Should I sell my house?

[EmotionallyUnstable]

The Magic 8 ball has spoken.

Edited July 23, 2020 by EmotionallyUnstable

[Foxx]

what are you asking for it?

[YoloinOhio]

Are you getting 75 calls and texts a day too from people trying to purchase your property? One day I was bored and told them to give me an offer. They Asked some general questions and got back to me the next day and I laughed (they’ve never seen it). There is very little available in Cbus so as soon as a house hits the market it is gone. 

[BringBackFergy]

Personally, I always look to sell the roof over my head when I’m unstable. But that’s just me. 

[KD in CA]

I voted for both because I could.

[Punching Bag]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

Are you getting 75 calls and texts a day too from people trying to purchase your property? One day I was bored and told them to give me an offer. They Asked some general questions and got back to me the next day and I laughed (they’ve never seen it). There is very little available in Cbus so as soon as a house hits the market it is gone. 

 

Like you I keep getting calls, postcards and now text messages.  Even had someone drop a flyer thru my mail slot. I blocked both phone and text of inquirer and replied I have no interest in selling but he has been using different numbers.  I expect he is falsifying caller id but makes no sense to continue effort.  Not only football players and COVID-19 mask protesters have CTE.

[Just Jack]

Some areas homes are selling quickly. Family friends put theirs on the market on Friday, open house Saturday, bidding war Sunday, offer accepted Monday. 

 

But remember, you need somewhere to move to. The family friends already had a new house lined up. 

[Augie]

 

Why? We need context. 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

8 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Why? We need context. 

 

We moved into our 3 bed 1.5 bath house almost 5 years ago. At the time, we knew it could be a place we stayed for 5 or 15 years. We put in a lot of money/time into this place. New kitchen, updated half bath, new flooring, trim, paint, Trex decking, patio, garage door and opener...many other smaller items as well. On an off chance, we met with our agent and thought we'd see where she thought we stood, regarding equity in the home. We were shocked by her suggested list price and she felt confidently she could move it quickly  at what we wanted (obviously she wants us to list it for the commission, too). She explained that our area has low inventory in houses but plenty of buyers, making it for a great time to cash out on equity and have the liquidity we've always wanted for that forever home. We immediately though we'd prep the house with some minor maintenance cleaning to list it and see if we could be blown away with an offer. We don't currently have the funds for a non-contingent sale, so we'd either need to find that perfect house with a contingent offer and then sell, or move our place first and figure it out from there.

 

We've gotten extremely comfortable here with the finances, the house, neighborhood, commutes, and really love it, but know that the next step isn't all that far off. We've discussed if it is better to sell high now, and then wait on something for when the market could depreciates (COVID or November election possibly,...) and then jump on something at that time, while meanwhile holding up in a rental. Another 'X' factor is we currently have no children. Uprooting our lives right now would be relatively simple. We have the time and funds needed to be patient if we did. We aren't so sure this is the case if we have kids. We may be less likely to have the money, time and patience to find the right forever home if we have one or two little ones running around. On the downside, moving now to something bigger feels unnecessary. We don't currently need the space or sq/ft, so we are likely to pay a much higher mortgage payment for unused house. However, is it better to get into this home/payment now and know what you're paying for 30 years instead of waiting and having the market potentially continue to strengthen, only to pay even more later?

 

I have gone back and forth a million times. What say you?

 

 

11 hours ago, Foxx said:

what are you asking for it?

 

A box of Eggo Waffles, non negotiable.

[YoloinOhio]

Imo it will likely only continue to appreciate so maybe take your time and keep your eye open for the perfect “next house” and if/when you find one, start the process then. I believe there are bridge loans to take care of having two mortgages 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

28 minutes ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

 

I have gone back and forth a million times. What say you?

 

 

 

A box of Eggo Waffles, non negotiable.

Put your analyst on speed dial.

[PetermansRedemption]

No, unless your current house is relatively cheap and you are looking to significantly increase in price. I am unfamiliar with your exact area. However, in WNY the lower end of the market has increased in price much more than the upper end of the market. The only way I would do it is if you purchased your house for around 100-150 and your next home is around 500. In that scenario you are selling at a profit and not paying an inflated amount for your next home. Otherwise, just keep it. If you are sticking around the same price range there is no point. You would just be selling and hoping the market goes down or selling and then buying at an inflated price. 

[Halloween Land]

I say keep the home, I just bought a house in March and I had to pay $12,000 over the asking price. So you would defiantly get a great offer most likely over your asking price. But right now it is very hard to get a house cause of all the buyers out there. So even if you find that perfect dream home you could very well lose out on it and be out. It is harder to buy a home being contingent, so you would likely have to sell your home first and then buy a new house. The timing is hard to line up. It sounds like you have a really nice home already, so I say hang on to it for now. 

[WEATHER DOT COM]

17 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

Imo it will likely only continue to appreciate so maybe take your time and keep your eye open for the perfect “next house” and if/when you find one, start the process then. I believe there are bridge loans to take care of having two mortgages 

 

Agree with this.

 

Also if you love the house and where you live, is it worth it to move somewhere you are unsure of to have some extra coin in your pocket?

[PetermansRedemption]

2 minutes ago, Halloween Land said:

I say keep the home, I just bought a house in March and I had to pay $12,000 over the asking price. So you would defiantly get a great offer most likely over your asking price. But right now it is very hard to get a house cause of all the buyers out there. So even if you find that perfect dream home you could very well lose out on it and be out. It is harder to buy a home being contingent, so you would likely have to sell your home first and then buy a new house. The timing is hard to line up. It sounds like you have a really nice home already, so I say hang on to it for now. 

This is a good point that I forgot to mention about a contingent offer. If that’s your plan, just don’t. No one is taking contingent offers in this market, there is no reason when at least a handful of offers are going to have no contingency.

Edited July 24, 2020 by PetermansRedemption

[Halloween Land]

1 minute ago, PetermansRedemption said:

This is a good point that I forgot to mention about a contingent offer. If that’s your plan, just don’t. No one is taking contingent offers in this market, there is no reason when at least a handful of offers are going to have no contingency.

Yeah exactly. Since it was my first home I ever purchased, I was non-contingent, plus I requested no inspection, otherwise I would of lost out. 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

5 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

No, unless your current house is relatively cheap and you are looking to significantly increase in price. I am unfamiliar with your exact area. However, in WNY the lower end of the market has increased in price much more than the upper end of the market. The only way I would do it is if you purchased your house for around 100-150 and your next home is around 500. In that scenario you are selling at a profit and not paying an inflated amount for your next home. Otherwise, just keep it. If you are sticking around the same price range there is no point. You would just be selling and hoping the market goes down or selling and then buying at an inflated price. 

 

Thanks for the insight. Makes sense. 

 

One additional thing we've considered is that the age of the home is creeping up onto some of the major expenses (roof, windows, furnace)....These things could go in the next 3-5 years. So we weighed risking that or going now to avoid these costs.

Just now, Halloween Land said:

Yeah exactly. Since it was my first home I ever purchased, I was non-contingent, plus I requested no inspection, otherwise I would of lost out. 

 

Regarding non-contingency, our broker said our DTI is where in needs to be for approval, but we don't have the liquid cash. We worry about adding a kid to the mix and potential maintenance and repairs will keep us from getting the liquidity we need to be non-contingent in a few years anyways.

[PetermansRedemption]

2 minutes ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

 

Thanks for the insight. Makes sense. 

 

One additional thing we've considered is that the age of the home is creeping up onto some of the major expenses (roof, windows, furnace)....These things could go in the next 3-5 years. So we weighed risking that or going now to avoid these costs.

The same reason you are thinking of moving is why it’s tough for me to consider selling! We have owned 10 years and replaced the furnace, AC unit, roof, plumbing, old hot water tank with tankless, old sump pump with new one and water backup in case of power outage. We want more space, but are leaning towards just building onto our current house because of how much we have invested so far. It’s tough to walk away no matter the money we could sell for. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by PetermansRedemption

[EmotionallyUnstable]

26 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

Imo it will likely only continue to appreciate so maybe take your time and keep your eye open for the perfect “next house” and if/when you find one, start the process then. I believe there are bridge loans to take care of having two mortgages 

 

We looked at bridge loans. They seem a bit of a risk, but one that many people may need to take if they wanted to get into what they truly want 

1 minute ago, PetermansRedemption said:

The same reason you are thinking of moving is why it’s tough for me to consider selling! We have owned 10 years and replaced the furnace, AC unit, roof, plumbing, old hot water tank with tankless, old sump pump with new one and water backup in case of power outage. We want more space, but are leaning towards just building onto our current house because of how much we have invested so far. It’s tough to walk away no matter the money we could sell for. 

 

Right, so you pump 30k into the bones of the house and THEN move? That wouldn't make sense to me. If we had to make those repairs, we're likely looking at much longer.

10 minutes ago, wAcKy ZeBrA said:

 

Agree with this.

 

Also if you love the house and where you live, is it worth it to move somewhere you are unsure of to have some extra coin in your pocket?

 

The move now would be so we have the flexible liquid cash to buy non-contingent and be more competitive in the market, as much as I'd love to sit on some extra cash!

[Bill from NYC]

The dynamics of the market have changed around NYC. Rents are down in Manhattan. I do not remember this ever happening. NYC is now a cesspool with riots. Not great. People are working from home and many will never go back. There is less need for cities. On Long Island, property values have SOARED and there is no inventory. I heard someone say that prices rose between 10 and 20% just in June. If you sell, you might be limited on new options. HTH.

[Mark80]

My opinion - It depends.

 

Yes, you could most likely "sell high" right now.  I've been in the buying market the last 6 months and I can definitely tell you that if your house is in good condition with modern updates/upgrades it will sell in a matter of days with multiple offers and most likely above list price.  However, on the flip side, if you are purchasing now you are going to have to deal with that as you make offers.  As another poster noted, this is the case for low to moderately priced homes in the WNY area.  Once you start getting up to the 400+k range the market of buyers dwindles and you don't have to "overpay" to get as much. 

 

I am of the belief that there is going to be somewhat of a market bubble that bursts when the deferment of mortgage payments and rent payments from Covid is over.  I'm expecting a lot of foreclosures and evictions to happen at that point, potentially flooding the market with available properties.  If you can sell now and wait until that happens (if it happens), you could make quite a nice profit.

 

Also, you can get homes under list price still if you are willing to deal with outdated interiors or ones that need a decent amount of work.  I was a able to find an outdated interior house that was structurally sound and perfectly livable as I'm going through and updating on almost 4 acres for over 20k less than their asking price.  It is really only the ones that are already updated or in super "hot" neighborhoods that are going instantly at crazy prices (in the WNY area at least).

 

So - if you are buying 400k+ home, then yes.  If you are able to wait around for the market to come back down by renting, then yes.  If you have other debts still (CC, cars, student loans, etc), no, get those taken care of first while you have cheaper mortgage payments. 

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

1 hour ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

I have gone back and forth a million times.

 

The guys on Chippewa Street can confirm this.

[Augie]

A few thoughts:

 

* We have always been conservative. Don’t plan for the best case, be ready for the worst case. 

 

* If you are selling at the top, you are also buying at the top. Unless you rent, you’re not really ahead, and renting is a gamble betting that values drop. I’m not a gambler, especially with my home.

 

* Never underestimate the transaction costs. Sales commission is just one piece. You also have layers of closing costs both selling and buying again, moving expenses, etc. [Edit: If you do buy again, don’t forget the buyers title insurance. You will be required to get title insurance for the lender, but the owners insurance is separate. I’m a big believer in that!]  Also, I’ve learned the hard way the stuff/furniture you bought for one house is never quite right for the next house and we end up starting over for the most part. We replaced 95% of the furniture on the first floor since our last move. 

 

* We are kind of looking for that perfect place. We found a house that is better (oddly just 3 doors from us), but not perfect. I’m not going thru the process for a little better......I want what I’m 100% happy with. Look around and see if you fall in love with something before you act. At the very least you’ll get better educated on your market. 

 

 

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Edited July 25, 2020 by Augie

[Mike in Horseheads]

Turbo would say no.

[dpberr]

Absolutely not.  IMO, the remainder of 2020 is for conserving the dry powder in every category of life.  This isn't the time for big moves because there's still a bunch of rough road ahead.  The election will be a mess, the economy is an unpredictable mess, and the fall wave of flu and COVID is expected to be challenging.

 

I'd pay down debt, retain as much cash as you can, hang tight and stay healthy.    

 

 

[Augie]

23 hours ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

The Magic 8 ball has spoken.

 

I’m not sure if you are the devil, or I am just pathetically weak. I suppose it could be BOTH. I have spent my afternoon looking for houses listed for sale in my preferred areas that would be EXACTLY what we want. 

 

What I have learned is we can easily afford a house we we would absolutely love, but it would be unwise to double what we have into our current house. Our long term plan (OK, at least MY plan) is to have a place in Sarasota, FL and another somewhere in the NC mountains to escape the summer heat and achieve my wife’s dream. We don’t need one big(ish) place when two smaller ones could meet our needs for every season. When the other half retires, we will know.