Is this a crazy idea? A twist on the rent vs. buy question
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Anonymous
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We own a small townhouse in a great, close-in neighborhood that's seen a huge jump in value in the past decade or so, and we think the area is only going to continue to appreciate. We love it here, but we'd like more space and also we're not that happy with our public school options (can't afford private). We could sell tomorrow and, for the same amount of money, buy a house that's twice as big and in a much better school district, somewhere like West Springfield or Burke.
However, I think that the area we're in is likely to gain more value in the coming years than West Springfield or Burke will. Also, in 15 years or so when our kids are out of the house, this place will be the perfect size for us again. So here's the idea: instead of buying a "forever house" further in the suburbs, we hold onto the place we own and rent it out for 15 years, and in the meantime rent a house in Burke or West Springfield during that time (the rents we'd pay and the rent we could get for our house are also comparable). Then in 15 years, we move back here. I wish we could buy further out while also holding onto this place and renting it out, but unfortunately we'd need to sell it to have a 20 percent down payment -- with daycare expenses we can't save up that much again. Is this a crazy idea? It doesn't seem like anyone really does this, but I think it could make sense in our case. |
Anonymous
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I don't think that is a bad idea, EXCEPT the rental market in West Springfield and Burke is very very tight due to the numbers of military families.
Most decent rentals have double digit qualified applicants and rent within hours of listing. Many single family homes in that area rent sight unseen. If you want to do this you need to be prepared to move quickly on the handful of off season rentals. Those are the only ones that stay on the market for longer than a day. |
Anonymous
Interesting, I didn't realize that. I don't know anything about the suburban rental market (I rented in DC before we bought our place). Is winter the off-season, like it is for buying houses? |
Anonymous
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Another issue to keep in mind with renting is you could end up moving every year (if the landlord wants the house back. or sells, or raises the rent ) and it would be hard to find other rentals in the same school district etc.
We looked for a house rental in the Centreville-Chantilly area about two years ago and all the good ones were rented out in a day or two. It was crazy. And that area is not considered as high demand as West Springfield/Burke with military families. |
Anonymous
OP here. Yes, this is my biggest worry about the idea. I think that our fallback would be that if we found that happening frequently, we would just sell our place and buy out there. But we'd give the rental idea a try first. |
Anonymous
| If you rent , other families may not want to be close friends in fear of you moving |
Anonymous
| You'd lose out on the mortgage interest deduction. |
Anonymous
Wrong. It's deducted from the rental income. We did this. We rented our RH on the Hill and have been moving around enjoying life in various other parts of the US and the World, renting along the way. You won't be able to rent the same house for 15 years, so the big downfall is that you may have to move periodically on as little as 2 months' notice. |
Anonymous
Um, what? 
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Anonymous
| If you can deal with potentially having to move several times over the course of 15 years, I'd say do it. |
Anonymous
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You also need to have a plan for the worse case scenario: renters from hell that do the worst possible damage to your house.
(There is another poster on one of these forums: the brother or cousin apparently caused MASSIVE damage to the place he was renting $70K worth of damage and has NO $ so the homeowners are screwed.) Personally, I think it would be a pain to move back and forth. And you cannot guarantee that your home will appreciate significantly. My ILs had a house worth about half a mil. We encouraged them to sell and move to our state. They dragged their feet and sold their house at the wrong time (value dropped significantly- they barely made enough to pay off their 2 mortgages.) And the second mistake they made was to purchase in our area at the height of the real estate boom. They spent way too much and they are very much underwater on their house. |
Anonymous
| I don't think it's a bad idea at all. We're leaving the DC area, and I contemplated renting our current place here and then renting in our new city, since I think DC is the better investment. I chickened out and we sold, mostly because I thought I'd worry constantly about renters not taking care of our house. But I still think it might have been the better long term move. |
Anonymous
| Would you be relying on the rental income from your DC property to pay the rent on my house? If so, I probably would not rent to you. |
Anonymous
I am not a landlord so I'm not familiar w/rental laws - this is just my opinion. |
Anonymous
Not exactly. So, you pay income tax on the rent you bring in. You also can usually deduct costs associated with the rental, if you are actively managing it. There is an income limit that comes into play, but i cant recall how. You also have to depreciate the rental each year. |