Bought my house 1 year ago but we want to sell it now

[MikeJones2001]

We bought this house for 323k last may. I currently owe 254k on the mortgage.
We have put around 16k in the house just to make it comfortable to live. We really want to get a bigger house out in the suburbs where we can get more bang for our buck. I cant for the life of me figure out how much money Im about to lose if I sell this house.
I think we can sell it for around 335k. I brought 73k cash to close when I bought the house.  I have run the numbers in a net proceeds calculator and it comes out to around 70K net proceeds.  Am I right to think that I will be losing the 3k in cash to close from the original purchase plus the 16k that Ive put in the house ? What else should I be considering in order the get the most accurate number ?

[Villanelle]

We bought this house for 323k last may. I currently owe 254k on the mortgage.
We have put around 16k in the house just to make it comfortable to live. We really want to get a bigger house out in the suburbs where we can get more bang for our buck. I cant for the life of me figure out how much money Im about to lose if I sell this house.
I think we can sell it for around 335k. I brought 73k cash to close when I bought the house.  I have run the numbers in a net proceeds calculator and it comes out to around 70K net proceeds.  Am I right to think that I will be losing the 3k in cash to close from the original purchase plus the 16k that Ive put in the house ? What else should I be considering in order the get the most accurate number ?

You are missing all the fees associated with buying, and especially with selling.

How much cash you put down is irrelevant (although one could argue that you should account for the opportunity costs of having that money out of the market). (Not sure if you put down $3k or $73k since your post says both.) What matters is all your expenses.  That's the cost of the house, the $16k you put into it, any fees you paid (like a transfer tax), expenses (inspectors, title, notary fees, wire fees, etc.) and any other costs associated with your purchase.  Subtract all that from the sales price of the house, minus realtor fees (usually about 5%, though it remains to be seen how the new RE transaction fees affect that), concessions to the buyers, other fees associated with the sale, and that's your loss.  So if your purchase and all expenses was $100k, and your sale proceeds (after all expenses) is $70k, you've lost $30k, and that's before you look at the opportunity cost of your cash. 

[Paper Chaser]

Selling price - money owed on mortgage - realtor fees = what you walk away with.

By your estimates the numbers would be:

335k - 254k - (.05 X 335k) = $64.25k

*And in this case, since you haven't lived there for at least 2 years, you'll pay long term capital gains tax on the selling price - purchase price ($335k-323k = $12k), which will probably be 15-20%. LTCG @ 20% would be $2.4k.

If you have receipts for the $16k spent on the house, you might be able to reduce the taxable gain by that amount, which could eliminate LTCG, but I'm not a tax pro so take it with a grain of salt.

So probably in the $60k neighborhood depending on some details and fees. That's not great when you put $73k down originally, and another $16k into improvements but real estate transactions are expensive, and sinking money into upgrades isn't always a great investment. If you're really unhappy in the current place, then I'd consider it an expensive lesson and move on to the place that you think will be a better fit for you.

*Living there at least 2 years will eliminate the capital gains tax, but if the market cools during that time, the selling price could drop as well so it becomes a guessing game based on how confident you are in your price estimates and what your local housing market might do in the next year or so.

[MikeJones2001]

Thanks for the replies. Im going to have to chalk this up as a learning experience (expensive). Next time Ill have a better idea on what to look for in a primary residence. Ill be damned if I make the same mistakes again.

[mistymoney]

can you tell us what went awry for you? what were those expensive mistakes?

[aloevera1]

Can you hang around in the house for some more time?

What is driving your decision to sell?

Your posts sounds really drastic so I wonder where that level of dissatisfaction is coming from.

As others have commented, all the fees + moving costs would eat into your cash from sale.