Foolish Or Not Foolish! :-)

[BudgetHowTo]

Cell Phone and Cable Internet

For the boston area, $2200 a month isn't the worst that you could pay. For a home big enough for a family, it is about reasonable. Have you considered purchasing a home?

If you owned your old home more than 5 years, you are eligible for a $6,500tax rebate from the federal government. This money is available until April 2010. If you are a a first-time home buyer, you will receive an $8,000 tax credit. Also, as a home owner paying a mortgage you are eligible for additional tax breaks. Perhaps purchasing a home could work out to be cheaper than renting, especially if you are the type of home owner to build equity.

Also, I noticed that you are paying $170 per month between your cell phone bill and your cable internet bill. Have you considered using a carrier that supplies both services as a package deal? I think that you could slim your budget down a little more there.

[syracusa]

Have you considered purchasing a home?

Yes. But not after one week visit to Boston.
We need some time to familiarize with the area.
Plus we would rather sell our Atlanta home first. Two mortgages is not exactly a light thing to shoulder.

We will probably try selling again in a year or so. If the loss is not too bad, we might go for it just to get rid of the darn house in Atlanta and feel free to get one in Ma.

[highsavings]

Overall - that changes things dramatically. You are talking about $4k/month housing expenses if you lose a tenant. You would never lose a tenant? Haven't we all heard that one before? Does anyone pay attention to the news?

Sounds pretty darn risky. Which is probably why you have reservations in the first place.

I'd change my vote to "foolish" if I could. Though I am notwless clear on your current situation - like where you are living now. Or if it makes more financial sense for your spouse to try out the job and not pick up and move everyone now, etc.

More information is always interesting. Usually why I answer "it depends" with so many of these things...

I agree with monkeymama

There is a rule of thumb in the landlord industry to calculate your expenses on renting your house at 50% of your rent. So half of that 1700 a month you are getting should be put away for unseen landlord expenses. You never know how tenants are when things 'break' and they want you to fix it. Using 50% is a rule of thumb and will vary depending on conditions...but it won't hurt you to assume expenses could average half of what your rental income is.

[maat55]

I voted reasonable depending on your anti-debt mentality and ability to save properly.

[syracusa]

I agree with monkeymama

There is a rule of thumb in the landlord industry to calculate your expenses on renting your house at 50% of your rent. So half of that 1700 a month you are getting should be put away for unseen landlord expenses. You never know how tenants are when things 'break' and they want you to fix it. Using 50% is a rule of thumb and will vary depending on conditions...but it won't hurt you to assume expenses could average half of what your rental income is.

Well, we are not "the landlord industry" (trying to make profits off of nasty apartment complexes to be rented out to trashy people...or just plain unlucky, insert whichever you prefer).
We are just a family that IS FORCED to relocate due to the main breadwinner being laid off. Many people are forced to make this kind of move right now - to rent out their home to move for a job, as the real estate market is dead. And I can guarantee you none of them are renting their homes to cover the mortgage plus 50% of it.

We have been responsible people our entire lives and are as cautious as we can possibly be. However, to assume that our tenant will do damage worth of 850$ a month, this is BEYOND ridiculous.
The man is a serious professional renting in a relatively high end spot by Atlanta standards. I doubt he will make a habit of destroying our home monthly - with 850$ worth of damage. Our property management company happens to live right there (parents of one of our neighbors) and they keep an eye on the tenant constantly.

Early this year, one of my colleagues was jonsin' to move into a foreclosed McMansion with decent schools, now that this is such a buyer's market. They already had a house (with mortgage) but they didn't think it was "nice enough". (Yes, all the Joneses had them nicer). Indeed, it wasn't anything to write home about, especially the neighborhood.
So they rented it out to a pretty low-income family and got a second mortgage for the foreclosed McMansion they were craving, in which they moved happily.
Last time I checked (which was 3 days ago), I did not hear of any damage done to their first property; and those are the kind of people from whom you might, theoretically, expect some trashing of the place.

Granted, Queen of England personified might find herself in some kind of trashing mode some days and could, THEORETICALLY, do some damage to your property if you rented out to her. (or should I say "Her Majesty"? :-)) ).

Being cautious is one thing. Spreading doom and gloom because it's fashionable, is another. It wasn't the part about renting out in Atlanta we are really concerned with.
It is our budget in the Boston area.

[syracusa]

I voted reasonable depending on your anti-debt mentality and ability to save properly.

Let's say I am coming from a country that has been singled out as the most anti-debt nation of Europe. This is the kind of country where many people still prefer to live with their in-laws from wedding to grave (the in-laws' or theirs, depending on who lasts longer), rather than take out mortgages to move into their own house. Growing up, the whole idea of debt was unheard of there, let alone doable. When it became possible and banks started to throw in their baits, most people said "no thank you".
I am proud of those.

I hear though the young generation is starting to line up and slowly start to buy into the "modern" way of life (to be read "debt-based", aka "the American way", that's how it's known over there).

But old cats like myself still function on the old mindset. Of, course, in America I had no choice. We've got mortgage. But I did force my American husband - former financial planner, ha! - to get rid of nicer-than necessary-car with loan, student loan and everything in between, until the only debt left was mortgage.

If it were up to me, I'd live with my mother-in-law just to get rid of the mortgage too, but I'm not sure she'd want me in there forever.
Plus the area would probably kill me sooner rather than later.