Can't Sell the House!

[Trojan]

We leave for our new job in less than two months and we cannot sell our house. Yikes! This is just a stab in the dark, but I was wondering if any of you have any advice.

Extremely tough housing market in the US right now--hard to compete with all these foreclosed homes selling for far below market value.

We're already at the point where we'd be bringing money to the table if we sold at what we're currently listing at.

Do we find renters? We have doubt whether a renter would pay our mortgage.

Don't feel like our international school salary could cover the mortgage plus living in our new country.
Worried that the market won't recover by next year--assuming we did get some kind of renter--and then we'd just be back where we started.

Your thoughts?

[fran]

We, too, were faced with the same problem and in the end we found a young couple to live in our house and take care of it in exchange for free rent. Putting an ad on the faculty bulletin board at local schools is a good place to find such people.

They cut the grass and took care of the plants, kept the place clean and paid the utilities. We have done this over the years with 4 different couples. We return to the house in the summer months and we all live in the house together. Our cars are safely parked in the garage and all our furniture and belongings are stored in the two back bedrooms. We calculated that to store the two cars and our belongings and then pay to live some place during the summer would cost about the same as what we could have collected in rent. Just a thought for you to work with.

I would also say that unless your mortgage is astronomically high, the fact that you say you can't live overseas and pay the mortgage signals that the pay scale is too low at your school.

Fran

[JISAlum]

We tried renting a while back when we were overseas the first time. We made the mistake of not having anyone reliable in charge of collecting rent. Tried a family 'friend' and that ended bad.

I'd look for a rental company that can really manage your renters. Pay the premium. Here in Illinois the market is not good, but I'm hoping it continues to improve next year.

So you take a loss for a year, better than having no one in it at all. Next summer the market should be better.

We're also owners and selling the home wasn't an expected hurdle to going overseas again. Now it is. I'm expecting to possibly having to leave our house empty for year. I'll take the time to make some needed repairs and upgrades while we're overseas. However I do have immediate family in the area that can help.

[Overhere]

Having a home to go back to in the summer is not a bad thing, especially with children. Couch surfing works for a summer or two but after a while that gets old and you will find that you will want your stuff for the month or two you are at home. I think this is even more true as your kids get older.

[doublejointeddonkey]

We have a property manager that was referred to use by two other friends. Make sure you don't get a real estate agent working on the side as a property manager or a friend or family member...He rented our place within two weeks but it was in a city of about a million people...

Property managers set up everything direct deposit, leases, advertising...and dealing with clients and screening them...Good property managers know the importance of getting good clients. I tried renting my place myself and the first client tried to hustle me!!! After the second meeting I switched to a property manager...experience is worth quite a bit and so is piece of mind.

Some things to remember
Property managers don't expect to be paid until they find someone.

We wanted renters that were like us - same economic status blah blah blah but those people almost always buy and you can only snag them for a year.

IF some one wants out of a lease and they are willing to leave the premises, let them...its hard to get money from people who want to go...and if they are gone you can find a paying renter.

Don't make leases for longer than one year...something could happen overseas and you need your place back.

Our property manager made us sign a contract but also let us out of it within 30 days if we were not happy with his services...even though most expect longer periods and are legally entitled to probably the length of the lease...that kind of says something about their value ;)

I bought this book and found it helpful in convincing me into the benefits of rental properties

"Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor" (Paperback)
by Suzanne P. Thomas

See if its in your local library or buy a used copy

[senator]

Have a renter pay only a portion of your mortgage. Find someone decent and trustworthy who would appreciate living in a nice house for only a few hundred dollars and you cover the rest of the mortgage.

Will two of you be working overseas? If so, maybe you should be concerned why the school you will work for pays so little that you cannot cover your whole mortgage while you are away.

[Neptune]

Hi there,
We rented our place out and went through a real estate agent in order to find good reliable paying tenants. It was well worth the money. We take a loss of $200 a month but consider it an investment in our property.
Neptune

[Trojan]

Thanks for all the advice. Maybe I should've included that my wife is a non teaching spouse and won't be working. That, plus the fact I'll be working in Mexico for a relatively smallish sum, is why it would be a stretch to pay off the entire mortgage every month on just one salary.

We are thinking about hiring a property manager. Just as you guys have insinuated, I've heard some bad stories about using the family/friend.

I guess one of our big hurdles is that we don't want to move back into this house. We've loved it, but we've outgrown it. Also, we figure we will visit home at some point over the summer, but the renters will be there.

Another conundrum we have: we assume that after paying the property manager, getting the rent, paying for any repairs during the year, that we'll be kicking in probably 200-500 bucks a month to cover the mortgage. We can cover that, but after a year, that's 2400-6000 extra dollars. We're wondering if we should just continue to drop the price of our house, say 6 grand, and lose the money now, as opposed to the uncertainties and potential headaches of renters and trying to sell next year.

[JISAlum]

While the market could pick up in a year, the glut of foreclosures makes that unrealistic IMHO.

If I was you, I'd drop the price and sell. Who needs the pain while you're enjoying Mexico and a new job. Make a break.

My two cents....