and the dog ate the cat that ate the mouse that lived in the house that Diane built.
I have made a huge mistake. I have forgotten how much lovely house I have here for a mere 530 a month, including taxes and insurance. I have agreed to rent said house for $560 a month, worried only about covering my mortgage.
I failed to think about what happens to ME. Where I will live. Unlike my assumptions, the housing market here SUCKS. Unless you're the owner, I suppose. I looked at a DUMP attached to a noisy FACTORY in a terrible neighborhood with onstreet parking for 440 a month today! The place was so unlevel I would have been sick even if I HAD been willing to haul my lovely furniture up those moldy disgusting stairs.
Right now I believe living a few more years til bankruptcy is better than the fall I would take leaving my home. My ignorance astonishes me.
Fortunately, my soon-to-be tenants are friends as well. I spoke to Jan this evening, explained all the above and of course she could not disagree with me, even admitting what I had offered was way below market. So she'll talk it over with her husband about raising the agreed-upon rent so I can afford a decent place myself. It doesn't help them one bit that when we were out the other night he bragged about her not needing to work (I just got her hired part time as the receptionist at the station, a job for which she is highly overqualified, but wanted something to "do" during the day) because he makes a hundred grand a year. I'm not afraid to admit this confession made today's request much easier to make on my part.
So....even if I'm still moving out, and I believe I will be, I will get enough justifiable rent from them for my house to pay the mortgage AND help me pay my rent. That's how it is supposed to be as a landlord, right? I'm SUPPOSED to have a margin of profit, right?
Man, I just cannot believe how much of a mess I could be in if these weren't reasonable people and there's no papers signed between us. I knew I'd be taking a step down, but I didn't think it meant into the gutter, my gosh!
I failed to think about what happens to ME. Where I will live. Unlike my assumptions, the housing market here SUCKS. Unless you're the owner, I suppose. I looked at a DUMP attached to a noisy FACTORY in a terrible neighborhood with onstreet parking for 440 a month today! The place was so unlevel I would have been sick even if I HAD been willing to haul my lovely furniture up those moldy disgusting stairs.
Right now I believe living a few more years til bankruptcy is better than the fall I would take leaving my home. My ignorance astonishes me.
Fortunately, my soon-to-be tenants are friends as well. I spoke to Jan this evening, explained all the above and of course she could not disagree with me, even admitting what I had offered was way below market. So she'll talk it over with her husband about raising the agreed-upon rent so I can afford a decent place myself. It doesn't help them one bit that when we were out the other night he bragged about her not needing to work (I just got her hired part time as the receptionist at the station, a job for which she is highly overqualified, but wanted something to "do" during the day) because he makes a hundred grand a year. I'm not afraid to admit this confession made today's request much easier to make on my part.
So....even if I'm still moving out, and I believe I will be, I will get enough justifiable rent from them for my house to pay the mortgage AND help me pay my rent. That's how it is supposed to be as a landlord, right? I'm SUPPOSED to have a margin of profit, right?
Man, I just cannot believe how much of a mess I could be in if these weren't reasonable people and there's no papers signed between us. I knew I'd be taking a step down, but I didn't think it meant into the gutter, my gosh!