My great-aunt, one of the sweetest women ever, passed away from lung cancer in the morning. My mom and my aunts who looked after her were making arrangements. One of the possible arrangements was giving me her house, since I was the one who was closest to her and my great-aunt would have wanted it. I currently live at my mom's house. While I love my mom, she's junky and close to a shopaholic. Our house is junky as hell and stays that way no matter what I do.
This could be a stepping stone toward getting a house of my own without having an apartment's rent eat at a down-payment fund. It's also a chance to live in a spot that will stay clean. While I'm paranoid (thinking I can't just get a house for next to free), I'm taking them at their word that the house is debt-free and all I'd have to pay is insurance, taxes, and utilities. It's a small, one-bedroom house, but it could work. However, there are reasons I'm on the fence about taking it:
-The house has a number of near-busted big-ticket appliances (stove, washer/dryer) I'd want to replace. It also has structural damage (I know of a hole in the wall a rat apparently came through; there may be a lot more things) I'd have to repair. I'd give a rough estimate that I'm looking at at least 5K of stuff to do right out the gate.
-The house was broken into years ago. There's an alarm system there, but my great-aunt didn't have hers on at the time. It's on and working now, but we still don't know who broke in. They may still be around, though my great-aunt didn't have any break-ins after that. I'm still feeling bad juju about moving in there, because the items I move in would have WAY more value than what was taken last time (stuff like change and some jewelry).
-Assuming I don't want the house later, I have NO knowledge of how to sell it or how to rent it out. I don't like the idea of that extra hustle.
There's probably issues I'm missing here, but those are the main ones. Of course, there might be stuff I just didn't think about because I don't know. Please offer advice if you can. In terms of finances, I recently got a new job where my income is 60K a year (40 post-tax). Assuming I stay on with my job, I'll be getting a little over 3,000 a month once the 90-day probationary period is up and insurance/retirement starts being taken out of my check. I'm thinking I should be able to pay the bills. All in all, with the stuff I just mentioned, would it be wise to at least have the house transferred over to me (even if I don't move in right away)?
Submitted November 11, 2017 at 09:24AM by OvertOperation http://ift.tt/2ytYvjL
