I'm selling the condo.

[Flea]

What a week this is turning out to be!

I've been heading towards this point for quite a while, but it finally sank in this afternoon. My condo itself is great, but the complex is a yuppie oasis in a teeming crack 'hood. When I bought the place I used a family inheritance to make a 40% down payment. It was the only way I could afford the monthly mortgage payments.

When I decided to move, I was seduced by the prospect of being able to rent it out at full market value for a 200% profit. On my tiny income that's a very big deal. The problem was that it left me unable to afford a down-payment on anything else. I've spent a great deal of energy for the past several months brainstorming a way around that, despairing as the mortgage rate popped back up to pre-meltdown levels.

This afternoon was beautiful, and I pulled out the bike. I'm not that far from greener pastures, and I noticed that as I pedaled through a wealthy subdivision (and its country club and golf course) everything within me relaxed and let go. All it took was the absence of screaming sirens and boom cars. No open-air business meetings, no gagging clouds of fumes. Not only were there birds, but I could hear them!

Suddenly the metaphor of the Monkey Trap came to mind. I slapped my forehead. And that was that.

It's funny how that final nudge on a major decision always seems so small isn't it?

 

[Carol]

Congrats! If you'vfe never been a landlord before...step wisely.

Find a good resource on L/T law and remember the expenses of being a landlord are never predictable or convenient.

If you've been a landlord before then never mind

 

[Flea]

Thanks shweetie.

I've been cruising homefinder.com tonight and was pleased to note plenty of respectable crapshacks in my budget. I don't think I'm cut out for landlording. My plan was to hire a management company, but I've had a terrible time getting any decent referrals. It's a sign, I think. I'm okay with that.

The interesting thing is that while mortgage rates have gone back to normal, housing prices are still pretty low. So I can afford that condo on the dead-end street facing the suburban park with the duck pond. I may just have to give them a call. :ultracool

 

[Flea]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Just because this is the locker room forum and I feel like spouting, here's a followup ... :uhyeah:

I got another cognitive kick in the pants yesterday that it's time to go. Background: On the next block there's an unofficial park. It's a double lot with a nice wrought iron fence and unlocked gate, and a historic marker. Very pretty. A lot of people run their dogs in there, myself included. After a recent natural disaster there are a lot of big downed branches, and one corner that's pretty obscured from view. Thanks to that obscure spot I don't go there at night any more. I had noticed over the past few weeks that a collection of fresh litter had been accumulating in that spot - mostly food wrappers. There's a homeless guy who shelters in the park occasionally and keeps a low profile, so I assumed it was him.

Further background: There is mental illness, and there is the occasional very rare person who suffers from "batspit crazy." I say this with a clean conscience as a mental health advocate. There is one such person in my neighborhood, and he scares the bejeezus out of a lot of people. Over the past 5 years I've watched him go from being a little squirrelly and weird, to loudly lecturing all comers from his doorstep about The Imminent Apocalypse. A couple years ago he dropped off my radar, and then I saw him again - completely skeletal and spastic with lots of stray energy. He'd put on enough wrinkles for 40 years of hard living, and his eyes alternately glow with hostility or go completely blank. I can't imagine what happened during those couple years. I prefer not to.

You can guess where this is going, right? The other day I was alone in the park with my dog enjoying the sun. Thank gods we were on the extreme opposite end of the park from the gate. I saw Skeleton carefully open the gate and then close it repeatedly behind him. Since my dog is a mouthy creampuff I immediately leashed him, and then did that caution-dance toward the gate ("I see you and I know you see me and I don't want no trouble but I still know you're there and I'm not scared.") In my periphery as I left, I saw him go over to that obscure spot with a bag of junk food and sit down to a picnic.

So much for the park. Damn.

Tomorrow I have that homeowner's class that will help certify me for a better deal from a mortgage lender. I did another couple of drive-bys tonight in my target neighborhood, and I am no longer despairing. There is something out there for me, even if it's uglier than a baboon's ****. There's hope for the old girl yet.[/FONT]

 

[teekin]

Flea Baby, where there is life there is hope. Just Where are you anyway?
lori

 

[arnisador]

Good luck!

 

[Flea]

Good luck!

Thanks for the good thoughts.

Today I've been working the phones trying to navigate the maze of Federal Programs that may help - grants for low-income buyers, buyers with disabilities, grants for buyers in certain target neighborhoods, HUD, FHA. I'll take all the help I can get. It's an odd experience though because nobody seems to understand how these programs work; I'll get one set of answers from the feds at HUD, another from the state office administering the programs, another from city officials, and another still from mortgage lenders (all of whom are hand-picked as partners for the HUD programs, of course.)

Maybe I should just find a foreclosure and squat in it. The sheriff may eventually kick me out, but at least I wouldn't risk being jailed for fraud that way.

 

[Flea]

What a difference a couple of days can make.

I found out today that my city administers a grant program giving down payment money to low-income folk moving into particular neighborhoods. Most of those neighborhoods are deserts - no grocery stores, schools, parks, or trees. But I found out this weekend that one of the target neighborhoods was a close second choice if I couldn't get into my preferred area. I used to live close to it, so I know the area pretty well. I called the city, and they said that the grant isn't exclusively for first-time buyers ... but they're going to revamp the policies soon.

I wasted no time. I found a realtor to get me into two of the three houses on my list. The first one was perfect. Three bedroom, with one right off the kitchen (home office, anyone?) Fenced back and front yards, big open front porch, full basement, 2-car garage. It even has a breakfast nook! As far as I can tell, the place is in rock-solid shape other than a few small cracks in the basement floor. That, of course, is what inspectors are for.

The crazy thing is that between lowballing them a little and some small improvements I'm planning for my condo, the price should come to about the same for something almost double the square footage, with a front and back yard (unlike my current 2nd story walkup,) and a quiet and safe location. It's also two doors down from an elementary school, so it's obviously a family neighborhood unlike my current setting.

Is it really supposed to be this easy? I plan to look at a couple more places on general principle, and of course it needs a professional inspection. But ... wow. I just need to race through my paperwork to make the deadline for the grant, if I qualify. If I don't? I still have to live somewhere, and I like this place enough (as of tonight, anyway) to try to find a way.