Monday, December 10, 2007

House For Sale

My husband and I are finally financially ready to move. We want a somewhat larger house with a second bathroom and a finished basement. These are just the basics of our wish list. We also want a good school district, a fenced in back yard for doggie, 3 bedrooms, and at least 1200 square feet. We are both starting to get very antzy. The plan was to put our house on the market in March of 2008 and that is approaching very quickly now and we still have a long list of things we want to get done before listing it. Clearing out and packing up our clutter, painting, fixing the gutter, raking leaves (yes, we didn't get around to it in the fall), finishing the kitchen flooring, etc. Basically typing up all the loose ends of our unfinished projects.

We aren't happy that we are most likely going to be taking a $10,000 or more loss...but we know we will be making it up on our next home. We are looking for a house that has an SEV value of around $200,000 and those are currently listed, not selling, in the $170's. So we're hoping to sneak it and snag one up somewhere in the $160's. We plan on doing a 30 year fixed mortgage, but will have enough disposable income to pay it off in 15 years or less!

Needless to say, we are going to be very busy in the next 3-4 months. I want to get the house listed by the first week of May, and I hope it's realistic, but I know we have a lot of work to do. We did get some inspiration this last Saturday when we went to look at a few homes and found one that's perfect for us. It has all of our wish list items, but we are worried that it will be gone by the time we get around to listing ours. Not to mention that we have no idea how long it's going to take to sell ours! But now we have some motivation to get going on the projects around our house. Luckily the market is very slow, so it's likely that that house will still be on the market, and hopefully at a lower price. We're hoping as soon as we get ours listed, we can put in a full-price offer contingent upon selling our home. If the seller has no other offers on the table, they may give us at least 30-90 days to get ours sold. So, here's hoping.

So, anyone in Burton, MI looking to buy a house? If so, ours is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch-style on 0.8 acres. 1120 square feet. Kearsley school district. Several updates within the past 5 years – new roof, new furnace, central air-conditioning, floor coverings, windows, window coverings, appliances. Glass door slider off master bedroom that leads to a large deck and huge treed, fenced in backyard with fire pit. Large 3 1/2 car garage with tons of storage in breezeway between house and garage, and bonus room above garage.

Listing it for $99,900. Appraised at $110,000 in May of 2004.