Villa on golf course in Spring Hill... (Tampa, Lakeland: wood floors, for sale by owner)

[RPM]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post so please go easy on me. I've seen a few people post about their homes for sale, and I am in a rough situation so I am going to try it as well....

I have a beautiful 2/2/2 villa with a den, tile and hard wood floors, and I'm on the 3rd hole of the golf course with a pond view in an upscale gated community. My husband and I bought this home a year and a half ago as an investment. We are both in the military and were hoping to make a little money off the house when we left. Well, as anyone who lives in Spring Hill knows, the bottom fell out of the market completely shortly after we purchased the home.

Since we've had it such a short time, we have no equity. We just dropped the price to $189,900 which is exactly what we paid for it. This means we will have to get a loan for the $15,000 needed to pay commissions, property taxes, and closing costs. The longer I am here, the more I am paying for the mortgage and HOA fees. To make matters worse, my husband went to AZ in Feb for the Army and is not coming back. I am stuck here until the house sells, and I REALLY would like to go spend some time with him before he deploys this Dec. Unfortunately my job pays the mortgage, and there is no where to work that pays what I make now where he is.

If you or anyone you know is interested in more details about the villa and/or community please pm me. It REALLY is beautiful, and it makes me ill to be in this situation. If I'm not supposed to post stuff like this then I apologize. I just figured at this point it can't hurt anything.....

Sincerely,
Stuck in Spring Hill

[Larry Jensen]

You'll be better off holding onto the property rather than selling it right now. Rent it out or live there and make payments until the market rights itself, and it will--after all, it's Florida. If you sell now, you'll be sorry in two years, when the market will be back strong and you can make some real good money on the property.

[RPM]

Hi Larry,

I know, we have tried to think about all our options. Spring Hill has over 4,000 homes for sale in my ZIP code right now. You can't rent them any easier than you can sell them, my friend is in the same situation and has been trying to rent his for months. There are 30 other villas for sale in my developement, 12 are on my street.

If we keep it, we have to come up with the mortgage plus $262 a month for HOA fees which is rediculous. My husband is going to be stationed in TX next, for a few months until he deploys in Dec. While he is gone, I'm going home for the year because I have been stuck here in FL for 3 years with no friends or family and it SUCKS! Once he returns, his unit is moving to CO. So we will not be settling down for the next 2 1/2 years, which means I will not have steady income, and we will have to have temporary housing to pay for as we bounce from place to place and put things in storage. Without a steady income, and still having to pay for living/storage, I don't think we can afford to keep the villa any more than we can afford to sell it. Either way we lose.

I know the market will go back up eventually, but do we hold on to the house and spend thousands and thousands of dollars on mortgage, HOA, and taxes to break even a couple years from now, or do we sell it for a small loss now and be free of it to move on? I'd rather just move on..... personally I hate Florida, and we will never live here again. I appreciate the advice though, I know you are trying to help. I didn't put all the details out originally, but maybe this will help clarify why I'm stuck in this situation.

[Floridasunshine]

I live in Sub in Lakeland 132 homes, 26 are homeowners rest are investors flipping the homes, It has ruinned my sub, they are sitting with for rent signs, or being sold for 50,000 below market ruining the value of myhomes. so I am am angry at the builder for selling to investors. I was promised no more than 5% investors , they lied. The same thing is happening across the street. I will be willing to bet you paid alot less than what you are saying for your house. Homes were going really cheap out in spring hill last year. Rent it for 800 for a yr. you will still make money. The rent in this area meaning Tampa Bay has went way too high. lots of nice people need a place to rent for less than 1200.

[sange77]

I agree Floridasunshine. We live in Spring Hill in a community that was suppose to be one of the best,it has 2 clubhouses,2 pools, 4tennis courts, 2full basketball courts, walking trails...etc. But because the builders sold to all of those investors the community is nothing like we thought it would be. More than 1/2 the homes are rented out to low class people who are paying like 800 dollars a month. Meanwhile my CDD fees are $1600 a year and I live amongst trash!!!! Just like the investors do not care about the quality of people they are renting these homes to...I dont care that they are losing money. They deserve it! The real shame of it all is that non of the responsibility falls on the builders and the homeowners who purchased and live in these homes are stuck with the problem. I do believe in 2-5 years time the situation will improve but we picked our entire lives up from NY to move into our dreamhome in a dream community. My home is gorgeous I love it but out of the 18 homes on my block. 2 are for sale. 8 are rented out and 8 are lived in by the owners and my block is one of the better ones!!!

[Floridasunshine]

My stepson is in Dade City Ridge Manor area, He cant sell his 2.5 acre home
has dropped price from 319 to 249, to 239 still noone looking at homes,
His homeowners jumped to 3000 because of sink hole risk in the county of Hernando, He is disgusted he loves the area and privacy, Investors have been coming out like wolfs wanting to give him nothing.

[RPM]

I bought my home from a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) so it really was that much. We went into contract in March of 05 and closed in Sept 05. Hell in Sept, the villa's on my street were selling for $217k- $219! So we figured, even if it just evened out- after a couple years we'd still make a little money. It was about 2-3 months after we closed that the bottom fell out of the market.

The builders did that in a LOT of places in Spring Hill and it's crappy. I live in a community that was developed maybe 5-10 years ago so I don't have the problem with builders underselling- the people that own the homes are underselling! Anywhere from $20k- $50k under, which absolutely kills you for comparisons. I've talked to a few of the people and it seems to be health or family issues and they need to move asap. One couple were realators and they had a house built somewhere else. It was finished a long time ago and they've been stuck with 2 mortgages. So they just sold their villa for $159k about 8 houses down from me.

I got a flyer in the mail the other day advertising a 4 bedroom, 2 story house for $170 in Trillium. Talk about depressing.....

I have accepted the fact that we are not going to be able to sell our house and am now going to look into the whole renting thing. So if you know of any good companies that handle finding renters (as we will be out of state) please let me know!!! Thanks!

[Songbird42]

Not only did the builders overbuild, but the county commissioners who I think have their heads up there ^&)(), keep approving more and more developments, yes, Spring Hill is booming but for who, the schools are alot to be desired, employment is next to none, except service jobs. People in 2005/2006 overpaid on most of the properties that were on the rolls. Now everything is coming back down, my own house went from $250,000 to 178,000......there has to be a correction sooner or later. Unfortunately, those that bought at the peak, well, now there stuck, and there up against
4,300 other homes for sale. Rode around Spring Hill today and commented that Spring Hill looks rather dingy, lawns unkeep, cars parked whereever
garbage outside, and this was just along Spring Hill Drive. Used to be, that when you invested in a house, you took pride in what you owned. But, with so many rentals, people don't care, they pay there rent and so what.

I try to tell everyone who wants to move here, ask questions till your blue in the face, check the area out, rent for a couple of months, go to the schools and see what there teaching, and see how many drug arrests on school campuses. I'm sorry that your in this situation, and Fl. is not for everyone
I wish you well with your situation

[cdcyank]

ever consider doing a lease option. my wife and i are currently looking for a lease option right now to purchase. we have a few dings on our credit and need a couple of years to repair it. hopefully we can find someone that would be interested in doing that. if yourself or anyone you know would be interested in doing so please let us know. i would appreciate it. p.s. we are looking for something in the spring hill area.