Homes For Sale: A Payment You Can Afford
You're not alone if you've spiralled into a terrifying financial situation. Today's housing and job market are quite volatile, and as a result, many people throughout the nation are facing repossession and bankruptcy due to no fault of their own. While it may seem as if there are no options to get out of your situation, there is an option: selling your house and renting it back.
Just 2 years ago, single mother Clare Wilson was in the same situation. When she became disabled due to very severe arthritis, she was not able to hold a job. Each month she would get just a small amount of income from her disability benefits. This was not enough to pay her mortgage, or properly care for herself and her 2 teenage sons.
After struggling with massive bills and debts for three years, Clare felt that there were no more options open to her. She was considering selling the house she had lived in for thirty years and moving herself and her two boys in to stay in a cramped place with relatives. Even most rental prices in her area were just too high, and there were no homes for sale within her price range - she was at the end of her rope.
Fortunately, when her home started to enter the repossession or foreclosure process, an old friend called her up and told her how she had figured out how to sell and rent back her property. Clare was intrigued. After a few inquiries, she realized that this would be a viable option for her, and let her stay in her beloved home that would someday be hers again. Her home would not become one of those houses with a " home for sale " sign!
Here's a quick example of how the sell and rent back process works. First, Clare sells her home to a real estate firm that specializes in repossessions or foreclosures. After sitting down with a representative from a company, she determined a monthly rental rate that worked for her. She choose a rate that was low that she could get her house back in a reasonable time, without risking her ability to provide necessities. The properties to rent back, such as Clare's house, would rarely undergo a change of hands.
Each monthly payment was used to build up equity in the house. She would have her choice of either paying the monthly rent for a long period of time, until the home was completely paid for, or paying just until her financial situation was improved enough to buy back the house. She will have to pay the rent to live there during that time which could well be lower than the going rate in her neighborhood. Either way, the house was hers to live in for as long as she wanted, and would soon become hers on paper, if she wanted to. That way the she managed to sell the property to rent back without ever having to move out of the house. And her neighbours were none the wiser, let alone any one else.
Today's housing and job market are quite volatile, and as a result, many people throughout the nation are facing repossession and bankruptcy due to no fault of their own. There were no other nearby homes for sale in her price range, and rental rates were astronomical. Fortunately at the time that her home was coming under the foreclosure process a friend of Clare gave her a call to tell her that she had figured out how to sell and rent back her home.. The properties to rent back, just like Clare's, will usually not ever go through a change of hands.
Published October 11th, 2007
Filed in Finance
