Anyone knowledgeable about real estate here?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is going to be a bit convoluted, but please hear me out.

I inherited my childhood home about 5-6 years ago. The mortgage has long been paid off, so all I’m responsible for, in theory, are the taxes, utilities, and upkeep.

Affording all three, OTOH, is the issue.

Considering what I pay in property tax once every three months is equivalent to a month’s rent in my area (I live in the metro area of a major city known for its high taxes and COL), it’d be silly of me to think of selling the house and moving to an apartment. OTOH if I did sell the house, I could possibly pay for a smaller house or a condo/townhouse outright and just worry about the taxes, etc., which I think would be overall less than what I’d be paying now – less square footage, less cost for everything. Is that correct?

My husband and I are in a stalemate over this. He’d like to move, but after enduring two cross-country moves with a U-haul and his (now our) dogs, he’s very reluctant to go through the entire process again. He’s also very sentimental over things he thinks I should be sentimental over, i.e., “You may want us to move to a less expensive place but you’ll be sorry you sold this very house where you grew up!” Um, no. I’ve never cared for this house, nor this town.

The other thing is that I’d be footing the bill for all this on my own. Because of some issues, my husband and I have separate finances. His name is not on the house – it’s totally mine. He’s been underemployed for a couple of years now. That’s the other issue: In this economy, I’m not sure if it would be wise to even think about any of this. At the moment my job is safe, but can I say that, say six months from now? At my rate of pay, I have no business being a homeowner. He doesn’t seem to understand that. Most of my life’s savings has gone to pay the property tax these past few years. What happens when I burn through the rest of it? What then? If I saved everything from my paycheck we couldn’t afford to eat, never mind afford anything else. I’m just talking about monthly bills, mind you.

The other thing my husband says is that I’d never get what this house is worth because there have been no renovations since the 1980s. IIRC the last things my mother did was to put in a new roof, a new oil burner, and new windows. Nothing else. The list of renovations we need are a mile long – new insulation, a new heating system, new plumbing, lots of cosmetic work, etc. We’re not handy people. We don’t have handyman-type friends. I can barely afford to pay my oil bill, never mind bring in a plumber or such. I know I’d be selling at a loss selling the house “as is”, but I don’t see any other way around it.

What would you do if you were in my situation? All of this stuff preys heavily on my mind more often than not, and frankly, it scares me to death.

2

I doesn’t cost anything to talk to a realtor and get an idea of what your place could sell for and what it would cost to live where you think you might want to live. That’s what I’d do first - consult a pro. Once you have that information, you should have a better idea of how to proceed.

Good luck.

3

If it were me, unless it was my dream home, I would sell it and put the cash in savings towards purchasing a home when you are ready to do so.

4

I am a commercial not a residential real estate agent. The market sucks in most (not all) areas so it’s probably not the optimal time to sell your house, having said this even if the market improves and your value rises the cost of any alternative housing will rise as well.

The problem is that there is tons of competition on the market and a house that needs lots of TLC with 30 year old fixtures is going to take a pretty healthy beating price wise. You may not be able to afford the nicer smaller place you envision.

Your property taxes sound insanely ferocious for a house in the condition you describe. I’d check my tax assessments to make sure the property had been evaluated properly, and if necessary adjusted downward to reflect current market realities.

5

FairyChatMom, that’s what I’ve been wanting to do – it wouldn’t kill us to speak with a realtor. We have several in my area.

**perfectparanoia[/a], this is exactly what my SIL/BIL are doing. It took them over a year to sell their house, which was probably in the same condition mine is currently in. Their salaries together cover the rent where they’re living now. They’re not thinking twice about being homeowners. I can’t blame them. Then again they don’t have dogs, which is what our issue would be renting (it took my husband over a month to find a place that would accept them when he moved up this way – and he paid dearly for it.)

astro, my neighbors and I both noticed that the town inflated our revaluations this year in the hopes they could get for $ even in a dead market. I missed the deadline for appealing. My neighbor on the corner didn’t though, and was shot down. He’s on a fixed income like my mother was and his house is probably in the same general condition. I swear, the town fathers just want all the elderly in this town to die off. But that’s another rant for another day.

My market picked up a bit over last summer into fall. Out of the eight or nine houses on the market in my neighborhood, all but one sold. A couple of them took a bit of time. I suspect those were the ones similar to mine.

6

Sounds like a situation where a reverse mortgage may be worth looking into.

7

I wouldn’t put any stock into this “down market” issue. Sure the market is down. But it’s down for buyers AND sellers. The beating you take in selling your house is the same beating the sellers will take on the new house you buy. It pretty much cancels out.

You can also write an offer on a house that is contingent on selling *your *house. Some people won’t want to accept an offer like that, but some (the desperate ones) will. You can also see the latest taxes on the listings houses for sale, so you’ll know how much money you will be saving.

Good luck!

8

I would put the house on the market. That doesn’t cost anything, and some people (like my husband and I) prefer to buy houses that are fixer-uppers. Yes, it won’t sell for as much as a perfect house, but if you try to get it into perfect condition, you probably won’t recoup those costs if you’re not the DIY type. I see no reason to hang onto a house you can barely afford and don’t really like.

You probably already know this, but property taxes vary wildly from town to town. A few streets over in the next town, people are paying double the property tax we are. So even moving just a bit can make a big difference. Newer homes are cheaper to run, too, with more efficient heating and whatnot.

Are you willing to say what part of the country you’re in? It might help with more specific advice.

9

Maybe, but those carry high fees, and aren’t even available unless you’re in your 60s.

The downside of moving to, say, a condo, is the fees. Those happen every month, and I’ve personally never heard of them decreasing. In fact most newer condo developments have tended to have their fees set unrealistically low initially (or so I’d heard), so bear that in mind.

On the other hand, if you were to sell and move to a different municipality where the tax rate was lower, you might save enough on the tax bill to make it worthwhile. I don’t know where you live or what the options might be for doing that.

10

If you inherited the house what is “selling at a loss”? It doesn’t make sense to throw your money away on something you can’t afford just because the house probably isn’t worth what it was at one time. You didn’t buy it so that doesn’t matter. The market isn’t hugely down everywhere anyway, some places it’s just a little down. Also, if nothing has been done since the 1980’s you are looking at some huge bills in the very near future just to have the house be livable. If you can’t afford the property taxes a new furnace and roof will kill you.

You need to talk to a Realtor about what you could possibly get if you sell your house and what it will cost to buy your next house. I’m a Realtor but I can’t help you because I’m not in your area. I know what I would tell you to do if you lived here but things aren’t like here everywhere.

In my area I would tell you to sell your house for whatever you can get and buy a smaller, older, fully updated house. Around here selling a family size 1980’s home in below average condition will get you money to buy a smaller, nicely updated 1940’s or 1950’s home with new everything. There won’t be a lot of money left over, maybe 10K at the most, but you won’t be staring at huge repairs in the near future and you could see an improvement in property taxes. But that might not be what you can do in your area.

11

. . . which is why I said that it was maybe something worth looking into. I didn’t say “do a reverse mortgage today!!!”.

12

Yeah, that’s what I was figuring. And that’s fine. If I could afford to fix up the house, I know I probably would never recoup the $, so why bother if we aren’t planning to stay here?

OTOH my husband thinks we should wait and do some minor repairs so I won’t get “taken to the cleaners”. And I’m like, “And who’s going to pay for them, hmm?”

I study our local RE market. I know we could make out very, very well if we moved to an area closer to my work. The commute to the city would be a pain, but it’s doable.

13

I’m in the Metro Boston area. Taxes here don’t vary much no matter the town. For example, the next town over from me, you’d think, would have lower taxes because they’ve got plenty of businesses, stores, etc. Their taxes were raised last year to equal almost ours :eek: My town is mostly suburban – a “bedroom community”, if you will. People moved to that town from Boston proper because of the taxes. If you go through the more middle-class areas of that town, there are as many For Sale signs as there are in my neighborhood.

Anyone who’s a DIY type would have a field day here. Our housing stock, by and large, is old. People tend to pass down houses from generation to generation, and when one is put on the market, it’s by and large because of the same reasons I have. There are a few cookie-cutter enclaves here and there with the brand spankin’ new construction, but you’ll pay a pretty price.

14

:nodding: There’s a glut of condos in our market right now, and I suspect it’s because of the fees. My BIL/SIL looked into a few of them and settled on an apartment because the fees, in total, would have been almost equal to their property taxes :shudder:

15

Exactly. I’m in absolute fear something’s going to happen to my house and I won’t have any way to pay for it. I realize a lot of it is my own paranoia – I’ve been told that, by all accounts, my house has “great bones”, so that’s something.

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell my husband. I wish there was a way I could make him truly realize it.