House hunting (Austin, Melissa: real estate, rental, HOA)

[Megan1967]

Oh, don't get me wrong. Like I said, I think it is the perfect solution, just out of my price range. Even a mini van would be about $1000.

I think we might all be biting the bullet and doing the 18 hours straight through in my Prius. Lots of towels. I had one cat who had to be in a carrier for 12 hours (long story) who held it the whole time. I hate to put them in such an uncomfortable situation, but I just don't see a way around it.

Any other ideas would be welcome. I am curious what RV companies you found who allow pets.

Thanks for all of the posts guys.

Oh, and I think renting is out for another reason. If I don't reinvest my "earnings" from selling my house within a certain amount of time I will be taxed on it. I think it is kind of like capital gains tax.

[DiMost]

The RV company that allows pets is CruiseAmerica 800-671-8042. The 25' for 14 days is $1456. + $448 for mileage (about 1200 for FL to TX). The 30' is $1950 (has bedrm. with door, which we have to have IF we want to sleep--cats play all night).

The 30' comes with a "garage" with ramps for people who want to transport 4-wheelers or motorcycles, which we don't need).

Just FYI, and in case someone else needs that info.

Good luck with your trip!

[readymade]

I didn't know about that part about paying a fine if you're found out. Sorry about my crappy advice. Personally, I wouldn't lie about my pets just because I hate to lie (but if I had to choose between lying and giving up one of my guys, I would lie). But I've never seen an apartment that takes more than 3 pets, either.

I don't really know what someone would do if they couldn't afford to buy and had more than 3 pets. That's good advice about private owners.

I'm a animal lover myself, but I would NEVER rent to someone who had pets. I've seen places destroyed from them (not mine, heh). It's not the animals I don't trust... it's their owners who don't train them properly. Actually, I will never rent to anyone again whether they had pets or not (I once had renters who had the heat turned off and instead lit fires to keep warm. Um, and there was no fireplace).

Originally Posted by Megan1967

I checked out an RV and it was over $2500 before gas was factored in. That's a little more than I can afford, but I think it is the perfect solution.

I was quoted $850 (before gas) for a medium-sized RV for a 4 day trip. Maybe keep loooking? I don't remember the website, but I did a search for something like "RV Rental" in Yahoo and clicked on one of the top "pay-per-click" links.

[readymade]

Originally Posted by DiMost

The RV company that allows pets is CruiseAmerica 800-671-8042. The 25' for 14 days is $1456. + $448 for mileage (about 1200 for FL to TX). The 30' is $1950 (has bedrm. with door, which we have to have IF we want to sleep--cats play all night).

The 30' comes with a "garage" with ramps for people who want to transport 4-wheelers or motorcycles, which we don't need).

Just FYI, and in case someone else needs that info.

Good luck with your trip!

Wow. That is awesome! Thanks so much!

Out of curiosity, why do you think it would take 14 days to get to FL to TX? Is there something I don't know about RVing? Or were you just going to make more of a vacation of it?

[jhwest]

Back to the realtor issue. When we were looking for houses in Austin, I called a few agents who were representing houses we drove by and wanted to see. I figured that would be a good way to meet agents and see if there was one that I liked well enough to be our buyers agent. They were all more than willing to show us lots of houses, knowing full well that we weren't even sure we would be moving to Austin. I really liked one of them a lot because she totally understood what I was looking for and what was important to me. She must have shown us 30 houses before we signed an agreement for her to be our agent. One of the other agents asked us to sign an agreement too, but we wanted to think about it first since I wasn't crazy about her.
I was really happy with our agent and coincidentally ended up buying a house half a mile from her. She let us come over and do our laundry several times until our washer and dryer showed up almost a week after we moved in.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Megan1967

Oh, don't get me wrong. Like I said, I think it is the perfect solution, just out of my price range. Even a mini van would be about $1000.

I think we might all be biting the bullet and doing the 18 hours straight through in my Prius. Lots of towels. I had one cat who had to be in a carrier for 12 hours (long story) who held it the whole time. I hate to put them in such an uncomfortable situation, but I just don't see a way around it.

Any other ideas would be welcome. I am curious what RV companies you found who allow pets.

Thanks for all of the posts guys.

Oh, and I think renting is out for another reason. If I don't reinvest my "earnings" from selling my house within a certain amount of time I will be taxed on it. I think it is kind of like capital gains tax.

Depending on your situation you might not owe any tax.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/rea...20041018a1.asp


When you sell your primary residence, you can make up to $250,000 in profit if you're a single owner, twice that if you're married, and not owe any capital gains taxes.

[Megan1967]

Oh... Well, I certainly won't be making more than 250K.

Still, unless I knew someone personally, I just don't think anyone is going to let me rent a place I'd be willing to live in with 6 cats. Like I said, I wouldn't rent to someone with as many cats as I have, unless of course I was desperate for renters, then I might be willing to check them out a little further, but why take a risk when there are plenty of candidates with no pets?

[blossum]

You need to be up front with the agents and let them know you are not ready to buy. We just looked around all over AZ and I let the agents know we were not ready to buy. They were all great. We got a lot of information from them and did some riding around with them and on our own with some directions. I helped us decide we will not move there. We are now trying to do the same in MO, or maybe TX later this month. I don't want to rush into buying, as we need to know the area and jobs. We will most likely rent first, but still need to see what is out there and the price.

[austin-steve]

Oh, and I think renting is out for another reason. If I don't reinvest my "earnings" from selling my house within a certain amount of time I will be taxed on it. I think it is kind of like capital gains tax.

I think you're thinking of the old tax rule. If you've lived in your home for any two of the past 5 years upon sale, you pay no capital gains taxes on the first $250K ($500K for married couple) and you can do as you please with the money. There is no requirement to buy another home.

Steve

[austin-steve]

How about you Steve? Would you consider renting to me?

Sorry, I don't allow pets in any of the properties I own. And the owners for whom we manage houses expect us to be very, very selective on pets, so we allow 2 max, under 35 lbs only, and even then we try hard to avoid pets.

Steve