by Hope
I got a call this week from our landlord of two years. He has been a fantastic landlord. The minute I have reported anything amiss, he arranges for it to be fixed. Our A/C has gone out 3 times. He’s replaced the hot water heater. He’s repaired a hole in the roof. And he’s replaced the exterior wall of the laundry room that was rotting.
He has let us paint inside and out. Let me landscape as I desired. Has said nothing about the extra car in the driveway since History Buff moved in. I couldn’t ask for a better landlord.
Are You Ready to Buy?
But he is older. And he is ready to get out of the properly management business. And he has been since we moved in here.
This week his question was, “are you ready to buy your house?”
Umm, awkward silence. As I go into panic mode that we will once again face housing issues. And we are so happy here in our small home, with our small yard.
But thank goodness, he is not looking for us to move out. But he does want to sell this home (he’s been selling off most of his homes to his renters it seems.)
Needless to say, I haven’t even thought of buying a home. I am very happy having someone else pay for all the repairs. But I am going to have to put some thought into this.
And yes, I can hear the collective gasp from the BAD community as I mention this, even through the internet.
The Emotional Side of Things
Now the thought of buying, this particular house, is rolling around in my head. Coupled with the thought of having to move again if he decides to sell and I don’t buy.
Princess, Gymnast and I have moved almost 10 times since my marriage failed 12 years ago. I do not want to move again…until I move into the home I will die in. I’m very much over moving.
Rental homes are very hard to come by here. And they are all OLD. Even this one was built in the 50s and hasn’t been updated since. So finding another house here may be really hard. And I have promised Princess we will not move (out of this area) until she graduated high school…two years from this coming May.
The Numbers Side of Things
I asked the landlord what he was looking to get for this house…$89,000. (I know he purchased it for $25,000 12ish years ago from looking at the property records.) And that seems really high to me based on location and condition of the house.
Again, built in the 50s, no updates. It’s 3 good sized bedrooms (well, 2 good sized bedrooms,) large living room (we’ve got it split in two to be a fourth bedroom and living room,) 1 1/2 baths (all original,) and a large eat in kitchen (also all original.) It’s still got a fuse box. There’s no ventilation in the full bath so the ceiling is always moldy. (We have to wipe it down with bleach every couple of weeks.) The driveway is cracking. And so on…you get the point.
So I think there’s some negotiating room…IF I thought about buying.
The bottom line is that this could be my forever home. It’s small enough for me to manage on my own when the kids leave. It’s one story which is my MUST HAVE in a forever home. And the other changes I would want made…I could do over time – add a dishwasher, add an ice maker, add a disposal and so on.
I’m not considering buying this house right now. But later on in the year…maybe. And I would love to hear the BAD communities thoughts on this.
Where should I be in my debt journey to even consider this? What other things should I take into account? What other questions would you ask?
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
