We decided it was time to retire and knew we wanted to do that somewhere other than we were currently live. The beach, year round warm weather, golf, an attactive cost of living, and a much slower pace is what appealed to us. After much reseach, we narrowed our choices to five countries - all in the Carribbean or Central America. After further discussions and continued research, we decided that The Dominican Republic (DR) was the place to live.
While this was going on, we put our house on the market expecting it to take six to eight months, or longer, to sell. But thanks to a great listing agent and his efforts, we were under contract within 3-1/2 weeks with 45 days to close. Wow, did that throw a twist on things. Now we had to find a temporary place to live for two months after closing. Also, it accelerated our plans by about eigth months.
As we continued to research we found it would be much to expensive to ship furniture to the DR. We figured with the freedom that we were looking for, renting a furnished condo was the best way to go. So now we needed to sell all our furniture and furnishings. I spent a lot of time taking photos and putting items on CraigsList. What a wonderful way to take care of this issue. We sold nearly all the furniutre through CraigsList. In addition, we had four garage sales and were able to sell most of the miscellaneous household items. Whatever household items that were left after the garage sales we donated to local charities. We were definitely blessed with how well all of the sales went.
An interesting aspect of this entire process is that we had never been to the DR. Only through a dilignet effort on my wife's part, did we know that was the place to go. She did, also, find a great realtor in the Punta Cana area to help us. They communicated on a reagular basis; Maria always finding time to answer any question my wife asked.
We've accomplished quite a bit in a short time - picked a place to retire to, sold a house, sold furniture, sold household items,dealt with a "speed bump" resulting from the house inspection, closed on the house, dealt with everyday problems, continued to work our jobs, research on what is required to live in the DR, and secure required documents to make the move happen. Quite a bit, but taking it one step at a time made it attainable. Remember - "how to you eat an elephant; one bite at a time".
Up to this point it has been quite the adventure - and an exciting one.
I will have photos to post in future blogs, along with more comments on the relocation process.
