My Slight Real Estate Problem: The Housing Market And Me

by Jenn That

First House, Portland, Ore.
5-bedroom, 2-bath house,
Mortgage: $731/mo.
Bought: $175,000, May 2004
Sold: $265,000, May 2006
Current Zestimate: $260,000

The housing market was booming and my mom had just inherited some money. She was considering buying an investment property on the east coast. I had just finished my second year of college in Portland, Ore. and was apartment hunting with friends when she suggested we go enter homeownership together. She put up the downpayment, I lived in one bedrooms and rented out the other four (and sometimes also a corner of the basement) to friends to pay the mortgage each month.

This house, built in 1914, was utterly beautiful and full of wonderful memories, and I was so sad to leave it when I graduated. We sold it for a very nice profit (2004! 2006!). My mother got back her whole down payment, and we split the remaining fruits of our investment.

Second House, Troy, NY
5-bedroom, 1.5-bath house
Mortgage: $648/mo.
Bought: $147,000, July 2006
Sold: $137,000, October 2006
Current Zestimate: $62,000

I moved to New York for grad school. Buoyed by the success of my last real estate venture, I used the profit from the previous sale as down payment on a house in town.

Four months later, I decided to quit grad school and move to Florida (love). It was late 2006, and selling a house after six months didn’t seem so crazy! I sold the house at a $15,000 loss.

I sold the house in New York because I didn’t know anyone in the area and was thus extra-daunted by the idea of managing upkeep on a rental house 1,000+ miles away from me. Also, it was late 2006: selling a house after six months didn’t seem so crazy back then, as you’d often make your money back. My mom and I weren’t on great terms right when I moved, either, because she was disappointed in my decision to bail on grad school and New York, so neither of us was excited about co-owning property right then and she kinda wanted her money back.

But: The new owners were made for that house. Sometimes I think I was meant to have it just to hold onto it for them.

Third House, NW Gainesville, Fla.
3-bedroom, 1-bath house with bonus cottage
Mortgage: $1032/mo.
Bought: $160,000, April 2007

I got engaged to the man I moved to Florida to be with, and to celebrate, we went house shopping. Real estate still seemed like a good investment at that time, and we both thought we’d make a killing selling the house in three to four years after graduating — after all, that’s what had happened for me in undergrad. Plus it seemed like the Kind of Thing We Should Do Now That We Were Getting Married, even though we were both grad students with a combined income of about $30,000 per year. Ah, the wild days of the housing boom! I almost miss them.

We got this house — which had a lot of “potential,” as they say in the ads — because we managed to be the first (of hundreds) to respond to the Craigslist ad when it went up.

We spent $12,000 to redo the bathrooms, floors, roof, and walls (the place was built in 1947). Repairs to the plumbing cost us about $10,000 over two years. We also fixed up the and the cottage and rented it out for $550/mo.

We turned the house into something good, but our marriage wasn’t. We split up, and I moved out. It took many, many months for us to agree on an arrangement for the house because he was convinced it was worth a lot more than it was.

Third House, NW Gainesville, Fla., (Again)
3-bedroom, 1-bath house with bonus cottage
Mortgage: $862/mo.
Bought: $129,000, June 2010
Current Zestimate: $117,000

I bought my ex-husband out of the house as part of our divorce. He grumbled about the price, but it was determined by an assessment. He moved out. I moved back in.

I fell in love again and now we live here happily. (He pays me rent.) We still rent out the cottage and are still spending thousands of dollars on repairs every year, but it’s cheaper than the loss I’d take from selling it. Probably. All in all it’s a pretty nice house that doesn’t appear to have any sinkholes on the property. That’s pretty good for Florida.

Jenn That lives in Florida and will not be buying or selling any houses anytime soon.

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