Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

  • Home
  • About
  • Melissa Recommends
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Genesis

How We Used the Proceeds from the Sale of Our House

August 22, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

 

We Used the Proceeds from the Sale of Our House

This summer has been a crazy one. We found out in May that my husband would likely get a new job 2,200 miles away from our home, and in June, he signed the contract for the new position. We sold our house, bought a new house, and drove four days across the country to settle in our new area. Thanks to the housing shortage due to the pandemic, we made a nice profit on our old home. Here’s how we used the proceeds from the sale of our house.

About Our Old House

Our old house had almost doubled in value from when we bought it eight years ago. When we listed it, the house sold in three days, and we had six offers, two of them for over asking. The couple we picked also waived their right to an inspection, which saved us money.

About Our New House

Our new house is slightly larger than our old house and cost 8% more than our old house sold for. Unfortunately, the property taxes are three times higher. (Yes, property taxes in Arizona, where we moved from, are affordable.)

We wanted to find a smaller house that cost less than our house in Arizona. However, we only had a week to look for a home in our new area. Unfortunately, many of the places on the market were less than desirable, with moldy tubs and awkward layouts. Or, a few were in highly desirable areas and went well over asking; we had no desire to pay that much.

How We Used the Proceeds from the Sale of Our House

I would have liked to have put all of the proceeds from our house into our new home so we would have a smaller monthly payment, which is especially important in this high-interest rate environment. However, both our financial planner and mortgage broker talked us out of this.

Instead, we used the proceeds from the sale of our house this way:

Seventy percent for a 20% down payment on our new house and to cover closing costs.

We Used the Proceeds from the Sale of Our House

Six percent to increase our emergency fund. This allowed us to grow our emergency fund from one month of expenses to 2.5 months.

Four and a half percent for home improvements. While we didn’t pay over asking for this house, we did pay the list price. The house has some issues like mold on the wood window in one of our kids’ bedrooms, which we will need to replace before winter comes. We also need to replace a leaky, cracked sink and a few other items.

Six percent to increase our car replacement fund. We’ll need a new car within the next year or two. (Our current vehicle is 18 years old.) So, we added to this fund.

Two and a half percent to cover moving costs. We had to pay for our hotel rooms and food as we journeyed across the country, as well as other miscellaneous expenses.

The rest is unassigned for now. We’ll see how we need to use the remaining money, whether for college tuition, increasing the emergency fund further, or buying other household needs like a snowblower.

Final Thoughts

We tried to use the proceeds from the sale of our house as responsibly as possible. As a result, we were able to put 20% down on our new house, and we were able to bulk up many budget categories that put us in a more secure financial position.

Read More

3 Lessons I Learned When Looking for a New House

Should You Create Sinking Funds Before You’re Debt Free?

When the More Expensive Option Is the Frugal Choice

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Cars, Education, Emergency Fund, Home, Saving Tagged With: college expenses, emergency fund, home improvements, selling a home, selling a house

8 Easy Low Cost Fixes to Help Your Home Sell Fast

June 8, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Selling a home is not fun.  You have to pack, clean, and list your home for sale.  This process can be more stressful if you have to sell your home quickly because you have a new job in another area of the country or you’re buying a new home and don’t want to pay two mortgages.  Thankfully, there are 8 easy low cost fixes to help your home sell fast.

8 Easy Low Cost Fixes to Help Your Home Sell Fast

Declutter

Before you do anything, declutter, declutter, declutter.  Kitchen counters should be bare.  You should put extra furniture in storage.  Make your home look like a minimalist lives there.  By doing this, your house will look bigger, which can help buyers feel that the house is big enough for them and their possessions.

8 Easy Low Cost Fixes to Help Your Home Sell Fast
Photo by Lindy Baker on Unsplash

Besides decluttering, you also want to remove personal photos and decorations.  Buyers have a hard time imagining the house as theirs if you have to many of your own personal items.  Plus, your home will be photographed and listed on the internet.  Do you really want all of your personal family photos on the internet for anyone to see?  I know I don’t!

Deep Clean

After you’ve decluttered, deep clean.  If you’re not going to repaint, take a Magic Eraser, and make sure all of the scuff marks are off the trim and walls.  Clean the grout, power wash the deck, wipe down all of the walls and cabinets.  Dust and wash light fixtures.  If you have a neat freak friend, now is the time to invite her over so she can point out all the areas that need to be cleaned that you don’t notice because you live in the house.  If you have the money, consider hiring a cleaning team to do a spring clean of your house so that it’s pristine when potential buyers walk through.

Get Advice from the Realtor First

After you’ve done the basics of decluttering and cleaning, consider getting advice from a realtor.  The realtor will know your local market and can help guide you in any minor and major changes that you should make.

Paint Walls a Neutral Color

If you are going to paint the walls, and I recommend it because it makes the whole house look fresh, consider going with neutral colors like egg shell, beige or light gray.  Avoid dark colors or unique designs.

When my husband and I were searching for homes online, I didn’t even want to go look at the house that we ended up buying because the living room looked like it had ugly, old fashioned wallpaper on it.  When we did look at the house, we discovered it wasn’t really wallpaper, but instead a bad sponge painting job using tan, orange and brown.  If the living room would have been painted a neutral color, it would have looked much better online.

Make Minor Repairs

If you’ve lived in your house long enough, you likely have several minor repairs that need to be made.  In our house, we have some dry wall that needs to be patched, places where the paint is coming off, a doorbell that doesn’t work, etc.  Take all of those small repairs and have them fixed.  Your home will look better when you list it, and potential buyers will feel that you’ve done a good job taking care of your home.

Buy a Home Warranty Now

If you don’t have a home warranty, consider buying one now.  Then, when you have a potential buyer and a home inspection, if anything major is found, you’ll be able to offset the cost to repair or fix with the home warranty.  When you close, the new homeowners can buy the warranty from you if they’d like.

Price to Sell

If you’re in a hurry to sell your home, make sure you price it competitively.  Now is not the time to price it a little bit high to see if you can get a greater profit.  If time is of the essence, price it around the same price of comparable properties in your area or even price it a little bit lower.  Sure, you won’t make as much money. However,  in the long run, you can save money overall because you won’t have to pay the mortgage for a house you no longer live in that is still on the market.

My husband and I were in the housing market about five years ago.  We saw many houses that were priced too high.  Those houses had had numerous price reductions.  I immediately thought the sellers were desperate and that I could negotiate with them even further.  Other buyers might think something is wrong with the property.

It is better to start with a competitive price and garner interest than to start too high and keep reducing the price.

Allow All of the Showings

8 Easy Low Cost Fixes to Help You Sell Your House Fast
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

One of the most difficult parts of selling a house, especially if you have kids, is to leave your home so real estate agents can show it.  However, if you can try to keep your home show ready, you’ll be able to leave at a moment’s notice.  Try to be flexible and agree to showings with only an hour’s notice.  The more people you can get through your front door, the more potential buyers you have.

A family friend recently had to sell her home quickly because her husband had gotten a job in another state.  They only had one month to sell.  Even though they had three young children, they were determined to sell quickly.  They left the house sometimes two to four times a day for showings.  However, they sold the house in just two short weeks!

Final Thoughts

These 8 easy low cost fixes to help your home sell fast tasks don’t cost much money.  However, they can have a serious impact on how long your house is on the market and how much it will sell for.

If you’ve recently sold or bought your home, what else would you add to this list?

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Frugality, Home, Saving Tagged With: home buying, home warranty, selling a home

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Improve Your Credit Score

Money Blogs

  • Celebrating Financial Freedom
  • Christian PF
  • Dual Income No Kids
  • Financial Panther
  • Gajizmo.com
  • Lazy Man and Money
  • Make Money Your Way
  • Money Talks News
  • My Personal Finance Journey
  • Personal Profitability
  • PF Blogs
  • Reach Financial Independence
  • So Over Debt
  • The Savvy Scot
  • Yes, I am Cheap

Categories

Disclaimer

Please note that Beating Broke has financial relationships with some of the merchants mentioned here. Beating Broke may be compensated if consumers choose to utilize the links located throughout the content on this site and generate sales for the said merchant.

Visit Our Advertisers

Need to change careers? Consider an Accounting Certificate Program from WTI.