Where will foot3x gonna live?

[footfootfoot]

I didn't want to gate crash UT's thread so I started my own, mods can merge them if they want to.

So, I have been out for about a month. I have 6 more weeks until this sublet is up. I spoke with the realtor about my options to buy since there are no rentals anywhere near where I live. There are actually about three and they are all more $ than my mortgage.

It seems I will not be taking out a mortgage any time soon with my credit rating and job history. The status of the current house is still a wildly spinning plate so it may not even enter into the discussion.

I've looked at a couple of fixer-uppers that are in the 60-65K range. One is actually not that bad, just a bunch of frozen burst pipes and it is walking distance for the kids. The other needs a septic but it comes with 10 acres of land- field and forest. Problem is even with a co-signer the bank won't lend money on a house that is not liveable. So either of those places would need to be a cash buy. Not really within my grasp right now. I'd be a bit closer if I could quickly liquidate all my photo equipment, and got bought out of my current house.

The other alternative I've thought of is to buy a used 24 foot stake bed truck and build a microhouse on the back of it. I like the idea of that. Not sure if that is truly a step in the right direction though. My buddy is going to foster all my tools in his new, empty shop.

[ZenGum]

It might be wise to rent / house sit until the great schism has been finalised. Then you'll know how much resources you'll have at your disposal.

[Undertoad]

Be sure not to ignore posted "for rent" signs as these are private individuals looking to rent a section of their place out and they will not do credit checks. They may also be interested in cash deals that lower the overall rent, as in, "Will you take $8 grand up front for the entire year?"

As far as converting a truck, remember you have to heat it!

[Spexxvet]

Foots, didn't you build a house a couple of years ago?

[footfootfoot]

Yeah, last summer, but it was not for me, it was a job. I could build a small house fairly quickly and inexpensively if I had a chunk of land.

I am going to wait a bit because I have a few ideas that may pan out. So far, though I am liking the stake bed house a lot.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

So far, though I am liking the stake bed house a lot.

The what, now?

edit: oh, google tells me that's a flat bed truck with picket fence around the bed

[Clodfobble]

I'd expect final splitting of assets to take at least a year, maybe more, unless she's suddenly become super-cooperative (I know, I know.) So I think you'll have to come up with a slightly more permanent temporary solution than the back of a truck. I would look into more sublets and rooms-within-otherwise-occupied houses. Craigslist is skeezy but there are good things hiding in there as well.

Or maybe, go to the person who owns the burst-pipe house. Tell him that the bank won't let you buy, but maybe you can work out some super-low (or free) lease wherein you fix up the pipes while you're living there, and also give you right of first refusal to buy it after it's fixed. I can't imagine there are a lot of people trying to buy a broken house, how long has it been on the market? He might go for it.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'd expect final splitting of assets to take at least a year, maybe more, unless she's suddenly become super-cooperative (I know, I know.) So I think you'll have to come up with a slightly more permanent temporary solution than the back of a truck. I would look into more sublets and rooms-within-otherwise-occupied houses. Craigslist is skeezy but there are good things hiding in there as well.

Or maybe, go to the person who owns the burst-pipe house. Tell him that the bank won't let you buy, but maybe you can work out some super-low (or free) lease wherein you fix up the pipes while you're living there, and also give you right of first refusal to buy it after it's fixed. I can't imagine there are a lot of people trying to buy a broken house, how long has it been on the market? He might go for it.

Well, he dead. A bank is selling it, a short sale that would also take months.
I'll continue pounding the pavement. I also thought about a Destination trailer. The farm I built the house for bought one for their seasonal workers. It was pretty sweet for about 20k.

[Lamplighter]

...
Well, he dead. A bank is selling it, a short sale that would also take months.

Go talk with the REO (real estate owned) dept of the bank that is handling the property.
Things have changed greatly in what banks are doing now with short sales.
If the house is worth anything at all, banks are allowing owners/renters
to remain in the house for the time it will take to process the mortgage paperwork.
Currently, this is amounting to 2-3 years.

The banks now are only concerned about the property not being savaged or illegally inhabited.
There are huge sums of $, foreign and domestic, coming into play
where investor-corporations are offering to buy several
hundreds properties in a bundle or single transaction.
They must hold them for the 2-3 years before they can sell them again.
A realtor recently told me they expect another flood of properties
on the market when that time period is up. But in the meantime
they will be used as rentals.

If you can show that you can/will maintain the property, I suspect
you could make an offer the bank's REO department could find a
way to accept it... or at least give you an extension and/or quick answer.
You might even live rent-free during that time.

[glatt]

There's a house in limbo across the street from my parents. It's sad, I spent many hours playing in that house with my best friend when I was a kid. And for the last 5 years or so it's been vacant and is slowly rotting away. I think a bank owns it. I heard there are even people who want to buy it, but the bank won't let them for some reason. A young forest is starting to grow in the front yard. The neighbors initially were mowing the front lawn, but the bank made them stop. It makes no sense.

[gvidas]

I think the mini-house-on-wheels paradigm is a lot easier to pull off if it's a trailer. Could be wrong. But I expect the criteria for registering and insuring a motor vehicle are more specific and stringent than those for registering a custom trailer on a factory chassis.

It's funny that building a house is the quick solution of last resort.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

There's a house in limbo across the street from my parents. It's sad, I spent many hours playing in that house with my best friend when I was a kid. And for the last 5 years or so it's been vacant and is slowly rotting away. I think a bank owns it. I heard there are even people who want to buy it, but the bank won't let them for some reason. A young forest is starting to grow in the front yard. The neighbors initially were mowing the front lawn, but the bank made them stop. It makes no sense.

My guess is that it isn't in livable condition, no bank will lend money on a house they can't re-sell. Or they may be some sort of cloud on the title, as for the mowing the bank is probably being hyper vigilant about squatter's rights. Something along the lines of "Aggressively improving or maintaining the property" or some such crap. It could be easy for someone to lay a claim on an abandoned place by claiming squatter's rights. Or not. Banks are weird.

[Griff]

Motor-home hooked up in a campground. You'd be able to focus on your work not on (re)building a house and taking on debt.