Sell Land

[Acmbiz]

I own two homes . no mortgage. On disability. Personal loan 200 K . My second home rest on 30 acres with a awesome view. I have a lot of debt and growing. Should I sell land to pay down debt?

[bjl584]

Without knowing more information it's hard to give advice. What is the loan for? Why do you have growing debts? Do you have other assets? Any income other than disability?

[TheKayla]

Why do you have a lot of growing debt? My assumption is its a similar reason to the disability, but I would figure out the source of the issue and get it fixed asap, even if, depending on your situation, it means sacrifices or getting creative. If for whatever reason its not, take the steps necessary to get spending under control.

Agreed with the above poster though, it's not a lot of information to go off of. We'd be glad to help with more details.

[Acmbiz]

sell land more info

This is my first time using this. Thanks for the quick response. Impressive!

1. Out of work for 7 years due to 3 back operations. I went from making $200,000 per yr to $2400. I'm married. Spouse makes $200,000. She takes care of primary home bills, auto loan and daughter college ( $40,000 ). I take care of second home bills.

2. We have a personal line of credit of $200,000 which has stayed for the last 21/2 years. She just seems to pay interest. The loan has different things in it. Two sons college fees. The last $30,000 primary home mortgage.


3. The second home is a log cabin with 30 acres. I could take a 12 acre chunk off and sell it for around $150,000.

My wife and I are spenders which has always been our down fall. We are trying to curb things now. Daughter has 1 1/2 yr to go. We have been taking about having her take out another loan to help us out.

[TheKayla]

I would make your daughter pay for her own college at this point, that's really great that you've been able to help out so far, especially with college costs (I'm a strong believer in parents helping out if they are able to solely because of the cost of college 18-22 year olds shouldnt be taking out $50k in loans!), however, with only a year and a half to go, she can work / take out loans / apply for scholarships for the rest of it at this point. Over half at $40,000 is more than enough help to get someone started in life. I say this primarily too because you and your wife area obviously in debt and you shouldn't be getting into more debt at this point.

How are you on retirement savings too? With a daughter in college I'm assuming you're getting closer to retirement age and you should definitely be making that a bigger priority. Have you been funding enough? Sounds like with a $200k salary and having to take on so much debt still you've been living beyond your means for some time. Despite your income being cut in half basically, you must realize $200k is still a LOT of income, and it's crazy that anyone with that income would be in debt at all. I'd sell the other home, it's not needed, and its certainly not worth debt, stress, and a more complicated financial situation and life.

You say you're working on getting spending under control, I'd say that would be your biggest priority right now though, over everything else, including selling the other home. Even if you sell the other home, or acres of the other home, if you haven't fixed the root problem, it won't do any good at all in the long-run. If you don't fit the root problem, you'll just get back into debt with no house to sell to bail you out next time.

[bjl584]

Where is the rest of your money going? $200K is a lot of income. Do you own a lot of cars and "toys"?

If you post up a budget detailing where the money is going each month it would be easier to give advice.

My hunch is that there are plenty of places to cut and plenty of things to sell.

[Rboone]

Ditto what Kayla said above. You gotta fix the root to the problem 1st. But in regards to selling the other home. Let me know where they are located and what you decide to do. I am always looking to add more investment properties to my portfolio. I can pay cash and close quickly. I could save you thousands of dollars by not having to pay a realtor. Thanks

- Rory

[Jerry91]

Rather than selling off the land, it will be better if you could take out a mortgage on any of your properties and pay off your debts.

[Retired To Win]

I own two homes . no mortgage. On disability. Personal loan 200 K . My second home rest on 30 acres with a awesome view. I have a lot of debt and growing. Should I sell land to pay down debt?

Based on my similar experience, I would say to go ahead and sell that 12-acre chunk of your property that you think can get you $150,000.

I did not have a mountain of debt, but I did have a nice chunk of cash locked up in a third property (a cabin on 100 acres) that I was only using a few days a year. If the same is true for you, then I would say there's not enough "bang for the buck" in your ownership of the property to justify tying up the cash. Especially if you are experiencing big-time debt pressure.

In my case, I sold 2/3 of the land, kept the cabin and about 26 acres, and used the net proceeds to pay off the mortgage on my principal house. Pretty neat, I thought. Think how neat it would be for you to knock off $150,000 off your debt load and still keep your cabin on 18 acres!

Retired to Win
making the most of my time and my money

[Retired To Win]

I own two homes . no mortgage. On disability. Personal loan 200 K . My second home rest on 30 acres with a awesome view. I have a lot of debt and growing. Should I sell land to pay down debt?

Based on my similar experience, I would say to go ahead and sell that 12-acre chunk of your property that you think can get you $150,000.

I did not have a mountain of debt, but I did have a nice chunk of cash locked up in a third property (a cabin on 100 acres) that I was only using a few days a year. If the same is true for you, then I would say there's not enough "bang for the buck" in your ownership of the property to justify tying up the cash. Especially if you are experiencing big-time debt pressure.

In my case, I sold 2/3 of the land, kept the cabin and about 26 acres, and used the net proceeds to pay off the mortgage on my principal house. Pretty neat, I thought. Think how neat it would be for you to knock off $150,000 off your debt load and still keep your cabin on 18 acres!

Retired to Win
making the most of my time and my money

[Retired To Win]

Based on my similar experience, I would say to go ahead and sell that 12-acre chunk of your property that you think can get you $150,000.

I did not have a mountain of debt, but I did have a nice chunk of cash locked up in a third property (a cabin on 100 acres)that I was only using a few days a year. If the same is true for you, then I would say there's not enough "bang for the buck" in your ownership of the property to justify tying up the cash. Especially if you are experiencing big-time debt pressure.

In my case, I sold 2/3 of the land, kept the cabin and about 26 acres, and used the net proceeds to pay off the mortgage on my principal house. Pretty neat, I thought. Think how neat it would be for you to knock off $150,000 off your debt load and still keep your cabin on 18 acres!

Retired to Win
making the most of my time and my money