I’ve blogged before that we’re moving to San Antonio soon and what a wild ride this summer is going to be. Well, hopefully we’ll have some fun with The Husband off at Air Force training in Alabama for the month of July while we are in California, but, for personal reasons, I am anticipating the trip to be more stressful than anything. That’s okay, I can deal with that. I love my family and am glad to help out whenever I can.
What I can’t deal with, or what I’d really, really, really rather not deal with is what happened last night that made today (to use the title of a wonderful children’s book) The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
We’ve had our house on the market since early February. When we put it on the market we found out that, even in our area and for income properties like ours, house prices had fallen dramatically from where they were when we purchased our home a few months before the housing market crashed. We rent out our basement and that pays for half our mortgage payment and so we figured that, with the interest rates so low now, we were safe. A person could pay what we paid for our house, and, with a good interest rate, only end up paying $400 a month for their portion of the mortgage. It would be a steal!
Imagine our utter disappointment when we were told our house had decreased in value over $40,000. That’s a big chunk considering our purchase price was well under $200,000. We had no choice but to short sale.
We’ve endured been grateful for the multitude of house showings, many at only moments notice. We were very disappointed when, in May, a prospective buyer backed out just a couple days before the bank approved the purchase price. Thankfully, very shortly after that one fell through, we received another offer on the house! All went smoothly, we received approval from the bank, the buyers were excited to close, and we were scheduled to close this week! The timing was perfect! The movers were coming to pack up and move our belongings on Friday. We would be out of the house just in time. We wouldn’t have to worry about paying for our mortgage for this house AND the rent on our new place.
Then, yesterday evening we received an email from our Realtor. The buyers had cancelled their offer! It was a blow. I didn’t know what to say, but I was furious. Just days before we were going to close! And to top it all off our Realtor apparently doesn’t realize what an asset a phone conversation can be. I just want to talk to them, ask what the heck is up, and have they tried so and so. Blah!
So, here is the kicker. I looked at a mortgage calculator last night. At the current listed price a person could MAKE MONEY living in our house! The rent brought in from the basement apartment covers what the mortgage would be +$30. SERIOUSLY! What is going on?! Why has our house been on the market for so long? <–that’s a rhetorical question. Do these people know what a steal they are getting!? And, IMO, our house is charming and has lots of character.
I know some of you are thinking, “Why don’t you just hang on to the property and rent it out?” Unfortunately, we’ve looked into hanging on to the house, and any way you look at it we still lose money. Our house is only approved to be owner occupied, so we can only rent out one of the 2 units.
Ah, well. That’s life I guess. We’ll get through it. I just needed to vent a little.
Thanks for listening.
About Amy @ Oh So Savvy Mom
