Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
What do you do with a negative asset?
My family lost a house to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Completely flooded, over two feet of water, and the house was basically a total loss.
We are still paying taxes on it, because my parents adamantly refuse to sell the property--even though the house was completely hollowed out by volunteers not long after the flood waters receded.
For that matter, we still have to maintain upkeep on the exterior, or we'll be fined--signs have been put in the yard and everything. It's backbreaking work to rake the magnolia tree leaves and cut the grass with a 50-year-old push mower that keeps breaking down. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother raking--picking up the bigger sticks I get, but they demand EVERYTHING wooden down to the smallest piece be removed from the yard before even thinking about starting that old busted mower.
That house is nothing but a millstone around the necks of our finances. I've been begging them to just sell the damn place to a flipper, just to get it off our hands--but they won't, because they want to fix a huge crack in the floor from when a bedroom was added over 30 years ago...a crack we had no idea was even there until we ripped up the waterlogged carpeting. Turns out the place had been improperly built back around 1990, and now they want to fix it, or at least somehow cover it up, before they even think about selling.
It's been six years. They won't do it. And that fact drives me up the wall.
And on top of it all? The house was insured...but not for flood damage.
Forgive me, but I needed to rant tonight.
In the meantime, get rid of the tree. Get rid of the grass. Or buy a lawnmower that makes it easier to mow. The sooner you make the outside maintenance minimal, the better you’ll feel until the decision is made. There’s no reason to work extra hard to keep the place looking good, when no one lives there. Just make it manageable. That’s it.
The question is not "what to do with a negative asset?" but rather "how can I convince my family to do what needs to be done with a negative asset ?"
BTW, replace "negative asset" with "liability" and you will have your answer :)
It's weird that I, an actual autistic, am telling them to stop being autistic by waiting for perfect circumstances before doing anything.
It took me many years to break that habit too.
u/bubble_bursts hit it on the head . That's the answer- get them the book or audio, read it to them if you have to. RDPD changed our perspective on these things too.
Honestly, when I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, it changed my whole outlook on the way I looked at money (amongst other things). Things like this have to be dealt with your logical brain when most people use emotional brain.
BTW, my dad is the same. Too many times he made choices about property and then agonize over it for months when all he had to do was think logically.