Going from owning back to renting?

[Anonymous]

People on this board are obsessed with justifying living inside the Beltway even if they live in a hell hole.

If you like this Board, then rent a cramped and smelly bedroom.

Can you negotiate working from home sometimes or avoiding the heavy traffic?

Renting in a close-in apt is not great for kids: neighbors, noise, smoking smell, etc.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you know where your heart is. Follow it. My current home is everything HGTV says it should be. I'd give it up in a second if I could live in a great area. And I fantasize about renting instead of owning.

Also, I guess I need more exciting fantasies!

[Anonymous]

Have you fully researched what you can rent in your desired closer-in neighborhood?

You should actually go look at possible rentals in your budget, because you might find there will be too many tradeoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People on this board are obsessed with justifying living inside the Beltway even if they live in a hell hole.

If you like this Board, then rent a cramped and smelly bedroom.

Can you negotiate working from home sometimes or avoiding the heavy traffic?

Renting in a close-in apt is not great for kids: neighbors, noise, smoking smell, etc.

Apparently, you do not know Fairlington, the area OP is talking about renting. It is a great neighborhood in South Arlington that has moderate (although not cheap) home prices, much more reasonable than North Arlington, nice rentals and you can walk to Shirlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People on this board are obsessed with justifying living inside the Beltway even if they live in a hell hole.

If you like this Board, then rent a cramped and smelly bedroom.

Can you negotiate working from home sometimes or avoiding the heavy traffic?

Renting in a close-in apt is not great for kids: neighbors, noise, smoking smell, etc.

Fairlington does not have these problems, and it has multiple pools, greenspace and tennis courts that are great for kids.

[Anonymous]

sell and rent. $10K isn't that much to lose when you're discussing improving the quality of your life.

follow your heart.

[Anonymous]

Do it OP! The market is hot right now. You may get more now with it being a seller's market than you think. Do not hesitate to improve your quality of life. And you can review what renting would really cost you. You don't have taxes, home maintenance, high utilities. Some of the costs even out. Life is too short to sit in a house just because someone thinks it's practical.

[Anonymous]

This is the OP again -- I just want to thank you all for your helpful feedback. We haven't decided what to do quite yet (will probably try out the new commute for a bit), but my heart is really telling me that I want our family to be back in Arlington. It is good to hear that Fairlington gets such positive reviews. We lived in Arlington for about 8 years, and always loved Fairlington, although we never lived there. And for what it's worth, we currently have a nearly 2 year old, and no plans on the horizon for a second (although that might come in a few years).

[Anonymous]

I have friends who sold their houses and are now renting and they're really happy, for the most part. Agree with other PP's that Fairlington would be a great place to rent; a lot of close-in garden complexes don't have a pool. I think Sheffield Courts over in North Arlington near Courthouse might be worth checking out too - you can walk to EVERYTHING, including orange line metro.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't risk taking your money out right now we have at least 3 years of rapid gains on prices and rents. I know for a fact investors are spreading fud to get suckers to sell so they can buy and rent them out

[Anonymous]

Fud means fear uncertainty and distrust

[Anonymous]

Could you rent your current home for more than your mortgage? Then rent your place out and move to a rental where you want to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could you rent your current home for more than your mortgage? Then rent your place out and move to a rental where you want to live.

No - if rented every month we would lose roughly $5k a year...we can rent it out for about $300-400 less than our mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the feedback. Part of me says "this is crazy, just calm down, tough it out", while the other part says "life is too short, happiness and quality of life are important".

14:47 -- we'd lose $10k or less.

14:49 -- we were actually thinking of Fairlington for the time being.

In that case, I would tell you not to move because you will need to move again in a few years for better schools and rents are sky high already in North Arlington. Move to something smaller now in North Arlington that is privately owned and work on finding a place to buy. The other option if you live in Fairlington is to plan on sending your child to Claremont (make sure that option will still exist in a few years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the feedback. Part of me says "this is crazy, just calm down, tough it out", while the other part says "life is too short, happiness and quality of life are important".

14:47 -- we'd lose $10k or less.

14:49 -- we were actually thinking of Fairlington for the time being.

In that case, I would tell you not to move because you will need to move again in a few years for better schools and rents are sky high already in North Arlington. Move to something smaller now in North Arlington that is privately owned and work on finding a place to buy. The other option if you live in Fairlington is to plan on sending your child to Claremont (make sure that option will still exist in a few years).

I appreciate your feedback. For what it's worth, we have one child right now who will be 2 in the fall. Maybe one more child in our future, but not for the next few years at least. I don't know if we will ever have the money to buy in North Arlington (unless we get one of those Westover 2br/1br brick houses!) and the rents for single family houses in North Arlington look pretty pricey -- at least $3200 for a nice looking single family rental. Seemed more worth it to me to move to Fairlington for a few years and rent something for $2200-2500 and save some money. Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong though.