The rental is in the same city... we started looking at different neighborhoods when we got back from Hawaii last May (my family lives there and it was our first trip back in 6 years) and our neighborhood was tagged by gangs. You notice it every summer. We found this house... we knew it would really stretch our budget, but we wanted a safe neighborhood and good schools for them... I know, I can see some people still shaking their head. But I LOVE this house.... I love the neighbors, I can see us staying here for as long as we are here (2011 or to 2017)... they call this place the black hole of the Navy... we were in San Diego and they sent us RIGHT BACK HERE. So we could stay here till 2010 or 2017.... who knows. I thought 2011 at least but DH said if he makes Chief, staying at his command would not be good for his career (although I don't know what that would do to our finances... its at least good the military pays us to move and gives us a dislocation allowance, but that would make having to decide what to do with THIS house bad too). Needless to say, the next house we buy won't be till he retires. And I want us to go back home to Hawaii.
I'm still not sure what to do about the rental. The tenants just signed another year lease and they are good tenants. It takes about 4 months for a place to sell here now and if it did sell I'd take an additional loss.
Since we aren't in the red at the end of the month income/expense wise... not rental wise, would it make any sense to try to pay the house off early after we tackle our CC, HELOC, and 2 car loans? It could turn a profit if I can get that mortgage down. That is really the main problem... we bought two houses when we really shouldn't have. Grant it, if the market turns around then we'll consider selling sooner but right now is such a bad time.
I'd consider taking the property manager off... she charges 10% rent a month to manage it, but we started with her cause I didn't know the legalities of turning it into a rental, how to check someone's credit, etc. And she knows repairmen that I don't. Set up the direct deposit into our account and has a standard procedure in case they miss one month's rent.
I don't know... this is going to sound bad... but the tenants have four kids of their own too and are military. I'm thinking what we'll probably do is since they are good tenants and giving us time to ride out the storm is... sell it after they move out. I guess when I think about it is... which I know I probably shouldn't be concerned with them... but I don't really want to be responsible for displacing another family especially in these times.
I don't know... the whole situation is overwhelming if I think about the whole thing so I'm trying to tackle it in little steps.
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