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I had this great plan to move in with SO, fix up and sell my house, and start banking savings. Well you know the universe just loves to mess with our puny little human plans!

I have taken out a couple of new credit cards to pay for some cosmetic fixes to the house. I have paid to mudjack the driveway. I am out of cash/savings/credit to do fixes.

I had a very good friend who owns his own Home Inspection business give me a free walk-through verbal inspection (saved me $300). I just didn't want any surprises if I got to the point of doing an inspection.

He found that the roof needs replacing, major plumbing issues under the bathroom in the crawl space, and various other small fixes to electrical issues.

I called my insurance company and they sent out an adjuster. Good news is they totaled my roof due to hail damage - bad news is that due to unrecoverable depreciation and $1,000 deductible, they cut me a check that won't quite handle the job.

I also had another friend who is a listing agent check comps in the area. Other houses with the exact footprint are selling for $10,000 less than I paid for mine.

So now I am struggling with a decision. Should I power through with trying to scrap together the money to put the house on the market in the spring, leaving it empty through the winter. And take a chance that it will sell for what I need to get out of it in the spring?

Or should I try to rent it out to someone I know will take good care of it and relieve myself of the immediate expenses and try to work on the fixes as I can. But with this option I will lose the ability to sell it and "get out from under" the burden of owning a home?

SO said it doesn't make sense for him to put me on his mortgage because if something happened, I would be on the hook for 2 homes. But as it stands now, I would not be able to stay in his/our home and have to displace my renter to move back in if something happened to him.

I just can't seem to feel good about making this decision. I feel like I'm floundering. HELP!

NL

NL,

I would not rent it out. I have had a house back in CO that we rented out and it was a freaking nightmare! Also my parents rented out a house in Germany...same nightmare!

People don't take care of other people's stuff like they would of their own. I would try my best to power through the winter and try to sell the hell out of it by spring.

Good luck, let us know what you decide.

I have a friend who got remarried, and her new husband is from the UK. They ended up living there for quite a while so she rents out her house here. But she uses a management company to handle everything. It seems to be working out very nicely for her. You wouldn't get all the rental money that way, but it may be an option that will bring in some income from the house for you, plus let someone else handle the renters.

Bump

I would rent it out. Yes, tenants don't look after it the way you would but here is Australia any maintenance (not improvements) are tax deductible. It may be best to rent for a year, fix things as you can and claim on tax as a loss and then try to sell.

If you offer the tenants an incentive ( a days free rent for every sales open inspection carried out with care and consideration) you may end up with a good deal.

I have been exactly where you are.

I would not recommend selling your house to move in with SO at all.

Why would you want to give up your ability to be independent in order to put your security at the mercy of someone who has no legal responsibility to you? If your SO owns the house you would be moving into, then he has the right to kick you out on the street at any time. Now of course right now you think that would never happen- but it could. Then you would have no place to go. Or what if you decided after a year or two that it wasn't working out with your SO? You could potentially be stuck there because the costs of moving out might be more than you can afford.

DO NOT put yourself in the position of being dependent on anyone else for something as basic as housing. Ever.

You cannot- as far as I know- just get put onto someone else's mortgage. SO would have to refi and they would have to write the mortgage in both names. But you don't want to ever own a house with someone you're not married to. Way too much risk there, should the relationship go sour.

Renting your house out? No matter how "nice" the renters are, they will not treat your home as anything other than a rental. I could tell you horror stories about what I found at my house after the renters left, and what it cost me to clean it up and attempt to repair it all (it was thousands of $$). One of the bedrooms STILL stinks like their gross smelly teenage son, 3 1/2 years later. I have tried everything to get the stink out of that room. They had a pitbull in my house, on a lease that prohibited dogs. I ended up having to sue her for costs over and above the security deposit, but I'll never see a dime.

But in the end, I am so glad I did not sell my house when I moved in with then-SO. When the whole thing went south, I was able to move back into MY home relatively easily. I had options, and a place to go that was MINE and no one could take away from me. Did I mind having to kick the tenants out? No way- that's what renting is- temporary.

Your SO may love you, but when it comes to his financial investment in his home and his financial responsibilities- he would be an idiot to put that in jeopardy. He will make decisions based on what's best for HIM, and he's right to do that. But it won't be what's best for you.

Keep your house, make the fixes as you can, and then sell- but only if it's what's best for YOU. If you can't sell without sinking a shit ton of money that you don't have into the place- then you're not in a position to sell.

You will never regret protecting yourself financially and ensuring that you can put a roof over your head without anyone else's help.

I regret moving in with that SO and renting out my house every day. Don't be me.