Author Topic: Should we sell our house and rent?  (Read 4729 times)

themagicman

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Should we sell our house and rent?
« on: April 18, 2016, 11:52:33 AM »
My wife and I are trying to decide if it is worth selling our house and moving into a rental home. After calculating it out we feel that renting would be overall cheaper for us by a decent bit. We calculated that owning our paid off home costs us about $1650 a month (Including escrow costs, 1% maintenance, and a 5% opportunity cost in the market) To rent a house as an equivalent of ours would cost about $1,400 a month but we would downgrade and probably end up at about $1,200 a month. (This would also save further money on utilities as the home would be smaller)

Some of the reasons that we are wanting to sell and rent;

  • We do not like where we live (It is an HOA community that is always getting on to us for very small things and we do not like our neighbors)
  • I have a large fear and anxiety (maybe irrationally) of things breaking or going wrong in the house and needing to pay a lot for a new foundation or other expenses fixes
  • We feel that our home is too big and too nice for what we are wanting and feel it is "going to waste"
  • We like the idea of having to freedom to move as we need certain things (Moving closer to work during job change, moving to better school when needed, ect)
  • We stand to make a good amount in the sale of the home (We bought our house at a great time two and a half years ago and the market has appreciated nicely)
  • Overall, if we were in the situation currently as a renter we would definitely not buy our current home


Some of the reasons that we are wanting to stay were we are;

 
  •    We like the house itself a lot
  • My wife is 6 months pregnant and It takes a good amount of effort to move (While we have less stuff then the average family it still would be a pain to pack and move)
  • We are worried we will have to move from the rental at times when we are not wanting to
  • We have a dog and will have a baby and worry about them messing the landlords carpet/walls up and being on the hook for a big bill
  • Everyone is always telling us that "renting is throwing money away" while we think our calculations are spot on and that it will be cheaper in most situations the rent, we can't help but think we might be looking at this wrong and they are right



What does everyone think we should do? Thank you!
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 12:01:36 PM by themagicman »

bobechs

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2016, 11:57:22 AM »
Ease up....  ease up a lot.

On yourself, of course.  But on everyone else too.

themagicman

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2016, 12:08:30 PM »
Ease up....  ease up a lot.

On yourself, of course.  But on everyone else too.

I'm not sure what you mean. Ease up and stay were we are? Or that I put too much detail in the post?

Sibley

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2016, 12:09:34 PM »
First, renting is not throwing money away. It's paying for somewhere to live. Owning a home is not for everyone. It's a huge responsibility, and you do have to do more work. If you're not happy with where you're living, and would be ok with renting, then it's a valid thing to do.

If you're even considering moving, start decluttering now. Go through all the closets, etc that you don't look at and clean them out.

The times you may have to move when you don't want to include:
-You stopped paying rent and are being evicted.
-Landlord stopped paying the mortgage and is being foreclosed on.
-Landlord doesn't want you there for some reason.

Being a good tenant will shield you from 2 of the 3, and the 3rd you can hopefully use some common sense and avoid.

You're concerned about dog damage. Does the dog currently cause a lot of damage? If so, why? There is some damage that I would expect is unavoidable. Other things is a sign that you're a bad dog owner. If you're a bad dog owner, shape up and fix it. Train both the humans and the dog. If it's normal, not excessive wear and tear, then you're ok. That's one of the reasons why some landlords don't allow pets. As long as the dog isn't deliberately destructive and you clean up after it promptly, you're probably ok. That's what security deposits are for.

You'll have a kid. Kids do things. If said child is destroying the home, either you're doing a really bad job of parenting, or the kid has problems and you need to get appropriate professional help. A small child will throw things. It's pretty hard to put a hole in a wall as a 2 year old, and you should be teaching them not to anyway.

The 6 months pregnant thing - I'd wait a while. That's just asking for trouble in some way.

Overall my take: Start clearing out stuff to make it easier to move (and clean in the meantime), and once baby's born and things have calmed down some, then revisit the decision. And when you do eventually move, maybe avoid the HOA?

themagicman

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2016, 12:19:05 PM »
First, renting is not throwing money away. It's paying for somewhere to live. Owning a home is not for everyone. It's a huge responsibility, and you do have to do more work. If you're not happy with where you're living, and would be ok with renting, then it's a valid thing to do.

If you're even considering moving, start decluttering now. Go through all the closets, etc that you don't look at and clean them out.

The times you may have to move when you don't want to include:
-You stopped paying rent and are being evicted.
-Landlord stopped paying the mortgage and is being foreclosed on.
-Landlord doesn't want you there for some reason.

Being a good tenant will shield you from 2 of the 3, and the 3rd you can hopefully use some common sense and avoid.

You're concerned about dog damage. Does the dog currently cause a lot of damage? If so, why? There is some damage that I would expect is unavoidable. Other things is a sign that you're a bad dog owner. If you're a bad dog owner, shape up and fix it. Train both the humans and the dog. If it's normal, not excessive wear and tear, then you're ok. That's one of the reasons why some landlords don't allow pets. As long as the dog isn't deliberately destructive and you clean up after it promptly, you're probably ok. That's what security deposits are for.

You'll have a kid. Kids do things. If said child is destroying the home, either you're doing a really bad job of parenting, or the kid has problems and you need to get appropriate professional help. A small child will throw things. It's pretty hard to put a hole in a wall as a 2 year old, and you should be teaching them not to anyway.

The 6 months pregnant thing - I'd wait a while. That's just asking for trouble in some way.

Overall my take: Start clearing out stuff to make it easier to move (and clean in the meantime), and once baby's born and things have calmed down some, then revisit the decision. And when you do eventually move, maybe avoid the HOA?

Thanks for the response! For moving out I was more thinking the landlord selling the home to someone who wants to live there (not rent it out)

As far as the dog. No she has never torn anything up or gone to the bathroom inside since we have gotten her (two years ago). The only "damage" she has done to our house is scratching the hardwood floors from her nails. As far as the baby the concern was more her throwing up on the carpet or something like that (both of the concern about the dog and the baby in a rental were more my wife's not mine)

Cassie

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2016, 12:33:31 PM »
Instead of renting what about downsizing to a small home or buying a condo with reasonable hoa fees. Then they will handle the maintenance. YOu can pay cash and invest the remainder of the $. Don't even think about moving until baby arrives and everything is settled into a routine.

ysette9

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2016, 01:25:55 PM »
Just to add another perspective:
If you are really, truly, serious about moving, I think it absolutely can be done while pregnant and is likely a heck of a lot easier than once you have a small person. We did it when I was pregnant* and just hired movers to do things for us. That ended up being much easier and faster than the usual process of inviting a bunch of friends over to haul furniture and boxes on the season's one hot day. In our case we found ourselves and all of our stuff at the new house before noon on moving day.

The caveat to our story is that we lined up a property management agency to take care of renting the old place out so we weren't having to deal with either selling or finding renters ourselves. This allowed us the time and mental space to deal with the move and getting set up in the new place. I strongly recommend against the hassle of moving and selling with a baby on the way.

I can't speak to dogs at all but so far a baby doesn't cause much damage to a house in our experience. Our kid is almost 2. Yes, we've had to wipe up lots of milk off our furniture (thank goodness leather is easy to clean) and she's thrown about a ton of food on the kitchen floor over the past year and a half, but that's it. Don't give your kid Sharpies to play with and you're probably fine.

And of course, no thread on the idea of renting would be complete without a link to the best rent/buy calculator out there: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0

themagicman

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2016, 01:28:16 PM »
Don't even think about moving until baby arrives and everything is settled into a routine.

We were thinking now would be the best time in the near future to move. We thought that once baby gets here it will be much more difficult to do it. We think that we would be able to get our house sold very quickly (the housing market in our area is on fire) and be able to get moved into a rental a decent bit before baby comes. My wife is also a teacher so her being off work in the summer would make it a little easier moving.

What is your hesitation in doing it now? As first time parents/home sellers is there something we are missing?


Cassie

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2016, 03:53:54 PM »
My 3 kids are long grown but when I was pregnant with our 3rd we listed our house and it was hard having to keep it so clean, etc. Then it sold and we bought another house and had to move about a month before baby arrived. I never got completely unpacked because I was working too and then had new baby and things were unsettled-ugh!  However, I also had 2 other kids to take care  of. I didn't go back to work but still it took a long time to get unpacked, etc.  Hiring movers to pack you etc is very expensive and we couldn't afford it.

Mother Fussbudget

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Re: Should we sell our house and rent?
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2016, 06:07:33 PM »
Some of the reasons that we are wanting to sell and rent;

  • We do not like where we live (It is an HOA community that is always getting on to us for very small things and we do not like our neighbors)

You could think outside the box - what about renting out your current house?  What's the market-rate for rental houses in your area? 

A friend of mine (Seattle) was in this situation - an awful, argumentative neighbor - and decided to rent-out the house to other tenants for $2,000 (market rate).  After 4 years of renting it out, and increasing the rent every year by a minimal amount ($50-$100/year), the awful neighbor moved out, and my friend moved back in.   Today he'd like to sell, but he has NOT been able to find a nearby place to live at a better price - not even a rental - because the housing market in Seattle is so hot.

As for the "Rent vs. Buy" arguments, MMM did a good article on this:  Rent vs. Buy: If You Have to Ask, You Should Probably Rent

[Best of luck in whatever you decide]

 

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