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Owning and renting a house far away is a pain in the rear end. Under $2500 to rent a place worth $550k is a no brainer - sell the house. You would have to get at least double that amount of rent to even consider it in my opinion. Also, the ability to deduct depreciation against other forms of income phases out between 100k and 150k MAGI unless you are a "real estate professional", making it particularly useless for most people who would actually be able to use it. So... sell the house. You should be able to find a listing agent for 5% (3% goes to the buyer's agent, so there isn't much room to negotiate). You pretty much just have to suck it up and pay, because if you don't have that 3% or whatever for the buyer's agent no one will come to see your place. CLEAN and DECLUTTER. Have a real photographer take pictures after you DECLUTTER. Make some basic changes to stage your house (watch a bunch of episodes of "sell this house" to get ideas). To give you some examples of what I did before I sold my house: * Replaced a ceiling fan with a light because it made the room not feel so cramped * Painted one room completely because the house was too white * Staged rooms using cheap crap like a toddler bed so that each room has a purpose (apparently most buyers are too dumb to do this in their heads, which you will also learn from watching Sell This House) * CLEAN and DECLUTTER, removing things like personal photos * Ripped out a desk I mounted to a wall because it made the room seem funny. I had 3 offers on my house after the first day open house. Because it was clean and every room had a purpose - believe me, it wasn't because the house itself was so great. Your finances are fine and your writing seems fine, and it seems like if you want to move then go ahead. It is definitely psychologically weird to go from saving money to spending money - I am still experiencing that - so I would recommend that you set like 50k aside as a kind of "once it runs out I guess I'll get a real job again" fund. It is very easy to blow through money once you have a lot of free time and a new house to decorate and location to explore. If the 50k runs all the way to zero then you have to get a real job again. Maybe your writing takes off and it never runs out, maybe it ebbs down to nothing, but if you have a relatively small pool of money that you live off of while you figure it out, I think it would help to stay focused and not get too extravagant.
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May 21, 2014 03:29
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 17:04 |
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