When my parents passed away last year, they left me their house in their will.
As much as I wanted to keep it, I live across the country and cannot afford to use it as a vacation home.
I have been working less hours over the past year and have had to budget every single purchase I make. It’s saddening to sell a home you grew up in and have so many amazing memories with, but I just don’t make enough money to pay the property taxes and the minimal utilities to maintain the humidity level inside. The home also needs repairs that I don’t have the money to afford. With much deliberation, I decided to put the house on the market. I didn’t want to deal with a real estate agent, but I didn’t know how to do it alone. Unfortunately, I realized quickly that I wasn’t going to get as much money for the house as I had initially hoped. Part of the issue was all of the repairs that needed to be made. The roof was getting old, there was damage to walls in several rooms, and the bathroom shower needs to be retiled. The worst thing making me lose money on the house is the old air conditioner. Since it’s 22 years old, it needs to be replaced. That means that whoever buys the house will be looking at that charge right at the outset. If I purchase a new air conditioner, that will raise the value of the house. But unless I make the other repairs as well, it won’t raise the value enough to offset the costs of replacing the HVAC system. It’s a tough quandary that I’m finding myself in with trying to sell this house.