February 28, 2006

On the flip side - anyone out there renting after selling your house, sitting on a pile of cash, and waiting it out?

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes. Cash. Cash Flow Rentals in the Midwest and 2008 in the money puts on CTX.

Anonymous said...

Well...I was sitting on the cash after having sold my Las Vegas home at the peak in June 05...but..I hated not having my own house, so I looked and looked and found a beautiful home on acreage in Missouri I bought with cash. Now I don't have the big pile anymore, but I'm also debt free and enjoying truly owning a home this time around.

Anonymous said...

Yes. My wife and I sold our place last August in Oakland after a 2bed 1bath house down the street -- 1200 sf!!! - sold for 665k (100k over asking). We put our 2/1 condo (965sf) on the market a few weeks later for 459k and received 8 offers with a high bid of 575k. We bought it just under 5 years earlier for a profit of 130% and had built a ton of equity the old fashion way - paying down the principal. Now we are renting a nicer place in San Francisco (equity pays the rent) waiting for whatever is coming. The frenzy of the sale (people literally crazed to pay too much) was such a freak show that I knew we had to be close to the top.

Anonymous said...

I sold in Monmouth County 1 1/2 years ago, made a nice profit. I am considering extending the rental for another 6 months to get a better idea how quickly market could shift.
I absolutely hated going through the realtor experience, lies, open houses, nosey town people w/ new realtor license in hand, just wanted to peek at my house. The games, gossip, back stabbing, they fought over comission in front of our family and wouldn't lower their comissions to meet our goals.
I will never sell a house through a realtor again, and if I can get away with not using one to buy, I'll take that choice too.
Anyway, it is nice to have over 450k to put down on a house add in a small mortgage for tax purposes. I am just very selective at this point.

Anonymous said...

Sold in San Francisco in Q1 2004. We were sad to see the market continue to go up after selling, but we invested in the stock market and bonds and did fine. Now we are renting a great place for $2200, with our money mostly sitting in cash. When and if the time comes when buying makes sense, we'll have at least $300,000 to spend.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, last post unclear -- at least 300K in cash, that is, not including a new mortgage. Unfortunately that's what you need in this town to buy a decent house, but we should see things get cheaper.

Cashing out is sweet, especially when you don't have to pay CGT!

Anonymous said...

Sitting it out with about 300k from our Sept 2005 DC sale.

Anonymous said...

Sold in cali 2 houses between 03-04. Made 400,000. Renting in maui waiting to purchase raw land to build a house in cali, washington maybe utah. purchased 3 props in utah rentals 04 & 05 2 have fixed rates 1 has adjust(killing me) all 3 have had good gains. will sell the adjustable 1 this summer. Most of the money is in ingdirect. After owning renting sucks just being honest and i'm in paradise. Somethings gotta give everyone i know has io loans. Its a poker game who will show there cards first.

Anonymous said...

Sold in LA area a condo in 2002 and house in Q4 or 2004 and renting/traveling since. Living off portfolio gains mostly in stocks and some commodities for past year. Will probably start looking for a 6-unit building that cash flows in Q4 of 2006 and look for distressed SFRs starting in 2007 or 8.

Anonymous said...

I bought my last home in L.A. / Melrose area (near West Hollywood) in 2000 for $460K.. In the summer 2004 I decided to cash out so I placed an ad in Craigslist and sold it in 2 days for $950K to a foolish NYC doctor who needed to move into town in a hurry..
Now renting month-to-month and will wait for the right time to buy again, however long it takes....

Out at the peak said...

Nice to see fellow smart sellers who have gotten out. My house nearly doubled and I decided something was really wrong.

I'm renting a house cheaply -- even $300 less than mortgage alone from my 2000 purchase (2003 5.5% fixed refi, no cash out).

I'll be on the sidelines until 2009-2011 depending on things go.

Congrats on Utah -- it's one of the few markets with steam left.

blogger said...

I love being out. LOVE it. And since my client pays my rent (here in london), my cash pile just spits off interest earnings every month

But god, I sure miss owning a home. You do have to deal with the psychological adjustment to renting vs. owning

But then I look at my bank balance and short-term, renting is great

But I'll own again. 2009 perhaps. Build my own place (vs. paying a developer's profit). And by that point, like nasdaq, the market may have over-adjusted

Thoughts?

blogger said...

you can come over for 6 months with no visa... but you can't legally come and look for work

catch 22.

so best way is to get hired via a multi-national, who locates you overseas

but why live in the most expensive city in the world? go to florence, or prague, and live the good life, for much much less

Anonymous said...

I'm so thankful that I was shown the light via this blog and the other housing bubble blogs.

We bought in Q2 2004, and just sold last month. Net was about 60K after realtors' commission and capital gains taxes.

Now we are sitting on that money, and adding to it every month, hoping that we'll have at least 20% for a downpayment when the market corrects. But for that to happen, Orange County CA would have to correct at least 50%. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I can always dream. = )

Anonymous said...

I know people who have moved to "no wheres ville" and ended up in a cheap area with just no economy. AND NO NOTHIN' Socially! Such areas can get boring quickly.

This is a more common problem that it seems. Uprooting from any area is hard especially if there are family ties that bind. I grew up in a rural area and am balacing my desire to return to my roots with my pleasure derived from living in an urban environment with plenty of stuff to do, great restaurants and bars within walking distance, grocery stores nearby, etc.

The question begs: is it worth the effort to move to a cheaper place if you don't enjoy the opportunities all for the sake of having a large house?

blogger said...

moman - it's called geoarbitrage.. sell in an overpriced area (i.e. san fran) and move to nebraska

if your employment is transferable (i.e. a consultant like yours truly) you can then take the cash from the house sale, own a home outright perhaps in the new burgh, save your money, and retire at 45 vs. 70

but.. you'd have lived in nebraska

good if you're a homebody with a family whose idea of culture is the nfl on sunday. bad if you're single or like going to a concert or museum now and then

life is about tradeoffs though, no?

Anonymous said...

Sold my home in Tucson at the height of the bubble, now I'm waiting the deflation out in DC. I'd like to own again, and with the money I made off my home sale as a down payment on a condo in DC it would be cheaper for me to own than rent, but I refuse to pay the inflated prices at this time. I guess I'll just wait, or maybe start low-balling and see if any desperate speculators bite.

Anonymous said...

I bought a pre-construction in Hoboken in January for 565,000. Hoboken has been the hottest market outside of NYC's 5 boroughs. Sold in Dec for a 20%profit. Put it on Craig's List and had a deal within 3 weeks. Now I work in RE and wehn you can sell a condo that is not completed for 695,000 w/i 3 weeks w/o a broker, we are at the top. I rent a 1600 sq ft duplext loft for 3200/mo. My mortgage w/ property taxes would have been 3900 for 1270 sq. ft. Makes NO SENSE to own in those conditions!! There is going to be some serious bloodshed during the reset.

Out at the peak said...

Keith, I have thought about getting a contractor's license just so I could contract out my own house next time around.

I'm not sure how much you save by doing this. 10%? Obviously I'll have to look into it more.

REOs could be cheaper than building a new house. It'll all come down to the best cost analysis in 2009-2011.

Anonymous said...

Prices would have to come down along way to make homeownership in socal affordable so one could retire before 90. People are buying condos which sold in 95 for 55,000, in lower than average area for 450,000-600,000. How will these prices really come that far down. Even at 200,000 at 7% is 1400 plus tax ,insur, hoa. 1800 or so for less than average place. But when renting you feel no hope for the future. And rents in socal are going up. These people are willing to bankrupt their future to live in socal for the short term. Many save 0 to stay in socal. What future does that leave if you are 30 and rent for the next 10 or 20 years with zero savings? Time to leave socal! Was a great place. If your not in before 03 in its over.

Anonymous said...

Sold our house in Florida in Sept for almost a 50% gain in 20 months. Now renting a new house in PA for half the cost of what it would cost me to buy it with a mortgage payment. Crazy!

Anonymous said...

Made it at 227k in 03, zestimate says 440k. 2 homes on my block sold this momth for 400-440 range. I am seriously thinking og cashing out. Wife and kids are holding me back. Emotional thing. Family thing. I see it as a $$ thing. What to do. Where to go?

Anonymous said...

Sold my San Diego home in Feb 2005 for $700K, having bought for 550K three years before. Net profit about $70K after upgrades taken into account. Bit disappointing profit-wise, really, especially reading how some of you really did incredibly well. Sold it without a broker on my side, although buyer used one. Now sitting on $1.1 million while renting a $900 pm apartment in Vegas. Laugh at that if you will! Probably take my money back to Australia eventually and buy there, once their (just as bad) housing boom busts.

Anonymous said...

wife and I bought our first house in norcal in 01, sold in 03, bought raw land then sold it in 05, bought back shares in our business which is growing mightily and renting. All our cash is in the business but will pay off greatly in the next few years.

Anonymous said...

Here's something for all you sideliners "sitting on cash" to consider. When the economic slide starts in earnest, the federal governmment has no option but to create massive amounts of liquidity to keep the economy from falling into depression. This time there will be no Paul Volker at the Federal Reserve to administer the bitter medicine and straighten things out. We have Ben "Helicopter" Bernanke who will flood the banks with "free" money. Of course this will lead to terrible price inflation and anyone holding dollar-denominated assets will get killed. In the coming bust and inflation, house prices might actually increase, and mortgage rates may fall to around 0%! Both will be small consolation as gaoline will run $8 a gallon and that Lexus will cost $200K

Anonymous said...

Sold and rent. Taking notes for the next year.

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