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Calling all homeowners - have some questions

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Front-Ranger:
This may seem like an insurmountable problem, della, but things may be better than you think!

Because of generous tax breaks and incentives for first-time homebuyers, modest houses such as yours are enjoying more popularity than before. Also, you may be able to get help from HUD, the department of housing, or Habitat for Humanity, or other agencies. I just sold a house last fall that was in terrible disrepair. In fact, I regarded it as uninhabitable. I consulted a good realtor who told me not to do anything to the house but to sell it as-is. I put it on the market at a low price and had lots of people interested in viewing it. In just a day or two, there was a handful of interested buyers who bid up the price amongst themselves. Within the month, the house was sold. Although I ended up losing about $20,000 over the investment's lifetime, I would have lost that in the stock market crash anyway. And I didn't have to spend countless hours arranging for all sorts of repairs to be done. It felt so good to be walking away from that money pit for the last time! And buyers, who are generally young families, single people, gays who are legendary in their home improvement skills, and people buying houses for investment and renting purposes, are happy to take on your headaches and get them off your shoulders!

BTW, the couple who bought this house had an FHA loan. There's a myth out there that you can't buy a house "as-is" with an FHA loan, but I found out that's not true!

Jeff Wrangler:
Oi.  :(

Sell it as a fixer-upper/"handyman special" for what you can get, and get out of there and back into an apartment.  :(

Seems to me the only real remedy for this place is either a bulldozer or a match.  :(

ifyoucantfixit:


       My best suggestion would be to see if there is such a thing as a neighborhood
improvement mortgage program.  Have a realtor check into it for you.  If the house
is truly eaten up by termites or carpenter ants, the best route may be to raze the plac e and use that money if they will give it to you.  To tear it all down and build new on
the already paid for property.  The cost of a house with land that is already owned is
not at much by half or less than a house on land you have to pay for.  I know that
there are such loans available to certain areas and to certain people.  We sold our
last house that way.  The guy lost his job while we were trying to clear the deal.  Then all we had to do was wait for him to get another job.  He did not have to be on the
job for two years at all.  But in our case, there was nothing wrong with the house at all. 

Mandy21:

--- Quote from: Jeff  Wrangler on June 06, 2010, 05:10:22 pm ---Seems to me the only real remedy for this place is either a bulldozer or a match.  :(

--- End quote ---

 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Shakesthecoffecan:
Here is my suggestion: Sell the place! It sounds like more trouble than it is worth. Then, use the money to buy a condo. If your lucky you'll make enough off the sale to buy one outright, and then all you would have is your taxes, insurance and monthly maintenance fee and you'll have a much better living situation.

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