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Hmm... Will she sell it to you at a bargain price? You could buy it, clear out her stuff and rent it out. There is a lot left unsaid. Is the house in a desirable neighborhood? How extensive the renovations? Does she expect the buyer (family member) to store all her belongings and would she know if they didn't?
My father owned a 40 or so acre hobby farm in a very rural area of CA on the Feather River. He asked all the kids if they wanted it and was so sad when we all said no. Absolutely no, for any reason. When he died suddenly, the farm was sold off and the profits split according to the trust.
Would it sell? Sure, at the right price. I'd expect it to get the $120k-$130k range. County schools are not very good. I don't much care for the location and job stability is always going to be a concern around here.
Sell the condo. Buy the place. Get a job teaching at the local high school.
Meet someone. You'll do just fine.
Likely you wouldn't like Charlotte or Nashville anyway.
Among my friends and relatives I don't know anyone who "pushed" their family home on their children/relatives.
Now, I do know a few people who really wanted the family home/family farm and were delighted to receive it for free as an inheritance (usually because it was valuable and completely paid for) but, nope, I don't know anyone who was pushed into buying their parents/grandparents houses or property.
My old family home was in fine shape. They kept it up well and wanted one of my children to take it. The problem was that it was in a small town with no work opportunities which weren't sixty miles away.
Mom felt really bad about it. We actually thought about moving the house but the hassle and cost was prohibitive.
The second option was that she wanted the home to go to a family with children. It has an expansive back yard perfect for play. So I specified this to the realtor and he came up with a couple with several children.
Two of them were there when we sold the house. I told them how much they would enjoy the climbing tree in the back yard. They acted really strange and kept looking at their parents as though seeking guidance for what to say. It was a strange session.
I was glad to be able to tell Mom the house went to a family with children.
Shortly thereafter a tall fence went up around the whole house and a friend told me I had just sold to meth makers. I think they must have brought children along to the sale who weren't theirs as there were no children living there. It was all just really crazy.
They managed to trash the house and then were foreclosed on. It sat empty for quite a while and now I've heard that someone is living in it again. Mom is long gone and she never had to know what happened to her treasured home. I'm glad for that.
For myself I've had to go through a period of adjustment that that is no longer "home." Seems a sad way to treat a good old house.
My DIL has a grandmother who has kept the family farm in the "family" from deed date 1860's. It is an amazing piece of property and the house is rustic ..to add to the landscape. The grandmother has already bequeath it to the children. Her two sons. They have no qualms in keeping it in the family as a summer /winter vacation home. Its up in the mountains so they figure....No harm no foul to keep it "in the family". Guess they value the memories of generations and the fact that they will continue to have those summer reunions there as they have had for many years prior.
I'd personally honor the wish of the parent/grand parent and attain the property. If i didn't have the funds upfront I'd do a real inexpensive lease to own ....I'm sure there is some way to work out the budget and keep it in the family til the owner departs. Ask though if the items can be stored else where or have an auction for the items she no longer needs? Just an idea ....
Yes, my parents tried to get my wife and I to take over their home in the late 1980's. At the time it would have been a 35+ mile commute to work compared to the 7 miles I had from our home. It also sat on 3 acres of landscaped lawn which required hours per week to mow and trim (trust me, I spent most of my teenaged years mowing that lawn and the two acres associated with their rental property).
We declined the offer, repeatedly. After the deaths of both parents my older sister bought the home from their estate.
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Now she is trying to get me and my other sister to accept ownership of all the family knick-knacks whose history is lost (if they ever had one).
No thanks. We have enough of our own junk collected during 40 years of marriage and kids.
THIS, is exactly why I have posted what I did in other similar threads.
My mother did this and I have repeated this idea. It makes decisions easier on what to do with the contents of a house. When my mother passed on, there was zero squabbling with my siblings.
1, Parents, go through your house and list EVERYTHING that is an heirloom, special keepsake, or valuable (such as, mom's gold earrings, an antique piece of furniture, a priceless vase, great grannie's soup tureen, etc)
2, sit down and go over the list with ONE mature, fair-minded offspring and decide who gets what. Write their name beside the item listed. Have your parent/s sign it!!! Photo copy it and hand out a copy to all siblings.
3, make all the siblings aware of the list. Let them read it so they realize that they have no say in the matter. It is the parent's wishes and decision.
When the parent/s pass on or move out, each child gets whatever their name is listed on. If they don't want it, then they can decide which other sibling gets it. If no one wants it, give it away to charity or sell it.
Note: I was very disappointed that I didn't get an antique wooden hall rack that I always admired. It stood in our hallway, and my mother had for years. I didn't say a thing when I didn't get it, because my brother's name was on the listed item. Fair is fair.
I call BS. You are watching too much HGTV. Old fixtures that are period to the original build are fine.
If it is not your kind of house and you don't want it, OK fine. I think the main point is that you don't like the location where the house is, and you struggle to get a decent job around there.
My sister just purchased a home that had its original owner from 1959. She likes some of the period features in terms of the decor, which is why she got it, but she does not like the knob and tube wiring/lack of grounding or the asbestos flooring. She also does not like the termite infestation. These are not HGTV issues but general habitability/safety issues.
In the OP’s situation, for a home with those types of issues, it probably wouldn’t be worth it to take over the house and then sell it since it probably wouldn’t sell for much and would be a lot of effort to clear the place out.
Hmm... Will she sell it to you at a bargain price? You could buy it, clear out her stuff and rent it out. There is a lot left unsaid. Is the house in a desirable neighborhood? How extensive the renovations? Does she expect the buyer (family member) to store all her belongings and would she know if they didn't?
She wants to sell it at market value. If I could buy it undermarket, I'd give it some thought.
The neighborhood is basically people 70+. One of my coworkers owns the house next door, and doesn't maintain it well. This has been an "older" neighborhood as long as I can remember, and was one of the first "suburban" neighborhoods built pretty far outside the city of Kingsport. Her house was among the first built in the neighborhood.
Here's the problem.
Even though the house would sell at an affordable price, the schools aren't very good. The elementary school is 6/10, the middle is 3/10, and the high school 5/10. City schools are generally better. The relatively bad schools are going to be a tough sell for a young family. County schools used to be better.
Older folks are not going to be interested in the stairs. It's really not configured for an older person, and would take a lot of money to configure it that way.
I don't know about the belongings. My guess is she wants everything left as-is. We've had a hell of a time getting her to let us clean out a downstairs den that was primary used by Papaw. He's been dead for nine years now. Most of the items don't have much intrinsic value
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Originally Posted by RamenAddict
My sister just purchased a home that had its original owner from 1959. She likes some of the period features in terms of the decor, which is why she got it, but she does not like the knob and tube wiring/lack of grounding or the asbestos flooring. She also does not like the termite infestation. These are not HGTV issues but general habitability/safety issues.
In the OP’s situation, for a home with those types of issues, it probably wouldn’t be worth it to take over the house and then sell it since it probably wouldn’t sell for much and would be a lot of effort to clear the place out.
We're talking paint, carpet removal, and a kitchen remodel. The bathrooms could stand a remodel too. Everything is functional, clean, habitable, etc.
Dealt with this just recently. The "family home" is not worth keeping unless it's either a.) already paid for and being given to you, or b.) some spectacular piece of property.
If this is just some tract house that you don't have a purpose of owning or using, let it go. She can't force your hand in buying it.
That simple.
Her house and those other tri-levels (mostly built in the 1960s) are much, much smaller than the split foyers built in the 1970s. It's about 1,200 sq.ft, and a very "segmented" 1,200 sq. ft. It feels small.
It's just not what people want these days.
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