All Forum Posts by: Matt Mann

I just signed up with SmartMove today to get my process started. After I signed up I asked my tenants for their email addresses. After I got them i went back to the SmartMove website and its completely gone or down. Anyone else experiencing this? I wanted to get these people run ASAP and its frustrating to have nothing work after I set the account up.

Thanks Rob. This is the decision we are more leaning towards at this point. The only thing keeping us from not making that decision immediately is the terror of getting a bad tenant. With little or no profit from the property if somethin breaks or they destroy the house obviously it comes out on us. Im not sure what safety procautions are in leases to help cover us on this. Never done this before.

Any thoughts?

Update: We had a well respected Real Estate agent who is very familiar with our area come in and give us both what he thinks we can Sell the house for and what he thinks we can rent the house for.

Im hoping for a little insight from people who do this often. Or at least have more experience than I do... which is none. This is my first house. Our current mortgage is at 116k for a house built in 2006... still in great shape. Our dilemma is do we sell or rent. The real estate agent that came in after doing his homework said we can realistically expect to get 120k to as much as 125k if we sell it. That doesnt include all the fees which he counted out to be around 8k. Our problem being we really cant take any sort of loss on the house and still be able to have enough in our savings to make our move to Alaska and be confortable with it. If we sold the house for 125k best case scenario after 8k in fees we would just break even. But thats best case scenario - which lets be honest...aint happening.

Our next scenario is he said he thinks we could get 850-895 a month in renting it out. Now right now our mortgage is 879. So obviously that wont work. But our mortgage rate is 5.25%. So refinancing is the only thing that would make renting an option. Keeping in mind that we arnt necessarily renting to PROFIT... we are more wanting to rent just to have someone pay our mortgage but also bring in enough money to cover anything that might happen to the house (hopefully not much considering it was built in '06 and we've had no problems). After playing with a mortgage calculator and putting in the different rates the calculator stated at 4.25 we would be paying 803 a month on 116k.

If we rent for 895 or maybe ask a little more like 925... and our mortgage payment is at that 800 mark, would only profitting 100 be a stupid idea or just not worth the risk? I know doing a background check and credit check can alleviate some of these fears but you just never know.

Thanks for any info on an opinion of sell or rent.

After having done some research and using my City's GIS map I have looked at several houses on my street that are only a few houses away from my own. I purchased my house for 122k in 2008 and its now tax appraised at 105k. 2 doors down a brand new house sold in 2010 for 139k and is now tax assessed at 108k. 2 houses down to the other side a house sold in 2011 for 140k but is now assessed at 126k (this one has a garage). These 2 houses are smaller in sq ft than my own house but yet both sold for well above what mine did. All these houses, mine included, are no more than 5 years old, so they are all relatively comparable in age as well as sq ftage. With the sale price numbers of the other 2 houses at 139k and 140k would any of you say it would be safe to assume that mine should sell for more than 105k? I know this has gotten a little away from the "landlord/tenant" discussion but these numbers are going to factor in to whether or now we will be interested in selling the house or if we need to start looking at the possibility of renting. I also realize its going to be relative to the city im in and what not, just looking for a general idea from people who buy/sell/know alot more than I do.

Thanks

Im not quite sure what P&I means. I think at this point I need to find an appraiser and get a good actual number on my house. I have to think that my house is worth more than 105k. Correct me if im wrong but an appraiser will take in to account what other similar houses have recently sold for that are comparable to my own. Last year a brand new house was built right next to mine and sold before it was even completed. Its very similar to my home and I believe it sold in the 130k range. Also last year, 2 doors down from me another similar house (just with a garage but smaller sq ft) was put up for sale and sold in just a week or 2 and again it sold for I believe in the 120-130k range. Thats gotta be good news for me right?

Yea, hindsight is always 20/20 so they say. Had we had this plan then, we definately would have gone another route. At this point I guess I need to have the house appraised and just pray that its not really at the 105k mark and more closer to our 116k that we owe. And maybe get the buyer to pay closing costs and get out relatively unharmed and still make our dream happen.

From what im hearing from the replies is that; say the house does appraise to more closer to the 105k mark and we cant sell for not having the funds and we decided to rent. Renting AT or just above my monthly mortgage rate would be a bad idea? Because of the assumption that something inevitably will break in the home leading to repairs? My dad living 10 mins away and being a relatively good handy man could probably fix some smaller problems, but if something big breaks I think we could hopefully have enough still in savings to cover any major breaks. Or is that just a unrealistic outlook toward the possibility of renting?

I appreciate all the replies, its helping me gauge what I really need to be looking at. Hitting the lotto sounds alot easier at this point.

Does a bank care whether or not I can technically afford my monthly mortgage payments or not? I dont have a problem paying my $900 a month but if i sell the house, I cant pay the 11,000+ that ill need to. Also does anyone know what the difference between my "Tax assessment" and "Fair Market Value" would be for my house? Or does that differ from city to city state to state.

The current amount of the loan is somewhere around 116,000. We are definately going to set up a meeting with a local real estate agent to see what we can realistically expect for both selling and renting. We havnt thought much about refinancing because we have been dead set on our move for the last 2 years and we were just planning on selling the house outright.

I know just trying to "break even" on our loan isnt the best idea but right now im just freaking out a little bit at the thought of 2 years of planning and saving might be out the window and our dreams being crushed because all of a sudden our house is worth far less than we knew and we are stuck here living in it because we cant afford to leave. Just seems like a crummy situation being stuck here because you cant afford to sell your home.

Hello all, i'm comming in hopes for a little insight. A little back story. My wife and I purchased our home in 2008. It was built in 2006 so we are the 2nd owner's. We purchased it for $122,000. We also cashed in on the 1st time homebuyers credit and so we cant legally sell it or rent it until Sept. of this year without having to repay the $8000 we got.

During this time span my wife and I have decided that we are going to move to Anchorage Alaska. We have been planning and saving and preparing for this move for 2 years now. Our goal has been to wait until september to sell the house and hopefully break even on our mortgage. This is where the curveball has been thrown at us. We recieved a letter from the City that has stated that our house is now appraised at $105,000. Needless to say that if we sell the house in September now, we would not have the funds to make up the difference owed to the bank and also fulfill our dreams of moving. This is a huge blow to us as we have been planning and saving for this move for over 2 years now.

So it seems to us now that the only way of still being able to to what we want to do is going to be renting out our house. Neither of us have any experience in renting any properties. Now with us hopefully moving in July or August this would seem to be difficult as far as being landlords to the property. On the other side of that, my parents live only 10 minutes away from our house and I believe they would have no problems serving as a liason so to speak for us and also looking after the property.

So after all of that I have a couple of questions. Our monthly mortgage is just under $900. So obviously we are hoping to rent the house right at that $900 mark or of course a little more. Im having difficulty looking up properties nearby to see how much they are renting for as a comparison. Does anyone know where I can go to view other rental properties to compare?

Would there be any problems or suggestions as far as having my parents essentially being the landlords? IE - does there name need to be put on the house/lease/anything?

Any suggestions or insight in to our situation that I havnt thought of?

What if comparable prices to rent in the area are less than $900? Would it be stupid to take say $700 or $800 a month in rent and just eat the rest ourselfs just so we can fulfill our move?

How long and drawn out is the process to become a "landlord" and what would be my next step in drawing up a lease when the time is right?

Thanks for any information.
Matt