Thinking about letting my house go *update post 39*

[Livinzoo]

My husband and I both own homes. We live in his on 7 acres. Mine is in a subdivision. I have owned it for 10 years. We were planning on fixing mine up and selling it. But we have been trying for 3 months and haven't gotten far. Our crazy work schedule and the time requirement that this house requires is keeping us from getting much done. We need to paint the entire inside and replace the trashed carpeting. This will cost about $3500 in materials if we do the labor. The payment is about $1000 a month. We use to have Wednesdays and Sundays off together. Now the only day we are both off is Sunday and it looks like he is going to be called in on most Sundays. We are also expecting our first child in December and I plan to be a stay at home mom. When I go out on short term disability we will no longer be able to afford both houses. I'm also not sure when I will have to go out. I work a very physical job. We could try to fix it up and sell it, but then we will probably not have it sold by December or whenever I go out. So I'm thinking our best option is to just let the bank have it back now rather than $7500 and 5 months later.

I'm planning to call Clark Howard to see if he has any other options. I've thought about renting it but the flooring would still need to be replaced beforehand. (I had a roommate whose little dog urinated all over the contractor grade white carpet). And that takes time and money that we don't have.

Just feeling a bit stressed over all this.

 

[redhen]

Can you rent it out??

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Let it go. Just reading about it stressed me out. You need to focus on your marriage and the birth of your child. Don't let a house get in the way, even a smidge, of being able to enjoy what you have in front of you.

 

[redhen]

Yeah..but if she lets it go.. her credit will be crap... and shes having a baby...
Ahhhhh!.. What a decision...

 

[BirdBrain]

Why not try contacting a good realestate agent and see if you can put it on the market as is with a carpet and paint allowance at closing. That way you get out of the house and the work, and the allowance comes off the price at closing. This way your credit is not affected. Even if you sold the house for just over what you owe on it (enough to pay the agent his cut, the carpet allowance) you would be free of that debt and not any worse for the wear. If a house is priced very competitively (i.e. cheap) then there will be buyers. Can I ask?....I assume it is a 30 year note...how much is left on it and how big is it?

 

[satay]

If it were me I would find a way to do the most basic of the repairs that need to be done to sell the house. You have had it for 10 years seems a shame to just give it to the bank. Could you reduce the sale price perhaps and not do the repairs and maybe come out with some money left over depending on what you owe of course.

 

[Livinzoo]

I might be able to rent it, but would only be able to rent it for my mortgage payment. So any repairs prior to and during the renting would have to be paid out of pocket. And that would include the $3000+ to replace the flooring that would have to be done prior to trying to find a tenant. Also any months with no tenants would have to be paid out of pocket. I already have about $18,000 in credit card debt that I need to work on paying off. So although it will hurt my credit, I'm not as concerned about that. I just know the reality is that I won't be able to get it fixed up in the near future to sell or rent it. And spending $7500 trying to do that when I am already low on funds is not smart.

 

[BirdBrain]

If you could sell the house at below market value but above what you owe, you might have some left to pay off the credit card debt and be that much ahead. Any way you could refinance to lower the mortgage and get out enough to have someone else fix it up? Then it would be sellable more quickly I would assume.

When we sold our house last year, we sold it for less than we would have liked but it was okay. We dropped the price to just above what we paid for it 6 years before. We sold in 2 months. I think there are some options.

Do you know anyone at work, church or elsewhere that does carpet on the side? I have a friend who works in a flooring place and does jobs on the side. You might be able to work a deal. Say real cut rate to install with a bonus when the house sells?

 

[Livinzoo]

The carpet is trashed!!! The urine was so bad in some areas that I actually cut some of the urine stains out to help with the smell after I kicked, the roommate out.

I owe $115,000 on it. If I added the amount for the repairs. That brings it up to $118,500. If I have to use a realtor that adds more expense. There is an identical house 2 doors down that has just been listed for $142,000. Here: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5024-Pristine-Pt-Flowery-Branch-GA-30542/83366594_zpid/ As you can see it is only valued at $126,000. So if I used a realtor I couldn't bring the price significantlly under what it is valued at.

And then like I said you have the lack of time to do the repairs. My husband is pretty much only off on Thursdays. And I'm off Wednesdays and Sundays. Truthfully we still haven't gotten everything moved out of it. And it has been 3 months of trying to do that having 2 off days together. We have so much that needs to be done at his house. We are driving ourselves crazy trying to do so many things on our off days. I really need a day or so to just relax. I have been having headaches the past week just from the stress.

 

[redhen]

If you owe more than you can sell it for... i'd just let them take it.