Current situation: 1200 sq ft, 3 bedroom house with detached garage. House is just over 100 years old, and as is natural comes with problems. We pay $1500/mo on the mortgage, plus another $2800 in property taxes. Utilities are on equalized payments that average about $300/month (Canadian Prairies, heating in the winter costs). 3 humans, 1 dog, 1 fish.
Our goal: We really want to design and build our own house in the next 3-5 years. Because we've been spending so much on emergency repairs and fixing this house we haven't been able to save for what we really want.
Our mortgage is up for refinancing in the new year, and while originally we were going to refinance, we are thinking of maybe renting for a while.
Reasons for renting:
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Could save us anywhere from $400-700 a month just in base payments. Which could be savings we put towards the house we really want.
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Emergency repairs are seriously costing us. Corroded bathtub pipe recently burst and is going to cost us $6000 in interior work over the next 6 months.
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Had to re-shingle this year as well which cost us $5000.
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Tonnes of work remaining including re-surfacing of floors, stripping baseboards of bad paint, fixing plaster, etc.
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Emergency repairs are regularly emptying our savings. Both husband and I are self-employed and it's hard for us to maintain a house and an emergency savings, plus save outside of that.
For some reason I do have reservations about renting. You don't have much control over your living space, and there are a number of rentals that would be considered to be illegal here. Pets are also an issue and most ideal rentals we've looked at have a strict no pet policy, especially dogs. Our dog can go live with my mom if necessary, but as my mom is kind of a flake it's not totally ideal either. I'd like to do a long term rental and be fairly certain we won't have to move in the next 2-4 years.
I do think a part of my hesitation is that I'm concerned about what others will think, which ultimately I know is ridiculous. Renting is sort of looked down on... but at the same time I know it could be amazingly beneficial for us as a household.
Edit: I should note that realistically we could make $20-40K on the sale of this house as well... Which would be the downpayment on the one we build.
Submitted July 17, 2017 at 05:15PM by just_another_archi http://ift.tt/2t9cs3N
