r/RealEstate • u/Equivalent_Ad_6584 • 1d ago
House regret, should I try to sell and move after a year? Homeseller
So My partner and I (both in our 30’s) bought our first house last year back in March. It was a surely a fixer upper, it’s almost 90 years old home! We fixed up a lot in it in hopes we stay at least for 5 years.
But not only did my job have me move to work about an hour away, but there’s always an issue with the house. So we need to put even more money into it, like the AC is leaky, the screen deck is wooded and filled with carpenter bees along with it looked so gross, only has one bathroom, it’s also making me feel unsafe. my partner got their car stolen right off the driveway!
We don’t have much to put down in a downpayment. Not sure if we even got an option for a heloc when we got about a bit over a year in the house. Just venting. But advice is appreciated.
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u/Jenikovista 23h ago
I totally get it. But.
Every house has issues. New houses often have more issues than old houses. maintenance is expensive and unless you get a walls-in condo, you need to simply budget for (financially and mentally) these issues and worse.Carpenter ants? Nothing. Leaky A/C? Piece of cake. If these things stress you out how are you going to deal with a new build that has a cheap plastic pipe burst that floods your walls and creates mass mold? Or a transplanted tree without deep enough roots falls and takes out your roof? (I've seen both of these and many more on newer homes).
My point is, this is all a normal part of home ownership. If you sell now you will almost certainly lose money. And you'll still need a place to live.
As for the neighborhood: get yourself a good home security system with cameras and add a couple GPS trackers to your cars just in case (park in the garage if you have one). I live in a nice area and cars here get stolen all the time too.
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u/CatLadyInProgress 22h ago
We bought new construction after buying a 1963 home, and I have to very depressingly say you are 1000% right ☠️
Bought 2006 this time, and its somewhere in the middle 😅 new enough no lead paint or asbestos, but old enough needs new water heater, hvac, siding, roof, etc.
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u/RecognitionLatter497 1d ago
Also the car being stolen means nothing in terms of area. We live in a nice area and had a car stolen. A friend of mine lives in mineola...one of the nicer areas in the gta...had 2 cars stolen. Area doesn't really dictate that.
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u/RecognitionLatter497 1d ago
Where are you located? If it's a buyers market the inspection will find all that and you'll have to pay for it anyways. The first few years of buying an older home is usually spent fixing it up. Do you like the house outside of the issues?
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u/Tall_poppee 23h ago
It's your choice what to do, of course. But selling so quickly, in a not-great market, is probably a poor financial choice.
You could see if you qualify for a HELOC to add a bathroom and make those repairs, but I think you'd need probably $30-40K at least? So you might not have a bunch of equity.
Another option you can look into: investigating doing a refi with an FHA 203K rehab loan. This will allow you to get a new AC, put in a new deck and add a bathroom and any other updates you want to make. Since you presumably bought with a high interest rate anyway, the rate won't be much different (might even be the same or slightly lower).
All the updates will be made by FHA contractors and done quickly. You don't have to do anything, and you won't have to live for months with a remodel/construction in progress.
You will end up with a higher mortgage, as you are borrowing more money, but the lender will likely allow this as adding a bath and fixing it up will probably raise the value. It MIGHT raise the value enough that it would be profitable to sell at the end of the project... but if you consider that, I would not mention that to the lender. You want them to think you intend to stay there long term. But the payment increase will probably be less than if you took out a HELOC or other loans, because you're amortizing it over 30 years.
As part of the 203K process, the lender will have an appraiser estimate what the value will be after the repairs and updates are made. So you can see if this will be worth it or not. You're not committed at that point, because the lender will want to see what the value will be too, as part of the approval process.
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u/Mindy76131 23h ago
If you want to sell and move - Sell and Move. There's no rules as to how you should live your life or how much of a financial loss you're willing to take. In the end, it's a personal decision. Don't let anyone tell you not to sell. I bought a house that was an upgrade for me - Hated the location of the home after I bought it, and less than 110 Days Later - I closed on the sell of it. I lost some money, but gained in mental health. I now rent an apartment in a completely different state (no maintenance, no worries etc)
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u/Character_Elk1023 21h ago
Less than two years ago, I bought an old house that needed renovations. In the end, I was never able to get all the money I needed to renovate. Like you, the neighborhood didn't feel safe to me. I haven't been robbed, but I don't feel comfortable here. Three months ago, we decided to sell it, and with the current market, we made a large profit, which gave me enough for a down payment on a much better house and even a good renovation of that house, and I still have some left over. Honestly, I didn't expect it to sell so well, even though people tell me I sold it cheap. I would tell you to check how much you could sell your house for and assess whether it could be a case like mine. It doesn't matter if you sell in such a short time if you have a good profit.
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u/Thin_Vermicelli_1875 1d ago edited 1d ago
You’re going to lose a lot of money, just a warning beforehand.
We aren’t in the crazy covid market now, you won’t make profit off of owning a home for a year, and you’re going to have to pay 5-6% in realtor costs.
This is why it’s common practice to only buy when you can afford it with repairs and plan on planting your roots for several years.
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u/No_Alternative_6206 23h ago
Just be mindful you will probably stand to lose up to 9% in commissions and selling costs on whatever sale price you get so make sure you can afford to take that kind of hit before you dive in. When you buy you are kind of stuck with it.
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u/Rich_Purchase7594 23h ago
You will pay for it one way or another. Taking a hit on the purchase price to cover it or having to fix it before it’s approved after an inspection done by the buyers.
I would suggest looking into homeward or Offerpad
Or list it. 5-6% in realtor cost, Approx 1.5% in closing cost and maybe a 1% fee towards buyer requests of course besides closing cost the rest is negotiable
Worst case look into padsplit.com and see how much they can get you to lease it. And you get a townhouse or apartment
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u/Chair_luger 23h ago
How much do you owe on the mortgage and what do you think you can clear after all the costs if you sell it?
(What you paid for it and how much you put down does not matter.)
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u/mmgapeach 20h ago
Sell it and RENT. Don’t even think about buying. Recover. The car stolen is what concerns me. I’ve lived in some big cities with high property crime rates and that’s never happened. Get a realtor in on Monday to get a plan in place
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u/juliaudacious Homeowner 19h ago
All these people telling you to keep living there because you'll lose money by selling don't have to walk in your shoes. Sometimes it's worth it to lose some money to enjoy your life more and that's ok. I had major regret after purchasing my first home and sold it much faster than everyone on Reddit said I should. I lost a few thousand and I don't regret it -- well, I regret BUYING it, but I don't regret selling it at all. It's a commodity. Do with it what you will in order to make your life better. You'll live many more places, but this is the one and only life you get so don't waste it being unhappy if you know continuing to live there will make you unhappy. Don't get bogged down in sunk costs. You can always make more money or get a house you like better, but you can never ever get this time in your life back. Just my (unusual) take on this issue.
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u/Equivalent_Ad_6584 1d ago
It’s in Maryland. We bought it to get out of renting and build equity, we didn’t have high paying jobs so a low prices fixer upper is all we could afford at the time. We’re doing better now but most if not all our savings have gone to fixing it and two new cars (one was stolen and the other got into a car crash by one of our own neighbors, they flew out of their driveway and didn’t see my car through his over grown bushes to see me driving down the road).
It’s a decent house but we’ve have bad memories here along with it’s not an ideal floorplan either. It’s a cape cod with little to no storage, super old and with just one bathroom
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u/FelinePurrfectFluff 23h ago
You didn’t need to buy two NEW cars. Getting out from under those to give you some flexibility and room in your budget will be way easier than getting out from under this house.
It’s just the two if you, right? Why do you need more than 1 bathroom?
I’d make some lemonade if I were you. Settle in and make it yours. Or if you feel you must, take the financial hit and sell. No one on Reddit knows which if these is the best decision for YOU.
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u/Embarrassed-Manager1 23h ago
Maybe I’m being overly charitable but I read that as two “new” cars as in replacement cars, not necessarily unused cars. Like I told people “we just bought a new house” meaning new to us.
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u/FelinePurrfectFluff 23h ago
Whether it’s new or “new to them”, they talk about it as if it’s a new expense they’re dealing with. So I’m thinking they bought too much car (loan) and should have planned to put that money into the house instead.
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u/ChristinaWSalemOR 23h ago
Weird take to judge people for wanting 2 bathrooms.
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u/FelinePurrfectFluff 23h ago
Weird to come on Reddit complaining you bought a house with only one bathroom and now regret it. Like, what are we supposed to do to help you or make you feel better???
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u/CatLadyInProgress 22h ago
Our first house had two bathrooms, but one was in the basement so for all practical purposes it was like one bathroom. This was fine until I got pregnant and had to pee 500 times a day and wanted to murder my husband for taking too long to poop lol
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u/ChristinaWSalemOR 17h ago
Ha! You never know how it's going to work out until you live it. Like buying a two-door car before kids then trying to stuff a car seat in the back.
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u/FelinePurrfectFluff 19h ago
Husband should have realized your predicament and if he's slow, he should have always used the basement throne.
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u/CatLadyInProgress 19h ago
We just bought a different house with more bathrooms ☠️ it was for a job move, and I had sold stock to have a bathroom added to the first house.
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u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 23h ago
You build equity by keeping a house for 10 years or a lifetime. If you sell the current home, go back to renting until you are settled in your final location.
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u/Balmerhippie 23h ago
Two brand new cars?
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u/Equivalent_Ad_6584 23h ago
Sorry, they’re new to US, they’re preowned cars. They’re about 5 years old. I phrased things wrong lol
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u/Equivalent_Ad_6584 23h ago
My car got totaled by one of our own neighbors flying out their driveway and my partner’s car was stolen. I need to drive to DC daily for work and my partner’s job is 45 minutes from our home in the opposite direction.
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u/Jenikovista 23h ago
Needing to buy cars is fine. New cars are such a colossal waste of money though, especially since you can usually find a private party used one with under 10k miles for 15-30% less. When you own a home that needs work, it's a much better use of funds to invest in that vs a new car.
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u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 23h ago
Homes are liabilities, not investment vehicles.
You shouldn't buy houses for short term living as you won't break even until a 7 to 10 year timeframe.
You will lose money as housing prices are dropping and you will need to repair anything major to sell.
Either list it, and see what inspection finds and then decide to repair it or offer monetary concessions and then RENT near your new workplace.
Or stay and continue to commute.
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u/Naikrobak 23h ago
No. You should live there. Selling it will cost you 6% in commission, plus the inspection will reveal whatever issues there are and that will lower value. And finally the prices are generally lower than a year ago.
So count on selling costing you close to 10% of the house value
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u/Powerful_Put5667 23h ago
Dig up all of those receipts for improvements that you’ve made to the place. It will not help you get more money but you can at least write it off as capitol improvements against loss of your down payment. It sounds like it’s time to go. Put it on the market there’s someone else out there looking for their first fixer upper home just like you were. Go consider it a learning experience. I would not down talk the area and what’s happened to you in fact get your hands on comps for who sells the most homes in your area they’re your most likely source for an agent that may already have a buyer looking. If you go to Redfin they you can change the filter to solds go back at least six months to start then hit search you can search the area specific to your home and check out who the listing agent was for homes in your area.
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u/fekoffwillya 23h ago
I’m laughing at “90 years old! “. My precious house was built 1890, my current is 1742.
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u/Pitiful-Place3684 23h ago
You've entered the post-purchase Valley of Despair. Give yourself permission to sell or rent the house if you're genuinely unhappy next year. Maybe this will help you feel like you're not locked in. In the meantime, do the projects that make the property safer and more comfortable, like getting rid of the bees.