This is the front of our house last January when we moved in. It actually looks about the same now. Buying this house was such a roller coaster experience and looking back, I don't really know if I am ready to do that again anytime soon. I mean, we love our house, but we know it is not our forever home. We could probably have one child here no problem, but the more I think about wanting to start a family, the more I think - we don't have enough space!
Awhile back we spoke with our mortgage broker about refinancing the house since the interest rates are even lower and because we did a short sale...the property value is obviously more than what we paid for it. We could get rid of the mortgage insurance and have a cheaper monthly payment. BUT, since it hadn't been a year since our last appraisal, we had to wait until this month to look into things further. I called Mark today. My initial reaction? Let the roller coaster begin!
Mark explains things very well. It is part of what we like about he and his wife and their awesome business. Here is what he said: in order to refi, our house needs to be valued at at least $191,000. We did NOT pay that for this house, but upon looking at the county assessors page, our house appraised at $189,900 LAST year, AFTER we paid significantly less for it. We are in the pocket of the market where home prices are back on the rise. This is great news. Then he explained that if our house is worth that much, it probably would be in our better interest to SELL, and use the extra funds as a down payment on a more long-term investment, rather than refi. Let's break down the numbers.
Let's say we can sell our house for $200,000 (as a nice round number), we would be able to take the money we earn from the sale, put down 25% on a new construction home in a little bit more rural area (which we eventually want anyhow), and our payment would be LESS than what it is now...for a bigger more permanent investment. So as Mark said, why wouldn't we do that?
Well, let the list begin! We are just now able to start putting our own touches on this house. In front of me on the wall in the office...paint swatches.
In the living room... new shelves and picture frames to finally hang after a year of living here. We LIKE our house. We are tired of moving. SO many reasons. The list could go on.
BUT, then comes our budget conscious selves...pay less...more house...house we like more...house we can GROW in...
Hmph. So, tomorrow we find our if the roller coaster begins again...and of course, this thought could all be completely unfounded. Tomorrow we could find out it isn't worth what it needs to be. And then we may find out that the buyer market may not support the price. That would certainly make life EASIER.
In the meantime, Sam and I will be working on putting more personal touches on the house! :) After all, it is our HOME! <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">
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