House Sale - The Money Post

So, how did we do on the sale of our house?

Data dump. (Note: it's amazing how much of this you can find online legally with a minimum amount of searching.)


Original price: $390,000
Closing costs: $8,000  (Note: some of closing is the first mortgage of ~$1480)
Money down: $110,000
Mortgage loan: $280,000

Or monthly mortgage payments started around $1480(?). It ended around $1620.

           Tax assessment:              Property tax:          (from Zillow)
2012:        $320k                             $3,572
2013:        $385k                             $4,264
2014:        $420k                             $4,702

I don't remember the exact number, but our 2015 Property tax would have been over $4,800.

Over the course of our stay, we estimated we put ~$45,000 in improvements into our house. Some of that included estimating labor improvements from work we did ourselves (like the kitchen backsplash). It did not include a dug up water main or a yard man who ran job half done. The real number is north of that, but the amount we spent is close. Carrie's parents helped us with the original washer and dryer and then the HVAC repairs. I'm sure there are plenty of little odds and ends that added up, too. It's in the nature of home ownership.

Perk: My friend Dan moved in with us for a year. He helped contribute to the our mortgage payments while he was around. He also helped install the HVAC system and got us a much reduced price.

Sale price: $442,000 w/$2,000 towards closing
Agent commissions: 5% ($22,100)
Final sale for us: $418,000

Net closing from HUD: $150,000

If you only look at the beginning investment and the final numbers the house was a minor loss.

$110k down + $45k improvment + $8k closing= $163k

$163k - $150k recovered at end = a loss of $13k

However, I think we saved money by owning the house versus renting. The estimated rent for our home on Zillow is $2,240/mo. Zillow nailed our sale price with their Zestimate, so I'll give them the benefit of my (un-researched) doubt. My one bedroom (but nice and almost 1,000 sq ft) apartment wanted to charge me $1400/mo rent to renew my lease after I married Carrie. Rents in Northern Virginia are expensive. Carrie and I would not have been able to afford to rent our house at the going rates, so we would have had to rent something else if we did not buy.

Theoretical math:

If we rented a place at $2,000/mo for three years: $72,000 loss.

If we rented a place at $1,500/mo for three years: $54,000 loss.

I counted both as a loss, because rent never returns.

The actual rent would probably lie somewhere between there. I went with three years, because I don't think we'd be able to leave without finishing the lease or at a penalty. There would also have been a (probably) non-refundable security deposit and possibly a non-refundable pet deposit. I don't know if we would have been able to afford the two-homes in two-cities job in Charlottesville experiment at the increased rent rate vs our mortgage.

I think we lost some money on the house, but I think we saved some money by owning versus renting. We were able to write off some of the interest on our taxes and we got to enjoy a house with a garage at a much reduced rate from renting. I think we were able to claim a rebate for energy efficient upgrades one year, too. We recouped most of the money spent on upgrades, so it's almost counts as putting it away in savings (if you try to look at it askance quickly while hopping and blinking).

Someone who's big into investing may point out "Yeah, but you could have had that down payment churning out dividends or capital gains!" That's possibly true, but it's also possible we could have lost or ended up right where we are. Most of my stocks have been profitable, but I bet my wife would have swooned every time the market took a turn. The house was a much steadier/stabler risk we could both agree on.

Overall, I'd say it was a win or neutral at the worst. We plan to roll the money we made into our next home....which we are scheduled to close on May 11th.

PS - I still find it ironic how big of a business houses are......to everyone but the buyer and seller. The banks, the insurance company, the repairmen, agents, etc, etc. Then again, the insurance guys didn't make much off of us with two basement floods.

UPDATE: We got a check back from the mortgage company, so we're a little over a thousand less in the hole. Must've been a refund for overpaying in the closing somehow. Not complaining.