now is a good time to sell, couple sells their house and chooses to rent instead

[the-royal-mail]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle2418383/

"In fact, their monthly rental costs are only a little less than their mortgage payments, which were set at a high level to speed up the repayment process. But they estimate they’ll save thousands by not paying property taxes and home maintenance costs."

So if you have a valuable house, with current property prices being high this sounds like a great time to sell.

[Homerhomer]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle2418383/

"In fact, their monthly rental costs are only a little less than their mortgage payments, which were set at a high level to speed up the repayment process. But they estimate they’ll save thousands by not paying property taxes and home maintenance costs."

So if you have a valuable house, with current property prices being high this sounds like a great time to sell.

One of many globe and mail tid bids not worth the paper it is printed on.

A family sells a house becuase it's expensive, so what?

[blin10]

problem with that you need to invest all the money you made from a sale into some type of investment that will generate income to pay some part/all of rent, otherwise it doesn't make sense

[Eder]

I sold my house recently. It represented too much of my net worth. I will use the proceeds to buy my sailboat.

[Dibs]

Now is a good time to sell, says the papers. Could this be the start of the end of the current real estate bubble?

[ddkay]

Sounds dumb, instead of trying to top tick the market this couple could rent out their basement. It would probably pay most of their mortgage. They'll still own the house instead of throwing $30K/year out the window on rent, and they'll only have to pay property taxes and maintenance which is at least 1/3 the cost of rent. Not to mention the landlord economy goes absolutely nuts after a housing crash, at least in the US:



But nobody knows what their monthly payments are, this piece is written all ambiguously like usual...

Doesn't mention RE transaction fees, moving costs.. there's a lot of overhead in moving. People should stay put unless their area is turning into crack dealer headquarters.

[Koala]

They could rent out their basement if it's legal. I know of many areas where it was very difficult to legally set up a secondary suite.

[ddkay]

That's a good point, it should meet local code, and could still be a reasonable alternative compared to selling outright. I just don't see why people would voluntarily burn up what remains of their home equity on rent waiting eternally for "the correction". How much profit are they locking in exactly? The story doesn't mention the couple's costs, age profile or anything. So it's hard to make a relevant comment.

[Spudd]

We are considering doing this. We paid 420k for our house in 2006 and we think it would sell now for maybe 750k. We owe 220k on the mortgage so we would have 500k in the bank if we sold it. Between the interest we currently pay on the mortgage (500/mo) and property tax (300/mo) and interest we would get on the 500k (833/mo) we can basically rent for free. If the market then crashes we can buy back in for a significant savings. However, it's a big idea and we haven't fully decided yet. We're in the midst of sprucing up the place and once that's done we'll decide.

[hystat]

they’ll save thousands by not paying property taxes and home maintenance costs."

If they save $8,000 per year, the first 8 years of "savings" will pay the closing costs on selling their home.