DW & I met with realtor a year ago to explore selling the s & b and go FT. Told him we'd contact him, Spring 2012. Well last Thurs, he seemed anxious to list our home, we've had for 9 yrs. Unfortunately after he researched our area(Western, Salt Lake Co, UT) determined there are pages & pages of short sales from 50k-70k!
We owe approx, 95K and guess we should have done our own realty homework. Needless to say we're a bit disappointed, and do we wait or at least list and see what happens? Just kinda deceiving you keep a s/b up with upgrades,etc and findtyour upside down.
Tom & Cathy
Utah
Technomadia said
03:43 AM Apr 12, 2012
Tom & Cathy -
I can totally sympathize with your situation.
When I decided to hit the road back in 2007, the market was just coming down. My co-owner (an ex) and I were ambitious in thinking we could still turn a profit and held out. A year later, the market completely crashed beachside in Florida (on top of the recession, we also had a closing Space Center and insurance companies pulling out due to hurricane claims) - and now we were upside down by tens of thousands of dollars.
What we did was evaluate what it would cost us to keep the house paid up & maintained until the market was projected to rebound. We picked a number of 2 years (way optimistic as it turns out). That cost was what we were willing to pay out of savings to get out of the mortgage and on with our lives. Freedom isn't free, after all.
It was still an ambitious number in the market due to surrounding foreclosures and short sales. But a quality, kept up home is a rare thing in some markets - and there is a segment that is willing to pay a bit more for a sure sale that doesn't have to go through the red tape of short sales, bank approvals, etc. Foreclosures and short sales usually come with other problems of not being kept up on maintenance, and can take months longer to go into closing.
Sure enough, just as soon as we mentally made the decision we were ready to pay $X out of pocket to make up the difference - we got a cash offer on our house and closed 2 weeks later. It was the most freeing, and expensive, day of my life.
I'd say, find what your bottom dollar is. Interview other realtors for their opinions. Don't compare your home to just short sales - if yours is kept up and upgraded, it has increased value over those around you. And there ARE people who are looking for homes that don't come with the complications of a short sale.
Best wishes, - Cherie
MaryBee said
05:58 AM Apr 12, 2012
Sorry to hear this, it can be devistating for sure!
Well, our home that we built 15 years ago is in the same boat pretty much. Our area has short sale homes up the wa-zoo and we infact are about $50,000 under water on our home. Basically we will never get the money we need out of our house for many, many years.
We decided, to go on with our dream and will be full timing within the next few weeks. Luckily, my son has decided to take over our home and make the payments....he loves the place and he has a huge family that can appreciate all the space we have...for us our home was to big for the 2 of us anyways!
Maybe you can find someone to rent out your house to? At the very least put it up for sale and just see what happens, maybe someone will fall in love with it like you did and it will sell. It can be risky but then again life is about risk right?
One thing I know....that if your dream of full timing is ment to be...everything will eventually fall into place and you will soon find yourself on the road and living your dream.
Good Luck.
RVRon said
04:09 PM Apr 12, 2012
We really didn't think it was a good time to sell either. Our house near Jacksonville, FL was surrounded by foreclosures and short sales. We consulted 4 different realtors and relied on the best 2 to give us a price at which the house would sell. It was actually less than we paid for it 8 years ago, but enough that we would make a decent profit.
To our complete amazement the house sold in 2 days! It turned out that NOT being a short sale was a huge advantage in that we could close quickly. The folks who bought it were from out of state and had cash money to spend so there was no waiting for financial approvals.
Bottom line: I would definitely NOT rely on just one realtor's opinion as to what to do. We even had one realtor who told us we could not sell the house for what we owed on it. Another told us to list it for $20K more than the others... a price that would have resulted it languishing on the market for who knows how long.
Do your homework and like us you just may be surprised with the results!
saltfevr said
02:05 AM Apr 13, 2012
We'd like to thank you all for your quick, encouraging comments. Thank you, Cherie,Mary,and Ron! DW & I have another Realtor coming over Sunday afternoon! Your explanations about Short Sales helped us decide that our "little abode" can still stand out in it's well maintained status. Thanks again guys for spreading a little good cheer! Travel safe and have fun one & all.
Cindy T said
12:07 PM Apr 13, 2012
We sold our house last year. It wasn't a good time to sell, many houses in our area had been for sale for 2 years or more & were still sitting there. However, we priced ours reasonably, and made sure it was spotless & totally move in ready. All the buyer had to do was bring their furniture. Ours sold in just a few weeks, for just slightly under our asking price. We ended up with money in our pocket. So even in this bad market, it is possible to sell. Good luck to you!
Cindy T
saltfevr said
12:21 AM Apr 14, 2012
Cindy:
Thanks for the tip regarding keeping our home focused on "move in" status! Again thanks for your "been there" reply.
Rob_Fla said
12:43 PM Apr 14, 2012
We have been there too, we had been in our home over 20 yrs and owed very little on it but still took us 3 years in a tough North Florida market to get a sale.
We took a beating on the sale but again we looked at the big picture and the length of time for the market to recover and decided it is time to take our lumps, don't look back and move on. Our biggest competitor was the forclosure's all around us driving prices down.
We too finally found a cash buyer and got the deal done. There were homes around us of similar size that are currently listed for more than 30K less than we sold for last October.
Realtors are saying in the Tallahassee, Fla area, 2012 home sales will be more than 50% distressed property sales.
saltfevr said
03:45 AM Apr 15, 2012
Rob:
Thanks for the reply. Wow, 3 yrs. to sell. Had to be quite depressing. We're hoping we don't have to bring "cash to the table". to make up difference. Will keep 'ya posted. Thanks again for the remarks.
rclvnv said
08:04 AM Apr 15, 2012
Hi, I'm probably a bit closer to you geographically, as our home was in Las Vegas, the foreclosure capital of the US. We now F/T, but spend several months a year here. I'll echo some of what the others told you.We sold our house in three weeks last June to a cash buyer,who also bought everything else for a price over the sale,down to the dishes and linens. Our house had been updated and very well maintained,and not to brag,but it was immaculate. The buyer (an out of town guy recently divorced) said he got tired of looking at homes poorly maintained,and dirty. We got 97% of the asking price. the key was to price it right,and to be sure it showed well. We were lucky, our realtor is a friend who had her own share of losses in the market, and advised us properly. There were untold numbers of foreclosures and short sales, but ours sold. Stay positive. In all saturated markets, the bottom feeders will come in and buy up the crap at bargain sale prices which tend to drive values down, but an end user with cash or a large enough down-pmt will see value and act on it, provided it is priced fairly.
R.
rvingft said
01:34 AM Apr 16, 2012
(1st) Stay focused on what you WANT (RVingFT) and stay open to options as they present themselves. It's amazing at how issues are resolved when people focus on what they want vs. what they have now and don't allow the current realities to get in their way.
(2nd) Scale down on the "stuff" you don't need. Sell it, donate it, pack & store it for the RV. "Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets with Opportunity" Be prepared, so that when the opportunity presents itself (sale of your home), there is room in your life to receive it.
(3) Don't depend JUST on a realtor. Market your home yourself on DIY sites. Again, be prepared to show & write a contract (or call your lawyer at that point). Market it properly. Take down all the personal decor and stuff - buyers have a hard time looking through all your stuff to visualize their stuff in the rooms. Make it generic looking, but neat, clean & tidy. A place a looker might say, WOW! All I need is my clothes and toothbrush - it's move-in ready!
(4) As Cherie of Technomadia suggested, decide what your bottom line is.
There are many stories of RVers who focused on their dream (RVing), did their homework searching for an RV and in the process sold their home FASTER than they expected to.
Best wishes for you to reach the goal(s) you set .... SOON!
saltfevr said
03:01 AM Apr 16, 2012
Richard:
That's quite a Las Vegas Selling story! And we can totally believe it. Yes, the investors might have their fun with the short sales. but you and all the others have given us some hope. New realtor came over this afternoon, and we signed listing papers. Waiting for sign,MLS, and pics to be posted. Figured we'd go 6 mos listing and see what happens. Trying not to worry about a buyers appraiser, but mebbe cash or large down? Thanks again for your encouragement.
saltfevr said
03:05 AM Apr 16, 2012
Terry:
Great ideas about keeping "eye on the prize" , and pursuing DIY realty sites! Plus trying to make our 1943 bedroom closets appear bigger. Mebbe more stuff can go in our 2, car detached garage. Thanks for the ideas!
RVRon said
04:06 AM Apr 16, 2012
One thing I forgot to add is to make sure your realtor is listing the house on more than just the MLS system. We specifically chose a realtor that was Internet savvy and could push our house hard there. She told us that within 48 hours of listing the house we should be able to Google our address and see where it popped up. She was right - after only 24 hours it was on at least 3 or 4 "For Sale" sites. She had statistics that nowadays the very first place folks look for a house is on the Internet - and they do a Google or Yahoo search.
Cindy T said
12:27 PM Apr 16, 2012
Another good idea is to have a realtor "stage" your house. It is mazing how just moving furniture around a little bit can make your home feel more open. If your realtor didn't already suggest this, ask her about it right away.
Someone else mentioned getting rid of stuff - that is so important! If you think about model homes, you don't see any clutter in them. Your home should be similarly streamlined. You have to get rid of lots of stuff anyway when you move into an RV, so you might as well do it now. Once you get rid of clutter, excess furniture, personal items etc you may feel that your home seems too empty or stark but a buyer will see it as uncluttered and spacious.
Good luck!
Cindy T
saltfevr said
04:19 AM Apr 21, 2012
Hi Everyone:
Thought we'd give a quick update, and again thank you all for your encouragement & ideas! After listing on Mon, we had an offer on Thurs. nite! A little less than asking price, but we're not complaining. Now to wait for the "dreaded" appraiser visit, due in 3 weeks. Still can't forget about the many,many shortsales nearby. Had about 10 showings I believe. Some were rather unusual, but we'll save those for another time. Thanks again, and here's hoping................
Trabuco said
04:35 AM Apr 21, 2012
Well that was really quick! I won't say congrats just yet, don't want to jinx the deal!!
RVRon said
04:48 AM Apr 21, 2012
Sounds like you listed the house at a fair price if you got that many showings. We'll keep our fingers crossed that you make it through all of the hoops successfully.
rvingft said
08:36 PM Apr 22, 2012
Life Tip: focus energy (and your words, which are the evidence of your THOUGHTS) on what you DO WANT, not what you DON'T want.
Drop the terms "dreaded", "trying NOT to worry", "hoping we DON'T have to" .... and say them next time in a POSITIVE light. EX: "looking forward TO" vs. "dreaded", "we are focusing ON" vs. "trying NOT to", "will be great WHEN" vs. "hoping we don't have to".
I know it's "just" semantics, BUT words have power and meaning. Just think of your elementary school days. If a teacher marked your test with -10 it didn't feel as good as +90. Same score, same grade, but different feeling you got. And more importantly, different effort you gave that teacher and the next test.
Its the same thing in life, and even more so with RVing. Why?
Because consolidating STUFF has it's own negative feelings, moving into a completely different lifestyle has it's own worrisome feelings, and if you give into the those feelings of fear (F=false E=evidence A=APPEARING R=real) and uncertainties of the lifestyle, you are defeating yourself before you get started.
Use every opportunity you have to CREATE a positive experience and you WILL have a positive experience. Farmers don't spend weeks & months preparing a corn field, planting the seeds, watering & weeding expecting to harvest strawberries. They sowed corn, so they will harvest corn.
Henry Ford said, " If you believe you can't or you believe you CAN, either way, you are right!"
saltfevr said
04:32 AM May 22, 2012
Well everyone, had our closing Fri. May 18, and as of Mon. May 21, funding and recording is complete and we're out of the s&b and debt free! For the interim, we found a nice 55+ apt complex nearer our jobs, giving us a chance to catch our breathe and make further plans. DW & I would like wholeheartedly thank all of you for the selling tips and encouragement. Closing the detached garage door for the last time and glancing at my 16' workbench was a bit disconcerting, but time for another gearhead to make it their own. Thanks again folks!
RVRon said
04:46 AM May 22, 2012
Congrats Tom & Cathy! Glad it all worked out well with selling the house!
Gary said
11:46 AM May 22, 2012
Nice! Congrats!
Rob_Fla said
12:56 PM May 22, 2012
Congradulations on the sale
Technomadia said
03:55 PM May 22, 2012
Woo-hoo!! I love a happy story, thanks for the update... and cheers to the adventures ahead of you!
- Cherie
Full Time Adventures said
06:05 PM May 25, 2012
Congratulations on the sale!! I began reading your post and found myself getting excited/anxious and hoping to see a follow up that said SOLD! Have fun planning for your full time adventures!!
Becca~
rclvnv said
09:59 PM May 26, 2012
I am so glad for you. Like us, you are now free of worry about a house. Been a year now, I don't miss the house anymore. I'm glad you didn't listen to the first "Realtor" you spoke with.
R.
heyduke said
02:02 PM May 27, 2012
congrats on the sale of the s&b... the biggest hurdler to fulltiming in my opinion...
Hdrider said
02:31 PM May 27, 2012
Wow!!! Congrats on the sale!!!
saltfevr said
05:32 AM May 28, 2012
Thanks all of you for the Congrats and Well Wishes! We know many are still waiting to sell the S&B and by no means are we experts. Just stay positive and focused. Have a safe Memorial Day wherever your travels find you. Thanks again RV Dreams members!
WestWardHo said
04:12 PM May 29, 2012
This has been said before, but condition & presentation is everything. My next door S & B just sold her home in 6 days. 3 different realtors told her that her home would only sell for about $116.00 a sq ft. She insisted on listing higher as house, views, and patio were all in immaculate condition. House sold for $138.00 sq ft. Son in Chicago sold his half mil. condo, also in May for $8,000 over asking with 3 offers in 7 days. Again, even with children, it was in perfect condition and well staged. Buyers are out there for well priced, great condition homes even with all the foreclosures. Prices are finally starting to rise.
DW & I met with realtor a year ago to explore selling the s & b and go FT. Told him we'd contact him, Spring 2012. Well last Thurs, he seemed anxious to list our home, we've had for 9 yrs. Unfortunately after he researched our area(Western, Salt Lake Co, UT) determined there are pages & pages of short sales from 50k-70k!
We owe approx, 95K and guess we should have done our own realty homework. Needless to say we're a bit disappointed, and do we wait or at least list and see what happens? Just kinda deceiving you keep a s/b up with upgrades,etc and findtyour upside down.
Tom & Cathy
Utah
I can totally sympathize with your situation.
When I decided to hit the road back in 2007, the market was just coming down. My co-owner (an ex) and I were ambitious in thinking we could still turn a profit and held out. A year later, the market completely crashed beachside in Florida (on top of the recession, we also had a closing Space Center and insurance companies pulling out due to hurricane claims) - and now we were upside down by tens of thousands of dollars.
What we did was evaluate what it would cost us to keep the house paid up & maintained until the market was projected to rebound. We picked a number of 2 years (way optimistic as it turns out). That cost was what we were willing to pay out of savings to get out of the mortgage and on with our lives. Freedom isn't free, after all.
It was still an ambitious number in the market due to surrounding foreclosures and short sales. But a quality, kept up home is a rare thing in some markets - and there is a segment that is willing to pay a bit more for a sure sale that doesn't have to go through the red tape of short sales, bank approvals, etc. Foreclosures and short sales usually come with other problems of not being kept up on maintenance, and can take months longer to go into closing.
Sure enough, just as soon as we mentally made the decision we were ready to pay $X out of pocket to make up the difference - we got a cash offer on our house and closed 2 weeks later. It was the most freeing, and expensive, day of my life.
I'd say, find what your bottom dollar is. Interview other realtors for their opinions. Don't compare your home to just short sales - if yours is kept up and upgraded, it has increased value over those around you. And there ARE people who are looking for homes that don't come with the complications of a short sale.
Best wishes,
- Cherie
Well, our home that we built 15 years ago is in the same boat pretty much. Our area has short sale homes up the wa-zoo and
we infact are about $50,000 under water on our home. Basically we will never get the money we need out of our house
for many, many years.
We decided, to go on with our dream and will be full timing within the next few weeks. Luckily, my son has decided to
take over our home and make the payments....he loves the place and he has a huge family that can appreciate
all the space we have...for us our home was to big for the 2 of us anyways!
Maybe you can find someone to rent out your house to? At the very least put it up for sale and just see what happens, maybe
someone will fall in love with it like you did and it will sell. It can be risky but then again life is about risk right?
One thing I know....that if your dream of full timing is ment to be...everything will eventually fall into place and you
will soon find yourself on the road and living your dream.
Good Luck.
We really didn't think it was a good time to sell either. Our house near Jacksonville, FL was surrounded by foreclosures and short sales. We consulted 4 different realtors and relied on the best 2 to give us a price at which the house would sell. It was actually less than we paid for it 8 years ago, but enough that we would make a decent profit.
To our complete amazement the house sold in 2 days! It turned out that NOT being a short sale was a huge advantage in that we could close quickly. The folks who bought it were from out of state and had cash money to spend so there was no waiting for financial approvals.
Bottom line: I would definitely NOT rely on just one realtor's opinion as to what to do. We even had one realtor who told us we could not sell the house for what we owed on it. Another told us to list it for $20K more than the others... a price that would have resulted it languishing on the market for who knows how long.
Do your homework and like us you just may be surprised with the results!
Your explanations about Short Sales helped us decide that our "little abode" can still stand out in it's well maintained status. Thanks again guys for spreading a little good cheer! Travel safe and have fun one & all.
We sold our house last year. It wasn't a good time to sell, many houses in our area had been for sale for 2 years or more & were still sitting there. However, we priced ours reasonably, and made sure it was spotless & totally move in ready. All the buyer had to do was bring their furniture. Ours sold in just a few weeks, for just slightly under our asking price. We ended up with money in our pocket. So even in this bad market, it is possible to sell. Good luck to you!
Cindy T
Thanks for the tip regarding keeping our home focused on "move in" status! Again thanks for your "been there" reply.
We have been there too, we had been in our home over 20 yrs and owed very little on it but still took us 3 years in a tough North Florida market to get a sale.
We took a beating on the sale but again we looked at the big picture and the length of time for the market to recover and decided it is time to take our lumps, don't look back and move on.
Our biggest competitor was the forclosure's all around us driving prices down.
We too finally found a cash buyer and got the deal done.
There were homes around us of similar size that are currently listed for more than 30K less than we sold for last October.
Realtors are saying in the Tallahassee, Fla area, 2012 home sales will be more than 50% distressed property sales.
Thanks for the reply. Wow, 3 yrs. to sell. Had to be quite depressing. We're hoping we don't have to bring "cash to the table". to make up difference. Will keep 'ya posted. Thanks again for the remarks.
Hi, I'm probably a bit closer to you geographically, as our home was in Las Vegas, the foreclosure capital of the US. We now F/T, but spend several months a year here. I'll echo some of what the others told you.We sold our house in three weeks last June to a cash buyer,who also bought everything else for a price over the sale,down to the dishes and linens. Our house had been updated and very well maintained,and not to brag,but it was immaculate. The buyer (an out of town guy recently divorced) said he got tired of looking at homes poorly maintained,and dirty. We got 97% of the asking price. the key was to price it right,and to be sure it showed well. We were lucky, our realtor is a friend who had her own share of losses in the market, and advised us properly. There were untold numbers of foreclosures and short sales, but ours sold. Stay positive. In all saturated markets, the bottom feeders will come in and buy up the crap at bargain sale prices which tend to drive values down, but an end user with cash or a large enough down-pmt will see value and act on it, provided it is priced fairly.
R.
It's amazing at how issues are resolved when people focus on what they want vs. what they have now and don't allow the current realities to get in their way.
(2nd) Scale down on the "stuff" you don't need. Sell it, donate it, pack & store it for the RV. "Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets with Opportunity" Be prepared, so that when the opportunity presents itself (sale of your home), there is room in your life to receive it.
(3) Don't depend JUST on a realtor. Market your home yourself on DIY sites. Again, be prepared to show & write a contract (or call your lawyer at that point). Market it properly. Take down all the personal decor and stuff - buyers have a hard time looking through all your stuff to visualize their stuff in the rooms. Make it generic looking, but neat, clean & tidy. A place a looker might say, WOW! All I need is my clothes and toothbrush - it's move-in ready!
(4) As Cherie of Technomadia suggested, decide what your bottom line is.
There are many stories of RVers who focused on their dream (RVing), did their homework searching for an RV and in the process sold their home FASTER than they expected to.
Best wishes for you to reach the goal(s) you set .... SOON!
That's quite a Las Vegas Selling story! And we can totally believe it. Yes, the investors might have their fun with the short sales. but you and all the others have given us some hope. New realtor came over this afternoon, and we signed listing papers. Waiting for sign,MLS, and pics to be posted. Figured we'd go 6 mos listing and see what happens. Trying not to worry about a buyers appraiser, but mebbe cash or large down? Thanks again for your encouragement.
Great ideas about keeping "eye on the prize" , and pursuing DIY realty sites! Plus trying to make our 1943 bedroom closets appear bigger. Mebbe more stuff can go in our 2, car detached garage. Thanks for the ideas!
One thing I forgot to add is to make sure your realtor is listing the house on more than just the MLS system. We specifically chose a realtor that was Internet savvy and could push our house hard there. She told us that within 48 hours of listing the house we should be able to Google our address and see where it popped up. She was right - after only 24 hours it was on at least 3 or 4 "For Sale" sites. She had statistics that nowadays the very first place folks look for a house is on the Internet - and they do a Google or Yahoo search.
Another good idea is to have a realtor "stage" your house. It is mazing how just moving furniture around a little bit can make your home feel more open. If your realtor didn't already suggest this, ask her about it right away.
Someone else mentioned getting rid of stuff - that is so important! If you think about model homes, you don't see any clutter in them. Your home should be similarly streamlined. You have to get rid of lots of stuff anyway when you move into an RV, so you might as well do it now. Once you get rid of clutter, excess furniture, personal items etc you may feel that your home seems too empty or stark but a buyer will see it as uncluttered and spacious.
Good luck!
Cindy T
Thought we'd give a quick update, and again thank you all for your encouragement & ideas!
After listing on Mon, we had an offer on Thurs. nite! A little less than asking price, but we're not complaining. Now to wait for the "dreaded" appraiser visit, due in 3 weeks. Still can't forget about the many,many shortsales nearby.
Had about 10 showings I believe. Some were rather unusual, but we'll save those for another time. Thanks again, and here's hoping................
Sounds like you listed the house at a fair price if you got that many showings. We'll keep our fingers crossed that you make it through all of the hoops successfully.
Drop the terms "dreaded", "trying NOT to worry", "hoping we DON'T have to" .... and say them next time in a POSITIVE light. EX: "looking forward TO" vs. "dreaded", "we are focusing ON" vs. "trying NOT to", "will be great WHEN" vs. "hoping we don't have to".
I know it's "just" semantics, BUT words have power and meaning. Just think of your elementary school days. If a teacher marked your test with -10 it didn't feel as good as +90. Same score, same grade, but different feeling you got. And more importantly, different effort you gave that teacher and the next test.
Its the same thing in life, and even more so with RVing. Why?
Because consolidating STUFF has it's own negative feelings, moving into a completely different lifestyle has it's own worrisome feelings, and if you give into the those feelings of fear (F=false E=evidence A=APPEARING R=real) and uncertainties of the lifestyle, you are defeating yourself before you get started.
Use every opportunity you have to CREATE a positive experience and you WILL have a positive experience. Farmers don't spend weeks & months preparing a corn field, planting the seeds, watering & weeding expecting to harvest strawberries. They sowed corn, so they will harvest corn.
Henry Ford said, " If you believe you can't or you believe you CAN, either way, you are right!"
Closing the detached garage door for the last time and glancing at my 16' workbench was a bit disconcerting, but time for another gearhead to make it their own.
Thanks again folks!
Congrats Tom & Cathy! Glad it all worked out well with selling the house!
- Cherie
Congratulations on the sale!! I began reading your post and found myself getting excited/anxious and hoping to see a follow up that said SOLD! Have fun planning for your full time adventures!!
Becca~
I am so glad for you. Like us, you are now free of worry about a house. Been a year now, I don't miss the house anymore. I'm glad you didn't listen to the first "Realtor" you spoke with.
R.
Wow!!! Congrats on the sale!!!
Just stay positive and focused. Have a safe Memorial Day wherever your travels find you. Thanks again RV Dreams members!