My parents are WAY too generous

[raeoflyte]

DH and I were those short sighted people who bought our home right before the bust, not concerned about location because long term plan was always for the home to be a rental. We assumed that we would move again in 5 years to a nicer area, yada-yada.

Obviously that hasn't worked out the way we envisioned, and once we added a baby, the failings of the location became much more apparent. We're one block in from a major street, and 3 houses in from a good sized intersection. The view from our front door, is a large parking lot, with a dumpster that is frequently tagged. The parking lot was for a bar that before it went out of business, was featured on cops 4 times.... It isn't a violent area, but lots of rentals and people mean more stupid crimes.

We hope to move when DS is pretty young, to an area where he can ride his bike without us worrying so much. Plus, as happy as I am to see kids playing outside (instead of inside watching tv), I really don't want my son to grow up playing in the parking lot across the street like all the neighborhood kids do.

My parents a couple nights ago said that they are looking at getting another rental property, with us as the proposed tenants, that would put us within a mile of them in the neighborhood I LOVE and grew up in.

So, so, tempting... For a thousand and one reasons. They really do have our best interests at heart, and we own a triplex with them, so we're already tied up together financially. And yet, at this point we're going to pass. DS isn't old enough to play outside by himself yet anyway, so we have a few years before the front yard/view is an issue. As dh said, our house has it's issues, but it is our house and we can live and do (or not do) whatever we please in and with it. Right now if the dogs rip up a strip of flooring it's only our problem, not anyone else's. My parents are super laid back, but family and money aren't usually the best pairing.

If in a couple year's we have a nice chunk of money saved, but it would still work out better for us (and my parents--add another rental and have responsible tenants) to take them up on their offer (we could finance 100% and include remodeling costs), we'll think about it. Heck, I'm thinking about it now, but firmly rooted that it really doesn't make financial sense for us. As much as I want the pretty house, in the pretty neighborhood... *sigh*

[Deleted]

That is the kind of offer parents make to get their grand kid out of a bad area. I think the fact that they managed to make the offer without making you defensive about your current situation is amazing. If you really can't afford to move on your own yet you should seriously consider accepting the offer. The way you describe your current location it is absolutely awful.

[raeoflyte]

Jun 5, 2011 16:31:11 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

That is the kind of offer parents make to get their grand kid out of a bad area. I think the fact that they managed to make the offer without making you defensive about your current situation is amazing. If you really can't afford to move on your own yet you should seriously consider accepting the offer. The way you describe your current location it is absolutely awful.

That is possible and I'll take that into consideration. I think more of it is to get us closer to them because they know that I am hoping to move to that area in the not so distant future. They adore ds, and though they wouldn't want to be a full time day care for him, they like to see him multiple times a week, and if we were just down the street and could walk together in the evenings it would be even better.

The location of our house right off of the intersection and behind the parking lot is bad, but even one block in and we wouldn't have complaints about the neighborhood. When we bought this house, we knew we were asking for a lot for the little money we had, so we did a ton of research including crime rates in the areas we could afford. There is very little crime against people in this area, just lots of people, which means for more stupid people doing stupid things like tagging (crime against property). Ideal when it was just us and the dogs. We didn't think we'd have kids ever at that time of our lives, and didn't think we'd need to stay here even if we changed our mind.

[kent]

So, what will you do with the existing house?

Given you're already in a joint venture with them (triplex) there's no percentage is saying you shouldn't agree to rent from them (family)

What you might consider is entering into a "legal, notarized, written" agreement that you will rent the new place for X amount of time. At the culmination of that period, you have the uncontested right to purchase it for a certain amount. Kind of like an equity share deal.

ETA Advice from one Scorpio to another. ;D

[raeoflyte]

Jun 5, 2011 17:34:53 GMT -5 kent said:

So, what will you do with the existing house?

Given you're already in a joint venture with them (triplex) there's no percentage is saying you shouldn't agree to rent from them (family)

What you might consider is entering into a "legal, notarized, written" agreement that you will rent the new place for X amount of time. At the culmination of that period, you have the uncontested right to purchase it for a certain amount. Kind of like an equity share deal.

ETA Advice from one Scorpio to another. ;D

We'll rent out our current home. I'm building an empire (very, very slowly!)

We don't have a big enough reserve (without tapping into our retirement accounts) for me to really want to add a rental at this time. Our monthly payment would go up, so we'd be saving less: bare bones, no upgrades, and probably a decent amount of deferred maintenance in my parents neighborhood would still raise our 'rent' another $150 from what we're paying now. Plus, moving isn't cheap. Somehow everyone got old and has bad backs, knees, etc. and aren't much moving help.

If we take them up on the offer in the future, I want to make sure that they benefit from it. I'd like to do a rent to own, but would want to make sure that they were making money on the deal. Most of my parents rentals they acquired so that they could help out family at one time or another. It's worked out well for them, but they already help us so much that I think I'd feel like a total mooch.

[motherto2]

That sounds like a win-win situation to me. You'd be closer to family and a good safe neighborhood. And it would make their lives so much easier knowing that you and yours are safer. Parents worry about their kids, no matter how old they are. And I'm sure they worry about you. And since you would be paying them a good amount, you aren't mooching.

[raeoflyte]

Where are the people to flame me even considering such an un-responsible move? 20% down, moving costs, 6 month emergency fund....

I will keep an eye on properties in their area--I already did just for fun, so now I'll have a bigger incentive to do it. If we see something that really makes sense for all of us we may take that leap. But hopefully we'll have a lot more money socked away when that happens.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I think your parents sound reasonable, caring, and generous....