Hi There,
I thought a lot about the best way to answer your question. Let use numbers. You purchased your home 3 years ago, in Bellevue for says 350K. Sounds like you chose not to use your VA at that time. So let’s say you put 20K. So you owe 330K.. Values on condos have dropped so now your home is work 330K. About what you owe. Now you wish to sell. So I am going to assume that you will list your home with a full service agent so your fees will be roughly 6% for commissions and another 3% for Title/Escrow and 1% for any Inspection items needed. So that means 10% of sale. You put your home on the market at 330K and you get an offer (yeah) they ask for 3% in closing costs (which is 3% of the their loan amount!) They have minimum down. 3.5%... So your net before concession is 300K and with an additional 9585 to the buyer. Your new closing net is 290,415. So from what you owe to what you payoff the bank is now 39,585K. Now this is just speculation, if the same agent is helping you purchase to, I am going to figure they may provide some kind of break to you, on one side of the transaction. Also, closing costs are negotiable, but it’s much harder to build them in these days. Appraisers are leery of this. Now you have some working figures and you have yet to buy. VA lets you buy with no down, and you can use seller concessions of up to 6% to buy down the rate and help with your closing costs. You also need to be aware of one other important item in selling your condo. FHA is changing all of the rules regarding Condos. The biggest of them, is that all condos must re-apply for FHA approval and only 30% of all homes within a condo complex can be FHA loans. That means if you have 100 condos only 30 of them can be FHA, and I can tell you that almost all of the lending that is happening with first time buyers is FHA. So, that can have a huge impact if you wait to sell in says another couple of years, depending on what your neighbors do. It’s a lot to consider, but I hope I have added a little something more to the equation.

Best option speak with CPA there could be tax advantages for you. I hate see you waste $20K lot of money.

Have you spoken to your lender? Adjust your mortgage where you might be able to lease property at least break even. I would not tell your lender your intent to lease determine if you can fix interest rate and etc.

HOWEVER I have had families pay to get out their homes move on purchase a home with $300K in equity was it worth for them yes they are so happy

National Featured Realtor and Consultant, Texas Mortgage Loan Officer, Credit Repair Lecturer
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Lynn911

There is greater clarity by using today's numbers than guessing what the future has in store for you. Because waiting is more speculative, we prefer considering today's options and doing the best to involve numbers that favor our personal needs.

Good luck
The Eckler Team

HLR, I'm not sure why you deleted any of your posts. I thought the first one was rather good.

Home seller Bellevue
I agree to be able to answer your concerns it is important to know what a realistic sales price is for your
condo today and what your sales costs would be. It sounds like you are not happy there and that is a big
motivating factor in your decision. Next look at which areas are desireable to you to purchase a single family home and what a realistic purchase price plus closing costs will be as well as payment with today's interest rates. As Karen mentioned you may "lose" on your sale but "gain" on your purchase. In the long run you may come out ahead financially as well as be happier. If that is the case than you are wise to further investigate selling and buying at this time.
Mary

What truth? 5 agents have responded so far, have given varying opionions and things to consider. Only one even mentioned to contact them. One is from Chicago, Anacortes is not even close to Bellevue and I am about an hour south.

I didn't come on here and say "sorry to hear your value decreased, that appraiser only cared about their paycheck when they overvalued your property".

There is no question that we post on here to get our opinions heard and maybe network or pick up clients. But to say that is the only motive is down right rude. We all have been affected by this market and we have a duty and obligation to educate anyone that will listen, especially if they ask first. Is our advice always correct? I am sure not but if someone asks a question on here or any other site and I or any other agent feels they can offer something constructive to help that person educate themselves, does that mean we have an ulterior motive?

There are bad agents, lenders, appraisers, doctors, lawyers etc. etc... I am pretty sure that Nluvwithdmb can judge who on here is interested in giving advice or trying to get business. As I stated in my earlier post, there are no right or wrong answers to this question, it will be up to Nluvwithdmb to decide what is best for them and they should have the help of a professional that they trust and have all of the facts before they make that decision.

Dear Nluvwithdmb,

The absolutely best time to "buy up" is in a "Buyers market", which is when prices are dropping (or have dropped) due to supply and demand. Here is an easy way to analyze it. If prices drop 10% on a $300,000 property, that equates to $30,000 in real dollars. The 10% drop on a $500,000 house is $50,000. You just increased your buying power, and potential equity by $20,000!

Of course there are other factors like location that affect these numbers.

Interest rates are going to go up. One of the key reasons is that the Federal Government just bought their last round of mortgage backed bonds, and that is a key factor in holding rates down. Roughly a 1% increase in interest rates, which can happen in one day, decreases your buying power by 10%. Truly, now is the time to move!

I have a Powerpoint / Excel tool with which I can show you the specific interest rate versus price concept for your personal situation. Pelase contact me if you're interested in seeing it.

Good luck in your decision.

Warm Regards,
Karen

Interesting the appraisers comments are gone. I was going to chastise her for assuming agents are only looking out for ourselves.

Their is no right or wrong answer for this. You could speak with a dozen agents and financial planners or appraisers. We will all have our opinions but ultimately you will have to make the decision and live with it. Personally I do not think we have enough information at this time regarding your situation which is why you need to talk to a professional to analyze the situation.

When you say you are upside down by roughly 20k, does that include the cost of selling the home or just the price you feel it is worth compared to what you owe on it? Another factor in your decision to take the hit today or wait is intereste rates. When this market recovers I would expect interest rates to rise also, which will affect your buying power in the future. We are in a market of great opportunity for the people that can take advantage of it but it may not even be possible in your case.

I am in a similar situation from a stand point that if I sold my house I would take a loss. I would sell in a heartbeat (this only applies to me) for a loss if I had the ability to do so and buy up. Just because you can do it though doesn't necessarily mean you should, so talk to someone you trust, talk to some professionals and get all of the facts before you make your decision.

HLR, either you can't count or you can't read. Only three agents have responded, and I did not advise to sell and buy. I think what they should do should be based on something no one can determine--how badly they want to move. That's really what it comes down to, because moving costs money in more ways than one.

That said, your point is good that Nluvwithdmb should consider the motivations of the people answering.

Hi, you know it is hard to give you an exact answer, and I am not a Realtor from your area, but in my area I have clients that are in the exact same situation, thinking when they bought their condo a few years back that they will pay into some of the equity and plus the appreciation expected per year, they will get a nice down payment out of the property and save a bit more on the side, so that in a few years they will be able to sell and buy a single family home and a larger home.

Well the market did not "comply", the economy throw all those hopes and calculations a bad curve.....
So they are in the same situation, lose money on the condo and buy the next larger home for so much less than they would have had prices not gone down.... Now when losing money on the sale, there still needs to be enough down payment available to purchase the next home and be able to borrow from the lender the right amount needed for that larger property.

If and when that amount of down payment and closing costs for selling one and buying the other is available then this is a good time, as there are great deals out there to acquire larger properties at sometimes heavily reduced pricing.

But you should sit down with your Realtor and crunch honest numbers for the sale and for the purchase, so that you know how much the next one may cost you, down payment needed, closing costs etc. and then you need to sit down with a reputable lender who will put all the costs and all your loan options in front of you in writing before you decide!

Good Luck!
Edith Karoline - YourRealtor4Life!
Working always in the very BEST interest of her clients.....
EdithSellsHomes@gmail.com

By the way if you know of anyone moving or thinking about buying or selling in the larger Chicagoland Area, city property or anywhere in Northern Illinois, please send them my way and they will receive 1st class real estate services. I promise!

Sorry - bad math in my first answer! Your rent would have been only $555 a month! Now THAT wasn't a bad deal!

Good luck!

Hi -

Well, look at it this way - if you hadn't purchased the condo and you had been paying rent instead - 3 years of rent at $2200 a month would have equaled about the $20K that you will bring to the table to close if you choose to sell the condo. I don't know if that is high for your unit or not, but I say, if it doens't pencil to rent it - cut your losses and sell it if you really don't want to live there any more. In the big picture - at least maybe you really didn't loose anything other than some paper equity that you didn't really have to begin with. It's a bummer, but not the end of the world.

If you can get a zero down VA loan on a more expensive place, you can take advantage of the lowered market - recognizing that it may be several years (if ever) before we are back up to where the market was a few years ago. If you are going to do that, make sure you buy something that you really love and are prepared to live in for 5 or 10 years as the market crawls back up out of the gutter.

Good luck!
Meredith Laws

You're asking people to predict the future. If I'd predicted two years ago, I would have predicted that condos would get hit faster and harder than SFR, but that didn't seem to occur, or at least to the extent I would have expected.

Rather than try to predict the future I think I'd base my decision on one question: How bad do you want to move out of the condo?

If you want to move really badly, then now would probably be the time to do it because the situation might get worse in the future, making it harder for you to move. You mentioned the possibility that houses might appreciate more, but there's also the possibility that your condo would go down to the point where you're locked in, no matter what house prices are. It just depends on how bad that situation would be for you.

If you don't want to move very badly, then it might be that paying off the deficiency simply isn't worth it to you, and you should stay put.