Fellow Mustachians,
My wife and I, who are both 29 years old living in a Chicago suburb, have always wanted to move to the Denver area. We like the mountains, hiking trails, and general outdoor culture. We both grew up in the general area that we currently live, have family here, jobs here, and a house.
More recently my wife’s job (consulting/software sales) expanded her region to the Denver area, so she could work there just as easily as she could in Chicago. I’ve realized that at my job (3D Modeling, Autocad/solidworks/Revit) is likely to keep me in the same position/pay for a long time, so I updated my resume and am ready to look for a new place to work. If there ever was a time to try living in Denver, it seems now is it.
There are a few complications though.. We bought our home 3 years ago for $221,000. It was appraised 1/1/13 for $210,000. We owe $197,000 in a 3.25% 15-yr mortgage. I think we’d likely break even if we decided to sell the house, but I think it may be a better option to rent the house out while we are “trying” Denver instead. This would keep us in this nice low interest rate and pay the principal down in the meantime. The plan would be to move to Denver, rent a place out there, and revaluate if we want to move back in a year or two.
To add complication, we have (2) Rottweilers, a 65lb female and an 85lb male. I assume finding a place for us to rent in Denver will be difficult.
A few background stats:
Salary
Her: $125,000
Him: $50,000
Current Savings Rate: ~60-65%
No kids, none planned
Just a few questions:
1) How do I come up with a reasonable estimation of what we can rent our house out for?
2) Does this plan sound reasonable?