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We "retired" to the Poconos,bought a house and enjoyed the very slow quiet lifestyle for about 10 yrs. We finally sold our home for 30K less than we paid and are heading south.No more snow,ice,power outages.
If we decide we want to move from our new 1240 sq. ft.rental townhouse we can. BTW I did the math and we will be saving $100 a month renting in NC (including utilities).
Like Pinocchio sang "I got no strings to hold me down" Happy Sunday
I don't get the " I don't want to deal with landlords" thing.
I pay my rent, they don't bother me. What is "dealing with landlords" all about?
In my current place, I saw the owner of the building once, since 2011. I've not seen him since I signed my lease.
It's been that way with every place in which I've rented. I pay rent, they leave me alone.
As far as rents increasing-----in case the memo wasn't received, the price of milk has increase too, that doesn't mean I'm going to go out a buy a cow so I can say "whew, now I don't have to worry about paying high milk prices anymore, I own the cow".
Over the last 5 years, my rent has gone up---$5-$10 per month, per year. The cost of doing business goes up every year, so I would expect rents to follow.
Some of the logic here as it relates to buying and owning a home doesn't make sense.
Unfortunately, some markets don't work like that...
In DC, for example, my rent the first year went from $1650 to $1800 (around there). Third year it went to $1975 or so... and now six months into 4th year it is $2050 (although, I'm on month to month and more than likely could get it cheaper since the rents in the area are cheaper due to new construction in the area.. so maybe back to 1900 with parking fee).
Of course, when I lived in SC my rent was around $450 and did not go up for two years...
I think what you are hearing is the "games" some complexes play with people... they don't want to provide an "honest" increase. They jack it up and then say "move if you don't like it". It is expensive to move every year.
I am helping someone buy a place In retirement. Owned in the past, never had a mortgage. In retirement the thought of renting in a rebounding real estate market is frightening whereas owning a unit with a fixed rate mortgage gives them stability, predictable housing costs.
When someone talks about moving.....consider the costs (we just got an estimate of $2700) to move less than 50 miles. Figure a $100 rent increase is less than 1/2 of what the movers will charge!
I have never rented residential space, it just never fit my mentality and I like remodeling. Made out fantastic a couple times and got my lights knocked out once on the buy/sell side so I am still ahead of the game.
Having rented apartments and houses and owned houses, some of which we have lived in as well as rented out, rent is a bad word to me. I'll never rent anything again nor will I own rent property. I would rather shovel the manure at one of our local dairies than to own any more rental property.
Right now we own three houses free and clear but are in the process of selling one small residential property for which we are receiving monthly payments. As soon as my wife retires in a couple of years, we plan to dump our city home in New Mexico and retire to our tiny west Texas farm. The farm is worth only 25% of what the city home is worth but my wish now is to own as little real estate as I have to and still not have to rent. The last thing I want in my retirement is a landlord, that is, none beyond Texas who taxes real estate like a rabid banshee.
i second that. we held soooooo much investment property here in nyc and through the last decade we have been liquidating it all. last thing in retirement i want to deal with is tenants anymore.
most of my deals were special situation such as buying out leases of tenants who were rent stabilized and still living in some prestigius co-op buildings by central park.
we would pay them 100k to move and sell the apartments off.
out of 9 apartments we owned all but two have not accepted buyouts. i am stuck with them for now and maybe forever . rent is about break even because they pay way below market thanks to rent stabilization and its crookedness, but that is the risk you take so i can deal with it, the profits had been just great so i can't complain about my adopted family i have to subsidize to live in my apartments.
Another thing I like is the flexibility of being able to move to a new place every 3 years or so. Even if it's in the same city. I get tired of the same scenery, I like the change.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107
i second that. we held soooooo much investment property here in nyc and through the last decade we have been liquidating it all. last thing in retirement i want to deal with is tenants anymore.
most of my deals were special situation such as buying out leases of tenants who were rent stabilized and still living in some prestigius co-op buildings by central park.
we would pay them 100k to move and sell the apartments off.
out of 9 apartments we owned all but two have not accepted buyouts. i am stuck with them for now and maybe forever . rent is about break even because they pay way below market thanks to rent stabilization and its crookedness, but that is the risk you take so i can deal with it, the profits had been just great so i can't complain about my adopted family i have to subsidize to live in my apartments.
i second that. we held soooooo much investment property here in nyc and through the last decade we have been liquidating it all. last thing in retirement i want to deal with is tenants anymore..
Yes indeed! As well, I would guess that my Texas property taxes, as high as I think them to be, are pocket change to what you are having to pay in NYC. However, even here I've found myself several times subsidizing tenants, at least the really bad ones. It was my last tenants who actually made me start to think about the future of owning rentals. It was a happy day when I threw away my "For Rent" signs and replaced them with a "For Sale" sign.
In such a small town, I had to carry the financing with a small down payment in order to sell that property but the buyer is now 14 payments into a 7-year payoff. (knock on wood)
Does this vary by state? I've always thought your lease was protected, even if a place gets sold/foreclosed. At least it was that way in Massachusetts.
Either way, you must move at end of lease... I would have stayed put in both situations. Being forced to move at end of lease is still being forced to move - Also dealing with people walking into your place for showings while you reside there is a pain in the a** and not something I really wanted happening either, but as a renter I had no control of it. As a home owner, I will only have showings if I invite it to happen because I have decided to sell on my own terms.
Another thing I like is the flexibility of being able to move to a new place every 3 years or so. Even if it's in the same city. I get tired of the same scenery, I like the change.
Rocco, good to see you say this as I think it is really the underlying question that needed to be asked and answered (though I didn't read every post in the previous 8 pages).
Renting does provide additional options to be mobile that homeownership may not. Selling a home can be expensive (realtor fees and other expenses) so selling every couple of years just isn't practical for many.
There are ways to defray the costs of moving. While moving frequently can be inconvenient, one does learn to keep and/or move only those items they need at the new location and that doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Depending upon where you live, hiring a team of professional packers can be a reasonable moving expense, only a couple of hundred dollars in some areas. You can also hire a team at the other end to unload and unpack your property. I've done this several times over the years, particularly when I was single.
Sounds like renting might be the good choice for you. Best of luck on making this important lifestyle decision.
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