So ya know how last blog post I wrote about investing $100,000 in to our house so we could build an attached two-bedroom apartment? That’s still an option, but so is something else…
SELL OUR HOUSE
Yeah, I just said that.
We bought in July, moved in in September, and here we are five months later, thinking about putting the house on the market. Is that crazy or what?
You may or may not recall when we put our offer in on the house this summer, we found ourselves in a multiple offer situation. The other buyers offer escalated up to $378,000. Ours only up to a smidge over $350,000.
Fortunately for us, the sellers took our offer.
Since move in, we’ve spent about $8,000 making our place a little more homey (new appliances, light fixtures, carpet, electrical work, tree service, etc).
And now, here we are, thinking about cashing in on all the sweat equity we’ve put in to the place.
Turn off emotions and profit:
I’ve been watching the local inventory like a hawk and I’m not seeing much competition out there. There are a bunch of houses for sale in our area for $500,000 or more, but it’s slim pickings for buyers with less than $450,000.
Limited supply is always good for a seller.
I’ve run the numbers and decided if we could sell our house for $425,000 (about $70,000 more than we paid for it five months ago), Girl Ninja and I will gladly pack our bags and hand over the keys.
I don’t want to bother our realtor just yet with an appraisal so I decided to test the waters myself by taking advantage of Zillow’s “Make me move” feature. We listed our house at our dream price, $425k.
It’s been on the site for a few days now and I’ve already received a few soft inquiries. Nothing too serious where I think people really want to buy the house, but I’m encouraged people are taking the time to shoot over emails and ask questions about our property.
Is our house worth $425,000? Doubtful.
But when inventory is low, and buyers are freaking out because they think interest rates will shoot up very soon, the stars just might align in such a way that we find someone willing to pay us our asking price.
If we did end up selling, we would walk away with $103,000 after commissions and fees. Sounds pretty appetizing to me. We’d then likely rent a two bedroom condo somewhere until the next real estate correction comes; three, five, or ten years down the road.
Buy low, sell high, right?
How much cash would you have to walk away with in order to sell your house right now? Everyone has their price, what’s yours?
