need some expert advise for newbies

You could list your house for sale and make it contingent upon a lease back. I just sold my house in five days with multiple offers. I took the highest offer with a sixty day lease back. You might want to consult a local realtor to see how feasible this would be in your area.

Thank you all for all of the great ideas! My husband talked to Matt down @ Camping World in Longmont because we are going to use it to go to Lake McConaughy in July. Anyway he really put the bug in his ear that we really don't want to winter in Colorado.
Thanks again.
shari bartling
Fort Collins, CO

Sell, sell, sell now. In this economy things could take a dump in a very short time. :E If you could sell now for a good price do it.
The MH or renting is a good option.

Sell now with a possession date of January 15, 2014. Make sure you have a stiff non-refundable deposit. Gets you through the winter and protects your investment with the deposit.

Personally with the market just starting to rebound I'd wait a bit to list it unless you're making out great on the deal right now.
Unless you've given notice why not wait to retire until say Mar or Apr 14 then clean out the house throw it up for sale and hit the road then. Or live there til the end of the year, take your time getting your stuff moved to NE, list the house ,again ,around tax time.
You're sweating the small stuff. Only talking about a cpl months difference. That time can easily be eaten up packing moving and doing repairs.

Actually your real estate agent will most likely have a list of 'homes for rent per month' from their client list. A lot of sellers have to move before a house sells AND with all the pre-foreclosures, foreclosures, etc., many owners and even the banks are renting the properties out to maintain their integrity.

Tell your agent you need to do this in order to list your home. To get the listing sooner rather than later your agent will jump hoops for you to make sure you have a house to rent after yours sells. Give them call.

You might just luck out on this!

Talk it over with your real estate agent. You never know, maybe, your prospective buyer is locked into a lease, and can't take possession until winter. Maybe, you could sell it and pay rent until you leave (have a friend, who, negotiated this into his sale contract).

Maybe, sell it and find a short term rental home.

I found seven mobile home parks in Ft. Collins.
https://www.google.com/search?q=fort+collins%2C+CO+mobile+home+parks&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Some will be bad and some will be good. You 'will' have to drive out and take a look see first. And there will be the CG's that have mobile rentals too so don't forget to give some of them a call too.

dwayneb236 wrote:
I may have misread, but I think they said they live and work in Colorado now, and if they sell the house sooner than Dec 31, they will still be working and unable to move to the other house yet.

Ok, thanks. I was the one that misread it! :B

I'd still sell the house now. By the time you list it, show it, and set up a closing date that alone takes a few months. So you are really looking at a shorter time that you will have to come up with something.

From experience I would never stay in a MH during the winter. Don't care if you own a Prevost it sucks and it not an easy thing to do. There is a whole list of stuff you have to do to survive it.
PM me and I will tell you what it all involves.

An option for you is a mobile home park. Mobile homes are the insulated heated year round homes where most allow the parking of an RV. You could rent a mobile home for less expensive than an apartment where you will most likely have to sign a year lease. Mobile home parks have many per month rentals. That way you could have the dog and not pay for storage on the MH. Which you will have to pay for if you rent an apartment.

A lot of CG's that have RV and seasonal parking often have mobile homes too. Call some of your local CG's. Sometimes the seasonal campers actually have mobile homes and rent them out during the off season.

Good Luck! :C

If you are worried about living in the motor home during the winter in CO then you could consider renting a house or apartment for the short time before you move to Nebraska if your house sells. The motor home seems to be the ideal solution but again if winter time worries you, do the alternative. I definitely wouldn't wait to put the home on the market because you never know when sales may come to a screeching halt again. You know you are moving...take advantage of the softer market. That is just my opinion and what I would do if I were in your situation and Lord knows I wish I was in your situation. I've got years still ahead of me but I dream of the time when I can start counting down the days to retirement. Good luck to you!