I can remember since a young age about the virtues of owning real estate.I have bought a total of 4 homes.Currently i own 3 homes.One is a rental,one is a vacation/retirement home and one is our main residence.
First was a VA home i bought through my veterans benefits.Lost the home in a divorce,so strike one.
second home i was a few years into a bankruptcy and a builder had a home he bought from his customer and let me do land contract for 3 years,while i built up a good down payment.So i got what i got and it turned out to be a horribly built older ranch style house.Bad roof,bad plumbing,electrical,slab foundation.Have had excellent tenants for last 12 years that have paid the loan down quite considerably but it's value is close to the balance of the loan.Paid 65k and it's valued at around 45k now due to all work it needs.
Third home is our current residence and the one we are trying to sell.We bought a half log kit home.5 acres of wooded land and hired a general contractor.He did an excellent job on construction.We are not into all the fancy stuff like granite,real masonry,ceramic tile.Maybe this has hurt our resale value.
Fourth home we just bought last year and currently using as a vacation home but looking to retire there as soon as we sell our current home.
So our current home is my first attempt in selling and what a strange sad disappointing experience it has been so far...Indiana Mls 338532.We built the home 10 years ago.
First realtor was okay but 3 weeks after signing he moved to another brokerage that was over the state line and had a real issue getting out property to show up on sites like realtor.com,homes.com and i couldn't find it on any of the local realtor websites.She had it 6 months,we showed maybe 30 times.He went started higher than i thought the home was worth but she assured me it was well worth the listing price.When we originally built the home 10 years ago,after finishing,it appraised at 350k.We have between 280-290 in the house including land.We had an appraisal that is 2 years old that showed value at 315k.Well after 3 weeks with no offers she wanted to lower price.Went to 315,3 weeks later,we went to 298,2 weeks later we went to 289,2 weeks later to 287.At the end of 6 months,we never got 1 offer and not one question from any of the 30+ looks.
So now comes the new realtor we hire.More professional,been selling for 30 years,well known in business.He thought our asking price which was still at 287 was fair.Been about a month with him,about 6 showings and no offers yet.
We get told it's hard to value the home because it is a log sided home,logs inside as well.So hard to get comps.We understand it is unique but if people see it listed,look at pics,they know what they are coming to look at.We built the house all the way back as far as we could into the 5 acres,so the driveway is a little over 1800 feet.We are very isolated,no visible neighbors and surrounded by woods.A lot of people we see drive back to look then we get a call for a showing and know it's them.Most of the feedback has been unusable land and house placement and gravel drive in rough shape.Unusable land i just don't know what to say about because i have no idea what that even means,placement i cant fix and driveway,i guess i could put more gravel down but it's still going to be gravel.We did grade it.
Our agent says offers generally come in at about 5% under asking,that would put us at 272k...minus his 5% comm,we are going to maybe walk away with 258k.If we continue to have to lower our house,you cane see how much of a hit we are going to take.We are potentially looking at what could end up being a 30-40k hit and possibly up to 50k.We financed 180 and put about 100k in cash towards the rest of the build.
The home is technically a stick built home with log siding.It is a 2x6 frame with full footprint poured basement.Logs are 8 inch half,these are outside and inside,so walls are almost 24 inches this at widest.Our heating bills reflect this as we have printed out a list of what we have paid for last 3 years.Our highest bill ever has been $235 for 1 month,this includes electric and nat gas.We are really boggled how we could not have one offer or even a question after 7 months.It's a beautiful home.Just not sure what to do at this time.We aren't like in a bad situation or rush to sell but we would sure like to get up to our retirement home but really hard to eat 30-40k loss....
I don't know if there is a solution,i think i just am looking to vent.Nice first post huh? Lol
Here is a link that might be useful: Home
chispa
nightowlrn
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