When to list in Spring Hill (Tampa, Plantation: for sale, real estate, foreclosures)

[floridagirl777]

Here's some background in a nutshell:

In 2001, we moved to Spring Hill and built a beautiful custom home in Plantation Estates. Two years later, we sold it and made a 60K profit from the sale. We ended up downsizing and buying another home at the height of the market in Spring Hill for 195K. We SERIOUSLY overspent, as did most everyone else purchasing a home then in that area. Last year, we put the house on the market to move out of Hernando County. We listed it for about 150K.

Not one person came through to look at it, so we dropped the price significantly. Still, no one came. Our realtor informed us that nothing was selling in our area for over 100K, and we'd seriously have to drop the price if we wanted to sell the house. We could not drop the price any more because at that point we still owed around 140K on it and to drop the price would mean we'd actually have to dip into our savings to sell the house. We ended up renting the place out. We have an excellent tenant who loves the home and will rent from us for as long as possible. The problem is, we weren't able to charge our tenant the full amount of our mortgage because the homes in that area typically lease for under 800K per month, and she couldn't afford more than that. She is a good tenant, takes excellent care of the property, and pays her rent on time every month. We figured that was worth the $150 extra we have been kicking in each month.

We looked into short selling the property but could not because the bank said we were not in any sort of financial duress.

My question is … should we try to list the house again in the spring? I know the market has been picking up down here in the Tampa Bay area, but is it picking back up in Hernando? I've checked Zillow for my old area in Spring Hill and noticed that a couple of homes recently sold for close to 150K. We could probably list it for 140K without losing too much money, but I'm not sure if it would sell for that. It had a sinkhole which we had repaired several years ago, and we haven't had any issues with it at all since the repair. We'd LOVE to get rid of the house, but we also don't want to scare off our faithful tenant in the event it doesn't sell.

What do you all think?

[debvic]

Don't know if you would consider this but maybe you could try to sell it as a rent to own deal. A lot of people can't qualify for conventional financing these days and if your price is right you might find the right buyer. Perhaps talk to a real estate attorney for more options and advice.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by debvic

Don't know if you would consider this but maybe you could try to sell it as a rent to own deal. A lot of people can't qualify for conventional financing these days and if your price is right you might find the right buyer. Perhaps talk to a real estate attorney for more options and advice.

We never considered this option. Do you know how it basically works?

[Mike1306]

Why would anyone pay you $140K for your home when by your own accounts there is rampant drugs, shootings, 8 year olds that use the F bomb through out the area?

Just kidding, lease purchase not rent to own is generally your better way to go. Make sure you get at least 10% down, I try to go for 20% and that the lease payment covers your monthly cost.
A lease purchase locks them in, that way if they bail after a year or 2 you can keep the down payment. Have a lawyer draw up the contract so that they can't try and squeeze out later and get the down payment back.
Lease purchase you can generally get a little higher than current market also.

[HWTechGuy]

Originally Posted by Mike1306

Why would anyone pay you $140K for your home when by your own accounts there is rampant drugs, shootings, 8 year olds that use the F bomb through out the area?

Don't forget the 3 year olds running in the streets unsupervised. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously though, with rates as low as they are, another option could be to refinance. You could possibly get the mortgage payment in-line with the rent you are getting, or maybe even lower. That would be somewhat of a game-changer for you and leave you with alot of options as well as give you time - while eliminating the monthly cash outlay to make up the difference between the rent and the mortgage.

I just bought here in November and the house appraised for 20K below the agreed-upon sale price, which itself was 15k below the listed price at the time. It almost tanked the deal, but in the end the seller had to come down or I would have walked. In the end, I got the place for like 80k less than the price was originally listed for.

There is a surplus of homes here, foreclosures and whatnot. It's still a buyer's market.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by Mike1306

Why would anyone pay you $140K for your home when by your own accounts there is rampant drugs, shootings, 8 year olds that use the F bomb through out the area?

Just kidding, lease purchase not rent to own is generally your better way to go. Make sure you get at least 10% down, I try to go for 20% and that the lease payment covers your monthly cost.
A lease purchase locks them in, that way if they bail after a year or 2 you can keep the down payment. Have a lawyer draw up the contract so that they can't try and squeeze out later and get the down payment back.
Lease purchase you can generally get a little higher than current market also.

LOL. Well, maybe a druggie family with kids who swear like sailors would fit right in!

I'm really interested in exploring this lease purchase thing. How does one go about marketing that? Should I get a real estate agent in addition to a lawyer?

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

Don't forget the 3 year olds running in the streets unsupervised. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Yeah. Guess I walked right into that one!

Seriously though, with rates as low as they are, another option could be to refinance. You could possibly get the mortgage payment in-line with the rent you are getting, or maybe even lower. That would be somewhat of a game-changer for you and leave you with alot of options as well as give you time - while eliminating the monthly cash outlay to make up the difference between the rent and the mortgage.

We refinanced last year before we rented the place out. We did the HARP 2 thing and saved a bunch of money. We wouldn't have been able to rent it out for the price we are charging had we not gone that route.

I just bought here in November and the house appraised for 20K below the agreed-upon sale price, which itself was 15k below the listed price at the time. It almost tanked the deal, but in the end the seller had to come down or I would have walked. In the end, I got the place for like 80k less than the price was originally listed for.

There is a surplus of homes here, foreclosures and whatnot. It's still a buyer's market.

That is helpful information you just shared. I hate that there's still a surplus of homes and that the homes are appraising for well under the listing price … it means awesome deals for buyers, but it stinks for people who are trying to sell.

We may end up just continuing to rent the place out unless this lease purchase thing turns out to be a good idea.

Any idea on how long the market will continue to be this way up there?

[HWTechGuy]

I don't foresee much changing. My appraisal said something about the outlook for the area to remain the same for some time, or something like that.

House next to me is for sale, a foreclosure. There are a few of them peppered around the neighborhood. I think there are also some others that are vacant/foreclosed but don't have for-sale signs on them yet.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

I don't foresee much changing. My appraisal said something about the outlook for the area to remain the same for some time, or something like that.

House next to me is for sale, a foreclosure. There are a few of them peppered around the neighborhood. I think there are also some others that are vacant/foreclosed but don't have for-sale signs on them yet.

You know what Spring Hill needs? It needs some sort of major industry or two to come along and set up shop there to attract more jobs and consequently more people to purchase all these homes sitting on the market. Or maybe someone needs to start some sort of ad campaign for northerners looking to retire and move to a super-affordable area. It's sad to me how badly the area was hit.

I wonder why Hernando County's governing officials aren't trying to pursue ways to better things there? Or perhaps they are and just aren't getting any where.

Either way, I guess I'll have to wait awhile before I can sell my house there.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by floridagirl777

Here's some background in a nutshell:

In 2001, we moved to Spring Hill and built a beautiful custom home in Plantation Estates. Two years later, we sold it and made a 60K profit from the sale. We ended up downsizing and buying another home at the height of the market in Spring Hill for 195K. We SERIOUSLY overspent, as did most everyone else purchasing a home then in that area. Last year, we put the house on the market to move out of Hernando County. We listed it for about 150K.

Not one person came through to look at it, so we dropped the price significantly. Still, no one came. Our realtor informed us that nothing was selling in our area for over 100K, and we'd seriously have to drop the price if we wanted to sell the house. We could not drop the price any more because at that point we still owed around 140K on it and to drop the price would mean we'd actually have to dip into our savings to sell the house. We ended up renting the place out. We have an excellent tenant who loves the home and will rent from us for as long as possible. The problem is, we weren't able to charge our tenant the full amount of our mortgage because the homes in that area typically lease for under 800K per month, and she couldn't afford more than that. She is a good tenant, takes excellent care of the property, and pays her rent on time every month. We figured that was worth the $150 extra we have been kicking in each month.

We looked into short selling the property but could not because the bank said we were not in any sort of financial duress.

My question is … should we try to list the house again in the spring? I know the market has been picking up down here in the Tampa Bay area, but is it picking back up in Hernando? I've checked Zillow for my old area in Spring Hill and noticed that a couple of homes recently sold for close to 150K. We could probably list it for 140K without losing too much money, but I'm not sure if it would sell for that. It had a sinkhole which we had repaired several years ago, and we haven't had any issues with it at all since the repair. We'd LOVE to get rid of the house, but we also don't want to scare off our faithful tenant in the event it doesn't sell.

What do you all think?

I'm afraid you may be in trouble for two reasons.

1) Things are certainly, without question, picking up in the Tampa Bay market. However, it is nice homes in prime locations that are seeing a nice uptick. It will take some time to filter down to the areas further out.

2) The sinkhole issue is going to be a HUGE issue for you. Sinkhole homes simply do not sell well unless almost given away and then they are purchased by investors.

I wish you the best. You seem like an awesome person. Please let us know how it goes. It will be a good barometer for this market.