Real estate headache

[rogue]

I'm just curious if anyone is in a similar situation to me, and what they're doing about it. I have a little house that I bought 2.5 years ago. There's no way I can afford to keep it when I go back to school, even if I ended up getting into a program in the city where I currently live. The mortgage is just too high to swing on a grad student stipend. I think I'm going to put it on the market right after the holidays and just hope I get in somewhere (i.e., that I don't end up selling it for no reason). I'm sort of afraid to wait until April to list it, since I need to sell it before classes start and the market sucks. I swear I'm getting an ulcer from worrying about what I'll do if I get into school and the house doesn't sell.

[jon cocktoe]

Can you rent it out while you're in school? That way, you don't have to worry about the paperwork involved with selling it, and if you want to move back after school you would still have that option. Or if the market picks up later, you can sell it then. Either way, there would be no pressure to put it on the market right away so that you don't end up selling it for no reason.

[acup313]

We are putting our house on the market as soon as I get an acceptance from somewhere. Hopefully these tax credits will encourage people to start buying houses in the next few months and that will help out the market.

[rogue]

Can you rent it out while you're in school? That way, you don't have to worry about the paperwork involved with selling it, and if you want to move back after school you would still have that option. Or if the market picks up later, you can sell it then. Either way, there would be no pressure to put it on the market right away so that you don't end up selling it for no reason.

Technically, I could. The problem is, I don't have giant piles of cash stuffed in mattresses (or in the bank for that matter), so whenever something goes wrong (like right now, when my shower is leaking through my kitchen ceiling), I am screwed. And I think dealing with property emergencies from out of town might be a lousy experience for both me and my tenants. However, that is certainly a backup plan of sorts if it doesn't sell.

My other backup plan is to pack my stuff and sneak out in the dead of night, then send an apology card to my mortgage lender in lieu of a check. I figure with 5-6 years of school and 1-2 years of post-doc, it'll be off my record by the time I'm back to the real world. Ha. Kind of.

[JustChill]

I'd definitely suggest renting it out. Maybe to friends or someone you trust and people who are not going to call you up every other night at 3 am because of some little problem here and there.

[captiv8ed]

We dodged a bullet on that! We bought a house five years ago.

My dh and I both started school after that and I got worried about bursting bubbles and being stuck with a house. We sold it after a year, and got out just before the market in that town collapsed. Now we rent.

[acup313]

Depending on the size of the city you live in, you can have a property management company (not sure exactly what they are called) handle all of the rent stuff for you. I live in Houston and a lot of people do this. They collect the rent and do the repairs and stuff for you, the downside of course is that they get a portion of the money. This is just an option you can use if you are set on renting it out, perhaps until the market turns around and you can sell it. Personally though, I don't plan to use this option as I plan on simply trying to sell mine.