Moving for a job....and selling a fairly new house

OremuS · 07-11-2005, 09:08 PM

Ok, so I just recently received an offer from a CRM software company in Columbus, OH that would be about a 30% raise over my current job. Also, it is more along the lines of what I want to be doing at this point in my career. Because of this, I decided to take the job. Now that I have started the ball rolling for things to be in line for my start date on Aug 1, the only that is concerning me is being able to sell our house without losing money. My wife and I are currently in the Cleveland, OH area, which is not a super hot real estate market, however in the last 18 months of home ownership, we have probably had around 4-6% appreciation. This would be if we get full value for our townhouse. Because of this and our limited amount of equity in the house, we are considering using a discount realtor. One in our area is called NextHome (www.nexthome.com). They seem to do alot of advertising in our area and it would get our house listed on the MLS. Has anyone had experience with this type of realtor? I know we would need to do our own showings, but it would allow us to sell for about a grand plus closing costs. Just looking for some help on this as I know that we would eat up almost all of our equity should we use a regular realtor. Let me know what thoughts any of you might have. Thanks.

brainsmile · 07-11-2005, 10:31 PM

I've heard that a lot of times those discount realtors get you on other costs.

sizemic1 · 07-12-2005, 12:13 PM

I'm using a similar service to sell my house. Only I have to pay a 1% commission and an extra 2.5% if a 3rd party agent brings in the buyer. Still, a good deal as compared to the traditional 6%. We haven't officially sold our house yet, so I can't comment on "hidden" costs.

In case you didn't know already, i'm not sure what your profit will be on your townhouse, but if you sell it in less than 2 years of ownership, you will have to pay capital gains tax on your profit. It may not be too much in your case, but it could be significant to others.

johnnymk · 07-12-2005, 08:48 PM

I know a woman who put a For Sale by Owner sign in front of her townhouse. She couldn't believe how many realtors contacted her and were willing to negotiate on the commision. I think she ended up paying either 2% or 3%.

Grimm · 07-13-2005, 12:36 AM

Have you considered keeping the house and renting it out instead of selling it? You can hire a management agency and use the rent to meet the property's expenses. In the even that you move back, you have a place. In the event that you don't you have a prperty that continues to appriciate.

brainsmile · 07-13-2005, 08:50 AM

depends if she can handle it and buy a new place. If you are leveraging too much I say just sell and lock in the gains.

OremuS · 07-14-2005, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnymk

I know a woman who put a For Sale by Owner sign in front of her townhouse. She couldn't believe how many realtors contacted her and were willing to negotiate on the commision. I think she ended up paying either 2% or 3%.

I might try contacting a few different realtors and see if I can get them to play off from each other. The way NextHome works is that you pay $995 up front to them and then if a buyer is represented, you pay that realtor 4%. Otherwise it is just the $995 fee. I am going to put a For Sale By Owner Out Front today....just to see if I get any hits in the next week or two. Time will tell if the realtors start calling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimm

Have you considered keeping the house and renting it out instead of selling it? You can hire a management agency and use the rent to meet the property's expenses. In the even that you move back, you have a place. In the event that you don't you have a prperty that continues to appriciate.

Have thoguht about renting it out, but the only thing that would be a problem is making enough money on it to cover our costs. Right now between mortage #1, #2, and association fees, it is around $1350-1375 per month. We might be able to get it, but I am not sure as alot of the 2 bedroom apartments in our area are in the $800-900 range. Our place is a 3 bedroom, but there are no similar models to compare prices to. We are definitely not ruling it out of the equation.

OremuS · 07-14-2005, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sizemic1

In case you didn't know already, i'm not sure what your profit will be on your townhouse, but if you sell it in less than 2 years of ownership, you will have to pay capital gains tax on your profit. It may not be too much in your case, but it could be significant to others.

I did know about this. Where we are at, we might be talking about $10k appreciation at the most. Will be some tax to deal with.

mrmb123 · 07-19-2005, 07:48 AM

I am in a different market but the discount realtors around here aren't worth it. IMHO You should never pay for realestate services upfont, if you talk to a good agent in your area you should be able to get them down to around 4.5%. Anyone who goes less than that is cutting the comission of the agent bringing the buyer and many realtors won't show houses if they aren't going to get there 3%.

brainsmile · 07-19-2005, 08:28 AM

if you are moving more than 50 miles away due to job issues the captial gains are not an issue. There is a tax exemption clause to deal with that.

sizemic1 · 07-19-2005, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmb123

I am in a different market but the discount realtors around here aren't worth it. IMHO You should never pay for realestate services upfont, if you talk to a good agent in your area you should be able to get them down to around 4.5%. Anyone who goes less than that is cutting the comission of the agent bringing the buyer and many realtors won't show houses if they aren't going to get there 3%.

Depends on how expensive the house is. I just sold my house in 8 days and gave my agent 1% and the buyers agent 2.5%. I musta had about 20 people come through in the 8 days. I suppose if they can make enough in commission, the actual percentage is negotiable.

OremuS · 07-19-2005, 12:36 PM

I have done some more reading on my own and it looks like we are in the clear as far as the capital gains taxes since we will be moving approx 110-120 miles from our current home. As for the realtor questions and issues, we put a For Sale by Owner sign out front last night and I am going to start calling around to some of the realtors in the area so that I can try to compare them and hopefully beat them up on rates. if I could get them down to the 4-4.5% range, we could prolly break even or come really close to it.

guiseppewv · 07-19-2005, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OremuS

I did know about this. Where we are at, we might be talking about $10k appreciation at the most. Will be some tax to deal with.

You can actually get around this if you have a "valid" reason for the sale. Valid reasons, if I remember correctly, having/adopting a child, getting married, and getting a new job that is located far away (I think 50+ miles). Check with your tax specialist/CPA.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't see your last post that said that you got around this issue.

OremuS · 07-22-2005, 01:44 PM

Well, I have talked with a couple of realtors and they are both in the 6% ballpark, so it would cost us around $11k to sell with one of them. Keeping my fingers crossed, we had a local RN that is friends with one of our neighbors show alot of interest. Gave her the same starting figure that we would give with the realtor. If we have to come down $5-7k, so be it. We will still end up ahead of the game and making a profit...at least marginally.

Thanks for all the advice. I will keep you posted as to what happens.

07-12-2005, 12:13 PM	#3
sizemic1 Owww, I feel good! Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Beautiful Temecula CA Posts: 2,002	I'm using a similar service to sell my house. Only I have to pay a 1% commission and an extra 2.5% if a 3rd party agent brings in the buyer. Still, a good deal as compared to the traditional 6%. We haven't officially sold our house yet, so I can't comment on "hidden" costs. In case you didn't know already, i'm not sure what your profit will be on your townhouse, but if you sell it in less than 2 years of ownership, you will have to pay capital gains tax on your profit. It may not be too much in your case, but it could be significant to others. __________________ [___] (O lllllll O) []==O=[]

07-12-2005, 08:48 PM	#4
johnnymk Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: May 2000 Location: LEVITTOWN< PA> USA Posts: 13,621	I know a woman who put a For Sale by Owner sign in front of her townhouse. She couldn't believe how many realtors contacted her and were willing to negotiate on the commision. I think she ended up paying either 2% or 3%. __________________ “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” (Winston Churchill)

07-19-2005, 07:48 AM	#9
mrmb123 Lieutenant Junior Grade Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 106	I am in a different market but the discount realtors around here aren't worth it. IMHO You should never pay for realestate services upfont, if you talk to a good agent in your area you should be able to get them down to around 4.5%. Anyone who goes less than that is cutting the comission of the agent bringing the buyer and many realtors won't show houses if they aren't going to get there 3%. __________________ You're Killing Me Smalls...

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07-11-2005, 09:08 PM	#1
OremuS Lieutenant Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Livin and Workin in Brown's town Posts: 355	Moving for a job....and selling a fairly new house Ok, so I just recently received an offer from a CRM software company in Columbus, OH that would be about a 30% raise over my current job. Also, it is more along the lines of what I want to be doing at this point in my career. Because of this, I decided to take the job. Now that I have started the ball rolling for things to be in line for my start date on Aug 1, the only that is concerning me is being able to sell our house without losing money. My wife and I are currently in the Cleveland, OH area, which is not a super hot real estate market, however in the last 18 months of home ownership, we have probably had around 4-6% appreciation. This would be if we get full value for our townhouse. Because of this and our limited amount of equity in the house, we are considering using a discount realtor. One in our area is called NextHome (www.nexthome.com). They seem to do alot of advertising in our area and it would get our house listed on the MLS. Has anyone had experience with this type of realtor? I know we would need to do our own showings, but it would allow us to sell for about a grand plus closing costs. Just looking for some help on this as I know that we would eat up almost all of our equity should we use a regular realtor. Let me know what thoughts any of you might have. Thanks.

07-11-2005, 10:31 PM	#2
brainsmile Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: woah... why is welfareloser here with me so early in the morning and more importantly why am I wearing her clothes?!? Posts: 13,754	I've heard that a lot of times those discount realtors get you on other costs. __________________ ********************************** DCM #1 (Founder) "Nobody beats Vitus Gerulaitis 18 times in a row." - Vitus Gerulaitis on beating Jimmy Connors after 17 failed attempts.

07-13-2005, 12:36 AM	#5
Grimm 100% Pure Evil Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 7,861	Have you considered keeping the house and renting it out instead of selling it? You can hire a management agency and use the rent to meet the property's expenses. In the even that you move back, you have a place. In the event that you don't you have a prperty that continues to appriciate.

07-13-2005, 08:50 AM	#6
brainsmile Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: woah... why is welfareloser here with me so early in the morning and more importantly why am I wearing her clothes?!? Posts: 13,754	depends if she can handle it and buy a new place. If you are leveraging too much I say just sell and lock in the gains.

07-19-2005, 08:28 AM	#10
brainsmile Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: woah... why is welfareloser here with me so early in the morning and more importantly why am I wearing her clothes?!? Posts: 13,754	if you are moving more than 50 miles away due to job issues the captial gains are not an issue. There is a tax exemption clause to deal with that.

07-19-2005, 12:36 PM	#12
OremuS Lieutenant Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Livin and Workin in Brown's town Posts: 355	I have done some more reading on my own and it looks like we are in the clear as far as the capital gains taxes since we will be moving approx 110-120 miles from our current home. As for the realtor questions and issues, we put a For Sale by Owner sign out front last night and I am going to start calling around to some of the realtors in the area so that I can try to compare them and hopefully beat them up on rates. if I could get them down to the 4-4.5% range, we could prolly break even or come really close to it.

07-22-2005, 01:44 PM	#14
OremuS Lieutenant Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Livin and Workin in Brown's town Posts: 355	Well, I have talked with a couple of realtors and they are both in the 6% ballpark, so it would cost us around $11k to sell with one of them. Keeping my fingers crossed, we had a local RN that is friends with one of our neighbors show alot of interest. Gave her the same starting figure that we would give with the realtor. If we have to come down $5-7k, so be it. We will still end up ahead of the game and making a profit...at least marginally. Thanks for all the advice. I will keep you posted as to what happens.

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