Has anyone sold a house and moved to a condo?

[MichelleCarmen]

Sometimes my husband and I discuss moving to a condo. Actually, we discuss this every week!

Our mortgage is high and if we sold our house, we could put a fair chunk of change down on a townhouse condo that''d be large enough for our four-people family. The problem though, is we love our privacy. We''d be giving that up in favor of having a mini-mortgage AND, with the prices of houses inevitably going back up, we may never again be able to afford a house if I decide to stay home while my kids continue elementary school for the next seven years. All the houses in my sons'' school district are over $600-700K. What will they be like years down the road. Do condos even appreciate?

Any thoughts?

 

[butterfly 17]

Me and my husband were discussing this actually this past week. There was a house for sale right by my SIL''s and she said they were asking $320K and I was like, I want to see this house. Everytime I see someone''s post about a house with 1/2 acre of land, I am like, why am I living here in NY when I can have land, lots and lots of land and privacy.

So, I started to talk to my husband about this. How would he feel if we sold our house, which we just moved into a year ago and buy something smaller and not as new, but most importantly, something with a much smaller mortgage than what we have now and more private.

He said he would think about it.

Our mortgage is high and even though we are making it right now, I worry that one of us will get sick or lose our job, plus I don''t want to be doing this for the next 20+ years. I don''t want to be working that long, even though I most likely will since I will have three kids to put through college.

And at the same time, I worry that if we did sell our house, even though the market is slow now I am sure it will get better eventually, we might not be able to afford another house like this ever again in this area. We got a pretty good price for our house, not dirt cheap, but still less than what similar houses are going for in the same area. My friends who are looking for detached right now all keep telling me that I got my house for an awesome price. Even my old neighbor told me she paid $848k for her house and it is the exact same style as this one but with a smaller lot.

My husband is due to retire in 2 and a half years and I think we will definitely be selling this house when that time comes. Until then, I will keep looking.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

$360K would be a dream mortgage! We have 1.23 acres, so we''re use to privacy, but it''s so much work and it takes my husband hours to mow it on a riding mower! We''re going to hire yard help this summer which will help out a lot.

Maybe it''s all the work we have on our house that''s caused us to consider the opposit route, but we keep changing our minds so who knows.

How great that your husband is retiring soon. He must be very excited!

 

[butterfly 17]

Yep, I was thinking that if we bought that house for $320K, after selling this house, we would probably have a mortgage of $130k or less. I can''t even imagine what I would do with all that money!!! It would be wonderful to have a mini mortgage.


A mortgage that low, we both would not have to work. It would be great. Except knowing myself, I would work, because I can''t stand to be cooped up in the house too long. I swear I would go crazy and hurt myself.

Yes, my husband is supposed to retire, but he is not sure if he will or not. He is still waiting on his promotion and if that goes through, he might stay on a little bit longer.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Exactly. Our mortgage would be low like that too, but what to do with all that money????

lol

Not having a yard and hearing my neighbors may not be worth that extra dough even though it''d be fabulous being able to shop guilt free whenever I felt like it!

 

[dani13]

We live in a 2 br condo right now, which we bought a little over 2 yrs ago. We love our complex...They take care of everything. Plus, we have a great pool, tennis courts, etc. When the time comes, we will most likely buy a bigger townhome in this same area. We just love the concept of townhouse living....we dont have to spend our weekends doing yardwork and house maintenance stuff, which is great. I (and MH as well) still have nightmares about helping our parents with yardwork as kids. Both MH and I grew up in fairly large homes with a lot of property, which is something we both agree we really dont want, unless we have a gardener and pool boy (lol)!!!!! Besides that, buying the type of home that we would want in this area is way out of the budget right now..the prices here are crazy!!!

We still have a ton of privacy here too (we have an end unit) and its very quiet. So, like buying a home, its all about buying a unit with a good location.

 

[golden]

Hey! I have lived in co-op's and condo's most of my life and now we live in a house. For a while I missed the apartment type of living, everyone did everything- we had a doorman 24/7 and you didn't have to worry about landscaping nor snow removal. I think it also depends where you live, I am in NJ and condo fee's can be expensive. It could easily work out to be the same amount of money in a condo/co-op as it is to live in a house. Naturally, as soon as we bought this house, it was one thing after the other and we have already put a lot of money into fixing it!!! After living in a house for just over a year, I love the privacy and I love having property. So....all that being said, make sure you look at the condo fee's and make sure that in the end, it is worth it.

As far as appreciation- I am a real estate agent so just like houses, condo's are just the same, it's all about LOCATION!!!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Hmmm, well I think it totally depends on your real estate market, but ultimately, no one can predict if houses or condos will appreciate more or even if they'll appreciate at all during a certain time. We bought our house a year ago and couldn't sell it for what we paid at the moment. However, I think we could still get the same price we got for our condo a year ago.

I think home ownership is a great thing because you must live somewhere and once it's paid off, it's yours no matter what life throws your way, but unless you get lucky like my brother who sold his condo for more than double what he paid only five years later (so yes, condos *can* appreciate!), I don't think real estate is a better investment than mutual funds, etc (I sold my condo for 23% more than I paid, but I don't even know how to compare that to what I could have made investing that money in the stock market because I paid all that interest in my mortgage payments, etc. -- I put down $28k, paid about $25k in mortgage payments, then after selling got a check for maybe $55k, what it sold for minus what I owed and the realtor's share . . . so did I actually "make" money? Wait a minute, that's actually pretty good, because if I'm doing the math correctly it's like I lived there for free for three years minus condo fees and improvements which were mostly taken care of by the insurance co. after I had a fire. Of course, without the fire and subsequent renovation my place wouldn't have sold for so much more).

In other words, I wouldn't worry about lost potential gain in your house's value when considering downsizing. I'd do what makes sense for your family . . . what you can afford. And if you have tons of extra $$$ because of a smaller mortgage, I'd diversify your investments so that if one area does poorly (like the housing market right now), then you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

I think when people talk about real estate as an investment, they mean real estate development or flipping. Ownership has its benefits, which you enjoy as long as you live in your house, and then you hope you sell it for enough to move to where you next want to live, but I wouldn't count on making money in the process.

Anyway, I am probably approaching this too philosophically.

 

[Efe]

Date: 2/22/2008 3:21:11 PM
Author: MC
Not having a yard and hearing my neighbors may not be worth that extra dough even though it''d be fabulous being able to shop guilt free whenever I felt like it!

We have lived in a townhouse, a house in a regular subdivision and now in a house on 5+ acres and we feel like we could never go back. We like our privacy too much. The first year we lived here, we did all the yard work but that changed in year 2 when my husband refused to spend another entire Saturday mowing the yard.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Thanks so much again everyone. I'm bumping this up because I have news. We have decided to sell our house.

I have mixed feelings about selling such a beautiful house but am glad to be giving up an outrageous mortgage, which will make it all worth while since I don't want to have to work into old age to keep up a very expensive house and high maintenance yard.

Life moves on, I guess. Probably in the future, we'll buy another house that has privacy but with a lot rather than 1.23 acres. I'm not sure what my husband and I were thinking in the first place. . . BUT after we sell, we'll pay off our cars, which is a huge relief.

 

[krispi]

Congratulations on making a decision, and here''s to smaller mortgage payments!

If you are going to shop condos, my advice would be to pay close attention to what kind of people live in the complex already. Are they mostly career-focused people who''ve put their college partying ways behind them? I wouldn''t buy in a neighborhood that was mostly younger people right out of college. As someone who moved from a detached house into an apartment and then into a townhouse, I would say that neighbors make all the difference when sharing walls, and I don''t appreciate hearing other people''s loud thumping music.

 

[Efe]

Congratulations MC. Sounds like the right decision for you. Hope the house sells quickly.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 2/29/2008 2:40:41 PM
Author: krispi
Congratulations on making a decision, and here''s to smaller mortgage payments!

If you are going to shop condos, my advice would be to pay close attention to what kind of people live in the complex already. Are they mostly career-focused people who''ve put their college partying ways behind them? I wouldn''t buy in a neighborhood that was mostly younger people right out of college. As someone who moved from a detached house into an apartment and then into a townhouse, I would say that neighbors make all the difference when sharing walls, and I don''t appreciate hearing other people''s loud thumping music.

Yes, I will be looking for a peaceful setting (hopefully my boys will be quiet for others). There are condos right near us that are in our neighborhood and still in my son''s school district so they''ll probably be the ones we''ll look into. There are a few units for sale. All the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods sell from $500-699K so the condos are still nice, but a lot cheaper than the houses.

It would be nice to say that all the money we''re saving will be put into sparkilies, but instead it''ll be placed into savings. Time to start being good

and think smart for long-term. It''s so hard in our society to not spend like crazy.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 2/29/2008 2:46:35 PM
Author: BizouMom
Congratulations MC. Sounds like the right decision for you. Hope the house sells quickly.

Thanks so much. . .I hope it sells too. We have direct access to the MLS listings because our friend is a realtor so we''ve been looking at housing prices and also at what comparable houses have sold for. What a bad time to be selling. . . ahhhh

 

[butterfly 17]

oh MC, I am kind of sad about this, but I know that it was well thought out and planned and I know you would not be doing it without making sure that it''s the best decision, but still, I remember how much you loved this house and I remember the pictures.

I have to say, you deciding this is giving me courage if ever we decide to make the same leap.

I hope your house sells fast, but not so fast that you have nowhere to go.

Start looking NOW! And when you find some hopeful new homes, post pictures!

 

[krispi]

Date: 2/29/2008 8:33:55 PM
Author: MC

Date: 2/29/2008 2:40:41 PM
Author: krispi
Congratulations on making a decision, and here''s to smaller mortgage payments!

If you are going to shop condos, my advice would be to pay close attention to what kind of people live in the complex already. Are they mostly career-focused people who''ve put their college partying ways behind them? I wouldn''t buy in a neighborhood that was mostly younger people right out of college. As someone who moved from a detached house into an apartment and then into a townhouse, I would say that neighbors make all the difference when sharing walls, and I don''t appreciate hearing other people''s loud thumping music.

Yes, I will be looking for a peaceful setting (hopefully my boys will be quiet for others). There are condos right near us that are in our neighborhood and still in my son''s school district so they''ll probably be the ones we''ll look into. There are a few units for sale. All the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods sell from $500-699K so the condos are still nice, but a lot cheaper than the houses.

It would be nice to say that all the money we''re saving will be put into sparkilies, but instead it''ll be placed into savings. Time to start being good

and think smart for long-term. It''s so hard in our society to not spend like crazy.

I just wanted to add that it definitely can be done! I bought my townhouse in September, and I love it - just as much as my previous house and much, much more than the apartment. Good luck with your search!