We are Military finally coming home after 6 years! (But with a snafu) (Portland: short sale)

[violectrica]

OK so they send us back for free since they moved us away.The movers come on Nov. 1 (In time for Thanksgiving!) My whole extended family is counting down the days as are we. We have had our plans on where will will live and what we will do when we get back and those are set in stone.

There is just one little issue. We bought a house here in San Antonio where we were stationed, so that we don't come back empty handed. We were going to take the equity we were to have and put it into a nice down payment on our "forever home" in Oregon. If there was no equity we figured that would be fine because, hey at least we won't have to deal with a landlord for 2.5 years plus we will get the added bonus of building our credit.

The only problem is. Not only do we not have equity. We can't afford a realtor. And we never intended to be long distance landlords. Especially at a loss of $300 a month plus maintenance. Re-fi is out of the question since I refuse to extend the length to which I am financially tied to a war ridden border state. And yes when international citizens on both sides of the border die, it is a unsactioned war, I don't care if it is swept under the rug.

But we are still coming home. Somehow. They can't have me anymore. I belong to my husband now. HE calls the Navy my "other husband" And my husband has not had a break from his "seasonal allergies" ever since we were stationed at dumb ol' stupid Texas. OK maybe I wouldn't mean that last part if we weren't such a hard time exiting.

Anyways I wrote to Senator Wyden because I am at a loss. All I know is that when the movers come I am following my stuff home.

[sandlinjames]

I moved to Austin from Portland so I understand where you are coming from. Although I grew up in Texas, I found Portland as soon as I could.

We still own our house in Portland as we hope to move back. This house is being rented out. We managed it ourselves for the first year & now we go through a management company. The point I am getting at... I will tell you from experience.... don't manage it yourself. I don't care how hard it is to give up 10-15% of the rent to a rental management company. If you can't sell & must rent, I'll say it again... RENT THROUGH A RENTAL MGT COMPANY.

I know it is difficult, but managing rental property across the country is impossible. One example: I was paying a company to maintain my yard. Luckily I have a few friends still up there & one of them happened to drive by one day & called me immediately. The yard looked horrible... and I had been paying someone $60 / month to maintain it. The point here.... you will never know what is going on @ the home. If you manage it yourself, you will loose sleep.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions.... or just ask here. Just please do not make the mistake of trying to manage a rental property accross the country. I can promise you that you will regret it.

[violectrica]

I was explaining why we are NOT renting under any circumstances. The state of Texas itself. I do no want to be finacially tied to it. And we cannot rent it for monetary resons either. It would rent for less than my current mortgage and then the additional mgt fee out of pocket and and normal maintenance. We cannot afford this (housing some strange family and our own) because we are a one income family. My husband is an at home dad, and now that I am getting out of the military it is my turn! I won't have to miss my family so much any more. Then he will be the source of our one income family. He is inheriting a little land from his dad and we were supposed to put a house on it

Grrr.

We MUST SELL and Cant rent. We are advertising our FSBO as an assumption, because its the only option without realtor fees and closing cost. But no realtor wants to show an Assumption home because their is no profit from it. And its illegal for me to pay someone a finder's fee! I was going to offer our escrow as a finders fee for just bringing us a buyer, we are doing all the legwork on the assumption. :/ After this we will try a short sell with no credit hit because it will be a "hardship" on military orders. (Yes, you orders home are still orders)

[Silverfall]

I was just going to suggest that you try a short sale because they do cut military folks more slack because you have no choice but to move.

Are you leaving the military? Because if you are, then Oregon has an incredible loan program for vets through the Oregon Department of VA, but you have to be an honorably discharged vet.

[Rob Allen]

I didn't want to be tied to my condo back East either, but it turned out OK. The losses from the rental gave me substantial benefits come tax time every year. In other words, you don't really lose that money - it's all deductible. Once the market recovered to the point where I could sell and get enough to pay off the mortgage, I did.

Sandlinjames is right - pay someone to manage the property. A lot of realtors do property management also. They have an incentive to make sure the property stays in good shape because they want to be able to sell it when the time comes. It worked for me!

[violectrica]

OK so how does selling long distance work?Thanks everyone. I've already heard all the "shouldn't haves" I'm glad am have a little break here.

[Silverfall]

Selling lost distance can be a blessing in disguise because you don't have to constantly leave your home for showings. So that part is great.

The bad part is lawn maintenance. You HAVE to maintain your landscaping while you are selling your home. If you have a friend with a tween that wants to make some easy money, hire them to mow a couple of times a month (depending on how fast the lawn grows).

If you hire a GOOD real estate agent they can manage the rest in terms of repairs needed during the transaction etc.