Rent vs buying??

[Anonymous]

Financially it makes sense to get your current home sold quickly.... even in this crappy market, well-priced homes that are staged well are still selling. By staged well, I mean sparkling clean, no clutter, decorated to suit your potential buyers. On this last point, think about you will buy your house. For us it was clear that it would either be a first home for a young couple (like us when we bought it!) or an older couple without kids, this meant toning down the pink in my daughter's room, clearing out the toys, other baby items, putting the wine glasses instead of sippy ups back into the cupboard with the glass door. Go to open houses in your neighborhood, make sure your home is the cleanest and nicest decorated and $5000 less than the next house and the first weekend a buyer comes through your neighborhood, they are yours! SOLD.

[Anonymous]

Rent. With the money you save by holding off on buying, you should be able to hire packers to minimize the headache of moving. While moving is a big headache (we've done in twice in a year), you also have to think of the aggravation of buying a house when you not here.

[Anonymous]

We once rented for a year due to a one-year employment contract. We rented a furnished home, took clothing, a few toys, and necessities, and put everything else in storage, knowing that we would be moving again to an undetermined location. We even rented a piano at the one-year place. It was great. You wouldn't believe how little you "need" all your stuff. Granted, it was nice to see it all again once we eventually moved, but this scenario made financial sense for us and it was quite freeing.

[Anonymous]

Our house is staged, and well priced. It's not a starter home (those are selling relatively quickly if staged and competitively priced), so it takes a while to get enough buyers through the house to find the right one who both likes the house and can afford it.

You can't believe how bad things are in the real estate market outside of DC. Our market is rated "critical" these days.

Good point about using the money we're saving to pay for packers to make the second move easier. I am feeling overwhelmed right now by the effort it's taken just to get our house on the market. Once we move, I'm not going to have the energy to move again, which is why I'm thinking it might make (emotional, not financial) sense to get it over with. There are so many things I'd rather do with my time than spend it packing and moving once more.

We've done a lot of searching, and have a great DC realtor, so I'm not worried about buying a house at a distance. We've done it before, and it worked out.