We've almost done it - our place is almost sold. We have an accepted offer on the place and the subjects are removed on Sunday -only three more days - whooowhoo! Of course we've been down this road once b/f and it didn't pan out but I think this time it will b/c there is NOTHING out there that we want to buy. On Monday I went out with our realtor and every house I really wanted to see had sold but not taken off the MLS yet...errrrr. There are NO houses in our area, in our price range. They are either under our price limit, which is a good thing, but not such a good thing b/c they are too small for our family of six. Or they are HUGE and we need to rent out a basement suit in order to pay for the mortgage. I don't want much, just a nice house maybe around 2000-2400sq. feet, nice yard, close to our school, close to the bus for Rich but there are NONE!
On the positive side to all of this, and what gives me hope, is that I talked to our mortgage dude and the interest rates have come down so much since even Feb. that having to buy the HUGE house (which is actually the normal size for today) isn't quite as daunting. I wonder if people out there buy houses with the suites as just "extra" income to buy the "extras" or if they actually need the suites to pay their mortgage? We would need the suite to pay the mortgage - is that wise? With the "helper" though we would be paying less of our mortgage than we do now in the townhouse. Anyways, unless what I REALLY want - nice size house and no need to rely on renters - comes on the market ASAP then we're going for the needed rental - which I think I've found the house I want in that market! If the deal on our house goes thru we have to be outta hear by June 28th - which is why we are in a bit of a hurry to find something, plus in our area houses are flying off the market.
Anyways, what do you think out there in blogger land - do you think most people "NEED" the rental income to afford their mortgage or do you think they use it for EXTRAS?
5 comments:
I think alot of people at first may not necessarily "need' the mortgage helper, but they get one to take a bit of the stress off. THEN, they end up becoming dependant on that extra money coming in. They notice it BIG time if the renters need to move out, OR be kicked out ! *grin*
We bought "up" and you really just make do. Some things may need to be cut out of the budget, but all in all we LOVE our house and are thankful we had the opportunity when we did.
What style of house are you looking at ? (the HUGE one !) I'm so excited to hear what happens :)
Praying that all goes smoothly for you guys...you've been through ENOUGH already ! Love ya.
Ha! I love that live feed thing you have. Wonder which one was me!
We still have our house in Cloverdale. It's rented out and it pays for the mortgage on said house with a little bit extra to pay for the yearly upkeep of said house. Last year we had to put a new fence up because our crackhead neighbors pushed the other one down. I don't miss having crackhead neighbors. I hope you guys find an awesome house soon, without crackhead or pothead neighbors! Now I just have a neighbor who told Ayva, in front of me, that she would spank Ayva if Ayva pulled out her flowers again!
thanks for the thoughts Candice and Cara - though right now everything has fallen thru so there is no longer a housing dilemna.
My opinion re: mortgage helper vs. no mortgage helper is this: if you don't mind sharing your space with renters and worrying if your kids are being too loud, sharing laundry etc. then go ahead and have a mortgage helper. I personally don't like having a mortgage helper but that's just me. I would rather move to a smaller place then have to have a mortgage helper. Now some people have them just for the extras (not to pay the mortgage) - like the camper & the boat or a vacation twice a year.
We moved up from a three bedroom townhouse to a three bedroom plus basement home and have never had a mortgage helper, we had to adjust our expenses but that's just natural to me.
We could stay in this house forever, we are quite content and have plenty of space.
Hope that helps!
ps. our townhouse was brand new but our house now is 28 years old - we did a full reno upon moving in.
thanks Shawna for your thoughts - I totally agree with you- we would rather be without a suite but at the time we were looking (not right now since the deal is kaput) there was nothing (no exaggeration) in Walnut Grove. We could have expanded our searching area but not really b/c of the kids being in school already and Rich needing transit.
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