5 Tell-Tale Signs It’s Time To Sell and Look For a New House : The Saturday Weekend Review #131

The Saturday Weekend Review logo- new houseSHOULD YOU PUT YOUR PROPERTY UP FOR SALE?

 

Not everyone wants to move after they are settled into their home but over time there are some tell-tale signs that looking for a new house might be right.

While I was taking a break at work a couple of days back I was having a conversation with a colleague about his family home and his thirst to buy a new house.

Not only were they drooling after a new house they had already started the process of looking at MLS Listings (Multiple Listing Service). Not wasting any time I said to him,”I thought this was your new house?”

He laughed at me but then said that sadly they didn’t want to go but feel compelled to move on. I guess his family has lived in the house for 2 years but there are many reasons it’s time for them to leave and find a new house to live in.

Mrs. CBB and I have lived in our house since 2009 and although there are some things we wish we had included in the purchase of our new house we aren’t quite ready to sell yet. For example, our next house we’d like a walk-out basement.

I guess you can’t have it all, unless you’ve got the cash to flash.

Why on earth would my colleague want to sell his house though? They haven’t even spent enough time in their new house to break it in and now they want to move again. Sounds a bit odd. Most people would assume, job loss, divorce, job transfer or even financial problems but that’s not the case here.

I decided to email our real estate agent to ask whether she has noticed a trend. I wanted to know if it was common for people to buy a new house and only a short time later call her looking to sell and buy another new house.

As shocking as that may be to some of you who are counting the dollars it would cost to buy and sell, people do this all the time. She said the biggest reason is low interest rates and new housing that keeps going up. People want the latest and greatest house. Fair enough, I guess.

The good part is for the estate agents who are making a mint from house sales. They want you to buy and sell as much as you want because ultimately you are hiring them.

Right now in our area there are quite a few houses for sale which is unusual around here since it’s one of those sought after areas. Even if you have a hot property it may take time to sell unless your house finds that right buyer as we learned two weeks back.

I wanted to know what was bothering my colleague about their already new house that would want to motivate them to sell. They would be losing out on real estate fees which can be a huge hit to the bank account especially if you don’t plan to downsize.

So, with some probing here are a couple of the reasons why and a few others I thought of which might prompt someone to sell their new house.

 

You can’t stand your neighbours

 

One of the first things he mentioned was his neighbours. Ever since they moved in to their new house the neighbours have been less than friendly.

Their son accidentally threw his ball over the fence and the neighbour screamed at him and told them to control their son if he was playing with toys in the garden. He doesn’t have a huge back-yard but he wasn’t expecting to be spoken to like a child and so rudely.

So, if your neighbours are pissing you off and you see no resolution in the future maybe it’s time to say adios and pack up. Although they are not running you out-of-town, it is as a positive solution to a sticky situation.

The budget friendly solution would be to try and work it out and friendly to each other.

 

Neighbours aren’t taking care of their properties

 

Although my colleague live in what most would consider luxury real estate you would be shocked to see how homeowners let their house deteriorate. My wife and I see it all the time even in our area. The problem is not all these homeowners can afford to be living in such a large home.

Sure, you may look like you have some cash in the bank but a big house comes with expenses and if you can’t maintain your home then your neighbours might start disappearing.

That or you might get a nasty letter in the mail or taped to your door.

They don’t want their property values to go down and they can if your neighbours turn the subdivision into what looks like a dump. The first thing a potential buyer sees is the outside a property for sale BUT also surrounding properties.

Who would want to live in a dumpy neighbourhood filled with people who are too lazy to clean up or just don’t give a hoot about whether property values will go down because buyers don’t want in.

I know some people who buy rental properties and hire a property management company to maintain the property. The problem with that is if there is an absent landlord there is really no one to check up on the quality of work and whether the service is worth the money.

When it comes down to the wire and homeowners want to sell if other houses on the street look unkempt and the yard maintenance could use a goat to eat the weeds they may low-ball your sale price.

Get ready to pay the price if your neighbours houses just don’t make the cut because your property assessment is only an estimated value of the home.

It’s up to all homeowners to maintain their properties to help keep up the value of homes in their neighbourhood although that’s only part of the price factor.

 

You can’t stand living in your house

 

If you come home from work everyday and the mere look or thought of your house makes you sick then you may need to look for a new house.

It seems odd considering you may have recently fallen in love with your current home. What has changed? It could be anything from the size of the home, colour of the walls or the layout isn’t working for your family.

For these reasons alone a family should decide whether they need to look for a new house, renovate or figure out a plan to share responsibilities so things get done.

Again, big bucks to move.

 

You don’t have money to maintain your home

 

One of the worst things you can do is buy a new house and become house poor. Not only will your stress level increase you will start to let your house deteriorate. Even if you decide to sell potential buyers will find all the flaws with a house as most hire a home inspector and use their own investigation skills.

It doesn’t matter if it is an old house for sale or a house for sale in a high-end estate area. You need money to keep the property and house pristine.

I don’t care what anyone says but if you can’t afford a new house opt for renting until you can get a nice raise at work or save a bigger lump sum for a down-payment. If your current house is too big then consider downsizing into a property that suits the time you have to take care of it.

Keep in mind that property taxes rarely ever go down so for every year you are living in the house you have to be prepared to pay property tax on top of your mortgage.

 

Theft and crime is on the rise in your area

 

My colleague mentioned that a neighbour 2 doors down from his house had their vehicle broken into twice.

Can you believe that someone would come back the next night for round 2 at his vehicle? It happens and even thought they caught the thief it’s hard to swallow when it’s so close to home.

This is another reason many homeowners are turning to home surveillance but that too is costly unless you buy and own the equipment.

Whether it be theft or just an area where the police tend to show up every other night it may be a smart move to make especially if you have little ones.

You don’t want to feel pressured to leave a neighbourhood but sometimes it can get to the point where you want to protect your investment and get the best return possible if you come to sell it.

Conclusion

If you can with certainty relate to all or any of the above points you may want to consider selling your home to look for a new house. First make sure you give consideration to the financial aspects of buying and selling a house.

Even if your aim is to sell via private house sales you must understand that just moving to a new house will cost you $$ and if your budget can’t handle that then maybe you should wait a bit until you can save up some money to make the move and buy another new house.

  • Have you bought a new house only to turn around and sell it and move to another home?
  • What are some things in your neighbourhood that you see bother you?

 

CBB Week At A Glance

 

I accomplished quite a bit more than I thought I would this week. I’ve now successfully pulled out the shower and re-routed the toilet. I also had to fix up the floor as I found a bit of mold but that’s all taken care of now. I also sound-proofed the wall before I put the new drywall up. There’s nothing worse than hearing someone in the bathroom.

This week with the family we made it out swimming but we hope to explore some local splash pads. I don’t want to exclusively bring our son to splash pads because we want him to learn how to swim. He loves the water either way.

We managed to find him a water and sand table on Kijiji for a mere $10 which was a bargain. It came with an umbrella and all the toys. He loves it. Now, his backyard oasis is starting to fill up. It’s nice to have some things for him to do in the back yard because it’s too hot some days to go up to the park.

Next year I hope to build a sand pit for him to play in with all his big trucks. He doesn’t know he has them yet as they are a birthday gift. 🙂 I bought them when Target was closing down for dirt cheap. The metal Tonka Trucks, I bought him 4.

That’s our week, so how was yours?

-Mr.CBB

 

Published This Week

 

Just in case you’ve missed any of my blog posts this week I will share them all below.

If you have a question that you would like to ask Mr.CBB fill out the Contact Mr.CBB form on the Home Page and send in your questions.

If you want to share a story via a Fan Question only please ensure that there is minimum 500-1000 words and details… we love details!

Right now CBB is posting Tuesday (Grocery Game Challenge) , Thursday (Personal Finance Post), Saturday (Personal Finance and Weekly Wrap-Up and a recipe on Sunday!

 

Budget Brags

 

Submit your Deal or Brag:

Saving money while grocery shopping is essential in the CBB family and that’s why we share our grocery shops every week in The Grocery Game Challenge 2015.

What I love the most is when my fans share their amazing shops with me whether it be groceries or other deals they find at a garage sale, online or freebies!!!

If you have a brag that you want me to share email me at canadianbudgetbinder@yahoo.(ca) < remove brackets) or fill out my contact form by Friday each week to have your brag considered for the Saturday post.

jens july week 3 garage sale finds

This week Jen is back to share some of her bargain garage sale finds!

  • Spider-Man flutter board – free
  • Compost bags $.50
  • Plastic key rings (to help distinguish keys) $.25
  • 2 wicker resin chairs for my front porch $10 (they were asking $20) \

Total $10.75

Awesome deals Jen!!!

 

Making A Difference (MAD)

 

Note: If you are a personal finance blogger (anywhere around the world) and would like your blog to be MAD featured simply drop me an email and I’ll explain the process to you.

This is my way of giving back to the personal finance community through networking and sharing knowledge with my fans.

Today I’d like to welcome my blogger friend Maarten!

Hello CBB readers,

I am Maarten, founder of and blogger at www.millionin10.com. I created Million In 10 originally to accompany my book “How to make a million in 10, and how we did it in 13”. Since then it has grown into an entity of its own.

When I came to the United States in 1997 I was struck by how easy it is to get into financial trouble due to the lack of a social catch net. I was inspired by a colleague who claimed to have no fear of getting fired because he had built himself a nest-egg. That sense of security created a spark of inspiration for me and led me to do something similar.

I came up with a plan to create a nest-egg of our own, set the goal at a million in 10 years. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve completed that plan. That million dollars (and then some) nest-egg allowed me to quit my job as a software architect and take some time to write a book about it.

I hope the book and subsequently the blog will cause that same spark of inspiration in others as it did for me and for others to take control of their financial lives. My blog has information on how we achieved our goals and how you can do the same.

Since having been immersed in the PF blogosphere I have found that much of the focus out there is on eliminating debt. I have also found that all the methods we have applied to building our financial freedom can be applied to eliminating debt as well.

If you’re convinced that it is no longer possible for a salaried employee to become a millionaire, come by and I’ll show you otherwise.

If you’ve already taken the reigns of your financial future, come by and I’m sure you’ll find something there that may help you get there faster.

If you’re in debt, don’t be discouraged, what I write about also applies to you. If you apply my methods, which provided me financial freedom, to eliminating your debt you’ll be living the lifestyle that can make you go the distance to actually achieving financial freedom yourself.

Hope you hear from you soon,

Maarten

Top Recipe

 

twix cookiesFood  and grocery shopping is a BIG part of CBB because food is a large part of the budget which people struggle the most with.

If you are someone who would rather buy convenience meals or products consider cooking homemade meals or baking from scratch.

Not only will you save money but you will be proud of what you accomplished and you’ll see that from the smiles on those you feed.

If you don’t already know I have a second Facebook page called The Free Recipe Depot where I share recipes from other Food Bloggers from around the world.

I created this second Facebook page because I love food so much and I wanted to showcase only food 24/7 and this is where I do it.

I also share recipes on CBB once a week on Sundays either made by me or my in-house home blog cook Nicola Don!

This week our Top Recipe Pick goes to my fellow blogger friend Nikki over at Chef in Training for these lovely looking Twix Cookies. If you love the Twix Candy Bar you should have no problem polishing off a dozen or so of these with a cold glass of milk. I know I could.

 

Editor’s Pick

 

Every week I will pick a blog post of the week from around the web that I found interesting and want to share with you and an Editor’s top blog post pick.

Editor’s blog post pick this week goes to No More Waffles with an excellent post about “Afford Anything You Want vs. Everything You Want“. The post really made me think about our situation. I think I’ve actually blogged a bit about this before.

Just because we have over $100,000 in the bank it doesn’t mean we can go and buy everything we want even though we can afford just about anything that we want. No we don’t want luxury cars and mansions. Where do you draw the line? Read the post and share your thoughts.

 

How people find CBB

 

Every week I get thousands of people visit Canadian Budget Binder because they did a search online and found my blog. Keep in mind any spelling errors below are because I share with you the exact way they typed their search engine query to land on my blog.

  • Cooking made me sexier: Hey, whatever works go with it!
  • If something is expired at Metro Supermarket is it free?:  Think about that for a moment, please.
  • My father is strict: So was mine and I survived.
  • Is it a problem in a marriage when the wife spends all my money? : Again, think about this for a moment. It’s only a problem if you have no money, your financial needs are being met and you are going into debt.

Thanks for dropping by and reading!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my daily blog post by entering your email address on the home page and verifying the subscription email once it is sent to you.

-Mr.CBB

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