I guess that's better than having "bought the farm..."
Although for what we ended up having to sell it for, it kinda felt like we "bought the farm."
But, even though we ended up taking a bath financially, it is one monkey off of our back.
In hindsight, I really feel like the previous seller / realtor took advantage of us. I guess we should have taken heed to the old "caveat emptor." Unfortunately, back when we bought the house, there was no legal disclosure form like there is now to help protect buyers in a real estate transaction.
Because the house had a working septic tank, we never thought to have the land "perc'd." Mistake #1. Turns out the land doesn't perc, and the county will not recertify the existing septic system for a new house. Therefore, no one can put a new house on the land without spending a small fortune for a special type of septic system or having the county extend the sewer and water lines.
The house was in poor condition when we bought it, and the last nine plus years have not been kind to it. We knew that the house leaned a bit, but we didn't realize that it would continue to settle and lean even more. We were to the point where we truly were concerned it might just fall over. Leaving it empty for the last couple of years left the house vulnerable to vandalism, so what time didn't further damage, hooligans did. Mistake #2. We should have sold it when we moved out. We might not have made any money, but we could have sold it as land plus house - such as it was - and probably not lost our shirt... the house was in better condition when we moved out than when we had moved in.
Had we stayed in Oxford, we might have been able to overcome mistake #1 - local politics being what they are. Unfortunately, mistake #2 was worse than nothing. It turned a positive into an absolute negative. The fact that there is a decrepit house on the property is worse than if nothing were there, since as it is, it creates a potential liability for the owner should someone wander in (albeit unlawfully) and get injured. Therefore, the smart thing to do at this point would be to tear the house down - which of course will cost time and money. I am fairly certain that the house is "too far gone" to salvage - at least, profitably.
So, we ended up selling the property to the folks who own the surrounding land. They want the land, and are in no hurry to do anything with it. At least this way, we can have a clear conscience about the transaction, and we did get enough to pay off our loan. So, even though from a profit / net worth perspective, we got hammered, from a cash flow perspective, not having a monthly loan payment, or homeowners insurance, or property taxes, or a monthly electric bill for a useless outside security light, will be "money in the bank." And we get the added benefit of removing the risk and worry associated with owning a former dream turned nightmare.
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Posted by David at March 24, 2005 12:21 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life