Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > North Carolina > Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary
 [Register]
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary The Triangle Area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 03-02-2009, 09:49 AM
 
Location: FLINT (yeah you read that right!), MI
336 posts, read 906,479 times
Reputation: 166

Advertisements

My DH and I want to move to the Triangle area with our 3 kids. I'm a teacher and there're no jobs here. My husband has put in for a transfer and we're still waiting to hear back. However, just considering the logistics of a cross country move is giving me a headache.

In a perfect world, we would be able to sell our house before my husband would be required to report to his new position, but has anyone been able to sell their house within a reasonable amount of time in this market? There are already three houses for sale on our street alone and probably over a dozen in the neighborhood.

Additionally, I live in one of the worst (supposedly) cities in the country. Everyone is leaving, who is going to want to buy a house here?

If we can't sell the house, we'll have to pay two separate housing payments. Which sort of negates the whole point of moving in the first place. I don't want to make our situation worse.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-02-2009, 10:40 AM
 
Location: Durham
338 posts, read 1,617,959 times
Reputation: 282
Put the house on the market and give it a try. You won't know if you don't try to sell. If it's time to move and you haven't sold, find an agency to make your house into a rental property. That's what my friend in Ferndale is in the process of doing. And then rent yourself a uhaul (I recommend them over Ryder simply because my Ryder truck caught on fire on the Ohio Turnpike when I was making my move from MI to NC), pack it up and move on down. Granted, there seems to be a greater than normal influx of out of staters around here lately....at least it seems like I'm seeing more out of state plates than I'm used to. That's just my perception, I have no scientific data to back it up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-02-2009, 11:27 AM
 
Location: Hoover, Alabama
673 posts, read 2,263,919 times
Reputation: 521
We put our house in Saline on the market on August 1. We did receive 2 offers on our house -- and the offers were WAAAAAAAY below asking price AND market value.

We ended up renting out our house. We're hoping the market will improve in the next year or two, and we can try again to sell.

Good luck!

FYI, according to our realtor in MI, there is not a huge inventory of homes in our area of Michigan right now, primarily because homeowners are not willing to sell in this market unless they absolutely have to.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-02-2009, 11:32 AM
 
Location: Durham, NC
1,049 posts, read 3,786,061 times
Reputation: 732
We're renting our house in Hazel Park and making $300 over the price of the mortgage... it's a great rental market, but there's no hope in hell of selling the house unfortunately

We used Michael Petrevski (Century 21) to rent the house out... he had tenants within a week for us.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-02-2009, 04:27 PM
 
9,680 posts, read 27,124,746 times
Reputation: 4163
If all else fails and you lose your employment in MI. you might just do what we did when I was laid off in New Orleans in 1989.

We got to Raleigh via a job offer with relo and then filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy to escape the mortgage and other debts from 6 months of unemployment.

Got an apt here and now have an 800+ FICO. It does take 10 years for a bankrputcy to go away though.

Good luck.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2009, 06:13 AM
 
Location: On the brink of WWIII
21,088 posts, read 29,139,624 times
Reputation: 7812
I am here in Johnston County while my wife is wrapping up things in Michigan. Hoping to sell or rent the house by August. Otherwise>?

I found a teaching position on teachers-teachers.com for exceptional children. Been here 2 weeks (have temporary housing renting a room) and spend the weekend driving around the area looking for possible houses we might like. Most of the areas I have looked at are nice (depending of course on your budget). Obviously if you are looking in the 300K neighborhoods you will be looking at new or newer housing which can be found all around the Triangle.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2009, 06:58 AM
 
Location: Cary
451 posts, read 1,651,680 times
Reputation: 484
We sold our house in 30 days last August. We also had 3 kids aged 4 and under.

You can do this. Get your house ready to sell: paint bold colors back to a neutral shade, clean carpets, put rooms back together (if you made a bedroom into an office, put it back into a bedroom), declutter. Declutter does not equal tidy or neaten up. It means get rid of 90% of your crap, even the toys - donate, sell, storage, whatever. Empty all closets of everything except the basics (minimal clothes, vacuum). Empty the garage. Pay someone to re-do any landscaping - remulch, new plants, new beds, etc. Your house should look like a model home. If it doesn't, try again. Talk to everyone about their realtors. Find out who sold what and how fast. Make a list of realtors, and narrow it down to 3.

Then, when you know you are relocating, interview the 3 realtors. Hire the agressive pitbull that won't blow smoke up your arse. Listen closely to their advice. Make sure your home is the best on the block, and price it 5% under everything else. Your buyer doesn't care what you paid for the house or how much you put into it. The house is only worth what someone will pay for it. Every time you leave the house, leave the lights on, window shades open, vacuum, light jazz music on at a low volume - you never know when someone will want to visit the house. 15 minutes notice? Not a problem. That's your buyer.

It's a lot of work, not only getting it ready to sell before it goes on the market, but keeping it looking clean and fresh, especially with kids. Have a positive attitude, price it 5% under the comps, expect to sell it in a month, and you will.

Best of luck! (luck never hurts)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-03-2009, 08:58 PM
 
Location: FLINT (yeah you read that right!), MI
336 posts, read 906,479 times
Reputation: 166
Thanks for all the positive feedback.

Curious though, I know a lot of people are doing "short sales". Any idea how these work? How do they affect your credit? I know a lot of houses in the area are selling for about $20,000 less than we owe on our mortgage; I definately don't expect to make any money on the sale. We're only considering moving now because I've already been unemployed for two years and it's not likely to change anytime in the near future.

I've considered either: A) selling the house to a broker. (I don't know how that works either.)
or B) Seeing if my mortgage company would agree to let us rent it out. I've heard you can hire an agency to handle the property management. (I'd really hate to try to be a landlord from out of state.)

I'm trying to "declutter" now, just in case a job offer comes at short notice. A couple weeks ago we refinished the wood floors in the living room and the hallway and painted. Our next project is to replace the crap flooring in the kitchen and the dining room. Once it warms up a little bit I'm going to tackle the landscaping, replace the storm doors, re-paint the front door, and trim.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-04-2009, 05:19 AM
 
Location: Durham, NC
1,049 posts, read 3,786,061 times
Reputation: 732
You don't need your mortgage company's approval to rent it out. Call Century 21, they're my property management company and I haven't heard one peep from them since the tenants moved in (July). They do a great job and it's for about 10% a month (you won't find less, trust me, I looked).

You can definitely do a short sale but your mortgage company will have to approve it. It will be a hit on your credit, but not as much as a foreclosure. If I'm correct Try calling a real estate lawyer or credit counselor...they deal with this all the time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:



Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > North Carolina > Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary
Similar Threads
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:25 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top