selling our home to pay off debt

**lovemycubbycakes** · 07-10-2006, 07:18 PM

has anyone ever sold there home to pay off all the debt and purchase something smaller to live in?

when we purchased our home hubby was making very good money, I quit my job and started homeschooling my three children. 5 years later he become a christian and was called to the ministry (he started bible college and worked part time) we have been able to stay a-float with some savings to stay in our 700.00 a month house paymen....But we have acquired some debt (about 7,000.) Hubby is now finished with bible college and weve got our home on the market, when it sells we will make enough to pay off that debt and have a (little) left for him to go to seminary and rent a small home or purchase something much smaller. \

Thanks, Tina ><>

**Jasmine** · 07-10-2006, 11:59 PM

We're thinking about doing this. DH wants to go back to school and we're selling if he does. We'll hardly make anything on our house after realtor fees and things. However, we'll rent an apt for a few years and won't have the mortgage payment, our utilities will be less, and we won't worry about something needing fixed. All total we'll be saving almost $500 per month which can go to debt reduction. And once our debts are paid, DH will hardly need any student loans to finish his degree!

**chatterweb** · 07-11-2006, 12:59 AM

I would to secure 0% credit for the debt if you can.
Selling a home can be emotional and costly.
Do you have decent credit? 700+

**hollyhill** · 07-11-2006, 02:33 AM

We've just been through my Dh going to school for two years....I am also a homeschooling mom...

But we manged to do it without selling our home (our mortgage payment is less than rent around here IF you can find something suitable) and I worked part time around my childrens needs...

I don't know what kind of help there is for students where you live....but we found there was alot of help for Dh because he had dependents....
We found that if you took our student loans you qualified for all kinds of grants and burseries....but if we had sold our home to live off of the earninds we would not have qualified for loans or grants or burseries....because anysavings is taken in to consideration as an asset but your home isn't...

Yes we have student loans now but it only about $17,000 for two years and we still have $4000 left that we will put on the loan once all the final grants are in.............

So you need to consider how much assistance there is for your Dh, with or without your home (or other assests) before the final descision is made.

**homemaker66** · 07-11-2006, 07:05 AM

We sold our home for many reasons. The house was getting to big for us. The children are at the age where they are always gone and my husband works on the road and I was always home alone. The house had five bedrooms and total of 13 rooms all together. The yard was very large it took me two and half hours just to mow and that is not weedeating around everything. Then on the other side of the coin there was the payments every month of having and maintaining the home. It seemed all of our checks were going into it and so little to make due with. So we down sized into a much smaller house and it saved us over 200.00 in the payments each month. We took the left over money of the selling of the home and paid for the winters heat and paid some bills off and believe it or not we enjoyed some of it. We have struggled for so long it was very nice to enjoy it. We also have some put away for the rainy day events. The down side of it is this place does not feel like home to anyone. We are missing the old home and all of the home sweet home feelings is at the other home.

**lovemycubbycakes** · 07-11-2006, 07:37 AM

Thanks for the great insight.........I guess I should have went into more details. Our home has gotten two big for us, two in college and it leaves me,hubby and one son in a 3000 square foot home and a huge yard to keep up with. when we purchased this home we could swing the payment with no problem, now with the price of school (we have zero debt from college loans, and plan on continuing in this manner) we have paid as they go.. along with getting a few schlorships. (the christian colleges/universitys work a little different as they dont get funds from state or federal as the regular colleges and universitys do), so alot of help with school would not apply in our case. they are a non-profit orginazation's and take donations instead and this is what there schlorships are based on.

My hubby has been commuting back and forth to work for about 6 months and we are spending apx 550.00 per month in gas for that. so we figure that could be used on a house payment if we are closer to his work place, and if we sell we will make enough to pay off our $7,000 debt and have a little left r to roll over into another dwelling place of some kind with alot smaller payment as he finishes seminary. does that make sence? it would cut our bills by apx 1,300. a month (including the gas) then we could put this in a savings, as right now we are not able to save anything. he is working for the bible college he attended and is only making 30,000 a year now. before we were making right at 100,000 a year and this is why we chose a larger home to purchase at the time (we could afford it) now we need something we can afford better and something smaller too.

There is some needs in our life... one being a car as ours is about 13 years old and is constantly needing repairs, our daughter is getting married in november (wedding costs) and selling our home will free up money for that so we don't acrue more debt because we would pay cash for these & we can also pay off the debt we already have and still have a little for savings & a down payment on a smaller home.

The cost of selling our home is going to be nothing for us as we already have a Buyer (I think) we are awaiting her mortgage lenders closing process) she is paying all closing costs. We also already have another family that wants it if she does not take it....we havent even advertise it yet!! we are selling it on our own so we dont have any fees from a real estate firm. It just seems its all happening so fast! I dont even know how long we have to roll that money over into another place to live so there is no capital gains tax (something I need to look into)

Thanks for your input!

Sorry this was so Long !
Tina ><>

**littlemotherhaywood** · 07-11-2006, 09:55 AM

I was thinking we should sell our home too. It's not too big for us, but with an income cut and the debt just not going down, there has to be another option somewhere. If we could just finish some small projects we should be able to get at least $10,000 more than we paid for it. We should actually have about $30,000 in equity, but more than half of that is debt we have towards home repairs so we wouldn't really be any further ahead in the long run. If everything was updated we could probably get more. My concern is that we really have nowhere to go. We could move back home where our family is with a cheaper cost of living, but the salaries are a lot less too. DH was making more than twice what he's making now with his new job when we bought the house. Our house payment is low compared to most in our area, but with everything else, it's still too much. With two kids and four cats, our options to rent are pretty limited too

Good luck with whatever you decide.

**Telephus44** · 07-12-2006, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by lovemycubbycakes

It just seems its all happening so fast! I dont even know how long we have to roll that money over into another place to live so there is no capital gains tax (something I need to look into)

I believe that the first $250,000 PROFIT is exempt from capital gains, per person (so for a married couple it would be the first $500,000). They did away with the "only if you buy another house" restriction in 1997.

http://www.bankrate.com/dls/itax/new...1.asp?caret=12

Just an FYI - but good news!

**dolphin** · 07-14-2006, 11:06 PM

We are seriously considering selling our home. It's mostly because of our health though the sale would pay off all of our debts. We're not able to keep up with the expenses of house maintenance and I've been stuck doing all of the housework and maintenance for 7 years now and I'm just not willing to do it anymore. Right now, the selling prices are high here and now that dh has had a stroke and I have a lump in my lung, it just makes sense for us to sell as neither one of us could afford the home without the others income, well, dh could but then he would let the house fall down around him, lol.

It sounds like you guys have a well thought out plan. Just make sure you go over all of the 'what if's ' that you can think. Hugs and good luck.