I just put my house on the market, dear god.

[Flasch186]

Seeing if I can get lucky as the builder I worked for offered me a great employee deal on a finished spec house that is quite bigger in the same neighborhood Im in. If I can get my house sold fast enough Ill be able to choose from the specs available. We would be going from 1959 sq.ft to 3056 sq.ft. I guess I could buy the other house with a HELOC from the first house but I dont think I want to gamble in this market and own 2 at the same time, although Im tempted as theyre giving me a lower price than it wouldve been 4 years ago! :eek:

Im attached to my house as it was my first one but this is simply too good a deal not to pick up on considering the tax savings on the profit(s). Shame though as I love my house now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'll wish you luck and give you some support on the decision to avoid holding two at once. That's been a real PITA for us for more than a year now.

[Mike Lowe]

That other house isn't going anywhere. I'd never rush into buying ANY home with the market being the way it is now. You are in control as the potential buyer. Deals are a dime a dozen regardless if it comes from a guy you know (no one will take a loss).

My 2 cents.

[StarBuck]

Be careful, this is a bad time to sell and many places who give you the mortgages are going under. It's also a buyers market so there are so many to choose from, and the prices are lower. At one time there were buyers begging to buy one house, now they call the shots and choose from many.

My good friend had to lower her house $75k to sell. From 375 to 300k

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Right. A good market to upgrade. Your house sells for less, but the house you're buying is also selling for less. As long as you can make the payments, have a cushion in case rates rise, you're good to go.

[Flasch186]

(no one will take a loss).



wanna bet. Builders Can and will take a loss in in specific neighborhoods where they overpaid for land simply to churn the neighborhood out. I happen to live in, sell in and looking to "upgrade" in one of these neighborhoods.

I know this market extremely well which is why I never Heloc'd or Refi'd. I only owe 150 and am listing it for 299 w/ the hot tub/gazebo and kinetico system. I have the room to play and the willingness to take that stuff with me to lower their price on this even more.

wanna buy it?

[Mike Lowe]

I was just refering to the builders etc. I was under the impression that they may be talking about taking a lose to sweeten the deal ala car salesmen. Don't these companies have enough cash laying around to wait out the storm? It seems like bad business to me to sell for less than what they should be getting it for. Land is a very important financial comodity.

You know more about it than me as I'm just going off of perception. Good luck either way! I'll be buying within the next year for the first time and am hoping I can find a nice deal too.

[CU Tiger]

When they are active in a neighborhood they have a ton of resources tied up there. From equiopment to personneel to job trailers.
It often costs so much to move around its more financially attractive to just blow them out.

[Flasch186]

When they are active in a neighborhood they have a ton of resources tied up there. From equipment to personnel to job trailers.
It often costs so much to move around its more financially attractive to just blow them out.

part of the reason, also in that they very likely overpaid for the land theyre building on now since they bought it during the run up. Also lucrative to close out those neighborhoods as quickly as possible to be able to have cash on hand (which there is plenty of anyways but...) to purchase new cheaper land since the downturn and not only be able to sell at the sweetspot price wise but be profitable per house, again. When a spec sits there is inherent costs plus risk of theft or vandalism....there is a number that they'd be willing to get rid of it at especially if the fiscal year is considered a "bad one". If the market (NYSE) already views the year as "terrible" then its much easier to lose money on stuff so that next year or the year after, when things are expected to be "good", they can reach that expectation.

Do they have enough cash to weather the storm?

speculatively, some do but some might not. It depends on long it lasts and how long they are on their land positions. If youre in the business of building homes though and the reason your costs are substantially lower than expected is the economy of scale they offer their subcontractors and vendors. If they cant offer that then they end up cutting a bit of their nose off in spite of their face.

[Flasch186]

I put an ad in the paper for renting it out at $1750/mo which is about $350 over the mortgage pmt. for now. It resets in '09 (which I wonder if this could cause a problem in refinancing it if it is an investment home at that point...perhaps I should refi it now?) Anyways, I got a call today and it makes me nervous as hell because without the sale Ill have to put up the Down payment on the new house which would be ok but severely stress me out because it brings me much closer to the zero-line I fear. Just because Im stressed out though doesnt mean it's a bad thing because Im super averse to risk and very emotional as Im sure you learned from my job thread. Im just not sure I can do it....I'll be just on the next street so being a landlord doesnt scare me but living "thinly" does. I'm just not sure I can do it eventhough Im seemingly getting the new house for about 50K below where I just sold the same plan!!! ugh, im going to go throw up.

[lordscarlet]

I don't know how relevant it is to your stress, but my Mom rents her house out through a property management company and only loses like $80 off the top. Means you don't have to deal with any of the ins-and-outs of being a landlord.

[st.cronin]

It resets in '09 (which I wonder if this could cause a problem in refinancing it if it is an investment home at that point...perhaps I should refi it now?)

You know more about it than I do, but there is no way I would. Do you really think the mortgage market will get WORSE in the next two years?

[Flasch186]

well Primary and secondary/investment homes get completely different loan programs and therefore rates, so I may end up coming out ahead refi'ing when it shows as primary as opposed to refi'ing when it's a rental property. Of course, rates will come down over the next 6 months but I may still be above where I could've been on 9/30 or 10/30. and yes, the mortgage market could absolutely be BETTER for people with good credit over the next few years. People with moderate to bad credit will have difficulty finding money.

[Flasch186]

update:

The company has done something smart for themselves but tough on salespeople. they are going to stop contingent sales at foundation if starting them at all and all spec homes will be stopped at Drywall to allow buyers to make changes. This means that salespeople could have quite a few windows where they have no income at all.

So I pulled my home off the market for now to see how sales are for the next 2 months. Should they be good (I sold one last night 2900sqft for 315K) then Ill look at snagging a spec home for myself and rent the house that we're in now out. I think I can get a premium because we've got it fenced in, the hotub, and we'll allow dogs, etc.

I still think that this home im looking at (3056sqft + lots of upgrades for 265K) would be a great purchase but the initial D.P. plus purchases for the new home have me scared. Couple that with the fact that our cars are very long in tooth and Im afraid of the setup and that it's for failure.

In the meantime we'll see how the next few months pan out....I felt bad calling of my rental appt. I had setup for today to show it to some people. They seemed deflated but it's probably the best thing to do for now.

In the meantime Ill probably refi. the home im in now into a 30yr. fixed once rates drop (fingers crossed) in the next few weeks/months.