I sold, they bought, they sold, they rent
By blog on May. 20, 2009.
Some time ago, I posted about selling my mother’s house after she had moved into a retirement community. Yesterday when I went out to the supermarket I ran into the estate agent that brokered the deal. He told me something that I found very surprising and interesting.
The couple that bought my mother’s house, re-soled it within a few weeks, and are now renting it! Apparently this sell and rent back thing is a trend taking on in an attempt to end up paying less on their mortgages. I have to say, I am less surprised now that I got such a good price on the house considering this is the plan they had.
It seems that, whilst prices stopped falling so rapidly for the last few months, there is still a great degree of uncertainty in the market. People are looking to find extra money where they can, and being inventive about it too!
I saw this article the other day, and now it makes more sense. From my nice, secure position of being a home owner, with a small portion of my mortgage left over, it is very interesting to watch what is going on with the housing market. But for those currently within it, it is a very trying time.
I wonder at the choice of that couple who bought my mother’s house. I can see the logic in it, they will end up paying a smaller mortgage in the end, which leads me to ponder how many other home owners will do the same thing. I know there will be those who will miss the boat and sell too late, missing out on when the market hits rock bottom, and begins it’s slow climb back up. With the world financial situation being the way it is, I am all for everybody making it any way they can – as they aren’t negatively impacting others; that’s what got us here in the first place.
I suppose I should be impressed at the ingenuity of humans. We have all found ourselves hurting in some fashion from this financial crisis, but many are finding new ways to use the system to beat the system. Got to appreciate that!
Category: Technology