You Can't Afford This House

[Music] brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. So, I I um I had a um condo in Seattle that I live in. Mhm. Pay $2,300 a month for mortgage plus HOA. And then last year, I freaked out cuz my my I'm from Florida initially or originally and my parents are older and I I have a plan of moving back to Florida. And so I got I freaked out because of the housing situation kept going up and I felt like I if I waited I would get priced out of market. So I went ahead and and bought a second home in Florida Florida at the at the top of my budget. Oh gosh. And the mortgage for Yeah. The mortgage for that is $4,000 a month. Well, sell it. And I Well, it's now I'm in negative equity. I I make um I my take-home pay is 8,600 a month. Yeah. I mean, why can't you sell it? Well, because now the price has gone down and I already spent $50,000 in the past year cuz I couldn't rent it for whatever reason. Who said the price went down? Yeah. So, now it's like maybe Who said that? Cuz the prices in Florida have not gone down. What are you talking about? No. But it is according to Zillow and I talked to a real Zillow is not a reliable source on anything. Okay. Okay. When did you buy How long has it been since you bought it? I bought it May uh 1st, 2024. I closed on it. Then I tried to put it uh on the market to rent it, but it's been empty for 13 months. I just finally got a last two weeks on June 1st. Um but the still I'm negative, so um $4,000 mortgage a month and they pay 2,700. Do you have any money? I have $50,000 in savings um and then some in 401k. Okay. Go to ramseysolutions.com and click on real estate ELP. Look for a Ramsey trusted real estate agent. Have them come out and look at it. Get it on the market and get it sold. If you have to write a $10,000 check to write a 10 to get rid of your mistake, do it. You have a problem here that is not going to get better. Okay? Even Even now that I finally after 13 months, I was able to rent it. And I mean, I'm still in the hole, but better. This is a ticking time bomb. It's going to blow up on you. Okay, so you cannot afford this house. You cannot afford for it to be empty. You cannot afford for the heating and air to go out. You cannot afford for the roof to leak. You cannot afford to evict the tenant when they don't pay. This thing's going to choke you out, girl. It's just a matter of when. the having a renter doesn't solve the problem because at any point that could leave and then you'd be right back to where you are right here today. Do you see what I I totally I understand but that's the only thing my my my fear is that I understand I made a huge mistake but because Okay, so I spent 23,000 in closing costs. Now I have to send spend another stupid. I don't care what you spent. You lost that money because you did something stupid. This thing's going to you're going to lose more money if you stay in it. Mhm. So, so you think even if I'm 100,000 under, you're not 100,000 under? Okay. Even though I've been spending 4,000 a month for the past year. No, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about what you can sell it for versus what you owe on it. What do you owe on it? Uh 428,000. Good God. And what do you think you can sell it for? Uh if I'm if I'm lucky, I think maybe 530. Okay. sell it. You put money in your pocket. I think you have to just realize, Sarah, that this is a mistake and mistakes cost you. And in this case, there may not be a way to get back the money that's lost. You're doing well if you can break even. You're doing well if you We're trying to stop the bleeding, not reverse the fact that we had a car wreck. We're just trying to stop the bleeding cuz you're going to bleed out. This is not a good This is not a good thing. Now, I've done a lot of stupid stuff in my life, hun. And when I do something stupid and it cost me money, I write on the check in the four column as I write the check for my stupidity, I write four stupid tax. Dave did something stupid and he has to pay a tax called stupid tax. You're going to pay some stupid tax here. You're going to get some of your money back, but you're not going to get all your money back. And you're going to get out of this trap you have set for yourself. Nothing in the decision-making process that you used was wise. You panicked over a real estate market. You ran to the other end of the United States and bought a rental property and then you're shocked that it sat vacant. Yeah. And you overpaid for it probably. So, hun, you do what you want to do, but you called us and we're telling you very clearly what to do. If you don't go do it, it's going to be your next is bad decision. So, you just decide what you're going to do. It's up to you. I've done plenty of stupid stuff and I can recognize stupid a mile away and this was a dumb decision. Okay, you're not dumb, but this decision was desperate, unwise, and you got yourself into a bear trap, kiddo. And you best get away before the bear comes. This is not good. Well, it was all fear-based. She did the first one out of fearbased, and now she might not get out of it for fear. You know, fear that, you know, you're going to No, let me tell you. You don't want when you look down and you walk away and you go, "Okay, I put $100,000 in my pocket, but I spent 160,000 for that opportunity and um so I got a hundred of my 160 back or whatever the number is." And you look down at that $60,000 worth of stupid. That's what you don't want to do. Nobody wants to face that. That's called facing the music, right? And nobody wants to do that. I don't want to look down and go, "This is what my stupidity cost me. I don't like looking at that. I want to avoid that if I can." That's human nature. That's not unusual for you, Sarah. I'm not picking on you, but honey, you know, all you're doing is arguing with me. You called me up and said, "I'm in a mess." And I said, "Yeah, you're in a mess. Why don't you get out of the mess?" She said, "No, I want to stay in the mess. I don't want to argue with you about it. I want you to get out of the mess." That's what we're here for is to help you. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your