Buying A Home
JuneMrs
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Short Sales, Rentals, Oh my!
DH and I currently own a 2 bed, 1 bath home in a nice neighborhood with good amenities (pool, gym, etc). We bought the property 9 years ago when we got married and have renovated it and really enjoyed it. 9 years later however we are busting out of the home with 2 kids, and 2 dogs plus no yard and it's on the top floor without an elevator. So DH and I are currently under contract and in the early phases of buying a short sale home. We have decided to rent out our current property (if the short sale home comes through) for one year and then sell it at the end of the one year lease. So.... tell me about your experiences if you have rented out a home (how you did it, etc) and if you have purchased or been through a short sale. All the info and details are appreciated :-)
Re: Short Sales, Rentals, Oh my!
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I hope I am not too late for the party and you are still around, OP. I bought my home three years ago and was specifically looking for a duplex type of house where I could live on one side and rent out the other. I successfully did that and now have experience of both being a landlord and having been a home buyer who was looking at nothing but homes that typically had renters living in them.
They are horror stories of renting places, most definitely. But, so far, my experience as a landlady has been a very positive one. I had one bad apple, who signed a lease and then reneged but, other thant that, all the actual tenants moved in have been fabulous, paid rent on time, and no one has caused damage.
But now the downside and a strong recommendation for you. Be up front with anyone who wants to rent your place that you will probably be selling it in about a year. Include, in your lease, a clause that requires them to allow reasonable access to a realtor/potential buyers given 24 hours advance notice. I'd even sweeten the deal further by lowring the rent by $100 for the last month or two of their lease (whatever time frame you'd have the house for sale), just as a further enticement for their inconvenience.
I say the above because, when I was a buyer, there were three houses I requested a showing for from my realtor. With the answer coming back from the selling realtor that the house had tenants and the tenants would not allow the showing. Which was like, "Ummmm...if you can't even SHOW your house, why did you bother putting it on the market?" For the houses I did look at with tenants in them. Oh my yes! They were usually messy and cluttered. Not necessarily gross (though sometimes, lol), but a tenant isn't going to be concerned with dishes in the sink and clothes on the bedroom floor for a showing, like a home owner would be.
My husband and I are renting out our home right now until he can get his job transferred back to the area. We are renting out through a property management company and thank goodness because our first tenants were not very good at all. dogs that must have peed on the carpet a few times, unruly kids, they let the weeds in our drought tolerant lawn grow 3 feet tall... they started getting behind on rent and the management co was able to bring up correct legal action to scare them into paying on time. When they moved out we had to replace the carpet, repaint almost every wall, lots of work. We were very glad to not have to make the 4 hour drive to do all the work ourselves. Plus the management co knew the best places to get decent quality work done for lower prices.
Our new tenants are great. They pay on time, the yard looks better than ever.
We were hoping to be out of our current home this summer. Our realtor thinks selling right now is a bad decision, since we'd have to bring so much money to closing (we would sell for less that what our home is worth. I KNOW. But we bought at the height). She wants to discuss renting it out for a couple of years with us.
Advice? Any decent stories out there about renting your home out (through a property manager)? We're not quite going to cover the mortgage with renting the home out + paying the property manager-is that just asking for trouble? I know the reasonable answer is to stay in the house for 2 more years or so, but we really dislike the area. And there's no guarantee in two years the market will be any better than it is now.
I don't know. I needed to write it all out and read it rationally and have someone with an unbiased opinion chime in.
CatahoulaMom, just curious why you want a property manager because it sounds like you will still be living nearby, but a better area? Not that there is anything wrong with a property manager, but if you live close enough to show the place yourself and take care of problems, I'd consider foregoing one to keep more profit/less loss.
@Short+sassy , we actually aren't staying anywhere close to the area, it is about an 8 hour drive in a different state. I'd love to do it myself but I can't imagine doing it from that far away
While you're at it, put in a call to your inteded mortgage company if you plan on buying another house. They're going to want to see that you have the income to support carrying both houses whether that means your direct income or rent from a tenant (established).
I really appreciate all the insight