Sell home#2?

**Railrhoad** · 10-26-2009, 09:10 PM

Ok, my wife and I got married in Feb 2009. Together we brought about $52,000 in debt to the table. We both had a mortgage for 5 years (no money down first time buyer stuff and no equity). She moved into my place and we could not get her place to sell. In the meantime we had paid off $44,000 worth of debt but still had the property. We got an offer last month and went with it. With realtor fees and equity loss, we lost about $18,000 on the close but got rid of it (unfortunately no one would give us a loan at 805 credit score so we had to cash advance CCs). So now we're back at $20,000 in the hole (didn't feel like we had much we could do). Now my wife is pregnant and my property is three stories so we're looking to do it all over again! We want to get a rental but we're looking at a -$8,000 hit and additional -$7000 in realtors fees. We just went from almost debt free to potentially back in debt 35k! Any recommendations? We make very good money and have stripped ourselves down so we're not buying stupid things to get this debt. Any recommendations?

**littleplum** · 10-26-2009, 09:22 PM

I don't understand what your wife being pregnant has to do with your house. Are you saying it's too small for three people?

**Railrhoad** · 10-26-2009, 09:35 PM

The inconvenience of three stories on a new mommy!

**littleplum** · 10-26-2009, 09:39 PM

Interesting. We deliberately chose a home with three stories with family in mind. (Well, it's a 1.5 with a full basement, but two flights of stairs all the same.)

We considered that we would be "new parents" for only a few short months, and that 90% of our living was on the main floor, anyway.

Not to mention, walking the stairs is good exercise to get that postpartum body back in shape.

**Deprived4TooLong** · 10-26-2009, 09:43 PM

Oh, the clarity of hindsight. I just sold my first home because I had moved into my second home. My goal was to keep the first home as rental income, or my son when he gets old enough. Either way I sold the older one, and regretted doing that, especially since no money was owed.

Can you stay where you are, til the market rebounds, so you dont repeat the mistake and bury yourselves even further financially? Is three stories enough for the family with the new baby?

Sandi

**Deprived4TooLong** · 10-26-2009, 09:44 PM

Why take another hit on the sale price NOW with the market in the shape it is?

Can it wait?

Sandi

**Greebo** · 10-26-2009, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by Railrhoad

The inconvenience of three stories on a new mommy!

Pretty sure unless Mommy is wheelchair bound, she'll get over it.

**McD** · 10-26-2009, 10:34 PM

Three stories can be inconvenient even without a new baby. However, you need to weigh convenience versus debt right now.

What, specifically, are the concerns with the three stories? I ask because there are lots of new mommies and lots of veteran mommies on this site that could give you advice on how they handled the same or similiar concerns in a way that didn't involved taking on an additional 15K in debt.

**missmanny** · 10-26-2009, 11:45 PM

I have to agree with the other posters that it would take a lot more then stair inconvenience to force me into taking on extra debt.

without trying to trivialise your situation, and BTW it is lovely that you are concerned for your wife and her needs at this time. Women give birth and live with their children in many different circumstances. I think that you wife would cope just fine and that if she did have any particular concerns there would be plenty of ideas out there that may help.

**a.nonymous** · 10-27-2009, 04:15 AM

I'm the eldest of 6 kids, and my parents lived (and still do) in a 3 stories house. Out of all the problems that came with raising 3 of my younger siblings (one year apart each) the three stories were never mentioned.

As long as you center your wife and kid's lives on the first two stories, it shouldn't be too bothersome.

**littleplum** · 10-27-2009, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by Greebo

Pretty sure unless Mommy is wheelchair bound, she'll get over it.

No kidding. Imagine being a new mommy in the Sinagua tribe and climbing the ladders to get in and out of this.

**monkeywrangler71** · 10-27-2009, 09:13 AM

Littleplum, that is my absolute favourite place on Earth. I would have happily carried a dozen babies up and down ladders for a chance to live in there.

As far as moving is concerned, I still don't understand. If she can't climb stairs while pregnant, she can sleep on the first floor until after the baby comes. Once the kids are a bit bigger you'll be glad of the peace a couple extra stories will bring.

**littleplum** · 10-27-2009, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by monkeywrangler71

Littleplum, that is my absolute favourite place on Earth. I would have happily carried a dozen babies up and down ladders for a chance to live in there.

As far as moving is concerned, I still don't understand. If she can't climb stairs while pregnant, she can sleep on the first floor until after the baby comes. Once the kids are a bit bigger you'll be glad of the peace a couple extra stories will bring.

Oh, but the well, as beautiful as it is, is poison.

**mateosbaby** · 10-27-2009, 09:07 PM

I have to agree with the others. As a mom of 4, granted, I don't have 3 stories, but I WISH I did, and I just had #4 a few months ago! In fact, we'd like to get a bigger house WITH 3 stories, and we plan to have more kids in the future. Honestly, she'll deal with 3 stories. It's GREAT exercise for pregnancy and post-partum alike, something she will probably love later on. Yeah, it's tough going up and down (mostly) up steps during the last couple months or so, but we deal. Imagine having to chase another kid up and down the steps (or ladders, as pointed out above), while pregnant.

My point is, we women deal just fine with circumstances as dealt in life. And later, after you get into all this debt, you may wish you had that house again with so many places to "hide" the kids so you can have a little bit of quiet time.