Saturday, January 28, 2012

End of January update!

Colorado Farm
After another sad failed attempt to rent it out (the renters decided that they only needed to pay half the rent in December...so we kicked them out) we have been working to have the place put back on the market. We are trying a different agent who seems so far to be great...and we will be listing it on Monday for $257,500. For that price, it is a steal for the right people - 5 acre horse farm just 40 mins north or Denver, Boulder and the Denver Airport and just 5 mins from a new town center with sports centers, shops libraries and new schools (and land taxes of just $845 a year!). Ok ok...i want to sell it :P www.modeltreefarm.com

Lets hope that with a new agent, a great price and the right time of the year, it will sell this year fr us. We can keep it empty (thanks to Mr Taxman) for a few months....which we hope will make it easy to sell. After a few months we will just have to rent it out again to survive. However i will NOT take it off the market again.

Maine Farm
After two years of renting, we decided we needed to move the kids out of an apartment and into our own place...and so we started looking in summer last year. After a few failed attempts, we finally found a place that is right close to Jen's family (perfect), has 12 beautiful acres (perfect) and a crappy little house (not so perfect). Our logic is that we can fix the house...and the land will always be glorious. So we started the process, went under contract etc. Then we find out that the house needs a new septic system, a new furnace and some plumbing issues fixed. As we did not have the money to do that, we had to change loan types to a FHA loan. Then the whole thing started to become so bloody complicated!

It's way to complex to try and explain - but we are still hoping to buy the place. It means I had to find $16,000 more than we had to pay a larger deposit etc, A second loan and all the associated paperwork with the fear that the sellers will shut the whole sale down. The whole process has cost us $1500 in costs so far - appraisals, inspections, reports etc

If it all comes off we will be happy (but not ecstatic) ...as the whole euphoria of buying the place has been washed away by real estate crap. It it falls through we are screwed...as all our savings have been gobbled up by the process...so we will be unable to put a bid in on something else until we save for maybe 12 months more or longer. The sale of Colorado will help (but not as much as we would like).

So whats the lesson here? Can't say I have one. Other than this - don't think any real estate deal nowadays will be easy. The whole system is upside down....

1 comment:

  1. Nice place there you have for sale. Did you live there at one time? Good luck with buying your new (to you) house in Maine.

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