My parents moved less than a year ago and retained their old house. They tried renting it out, but the first renting situation did not turn out great. They do not want to be landlords and they get some big tax benefits if they sell their old house within a year of purchasing the new one, namely transferring their old property tax to their new house.
They still have a sentimental attachment to the old house and offered to sell it to me and my boyfriend at below market rate in order to 1) keep it in the family, 2) give us an opportunity to buy house for less in an expensive market (California). They had planned to put it on the market for about $800k, but would be willing to sell to us for $600k or even $500 depending on what we could afford. The house (3 bed/2 bath) is located in a nice, quiet family that is also a 10min drive/15min bike ride from a bustling downtown/midtown area in a mid-to large-sized city.
My boyfriend and I live about 2 hours away in a large, HCOL area. He makes over $100k and has $100k in savings, I make $60k and have ~$40k in savings. However if we bought the house and moved, we may have to take lower paying jobs. My line of work may be particularly difficult to find a new job that pays enough because it is a lower-paying, over saturated field. His job is currently WFH, but that may change, plus he has been hating it recently. I have no debts, he has $30k(?) in student loans. We estimate that monthly costs on buying this house would be $2000-3000/mo, depending on how much down payment we put down. The idea would be to split 50-50.
Does this sound like a good idea? I think the monthly costs would be a stretch, particularly for me. But the idea of the money going towards a mortgage instead of rent makes it seem worth it to me. We could have to have a roomate(s) for awhile, though the idea is not super appealing. I know there are many other associate costs with owning a home, so I’m worried it could be too much of a financial strain. Plus there this whole other thing where my BF has been thinking of paying off his mom’s house (in a whole different city) and he is not sure he could do both.
It seems like a bit of a financial reach but it also seems like a rare opportunity to buy a house in an nice location for a good price. Any advice?
Edit: Hooo boy ok. I’ve got to head to bed. It seems like the overwhelming consensus is that this is not a great idea. Y’all have brought up many important points to consider. Perhaps we all got too excited and weren’t thoroughly considering some of the additional costs and financial risks. I’m glad to have some outside perspectives. There is still a lot to discuss and consider with my parents and my boyfriend, but for now I must sleep. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.
Edit 2: Just a quick edit because I can’t sleep now. It’s a little unclear to me why so many people are insisting we should get married first. A lot of responses hinge on the fact that if we split up, it would be a lot of tension and one of us would have to buy the other out (or sell the house and split it). But I’m not sure how getting married would solve that? Then if we had to get divorced, it would just be even more difficult to disentangle our finances, require more lawyers, and one of us would still have to buy the other out? No one goes into a marriage planning to get divorced, but it happens all the time, so I’m not sure why so many seem to think this would make it so much less likely that we would split up? Two people can be committed to each other without being married.
Submitted November 06, 2021 at 06:58PM by 3767368438832 https://ift.tt/3bQ0Ri2
