My wife and I are thinking about selling our place (townhome) and getting a single family home. I had a few questions and was wondering if we had any members with good experience in this area.

The biggest issue is that we'll need to sell our place first since we don't have a lot of cash for a down payment.

- NCSU

 

Not an agent, but be careful who you choose bud, my parents went with the agent they bought their house with in Idaho to try and sell it now. She is a lazy person and trying to get them to drop their price below 300k on a house appraised at erm.. 400k.

 

We used an agent that my wife really likes when we bought our current place. I've already e-mailed her so we can get the ball rolling on selling this place, and look for a new one. There's a new place I have in mind, but I'm not going to say any more about that place unless we end up getting it. It's perfect for what I want, and the wife likes it, just not it's location really. She thinks it's a bit too far from downtown, but it's only maybe 25 min DT.

Anyways, I'm looking to get tips on selling really. That's something I've never done before. I put some some shelving in the storage room to make it more useful, and we'll hire a cleaning crew to do a top to bottom cleaning before we list it. The townhouse neighborhood we live in is pretty varied, with units ranging from 150k - 300k+, and we've got a pretty good idea what price we'd be willing to accept.

On the plus side we've got an end unit and we're on the back edge of the development so the rear of our house don't face another unit.

Here's the view out the back last time it snowed:


On a possible downside, that hill back there is a graveyard. If you look close at the photo above, you can see the flowers on the graves. It doesn't bother me any, its nice and quiet. Plus you know they aren't going to build a mega-mart, another housing development or anything like that out back anytime soon! But some people might be creeped out by it.

- NCSU

 

Just show it at night.

Yea, that graveyard might freak somepeople out. Probably can't see it much in the summer though, when the trees aren't bare.

 

I'm not an agent but know some tips.
When your ready to sell.
Go rent a storage unit and take everything personal out of your house.
Get by with the least amount of stuff you can.
Fix any holes from pictures or other hanging items.
Repaint any questionable colors to nuetral ones.
Replace any worn flooring.
Clean, clean, clean!
An "as is" look doesn't get as good of an appeal as a "fresh updated" look.
You want to present to buyers a blank canvas that they can paint their dreams on.

Good Luck!

 

I'd rent that bad boy out to incoming college students with a full year lease (not 9 month).

Take one of the 50 year mortgages

Pay extra on mortgage every month

That way, you have a second income, diverse your portfolio with a real estate investment, you're not locked into a higher payment (compared to typical 30 yr mortgage) and hopefully you wont be too bad off if the place doesnt rent (the lower 50 yr mortgage rate). If you stick it out, in a few years you'll own two pieces of property. My only suggestions are, rent higher then the mortgage (@ townhome), save enough to pay for 1 yr of townhome unoccupied.

Knowing you from your posts, if you can knock these tougher years out before you have kids, you'll have a huge advantage.

 

That's exactly what I initially wanted to do. I don't think we'd rent to incoming students though, the place is too new and nice to trash! Plus it's a little far from campus, but it'd be great for recent grads or young professionals working in RTP. Unfortunately my wife has ZERO interest in renting. We also need to determine how much down payment we'd need to have on hand, right now the less down, the better. That's another reason we need to sell the townhouse.

- NCSU

 

I had graveyards on both sides of me back home haha. Never really thought much about it...I mean after all, they are dead.

 

The graveyard is minor compared to the advantage of less neibors, no future buildings, etc.

With that and choosing and end suite, you made the right choices in increasing your chances of selling faster and more money, for sure.

Many people buy into condo's/townhouses and think all about the cost, and forget about having a desireable property to sell when the time comes.

 

Do they complain loudly???

 

By the sounds of things, it looks like you will be using the same agent to sell your home and help you find a new one. I would negotiate her selling commission based on you using her as a buyers' agent. As the the buyer agent she will probably get around the typical 3%. Since she is helping in both deals, I would not offer more than 1.5% to sell your home on contingency she closes the deal on a new home. Saves you money on the sale of your home.