Call a few builders in your area that do teardowns and see what they will offer you.

I would sell for 500k to the we buy houses people. You're going to be paying the real estate agents 30k if you sell it on the open market!

If the house is truly worth $540k after you fix a few things, then $495k is not a bad offer, and getting to $500k sounds reasonable. I'd go for that.

I'm surprised, frankly. Those type of house buying places tend to low ball by 20%.

Other option is move out and rent it out, but may not be easy because 1) it's not a great time of year to find a tenant and 2) if it needs repairs, those may be required before you can rent it out

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you sold for 540, you would have to pay realtor fees etc, right, but the 495k offer is just straight up money? Counter at 500k and be done.

Yep. Not to mention OP will have to carry the house for a few more months and lose money on the interest payments if she waits until spring to sell.

This op. Sell now for $495. Sure you will be out 5k but as pp stated that is one house payment. Not to mention money you would need to fix it up plus 5 more months on the market plus real agents fee of 5%. Not worth it. Sell and be done.

Anonymous wrote:If you sold for 540, you would have to pay realtor fees etc, right, but the 495k offer is just straight up money? Counter at 500k and be done.

Yep. Not to mention OP will have to carry the house for a few more months and lose money on the interest payments if she waits until spring to sell.

I'd take the 495k and move on with my life.

If you sold for 540, you would have to pay realtor fees etc, right, but the 495k offer is just straight up money? Counter at 500k and be done.

Hmm, I would personally survive the situation, unless my spouse were psychologically unstable and dangerous, to sell the house in the Spring, at a profit. It's a few months, I know. Can both of you see a therapist to improve communication until then? If you are going to co-parent, the communication needs to be in working order *anyway*, so it won't be money thrown out of the window.

Only you can decide, OP, and I understand the urgency may change at any point. I just don't want you to have any regrets later on. Financial health is also important. Hang in there.

Peace of mind versus a few thousand dollars. Am I reading this right?

You are doing the smart thing in asking about any unforeseen "gotchas" with the We Buy Houses people.

You want out. Do what you can to break even, but understand that the loss of a few thousand dollars ($5k, right) is MORE than worth the nightmare of an acrimonious limbo. Hell, you can even hold off on the divorce to save up that money. List the things you'd have to forgo with the loss of that money (vacation, the nicer summer camp, any new cosmetics or hair salon visits, etc.) and see how that balances against staying where you are for the duration to fix the things that need to be fixed and await the Spring Housing Market, where you'll probably get a higher price.

Freedom is everything. foxes chew off their legs to free themselves from traps. Do what you have to do in order to get out of a bad situation.

I say this because the stress I read in your post seems to tell me that things are worse than what you're stating. Stay safe. Money is money and you'll earn it back later. But, trauma is trauma and a lot harder to heal from than the loss of a bit of cash.

Arms don't really spike. It might go up a percent or 2 bit for a few months it's not that bad. Don't sell to a we buy houses type company. I invest in one (well known one), and I make about a 30% return on my money. You can do better.
Put your house on make me move on zillow. How bad is the stuff you have to fix?

Any realtor fees will eat up most of your equity, but not all. Are you in a hot area? If you can't afford the new mortgage payment, how are you going to have two households?

Is your ARM mortgage payment really going to spike? Unless you had an interest only ARM, I would guess that the payments would be the same or maybe even lower than they are now.

If you're right about $540K being the true market value of the house than $495K isn't a bad offer since you'll be saving real estate agent commissions (say 5%), not have to do any repairs and presumably receiving an all cash offer with no contingencies for your house.

I would just make sure you're researching the comps properly.

If you're willing to sell for $500k, then counter the We Buy Houses people at $500k. Seems simpler than trying to find another home buying firm and hoping for more.

(I think you should go stay at a friend's house a few nights a week while you fix it up and sell it in the spring, but acrimonious might mean something less extreme to me than it does to you.)

Cliffs:

Separated and sharing home with STBXW because finances do not allow separate residences. The living situation is slowly become acrimonious and I don't want my kids to see us fight or to continue in this mutually unhealthy arrangement. We have an ARM which is resetting and increasing effective this month, so the Jan mortgage payment will spike. In order for the house to be put on the market, some repairs need to be done. Background on the house - for discussion purposes, the value is $540k ish if a few things were fixed. Also for discussion purposes, the mortgage balance is $500k.

It is apparent that the house needs to sell YESTERDAY so that we can move on. This is a terrible time of year to sell, we don't want to put any money out to fix things to be put on the market, and we want out and are willing to leave some hypothetical equity on the table in order to do so. We contacted one of the "we buy houses for cash" outfits and surprisingly the offer was $495k. In other words, almost enough to break even. We need to at least break even.

My questions:

- Any recommendations concerning other home buying firms in No VA?
- Any experiences to share or warnings? Other than "get everything in writing"...

Any other advice is gratefully accepted. I'm desperate. I have considered walking away but my understanding is that VA is a recourse state and that the bank could sue me, in addition to the big credit hit.