{"id":6448,"date":"2009-01-03T16:43:20","date_gmt":"2009-01-03T23:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6448"},"modified":"2009-01-03T16:43:34","modified_gmt":"2009-01-03T23:43:34","slug":"if-selling-is-not-a-viable-option-you-need-to-fall-in-love-with-your-house-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6448\/if-selling-is-not-a-viable-option-you-need-to-fall-in-love-with-your-house-all-over-again\/","title":{"rendered":"If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic<\/i> (permanent link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

 
If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again<\/strong><\/p>\n

The foreclosure market dominates the news, but it remains that good old-fashioned American homeowners occupy the overwhelming majority of Phoenix-area homes. That’s the good news.<\/p>\n

And here’s some even better news: If you have significant equity in your home, you can probably refinance right now, reducing your monthly payment.<\/p>\n

But here’s the bad news: Unless you absolutely have to, you probably won’t be moving for at least five years.<\/p>\n

Don’t believe the number you see on that refi appraisal. At most, your house is worth the same amount as a comparable lender-owned home, plus the net cost to bring that home up to the livability of yours.<\/p>\n

Swallow hard. You may have read in the paper that Americans lost $2 trillion in real estate equity in 2008. That’s a specious number. Money is the stuff you can fold up and spend. The equity in your home is unrealized money. You weren’t rich when your home was worth a lot, and you’re not poor now that it isn’t.<\/p>\n

But what you are is stuck, practically speaking.<\/p>\n

You don’t want to sell your house for what it can bring right now. If you do, you will lose money. But, refi or not, you’re making your payments.<\/p>\n

If your home really was purely an investment, like a stock, it might be wise to dump it, take your lumps and move on.<\/p>\n

But your home is not only where your heart is, it is very probably where most if not all of your savings are. You need to wait for the market to turn so you can sell at a profit.<\/p>\n

So what should you do?<\/p>\n

My advice: Paint.<\/p>\n

Patch that stucco and paint it. Caulk the wood at the eaves and the trim and paint it. Clean out the house one room at a time and patch and paint the walls, repairing and painting the molding.<\/p>\n

You’re stuck in your house for the next five years. It’s time to fall in love with it all over Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).  If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again The foreclosure market dominates the news, but it remains that good old-fashioned American homeowners occupy the overwhelming majority of Phoenix-area homes. That’s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9171,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9171\/viable-business-models\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":0},"title":"Viable Business Models ….","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"July 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"After reading through John Rowles' post about Glenn turning things profitable. (Hope that sticks for you Glenn, way to go.) And reading Michelle's comment, where she rightly noted that Glenn has made changes to his model to get profitable, I thought some further comment is in order. When I raise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2374,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2374\/redfincom-bodett-ing-real-estate-brokerage\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":1},"title":"Redfin.com: Bodett-ing Real Estate Brokerage","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Glenn Kelman appeared on NBC. This time, he wasn't the smartest kid in the class; he imitated Tom Bodett. Greg points out the \"Duh\" factor in the most recent Redfin Revelation: Here\u2019s real justice: Someday, an actual reporter is going turn to Kelman and say, \u201cGlenn, you\u2019re the expert. How\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":656,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/656\/more-endless-agency-via-the-smack-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":2},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: More endless agency","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"November 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"First, as much as Jeff and I genuinely like Greg and appreciate his having us here in his cyber home - he is simply wrong-headed about all this agency stuff. I don't believe that Jeff is an angel and I know I'm not. But single agency is not a viable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":438,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/438\/blogoff-post-61-ask-the-broker-can-i-escape-without-taking-a-scrape\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":3},"title":"Blogoff Post #61: Ask the Broker: How can I escape without taking a scrape . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a truly ugly problem:I'm being transferred and need to sell my house in a new subdivision. Unfortunately, the builder is still selling new houses. To make matters worse, I bought during the summer of 2005, and the builder has actually reduced its price from what it sold it to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5161,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5161\/mortgage-market-week-in-review-13\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":4},"title":"Mortgage Market Week in Review","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here we are on Friday again.\u00a0 That means that it\u2019s time to try to summarize what\u2019s going on in the mortgage and finance world.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going to talk about a couple of main things:\u00a0 the economic fundamentals, some earnings reports\u00a0and the \u201cmargin calls\u201d that are going on in the equity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17955,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17955\/overnight-news-big-budget-ibuyers-manage-to-suck-even-worse-even-in-the-easiest-real-estate-market-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":6448,"position":5},"title":"Overnight News: Big-budget iBuyers manage to suck even worse \u2013 even in the easiest real estate market\u00a0ever.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"There's iBuyer news today \u2013 half truth, half lies \u2013 but, as usual, the big news is missing: The big-budget iBuyers are by-now swarmed by many, many mini-iBuyers. Hardly anyone knows how to build a magnetic website, but lots and lots of people know how to flip houses. 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