He's Gone

Another painful good bye, and my husband and I are 800 miles apart again.

I think he had a good visit. He certainly seemed to have fun! The only downer was the fact that I was sick the whole time.

I did my best, though, going along with our plans despite fever, laryngitis, cough, and misery!!

I had a lot of fun, too, despite feeling like crap for almost all of our 8 days together.

Back to status quo, now. And I hate this staus quo.

Talking with the realtor about our next step. I have not dropped my price for a couple of months, on her advice, but everyone around me has, so now it's time to consider another drop. I've already come down $18K from my original price.

The trouble is, we are getting to the point now where values have dropped below what I need to get in order to be able to sell WITHOUT having to BORROW MONEY to pay for a closing.

When that window closes, selling is no longer an option at all, and it's looming very close.

So, last night, we discussed other options.

I could quit my job, move away, and stop paying my mortgage.
This would trash my credit and make it possible for me to do a short sale.

The mortgage default part of my credit trashing will recover in about a year, HOWEVER, the association dues part will probably take years to clear. That was not something my realtor talked about...she only talked about how I would qualify for hardship recovery on the mortgage.

Alternately, we could find a tenant and rent the place out. I will still be losing money every month, because I won't be able to charge enough rent to cover BOTH the mortgage and the association dues. AND there's always the risk that a renter will cause damage to my property.

Lastly, find a tenant who wants the option to buy. I can charge more rent, BUT I would have to put that "extra" money aside for the tenant, toward his or her down payment at the end of the lease when they buy the place.

So, technically, I will still be losing money every month.

One good factor of that scenario is that if the tenant chooses NOT to buy at the end of the lease, I get to keep all of that money that was held back from their rent.

Lots to think about.

My realtor is taking me around to the other condos in this complex that are for sale, in order to compare prices and condos. THAT is the first step in determining if we are even going to consider another price drop.

If the other units here are of lesser quality and lower price, then I should be OK keeping my price a little higher, and I can still hope to get an offer for my required minimum.

However, if they are of greater quality and lower price, I am basically completely screwed. We won't know until we go look at them on Monday.

This was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to finally be on track in my life, and in love, and everything was supposed to go smoothly for the first time.

WTF??