Open Door house sales

[Janeway]

I went on to Open Door and asked for an estimate to sell our house. We are in a rotten position right now in that we have no clue if dh will end up working here, another state, what. Also, we have a lot of equity wrapped up in our house. We have known for a while that we wish to move. However, with dh being unemployed right now, what would we do? Where would we go? It would be impractical to buy another house when we have no clue if we will stay or go. Throw a bunch of money in to a rental? 

 

The amount being offered by Open Door is basically what we could get for the house if we cleaned everything and made it look perfect for sale, minus almost 10%. I have five children. The idea of making things perfect for sale seems impossible. Aside from cleaning, I would need to touch up the paint, and paint outside, and make some repairs, including the stove top which is cracked in the kitchen. I could probably spend $10K to get everything up to perfect, which included carpet cleaning and cracked seals on windows and hiring someone to come in and do a thorough cleaning. The roof needs replacing but the insurance should cover much of that.

 

But keeping the house clean and taking kids in and out, and considering we would be stuck with 6% in realtor fees anyway, we are basically paying 4% for the convenience of not having to show the house or keep it in show condition the entire time, etc.

[gardenmom5]

open door is but *one* site.  if you are serious, I would look at redfin.com, zillow.com, and realtor.com.  they will each be different in their assessed valuation of your house.  they will each bring up comps for what the sites have on your house  - which is basically from public records.  

 

go through the comps (some may be the same, and others will be different) - which should have pictures and tell you how comparable they actually are.   (we even drove past houses the county was using as comps for our tax assessment as part of our due diligence to build our case on why the county over-assessed us.  we won.)

 

then - talk to several real estate agents and get feedback.  talking to them is not listing with them.  (it's always advisable to talk to multiple agents even if you do plan on listing with an agent.)

 

as to where you go - you won't know until your dh gets a job.  somewhere his field is in demand.  now, are you open to where he gets an offer? - based upon your comments in previous thread, you really haven't seemed to be in the past.

 

are you concerned you dont' have enough for your mortgage payment?  why else would you sell now?  is the market in your area hot?  (it's  very hot here, especially in some areas.)

 

my niece sold two homes via zillow.  (the 2nd sale fell through - but her dh also ended not liking the job he took that was requiring the move.  so, he got his old job back -lost all seniority - and they stayed.)

 

[wonderchica]

Why do you want to sell right now? I'd wait until you know where you're going to end up living, if possible.

[Catwoman]

I'm wondering the same thing as Kristen and wonderchica.

 

Why are you thinking of selling now, when everything is still up in the air in terms of your dh's job situation?

 

I can understand getting the house ready to sell and talking to a few realtors about how much you might expect to get for it, but why would you sell a house you own and move into a short term rental, only to have to move again when your dh gets a job, or to wish you'd kept your home if he gets a new job in your current location?

 

I can understand researching your options, but why would you even think about selling now?

[Storygirl]

I know it's hard to think about keeping a house perfect while you have so many children, but it's not impossible. I've done it. Twice, with four messy children. You do what you've gotta do.

 

If you are in financial straits, it may make sense to go ahead and sell your home. It gives you some flexibility about being able to move whenever and wherever a job offer might happen. But you would need to have a plan in place for where you would live in the meantime.

[prairiewindmomma]

Janeway--have you spoken with a "real" realtor to get any idea of how quickly houses are moving in your market?  In my neighborhood, everything is selling in the first week if it's priced correctly. Many things are going under contract on the first day they are listed.   It would be easy enough to plan a weekend trip and hope for the best.

 

I think you need more information. In your posts about selling your house, I just "hear" the anxiety about selling with children, moving, and finding a new place. 

[City Mouse]

My parents just sold their house to a similar house flipper company. They were very happy to take a slightly lower price to not have to do anything at all to the house (it needed paint, carpet, siding, and bathroom updates) and the closing took only about 3 weeks. The company offered to let then rent t back for a month, but they were able to get moved in that time.

 

They did already have a new place line up as they are now renting a house from my sibling.

[QueenCat]

The roof needs replacing but the insurance should cover much of that.

 

Have you started this process yet? I'd get on it as most insurers now expect claims to be made within a short time period after the hail storm (or whatever type of storm/issue caused the damage). The process can take a while as well, depending on the insurer.

[Scarlett]

I had never heard of them until this thread.  Interesting. 

 

They aren't in my area yet. 

 

I agree you need to figure out where you are going to be living before you sell your house.  Also, it seems like I remember you saying your house is paid for.  In which case it makes even more sense to stay put. 

[Catwoman]

I had never heard of them until this thread. Interesting.

 

They aren't in my area yet.

 

I agree you need to figure out where you are going to be living before you sell your house. Also, it seems like I remember you saying your house is paid for. In which case it makes even more sense to stay put.

I agree. If the house is paid off, it might actually end up costing more money to rent another house than she's paying to maintain her current home -- and she would also have to pay the moving expenses twice. If she plans to buy another home once her dh gets a new job, the proceeds from the sale of this house will need to remain quite liquid, so she probably won't make that much interest on the money anyway.

 

If nothing else, I'd stay in the current house just to avoid the stress of moving twice in a short time.

 

 

(Edited for typos!)

Edited April 26, 2017 by Catwoman

[bethben]

Ditto on the "why are you selling" thing, but I sold a home with four children including one in a wheelchair while DH was living in a different state. Sure, it stunk, but was doable. The houses that sell faster and for more money look like model homes so just getting the house to he best it can be without doing a total remodel is wise. I had my main area repainted because ds had scraped all the walls up with his wheelchair. We fixed little things like broken tiles and did repaint some other bedrooms a neutral color.

 

 

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[Janeway]

open door is but *one* site.  if you are serious, I would look at redfin.com, zillow.com, and realtor.com.  they will each be different in their assessed valuation of your house.  they will each bring up comps for what the sites have on your house  - which is basically from public records.  

 

go through the comps (some may be the same, and others will be different) - which should have pictures and tell you how comparable they actually are.   (we even drove past houses the county was using as comps for our tax assessment as part of our due diligence to build our case on why the county over-assessed us.  we won.)

 

then - talk to several real estate agents and get feedback.  talking to them is not listing with them.  (it's always advisable to talk to multiple agents even if you do plan on listing with an agent.)

 

as to where you go - you won't know until your dh gets a job.  somewhere his field is in demand.  now, are you open to where he gets an offer? - based upon your comments in previous thread, you really haven't seemed to be in the past.

 

are you concerned you dont' have enough for your mortgage payment?  why else would you sell now?  is the market in your area hot?  (it's  very hot here, especially in some areas.)

 

my niece sold two homes via zillow.  (the 2nd sale fell through - but her dh also ended not liking the job he took that was requiring the move.  so, he got his old job back -lost all seniority - and they stayed.)

I have always been open to moving where ever he goes, I just made posts asking about the situations. One being to a much higher cost of living area when we have a bigger than average sized family, and another to an area where the economy is not the best and relocation would not be paid, meaning, if they did not want him after 6 months, it would be even more difficult to find a new job there.  But I never said I would not be willing to go. I asked the questions here to get feedback on things to think about and consider when moving.  My husband decided not to take the particular job in the PNW because the job he would have been doing was not very good. Plus, he was there on a day where the sun did not come up until late and was pitch dark by 4pm. And the traffic ended up so stopped up that it took him 2 hrs traveling north in the city just ten miles. He tried going the other way on a different day and it was better, but it was also driving toward a much higher cost of living area. (first day he went up 5 and the second day he went east across a bridge toward Kirkland and Redmond and Bellevue area. The job itself was not quite what he was doing before and not what he wanted to step in to. That was his choice. I was ready for us to go. But he is the one who has to go to work every day and do the job.

[Janeway]

And why sell...because we had been planning to move about this time, the May/June time frame. I am just looking in to what the possibilities are. Knowing we could get that much to just walk away from the house, I would likely take it in the future. IF we end up staying here, in this area, we won't stay in this house. The house is too big for us and has cost us much too much to maintain. We moved here just under 10 years ago. I actually wrote out what it has cost us just in big repairs and taxes over this period of time and that is over $100K. And it is just too much for me to take care of. I just do not need something this big.

[Catwoman]

And why sell...because we had been planning to move about this time, the May/June time frame. I am just looking in to what the possibilities are. Knowing we could get that much to just walk away from the house, I would likely take it in the future. IF we end up staying here, in this area, we won't stay in this house. The house is too big for us and has cost us much too much to maintain. We moved here just under 10 years ago. I actually wrote out what it has cost us just in big repairs and taxes over this period of time and that is over $100K. And it is just too much for me to take care of. I just do not need something this big.

Thanks for the clarification -- I'd forgotten that you said you would want to move to a different house even if you stay in the same area. Sorry about that! :)

 

I would still stay where you are until your dh has a new job. The cost of potentially moving twice in a short time will negate any savings in living expenses during that time period. And I can't stress enough what a colossal pain it will be to have to pack and move twice. Also, it will be very difficult for your children to be uprooted twice instead of once.

[Janeway]

Thanks for the clarification -- I'd forgotten that you said you would want to move to a different house even if you stay in the same area. Sorry about that! :)

 

I would still stay where you are until your dh has a new job. The cost of potentially moving twice in a short time will negate any savings in living expenses during that time period. And I can't stress enough what a colossal pain it will be to have to pack and move twice. Also, it will be very difficult for your children to be uprooted twice instead of once.

I agree. I am so frustrated over all the repairs we have done with this house, which includes foundation repairs and all the windows, the a/c situation, all the appliances have gone out, found faulty plumbing, they ran the sprinkler system with an opening under the patio so that needs to be rerouted. We even had to replace a toilet. This house is a money pit and our taxes alone on this house has always been over $8K a year. Now they are talking about raising the property taxes again. This past year, our taxes were supposed to be over $9k, but we appealed that. We will be appealing again this year.