House WWYD

camrude

Scenario:

You are NOT living in your forever house (at all!) You planned on looking for a different house this spring, however with rates being so good you decide to see what's out there. You find your dream house in your same school district in a fab neighborhood.

You have the money to either get out of your under water mortgage or have a down payment on the dream house. You cannot do both.

There is the option to rent out your current house. A rental company comes in and shows you stats on what things are renting for in your area - you have a good chance to get the full mortgage (you can take a little hit each month if you get less.) You have enough in savings (not including the down payment money) to cover both mortgages if you don't have a renter for 6 months.

WWYD? Take the risk and buy the other house or stick to the plan of renting/selling first and THEN buying a house.

(I could make this clicky, but I sort of want some insight other than yes, no, maybe)

 

Rebekah1021

I wouldn't buy another house unless the my current house is sold. Just too much uncertainty now.

ghm

Ditto Rebecca. 

LenMont

We just went through this.  We even went as far as putting in an offer planning to rent.  We were outbid on the house we wanted, didn't rent and ended up selling our house the next month!! We were stressed for the first few weeks but now we've found a house that is even better than the one we originally wanted.

I'd wait. Renting out a property is stressful and everything is so uncertain right now.  AND, as someone who lost what I thought was my dream house, I can assure you that there are other dream houses out there.

Mominator

Another ditto on Rebecca. I was in the exact same situation as you and bought the new house. Renters fell through, blew through 6mths of savings and were about to have to do a short sell when I buyer finally came through. That was way too close for comfort. If faced with the decision again I wouldn't do it again.

FriskyPanda

Is selling the current house an option? Or would you have to take all of your down payment to cover a loss on the current house? What are rental stats like in your area-are homes sitting vacant waiting for renters, or do they lease pretty quickly? Have you taken into account any money you'd have to put into your house to make it rental ready?

true_norskie

What is your plan if you wait until spring?  It's not that far off so I don't fully understand what difference 4-6 months make...

camrude

FriskyPanda:

Is selling the current house an option? Or would you have to take all of your down payment to cover a loss on the current house? What are rental stats like in your area-are homes sitting vacant waiting for renters, or do they lease pretty quickly? Have you taken into account any money you'd have to put into your house to make it rental ready?

All down payment $$$ would go to cover the loss on our current house, so selling is not our first option.

The rental market in our area based off comps looks promising. As we are looking at renting and our budget, we are being very conservative on what we think we will get - even though two different rental companies basically had the same range for us, we are still budgeting for a lower amount. It looks like stuff rents anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 weeks....this was at the end of the summer though, so going into winter is going be slower. (typically)

Our current place is less than 10 years old and has been painted and replaced carpet in the past two years - so the only thing to make it rental ready is patching up a couple of holes where we replaced fixtures.

 

Zenya

If you could rent it out and make money every month.. I would consider it.  But if your rent would barely cover the mortgage then I don't think it's a good idea.  That means no actual income and a big liability!  What if the house needs a major repair?  It happens.  

I would pick option C - stay where you are for now.  You'll lose money by moving and it doesn't sound like you have to move right now.   

DandRAgain

The whole rental thing scares me.  You could either get the perfect renters.....or not.  And I just (personally) wouldn't want that stressor.

We've been semi-house shopping for awhile, and the thing is there is ALWAYS a "perfect" house out there....some that we liked have sold, but then other's pop up.  There have been 2 that I would have LOVED to put an offer on, but we aren't doing that until our house sells....but I am sure something else will be available when we are ready to buy. 

 

AnnapolisLari

Renting is such a crapshoot. Renters will NEVER take care of your house the way you would. You would probably have to repaint and replace carpet again between renters. If you are barely breaking even and use your savings for the new place, your old house could go downhill fast.

After it took 2.5 years to sell my house in MD, I have gotten incredibly conservative with real estate.

There will ALWAYS be another 'perfect house'.

camrude

Thanks everyone for responding. And, I agree that there is always the perfect house.

jlw2505

I have zero interest in being a landloard so I would wait and go with the original plan of selling my house first.