people buying a rental with the intent to live in it 5-10 years?

[clarkfan1979]

I have heard the same type of story twice this past week that I have never heard  before. Someone buying a house as a rental with the intent to live in it sometime in the distant future (5-10 years).

I met my neighbor 3 days ago on Kauai. Super nice guy. He openly told me that he bought the house in 2004 because it was a good deal but couldn't afford the payments at the time so he rented it out from 2004 to 2010. He has been living in the house since 2010.

He and his wife are both teachers. I'm guessing once their income increased to a certain point they felt comfortable moving into the house and making the payments themselves.

Two days ago I spoke with a friend that recently moved from Anaheim to San Diego. He and his wife are renting a house from someone who recently purchased the home. The owners openly said that they wish to live in the house but currently can't afford the payments. They hope to move into the home in about 5-10 years.

Has anyone else done this intentionally or ever heard of this? I have never heard of it before this week. Both are HCOL areas.

[Kierun]

I'm doing this, bought a 3br back in 2011/2012 and haven't spent a single night in it.  Been renting it out since 2012/2013, it's way too much space (<850 sq ft) for me now but plan on moving in once I start a family, a 1 br condo is plenty for me for now.  Bought it for less than 650k in an area where 1m is sort of the norm now, so it worked out for me.  If I were to try to buy a similar property now or a few years in the future, there's no way I'd be able to afford the down or mortgage on a 1m+ property.

I'm currently on the 8-10 year plan~

[rentalnewbie]

Not exactly the same but my in-laws bought a property with house on it that they didn't intend to live in, they really wanted the land. They bought it because it was for sale and next to their best friend's house. The house was livable but old and in poor condition.

They bought the property to retire at, at least 7 years before they planned to live there. They let my husband and I live there rent free for while and then rented it for a couple of years and they've now torn down the old house and built their dream home there.

It was a long term plan for sure but there's only a few houses in there rural area near their friends so they took the opportunity when one was for sale. They finished the house and moved in earlier this year.

[waltworks]

When you remove it from service, the depreciation hit can be a big surprise. But sure, we owned a place that we *planned* to move into (and never did, eventually sold). It was a location that we liked, we needed to 1031 another property, etc.

I think it's probably smarter to invest in property that will make you the most money, which is rarely going to be the same property as the one you want to live in someday. Everyone that bought anything in the last 10 years did great, so there are lots of people floating around now who think that any cockamamie random RE purchase is a great idea and that they're geniuses. So I tend to take the success stories with a big grain of salt.

-W

[Dicey]

DH and I have done this. When I was single, I bought my retirement home. I could afford it, but I wasn't old enough to live there yet, as it's in a 55+ community. After we married, DH saw the place and liked it. Prices were low at the time, so we bought two more, updated them and rented them out. When he fully retires in 4 years and our other obligations are seen through, we will spend at least half the year there. We will do the big remodels one by one and sell them off. We love our tenants and don't wish to displace any of them, so having multiple houses in the same area gives us lots of flexibility. DH is the kind of guy who likes to stay busy, so we are looking forward to this next phase of our lives. Though we searched actively for 1-2 more, prices have rebounded and they don't pencil out any more. This is obviously a good thing for the ones we own, as rents have ticked steadily upward.

[Freedomin5]

Yes, we moved abroad for work but knew we eventually want wanted to move back to our hometown. We bought a small condo in a great location six years ago and have never lived there, just to get our foot in the market in our HCOL hometown. It’s been rented since day one with no vacant period, and appreciation in that particular condo complex has outpaced our Canadian equity index ETF growth. We lucked out on the location. We initially wanted to move in when we returned, but plan now is to sell it to lock in the gains once we declare residency for tax purposes again. Selling now as non-residents would be messy from a taxation perspective.

We also just bought a cottage that we plan to live in half the year. Plan is to put it in the resort’s rental pool in the meantime, which should cover carrying costs. Not gonna make money on this one, but probably won’t lose money either. Given the fact that we were approached by a random acquaintance asking if they could rent it from us for $1000 for the weekend, I’m guessing it won’t be too hard to rent out.