Well, so far I’ve talked to a rental broker in New York, and a real estate agent and mortgage broker here. Next step on that front will be figuring out if I should try to refi now or wait and see what happens; it’s a pretty sucky time to sell (no surprise there) so that’s probably not a good option any time soon.

Right now I’m thinking of keeping the house and renting it out. If I stay in New York, home/apartment prices are so high that I’m not likely to ever be able to purchase one, so it’s not like I need to sell this one in order to buy one there. So my next stop on this train is probably to talk to one of those services that will manage your rental for you.

I think the next big task to tackle is changing my last name. I should get that completed before I start signing things in my new life, I suppose. So one of these days soon I will be Janine Anne Rivas once more!

Technically my name is already changed, because it’s in the divorce decree, but it’s not real until I start using it and have everything changed to reflect it. Which means not only the basics like Social Security and the DMV, but all the credit cards, utilities, and everything else. What a pain in the behind! I don’t think I’ll ever change my name again, unless it’s really important to the guy. But if he’s the right guy for me, he probably won’t care.