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These are the first thoughts that came to my mind. Unless your "new place" will provide actual employment opportunities at higher salaries, or be significantly lower in expenses (taxes, possibly utilities and maintenance), I don't see how johngolf's advice can work if you remain living in the same geographic area.
Won't you still be in a negative cash flow situation and living off of any "nest egg" you may be able to set aside after you home sale and new purchase? Or is your plan to be able to squeeze/coast by until retirement, SS, pensions(s) kick in?
As far as your current marketing process, IMO it was a big mistake to commence with online staging/marketing before the house was completely "ready". Did the broker push you to move fast before all prep was in place or were you pushing because of the financial situation? Whatever the reason, as others have pointed out it's proven to be a serious hindrance in moving your property in today's online marketplaces and in conducting successful physical showings.
We can get jobs that in line with the cost of living. I have already talked to three places there-all willing to hire me when I get there. Hubby will transfer with Wallyworld. At least we will have benefits through them. But he wants to go back into the Ready Mix Concrete industry, one he was in for 21 years. My salary will be the same.
Here the median income is running at 82K for a ONE bedroom apartment. It's nuts. We are just around 50K. We can live much cheaper in Savannah than here. If we could sell for at least 300K, we'd have enough to rebuild our nest egg after buying the new home for 242K.
The house was ready except cosmetics. I really HATE living here with the antique white, no curtains. We completed everything needed after the home inspection and all the agents we met with said go for it as there was nothing holding it back to sell. Except now with 27 boxes of hardwoods sitting in the living room, it's not easy to take the pictures until it's installed.
This. If you were going to list it before doing the work, I would have at least included the "before" pictures so people can at least see something and then you can put in the listing that new floors are going in or whatever. But no pictures will make people think something is wrong. You may be priced right, but the reality of the situation is many people won't come to see it without at least somewhat decent pictures - especially since you are saying the reason yours is priced higher is due to condition. It also might be a good idea to include a picture of the floorplan since you mentioned you still had it.
I'll take a picture of the blueprints. I do have some before pictures of those other rooms. This whole thing is about to send me over the edge. Nothing like when we sold our first place back in 91!
Dont give your house away. Its only been up for 27 days and from what other posters have said, has very bad pictures (I didnt look for the listing). You might want to consider taking it down until you get decent pictures up. You should be patient on it though as this is going to be huge for you with a paid off house worth a significant amount of money and low paying jobs.
Duchess county is not a good market due to the lack of jobs, but 320k for a 2000+ sq foot home built in 1992 doesnt seem unreasonable, especially since you say its an area with new homes being built and selling for significantly more. With the paid off house you should be able to get by and be able to hold off until the spring if neccesary (when things pick up).
Might want to rent for a year or if possible briefly live with your kids and reconsider buying the 242k place down there right off the bat. See what jobs you land then make the move. I know property taxes are probably lower, but its not all that significant. If you get 320 for the current house, might want to consider maybe moving into a 2 bedroom condo/townhouse or something for under 200 and then buying an investment property or something to get the cash flow up. Not sure you wont run into similar problems and burn through the nest egg in a new location without better jobs
Thanks for the advice. I've thought of all these. Our area is sock full of homes of people who can't afford what they bought. It's hurting us. Not my fault they can't pay for what they bought. I was always taught no more than 1 1/2 of your income to buy a home. That's what we did and we stuck to that when we built our home. It's not a cookie cutter, it was a custom built cape. Sadly, we are going to lose out do to others bad choices. Mine can get any loan they need too.
We will see what happens after the floors go in with the pictures.
Others bad choices? You chose to build a home that was not compatible with other homes in the neighborhood. That is a bad financial decision.
Thanks for the advice. I've thought of all these. Our area is sock full of homes of people who can't afford what they bought. It's hurting us. Not my fault they can't pay for what they bought. I was always taught no more than 1 1/2 of your income to buy a home. That's what we did and we stuck to that when we built our home. It's not a cookie cutter, it was a custom built cape. Sadly, we are going to lose out do to others bad choices. Mine can get any loan they need too.
We will see what happens after the floors go in with the pictures.
Seems like you can't afford to live where you are with a paid off house, so thats a little disingenuous to talk about others situations, dont you think?
Lets look at why your home has not sold, from a professional point of view. I spent from 1972 till I finally retired for good as an investment real estate broker.
Remember that there have only been two homes sold in your neighborhood in 2 years. One a year ago, and one two years ago. You live in a neighborhood of very, very slow sales. This says, your home is not in an area that is attracting many buyers. It could take many months or years, to sell your home at the price you are asking.
Remember, there are lots of homes for sale, and most being sold at auction or are pre-foreclosures, that if they are foreclosed on will be auctioned. Homes are not going up in value, in your neighborhood, and due to the type of properties for sale, the true vale is difficult to ascertain, and buyers will hold back to see if homes will eventually sell and what price they actually sell for in your neighborhood. This fact alone will discourage people buying in your neighborhood. All the foreclosures to be, and the auctions, say the neighborhood is going down as an area to buy a home, not one people buy in because they think the home they buy will appreciate in value. People with have no faith in buying in that neighborhood.
You are located in an area of older homes, and your home is 25 years or so old. It is the newest one, and you have updated it, and the others from what you have said have not been updated. Your home is nearly 50% bigger than the other homes in your neighborhood. The biggest fanciest home in any neighborhood is hard to sell, and will not sell at a premium price.
If people are going to pay the price people want for the biggest and fanciest home, they will buy in a better quality neighborhood every time. The three most important factors when buying a home, are considered to be Location, then Location, and when you get past those two factors, you come to the most important one which is Location.
All of the Realtors that have shown your home, say your home is overpriced. Meaning your home for the neighborhood is out of the price people will pay for a home in that neighborhood. When they have all said this as you have stated, it means it is way over priced, not just $1,000 to $5,000 overpriced.
You want lots of showings, and a fast sale, at a premium price. All of the above factors, are working against you. Spending the money for all the updating, including new hard wood floors is not going to be recovered, due to the factors listed above.
How can you not afford to live in a house if the mortgage is paid off but afford to live elsewhere in the area? Are you just going to live partially off the proceeds from your home? How long have both of you been "underemployed"?
If there are a bunch of foreclosures in the area and it is a short term thing renting the house out for a couple years might be the best option. Of course you would most likely have to paint all over again.
No, we are leaving the state altogether. My husband lost his "real" job in 2008. I shattered my ankle in 2009 and it was 2011 before I landed this job. I have had a 1% raise in the 5 years there with the union. I am under paid by 30K compared to the surrounding districts here. We stayed because my Mother was ill and passed at 88 in 2012. My youngest wanted to finish high school and as soon as she graduated this past June, we started work on the house and getting rid of everything.
We are heading to Savannah, GA. Many more opportunities for work. Cheaper housing, costs, most everything will be running a LOT less. Example-our monthly utilities under Central Hudson run me $380 a month-how with only 2 people out of the house all day long and 3 less people-I don't know. The house we are buying has been paying $140 a month. Big difference.
We had thought about renting it out and heading south. But not sure that's wise either.
Seems like you can't afford to live where you are with a paid off house, so thats a little disingenuous to talk about others situations, dont you think?
Our area changed drastically after 9/11. A HUGE push from the lower counties north. More people demanding more services like they had. Problem is that we lost our manufacturing base here. Living wage jobs. Now if I wanted to spend 3 hours a day round trip commuting, I could. I'd only come home to sleep and repeat.
And I do talk about others since most of the homes here that are in foreclosure are those McMansions that were over built here. Bit off more than they can chew. We didn't as we built our house and paid it off in 10 years. It's not been lack of trying to move into an lateral job in another district for me, but the unions have grieved my placement three times to get into that job as they want inside hires.
We've been pushed out. Pure and simple. I've argued with my union president about getting better pay. His answer? You get what you get because you are full time. I dispatch school buses, yet make much less per hour than the people I supervise and yet I have the same qualifications they do-CDL B. But there are no full time driving jobs in the district I landed in for Civil Service.
Others bad choices? You chose to build a home that was not compatible with other homes in the neighborhood. That is a bad financial decision.
Our house is just like the other capes on the street. Most of the capes here are between 1400-2096-we aren't the largest as that other one is bigger than ours without a garage. One house on the road is 3000sqft with a finished basement but is a ranch. So we are right for our road. And the last house to sell here that is being compared was my late parents house I sold last year as an estate for $195K for a 4 bedroom 2bath exact same lot size .29 and 1985 sq ft-ours is 2032. Pretty similar in size.
We are being compared with colonials and raised ranches that are on the market in either foreclosure or auction. How is that fair? There's very little in the village proper for sale. Just one colonial built in the 1859.
We did our research in 1992 before we built. We were spot on for comparable back then. Now? Our competition is down in what is being termed the "New Little Brooklyn". That's the desirable area. Sigh. This was the area when IBM and Texaco where here. Not commuters to NYC.
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