Should we try and keep our house?

[KTP]

Don't panic, we are not in any trouble

We plan to sell our house in 6 years or so and live in a rental or apartment for a little bit before we do our sail around the world thing/early retirement. Things are really starting to fall apart around the house though and the upkeep is time consuming. For example, we just discovered all of the plastic fittings in our hot tub have failed (possibly due to using bromine, but not sure) and it is either going to be very expensive to rejet or we will have to junk the 6K 6 year old hot tub Other things, the house needs repainting, the yard needs major rework every year (live on a river that floods, but house is safe), still a lot to do with remodelling, eventually a new roof, etc. etc.

Since starting back school to finish my engineering degree I am rapidly losing interest in house maintenence, especially since my spouse wants to do hiking, biking, sailing on the weekends.

I think we would take a bath on the house if we sold it in this market in this condition, but I am not totally sure it is worth the trouble to stay in it for 6 more years.

We owe a little more than 200k on it, and it appraises for 350K to 400K (at the high market it was about 500K). I don't think we would make out that much better renting, since our loan is 5% and I do worry that we would lose the tax deduction on paying interest vs paying a landlord rent.

What do you guys think?

[Seeker]

I'm confused...

1) Going back to school to finish an engineering degree and planning to retire in 6 years?

2) How much are rentals running in your area?

You seem to have a bunch of conflicting goals (maybe trying to cover all bases and eventualities?), it wears me out just reading your post

You need to definitely do a cost-benefit analysis and determine whether or not owning or selling and renting makes a better choice in that timeframe. Owning does gain some tax benefit, but does that benefit outweigh the costs of maintenance and repair? And your time constraints need to also figure into this since your SO wants to hike, bike or sail.

You might want to do the same for your engineering degree if your spending much dollars on pursueing this for such a short period to regain those costs from employment differential (assuming that the degree means an increase in pay for some of those 6 years remaining).

My two cents anyway.

[EconoMutt]

It would be a shame to sell your house in this market. I think I would hang on to it for at least another year or two.

[snafu]

Selling a house is a major decision. You do not seem to be emotionally attached nor have you researched moving & alternate accommodation costs. No matter the 'appraisal,' your house is worth what a buyer would be willing to pay. It might help the decision making process to have a realtor come in and give her input on what your house would likely sell for compared to 'solds' in your specific neighborhood. She is the best source for advice on which improvements effect the sale price and worth the cost and effort. You need to know the $ value of your tax deduction for 2009, run the figures based on the information at hand.

[zetta]

From previous posts, the OP is married to a high income earner and he is completing his engineering degree as sort of a hobby, from personal interest, not to enhance his earning potential. (I bet it's cheaper than taking up golf!)

I would suggest hiring out more of the repair work, and doing a cost/benefit analysis on each repair, just sticking to the ones that will be necessary to sell the home.

Perhaps you could run some numbers through a rent vs buy calculator?

[KTP]

Yes, Zetta pretty much has my life down

I am finishing up the EE degree for personal enrichment, anyway I transfered in enough hours that I have less than 1.5 years needed to complete it. I probably will work somewhere for the next 4 to 5 years after that so the costs will probably be made up (the degree *does* get you a decent amount more per year and the state school tuition is not really that expensive...although I am irked that i get no tax credits because of our income level).

Probably we should keep the house...it is just sometimes it seems like a money pit...rejetting the hot tub alone is going to cost about $900.