Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am planning retirement for May 1, 2018. My daughter lives in a nearby state, about a 3-hour drive away, and I plan to move there. I have started looking at homes in a general way. I want to be close enough to her to help with childcare. That will limit my choices as she lives in an upscale area where most homes are large and expensive and I want smaller and less expensive. I am going up to see one possible house tomorrow. The thought of having two homes (there is no mortgage payment on my current house) is a bit scary for me.....not to mention having a house that is empty for most of the next year. Have you done this? How has it worked out? Any unexpected hurdles? A year seems like a long lead time to buy, but I am afraid that appealing options will be few and far between. I would appreciate input from others who have been in a similar spot!
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,661 posts, read 57,789,143 times
Reputation: 46126
I use house sitters (since I have a farm...) and I also have 2+ living spaces at each home (We host international guests + rent out to people in need who would like to help out with chores. )
Multiple living spaces is also for future caregivers or boomerang kids.
I had 2 long distance homes due to a rotten real estate market. That was not fun in 1980 when rates were 16%+ and I was making $<10 / hr
We have been a two home family off/on since 2008. We do not rent out our homes when they are vacant. Our second home has always been in Mexico with a US home in either AZ or FL.
We love having 2 homes, as each are one block from large bodies of water in small walkable cities/villages.
We pay someone in each place to look in on the home, make sure the lawn is mowed, etc. Of course it is much cheaper to do that in Mexico, but it's worth the piece of mind.
One reason our second home is in MX (besides loving the weather and culture there),is that it is very cheap to carry....real estate taxes $100-300 a year.
Depending how entrenched your daughter's life is in the area she lives, how feasible would it be to move there permanently? Is there a possibility her husband might take and move the family in the future? Have you considered renting in the area before you make a commitment to purchase, just to get the lay of the land and see if the situation is feasible?
Why keep two homes? When we bought our retirement home it was 2 years before we retired but sold one home when we no longer worked.
I am planning retirement for May 1, 2018.
My daughter lives in a nearby state, about a 3-hour drive away, and I plan to move there.
I have started looking at homes in a general way.
Stop. Look for/plan on a rental for the first year or so.
Especially if prices there are too high to afford to stay.
Quote:
The thought of having two homes is a bit scary for me.
You're right... it can be a problem.
Mothball your current home and arrange for someone to watch over it
and attend to the exterior maintenance while you're gone.
IF you decide to remain in the other city...
AND can find a place or a way that you can afford to remain there
THEN consider the issues of selling it.
Depending how entrenched your daughter's life is in the area she lives, how feasible would it be to move there permanently? Is there a possibility her husband might take and move the family in the future? Have you considered renting in the area before you make a commitment to purchase, just to get the lay of the land and see if the situation is feasible?
Why keep two homes? When we bought our retirement home it was 2 years before we retired but sold one home when we no longer worked.
I don't plan to keep both homes. I am just wondering how much of a headache it would be to keep two for a year. It sounds like you did something similar.
AS far as moving near to my daughter, there is always the possibility she might move somewhere down the line. That is factored in to my decision. It certainly won't be a case of her husband deciding to take the family anywhere. My daughter loves her job, they both have master's degrees and earn about the same amount of money, so if they decide to leave the area, it would take her letting go of her job, too.
I have been in the same house for 31 years. As inexpensive as it would be to retire in place, I feel like I would be cheating myself not to try living in a different place. So, why not near her? She might move and maybe I would follow...but maybe not. I always thought I would want to be in a small city with a university and that is where she lives (she is in the suburbs). Nothing is guaranteed, but it looks like she will stay put for the years where my help would be most critical to her. There are no kids yet, but she is 31. Our thought has been that a baby and my retirement happening around the same time might be a good plan.....as much as you can plan these things!
I would rent if the right buy opportunity doesn't come along....but, with two dogs, rentals are more difficult to find. My daughter rented when she first moved to town with her dogs, but the house didn't have a fence...it was kind of a headache.
I have to run through my head....will this house work if I am taking care of her child(ren)? Would this house work if there are no children and it is just about me? Both things come into play. But the other thing is....have people had calamities occur having two houses? Since I don't have a mortgage on my current home, financial exposure is not that big of a deal. And it is the south, so the property taxes are not horrendous. If the economy tanks, it would not break me if I couldn't sell my current home for awhile after I move. But maybe there are downsides that are not occurring to me? The biggest one would be if my daughter unexpectedly decides to move. There is a little bit of a gamble there. But, if I get a house at a very good price, I can always sell. And, with a year to go, I am only buying if the price is right.
If she lives in an "upscale and expensive" area why do you have to move to help with childcare? Is that her idea or yours?
Having two houses can be a pain if one is empty: weather issues if it freezes, yard and other maintenance, security (the insurance will be different), some jurisdictions may have codes that could have it declared vacant and abandoned.
We've toyed with idea of getting another house and splitting time between Maryland in the winter and PA in the summer. The holdback is that I have issues keeping up with the one we already have. I'm getting tired of being a slave to house maintenance.
Your situation is similar to mine but not exact. I plan to retire in about 4 years, buy myself a small inexpensive home across country and probably pay cash for it. I plan to seriously start looking about a year before retiring. I would like my new home at least purchased so when I sell my current home, I can just move and not be inbetween houses, have to rent, and move my things more than once. It's only going to be for a year or less while I own both homes but it still worries me a little bit. My hope is to have a property management company or individuals look after my new place while I sell and move from my old place. Also, many times realtors can give you references about local property managers. It's only for a year or less and the only thing they would need to do is check on the house, make sure yard maintenance gets down, pick up any mail. It's really very basic. You're not going to be a slave to the new house while living in the old one temporarily.
What you're considering is no different from snowbirding -- and many people do that quite successfully. I wouldn't listen to the naysayers. Snowbirds often hire a caretaking service to do what's necessary in the house during their absence. This is very common in Arizona and it's typically not very expensive.
I've lived in the same house for 22 years -- about 15 years longer than I thought we would -- and I can't wait to try living elsewhere. I have seen everything in this area, walked every street, driven every route countless times. There are no discoveries to make.
If you can't have fun shopping for, buying and decorating a new home in retirement, then when can you? GO FOR IT!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
