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Selling..selling..sold! Find our how easy it is to sell your house from abroad.
Once we made the decision to stay in Europe for the foreseeable future, we had to decide on what to do with our main house. Our original plan had been to rent the house for a year. That way, we could always come back if we were tired of the journey. It has now been years since we left the U.S. Frankly, the pull to go back is not there.
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We had a family rent the place shortly before we left. She signed on for a year, with the option to extend. She fell in love with the area and sub division and decided to purchase a home of her own. So, we made the decision to sell and had to educate ourselves on how to sell from abroad. This is helpful even if you’re selling your house to move abroad.
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We were left with two choices, rent it again, or sell it.
How To Sell Your House From Abroad – Helpful quick sale tips:
Here are the reasons why we decided on selling:
– It was the biggest piece in our portfolio. Even though the rent covered the mortgage, insurance, HOA fees, etc..etc.. and even had some profit left over, it was still a big amount to pay every month. Just the 3 months that it was unoccupied (2 months plus to decide to sell after having it on the market for rent, but we did not feel comfortable with any of the renters, having been burned so many times) while we prepared to sell and to actually sell it was an outlay of over $16,000. This included having to leave all the utilities on, repairing things that were broken, painting, pool repairs and of course mortgage. We don’t like dipping into our savings when the house is empty.
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– Renters are not the best at keeping your place in tip-top shape. For instance, the renter used the A.C a lot. She did not change the filter (which cost like 10 bucks!). Instead, she just ignored the water that was seeping out of the walls from a back flow of the condenser. You couldn’t miss it. It was in the master closet. Anyway, end result was $1100 repair for something that could have been avoided (came out of our pocket). Her dogs also destroyed some doors and some part of the deck, but we were able to deduct damages from the deposit.
– To get tax-free profit from the sale, you had to have lived in the house for 2 out of 5 years before selling. Since we did not know how long we would stay abroad, we thought it better to take the profit now, than have to force ourselves to go back before we were ready so as to take advantage of the deduction.
– Property values in Texas never skyrocket, unlike California. There is just so much land, the hottest subdivision today might not stay that way for long, as new ones pop up continuously. Our house was only 7 years old. In Texas, a lot of people consider that old, which is insane! Our last house in California was like 60 years old, and was still “younger” than our previous one which was built in 1923!. Right now, it’s a seller’s market as the economy is booming in Houston especially. We felt it wise to sell.
– We never look back. I tend to love things when l have them. That house was special to us. It was newly built, and we got to choose the cabinets, floors, etc. It was a wonderful house, but once we left, that was it. There is no insane emotional attachment. I always buy with selling in mind. For instance, l can’t swim, but made sure we had a pool so l could sell at a premium when the time came.
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– Despite the fact that we had property managers, it was still a pain to deal with. I liked using my own workers because they were like 60% cheaper than the workers used by them (they don’t really care very much since it’s not their money). Time differences made it a challenge also.
Things to consider before selling your house include:
- Ask yourself why you are selling. Make sure it is not because you are trying to keep up with the Joneses. It is important to make sure you are not doing it just because you were told you could afford a bigger mortgage or because your friend who makes less money than you, bought a bigger house and now you feel you must get an even bigger one 🙂 . When all is said and done, you need to be able to afford both selling and buying.
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- Can you afford to sell? I know it sounds like an easy question. The fact is that there are numerous fees that go into selling. Real Estate agent fees average 6% of the sale price. There are the real estate taxes, escrow fees and so on. In Texas, the average amount you have to pay is about 11-12%. It is a lot of money, especially if you are in a state like Texas where your house might not have appreciated that much. It is also common for the buyers to request helping with their closing costs. For the most part, sellers to have to bring money to closing since they end up making $0 from the sale.
- Are you okay with renting? You may have to downsize assuming you are going to be renting. For us, where we no longer lived in the country, it was a moot point. Make sure to check what renting would cost you as opposed to staying put. Believe it or not, in some places, owning is actually cheaper than renting. Do your homework.
- Don’t even think about trying to be cheap with Realtor fees. I don’t think l can stress this enough. 6% of the sale price sounds like a lot to part with. It can however save you a lot of heartache. Let’s say for instance, you haggle with the Realtor and he/she agrees to a 4% fee. This will mean either your Realtor keeps 3% and must now find a buyer’s Realtor that will accept just 1% (nope.. ain’t gonna happen). More than likely, the scenario would be 2% for each side or your agent takes just 1%. You can almost guarantee that your house will sit on the market for a long, long time. There is no incentive for either agent to show your property since they would be earning less than usual. They are going to show the full commission ones and steer everyone away from you. You end up saving 2%, but have to cover your mortgage for months while it sits on the market.
- Forget about trying to sell it by yourself. Yes, l know some people get lucky and do it with no problems. Are you really going to chance such a big chunk of your estate on your non-existent knowledge of real estate? Do you really think that a Realtor would steer people to your property knowing they will get paid very little if at all?
- Don’t let your property become “stale”. People usually have an exaggerated opinion of how much their house is worth. They don’t listen to the Realtor, and price it higher than the what the market will bare. A direct result of that is that buyers stay away from you, leaving the house to languish and become stale. By the time you see the light, your pool of buyers is now smaller, and you more desperate. This might lead you to sell for less than you might have gotten had you just listened to the Realtor. You have to be objective. Look at things from the viewpoint of the buyer. That awesome shade of marble in your bathroom that cost you thousands? It might be the very first thing the buyer wants to rip out if they buy the house. Check out local real estate prices for a dose of reality.
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- Go neutral with your colour scheme. Very few buyers will love the reds, purples or whatever colors you have. Keep it simple. It just might be worth it to have the house painted before you prepare it for sale. You want a buyer that comes in and pictures it as their house. You do not want the distractions of loud colors. People are basically lazy, and will move on to the next house, especially in a buyers market.
- Fix it up. Take care of the little things, the big things too, so you can command top dollar for your property. Buyers love nothing more than finding things that need fixing during their home inspection, and then asking for a huge discount off the selling price. You should fix it ahead of time. You want them to come in, love it..and invoke the feeling of “I’ve got to have it at any cost”.
- This is the most important part of all. Find a great and knowledgeable Realtor. That will make the difference. Two of our neighbors were Real Estate agents. We could have used either one of them to sell our house. We, however, wanted someone aggressive, successful and had a great track record of sales in the area. Don’t worry about offending, don’t worry that it’s your cousin Sheila and you feel terrible not hiring them etc. It’s all about you and the Benjamin 🙂 . You have to do what is best for you, and you alone. We had a buyer within a week. Sadly, they did not qualify for the home loan at the last minute, despite what their bank had said originally. This delayed our sale for 21 days while it was tied up, but we had another buyer within 2 weeks and the sale went through.
Thanks to the internet, it is now possible to sell your house without being in the same continent!
- The Realtor, once we found the right one, kept us in the know via email.
- The repairs were done on our behalf through her for the big jobs. She paid for some and we reimbursed her via easy pay through our bank. All you need to do this is the recipient’s email address and telephone number.
- The handyman that we use for the properties took care of the little jobs like painting. Since he was familiar with us, he did the job and we had the bank send him a paper check, as he is old school and doesn’t even have a smart phone 🙂 .He knew we were good for it.
- The escrow company would email us any papers that we needed to sign or have notarized to us. I would print them out, sign and send back. We were not able to notarize the needed papers till close of escrow. The reason being that unlike the U.S, the notaries here are more like lawyers. They needed the deeds of the property etc..etc. and it turned into a real fiasco, so l explained this to the escrow company. I suggested signing them all at once before closing.
- Once all the closing papers were emailed, we took the train to our nearest U.S consulate in the Malaga suburb of Fuengirola. There, they were notarized at a cost of $60 as opposed to the nearly $500 that the notary was going to cost 😉 . We had to show our passports of course. The escrow company arranged for Fedex to pick up the package, leaving a day leeway before final closing date, just in case there was some last minute things to fix.
- Everything went smoothly. Having been a notary myself years ago in California, l am aware of the need to check and cross check ;-). Having also bought and sold at least 9 properties, it was one of the easiest real estate sales we have ever done.
- Once the monies were distributed, we had our share wired into our account.
Would we do it again? Absolutely! It was great. There was very little stress as everyone involved were professionals. We had done our homework.
- I researched Realtors in my area, and settled on 3 to begin with. I emailed all three. One took over a week to reply.. hmmm ..Nope. The second one replied in 2 days which wasn’t too bad. We picked the lady that replied in less than a day. We picked her not just because of the response time, but because she emailed me back with all the recent sales data from our area. She had also had her assistant look up the records of the house and had a pretty good idea of what it should sell for.
- Once l hired her, she went over the place with her inspector and pointed out things that needed to be fixed. We got the ball rolling and were ready to go live within two weeks.
- I checked her sales history, making sure to take note of how close to the selling price the listing price was.
- I checked the average time before her listings sold
Tax on foreign property sold:
Make sure to check on the tax that might be due on foreign property sold. Currently, in the U.S, as a married couple, the first $250,000 profit made is not taxed, assuming you have lived in the house 2 out of the past 5 years. Any profit beyond that is taxable. Make sure you take that into consideration when you sell. Some people even move in back to their house for 2 years if they stand to make a lot of profit (think California). Check on the IRS website for changes that might affect your sale
We are happy renting for a change.. anything breaks, we just call the landlord. I must say we are awesome tenants though, perhaps because we have been on the other side. We take care of things! 🙂 .
Update:
Our renting days are behind us. Again. We have recently decided on making Valencia Spain our home for the foreseeable future. It was a different experience buying property in Spain, especially with limited language skills. On these posts we detail the buying process, the remodel, and the finished product that we are now enjoying.
Buying a Flat in Valencia Spain
Remodelling our Valencia Flat
The New Valencia Flat Look
Life in Valencia is awesome and as wonderful as we pictured it. If you are looking into Spain Expat life and would like to know the necessary rules, funds etc., you should purchase the eBook on Amazon which walks you through the process of moving to Spain and life in Valencia.
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What do you think? would you have kept the property instead of selling? What about home ownership? is it for you? Would you ever consider selling your house from abroad?
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Nice work, KemKem. Given the reasons you laid out, I think I would have made the same decision to sell. Who knows when you’ll be back and this will definitely be one less thing you need to worry about. If you are happy with what you sold it for, then it sounds like a no-brainer.
Seeing pictures of your house reminds me of ours that we left behind. When compared to what we live in now, it certainly is different, isn’t it?
Hey Jed! Yes, it certainly is very different 🙂 . We were happy with the sale, no regrets whatsoever. It was relatively painless, after the first buyers pulled out (their buyers pulled out..domino effect). I like not having to worry about that, l’d much rather put the energy to finding our next vacation..lol! I know you guys are enjoying Pomengranate, enough to consider another year????
Oh my gosh, what a beautiful home. No wonder it sold!
Thank you! The sellers market situation definitely helped. There are so many that are similar in Houston that usually the buyers are spoilt for choice.
Wow what a pretty house! Where in Texas was that?
Thanks Tonya. It is pretty :-). We were in a Houston suburb, Missouri City specifically.
Congrats on the sale! That’s great! I rented out my condo for several years before actually living in it, and one of my renters was kind of a nightmare. She had an issue with everything, and like you said, a lot of the “problems” weren’t really a big deal. I also agree that property managers can be a costly nightmare. My mom oversees some property for my grandmother which is managed by a property manager, and she’s always complaining that every month there’s a deduction for some sort of repair or problem. So good for you for making the decision to let this property go. It’s gorgeous though – I love the backyard! So much space unlike here in L.A. Jave and I are planning on moving in the next year or so, and we’re really looking forward to renting for awhile. I don’t think I’ll sale my condo though, so I’ll be returning to my landlord woes.
I am so over nightmare tenants. The worst was after we had moved from L.A to Houston and had to go to court to evict the tenant from the house, the flights and damage they did. I remember he even stole my BarcaLounger recliner, among other things. The property managers in the beginning were arranging for the workmen, but like you know, they just call anybody in the phone book and just deduct it. I put a stop to it really quickly. From here, all l do is call my carpet guy or handyman and they take care of it. Yeah, the backyard was great, 1/3 acre. Wish we had that here for the dogs. You sound like you are already dreading the landlord duties. Not fun at all. I am so glad we sold off a bunch of stuff! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Beautiful home Kemkem. I’ve thought about Texas as a place to buy after retirement. I visited Austin a couple of years ago and it was very nice though I hear it gets really hot in the summer. I was there is April and the temps were great. I’ve been a homeowner for a couple years now and it has been a true learning experience but I don’t see myself staying here for long. Property taxes in NJ are insane and they will only keep going up.
Oh oh ! You are going to hate the property taxes in Texas, which hovers around 3%, thanks to the fact that there is no state tax. Our taxes in Cali were lower than in Texas, but the cost was 3 times as much!!!! Austin is nice, but it’s more for younger people in my opinion (kind of like Berlin). After retirement, taxes should be a big consideration wherever you move. They make quite the dent. I think if we moved back, it would be to Florida somewhere..
Oh wow, that’s interesting and good to know. I just started researching this topic and had Texas on my list because of the “no state tax” but I will be taking it off now.
The taxes are set by the counties, so maybe you could find a cheaper county for instance, but l think you would still hover at around 2.75 % after homestead exemptions. It is quite a wallop!
Wow, Kem, that is an absolutely amazing house. Certainly something that you don’t get to see in Romania. To me, it looks more like a palace than a house :)) It is huge!
However, even though it’s undoubtedly beautiful, I am sure that you made the right choice, so congrats on making the sale! I am sure you will put the money earned to a better use and won’t have to worry about renting anymore or having tenants who damage the property. A stress free life is a better life 🙂
Hi C, can you imagine, ours was the cheapest and smallest as far as square footage in the house, but the largest backyard. People kept saying we would have a hard time selling cos it was small..lol! 3200 sq ft, 4 beds/3.5 bath and office small!!! They really love them big in Texas. Believe it or not, most of our neighbors never set foot upstairs in their own house, a few had no furniture whatsoever up there..insane right??? We are homebodies so splurged on things like a theatre room, pool table, BBQ . The neighbors said it was like coming to an oasis when we invited them, and they could just walk back home after. Thank you, you are right, it is a big relief..a stress free life indeed. I have actually noticed my hair us showing some signs of strength ..yeah!!!! 🙂
Nice house Kemkem. We went through the same dilemma before leaving Montreal – but with no taxes on primary residences we decided to rent instead of sell. The principal reason is where else to park your money?? Real estate provides a steady cash flow when renting and insures you against inflation.
But I went through some of the same thoughts, like ‘why do I want the trouble of being a landlord” and just not wanting to have the burden of having physical assets somewhere I’m not. Lucky for us we’ve got some great tenants.
Like you we’ll have to make a decision down the line. Keeping the condo was an insurance policy in case we got fed up of travelling…but as you say, we don’t feel the pull of home. The contrary in fact. And that lovely furniture that we’ve got in storage and paying $250 a month to keep there…we’ll, we’ve kind of lost our attachment to that to. Now it’s just a pain in the ass.
Good post.
Frank (bbqboy)
Hah! I had to laugh at your comment about the pain in the ass as far as the furniture in storage! That is the next thing we have to tackle :-(. Every month when we see the storage fee bill, it’s like a stab in the heart ..lol! We sold most of the stuff, but l have some antique furniture that needs to be consigned…urgh.. You are so lucky to have good tenants. We got lucky with the present one in the rental house, she’s due to renew at the end of this month, and l am hoping she stays. She takes great care of the house, which is a just a year older than ours. It’s important to keep good tenants 🙂 . Wanderlust is something isn’t it???? Good luck with your decision, how nice not to worry about capital gain taxes! Vanguard for us!
Such a lovely house. I would have had a hard time letting it go. Selling does seem like it was the best option though.
Thanks Rachael. I think it helped that we had not been living in it for over a year. It made the decision much easier.. 🙂
You weren’t joking about your home kemkem! It’s lovely and so huge. In Northern Europe? I wish! In England – my home country – our Edwardian (early 1900’s) family home which my parents bought in the 70’s with 5 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, dining room, kitchen, etc now goes for £1.5 million or $2.3 million, and that’s only because it’s in the North of England. In London, it would go for between £2-3 million or $3-4.5 million!
As much as it kills me to say it, I think you did the right thing. Britain has a sellers market, Texas has a buyers market so if they’re one a penny, and you get a buyer, you sell. In Britain, there’s so many of us willing to buy and there’s very little to sell.
We have a huge apartment and garden in Berlin. We were extremely lucky to get it as we live in a trendy gentrified area so prices have reflected that. Fingers crossed. We’re never letting it go and that’s the trick in Berlin. If you get a really good price, you’ve got to keep it or sublet it, as the demand for residence is so high and the cheaper prices are never going to come back. When I first moved to Berlin, it wasn’t long after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and there was so much confusion that the prices were ridiculous. I mean, in those days I rented my apartment for €17.00 or $21.00 a week, and the owner begged me to buy it for €55,000 or $69,000! That apartment sold for €325,000 or $406,000.
Yikes! Do you wish you had purchased the rental for the €60,000. I know the prices are insane in Berlin. Remember how we were looking for rentals in Berlin? The prices were insane when “warm”. They might have been cheap at one point , but certainly not now. Yeah, it was the best decision for us to sell. Even if we moved back to the same place, we could buy the same kind of house for the same price. We took advantage of the temporary seller’s market 🙂 . Your northern England family home sounds absolutely lovely. You’re right, transplant the same house to London, and it would double. I regularly peruse house prices in London and l am gobsmacked how expensive they are, even from just like 2-3 years ago. I remember one of my friends had purchased a tiny place for €70,000 in Camden years ago when he got priced out the city. Everyone thought he was crazy..lol! He could sell for 5 times that price now!!!! Now, l know why everyone sublets their apartments. Those prices will never go back down.
Yes, I wish I had bought that apartment but at the time I hadn’t a clue how long I would stay. Ha! If only I had known….!
Hindsight..lol! The trade off was nice though, you got the music producer and the tall young gentleman.. 🙂
Congrats! How nice that it was able to be done all online! Technology is awesome!
Yes, it has become a real game changer! 🙂 . I remember selling my first house and having to find the nearest kinko’s to fax papers to the escrow agent etc, everybody coordinating to go sign escrow papers..etc. Now, everything online..insane, but l love it!
Congrats on selling the home! That stinks about the renter, but at least there was a deposit you could deduct from. We plan on selling our home sometime next year possibly and we are not looking forward to it.
Thank you. I was glad it went smoothly. Good luck with your sale. You have a good handle on things from what l read. This is like my 9th or 10th sale, and the most important thing l think is the realtor. While people tell you to negotiate commission, l don’t recommend it. Pay full price and choose an aggressive one. I’ve made so many mistakes in the past :-(, but life and learn 🙂
Lovely house! It sounds overall however like it was the right decision to make 🙂
Thanks Chanel. I miss it a tiny bit, especially the yard..but it is definitely the best decision for us. Thanks for the comment.
Great news. Sounds like you were done with that house, and you didn’t really need the rental income anyway. Now you have a lump of tax free money to deploy as you see fit.
Yeah, we were done with it. It was nice while it lasted. It’s amazing how you get over stuff once you’re away from it. Even all the stuff we have in storage that l couldn’t bear to part with, l am kind of okay with letting go..kind of..lol! It was a no brainer.. Vanguard. I have been over individual stocks for a few years!!!
Nice job! What a beautiful home! These are great tips. We are selling next year, so this was indeed helpful for us! Thanks, Honey!
I’m glad it can be of use to you 🙂 . Over the years, through trial and error, we have got it down to pat l think. Good luck with the sale. I am sure it will go well :-).
Great tips. So much great information and WOW what a gorgeous home
Thank you. I hope it’s able to help others. These are things we managed to find out after several sales. It really was a pretty home, but it made more sense for us to sell why the iron was hot..for Texas.. 🙂 . Thanks for the comment.
Congrats on selling! I feel like this is something we’d do in the future. We’d love to live abroad, but I can’t see living away and still paying a mortgage. Your house was beautiful. I hope the new owners take care of it
Yeah..the stress of carrying such a big mortgage along with all the other stuff was too much to consider for another year. The sacrifices that we had to make to make things happen were well worth it. I think the new owners will love it as much as we did.
so two wins for you! You are staying in Spain for another year and sold your American home. Good for you and I know you will be living a lot more affordable since you arent paying for two homes.
Yep! two wins as you say :-). The stress level is practically non-existent with this big one gone. We like stress free :-).
Your home was absolutely beautiful, I understand letting go. We are buying a new home soon and the thought of renting it out sounds like a big headache.
Congratulations on the new home. Exciting times 🙂 . In hindsight, we should probably have sold right when we left, but we liked the house and thought it would be great to return to it if the urge was there. It would have saved money in repairs.
Great article and I think you shared all the right reasons to make that move. I think that buying a house only thinking about the potential sale value is what everybody should do. Oh, and I see that I made the same mistake as you did and I called it a “house” when the right term should be “palace” – at least that’s what it looks like when you see it from a 700 square feet apartment :)))
Palace..haha! you’re so funny C! Imagine that was the smallest house in our section of the subdivision, and it stayed like that for 4 years till one of the neighbors had one built like it. I always like houses, but my mind is always thinking of what buyers would be looking for..an eye on the future since l knew l wouldn’t stay put for 30 plus years. Hasn’t failed me yet 😉 .
Oh my gosh, that is a beautiful house. Your right about the neutral colors. They’re very attractive.
I have to admit that it is a beautiful house. Being homebodies, we wanted someplace really comfortable, not stuffy. I hate going to houses where you can’t put your legs up or have to take off your shoes etc..My neighbor to the right was so envious when she saw the color and wished she had gotten the same instead of boring white 🙂 .
Wow! Your home was absolutely beautiful!! Enjoy living abroad, I know that will be an amazing experience.
Siobhan
So far we are enjoying it, even though today has been a brutal day..horrendous..we just have to take it in stride and write about it..haha..this too shall pass. 🙂
That is a beautiful home. So nice and I especially liked the pool.
That was a very beautiful home. I am glad that you sold it, and you are loving your Europe. Sounds like your family is very adventurous.
Thank you 🙂 . I am glad it worked out for the best for us, and you’re right, we love traveling and having new adventures. Thanks for the comment.
Wow, your home was gorgeous!!! Congratulations on selling it! I think that was definitely the best idea given you and your husband’s traveling! Too bad about the renter’s slight damage, but great that it wasn’t too expensive to fix.
Thank you 🙂 . We were lucky, the damage could have been much worse as she had two humongous dogs, so we had taken extra deposit from her. I think it was for the best too. Had we gone back, l really don’t think we would go back to Houston. Too many sad memories of my sister.
Congrats and what a beautiful home!!!
Thanks Valerie 🙂
What a beautiful home! Glad you are enjoying Europe. I’ve been considering living abroad, but not 100% sure yet.
Oh.. it can be quite an adventure, but what fun overall! You should definitely consider it. Eye opening for sure 🙂
Congrats on the sale! But man what I wouldn’t do for that tub!
Haha! It was a very nice tub, and that’s coming from someone who is not really a bath sort of person. It was a great stress reliever. Thank you 🙂
Hey! WOW you have such a beautiful house! I love the pool, but yeah well done for selling it and you done it all from abroad, I love the internet! Thanks for sharing this made my day!
Thank you so much for reading. Yep! You gotta love the internet. Amazing how much stuff we can get done nowadays no matter where you are 🙂 .
HI KemKem, I landed on your site because I am going through the exact same experience…except the opposite 🙂 I am the buyer and the sellers live in Spain (in Valencia, as chance would have it). We’re having a tough time dealing with the paperwork, my title company won’t accept the seller’s Power of Attorney document meaning all the sellers (3 of them) have to sign all paperwork. Was curious how you were able to handle. I know you touched on it a bit in your article but if there’s any way we could connect I would love to pick your brain! Congrats on the sale of your property! I love Spain, on my shortlist of places to retire to. Was in Barcelona a few years ago. All the best! Cheers!
Hi George,
Thanks for the email, and my brain is yours for the picking :-). I’ve sent you an email detailing how to get it done. Good luck and l’m sure it’ll all work out.
Hi! Kemkem
I really like the way you elaborate on all the stuff. Thanks! for sharing all the tips and tricks with us…
Thanks for reading it Michael. 🙂