortage of doctors but I was prepared to travel elsewhere for specialist care.

But now I realize I needed to plan for emergency care. And Las Vegas does not have great hospitals or great emergency care. Even more critically if I needed something beyond garden variety heart attack care, Las Vegas can't just send you to a better hospital 50 miles away. The better hospitals are 300 miles away which is not close enough in an emergency. So we reluctantly decided to look elsewhere.

 

[W2R]

Congratulations on the house closing, and traveling all the way to Delaware! Of course you are exhausted - - who wouldn't be! So I hope you can find a few hours to rest sometime soon. Take care, and I hope you will have fun checking out the area and searching for your new home.

 

[Scuba]

We closed on the sale of our house and arrived in Delaware today along with our 2 cats. The plan is to do a short term rental while checking out the area. Real estate agents here have told me there is low inventory and it is very competitive so I should expect to take 3 to 6 months to successfully buy a house.



I have much more to say about the sale of our house and how we got here, but am exhausted after the trip. More later.







See post 1 in this thread. To briefly recap, I found out that I have coronary artery disease including 4 blockages that are not bad enough for stents. This made me think more about health and really research emergency health care in Nevada (as my big risk now is that I have a heart attack or other adverse event). I knew before that Las Vegas had a shortage of doctors but I was prepared to travel elsewhere for specialist care.



But now I realize I needed to plan for emergency care. And Las Vegas does not have great hospitals or great emergency care. Even more critically if I needed something beyond garden variety heart attack care, Las Vegas can't just send you to a better hospital 50 miles away. The better hospitals are 300 miles away which is not close enough in an emergency. So we reluctantly decided to look elsewhere.

I completely understand. My husband had a heart attack last year which required emergency quadruple bypass surgery. Luckily we lived close to a trauma center hospital and they saved his life.

Best wishes on your move to Delaware!

 

[RetiredHappy]

I am surprised that you believe that there are no good heart and emergency hospitals and doctors in Las Vegas. Based on census, there are 2.29 million people living in Las Vegas Metropolitan area as of 2021. My husband has an excellent cardiac specialist and both of us have many excellent specialists. I had an emergency (trauma) a year ago and had the best experience. Ambulance took me to the hospital on a stretcher and I got both a head and neck and a full body CT Scan right away. Results were available in 15 minutes. I had severe liver laceration, 5 broken ribs and other injuries. I had the best care in their intensive care ward.

I did a quick search on heart failure hospitals in LV, here are the results and they look very impressive. https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/las-vegas-nv/heart-failure

 

[target2019]

We closed on the sale of our house and arrived in Delaware today along with our 2 cats. The plan is to do a short term rental while checking out the area. Real estate agents here have told me there is low inventory and it is very competitive so I should expect to take 3 to 6 months to successfully buy a house.

I have much more to say about the sale of our house and how we got here, but am exhausted after the trip. More later.

See post 1 in this thread. To briefly recap, I found out that I have coronary artery disease including 4 blockages that are not bad enough for stents. This made me think more about health and really research emergency health care in Nevada (as my big risk now is that I have a heart attack or other adverse event). I knew before that Las Vegas had a shortage of doctors but I was prepared to travel elsewhere for specialist care.

But now I realize I needed to plan for emergency care. And Las Vegas does not have great hospitals or great emergency care. Even more critically if I needed something beyond garden variety heart attack care, Las Vegas can't just send you to a better hospital 50 miles away. The better hospitals are 300 miles away which is not close enough in an emergency. So we reluctantly decided to look elsewhere.

Katzmeow,
Welcome! A few weeks ago I was concerned that you would arrive and see nothing but smoke from wildfires. However, today we finally have "normal" summer weather, meaning thunderstorms and lots of rain.

My brother went to Lankenau Hospital for a quadruple by-pass a few months ago. They did three, and he is doing well. I went to visit him, and the heart pavilion is very large and modern. https://www.mainlinehealth.org/specialties/lhi

The drive to locations in the Philadelphia area are probably 1 hour. But you'll find the care you need in the Wilmington area for sure.

 

[meleana]

We closed on the sale of our house and arrived in Delaware today along with our 2 cats. The plan is to do a short term rental while checking out the area. Real estate agents here have told me there is low inventory and it is very competitive so I should expect to take 3 to 6 months to successfully buy a house.

I have much more to say about the sale of our house and how we got here, but am exhausted after the trip. More later.



See post 1 in this thread. To briefly recap, I found out that I have coronary artery disease including 4 blockages that are not bad enough for stents. This made me think more about health and really research emergency health care in Nevada (as my big risk now is that I have a heart attack or other adverse event). I knew before that Las Vegas had a shortage of doctors but I was prepared to travel elsewhere for specialist care.

But now I realize I needed to plan for emergency care. And Las Vegas does not have great hospitals or great emergency care. Even more critically if I needed something beyond garden variety heart attack care, Las Vegas can't just send you to a better hospital 50 miles away. The better hospitals are 300 miles away which is not close enough in an emergency. So we reluctantly decided to look elsewhere.

I guess too late now but everything I read about Delaware says the health care there is not good.

Also- My brother-in-law who lives in Wilmington went all the way to Sloan Kettering in NY for his cancer treatment and surgery.

 

[Dash man]

I guess too late now but everything I read about Delaware says the health care there is not good.



Also- My brother-in-law who lives in Wilmington went all the way to Sloan Kettering in NY for his cancer treatment and surgery.

Philadelphia has Penn and Lankenau, two of the best hospitals in the country. DW had both ovarian cancer and uterine cancer, and is still with me 19 years later. Her surgery was at Lankenau Hospital, part of the Main Line Health system.
DFIL was treated for urothelial cancer and had a kidney removed at Penn. He was 87 at the time and doing great at 89, almost 90.
There are plenty of great hospitals and doctors in the Delaware Valley. Christiana Hospital outside of Wilmington has a good reputation.

 

[Katsmeow]

I am surprised that you believe that there are no good heart and emergency hospitals and doctors in Las Vegas. Based on census, there are 2.29 million people living in Las Vegas Metropolitan area as of 2021. My husband has an excellent cardiac specialist and both of us have many excellent specialists. I had an emergency (trauma) a year ago and had the best experience. Ambulance took me to the hospital on a stretcher and I got both a head and neck and a full body CT Scan right away. Results were available in 15 minutes. I had severe liver laceration, 5 broken ribs and other injuries. I had the best care in their intensive care ward.

I did a quick search on heart failure hospitals in LV, here are the results and they look very impressive. https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/las-vegas-nv/heart-failure

I don't have heart failure. I have no doubt individual specialists are fine. My risk is of a sudden heart attack. Las Vegas is not stellar for that. Every hospital in Las Vegas does not do well on Medicare rankings. I am sure that for trauma care (accidents) Las Vegas is fine. But I am concerned about heart attack care particularly care that simply can not be provided in Las Vegas. They do not have the ability to do all advanced imaging and other procedures (this can be seen on the heart attack ranking and cardiology rankings). My main concern is what if I need care beyond the ordinary that Las Vegas simply can't provide? When I was in Texas I could be airlifted 25 miles to one of the best hospitals in the country. In Delaware if Christiana Care can't handle it (it ranks for higher for heart attacks than hospitals in Las Vegas), then I can be airlifted to Philadelphia. If I really really needed something very unique I could be sent by helicopter to Johns Hopkins. I have options. In Las Vegas the options are in LA and Phoenix about 300 miles away. I don't feel comfortable with that.

Katzmeow,

My brother went to Lankenau Hospital for a quadruple by-pass a few months ago. They did three, and he is doing well. I went to visit him, and the heart pavilion is very large and modern. https://www.mainlinehealth.org/specialties/lhi

The drive to locations in the Philadelphia area are probably 1 hour. But you'll find the care you need in the Wilmington area for sure.

I plan to live within 30 minutes of Christiana Care which is between Newark and Wilmington. It is very highly regarded for heart attack care. If they couldn't handle something they could get me to Philadelphia if needed. I feel comfortable with that.

I guess too late now but everything I read about Delaware says the health care there is not good.

Also- My brother-in-law who lives in Wilmington went all the way to Sloan Kettering in NY for his cancer treatment and surgery.

I believe for cancer care only going to a few places in the country. When I lived in Texa when I had to have a biopsy (non-cancerous as it turned out) I went to MD Anderson. If I had cancer here I would almost certainly go to Sloan Kettering. This is not a knock on Delaware but I think there are only a very few places in the US I would want to go for cancer care.

Actually the Christiana Care hospital is very good from all the research I have done. And of course, Philadelphia is not far away. The problems with healthcare in Delaware I think are mostly twofold. For people in the lower two counties (Kent and Sussex) there are not a lot of doctors and limited care. I would never live there. In northern Delaware (where I plan to live) I understand there are good doctors but lots of people so it can be hard to get that first appointment. And lots of people go to Maryland or Pennsylvania for certain doctors. That is fine. As I sit here in Newark I think I am less than 4 miles from the border with Maryland so going to a doctor there would be fine, for example.

 

[target2019]

I don't have heart failure. I have no doubt individual specialists are fine. My risk is of a sudden heart attack. Las Vegas is not stellar for that. Every hospital in Las Vegas does not do well on Medicare rankings. I am sure that for trauma care (accidents) Las Vegas is fine. But I am concerned about heart attack care particularly care that simply can not be provided in Las Vegas. They do not have the ability to do all advanced imaging and other procedures (this can be seen on the heart attack ranking and cardiology rankings). My main concern is what if I need care beyond the ordinary that Las Vegas simply can't provide? When I was in Texas I could be airlifted 25 miles to one of the best hospitals in the country. In Delaware if Christiana Care can't handle it (it ranks for higher for heart attacks than hospitals in Las Vegas), then I can be airlifted to Philadelphia. If I really really needed something very unique I could be sent by helicopter to Johns Hopkins. I have options. In Las Vegas the options are in LA and Phoenix about 300 miles away. I don't feel comfortable with that.

I plan to live within 30 minutes of Christiana Care which is between Newark and Wilmington. It is very highly regarded for heart attack care. If they couldn't handle something they could get me to Philadelphia if needed. I feel comfortable with that.

I believe for cancer care only going to a few places in the country. When I lived in Texa when I had to have a biopsy (non-cancerous as it turned out) I went to MD Anderson. If I had cancer here I would almost certainly go to Sloan Kettering. This is not a knock on Delaware but I think there are only a very few places in the US I would want to go for cancer care.

Actually the Christiana Care hospital is very good from all the research I have done. And of course, Philadelphia is not far away. The problems with healthcare in Delaware I think are mostly twofold. For people in the lower two counties (Kent and Sussex) there are not a lot of doctors and limited care. I would never live there. In northern Delaware (where I plan to live) I understand there are good doctors but lots of people so it can be hard to get that first appointment. And lots of people go to Maryland or Pennsylvania for certain doctors. That is fine. As I sit here in Newark I think I am less than 4 miles from the border with Maryland so going to a doctor there would be fine, for example.

I asked my friend who lives in Bear, DE, where he would go for surgery.

UPenn (Penn Medicine), Temple Health, Christiana Care.

Youe research is solid, and you made a very good choice for location, IMO.

I see on the map you're just 30 minutes from Perryville and Havre deGrace. There is a small Amtrak station in Perryville, and you can ride Amtrak from there, as an option.

RiverWalk in Wilmington is another nice spot.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I don't have heart failure. I have no doubt individual specialists are fine. My risk is of a sudden heart attack. Las Vegas is not stellar for that. Every hospital in Las Vegas does not do well on Medicare rankings. I am sure that for trauma care (accidents) Las Vegas is fine. But I am concerned about heart attack care particularly care that simply can not be provided in Las Vegas. They do not have the ability to do all advanced imaging and other procedures (this can be seen on the heart attack ranking and cardiology rankings). My main concern is what if I need care beyond the ordinary that Las Vegas simply can't provide? When I was in Texas I could be airlifted 25 miles to one of the best hospitals in the country. In Delaware if Christiana Care can't handle it (it ranks for higher for heart attacks than hospitals in Las Vegas), then I can be airlifted to Philadelphia. If I really really needed something very unique I could be sent by helicopter to Johns Hopkins. I have options. In Las Vegas the options are in LA and Phoenix about 300 miles away. I don't feel comfortable with that.

How timely actually! The head golf pro at my country club just had a heart attack on this past Saturday and he had a triple bypass on Sunday. He is recovering well.

 

[Katsmeow]

So we've been here (Delaware) a couple of weeks. I am finally starting to decompress a bit from the stress of the last couple of months. The sale of our house in one way went very well. We listed and sold and closed in just barely over 6 weeks. We had something like 42 showings in about a week and received a couple of offers. All of that sounds very smooth. This is a giant wall of text so I will try to create sections

Our House Selling Odyssey

But...the journey was longer than it sounds. We actually listed our house in 2022. We listed it a little late, just when the market had turned. Of course, no one knew it had turned yet at the time. We listed at what the comps supported at the time. We lowered our price. We did have quite a few showings but didn't sell. The market was just absolutely dead so we took the house off and decided we would relist this spring.

We ended up listing this years at a tiny amount less than our last price last year (reduction of less than 1%). We had immediate interest and had about a week with near constant showings. We entered into a contract to close in mid-June and all seemed well.

Getting our Roof Replaced

But -- the buyer's inspection suggested we should have our roof looked at. During the couple of weeks between listing and inspection there had been 2 or 3 hailstorms. We thought nothing of them as we had no leaking. Hailstorms are a dime a dozen where we lived. So, we were shocked at the suggestion there was anything wrong with the roof. But, we got our own person out there who confirmed the damage. Ultimately we reported it to our insurer and they paid for a new roof (less our deductible of course). Of course, all of this put huge stress on us as we were getting ready to close on our sale. Getting the repair done and paid for very quickly given the fact we were waiting to close was....stressful. Anyway, it all worked out in the end but it was stressful. (I am not even getting into how the mortgage company had a third party company processing our insurance check for the roof and it took weeks to actually get the money. I actually finally got the mortgage to release he funds to me well after we had already closed on the house and the mortgage company had long since been fully paid. It all sounds like it went smoothly now -- but getting through those weeks was stressful.

Getting to Delaware

Since we sold so quickly we hadn't had a chance to visit Delaware so we left Texas having no idea where we were going except somewhere in New Castle County. We decided to go with full service movers who packed everything. We had some high value stuff so multiple items had to be crated. Anyway all of our stuff is in storage with the mover in Texas. I put an air tag in a box so I periodically check to see it is still there. Once we find a permanent address they will deliver everything to us.

We drove to Delaware in our Volvo XC60 with 2 cats and everything we felt needed to be with us. The cats traveled well and the trip was fine. When we got to Newark we ended up staying in a Homewood Suites for a few days.

Settling in to Delaware

I had posted to a Delaware Facebook group looking for a short term rental. A real estate agent knew of someone who mostly does 1 year rentals but was converting a house to a short term furnished corporate type rental and she told me about him. We were able to look at the house (it is in Newark close to the University of Delaware) and signed a 3 month lease that we can extend.

For the last couple of weeks we've been mostly exploring. We've covered most of New Castle County north of the canal and even went down and saw Middletown. We liked Middletown but it seems too remote for us. The real estate agent (yes, the one from FB) has been great and spent a day just driving us around to different areas and telling us about them.

We've eaten at a bunch of new restaurants and tried out lots of different grocery stores and gone shopping. We haven't actually been to Philadelphia yet but did go to the King of Prussia mall (I wanted to go to the LL Bean store).

So far, we really like the area. Virtually everyone we have met have been very friendly and helpful to us. It has rained a lot since we got here but it has all been fine. Some people have complained to us about heat here and I just laugh (silently).

Learning that we aren't in Texas anymore

We have had a few "you're not in Texas anymore" moments.

The first was when we went to a store and found out they don't give you plastic bags. We don't have any objection to the law here but the first few stores we went to we were constantly having to buy bags until we finally got some reusable bags.

We are getting used to the no sales tax. I mean, it is nice of course. But just seems so odd to me.

House hunting in Delaware

House hunting is a challenge. There are really two parts of this.

First, Delaware's real estate contract process is far far far more seller friendly than in Texas. In Texas, you have multiple chances as a buyer to get out of a contract. You first have an option period during which you can do inspections and can cancel for any reason. That period is usually only a few days long but gives you an out. If the house has an HOA you get the disclosures delivered to you and you can walk if you don't like them. That kind of thing.

Delaware...not so much. The real estate contract gives very few outs. Many things that might turn up on an inspection are not bad enough in Delaware to justify getting out of the contract. This is a real difference to what I am used to.

The biggest problem is housing inventory is very low. Most houses get multiple offers and sell above listing price. There are exceptions. For many houses to have a chance of being accepted you need to waive inspections and then you need to have an escalation clause for your bid. It is very competitive. Some sellers do provide an inspection they had done but most don't. Sellers do have to do a seller's disclosure. But, honestly they are kind of a joke compared to what I am used to seeing. Sellers in Delaware often just leave some questions blank or they are supposed to explain an answer and then don't.

Almost all houses are older. Most were built in the 50s and 60s. So you see houses with all the kinds of problems that are common with houses from that era. Oh, also, no one seems to ever get permits for work. You are supposed to get permits to finish a basement for example. I have yet to see a house that has gotten a permit to finish a basement (but many houses have finished basements). So the listing says the house has 1000 SF more than the county says. Or they add a bathroom with no permit, etc. The market is so competitive though that most buyers don't care.

I knew the market was tight before I got here and knew houses were old, etc. But, being here and seeing it in person is another thing. What I am basically looking for is an older house that has already been remodeled even if the remodeling was 20 years ago. But, I am avoiding the recent flip houses. There are a bunch of them. They look beautiful but they never (as far as I can tell so far) get permits for their work and I can't help but wonder about what is inside the walls and under all the cosmetic stuff.

I have seen a few houses that I liked that are newer (newer means built in the las 35 years or so). Most of them are not in as desirable a location (but some are in OK locations). But, so far none of them have been quite right for us for other reasons.

Right now, I am pondering how much it costs to rewire a house with aluminum wiring ....

Anyway, I am sure we will find a house but it may take awhile. We have a rental house for 3 months and can extend month to month. That said, a furnished corporate rental is very expensive so I don't want to rent any longer than we have to. On the other hand, we are looking at a couple of houses tomorrow and could find one we love so we'll see.....

 

[Philliefan33]

Are you dead set on buying a house in Delaware? You could also look in Chester County PA.