Sold my house today... at a loss

[FenderBender]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.  i still lost a bundle so much i don't let it enter my mind that often - too depressing.  i'd hate to think how much more depressed or a sucker i'd feel if i had left all that I PAID FOR behind for the bank, a corporate entity, to take possession of and use to their advantage when i had tried to work with them prior to leaving the house.  retail businesses don't leave much behind when they go out of business and that's the way i was looking at it... what would a business do?  during the housing crisis many said businesses fold all the time and consumers at the time should act like businesses.

all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

we moved from CA to MD where i have a rental - good thing i work from home and can relocate anywhere.  it took us 3 and a half days almost to the hour to cross the country in February in a huge truck - so glad there was no snow.    1400 for fuel alone. 

next move is to FL.  i really don't like the cold.  never going to live in CA again though - i hate that state.

[Trimatty471]

I bought my house 10 years okay for $125K.  Put 20% down.  Zillow says that it would is worth $95K.  😤😤😤.   

I want to move.  But between the loss and the transfer fees and real estate commission, I cannot afford to. 

[Bearded Man]

I bought my house 10 years okay for $125K.  Put 20% down.  Zillow says that it would is worth $95K.  😤😤😤.   

I want to move.  But between the loss and the transfer fees and real estate commission, I cannot afford to.

Wow that sucks. I saw a house listed the other day that after 15 years of ownership, even though they sold it for more than they paid for it. They still lost money accounting for maintenance, and inflation adjustment, transaction costs, etc.

This is in the booming Seattle economy....

Now where are all those people who claim rental investment has such superior returns to stock index investing in the long run...

[dragoncar]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.  i still lost a bundle so much i don't let it enter my mind that often - too depressing.  i'd hate to think how much more depressed or a sucker i'd feel if i had left all that I PAID FOR behind for the bank, a corporate entity, to take possession of and use to their advantage when i had tried to work with them prior to leaving the house.  retail businesses don't leave much behind when they go out of business and that's the way i was looking at it... what would a business do?  during the housing crisis many said businesses fold all the time and consumers at the time should act like businesses.

all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

we moved from CA to MD where i have a rental - good thing i work from home and can relocate anywhere.  it took us 3 and a half days almost to the hour to cross the country in February in a huge truck - so glad there was no snow.    1400 for fuel alone. 

next move is to FL.  i really don't like the cold.  never going to live in CA again though - i hate that state.

You are not a business and you don't have a business lease.  All you need to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixture_(property_law)

[RosieTR]

I hear you! We bought a house in 2008 in the Sunbelt. On its way down. Far, far from the bottom. Hated the city and moved back to CO in 2012 (back to a house we had rented out during the time we were away). Still took 2 more years to sell. Rented it out while we waited for the market to recover enough to dump the thing.
I was never so happy to wire a large amount of money to someone else as the day we closed on that crap! At the bank, I had explained that we were closing on a house which was why we needed to wire >$10,000. She winced when I further explained that we were the *sellers*. Thank goodness we could do this all remotely, because I would NOT have wanted to sit there writing a big check. Ugh. And that was definitely far from all we paid out besides the mortgage for those 3 years. Closing costs to purchase, improvements we made to the house, some of which were undone by the renters, cleanup costs from the renters, property management fees, HOA fees, etc. We would have done far, far better to rent. About the only thing I learned was how grow rosemary, and which landscape plants probably will do well in the unwatered area of our xeriscape. Also how to wield a pickax to dig a hole in baked clay. :-(
OTOH, not having a phone call that the police raided the house, the renters broke windows, the A/C was broken or gone, there were drug dealers, there was so much pet shit in the house that the renters removed the carpet, and on and on (each of those happened in either one or the other house during when we had it rented) was sooooo worth the money. I lived in fear of having a hoarder or meth cooker and having a completely uninhabitable/condemned house, which would have cost far more than the crap we did have happen. So, you may have saved yourself a hell of a headache by not renting it out. And if you learned a bunch about home maintenance, so much the better!

[Rustyfa]

We bought our first house at the height of the real estate bubble.  5 years later we moved 100 plus miles away for work.  Two horrible renters and for years then we sold for 10percent less than we paid for it.  And we made a ton of expensive repairs before we moved.


A couple lessons

1 fix it up so we can enjoy it.
2 never rent "your" home to others
3 do it better next time


We did and live a great home now but I've learned a bunch from this one too.  Next house, I'm not settling.  It will be exactly what we want, period.    And then I'll learn from that one too.

[Petunia 100]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.  i still lost a bundle so much i don't let it enter my mind that often - too depressing.  i'd hate to think how much more depressed or a sucker i'd feel if i had left all that I PAID FOR behind for the bank, a corporate entity, to take possession of and use to their advantage when i had tried to work with them prior to leaving the house.  retail businesses don't leave much behind when they go out of business and that's the way i was looking at it... what would a business do?  during the housing crisis many said businesses fold all the time and consumers at the time should act like businesses.

all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

we moved from CA to MD where i have a rental - good thing i work from home and can relocate anywhere.  it took us 3 and a half days almost to the hour to cross the country in February in a huge truck - so glad there was no snow.    1400 for fuel alone. 

next move is to FL.  i really don't like the cold.  never going to live in CA again though - i hate that state.

Nonsense, fixtures are part of the house.  If you had paid for your house, the bank would not have foreclosed.

Sorry, no respect at all for your vandalism or for your attempts at justification. 

[Trimatty471]

We bought our first house at the height of the real estate bubble.  5 years later we moved 100 plus miles away for work.  Two horrible renters and for years then we sold for 10percent less than we paid for it.  And we made a ton of expensive repairs before we moved.


A couple lessons

1 fix it up so we can enjoy it.
2 never rent "your" home to others
3 do it better next time


We did and live a great home now but I've learned a bunch from this one too.  Next house, I'm not settling.  It will be exactly what we want, period.    And then I'll learn from that one too.

From living in my house I find that I am not cut out for town house living.  Unless there are some rules involved such as HOA,  I do not want to share walls, steps, or driveways ever again!  I also learned that I am not interested in home improvements.

The next place has to have everything that I want.

[FenderBender]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.  i still lost a bundle so much i don't let it enter my mind that often - too depressing.  i'd hate to think how much more depressed or a sucker i'd feel if i had left all that I PAID FOR behind for the bank, a corporate entity, to take possession of and use to their advantage when i had tried to work with them prior to leaving the house.  retail businesses don't leave much behind when they go out of business and that's the way i was looking at it... what would a business do?  during the housing crisis many said businesses fold all the time and consumers at the time should act like businesses.

all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

we moved from CA to MD where i have a rental - good thing i work from home and can relocate anywhere.  it took us 3 and a half days almost to the hour to cross the country in February in a huge truck - so glad there was no snow.    1400 for fuel alone. 

next move is to FL.  i really don't like the cold.  never going to live in CA again though - i hate that state.

Nonsense, fixtures are part of the house.  If you had paid for your house, the bank would not have foreclosed.

Sorry, no respect at all for your vandalism or for your attempts at justification.

i vandalized nothing.  i could have vandalized the house - could have completely trashed the place to the point of ripping copper out and punching, kicking holes into the walls and doors and breaking windows. 

i sleep a lot better for what i did rather than for what i didn't.  i'm not trying to justify anything i'm simply telling the facts/story like all other things on these forums... is every story on here a justification or in this case you just don't agree so you use language to try to back me into a corner.  no corner for me, no matter what anyone says, i sleep well. 

[dragoncar]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.  i still lost a bundle so much i don't let it enter my mind that often - too depressing.  i'd hate to think how much more depressed or a sucker i'd feel if i had left all that I PAID FOR behind for the bank, a corporate entity, to take possession of and use to their advantage when i had tried to work with them prior to leaving the house.  retail businesses don't leave much behind when they go out of business and that's the way i was looking at it... what would a business do?  during the housing crisis many said businesses fold all the time and consumers at the time should act like businesses.

all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

we moved from CA to MD where i have a rental - good thing i work from home and can relocate anywhere.  it took us 3 and a half days almost to the hour to cross the country in February in a huge truck - so glad there was no snow.    1400 for fuel alone. 

next move is to FL.  i really don't like the cold.  never going to live in CA again though - i hate that state.

Nonsense, fixtures are part of the house.  If you had paid for your house, the bank would not have foreclosed.

Sorry, no respect at all for your vandalism or for your attempts at justification.

i vandalized nothing.  i could have vandalized the house - could have completely trashed the place to the point of ripping copper out and punching, kicking holes into the walls and doors and breaking windows. 

i sleep a lot better for what i did rather than for what i didn't.  i'm not trying to justify anything i'm simply telling the facts/story like all other things on these forums... is every story on here a justification or in this case you just don't agree so you use language to try to back me into a corner.  no corner for me, no matter what anyone says, i sleep well.

TLDR; made a bad investment, stole from the bank because that's their fault,  amirite?

[gluskap]

I bought my first place in '09 and even though I ended up selling it last year for slightly more than what I paid, when you factor in improvements I made and real estate commission I probably lost money.  However, if you factor in the little bit of equity I gained renting it out for a few years and what I would have paid in rent had I not bought it, I probably broke even.  Nevertheless, I was very happy to sell it and not worry about vacancies or renting it out and having the place trashed.  Sometimes you have to just cut your losses.  Think of it as the money you saved by not holding onto property that will end up losing you even more money.

[stlbrah]

I think it happens to a lot of people starting out. My condo is currently about 15% down in value since I bought it in 09. I was 21, no clue about investing, and boomers advised that "buying is good, renting is bad."

I got a 8k tax incentive for buying it, but I have had to do about 8k in repairs, so that cancels itself out.

The strange thing is that houses in the area are WAY up from 09. But condos continue to sell for bargains.

[Goldielocks]

i bought second home in 2006 did quite a lot to it.  bought for 450k and county reassessed for 160k in 2009 so in that year i started to rip out everything i could take with me .... entire kitchen, all flooring down to just concrete, everything lights, medicine cabinets, mailbox, screen doors and neatly put it into a truck around moving day.  i also dismantled the garage doors on the way out on moving day.  they foreclosed which was fine.  my credit took a hit for about 2 years.   when i'd apply for a CC, they would give me the card but ................

Wow.  That was not cool.

i paid for it all and more so i took what i could with me.
all this deconstruction took a while so after taking out the new kitchen cabs i replaced them with 200 cabs i found on craigslist.  i just made it look like that was the way we lived.  i painted the concrete floors.  just wanted to give appearance that we lived that way.  house actually looked fairly normal - like a poor person's house basically.  it was neat and clean with no holes in the walls when we left. 

[/quote]

Nonsense, fixtures are part of the house.  If you had paid for your house, the bank would not have foreclosed.

Sorry, no respect at all for your vandalism or for your attempts at justification.
[/quote]


i vandalized nothing.  i could have vandalized the house - could have completely trashed the place to the point of ripping copper out and punching, kicking holes into the walls and doors and breaking windows. 

i sleep a lot better for what i did rather than for what i didn't.  i'm not trying to justify anything i'm simply telling the facts/story like all other things on these forums... is every story on here a justification or in this case you just don't agree so you use language to try to back me into a corner.  no corner for me, no matter what anyone says, i sleep well.
[/quote]

TLDR; made a bad investment, stole from the bank because that's their fault,  amirite?
[/quote]

I think the poster mentioned that he put back different cabinets, flooring, etc.   ??   I assume he reinstalled light fixtures, installed different appliances and left nothing undone? 
But yeah, ripping it out because you made a mistake in the market is not the banks' fault, and to do so with anger ??

[soccerluvof4]

I just lost slightly 6 figures in downsizing recently after I consider all the updates , realtor fees etc.. BUT times in alot of areas have changed in my opinion. For 30 years interest rates were going down and real estate prices were going up. I live in a HCOL area and the prices of homes have not risen in the last 15 years and in alot of areas have declined. People keep building Mini Mc Mansion after Mini- Mc mansion and they will most likely lose as well. I agree with many others that mentioned that I too dont look at my house as an investment anymore because of what i said prior. So we bought a house after looking for close to 2 years that should at the very least hold its price because its price point in the area vs other homes. If we do upgrades etc.. its more because we want to and we want to stay here. Maybe I will be wrong and will be surprised to the upside but I doubt it and now we are in a place after two downsizes after 4 years we plan on staying till............Its funny too because i hear myself telling my kids , if and when you buy a house wait until you can buy something that no matter how your family dynamic changes its a house that allows you the flexibility to live in for 30 years otherwise rent. I know there are always exceptions to this real-estate experience I am noticing but I believe its becoming more and more the way. Not to mention all the new houses being built are just shit and look like plastic.

[Westoftown]

We lost about $40K on our house purchased in 2003 and sold in 2012, including renovations.  We had to move for a job so we couldnt hold out.  I beat myself up about it - but my wife reminds me how I hated all the maintenance on that old house and she wasnt crazy about it.

If we had to sell it now we might do better, but what's done is done!  It really doesnt do you any good to rehash past mistakes.  Its over, move on.  In our new house we have a 15 year loan, so if we just stay here at least it'll be paid for - whatever its worth then(and the mortgage is close to rental prices).

[Bearded Man]

We bought our first house at the height of the real estate bubble.  5 years later we moved 100 plus miles away for work.  Two horrible renters and for years then we sold for 10percent less than we paid for it.  And we made a ton of expensive repairs before we moved.


A couple lessons

1 fix it up so we can enjoy it.
2 never rent "your" home to others
3 do it better next time


We did and live a great home now but I've learned a bunch from this one too.  Next house, I'm not settling.  It will be exactly what we want, period.    And then I'll learn from that one too.

From living in my house I find that I am not cut out for town house living.  Unless there are some rules involved such as HOA,  I do not want to share walls, steps, or driveways ever again!  I also learned that I am not interested in home improvements.

The next place has to have everything that I want.

Don't bet the farm on the HOA. I bought in an HOA because I thought they actually did their job. Turns out they don't do anything. They are afraid of confrontation, but if you file suit and lose, you have to pay their legal fees. All completely allowed by my state. They can ban rentals, and all kinds of things too. Stay faaar away from an HOA. I hear you though on the shared walls, steps, etc. Apartment living sucks. Luckily my first apartment was well built and insulated, it was a good place to live for 10 years...