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Old 10-18-2014, 03:09 PM
 
79 posts, read 152,911 times
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Sounds like they were trying to parlay their housing allowance into big gains and it all back-fired. I'm sure they're not gamblers, though. LOL.
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Old 10-19-2014, 04:29 AM
 
24 posts, read 70,042 times
Reputation: 63
price, location, condition. thats what it comes down to. i dunno about felons lol, but realtor premiums are becoming less valuable with the amount of info available online. have you checked redfin? you can find recent sales of similar homes to get comps, see what others are asking (remember ask price is meaningless...what did they SELL for?), etc. if you have questions about a realtor just drop her. they are salesmen nothing more. the next one will be the same. its really imperative that buyers do their due diligence before buying. like i said, check the comps yourself, it's not hard.
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Old 10-19-2014, 09:32 AM
 
687 posts, read 911,547 times
Reputation: 2243
Quote:
Originally Posted by stabo View Post
price, location, condition. thats what it comes down to.
I agree, but one little nit-picky (I know) caveat here:
Price, Location, Condition and NEIGHBORS. That's what it comes down to.

You can't alter the location and your neighbors are likely there to stay. What can change is the condition (as well as size), but two humans have to negotiate the price.
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Old 10-19-2014, 05:53 PM
 
4,344 posts, read 5,778,014 times
Reputation: 2465
Quote:
Originally Posted by highlife2 View Post
This is why you never buy a house when your in the military, the military does not care about anything but using up the service member and then spitting them out. Any real company worth their salt that wanted someone to move would buy out the property so that they did not have to worry about these exact problems. I had a friend that moved across the country with a company and that's what they did for him. I have never heard of the military doing this because they don't care.
We made the choice to buy a house because we have been here for almost 8 1/2 years and in this house for 5 1/2 years. It was what was BEST for our family. Renting was not an option at the time because we were severely burned by someone who let their house we were renting go into foreclosure. They lied to the property manager and to us. We wanted more freedom than what you would get living on post. Living on post for us was a complete and utter nightmare. Buying was the lesser of two evils at the time.
Also not every job will buy out your mortgage nor will they give you an allowance for housing. One thing I can say that my family has had vs my dad, mom and husband had growing up is stability. They were never in one place more than 3 years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mapmd View Post
One option you have is renting to other military, of course your first mistake was buying in the first place. Unless you're in USASOC down at Bragg plan on moving, and even then those jobs (which I was in) force you to be stationed 2-3 years elsewhere simply because it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the military that people could reside in one place for two decades+.

You guys should take this hit though. If you have money saved up (a lot of military don't which is stupid as hell) then just be thankful that you have a guaranteed job, unlimited benefits, and a starting wage (an E-4 with two years of service makes the median US salary) that's unmatched in the private sector, especially against comparable education levels.

Think about it: you get PAID for housing. You get PAID for food. You get FREE medical for the whole family....you're doing great and there really isn't much to fret about.

But yeah, you could rent to other military who are less likely to run roughshod over your home and property than most Fayettenamese civilians are likely to.
As I said before, renting is a last resort. In your eyes our first mistake was buying in our eyes it was the better decision as I said above.
Other than this house we have ZERO debt. No credit card debt, no car payments etc. We are one of the smarter military families because we do have a savings and an emergency fund....go figure.
Yeah we get a housing allowance. My husband gets paid for his food, not our family because trust me as much as he eats it takes the full amount just for him. Not all medical is free unless you are on Prime, even then you have to jump through flipping hoops just to get care and wait a week or longer just to see a "dr". You get what you pay for.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cal-tex View Post
Sounds like they were trying to parlay their housing allowance into big gains and it all back-fired. I'm sure they're not gamblers, though. LOL.
We bought for a list of reasons. The pro's out weighted the con's. We didn't buy for gains, we bought for our sanity and health. We are far from risk takers and talk things out in great detail before we do something. He learned the hard way of what happens when he doesn't include me on situations that involve the family.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stabo View Post
price, location, condition. thats what it comes down to. i dunno about felons lol, but realtor premiums are becoming less valuable with the amount of info available online. have you checked redfin? you can find recent sales of similar homes to get comps, see what others are asking (remember ask price is meaningless...what did they SELL for?), etc. if you have questions about a realtor just drop her. they are salesmen nothing more. the next one will be the same. its really imperative that buyers do their due diligence before buying. like i said, check the comps yourself, it's not hard.
[quote]I agree, but one little nit-picky (I know) caveat here:
Price, Location, Condition and NEIGHBORS. That's what it comes down to. [quote]


Thank goodness our area is one of the very few low crime areas here in town. We have GREAT neighbors (even though half of them rent). Comps currently are/were listed between 146K (for a 1300-1400 sq ft)-208K (for a 2300-2400 sq ft) . The ones that have sold were listed between 174 and 189K which sold between 174-184K before the 150k (that was on the market 1 1/2 yrs).

One can be as judgemental as they want on purchasing a house or not. We did make the choice to buy, we knew we were going to be here long term. However we did not expect the market to be as crappy as it is right now. Our next duty station, we will more than likely rent or last resort live in housing.
Thank you all for your opinions and your insight. Trust me when I say I've been thinking about what has been said.
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Old 10-20-2014, 01:48 AM
 
4,463 posts, read 6,212,248 times
Reputation: 2046
[quote=ladybug07;36940367]We made the choice to buy a house because we have been here for almost 8 1/2 years and in this house for 5 1/2 years. It was what was BEST for our family. Renting was not an option at the time because we were severely burned by someone who let their house we were renting go into foreclosure. They lied to the property manager and to us. We wanted more freedom than what you would get living on post. Living on post for us was a complete and utter nightmare. Buying was the lesser of two evils at the time.
Also not every job will buy out your mortgage nor will they give you an allowance for housing. One thing I can say that my family has had vs my dad, mom and husband had growing up is stability. They were never in one place more than 3 years.



As I said before, renting is a last resort. In your eyes our first mistake was buying in our eyes it was the better decision as I said above.
Other than this house we have ZERO debt. No credit card debt, no car payments etc. We are one of the smarter military families because we do have a savings and an emergency fund....go figure.
Yeah we get a housing allowance. My husband gets paid for his food, not our family because trust me as much as he eats it takes the full amount just for him. Not all medical is free unless you are on Prime, even then you have to jump through flipping hoops just to get care and wait a week or longer just to see a "dr". You get what you pay for.


We bought for a list of reasons. The pro's out weighted the con's. We didn't buy for gains, we bought for our sanity and health. We are far from risk takers and talk things out in great detail before we do something. He learned the hard way of what happens when he doesn't include me on situations that involve the family.


[quote]I agree, but one little nit-picky (I know) caveat here:
Price, Location, Condition and NEIGHBORS. That's what it comes down to.
Quote:


Thank goodness our area is one of the very few low crime areas here in town. We have GREAT neighbors (even though half of them rent). Comps currently are/were listed between 146K (for a 1300-1400 sq ft)-208K (for a 2300-2400 sq ft) . The ones that have sold were listed between 174 and 189K which sold between 174-184K before the 150k (that was on the market 1 1/2 yrs).

One can be as judgemental as they want on purchasing a house or not. We did make the choice to buy, we knew we were going to be here long term. However we did not expect the market to be as crappy as it is right now. Our next duty station, we will more than likely rent or last resort live in housing.
Thank you all for your opinions and your insight. Trust me when I say I've been thinking about what has been said.
I have been a renter in a unit that the owner decieded to sell, that's probably the same as being in a unit being forclosed on, you simply more and your lease is automaticly broken (unless the banks wants to take of the lease and act as a land lord which never happens). I don't know what base you were on but I have friends in the military and I visited them on post and he lived in a pretty decent house with his family and when they were restationed he did not have to sell. Yea, you could not have kegger parties and the speed limit thing was kinda over the top but other than that it did not seem too bad. I stayed late playing cards and drinking at a mild house party he had and I was able to drive off base at like mid night with no issues. If I was stumbling around drunk on the streets as a civilian it might have caused issues.

I was also underwater on a condo I sold like 4 years ago, that was by far more stress than all the other things above combined. When I had to make that price drop that put me at having to write a 1000 check with very few showings it was scarry, but it finally sold and I only had a write a thousand dollar check.

There is no stability in the military, period, that's why most people don't stay in. It sounds like your going to take a bath like I did with my condo. Now days I don't buy squat unless I plan on never selling it and I make sure I either pay out of pocket or have a very small loan that is effectively a nussance payment. I cant even sell a table and chairs on craigslist for 50$ I am now extremely careful about what I buy.

Hopefully this was the only lesson you needed.
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Old 10-20-2014, 03:13 AM
 
51,585 posts, read 25,589,248 times
Reputation: 37787
Quote:
Originally Posted by veuvegirl View Post
I don't think you should wait. Talk to your realtor and the office now, if you really want to sell, cut the price as low as you can go and move on. We reduced our house by $70,000 and cut our losses. My husband was a bit delusional and set the price high (yes the realtor let him). I had a feeling it wasn't going to sell, I asked my realtor what would be the proce to sell quickly. We cut the proce and sold.
Talk to the broker and ask for a new agent.

Check out your MLS listing. Are the photos enticing, engaging? If not, get that fixed.

Reduce your price now.

If you live in an area where homes are being bought and sold on a regular basis, there are only three reasons buyers aren't asking to view your home. It's in a neighborhood no one wants to live in. The photos aren't engaging to buyers. The price is too high.

Forget all the nonsense of whether you should have lived on base or how much your family's housing allowance might be. That's got nothing to do with you current situation.

You'll be paying thousands of dollars for this agent's advice and you don't trust it. Get a new one.

Make sure the MLS listing is as good as it can be.

Reduce your price right now.

Good luck.
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Old 10-20-2014, 05:26 AM
 
4,344 posts, read 5,778,014 times
Reputation: 2465
Highlife- There is a big difference between an owner selling and having a cop show up at the door with foreclosure papers telling you that you have 3 weeks to move yourself, 3 year old and a 5 month old out with a deployed husband. Staying in one area for over 8 years is stability...at least for the military lifestyle. And guess what? Our next duty station we will be there about the same amount of time. Quite shocking hugh? You are being quite judgemental without truly knowing who we are. We are very quiet. We do enjoy a bon fire in our backyard with a few friends, grilling out and NOT having the MP's show up at our door accusing my husband of abusing me when it was someone with the same house number in the neighborhood over. Also our family was constantly sick because of something in the housing that was built in the 50's. So before you say another smart comment about us deciding to buy, all you need to know is there are so many more reasons behind it. We don't mind having to take something to the table, our goal is to not take anything to the table. It is do-able, but in this town many in this town expect something for nothing.


Quote:
Originally Posted by GotHereQuickAsICould View Post
Talk to the broker and ask for a new agent.

Check out your MLS listing. Are the photos enticing, engaging? If not, get that fixed.

Reduce your price now.

If you live in an area where homes are being bought and sold on a regular basis, there are only three reasons buyers aren't asking to view your home. It's in a neighborhood no one wants to live in. The photos aren't engaging to buyers. The price is too high.

Forget all the nonsense of whether you should have lived on base or how much your family's housing allowance might be. That's got nothing to do with you current situation.

You'll be paying thousands of dollars for this agent's advice and you don't trust it. Get a new one.

Make sure the MLS listing is as good as it can be.

Reduce your price right now.

Good luck.
I actually took the photos. Asked multiple opinions on which photos are more enticing than other etc. The ones that had the best feedback, I sent to the realtor for her to choose. One thing I do know if its at the right angle and the room is set up just right, that it makes the room feel bigger than what it is and one can see their furniture in it also. I have noticed in the description that there are a couple of things wrong, so I will have our realtor fix that.
My husband and I can only communicate through email right now. I'm waiting on his response back to reduce the price so we can move this along. Hopefully he will hear the desperation in my email as I hear the excitement in his.
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:30 AM
 
51,585 posts, read 25,589,248 times
Reputation: 37787
Quote:
Originally Posted by ladybug07 View Post
I actually took the photos. Asked multiple opinions on which photos are more enticing than other etc. The ones that had the best feedback, I sent to the realtor for her to choose. One thing I do know if its at the right angle and the room is set up just right, that it makes the room feel bigger than what it is and one can see their furniture in it also. I have noticed in the description that there are a couple of things wrong, so I will have our realtor fix that.
My husband and I can only communicate through email right now. I'm waiting on his response back to reduce the price so we can move this along. Hopefully he will hear the desperation in my email as I hear the excitement in his.
You took your own photos? That's different. But probably better than the usual collection of photos I've seen on listings.

If your house is staged right, the photos are great and buyers are buying homes in your neighborhood, then price has got to be the reason no one has even toured your house yet.

So get busy and figure out the comps and price your home right.
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Old 10-20-2014, 10:46 AM
 
Location: Florida -
10,213 posts, read 14,774,441 times
Reputation: 21845
As this thread rolls on, it is evident that you are hoping for a 'silver bullet' solution ... that will enable you to get out of your house in the $170's, and not lose a big chunk of your savings. Unfortunately, based on the information you have provided, that is unlikely to happen and you are probably going to have to take a $25-$40K hit. Although you tried to do everything right, you have become another victim of the economy and housing bubble... plus, have a security clearance issue complication.

It's probably 'grasping at straws', but, have you reviewed your situation with the Base housing folks and Security Office to see if they have any suggestions. They have probably dealt with others in your housing/clearance situation; (who do not even have your savings backup). ?? What happens if a transfer forces a military person out of their 'underwater' home; yet, they have no savings to 'bring to the table'; ... and a security clearance is needed for their next assignment?? ... Perhaps they can help you with rental support, a low-interest loan or some other alternative(?)
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Old 10-20-2014, 06:52 PM
 
4,463 posts, read 6,212,248 times
Reputation: 2046
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton View Post
As this thread rolls on, it is evident that you are hoping for a 'silver bullet' solution ... that will enable you to get out of your house in the $170's, and not lose a big chunk of your savings. Unfortunately, based on the information you have provided, that is unlikely to happen and you are probably going to have to take a $25-$40K hit. Although you tried to do everything right, you have become another victim of the economy and housing bubble... plus, have a security clearance issue complication.

It's probably 'grasping at straws', but, have you reviewed your situation with the Base housing folks and Security Office to see if they have any suggestions. They have probably dealt with others in your housing/clearance situation; (who do not even have your savings backup). ?? What happens if a transfer forces a military person out of their 'underwater' home; yet, they have no savings to 'bring to the table'; ... and a security clearance is needed for their next assignment?? ... Perhaps they can help you with rental support, a low-interest loan or some other alternative(?)
I have heard that if a guy in the military looses his clearnce he get "reassigned" to some subpar MOS/duty. The miltiary makes sure that the "security clearance" jobs are coveted so that people will jump through their own back sides to keep them. You dont just get discharged unless you are close to your contract being up and you choose to get out, but the military also knows that clearance is valuable in the civilian work (especially for people that have limited skills otherwise) so they can keep you jumping like a gester right up to the end.

It would not hurt to ask the military if they will do a buy out but if not I would just rent it out, the odds of a renter doing 40k in damage is slim if you do even a small amount of research on a prospective tenant. That way you can hold the property and see.

This is why I got out of the military a long time ago and well before my contract was up, some people bad mouthed me for it but im not having to suffer as a result of the militarys calous policies and they still could. At the end of the day the military does not care, every now and then they might accomodate someone but if they dont you have no recourse.
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