Hello All,
I've been a lurker-wannabe-mustachian for quite a while; I've always enjoyed reading the posts here, there are so many of you who have a better understanding of wealth then I do, and I'm hoping I can get some help with the situation we are currently in.
Myself and my husband currently have a home for sale, that has been on the market for 4 months. Previous to this time, I was obsessed with building a net-zero home, one that did not need oil, or any heating costs, and would run off solar panels. Our current home costs over 3000k a year to heat. It is not sustainable for us. I read a great deal about this topic, and felt compelled to look for a builder in the area that also knew what he was doing in this area. We found one, and signed a contract with him, to put him on retainer for a turn key net zero home. He aims to build us something for less then 300k.
But first, before he can start building we need to sell. And the house hasn't moved. To make matters worse, during this time I was also bargain hunting on land. There are some huge deals on land in this area (central Massachusetts) if your willing to live in the boonies. I managed to convince my employer in Boston to let me work from home 4 days a week, (after reading the advice on Mr. Money's blog about the true cost of commuting) and decided to look for some bargain waterfront land way out there.
Well, a bargain indeed did surface, and I knew that we needed to act fast. The lot was direct waterfront, 4 acres, and 40k. We convinced our builder to get it on contingency, so he did, and now he is doing due diligence on it while we wait to sell.
The problem is, we haven't sold.
My agent let me know the only way our house will sell is if we drop it so low that we would have to borrow to cover the agent's commission. The house is listed at 215k, and we think it would sell for 199 or so (what we owe on it is around 196).
And we are already in debt because of all this.
Right now we owe:
5k (on a cc) due by march (balance transfer to get some liquid capital in our bank account in case we need it for building the house, generally this is not what we normally do)
2.5k ( on cc ) due by oct 2015 (to pay for a fix on the house in order to get it to sell)
5k ( on cc) due by oct 2015 (a student loan)
We have a 10k lending club loan that is $300 a month. (to pay for retainer for builder)
After 9/14 mortgage payment we will owe 196,800 on the house.
We have:
As a family we make 114,500 a year, before taxes.
$7000 in savings
As of right now about a $1500 float in our checking
We also have about 30k in retirement.
We have one car that is underwater by about 7000k that has 4 years left (yes extremely stupid)
and another car that is about break even in value that has 4 years left (again stupid, I know)
So how do we get out of this situation? Rent the home? (it is 200 years old and is in constant need of upkeep, so we are scared of this option) Sell it at a loss? Give up on the waterfront, net-zero dream?
Thanks for all of your advice!