UPDATE!!!!!!!People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

Okay so DH and I bought our co-op in May of 2008.

We did not pay top dollar but we paid more than (or close to) what I think we would get today.

We put a lot of money down ($104,000 on a $260,000 property).

With the prices of houses dropping we could afford a house in the area we REALLY want to live This was not possible at the time we were buying (also we were nervous as first time buyers and underestimated what we could afford ANYWAY .....getting to the point)

My feeling is...we put $104,000 down, as long as we walk away with that (obvioulsy we will get more than that but maybe not the $260,000 we paid) we are OKAY bc the rest (minus the $104 we put down) will just roll over into our new mortgage.

Am I correct in my thinking?

Obvioulsy it would be better to make a profit, but if that is NOT an option, it is okay to sell for LESS than you PAID bc in the end it will just go onto your house mortgage, right? And our downpayment from the coop purchase will be the downpayment on our house (plus whatever $$ we can add...)

Please provide me with insight and input if you have BTDT or work in real estate.

I feel like if we can buy a house NOW, we should do it..if we wait to make $$ or break even on our coop houses will also be more $$$ KWIM?

TIA!

UPDATE: So I spoke with the broker. Turns out if I sell my coop for less than $270 I would lose money.

See I paid 260m have a 6k flip, plus taxes to break even would =@ 270k

If I get less for my coop say 240k, they would take the money from my down payment so my 104k would become 84k

In the long run it would be worth ut (if we can afford to do it) bc the house will be worth more than a say 20k loss when the market rebounds...

I guess we can;t know what we would get until we put it on the market...

Message edited 12/10/2009 5:42:29 PM.

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

If you can break even or come close to that on your co-op, it's definitely worth it to sell. Just try to move into an area you know is currently undervalued or dropped significantly in price since you bought the co-op.

I sold my prior home for about what I paid for it in 2005. But I also added 340 square feet since I bought it and put in two new bathrooms and a new kitchen.

So I took about a 50k-70k hit in equity on my prior home. But that's Ok because the house I am buying is way undervalued in a zip code where other (larger) houses are easily selling for 100-150k more than what I am paying. And that's in a down market.

So it's worth it.

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

If you walk out with your down payment and break even then go for it

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

I did this myself. I bought a co op in 2005, overpaid for it because markets were FLYING off the market. I put work into it (around 15k) so figure 196K output.

When DH and I were living there the place was just WAY too small and we needed out. We found a house pretty quickly but the problem was trying to line up a co op buyer with the house closing.

I had a buyer in MARCH, just after I listed--too good to be true and it was. He renegged the night before the contracts were due to be signed. In July I got my buyer which is also when we closed on our house (7/10). With the co op process, and her getting a mortgage, we didn't close until 10/14. So we had to carry both for a few months while also paying for our wedding/HM. It was alot but we did it!

Our problem was that we needed to put 20% down on our house to avoid taking a jumbo loan + paying PMI. So we had to borrow money from my mom until we sold the co-op. We weren't able to take an equity line from the apartment because it was on the market...and so we paid her back when we finally closed. I sold for 195 (which I didn't even think was too bad with the way the market is) and by the time I paid out all the brokers, and flip tax, the processing fees to NYC and so on and so forth, I ended up getting back what I paid, minus what I put into it...

Sorry this was so long but I was trying to make it make sense! If you can afford a house, by all means, do it!

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

I would agree to sell as long as finacially you will be able to afford the payments on the more expensive house.
With prices down and rates low its a good time to buy if you can

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

Thanks so much for your input!

I think the hardest part will be to SELL bc stuff is hard to sell..We have our eye on a specific home and that is laways tricky but Im thinking maybe we should TRY to sell and if that house is gone...wait it out until we find something else...

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!

Congress is also talking about making the $8k for all home buyers- not just first timers so if that happens, it would definately be a good time to sell

Re: People who really know real estate and about buying and selling please help!