I thought that our current home would be a long-term purchase, but I’ve been having second thoughts. I never wanted a primary home to be a significant portion of our net worth, so I bought a cheap house ($175,000 in June of 2013). I spent a whole lot of time (4-year slog) and $100,000 fixing it up which increased its value. At the same time, Boulder County prices went bonkers. The home is now worth $550,000. I didn’t see this coming.
We have $450,000 in equity and I don’t like this one bit. The $450,000 isn’t working for us. It just sits there tied up in wood studs, tile, light bulbs and toilets. While those toilets serve a crucial purpose, they aren’t earning money. I can’t rent the toilets out. I can’t send them to work. They do make me smarter (reading time), but that’s a topic for another post. Or not. I digress.
Mrs. 1500 note: OMG, really? You can’t make it through one post without toilet comments???
I don’t believe our home will continue to appreciate like it has for the past 4+ years, so the money would be better off elsewhere.
I also don’t subscribe to the myth that homes are a wonderful investment. I bought it because I knew I could put some sweat equity into it and increase the value. Deep down, we’re really long-term, live-in flippers.
Garages, Yards and Crapcycles
I like our house and neighborhood, but I don’t love either of them:
I’d like a bigger garage: It would be fun to have a workshop to carry on my mad scientist experiments. You really can’t have too much garage in life.
A bigger yard would be nice too: I have a tiny yard. I’d love to have a bigger one. Of course, every man wants a bigger yard. Some will tell you that it’s not about the size of the yard, but how you use it. I don’t care. I want a bigger one.
Mrs. 1500 note: Totally agree on this one. Our yard is about 9 square inches.
Mr. 1500 note: Sigh…
I’d like to live in an area with a lower density of rentals: We have a lot of rentals on our street which makes for a transient population of folks who don’t care as much. Most of the renters are nice enough, but the house across the street is a rental and the landlord isn’t picky. The current tenants are fine, but the last ones were not. When they moved out, they left behind piles of animal waste and junk they picked up on Craigslist including a fleet of crapcycles:
Side note: A couple rentals have sold recently. Every time the for-sale sign goes up in the yard, I’m hopeful that a homeowner buys it:
They’re asking $275,000 for a home that brings in $1,200 in income per month. Surely, these numbers don’t make sense to an investor! A homeowner will buy it.
But then another landlord buys it anyway. Why?!???
Options
Option #1: Cash-out refi: I’m completely against paying off the house. That would just add to the problem. Our mortgage is only 3.25%, so we’re borrowing cheap money.
However, I’ve considered doing the opposite; a cash-out refi. We already have a HELOC ($200,000), but that is a floating rate. A cash-out refi would lock us in. Rates are going up, so it’s now or never.
Mrs. 1500 note: I’m on board with this option. I don’t like having all that equity sitting in the house, doing nothing for me.
Option #2: Rent a room: We have 4 bedrooms and only 3 of them are regularly used. We could put the 4th one on Airbnb.
Mrs. 1500 note: Less enthused with this option, as we have small children.
Option #3: Buy elsewhere: We could move to a cheaper part of town or to a new area altogether. I could get the same home 15 miles away for half the price. I’m not a fan of the latter option because I don’t want to uproot the children.
Mrs. 1500 note: This is NOT happening. I have never, in my whole life, lived in one house for more than 5 years. I’m hitting the 6-year mark on this house. And the 7, 8, 10, 20…
Option #4: Rent: We could sell and then rent our next place. I’m slightly leery of this, especially in our own neighborhood. Our 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home costs us $1,250/month (mortgage, taxes and insurance). Half of a duplex on our street (850 square feet, 2 beds, 1 bath), costs $1,300/month to rent. Of course, we’d have that $400,000 in principle working for us, so maybe it’s dumb to worry about rising rents?
Mrs. 1500 note: This is the dumbest suggestion yet. I’m NOT renting.
Option #5: Move to a trailer park: Mrs. 1500 and I recently bought a trailer park. These are incredibly cheap to live in. I’ve already proposed the idea of moving to our park. Mrs. 1500 was not agreeable:
Mrs. 1500 note: Oh look, an idea even stupider than the last one. No.
Option #6: Call it a day and stay put: Why did I ask this question? What is the whole point of this exercise? More money of course.
Current Finances
At the time of this post:
- I have $1,528,000 in investments.
- I have $450,000 in home equity and $65,000 in other crap.
- I have income from this blog and from Mrs. 1500.
Mrs. 1500 note: You have income from me?
Mr. 1500 note: Yes. You are a wife and a profit center.
Per the 4% Rule, I could spend $60,000/year and be OK. Per my own rules, I think that I could spend 6% ($90,000/year) and still be OK. We only need $40,000 to live on. So, I have backup plans for my backup plans.
Maybe I should just take my own advice, declare that I have Enough and stay put.
Mrs. 1500 note: This one. Choose this one!
The desire to earn money is something that I struggle with. I don’t want anything else in life, but the game of making money is fun.
You?
Do you have a lot of equity in a home? If so, does it drive you crazy?
Or, do you rent? If so, how do you like that?
Do you have enough money, but still try to make more for no reason like me?
One more thing
I’ve been invited to speak at Chautauqua this October! I couldn’t be more thrilled for this opportunity. Read my post about it here and get your ticket here. This is going to be awesome.
Mrs. 1500 note: Plus, I’ll be there. If you’d like to talk about how real estate is an EXCELLENT investment, apparently I’m the only 1500 that thinks it’s a good idea.
Mr. 1500 note: Is your plane ticket refundable?
Join the 10s who have signed up already!
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*Only if your life is pretty bad to begin with.
You didn’t buy this house as an investment, right? You bought it and turned it into a beautiful place to live that is in a good area with fun people close by. I would either forget about the value of the house altogether, or do a cash out refi and put that money to good use (like in the market that’s down right now). Also, if Mrs. 1500 gets banished from going to Greece I’ll sacrifice myself and take her spot because I’m selfless like that 😀
“like in the market that’s down right now…’
The current market gyrations don’t excite me at all. Show me a downturn of at least 25% and then I’ll start getting an itchy trading finger!
“Also, if Mrs. 1500 gets banished from going to Greece I’ll sacrifice myself and take her spot because I’m selfless like that.”
Haha, you’re a giver! 🙂
If you’re really interested in making more money, stop worrying about the home equity and start a business. You can save up a few million dollars through salary and investments but for big bucks private ownership seems to be the way to go.
That’s totally the best version of that meme that i’ve seen yet…
Mr PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Ooops, We Live Blogged The Flash Crash. Kindof.
Err, I should say-continue working on your existing businesses!
Mr PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Ooops, We Live Blogged The Flash Crash. Kindof.
I’m with Gwen. But then again, our house isn’t NEARLY as palatial as your Belair estate, my friend. Course, we don’t have knuckleheads revving their moroncycles in our neighborhood either. So there’s that…
-Jerk Frost
The is something the wife and I are constantly thinking about. We love our house and neighbors but feel like something is missing. We’ve looked at houses in a more urban setting but didn’t like any of them. We are at a crossroads of updating our house or selling it as is and getting one that aligns more with what our life needs.
We have also thought about moving to the city we went to college in. The houses there are way nicer than ours for much much less $$ (great for FI seekers). The problem with that is careers and the lack of software companies there.
Budget On a Stick recently posted…Daycare to Degree: How to pay for college?
“We have also thought about moving to the city we went to college in.”
I love college towns! Mrs. 1500 and I lived in one for a while (Madison, WI) and loved the vibe.
If you are happy where you are, and don’t want to uproot the kids, jus stay put (aka option 6). You technically don’t need the money to work for you, as you already have more then enough to get around comfortably.
That being said, I would be tempted to take out the money from the house and reinvest into other real estate for some extra income (planning to do the same in a few years if we move to one or paid off rental properties). In our current house we have virtually zero equity. We rather pay 2% interest and make roughly 7% ROI with it, than sink it into our house and have a lower mortgage. It’s all about cash-flow.
Team CF recently posted…January 2018 Dividend Update
“That being said, I would be tempted to take out the money from the house and reinvest into other real estate for some extra income.”
Yeah, if a good deal came alone, I’d do it immediately. I’m just not sure where to put the money.
If you took out a loan, you would have to have income to cover that loan -either dividends or capital gains if current year income was insuffient to cover it …as a result the additional funds you invested would have a cost that should be considered (impact to income qualifications for health care subsidies, etc)
The buying a new house debate has been raging in our house for a while now. It is mostly surrounding the topic of…ahem (clears throat uncomfortablely), the size of our yard. We’d love more space outdoors for the kids, but really like other aspects of our current residence.
If I had any home improvement skill or patience, I’d love to flip a house, but alas I’m worthless with tool (uncomfortable pause as my wife gives me a disappointed look).
If I was in your position, the question I’d ask is “how will my life be better with that equity working for me?” If it isn’t any better or only insignificantly better, I think you have your answer.
I’m sorry you have a small one too. 🙁
“how will my life be better with that equity working for me?”
Great way to frame it!
I have over $350k i equity in my home but it doesn’t bother me. It’ll likely keep going up and I enjoy living in it. I think the question you need to ask yourself first, is where do you really want to live – independent of the finances as much as possible. Your’re FI already, so think about the enjoyment factor first and then look at making that solution work for you financially. More money is always nice but awesome surroundings without stupid crapcycle neighbors is pretty sweet too.
Accidental FIRE recently posted…What Cars Do People Keep?
“More money is always nice but awesome surroundings without stupid crapcycle neighbors is pretty sweet too.”
Yep.
That is quite the equity pool! I’m with the previous commenters, it sounds like you bought this house not as an investment, but as a home to raise your family in. I know for us, the stability of a home is a big factor in our lives right now and we enjoy planning our future RIGHT HERE 🙂 plus- seeing Mrs 1500’s comments makes me think staying is a wise option 😉
Mrs. 1500 is firm in her convictions… And with her fist…
Happy Wife = Happy Life
I vote for the refi and staying put.
We’ve been sticking to rentals, but mainly because everything costs so damn much here. Downside is that we’re going to have to leave a house we like in a year because the landlord wants to sell it. I’d definitely like to be able to buy and slow flip like you guys have, but it’s probably going to wait until we move somewhere with prices that are slightly less insane. I hear Colorado is nice?
Andy recently posted…Book Report: Set For Life by Scott Trench
Colorado is great! Come on out!
We own. Our equity is a smallish % of net worth. I agree with you that homes are not a great investment. You have done well with your appreciation and that’s great. My wife and I are considering selling and going back to apartment life in the future when the timing seems right. Tom
Tom @ Dividends Diversify recently posted…Reflection on a Market Correction & What Did I Buy?
Wow, you are kind of the minority in the financial world… All the Ramsey-ians out there would be horrified at your plan. I personally have a 3.25% mortgage (which gets a bit less nice this year due to tax changes, but living anywhere in my area would be as expensive as my mortgage). I just went over the 3/8th mark in equity, but taking it out, now? During the market weirdness and uncertainty? I think I will just leave it there. It is not the most productive money but it is somewhat comforting, in particular to my wife.
Disagree on the yard…. too much work, I actually ended up with less yard when I moved and am quite happy about it.
Ramsy has good intentions, but I disagree with some of what he says. In particular, I think leverage is OK if you’re very careful about it.
We have 785k in equity. Yikes! One big problem we love where we live and the neighbors are wonderful. Can’t buy your neighbors. So we have a pike of money not doing much. 0h and we could sell it and both FIRE tomorrow! My husband wants to sell all the time and then I ask “where are we going to go?” We both would miss this house but selling can be very tempting after a bad day at work. We do plan to rent it out when we retire and we could probably get 5-6k a month for it. We feel your pain! Good luck in Greece!
785K!!! Holy cow!
You’re right; good neighbors are priceless. While most of my direct neighbors are good people, I’m not really close to any of them. Some day, I’ll figure out how to relate to others.. Or maybe I won’t.
Mr. 1500 Days recently posted…Should We Move?
Moving is EXPENSIVE! So are closing costs and all that other garbage. I hear you that a paid-off house is pretty dumb as an ‘investment’… but you have a rad place to live and it’s worth twice what you paid for it, so you’re already like 100% ahead even if you can’t unlock it until you sell. It’s like the market is paying you to live there, and you just can’t cash the check yet!
Did that hand-wavy math work? I’m half trying to convince myself. We’re in a similar boat; we owe $147k on a house worth maybe $340k, and we’ll pay off the mortgage the same year we pull the FIRE trigger. It’ll be a tough call whether to sell (unlock that equity! get out of a 100+-year-old house! live somewhere with >1 bathroom!) or stick around (incredible neighborhood and neighbors! no mortgage or rent! walkable to EVERYTHING!).
But then, we don’t have kids. If I were you, I’d remain in that custom house wearing a big grin.
I LOVE walkability! We have extreme walkability here (downtown is a mile away), but it would be nice to be closer.
Moving: We do that ourselves and we have a real estate license, so costs aren’t too bad.
our house has been paid off for about 3-4 years now and being debt free has been nice. we were in between with a mortgage rate near 6% but refi down to the 3’s didn’t make much sense as we owed so little. to me it was like a guaranteed 6% return and a few years ago those were hard to find risk free. i just calculated our cost of ownership at around 8100 a year between tax/fees like water trash/maint. and insurance. we live in a still kinda cheap city. we did take a heloc but haven’t tapped it but wanted it available and it didn’t cost anything to open. while i don’t love shelling out about 700 a month to live there we have the flexibility to have the pets we love and i must say there is value in truly enjoying the place.
it’s a funny myth about rising property values, though. that really only means higher taxes unless you sell.
freddy smidlap recently posted…When Your Peers Die
Taxes aren’t so bad here. They did go up a bunch, but they’re still less than $200/month. We have good schools and a town with good services, so I don’t mind it one bit.
we gotta get the hell out of ny state. ours are more like 300/mo. on a lower value property. not to mention they’ll want like 6% income tax is a do any roth conversions here. theiving bastages.
freddy smidlap recently posted…When Your Peers Die
Bleh. Plus, winters. Go West young man!
I am constantly tossing this question around in my head, which results in headaches.
I love our house and property, but the neighborhood, not so much. I’m also sick of summers in the south. But I do have a big garage and a big yard, which I enjoy very much.
If we make a move it won’t be until my son is through high school – about 6 years from now. Home prices in Raleigh keep going up and up, which makes it hard not to think about cashing out equity at some point, but you still have to live somewhere. Not sure where that would be.
We’re close to downtown, but our area is not very walkable unless you enjoy walking across interstate highway. In 6 years that may be different based on some of the infrastructure planning we’re hearing about. But the summers will still be hot and humid.
Wish I had an answer.
Brian @ The Graying Saver recently posted…11 Lessons Learned From Buying Real Estate at 70% Off
Oooh, hot and humid summers would be rough. Agreed.
We may just wait until our kids are out of school too.
I like option #1. We don’t have huge home equity so it’s not a problem for us.
Personally, we’d probably just stay put and keep paying the mortgage. It’s working well so why change it.
If you really don’t like home equity, then refinancing and investing sounds like a good option. Just don’t invest before a crash….
450,000 K gives you endless possibilities to make money and keep your wife happy.
Perhaps use the $ to buy a home in your favorite vacation spot. Airbnb it and block off as much time for yourselves as you want!
I am living in a duplex I own and currently toying with renting for $600 myself —- Thus allowing me to rent out my current unit for $1,200 a month!
“Perhaps use the $ to buy a home in your favorite vacation spot.”
Funny, I had that exact same thought this morning. With $450,000, we could buy something pretty nice that also cranks out money for us. I like the way you think!
We actually just went through this last summer. We were living in Fort Collins and saw our home value go up over 100k in 4 years. We loved our house, but hated the tiny lot with the huge RVs, trucks and boats constantly being parked out front and any house with a yard we wanted was way out of our price range. So we decided to sell and collect the money and move back to MN where my husband and I grew up.
We now live in a rural city, but still close to the cities and any store we could need and have an acre yard with many acres of natural space that will never be built on directly across from us. We are still in a neighborhood with lots of kids for ours to play with. Our 8 and 10 year old were excited to move and constantly comment on how much nicer and less whiny the kids are here which surprised me because I thought all our Colorado friends were wonderful. So we are very happy with how they’ve well things have gone for them.
We do hate the winter cold here, but most days there is no wind so you can at least bundle up and still enjoy the outdoors. I didn’t realize how much I hated the wind until I left Colorado! It really does make us tremendously happier to have so much space between us and our neighbors.
Wow, I live near Fort Collins, so I know how great of a city it is. It was actually #1 on my list, but we didn’t pull the trigger because jobs for what I did were sparse.
The Midwest is a wonderful place. I have very fond memories of my time in Wisconsin. We have friends and family in Minnesota and it’s equally great.
I’m glad to hear that all of this worked out for you!
And yes, wind is miserable!
Money aside, if you decided to move would the school situation be better for your kids?
It’s hard to uproot kids once they’ve gotten used to a school and made friends. I know everyone says “It’s good for them” to move around and make new friends, but that totally depends on your kid’s personality.
We all want to make more money, but having a happy kid might be worth having a little less money.
Mr. Tako recently posted…Two Years Later: Is FIRE Worth It?
Yep, you need to move. Okay, you don’t need to, but none of the discussion seemed to satisfy some of your reasons for wanting to move, bigger garage and yard.
My thought would be to just keep your eyes open for a craptastist home in the same school district with a big yard and garage. Then buy that and rehab it like you did with your current place. The right house may be hard to find now, but there’s no pressure on you to move right now. Maybe such a house will never exist (I don’t know your locality very well).
So I’d say just keep an ear to the ground. If I was able to fix up houses like you (and didn’t mind it as well), I would consider moving again. Of course, it’s all moot point if Mrs. 1500 says she’s done moving, which is a reasonable stance to take.
Lazy Man and Money recently posted…Alternative Income Update: January 2017
“My thought would be to just keep your eyes open for a craptastist home in the same school district with a big yard and garage.”
Yeah! I even have my eye on a couple on the same street. It sure would make moving easy. There are a couple that are still occupied by the original owners (50+ years) and both would make fine homes.
Offer them a SWEET deal in the trailer park ;-).
Lazy Man and Money recently posted…Alternative Income Update: January 2017
If you house were only worth what you originally expected would you still want to move or be worried about it portion of net worth? Why worry if the market overvalues it; would you care if the market undervalued it?
You have won the game you don’t have to keep playing if you don’t want to. You spent time rehabbing the house. You mentioned how you had less time for your family. Do you want to do that again? Sounds like wife and kids would like to stay put. Isn’t that part of FI being able to have the luxury to not always chase the money.
“Isn’t that part of FI being able to have the luxury to not always chase the money.”
Yep. I’m violating one of my own rules here.
As many folks have mentioned, take some equity out to invest somewhere else (market, REITs, vacation home, your own brewery) or just stay and ignore it… it IS working for you – it’s providing a cool home that you can look around & say ‘I made that!’
Uprooting your family is a major factor and should get prime consideration since you already have ‘enough’… why would you sacrifice that when you have enough? Once the kids are out of the house, then you can reassess.
And weren’t you recently committing to slowing down, savoring, and taking time to enjoy life instead of running around like a crazy person? 🙂
Your compromise could be to pull out the equity and look for the bigger yard/garage/in the same school district and renno that house (whilst living in the current, which will be calmer) and ONLY then persuade the Mrs. to move into the new one…
“And weren’t you recently committing to slowing down, savoring, and taking time to enjoy life instead of running around like a crazy person?”
#guilty!
🙂
After we paid off our last house, we did a cash-out refi. I think that’s a pretty sweet option in your situation because rates are so low and you two are of the mindset that having your money in play is the best long term strategy, compared to having equity & less debt. (It is.)
The rub, for us, was that we could only borrow against 50% of the value of the house. Maybe your lender would give you more?
Done by Forty recently posted…Haters Gonna Say It’s Fake
50% for us wouldn’t be too bad. We owe $100K now, so if we got 50% out, we’d have $175,000 to play with. Time to call up the refi department of the mortgage company…
I’m a firm believer in that you home is a consumer good and not an investment. And as such it doesn’t matter what it’s worth or that it’s not working for you etc. It matters that you have a roof over your head and a place to sleep out of the weather.
Treat it like a grill or a lawnmower, if you want a new one justify spending the money. And look at it in isolation. Because a primary residence really shouldn’t be looked at as an investment.
My 0.02$.
On the flipside, if we get a group of folks together and buy a whole neighborhood count us in! Some weirdo FI hippy comune would be fun.
A little FI community (FI Town?) would be a lot of fun. Maybe too much fun. With the luxury of time and money, I’ll bet we could come up with some really good beer. What could possibly go wrong?
I was actually going to suggest this, too. Remember Mr. Money Mustache’s idea of creating a utopia-type town – between you, him and the FI community, buy up all those rentals on your block and create the future you want to see….
Yeah, this is a cool idea that already kinda happening in some places…
Yes, having home equity just sitting there does drive me crazy! But our home equity is a much bigger part of our net worth than yours is. We’ve been toying with the idea of building an accessory dwelling unit in the backyard to rent out (probably not an option if your yard is postage-stamp sized). Or maybe you can reconfigure your home to have an attached ADU with separate entrance? I hear your wife on how this is not all that appealing with kids, however.
I think about tapping the home equity a lot but the truth is, there’s no pressing need to do anything.
I love the idea of an accessory dwelling! If I could, I’d buy one of those kits where you have a garage and little apartment above for like $50,000.
If you really want, you could go with a cash out ref. But for heaven’s sake, don’t move. Knowing you guys, you would buy a fixer, and then you’d have to spend the next however long living in a construction zone yet again. Haven’t you done that enough?
Or you could just do what we do and stick our heads in the sand and forget about the fact that we have over $400K in real estate equity locked up right now, and that’s not even including the lot that we couldn’t reasonable get a HELOC or cash-out refinance on.
I sleep well at night, and it feels like if I had $400K more in loan obligations just to have $400K in the market I might sleep less well. So my head goes back in the sand even if it might be slightly inefficient.
Mrs PoP recently posted…Ooops, We Live Blogged The Flash Crash. Kindof.
“If you really want, you could go with a cash-out refi. But for heaven’s sake, don’t move. Knowing you guys, you would buy a fixer, and then you’d have to spend the next however long living in a construction zone yet again. Haven’t you done that enough?”
I know, right? But I don’t have a job now, so it wouldn’t be so bad. And I also have friends who will be retired soon who would love to come and help. Right? Am I right?
*crickets*
Ummm, OK. I’ll provide food. And the cat can come too.
*crickets*
Ummmm, mountains?
*crickets*
I’m still in Negative Equity land, from buying in superheated market in April 2006. Coming up on 12 years underwater, has to be some sort of World Record?! But my mortgage payments (including Taxes & Insurance) are under $675/mo. It’s 88° here today in February. Might as well keep throwing my extra cash at VTSAX and not fret about my upside-down mortgage.
And Mrs. 1500 is a very smart lady. I loved her “notes” on everything 🙂
Whoah, underwater for 12 years! You have a lot of fortitude!
And Honor
Yep.
I have a million dollars in equity in my house, but there’s no way I’m selling.
You can’t put a price on security and having a pleasant place to live in. You put the hard work into it… enjoy it!
Whoah, a million dollars! Either you have a 10,000 square foot mansion in Southern Illinois with a serving staff, an 800 square foot fixer-upper in San Jose, or something in between…
If it’s in Hawaii, do you take on host guests? I’ll vacuum the pool and wash the car! 🙂
Mr. 1500,
I like your blog a lot and I’m an avid reader. You’re also the first FI blogger that I found in my searches on the topic, and you like beer, so I’m a fan. I rarely post anything online. As in, I’ve posted one single comment to your blog in the last two years, kinda rare. Why the change? I think I have something to say that could be important….and that never really happens.
I didn’t read all the comments or your replies, so if this is a repeat – feel free to ignore. So here it goes:
I think you lack perspective. You see a ton of money sitting there and it’s not doing the hard work you think it can. However, I think it is. It’s raising your family in a safe place you call home. It’s contributing to your family everyday and paying dividends in security, happiness, familiarity, and community. Would you pay $450,000 to have that? I think you would. Don’t screw that up. Feel free to disagree, but you could wind up making a mistake by pissing off that wonderful wife you include in your blog posts (I mostly agree with her input, btw). Take it from me…child support in your case would be devastating to what you have built.
You seem to be a guy who crunches the numbers and I’m surprised that you only focused on the upstream numbers, and neglected the downstream (plan). If you do the refi option, have a solid plan and an expected ROI. Personally, I would only lean on home equity if it was really needed to boost the ROI on a project.
Lastly, go to google maps. Harrisburg, PA. The intersection of Market and 2nd. Street view. Get close to the southeast corner. Look past the guy with a cane.
You’re welcome 🙂
Haha, nice dinosaur! If you’re even in town, I’ll show you the one that I have in my backyard!
Yeah, we’ll probably stay in the same house. It would take a perfect situation to make us move. It’s always a fun exercise to consider all scenarios though just to make sure you’re not missing anything.
Love the after picture of your house! It looks great! The current Colorado market does make it easy to CONSIDER selling to access equity. But it also sounds difficult to find something reasonable without paying too much, plus it’s actually been nice to be done with our renovation projects…
Good thing you’re married to a real estate expert. She’ll keep you thinking straight on this one. ?
“She’ll keep you thinking straight on this one.”
Indeed!
LOL ?
THE CRAPCYCLES. We have a few renters on our street and I agree that they can really be the bad apples. We had a pair of dudebros with loud-ass trucks that went near 50 mph down our road. They loved to party and throw beer cans down the road.
Charming folks.
We don’t have a crazy amount of equity in our home. I don’t really count the home as an “asset” until it’s fully paid off. We did significant repairs and renovations to it, though, so I’m sure it would sell for much more than we bought it. I’m open to the idea of renting for passive income; that would be awesome!
Mrs. Picky Pincher recently posted…What A Frugal Weekend! February 11
Only move if it will make you happier, not if it will make you more money. Sounds like you’ve got some crummy neighbors…but is there a specific part of town you would prefer to live in?
It was always our goal to move every two years and buy another house to live in while renting out the previous home. BUT, we found a home and a specific location that we love. We couldn’t give up all of the great things that gives us for money – especially when we don’t need it. You can’t take it with you, buddy!
Wow you have done a lovely job of redeveloping your home! We have just bought a house with the view of redeveloping and then selling it and moving abroad. Issue at the moment is not having the cash to redevelop and being unsure as to whether to pay the mortgage down fast or invest the money instead.
LMF
https://littlemissfireblog.wordpress.com
If you do choose to move, please keep a guest bedroom. If that bedroom could have a bed with a wolfpack blanket, that would be a nice bonus.
It seems like you’re set up pretty well there, but there is nothing wron with keeping your eyes open for an even better situation nearby. A yard is nice to have. Or better yet, like your neighbor up the hill, having a large park for a backyard is nicer. More space, no additional taxes, and someone else does the mowing.
Cheers!
-PoF
I’d love to live where that neighbor lives with the huge backyard. We even thought about bidding on that same house before that neighbor bought it.
Unless some wonderful opportunity shows up, we’ll probably stay put and maybe get some cash out.
You could do what we did and rent your house out for a couple of years while you try out new things, travel, etc. You could do the cash out refi as long as you did not pull out too much. What would your house rent for? I like this option because it generates some income from the house and still keeps other options open – like selling.
Renting is a great idea! We may do just that!
I get stressed just thinking about housing. I am in my early 20s and currently live somewhere where I could realistically never afford a house.
Even though you may not love the idea of homeownership, it is awesome that you have seen such appreciation on your house.
Do you ever feel trapped in one location? Would you ever want more flexibility location-wise?
Elle @ New Graduate Finance recently posted…Well… that was a long break.
“Do you ever feel trapped in one location? Would you ever want more flexibility location-wise?”
If we had no children, the answer would be “yes.” Since the kids are in school, we can really go nuts with travel.
I have gotten antsy when everything seems to be going well: how can I maximize, save more, save better. But I’ve got things set the best I can. Find a different project to focus on, a different area to focus on.
My interest in moving is the desire to be closer to friends and family. I do like my home, the area I live in & my bosses at work. But it’s 4 hours each way (by car) to visit family, and my parents are getting older. I know some of the stir crazy feel of this is that my side hustle has me working for 1 hour in the middle of the day on Saturday, but there is preparing for it, and wrap up after, that is affecting my ability to visit. I need to start the discussion to make the change to not every weekend.
I’m with Mrs.1500 all the way!
Mine is paid off and I’m staying put. Only have about 120,000 in equity. Houston housing is cheap outside the city center.
Financial Velociraptor recently posted…Is The Correction Making You Nervous?
You’ve done a good job and earned $450.ooo by your own brains and hands.
I also have a house, But sometimes I wish that I did not have it, but enough money to rent a property in every place I want to live.
Owning a property like your own house is like an anchor if you want to travel and to live all around the world.
“Owning a property like your own house is like an anchor if you want to travel and to live all around the world.”
Yep. If we didn’t have kids, we probably wouldn’t have a house.
Up until two years ago, my family (wife and three kids) lived in a great home with a decent amount of equity, a large 1/2 acre yard, and a spacious two car garage. It was a fabulous home, but we moved – not to better utilize our equity but to be much closer to our work and schools. We now rent an older place with a smaller yard and garage. Since we’re now closer to Washington, DC, renting makes more sense financially, although my wife would still prefer to be a homeowner and have more yard for a garden. But as our children have gotten older, they’re in more structured activities so there isn’t as much time spent “playing in the yard.” Plus I’ve loved renting because I no longer feel the burden of home maintenance and thus have more time to spend with my family.
Franklin Fox recently posted…Teens, Texts, Ting, and $10,000
It’s always good to hear a perspective from someone who has done just what I’m thinking about. Thanks for the comment!
Thank for your writting. This view is very different from Vietnamese, in my country, people often try to buy a house and stay with it for life. And we take that as an obvious thing in our lives. Few people want to move their home if their old home is still in good repair
Living in my country is a lot different from what you have. Nevertheless, i am inspired on how you plan things out. I am still single and young but when the time comes that i have my own family (and i hope it doesn’t come soon), i will definitely factor in finances when looking for a home.