Beast

Beast

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

One decision closer

As it often happens, the fall does bring the nice cool weather. And it looks like our chase for the perfect weather of 75F has taken a break. It seems to be perfect enough right here, right now. Few days of occasional slow drizzles and cooler night temperatures, and suddenly this seems to be my Texas in all the possible positive ways. This has brought us to reconsider selling the house, and maybe just rent it out. There are so many pros and cons, it is difficult to make the right decision.


The pros on keeping the house:
  • There is always a place to fall back into after we are done with RV dwelling, or if something would happen and we will be forced to get back to "normal life".
  • Real estate is always an investment, the house will still be there, and maybe we could sell it later on if we need to, or if we find another place we would like to call home.
  • The house is really a unique, we still could be able to make it into our dream home with few changes.
  • Lees family lives here, and we would love to be close to them.
  • This is a great place to live, very desirable area, and this kind of lots are too difficult to find in neighborhoods like this (the lot is huuuuge).
  • We love the house!
  • The house could be generating some income for us. Paying the mortgage and leave a bit over for fixes that might be needed, and maybe even leave some money to drive a few more miles on our trip.
The cons on keeping the house:
  • It is older house and needs constant maintaining. We either need to pour money into it now, or risk the fixes without our supervision. (costs more, and once you aren't supervising the work, anything is possible)
  • Some major repairs are in our future if we keep it.
  • The Texas heat is really brutal and can cause some serious damage to our house, especially if it is leased out to someone who doesn't care about it as much as we do.
  • We wouldn't have as much money to start with if we didn't sell the house.
  • Being absent for years while the house is rented out can destroy the landscaping and pretty much anything else too.
  • The fixes on the rental are quite difficult to do on the budget while travelling. 
  • The repairs can be costly, especially on the major things like AC units.

The critters won't give a rats patootie where we live,
 and who lives in our house as long as they have a pile
 of blankets to burrow into
It is so easy to make a decision just considering what is happening around us at the decision making time, but the truth is that there are other times too, and things change throughout the year. The problems seem to arise mostly during the summer time when the heat is extreme, but once the weather cools down a bit, it can be pretty dang awesome place to live. But maybe there is a place where we could be happy around the year. For some reason I keep looking towards the East coast thinking that is where our questions get answered. But then on the other hand, I keep wanting to head to the West... makes sense, right?

For now, I think we have made the decision. This post has been a draft for weeks now, and I finally found it more fitting to our situation now, since after listening to our friends who also happen to be experts in real estate or rental properties, we have decided to go forward with the intention of keeping the house and leasing it out instead. I feel happy, since I can still have my dream of fixing it into a perfect place. And if the road is going to claim us, then be it, the option to sell it later on is not going to disappear anywhere.

                               

                              

4 comments:

  1. I think this is a wise decision. There are so many people out there looking to rent now instead of buy due to the economy. You will have your pick of tenants and will be able to find good ones..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope so, and there are all kinds of tenants, we just need to look into them and see what will suit our needs the best. I am confident (well, today anyways) that this will be the best option for us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have read and seen scientifical studies which show that hapiness is not about more choices but about less choices. Now looking back. Do you still think you should rent the house and always have the choice of comming back (along with the regret of not being in it at that moment), or rather sell it and go into the "only one choice forward" mindset?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, funny that you asked, since we have changed our minds about this. We decided that having more choices is having more responsibility and liability. So we have decided to sell the house. I am a bit shaken though, since we had a realtor come and see the house and she really loved it, now for me that was all just reinforcement of the fact that it is the most amazing house out there and we are about to lose it. But keeping it would actually mean worrying about things not falling apart or wearing out and who knows what kind of tenants we would end up with. So for the sake of our own sanity we are trying to come to terms with the fact that there are other dream houses that we can buy once we are done with our adventures and they are just waiting to be discovered, or maybe even built.

      Delete