Last week, I shared the news that we’re selling our house, and moving to St. Pete, along with some of the reasons why.
I added, “There’s another big reason we’re moving but I’ll wait until next week to tell you that.”
Here it is.
We are DONE being homeowners. Pool maintenance, yard maintenance, home maintenance and repairs. It’s a never-ending financial drain. This is the third home we’ve owned and, after interest, improvements, and repairs, we’ve lost money on every single one. LOTS of it.
So, we’re going to become renters. No more yard and pool maintenance and, when something breaks, we can just call someone to come fix it. We don’t have to whip out the checkbook and pay hundreds to thousands. Yes, I realize we won’t be able to write the “rent” off our taxes but those tax write-offs never came close to the amount of money we threw into the homes to try to increase their value. When we sell our home this year, we’re going to have a huge tax write-off for all the improvements we made, which didn’t increase the value much at all.
We briefly considered renting when we moved to Florida but I really wanted our “own” home that we could do whatever wanted to, when we wanted. I no longer care. I usually like surprises but a leaky sink, a broken washing machine or a dead pool pump are not the things I like to wake up to in the morning. We’ve replaced every major item in the house, from the roof to the appliances, to all the windows and doors. We even had one entire wall demolished and rebuilt. All the electrical was replaced. The attic was insulated, the entire house painted inside and out, as well as stucco’d on the outside. I could go on and on and on. And, the house is still worth just a fraction more than what we paid for it. Very depressing.
Our daughter and son-in-law just bought their first home. I hope they have more luck than we did. Our oldest son and his fiance are home shopping, despite our tale of woe. Owning a home in America is the American dream…but I honestly have no idea why.
THIS WEEK’S MASONISM
Mason is turning 10 next month, and is starting to show an interest in girls. Last week, I almost fell out of my chair when he said, “Is there such a thing as a clothing optional waterpark?”
RELATED:
We’re Moving to St. Pete! – Part I
It’s Visitor Season In Florida!
Our First Trip To Naples, Florida
We’re in FLORIDA! (No, Not THAT Florida)
Finally Received an Offer on Our House in Maine!
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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Peter Garland, yes, please send me the link. 🙂
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Just call yourself an overage Millenial! That’s the trend of the young, Angela, rent not buy.
I made a decision to rent not buy years ago at age 64 when I moved to New Hampshire. Rented the upstairs of an old house in the center of Meredith, and I found that I had the soul of a renter! I loved the carefreeness. Also, you don’t have that impetus that your home reflects YOU, to keep improving it. You rent, and so you can’t really change things all that much and so your home is no longer part of yoru identify.
When I moved to Florida, however, my daughter assured me that I HAD to buy a place — real estate so crazy here and other old ladies she knew seemed to have to move every 3 years as owners sold and traded away their apartment. And so I did, but in a condominium. which has been a mixed bag — I fixed up the interior to suit me — outside was really ugly and ill-maintained and due to a dysfunctional Board.
Then magically a family moved in who started buying condos — they love being on vacation together — one of them is I swear a genius at remodeling stuff and has real working experience supervising renovations. He got on the Board and next thing you know our dreary looking (outside) condo turned into this pale yellow with white trim and terra cotta sidewalks and accent color, pretty landscaping, that looks like the Florida vacation place it is. With all the umbrellas up at the pool I just love looking at my exterior view these days.
Also got a reverse mortgage which is a great thing IF YOU GET IT WHEN HOUSING IS HIGH as I did, buy it late in life, and you keep living on, as I have. True, I have no house to “leave” to children, but they all knew that when I did it and they all have more money than I do anyway!.
Happy in an owned condo in Cape Canaveral
Maggy
Whatever! I look forward to your experience renting.
Up here in Canada anyway we can declare part of our rental unit as office if we are in business for ourself. I could do it even though I worked for a company in my apartment. Check it out.
Good for you Angela! After owning three homes during my marriage, when I got divorced I became a renter. No regrets after nearly 40 years.
Instead of repairs and being tied down, I went around the world and took advantage of my travel benefits back in the 1980’s, lived for 10 months in a mobile home overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach before they tore the park down, rented a home on a private lake for nine years, spent three years house sitting in some really nice homes, took a road trip for six months and camped along the way, and now for the past seven years I’ve rented a writer’s loft nestled in the trees at Laguna Woods, CA.
As you can see, taking care of a house was never on my top ten list. Enjoy your freer lifestyle!
Angela, I’m so happy for you to not have this bondage and financial drain all the time! Best wishes to you as you move,
Jen
Hi, Angela, let me interrupt my reading of your moving documentary to suggest that you are wrong about not being able to write the rent off your taxes. Doing exactly that has been a major source of income for me over the years – like thousands of dollars yearly! In fact, I’ve written an article about how to do so – “How to Get Uncle Sam Pay You for Being a Writer – 1000 words – and I’ll submit it to you if you like!
Now back to your article for me. Nice day here in Oakland, California.
Peter Garland
Best wishes for your upcoming move. It sounds like you are more than ready to turn the page and begin a new chapter! Cheers!
Now you won’t have to use the Skyway as much either … lol. I always felt trepidation crossing that bridge. I used to go to hear the Florida Orchestra a lot. I remember one night the wind was near the max allowed for it to be open and I thought the bridge was going to collapse.
Lol, lol –a healthy interest for his [Mason’s] age too!
Angela, I can’t tell you how smart I think your decision to rent is. We sold our weekend house after 4 years. It was a financial drain and far too isolated. After that, we rented a beach house with a pool every summer; rented a car for the summer; had a summer membership at a tennis club. The pool and grounds were taken care of by the owner; we may have paid for that. But, oh, the pleasure of calling a broker when a single tile came off the wall! And it was fully furnished. That was such a carefree life.
I know people feel that should own a house. But I don’t know why either. It’s kind of a myth, I guess. In most cases that I see, the buyers are stretching beyond their means. And that’s without all the things that just “happen” and must be fixed.
Good luck.
Best, Marion Cuba.