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Would you rent out your house?
DH and I keep tossing around the idea of renting out our house and moving in with my parents for a little while in order to pay off some debt and build a big savings to upgrade to a larger home. We are about 10k upside down in our home, so selling is not an option for us right now.
My parents have a two-story house with a second story that is completely unlived in. There are four bedrooms up there and a living room. Short of a kitchen, it would be almost the same size as our current house so we would have our own space. They would love to have us there and are kind of pressuring us to do this for the good of our financial situation.
I am worried about how DH and my mom would get along. They tend to rub each other the wrong way and I am worried about how that might snowball if we all live together. I am also worried about renting. Never rented and have heard many many horror stories about it. Plus we do not know how to be landlords.
Thoughts?
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Re: Would you rent out your house?
I don't know about the living with your parents part of it--personally DH and I would not do that, but that's because we're kind of sticklers about doing things ourselves, on our own, yadda yadda.
But to your original question, yes, we'd rent our house. That's the plan (right now, anyway) when we eventually upgrade to a bigger house a few years from now.
Yes, I would rent out my house (to the right people). No, I would not move in w/ my parents (or DH's mom), if there was any way I could afford it.
For the past two summers I have stayed w/ my parents for 1 month+ and by the end, I am ready to rip out my hair. Granted, it's a different situation b/c we don't have a car every day, DH isn't w/ me, and we know it's not a permanent (or even semi-permanent) living arrangement. I don't know- I'm just a big fan of having my own space for my family.
if you don't want to manage your own home as the landlord, you can look at hiring a company to do all that for you. when my brother decided to rent his house and move in with us (saving money after being unemployed), he used a company through a referral that charges him something like $100/month for management. they found him a solid tenant within a week, did all the background checks etc., and he hasn't had any problems so far (been about 7 months).
as for living with family, just make sure expectations are clear for household chores and typical "roommate" kind of stuff before moving in. knowing that it is a temporary situation is also helpful and talk about a potential "end date" as a nice way out.
We currently are landlords. When DH took the job with his current company, we were living south of Houston near Kemah. We had just built the home in a new subdivision and were competing with builder prices. That said, we couldn't sell without losing a ton of money. We ended up getting a 2 year lease, but we turned down at least 6 other lease offers first. We wanted to make sure our tenants would take exceptional care of our home and had great credit. Luckily, they have been wonderful to work with.
I don't believe we could live long-term with any set of our parents though. We lived with my IL's for three months while we were house hunting, and we were ready to have our own space.
I wouldn't do it just for that one reason. Nothing will make living with your parents a good experience if your DH and your mother don't get along.
We curently rent our former house in Dallas. We use a property manager though so while it feels to me mostly like a waste of money since he rarely has to do something, when something does go wrong, we don't even deal with it. It just comes out of the next rent payment to us. he takes 10%, which is pretty standard. If you don't use a property manager, you may still want to use an agent to find a tenant so they can pull background checks, etc.
That said, I have to agree with the pp's - unless we absolutely HAD to move in with a set of parents, there's no way we would. Although we all get along great, we do need our own separate space, to be independent, etc.
The emotional health of your famly is just as important as the financial health (more!) and if you already worried about your DH and your mom, i would think that YES, that would most likely snowball when all together.
Photo by Melissa Glynn
I'd rent out our house to the right family if we were going to be in town and could handle a lot of the landlord stuff ourselves. DH is really handy, and he could take care of most issues with the house and yard.
I would live with my mom, but not my ILs. If we were to move in with a relative, I'd want a detailed written agreement beforehand stating how long you'll be there, what expenses you're responsible for, what they do and do not allow, how you'll handle buying groceries or using shared spaces, how to handle parking, etc. It sounds nitpicky, but it's better to figure that out before you move in.
I'd also give serious thought to how much it would cost to move out of your house, act as a landlord for the old house, how much you could realistically save in a year, two years, etc., by living with your parents, and what it would cost to eventually get into a new house. Be sure to account for things like months when you don't have a tenant and have to cover the mortgage payment yourselves and the cost of storing stuff that doesn't fit in your parents' house - I assume they have some stuff upstairs, and either you'll need to use their stuff and store yours or vice versa, so be sure to have an agreement over how that will work, what happens if your child breaks something of theirs, etc.
Is there a reason staying in your own house is not an option? If you can find a way to stay there for a few more years, that might be a better option. If your parents really want to help with your financial situation, would they be able to provide a monetary gift to be used to pay off debt or renovate the house you're in to make it more workable for your family?
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
Probably not. Mainly because of the potential friction between your DH and your mom, but also because I wouldn't want tenants living in my house. I saw some of the tenant properties in our 'hood and .... yikes? A bad tenant could do some serious damage to your property and end up costing you more money in the long run. Plus, what if you get pregnant? Would that maybe get to be too stressful living under your parents' roof?
Plus, I love, love, love my parents ... but living with them for a week before we moved into our own home was enough. I think it's tough to parent with your parents looking over your shoulder, kwim?
(read it. you know you want to.)
anderson . september 2008
vivian . february 2010
mabel . august 2012
I would, too, but it totally depends on your relationship with your family. To me, renting the house out would be ok if you found the right tenants. Living with your parents could work if you get everything between your mom and DH out on the table from the front. Have a, "Look, I know things are a little strained, so let's talk about it," talk.
DH and I could never, ever live with either of our parents because a talk like that wouldn't change much. But, we have friends who lived with the wife's parents for a few years, had 2 kids during that time, and it worked out beautifully. They had a similar set up- the upstairs was theirs and they had enough privacy, etc. The childcare assistance was also a huge plus.
i would possibly consider renting out my house. i would never, ever, in a million years, move back in with my parents or even worse, with my ILs. i would rather pick up an extra pt job or something to pay down debt than to to do that. but dh and i really like our space.
furthermore, my ILs are complete slobs & my parents like to get in the middle of everyone's business (as much as i love them). it wouldn't be a good situation either way.
Yes, I would rent out my house but only to someone I know if I was planning on moving back in (we have done this). I would not live with my parents or DH's parents. Well, I could live with my parents, but would not make DH do it unless there was no other choice. And he gets along great with my parents.
We have rental properties and it is tough. Of course it sucks to get called anytime and be told that something is wrong, but I also don't like it when the stock market tanks. It's part of the risk of investing in anything.
One thing I want to point out is that it is extra hard renting your own home. We bought a house and rented out the condo we'd lived in for years. We had totally remodeled the condo and put a lot of love and effort into it. We put it on the market (to sell) last month and while our tennants were really great and took excellent care of the place, I was still pissed to find little things wrong while we were getting it ready. I would see something and think, I worked so hard to do XYZ and they didn't even take care of it. Personally, I think I would have a really hard time moving back into my home after a random tennant had lived there. I would get over it because I'd have to, but it would take a while and I wouldn't like it.