The situation described is distrubingly similar to ours, but with different causes and effects.

After 12 years in our former home, we found ourselves unable to afford necessary maintenance, and due to "market conditions" had been unable (trying for 6 years) to even find anyone to take a listing to sell out. Current market value was significantly less than our mortgages, and I had estimates for necessary repairs that exceeded anything we could manage.

A conversation with a friendly neighbor (on the other side of the fence that needed a $6,000 complete replacement) resulted in a contact from a Realtor willing to take a listing (our neighbor apparently had "connections" we didn't), a crew of "volunteer" neighbors to help "pretty up" the yard, and a "friend of them all" with an offer to buy us out. (I'm suspicious that the volunteers may have offered to kick in some help with the repairs, to get rid of us in order to protect neighborhood property values.)

After "persuasion bordering on extortion" the bank holding our second mortgage agreed to carry the balance as an "unsecured line of credit" and the sale covered the first mortgage (barely).

We made a hasty evacuation, putting everything from our former 5,000-sq-ft-with-large-yard home in storage, and spent the next three months in our (rather small) camper, with three cats, pretending that we were waiting in lineup for our space at the annual big festival while we looked for a new home. (Camping is much cheaper here than renting, if you're equipped for it; but most of us can take just so much of it.)

Since the new place is a bare 1,000 sq ft, it may be years before we even discover what all the stuff is that is still in boxes, and I've now transitioned from worrying about maintenance to thinking about building - to make ways to get things put away (or thrown away); but the change has been a rewarding relief from old worries, and - as I'm sure you'll find - the "new life" is a new opportunity to "get on with it," with as many rewards as you're able to discover along the way.

As we're about the same age, I can offer some moving advice:

As I've declined in "athletic ability," I've accumulated a number of "devices" to relieve me of lifting heavy things. Moving has now revealed to me that I can no longer lift most of the devices intended to avoid lifting things, so I can now get by with "I ain't gonna do that" much more easily.

Be careful, and treat yourself and yours the best you can.

John