You won't make money
You don't want to landlord
You don't love the house.
Give me a good reason to hold it for I see none.
-I have a
major desire to be a landlord. DH is neutral, which is why he's in favor of getting a PM company. It's his idea, not mine.
-I think I've understated the attachment. We both adore the house. It's pretty dang unique for the time it was built and the area. It's the first house we ever got together, it's the first place we moved into together, and it's the first place we've lived in as a married couple. It's the place we fully planned to raise a family in. We are super attached to it.
-I did a cursory search for comparable places in the entire Atlanta metro area in the 210k range, and for the price, you really cannot get anything that big and updated and unique in that good of an area. Yeah, it's actually pretty rare, and I think buying something like it again in 3 years would be an incredibly expensive struggle.
I appreciate the advice, but at this point, we're not looking to be convinced out of keeping it--the question was whether we should rent or buy in the city.
Thanks for the PM advice,
@Dicey. I'll try and convince DH to move away from that, but I don't think he's mentally or emotionally prepared for us handling everything ourselves. Real estate majorly excites me and majorly stresses him. Can you guess whose idea it was to buy our current home in the first place? *wry smile*
Maybe you are misunderstanding me. The amount you can rent for IS your potential rental income, if you're renting something comparable to what you would buy. You're literally paying the market rent. So if rent is cheaper significantly less than 1% of the price of the property per month, these are not 1% rule properties. Right?
Right, if rent were significantly cheaper, which I don't think it is. Let me explain my logic: there are 2 main areas we're looking at.
Option 1 is bougie, close to everything we love (park, no-money-spending fun), and walkable/bikeable to work. Purchase prices from 160-180k for a little condo. I see virtually nothing for under 1300/mo rent in that area, and the 2 units I see look sketchy. When I look in the 1550-1800/mo rent range, I see lots of places that seem comparable to the places we'd be looking to buy.
Option 2 is in a rougher area. Still close to some nice things, though they're almost all money-spending things. Bikeable (maybe) to work, but no way is it walkable to work. Purchase prices 130k-170k. Reasonable rent options for 1100-1400/mo.
Don't ask me why the stark change in rent prices...these areas are not insanely far from each other. But then again, we'd prefer Option 1, so who are we to talk? You can check my work if you want...this is in Midtown Atlanta.
If we bought, Option 1 w/ price negotiating would probably be smartest. If we rented, Option 2 would probably be smartest to get the cheaper rent prices and sacrifice location. Right? Am I missing something?