I can’t tell you how long we’ve been in agreement to sell our condo. And we are making progress. Well, we HAVE. Seems like now we’ve been stalled on whether or not to install new floors prior to selling. It seems almost crazy to sink $3,500 into new wood floors all throughout, only to sell to some other lucky buyer. And I honestly don’t know if we’d even get a return on our investment–there for what seems like many other units that are selling in this development (some with and without wood flooring), and it seems like neither are moving very quickly or at a price where we can say we’ll make out like bandits come closing. No, we’re pretty much breaking even, with maybe a few thousand dollars ahead. The good news is that at least we’re not in the red on this condo. The bad news is that we won’t be taking thousands with us to put on a new property. This means that whatever 10% down payment we’ll need on a new place must come from whatever other funds that we (Kwasi) has.
I think, however, that I want the new floors. Worse case scenarios are (1) the condo sits and we’re not generating much interest, or (2) we end up having to sell for even less than we’d hoped, and the floors would have just cut a hole in whatever cash we would have gotten at closing.
So now it’s a matter of, do we try to clean the shit out of these carpets and just leave them, yet risk having our unit sit for even longer, or have someone discount us in asking price…….? Or do we invest in new floors and risk losing money at closing, but if we don’t generate much interest at least WE have new flooring to enjoy….?
Such a hard decision…..But I am swaying in the direction of getting the floors. They would make this place “pop” more than this yucky child-mess-infested carpet. And worse case scenario no one wants to buy it at the price we need and we just end up with a nicer looking condo, but at least knowing that we tried.
Anyhow, today I went to this Open House for a home that I had seen recently come to the market. It was over the price limit of what we’d even qualify for, but it looked so nice that I just had to go check it out. So me and the boys went by (thankfully not fully hit by the thunderstorm today!), and let me tell you– this place was fucking beautiful. Everything we wanted was there….even a MOVIE THEATER in the basement! How awesome is THAT?! It had 4 bedrooms, and an office on the main level, near the kitchen (perfect for Kwasi).
But after seeing it, I really wish I hadn’t, because (1) I know we can’t afford it, and (2) until our place at least has a contract, we can’t do ANYTHING. Very few people would actually accept a contingency, where we’d stipulate that we have to sell our condo before we could buy their place. Then it would just be one person waiting on another person, waiting on another person, etc. Who would accept THAT?? **SIGH**……
So here I am, left feeling a bit discouraged about our situation, and ready to be able to bid for homes, but just not able to do anything until we have a contract.
And it’s also a bit frustrating to see nice-ass homes like the one I saw today and realize that we just won’t be able to afford that. The price range we can afford we’d have to compromise on some things: space if it’s in a good school district, nice-ness if it’s in a good school district, etc.
I decided that we need to aim LOW. We need to aim for the homes that are close to foreclosure, or homes that are outdated that need some (hopefully) non-expensive sprucing up. I don’t think we’re going to find too many homes in our price range that have everything we want. But the absolute must-haves are (1) good school district, (2) phat back yard in terms of space, since landscaping can come later), and (3) layout that will allow for sufficient bedrooms and office and crafting space. I guess all the cosmetic stuff can come in chunks when we get the money to afford to do those things.
But I realize that by aiming in the low range, we can make this happen. It just means we have to sacrifice. Hell, we might NEED to consider Columbia, just to make it a bit more affordable and to get more house for what we could get here in Silver Spring.
We’ll make this work…someway, somehow!
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