Moving questions

arikaleeanne

So for the last 10 months we have been house sitting (rent free) my moms  4 bdrm 3 car garage  2000 sq ft house on the lake in a super safe neighborhood.

She has told us we could stay until we can get back on our feet and DH could find a better job or our house sells in Monroe. Well our house is one step closer to selling and my husband just got a amazing job making 1000 more a month.

The conditions of us living in her house have been we have to keep it looking amazing and up to her standards of living since she is hoping to sell it soon.  The drawback to that is we are always on pins and needles when she visits wondering if we are keeping the house up to her standards especially my DH he fells so nervous about if he is keeping the yard and the garage etc up to to her standards. She is going to be putting it on the market in the next month and we are trying to figure out what we want to do.

We can stay in the house until it sells which could be one month or one year, and continue to build up our savings so we can buy again once our house sells and continue to live on pins and needles and have to have the place immaculate for showings.  The rental market is very weird here, some times there are 20 options some times there are 5 options.  Right now there are about 10 options right now.  Or we could move out and rent a much smaller place, but not have to be on pins and needles and keep the house immaculate and not have anything left to put into savings every month.

If we do decide to rent do we go for a smaller place in great neighborhood or a bigger place in okay neighborhood  ?

Thoughts, suggestions ,please

Seattle_JiLLn

She's not putting it on the market til your house sells right?   If that's the case, then I would just start looking for a new place to buy.  Buyers have a ton of power right now.  Prices are low, and interest rates are low, and people are having to unload things wherever they can.   So I'd keep the house clean while you look.  Or offer to pay your mom rent for 2 months if she can wait to put her house on the market and then you can chill out a little.  

CinemaGoddess

Personally, I would rent for awhile and save up additional money to buy.  Also, renting allows you to "test out" neighborhoods a lot easier than buying does.

To answer your question, though: I would go with a smaller place in a better neighborhood.