We might move in 2 yrs

[Carmella]

At least if we move in 2 yrs the BK should be off of our credit report. We have to start seriously rebuilding our credit score. We didn't worry too much since we were not planning on any big purchases at this point in our lives.

I wasn't planning on moving, or moving this soon. But if our daughter moves out of state we might go since we have no other family and I want to be close to grandchildren when they arrive! My husband and I have always thought we would do this, but didn't anticipate it happening until after retirement.

I thought of Barbisi and Zombie13 back in Colorado. Our house is not in good shape and I have thought don't worry about repairs sell it to someone like they did. Then last week I got a postcard in the mail from a company that does just that. It even said, "don't worry about costly repairs." And it's true why put the money into just to make the same net profit/less in profit since you paid for repairs--just sell it for a decent price, take the money and run!

I don't think I really have any questions, but just wanted to throw this out there since we have seen others be successful moving. Now I know the above couple do not have a mortgage and we would not either at least for the 1st year after moving we would rent so maybe I put this in the wrong section.

[Zombie13]

Carmella, this seems like the correct forum location to me!
Yes, we worked with our existing realtors when we sold our home to the investor. The realtors had a good working relationship with the investor, so that helped. If you have a CapitalOne or PenFed credit account, you can check your credit scores for free. Now, I don't recall if it is FICO 8 or 9, or whichever of the 30+ scores used heh. But I reason, regardless of which score it is, you can monitor it. If it is going up continuously, chances are the others are as well.

For rebuilding credit, we have used our credit cards but paid them in full immediately. And we have a car loan which appears to help as well.

When you do go to sell, definitely make sure you feel comfortable, and able to trust, the realtor or the company. I figure, it may be better to work with a realtor, even though they charge their fee, since they will negotiate on your behalf. I do not feel confident that the company that mailed the postcard to you would do the same. But, the postcard did get you thinking about it, which is a good thing. Our realtor had a couple options for the sale, regarding their fee: as I recall, if the house sold for above 550K, their fee would be the standard rate: 3.5% or similar. If the house sold for less than 550K, their fee would be $10K. Something like that; I forget and would have to look at the documents.

Yes, selling to an investor worked out for the best, since we did not have the resources to update the house and sell on the open market. Even if we did, the potentially extra profit would not have been worth all the headache. Plus, as you are saying, we were moving out of state, which would further complicate the whole house update and sell debacle. Considering the resources we did have for updating the house: about 30K, borrowed from the 401K, we would not have made more profit by updating and selling on the open market. So, yes, selling to the investor was the correct path for us. Once the funds landed in our bank account, we paid off the 401K loan, and whatever else we owed; I forget what we owed on which accounts but we paid them all off heh so, debt free. Interestingly, the same morning the home sale funds were deposited in our bank account, we got the official Closing notice from the attorney/trustee.

When we rented the homes here, before the BK officially dropped off our report, we were prepared to answer questions regarding the BK. But, it never came up. In fact, when we rented the 2nd home, the owner said he reviewed the credit report and didn't see any concerns. I interpreted that as: "I saw the BK but also saw the current income, we have met in person, and I trust you to make the rent payments".

[Barbisi]

I have to second and stand 100% behind every word Zombie13 said above as selling to an investor recommended by our long-time realtor was definitely the correct path for us at that time. One thing my hubby did left out was the timing: we sold at the absolute apex of the crazy home real estate market and really reaped the benefit of those insanely inflated prices!
Carmella, be certain to get an independent home appraisal and inspection before you would agree to sell to those "postcard" buyers - they are notorious for offering the homeowner below market value. Working with a trustworthy realtor who can steer you towards a fair dealing investor will ensure you get the maximum profit possible.
And the market may be "intoxicated" again by then - these mad home markets seem to come around every few years.
Congrats on an exciting relocation two years or so in the future!

[shipo]

A few comments:

• Checking your "free" credit scores at banks and other financial institutions (Vantage 3.0 at CapitalOne and one of the FICO 9 scores at PenFed) does nothing to inform you what your 5/2/4 FICO mortgage scores are; the only way I know to get all of one's FICO scores (of which there are nearly 40) for free is to sign up for a free introductory offer at Credit.com for their ExtraCredit! program and then to cancel before the first month is up.
• I've spent the last week down here in Maryland house hunting? Why? As with Carmella, our daughter moved to Gaithersburg last year and she and her fiancé are begging us to move down here as well.
• Yeesh, the availability of homes down here isn't just thin, it is positively playing card thin; I've been keeping an eye on the availability over the last six months and only one home which meets our criteria has come on the market, and it sold before we were even officially looking. I spent several hours this morning with a real-estate agent doing some open houses, all but two were non-starters even before I walked in the front door, one was ummm, okay, and one ticked off every box on our checklist except the following two items:
  • Price, an estimated monthly about $1,500 higher than we went to spend
  • Intangible, yeah, I know, this is a weird item for a check list, but there always seems to be one of those "what the hell were they thinking" moments when looking at a home. In this case, the small(ish) primary bedroom was just large enough to be acceptable, but, yikes!, what was the architect thinking when he/she decided to make the walk-in close and bathroom a loft arrangement above the bedroom???

At this point the plan is to shoot for a mortgage preapproval for say, $200K above what we're actually planning on spending, so we have enough wiggle room if the right property pops up on the market. Next step, pack my stuff and drive back to New Hampshire.

[Barbisi]

Renting might be a better option until the availability of homes improves (i.e. after the 2024 election cycle is over?)
Renting seems to be to so many a dirty word, but if we had continued on that path instead of buying an ugly, no thrills, basic starter home we couldn't afford to update and make comfortable and appealing, we would probably have avoided BK13 altogether.
Given our harrowing experience with "settling and knuckling under" to a house we shouldn't have bought in the first place, we can only advise to proceed with caution and never purchase a home layout (like the one you describe above) that you just don't like. Chances are when you go to sell, others won't like it either, which means less profit and fewer interested buyers.

[shipo]

Renting is not going to happen for us, ain't no way I want to move twice.

[Barbisi]

Well, if you're set on never moving again, then maybe the layout doesn't matter much.
In our case, staying in one house too long is counterproductive. Change for us is an exciting, exhilarating thing!

[Zombie13]

Yeah that sounds like an odd layout. Bathroom and closet in the loft, for the master bedroom? Odd. We saw a rental in Tacoma in 2022; it looked nice but the 'nice' bathroom was just under the steep sloped roof; the shower especially. So, that would be ok for a person 4 feet tall. We saw a house listed for sale several years ago in Colorado, with a bathroom including a shag carpet, hot tub, and disco ball above the tub.

It's good to have the flexibility to go higher on the total house value in order to get the house you want. Out here around Bellevue/Sammamish/Issaquah WA the home stock is pretty good but the prices are way too high. We don't plan to buy, and after the BK, we are blissfully content with just paying rent for a nice huge house (3200 sq ft), all on one level rambling ranch on a mountain with wildlife, peace and quiet, on 0.5 acres; lawn care is included (not paid by us in the rent).

I personally am happy where we are, and am also not a fan of moving repeatedly. We did that three times within 18 months or so: Colorado to Puyallup WA, then to Renton WA, then to Issaquah (very nice place - small town feel with big town amenities).

As far as buying a home, we may not do that here; we may do it later in another location. But, for now, we prefer having money in the bank. It's a big pressure off us versus during the bk13 when we were watching every penny, picking up coins off the ground and calling it a minor victory.

Carmella and shipo - Best of luck with your decisions on renting/buying the homes in Maryland!

[shipo]

Well, if you're set on never moving again, then maybe the layout doesn't matter much.
In our case, staying in one house too long is counterproductive. Change for us is an exciting, exhilarating thing!

Well, if, and at this point that is a pretty big IF, we find a good place any time soon, one consideration would need to be how livable it will be toward the end of our lives. We're both nearing 70 and after years of being very active, we're assuming things will catch up to us some day and navigating the stairs of say, a 4-storey townhouse, may well a challenge at some point. The condominium community we really want to buy into (where our daughter lives) has 300 units ranging from just under 1,000 square feet to over 2,100 square feet, all on one level; I spent the week there last week and met a number of residents of all ages, and my sense is the folks my age and older plan on staying there until either an assisted living center or a grave becomes their next residence. Speaking of age, given the age of some of the residents, there are some pretty cool old cars in the garage collecting dust; the cars I observed were a 1963 "Split-Window" Corvette, a late-1940s or early-1950s Rolls Royce, a beautiful mid-1960s Buick Rivera, a mid-1960s Pontiac GTO, and my favorite of all, an early 1970s E9 BMW 3.0 cs, I'd so some seriously illegal stuff to get my hands on that car.

We've moved a few times over the last 11 years, compliments of our financial meltdown and our two bankruptcies, and I hate it; it is bad enough we have a lifetime of stuff, but our kids have yet to find a good landing spot residence wise, and so we have a ton of their stuff as well (actually a literal "ton" may well be understating things). Our current plan is to hold on to what we've currently got, find a place, and then clear-cut the stuff which won't work in the new home.

As for the exciting and exhilarating part, that is a big reason why we aren't going for a more expensive home, more money to travel the world.

[Zombie13]

shipo - stairs - yes, Barbisi is a Huuuge fan of stairs; she can't get enough of em! LoL! Seriously though, she can attest, stairs suck when you have ankle injuries; lack of, or minimal stairs, are a huge bonus for us now, and will be a requirement in the future.
Yes - a lower mortgage, for more funds to travel the world - heck yeah!
Stuff - oh man we continue to get rid of things. Over the years we had huge debates about way too much 'stuff' (I called it way too much "something else"). We are finally accepting the fact it's time to part with things we have been dragging all over the country. The last several years we have been getting rid of stuff, but now we are parting with things we really liked. During the bankruptcy, we took advantage of a program DSW (shoe store) offered: every donated pair of shoes got us $2.50 store credit, so Barbisi donated something like 60 pairs of shoes over the course of a year or so.... omg.... and I have like, 3 pairs. I guess it's a 'girl thing, shoes that is. Before leaving Colorado I tried to sell a mass of computer books at 2nd &Charles; they would not take them but, they have a donation bin out front, so I dumped them there. We went back later that evening to see if they were still there... nope, all gone! So, although we got no money or store credit, we did dump some heavy ballast, so that felt good. Barbisi also gave I don't know how many bags of clothes to a friend. It was Christmas 2021 so she wanted to get rid of a bunch of Christmas bags, so that's what we packed them in. Her friend said "Holy Sh*t" Zombie! It was like 25 bags of quality clothes. Now, we continue to get rid of stuff. A friend of ours here - he makes his living accepting donations of unwanted stuff, and he sells it. He apparently does well enough with it, so, that's what we do. Give it to him.