Does anyone have a sense of how the RE housing market is going to go in the next 6 months?
We are trying to sell a house that my SO's mother lived in for many years. It needs some work - mostly decor - but is structurally sound. She didn't bother updating it at all, and no changes were done with an eye to keeping it spruced up. OTOH it has oak floors in many rooms. It's a ranch from the 1950s and looks dated. To her if it works, how it looks doesn't matter - the Depression generation...
We didn't get any offers on it since September and it is priced very reasonably. We're trying to decide what to do with it - we could do a little fixing and rent it, or do more and sell it... But we might not get any extra money out of it if we sell it - I doubt that we could raise the price and get more for it. It just would sell.
If we rent it, there would be money coming in but the rental hassle is really a concern - it's not near where we live, about 40 minutes' drive. We can hope the housing market will rebound in a few years and meanwhile it's lived in etc.
We probably will have to buy it from her to do any work because she thinks it looks great just the way it is (groan). We doubt she will spend money on it without a fight... She moved into senior housing, so she's still the owner and still stubborn
One more thing - if we buy it and rent it, the cost of fixing it up is deductible. Otherwise we are just out the money, if we can't sell it for enough to cover the improvements.
Any thoughts?
We are trying to sell a house that my SO's mother lived in for many years. It needs some work - mostly decor - but is structurally sound. She didn't bother updating it at all, and no changes were done with an eye to keeping it spruced up. OTOH it has oak floors in many rooms. It's a ranch from the 1950s and looks dated. To her if it works, how it looks doesn't matter - the Depression generation...
We didn't get any offers on it since September and it is priced very reasonably. We're trying to decide what to do with it - we could do a little fixing and rent it, or do more and sell it... But we might not get any extra money out of it if we sell it - I doubt that we could raise the price and get more for it. It just would sell.
If we rent it, there would be money coming in but the rental hassle is really a concern - it's not near where we live, about 40 minutes' drive. We can hope the housing market will rebound in a few years and meanwhile it's lived in etc.
We probably will have to buy it from her to do any work because she thinks it looks great just the way it is (groan). We doubt she will spend money on it without a fight... She moved into senior housing, so she's still the owner and still stubborn
One more thing - if we buy it and rent it, the cost of fixing it up is deductible. Otherwise we are just out the money, if we can't sell it for enough to cover the improvements.
Any thoughts?