The Back Alley Archives

We got a call again from our building contractor today who said their designer was going to be in town next week and wanted to know if we would like to meet with him. Obviously, their business has slowed down and they are trying to get us to start the add-on project we discussed with them. Kinda funny, because when we first met with him, he had so many projects going on, we didn't think he would even be able to start on ours for a year...but oh, how times change.

We got an offer on a fixed rate Home Equity Loan from CitiMortgage (who our Mortgage is with right now...third company we've had in 6 years). It looks decent and I figure it's worth the 800 call to see what they say.

Still don't know what our ultimate decision will be...maybe we will just spend a small amount of money to just update our kitchens and bathrooms, then sell and move somewhere else. Or maybe we will make a huge change to the house so we can live there more comfortably for years to come.

Bill wants to move because he doesn't like the area (traffic), but being from Miami, I still think our traffic is nothing and I like the schools and friends we've made and I'd like to stay. But when Bill thinks about the amount of work and struggle we would go through to sell the house right now, it sort of makes him re-think things a bit.

Ideally, we want someone to spend the least amount of money possible to make our house worth as much as possible. Unfortunately, that will likely not give us the room we need to house 6 people comfortably.

I know you guys say horrible things about Citi...should I not get a Home Equity Loan with them, even if it sounds like a good deal?

i don't know about citi for mortgages. i would say that if you are going to make changes that add value it would be in the kitchen and bathrooms. but i would caution that once you pay a contractor you would not likely break even on your investment in the short term. if you were to do the work yourself you could build the "sweat equity". if you're going to make the improvements i would do it to make it livable to stay. otherwise sell, move and save yourself the hassle and disruption of home improvement.

i bank at citi and although they've had their fair share of writedowns based on ill advised trading strategies (mortgage related products), they are still a very large, capitalized financial institution...i can't see citi going under....

besides - why would you care what happens to citi once you've got your check cut to you?

if anything, it should be me 'diversifying' my funds with respects to where i bank...not talking boat loads of money but i think i should be the one concerned with making sure the money i have banked there should be split up amongst 2 or 3 other different banks just because.

What are home prices looking like in Orlando right now? Would it be cheaper to expand the current home or buy something new? And if you buy new, what kind of price would you be able to get on the current pad /what would be the prospects of selling easily?

Good question a1...here's the situation as I see it. IF we get our house in decent shape...meaning, take our large tax refund and get the house painted, and anything that is broken, get it fixed (we need a new roof by the way)...we may get around $250 (maybe a little more, maybe a little less) but I'm just not sure about that. While our house isn't that big, it is in a great neighborhood, has a nice pool and includes an acre and a half of land (which is almost unheard of in Central FL). Close to shopping, schools, etc.

With our current HE Loan we would come out of that sale with maybe 65K to put down on another house. We could afford a mortgage payment (including escrow and taxes) of around $1600-$1700...maybe a bit higher since our HE loan would be paid off. So how much a house could we afford? I'm not sure...maybe a $300K one? I can say that we will not find anything in Central FL (Kissimmee...definitely NOT Orlando) that will give us at least 4 bedrooms, an office or some sort of work space for Bill and his business AND it can't be in an association that won't let us run our business out of our house. There is the rub...we MIGHT be able to find a place like that if we move up to Ocala or something but that (IMO) would be a big move...and since I need to still work at Disney for the insurance and other benefits, that means we would need to buy another vehicle that will get better gas mileage for my trips to work (two days a week).

Part of the reason I don't want to move somewhere else are selfish I know...the thought of trying to find a good location where there are good schools, make new friends/neighbors (assuming we can find a house in a neighborhood like that) get all new doctors and such...ugh, it gets me dizzy...and that would be AFTER all the work we'd need to do to the house JUST to get it sold.

I know that building on is a big hassle, but I have a hard time believing it would be MORE of a hassle than selling and trying to find something else that we could afford. I think I need a Magical Genie to help me! [img]{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif[/img]