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.
Hey all - my young family lives in Roswell, GA N of Atlanta (been here 15 years). We're lucky - we just sold our home. But in the process - somehow we realized that maybe Georgia is no longer for us.
My wife needs to stay with her job here at least until June. But we're currently renting short-term. We want to take advantage of the $6500 tax credit before April. Plus, rates are low.
Yet we ultimately see ourselves moving back north closer to family (somewhere in PA/MD/N VA, etc.).
Sooooo - I thought maybe we could find a little fixer-upper here. Buy it, put a roof over our heads. Then add nice counters, a deck, new paint/carpets, etc. Put it into pristine condition. All this time - we'd know it's not our long term house - but an investment we'll sell when the time is right.
No way to predict. But my thinking is that with $10K in inprovements and if we buy the house dirt cheap - we'd win there. The economy will gently pick up soon - so we'd pick up a little there, too. In the end - sell it in perhaps 6 months to a year for a little profit. Then we've killed two birds with one stone.
Hey all - my young family lives in Roswell, GA N of Atlanta (been here 15 years). We're lucky - we just sold our home. But in the process - somehow we realized that maybe Georgia is no longer for us.
My wife needs to stay with her job here at least until June. But we're currently renting short-term. We want to take advantage of the $6500 tax credit before April. Plus, rates are low.
Yet we ultimately see ourselves moving back north closer to family (somewhere in PA/MD/N VA, etc.).
Sooooo - I thought maybe we could find a little fixer-upper here. Buy it, put a roof over our heads. Then add nice counters, a deck, new paint/carpets, etc. Put it into pristine condition. All this time - we'd know it's not our long term house - but an investment we'll sell when the time is right.
No way to predict. But my thinking is that with $10K in inprovements and if we buy the house dirt cheap - we'd win there. The economy will gently pick up soon - so we'd pick up a little there, too. In the end - sell it in perhaps 6 months to a year for a little profit. Then we've killed two birds with one stone.
Thoughts?
"$10K in improvements" = famous last words.
Unfortunately, for most unexperienced flippers, the amount they thought they spend is significantly smaller than what they end up spending.
Sometime the budget gets away from experienced flippers too - houses are funny creatures and always need more money than you think they'll need. (Kinda like kids.)
And "the economy will gently pick up soon" ...eventually, but no one can guesstimate when that will be with any amount of certainty.
The closing costs to buy and sell can easily run 10-12% of the value of the house. Add in the repairs and you better buy it at an extremely good price.
Problem is you will be competing with experienced investors who will probably beat you to any great deals.
In todays flat market, I can't see you even breaking even on the deal.
Get a realtor that is REO experienced and investor experienced. You can do fine but you need a good inspection punch list and you make your money when you buy so you need a deal that is ridiculously good. Do those things and you'll probably do well.
i've got the same idea as the thread starter...my husband is on a 3yr contract and we're not sure if it's gonna be extended. we are thinking that given the current market, it might be worthwhile to buy a house if the price is very good...as we need a place to live in anyway and we don't have to keep renting...we'll probably just put in minimum work to spruce the place up a little.
and if at the end of 3 years, we don't get to stay....we'll sell the place and we are quite realistic...as long as we can breakeven or don't suffer too big a loss, we are alright with it. we might also be alright with holding it for awhile longer (say up to 5yrs). and if we do get to stay...we might consider putting in more money to do it up nicer in hope for better resale price in the longer term.
we are not taking a loan so i presume the closing costs won't be that high and we aren't incurring further interest charges. i just thought in this market...my downside risk is really quite small? but i'm very new to the US property scene as i've only just relocated....so would appreciate any comments/advice on this.
Last edited by bigfatturkey; 01-09-2010 at 07:12 PM..
We went through the same dilema last year. We sold our house but wanted to stay in that town until the end of the school year. In the mean time, my husband needed to be in the new town to start work. We looked at several options, including living with friends, buying a townhouse as future rental in either city, buying a flip house, etc...
Once all the hassle and ALL the costs were factored in, it made sense to us to rent in the old town and go ahead and buy in the new town. There was one day that we owned two houses and had two apartments! There were costs that we will never recoop. But, we got such a great deal in the new town we are still way ahead. We missed out on the tax rebate, but we still would have made the same decisions just to keep the chaos factor lower.
Roswell is a cute area with older character homes, but personally having just gone through this, I would not elect to add more hassle and stress unless the numbers really supported it.
Hey all - my young family lives in Roswell, GA N of Atlanta (been here 15 years). We're lucky - we just sold our home. But in the process - somehow we realized that maybe Georgia is no longer for us.
My wife needs to stay with her job here at least until June. But we're currently renting short-term. We want to take advantage of the $6500 tax credit before April. Plus, rates are low.
Thoughts?
I think you have to stay in the house a certain number of years to get the credit. if you don't that would be nice to know.
If you really want to move back north why tie your self down to a house? I don't know about where you live but in my area houses can taking quite a while to sell. So what if you buy this house you put $10K (probably A LOT more) into it THEN it comes time to sell and you can't find a buyer? What if it takes another 6 months to find a buyer? Will you be ready to move then?
I think in this declining market just be glad you don't have to worry about selling something and are free to leave when you are ready. If you're still hell bent on "flipping" do it to your new house in your new area. At least you will already be where you want to be and if the sale takes 9 months it's all good.
Especially the part about buying a house for dirt cheap.
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.
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.
