Here’s What’s Up
I knew when we’d be coming back home to Missoula in early April that it would be a bit of rough going, given the fact that it’s still pretty much winter in the mountains here this time of year. But with how quickly land was flying off the shelves last year, we figured we should get a jump-start on the buying season. Turns out, I was right to be concerned about the coldness of temperatures and weather conditions of living the van life. Over the past few days, alongside the snow flying and the gray cold days and night temps in the 20’s, my morale has hit some pretty low lows.
While I’m enjoying our downsized digs and the efforts we’re making to simplify our life, there’s a reason van lifers tend to roll around in warmer landscapes. It’s way easier. Between the two of us, Mike was made for this kind of bare bones, rugged lifestyle. It’s me who’s a little more delicate around the edges. But something I have going for me is that I have a felt sense of knowing that everything takes practice. I am not involved in the struggle of thinking that I should be better at this whole new way of living or that I should pick it up lickety-split. And we’re doing so much more than just learning to live the van life. We’re embarking on creating a whole new paradigm of life. We’re amid some big changes right now. And it makes sense that at times things will feel scary and confusing and overwhelming. It makes sense there will sometimes be doubts and stress and also grief. It makes sense to me that sometimes I will ponder what the heck it is we’re doing.
Something I’ve learned: the occasional doubts; the bouts of overwhelm and stress; the moments of grief are part of life. Having them on board isn’t a sign that we’re making some terrible mistake or that something is in need of fixing (not necessarily anyway). Having them on board is an indicator that we’re human and we’re doing the work of change/growth/transformation. Enacting life changes and/or investing in personal growth-work are pretty much brought to a standstill, if I am forever trying to stay inside my comfort zone. We’re not just rearranging the living room of our internal landscape here. We’re doing a major renovation project.
Okay. Switching.
On the land front we’ve seen a total of 5 properties with boots on the ground since we’ve been back. Mike is our main land finder right now, since I am still working out my access to wi-fi situation (which is a whole can of worms in and of itself). We have two main website interfaces that we use (Zillow & Realtor.com) and we apply filters for price, land size, and proximity to Missoula, to help narrow our search radius. Mike pops on the sites at least twice a day, so as soon as something comes on the market that meets all of our criteria, we know about it pretty quickly. We scour all adjacent and surrounding counties in all directions of Missoula.
There’s not a lot on the market in our price point and search radius right now. However, one of the five that we’ve seen holds promise. After a week plus of talking on the phone, meeting in person and emailing back and forth with our realtor - a long-time and good friend of ours Aaron Gingerelli, with Mountain Real Estate (406Sold.com) - and scads of interpersonal conversations between Mike & I, we’ve decided to roll the dice and make an offer. In the next few days, we should know more about whether or not our offer is accepted. Without divulging too much info (to help protect the privacy of the sellers), we’re offering a fair amount less than the asking price, for reasons we deem appropriate and fair to the other comps in the area. If the sellers accept our offer, we’ll have a major clean-up job on our hands soon. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep ya’ll posted, so stay tuned.