Money Where Mouth Is - Listed Our House For Sale - Already Frustrated

nutherjrfan said:

I keep saying it. Move to D.C. We haven't had a recession since the 90s.

I'm in Fairlawn. The last 'affordable' family friendly neighborhood left. 10 mins from the Mall in light traffic.  Move now or forever hold your peace.  Central to everything.  Overhyped dining scene but so what.  I'd love to see more gearheads in the 'hood rather than 12 O'Clock boys/Donk/uncorked FoxBodies etc. and some of the most dangerous shade-tree mechanics you'll wonder how they're still alive. 

I always smile when I see a Donk in the DC metro area. That being said, I hope they never station me at the Pentagon or anywhere near DC. Hell I'm not sure I ever want to live east again 

There always is those "buy your house for cash" outfits.

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

Datsun310Guy said:

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

She has a point you know

yupididit said:

Datsun310Guy said:

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

She has a point you know

The old z car would probably net them more money one day though 

Antihero said:

yupididit said:

Datsun310Guy said:

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

She has a point you know

The old z car would probably net them more money one day though 

I would rather live with nothing but a microwave than give up one of my fun cars.

Cotton said:

Antihero said:

yupididit said:

Datsun310Guy said:

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

She has a point you know

The old z car would probably net them more money one day though 

I would rather live with nothing but a microwave than give up one of my fun cars.

The voice of reason.

Cotton said:

Antihero said:

yupididit said:

Datsun310Guy said:

pheller said:

She likes nice walls, nice paint, nice furnishing, nice kitchen. She sees a 20 year old house as being outdated. 

My house was built 1999/2000 - moved into it in April, 2000.  I flipped when my wife told me in 2015 that our kitchen and bathrooms were outdated and needed complete gutting and to be redone.  

We did one bathroom and I’ve been able to stall her on the rest.  You know, the kitchen was built with cheap “builders grade” cabinets, she tells me AND what good is an old Z car when the money is better spent where you are every day (kitchen).  

She has a point you know

The old z car would probably net them more money one day though 

I would rather live with nothing but a microwave than give up one of my fun cars.

I thought the same thing when I had to make that choice, soooo.....

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I think that people get too tied up on updating kitchens and bathrooms, there are plenty of people that think a 5 year old kitchen needs remodeled.

As long as it isn't avocado appliances and shag carpet you should be fine

Antihero said:

I think that people get too tied up on updating kitchens and bathrooms, there are plenty of people that think a 5 year old kitchen needs remodeled.

 

As long as it isn't avocado appliances and shag carpet you should be fine

Avacado appliances are cool again!  Party on, Wayne!

I moved in to my house in 2002. I painted some walls then, and replaced the kitchen sink and faucet. Took down ugly wallpaper. The last re-model appears to have been done in 1956, so it is younger than me. Good enough, all I have done since is a re-roof. 

93gsxturbo said:

Antihero said:

I think that people get too tied up on updating kitchens and bathrooms, there are plenty of people that think a 5 year old kitchen needs remodeled.

 

As long as it isn't avocado appliances and shag carpet you should be fine

Avacado appliances are cool again!  Party on, Wayne!

There's another reason to not remodel, one day it'll be cool again lol

nutherjrfan said:

Well for anyone that's interested. This is on my block.

An absolute steal for the city proper.  Even if you didn't telecommute, with flex hours in the Feds you can be at work in about 20 mins to everywhere in the city proper.  And people do telecommute here - a lot, but I would suppose it would depend on an individuals career.

You'll never have to worry about your homes value ever again. 

That kind of albatross would kill me.  Life's too short to be stressed out about the one part of your life that is supposed to be your personal sanctuary.  Renting makes a million times more sense if the finances are that much of a burden. 

 

 

One of the few things I like about Oklahoma. Housing prices.

I can't imagine paying $650k for that small of a house, that needs bars on the windows and doors, no garage, and no yard. 

Bigger cities require too much of your income to be able to afford a home. The COL never catches up with what I'm used to.

I've kinda narrowed down my situation to two outcomes:

I can go ahead with purchasing the new house, and aggressive cut the sale price of the old house, potentially losing as much as say...$20k in sale costs, new home costs, two mortgage payments, etc. 

Or, I can cancel the new house deal, continue to list our current house, get an offer, only lose a little bit of money, but not have another house lined up, and have to rent again, or turn down the sale. 

What is your sanity worth?  It might be easy for me to say, but losing $20K would be much better in the long run than staying somewhere that you find emotionally draining (i.e. next door to D'Bag neighbours)  Money isn't everything, and 20 years down the line $20K won't seem all that bad.  Just a thought and worth what you paid for it at that.

pheller said:

I've kinda narrowed down my situation to two outcomes:

I can go ahead with purchasing the new house, and aggressive cut the sale price of the old house, potentially losing as much as say...$20k in sale costs, new home costs, two mortgage payments, etc. 

Or, I can cancel the new house deal, continue to list our current house, get an offer, only lose a little bit of money, but not have another house lined up, and have to rent again, or turn down the sale. 

I’ve been in both situations and never want to move into an interim rental again.  If you are comfortable swinging both mortgages,  and cutting the price on the current place for a quick sale,  that’s the route I’d take.

What's your long term plan? My impression from  past threads, is that it seems like you change your mind about where you want to be, and what you want to be doing every couple of years. Considering that, will the next house be a place that you stay for a decade or more? Are you happy enough with your city to put down some roots? Is it likely that you'd be transferred unexpectedly for work? If you're not sure you'll stay in the next place for a long time, buying (not just this house, but any house) doesn't make sense to me. It just costs too much to buy/sell frequently and you never build any equity. You get all of the drawbacks of homeownership and none of the benefits.

If that's the case, then I'd absolutely try to hang on a bit longer and avoid losing $20k in a hot real estate market. Just rent when it's done until you have a better handle on the long term plan. That will give you flexibility and let you avoid monotonous homeowner tasks and costs. If you want to move somewhere else at that point for whatever reason (great job offer elsewhere, closer to family, better music scene, whatever), you'd have that flexibility.

If you're confident that you'll stay in the next house for a good while, then I'd consider doing what needs to be done to get what you want for your future and lose the place that's dragging you down. Maybe you can reframe it so that you don't think of it as losing money on the old house, but spending more on the new house to get into a better situation where you'll be happy for a long time.

I do change my mind often, but that being said, I still have held it down in one place for 4 years now, and with a kiddo that's likely to increase my stability. A lot of that depends on how much I like where I live.

I'm less likely to move if I live in a good neighborhood than a E36 M3ty one. 

In reply to pheller :

Changing your mind regarding a home is a really expensive change.  

The cost of doing so approaches 10% of what the house sells for.  

There is real estate listing costs, closing costs, moving costs and making the new house work costs,  The later seems optional or shouldn’t really count.  But it does.  If your couch is too big or the wrong color, doesn’t work with the carpet or drapes, you can pretend it’s not really part of the cost of moving, but you’re only fooling yourself.  

It doesn’t have to be the couch, it’s the drapes or kitchen appliances, bedroom set, whatever..  

So the $260,000 house you just bought cost you $26,000 which most people just roll into the payment on the new one. Now you’ve got to add 30 years of interest to that $26,000. And with refinancing and home equity loans, etc can easily add another $30-40,000 to the original $26,000. 

Suddenly you’ll be staring retirement in the face and like the average American today have only $12,000 in their retirement funds.  

The solution is to not be impatient, take your time. Realize the house itself doesn’t count that much in the big scheme.  Things can be fixed, updates, changed.  What matters is the old Real estate saw, LOCATION,  LOCATION,  LOCATION!!!  

Your neighbors can and will change. Bad ones will go, good ones too !! Who you get is a giant crap shoot.  If someone bothers you, ask if they are worth the $26,000 it’s going to cost you to move.  ( more over the life of the mortgage ) and realize that if you move to the perfect neighborhood. That too will change!  

You seem to have convinced yourself you need to move because the guy next door is bringing down the value of your house. You know if you don’t move, the value does not matter. He could keel over in 30 days, then what? You lost money for no reason?

What is the harm in staying there (scenario #3)?

There are other factors besides the neighbors. 

We live on a high traffic street with a blind corner at the bottom of a hill meeting our parking area. I get nervous when our toddler is out front and not being held for fear of her running out into the street. 

The new place does not have this concern, it's far lower traffic, very better visibility. 

How are the schools at your current place vs the new place?

It's actually the same school, but at the new place the proximity would be decreased either to her home school or to a closer, better school. 

I live in a small town of roughly 70,000 but we have 6 public elementary schools, another 3-4 private charter schools, 3 middle schools and two high schools, along with charters. 

In moving to the new neighborhood, we'd be closer to all the schools. Our current neighborhood is 8 miles outside of town. It's more a cabin community than a subdivision. 

The flaws of the current house were there when you bought it, they didn’t change the street location, or the stairs. From previous threads, you ignored those flaws because you were in a rush, didn’t want to rent, etc.  The new place has flaws, but you have already discounted those flaws as easily fixed,  because you are in a rush this time too. 

You have convinced yourself you need to move, and that is fine, but realize it will cost you money. It’s not the neighbors fault, it’s not the streets fault, it’s because buying a house and selling it in 2 years usually costs money.  Any appreciation is eaten away by fees, commissions, etc. 6% of the 300k you paid is $18,000 so you need $318k plus fees to break even at this point, that’s tough to do so quickly. 

yupididit said:

 

I always smile when I see a Donk in the DC metro area. That being said, I hope they never station me at the Pentagon or anywhere near DC. Hell I'm not sure I ever want to live east again 

I thought most DONKs were only in Baltimore?