subject: When Is It Advisable To Take A Loss On A Property? [print this page] We have all made some bad investment decisions in our lives. Have you bought impulsively in the stock market when the prices were soaring? Perhaps you were forced to cash out some of your investments in a retirement plan. By selling early or before maturity, the investments by have been trading below your purchase price. This is what happens when we disrupt the initial investment time horizon. We then blame the brokers and the markets for our own mistakes and swear that we will never do that again.
Eventually, we invest again. This time we decide to stick to real estate, because property values always go up - or do they? Well they do, but never in a straight line. If you hold your property long enough, you will eventually make your money back and more.
Is this really the best thing to do? On the surface it might appear to be, after all as long as you don't sell you won't realise any loses. In addition, your equity in the home will build so that when you finally do sell you will make a healthy profit.
The real problem with this plan lies in the timing. If you were to purchase a home, and in a few years the market were to crash with no visible sign of recovery; and if you had leveraged yourself to the hilt in order to lock in to a price that now seems ridiculous, it may be a good time to sell.
What! - sell and take a loss in real estate? How is that the smart thing to do? Well the smart thing would have been not to buy in peaking market. People panic. It's as simple as that. They think that if they don't buy now, they will never be able to. Housing prices are ridiculous. I remember when you could buy the same property for just a fraction of today's prices. I better buy now because tomorrow the same place will cost me a million or more.
It's these kinds of fears that create housing booms that seem to go out of control. Sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the situation. You now have a mortgage that is twice the value of the property. You may have to sit on this investment for 10 years or longer before you have enough equity to justify the mortgage payments. In this type of situation, you may be better off if you just sell the property at a loss. You can always buy another property back at a lower price. When you do this, the difference between the property sold and bought represents your loss. You are realising the loss as opposed to carrying an unrealised loss for many years. This means that you now have a property again with considerably lower carrying costs and you have a better equity position. This in turn will help you manage your investment better.
In order to sell your home quickly, consider a Rapid-sell. There are property purchasing companies that will purchase just about any property in the UK or US. They will also provide an offer for your property within a few days from when you first contact them. Look at their no commissions and legal fees perks. If you want to know how to sell your house fast, this is the best way to go.
