Sunday, May 24, 2009

Down to 3 Weeks

Chris and I have learned ALOT doing selling FSBO that we would probably otherwise have learned the hard way. One man and his wife asked Chris what tax Levy we were in. He knew the answer, but we were not even sure what it meant. Okay,our tax levy is 2.05 roughly, which is low actually. Castle Creek, on 156th and Fort (a couple miles away), is at a tax levy of 2.503. The assessed value multiplied by the levy% equals the tax amount, so one can figure out how much tax you would pay on the sales price of the home (the more the home is worth, the more tax, obviously. Then if it is a higher levy, taxes will be REALLY EXPENSIVE!). The neighborhoods we were looking at had tax levy's of 2.677. I have deleted all of those homes. We refuse to pay $7700 or more in taxes in a year. That is crazy! Seriously, we can have a similar yard and everything and pay that much more?!  Some of the homes had the same finished sq feet (just on 2 floors with unfinished basements and larger garages) as we have now! Here is a home that Chris and I looked at SELECT HOME. I seriously loved the IDEA of this home. It has 4 bedrooms each with bath access (Master with master bath, Asher would get his own bath and the girls would share a jack n jill bath - these bath arrangement is my new home requirement!). It has nice window treatments (after shutters, one really looks at these. I do not want curtains of mini blinds!). The yard was wonderful with a natural stream running through it. Okay, it needed some repairs, so I wanted to low ball them with a contengency (which one really can't do in this market) to sell our home first. This home is special for a few reasons. 1. It is foreclosed. YIKES! I sure pick 'em! The repairs: The deck is just hanging on by a thread. If our kids got on it, it would crash down. The inside of the home needs lots of work. The sump pump went out, flooded the basement. So, it would have to be repaired. It was unfinished, but the walls were finished. I could go on and on. Anyway, if you go to the bottom of the link, check out this home's taxes. Yes, that says: $10,415! That is nearly $870 a month IN TAXES ALONE! Okay, can you see why the homeowners foreclosed? They built this fabulous home not knowing that it was sitting in a 2.6 -2.7 Levy zone and they could not pay their mortgage once those nice taxes were thrown in. Um, can't say that I can blame them. That is like giving a new small car away in taxes every year. If we could do that...why would anyone purposely do that? Now, house 2. Chris and I drove by this home and LOVE it! It is similar to another home we like...but that other home has too many issues. Taxes? $8412 or $701 a month in JUST TAXES! Seems interesting that this home is for sale within the first 6 months of their first large tax bill. Humm.

So, now I am looking at my CBSHOME favorite list. The only homes on it are the ones like ours for sale in our neighborhood that I am tracking for selling purposes and a few others. Chris and I were really leaning on building in Shadow Lake but are ruling it out because of the tax levy. We just do not wanto to throw $8000 or more away every year. Imagine how much we could save for college with that money that we would otherwise be giving away in taxes!

We invested the $200 in the paper for our ad, which has so far done nothing for us. We plan on keeping the home on the market for the next month while the ad is in the paper, at least (our initial plan was to have our home FSBO until July 12th weekend and then pull the sign and go on vacation!). If we have not sold, we are going to stay home. Chris and I  can think of a million things to do with $8000  or a year other than give it away in taxes (granite in the kitchen and bathrooms, new tile floors in the bathrooms, a deck, disney world, vacations, college savings plans...just to name a few things!). We are not doing any more open houses. We have done them 3 weekends and have decided if people are really interested, they will call and set up an appointment to see. Taking the kids out in the afternoon when Addison and Asher really need to be napping is just plain crazy and exhausting. Today we went to 3 parks, Toys R Us and then out for icecream. Chris had 1 person walk through (and they stayed over an hour!). I can not speak for Chris, but I am just going to count the hours until we can pull the FSBO sign. If and when we decide to move next time, we know what to do. FIND LAND AND A BUILDER! We are not going to run all over looking at homes that do not fit the bill in horrible locations with taxes that are seriously for the crazy and stupid. Our next home only exists if we build it. If our home does, by a miracle, sell in the next 3 weeks, we will find land and build or maybe find a home on a good levy. We have a builder...just not suitable land. And, if we have to pay those taxes, we will pay half up front and roll the rest into the mortgage, making the monthly mortgage a little easier on our eyes.

For now, let the timeline begin..
...3 Weeks!

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