Does anybody own a home but choose to rent

[Loretta]

Does anybody own a home that you rent out, then you live in an apartment?  How do you make it work financially, paying a mortgage and rent simultaneously?  I own a small condo in a perfectly nice building, but there are several elements that bother me in the condo.  I could rent an apartment in a better location but I just don’t know how confident I feel doing that financially.  Any tips from folks who do it? 

[Rubic]

I once did this with a house I owned in Texas, because I was traveling
for business a lot and didn't want the upkeep/hassle of living in my house.

It can make sense based on your rental rates. Mine were $1000/month
on a home purchased for $80K.  After a few years when property values
went up (and property taxes), I sold my home.

[Papa bear]

I bought a place, fixed it up and rented it, then went out to live with roommates for a few more years. 

My rent from the property paid the mortgage, my rent, and surplus.  I was young and in my early 20's though. I wouldn't do that now with a family.


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[joonifloofeefloo]

I did. I did it because I could generate more income on the owned place than I paid in the rental. The rental was also quieter and more private. It worked well for as long as I had people known to me in the owned one, and I lived near enough it to manage it directly. When I moved hundreds of miles away, and eventually rented to strangers, it was no good and I sold.

[Verdandi]

We did. It worked well.
I have several small apartments rented out to singles that are just too small for 2 people. Plus we moved to another city.
There we rented a (very cheap) 2 bedroom apartment. When it became clear we'd like to stay, we started house hunting, found a fixer upper in a great location and still lived in the rental while fixing up the house (that wasn't habitable during the renovation - no water and no electricity). It worked well with my rentals because I only buy them if the rent covers the mortgage, insurance etc and then some. During the renovation phase of the house, it was good to have our clean apartment to live in. We both kept working full time and needed some space to relax and come down after work without the building dirt and noise, and with a shower ;)

[SeaWA]

For the past two years we have owned one home that we rent to young professionals, and we live in a smaller rental house. Yes, renters require attention and work, but for us it is worth the hassle.

This arrangement works very well for us. The rental income allows us to cover the PITI, and gives us a small margin that we save for future repairs. Owning the rental gives us tax advantages (we take all repairs on the house, we take the scheduled depreciation, and we take the mortgage interest). We capture all (any) of the appreciation on the house we own.

We are happy living in a smaller house where we don't have to do as much maintenance, and we love the location. The rent that we pay is much lower than the PITI on the house we own. Therefore we also have a higher savings rate.

In general, I think of the house we own as diversification of our portfolio (currently real estate, stocks and bonds) where we get to leverage the real estate holding at least 500% (by paying 20% down) and get substantial tax advantages to decrease our federal income tax. The downside to this investment is the cost of buying/selling and the property taxes we pay.