This travel blogger sold her house. What happened next may surprise you.

Such a clickbait post title, eh?

After a few months of keeping it “show ready” and vacating the premises with cat-in-tow on a short 30 minute notice and hearing crickets after showings and open houses, we sold our house.

Finally.

Now, knowing that I’m a travel blogger, you’re probably expecting me to share the stereotypical “next steps” that so many digital nomads walk:

• Sold our house
• Sold everything we own
• Quit our jobs
• Purchased RTW ticket

Not quite.

I’m a career girl, remember? As is my husband. But not a career girl – career guy, of course.

So we sold our house.

Some people thought we were crazy. Heck, I even thought we were crazy. Leaving a perfectly lovely, new-build home large enough to raise a happy little family in a decent little neighborhood in a pretty good school system. For what?

For the hope of more.

Maybe it’s traveling’s fault.

Maybe seeing enough of the world and how people live and imagining myself in their shoes and wishing for something different led me to dream for a life like the ones I observed on my travels.

While there was nothing wrong with our previous home, it no longer “fit” the lifestyle we wanted to live.

My goal is to live a life of travel while balancing my career. This means I will always have a home base. This means I travel infrequently. This means I spend more time in my own bed than waking up in new places. So if I’m going to spend a majority of my time “home,” why not make “home” feel as magical as the world feels when we travel?

That wasn’t going to happen in the particular suburbia we lived – with it’s gridded city planning, strip malls, big box stores, general lack of character and lack of access to an active lifestyle. I felt no inspiration living where we lived. Nothing motivated me to try new things. I felt… lackluster.

So we sold our house.

With nothing lined up.

Not gonna lie, I was tempted to take the money and purchase that one-way ticket and fulfill the prophecy of being a digital nomad with no home in sight.

But we persevered for that dream of a new home in a new place with a new lifestyle.

In the worst home buying market EVER, I might add.

What an… adventure. For three months, we lived in a short-term lease trying desperately to buy a house. Offer. Declined. Offer. Accepted. Failed inspection. Offer. Declined. Offer. Declined. Offer. Declined.

Our sixth offer was the magic number, and we are now the proud homeowners of a house located in a city, whose motto, ironically, is “Where Living is a Vacation.”

And while this home selling and home buying process has hindered our traveling budget and traveling time (save a few weekend trips), I find that I’m experiencing those “feelings” I get when traveling somewhere new. Living somewhere new feels like I’m traveling somewhere new. Though a bit more permanent.

Even though our new home is “same same but different” I’ve developed a new sense of adventure to eat at new restaurants, try new activities, explore new trails, and be more active – just like when I travel. There’s a lot to discover.

I love it.

And I love our new house. It needs quite a bit of work and TLC and the two things that nobody has enough of (time and money), but down the road, it’ll be “our” home. I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Do any of my readers even care about home renovation and design?  

So if you wonder why I’ve been quiet, that’s why. This has been quite the process and definitely an adventure. Looking forward to exploring my new little neighborhood and creating the permanent “vacation ‘home’” I’ve always hoped for.

This travel blogger sold her house. And bought a new one.