So glad I didn't post anything in the other thread. :) I'm a homeowner. It's paid for and I'm grateful. Its value at this writing has probably doubled since I bought it in 1999. So has everything else, so I'm not really feeling flush, unless I sold and left this expensive area. Back in 1985 we lived in a $500 rental on one acre and we loved it. The owners decided to sell for something like $140K and offered us first crack. We didn't have a pot to piss in besides paying our monthly bills, so it was out of the question. If we'd had enough for a downpayment and could qualify for a home loan, we'd have jumped on it. If we'd had the money for the downpayment, I doubt we'd have invested it in lieu of buying a house. We just weren't that smart or able to wait while the money increased, hopefully, risk and all. I can't claim that homeownership as an investment is better than renting and investing the rest. When I was a renter, I didn't have anything left over. When my husband was alive, we weren't very good at saving money. I'm a 6 on the Enneagram. I crave security. As a renter, we received one too many letters telling us they were selling the house and we had to move. Too many landlords saying no pets. Disclaimer: How did an adult life of no extra money saved result in home ownership and no mortgage after 5 years? We bought our house for nothing down in 1999 with a G.I. loan. My husband took out a life insurance policy to cover what was owed in case something happened to him. It did. He died in 2004. In 2006 I paid off the house. Many encouraged me to invest that wad of cash. I didn't have the balls to do it. I live within my means, pay cash for everything, including home improvements, have enough liquid cash for a new roof or furnace and beyond, "loan" money to my grown daughter with no expectation of being repaid, although sometimes she surprises me, in a good way. :) I have a decent pension with good Kaiser coverage. I continue to save and invest. I don't believe in spending as much as I can before I die, which could be any day as we never know. It would give me great pleasure to know that after I'm gone something will be left for my daughter. I have friends in their early 50s who will work another 6-8 years. Both will have slightly better pension payouts than I currently enjoy. Their house is also paid for. They plan to sell the house and rent a smaller apartment in the nice senior community in our town. I think it makes good sense for them and they will be in Fat City.

Anything is possible. But this is a buyer's market, so by putting such a stipulation on the sale of your home, you will end up further limiting an already small number of potential buyers. There are plenty of empty, bank-owned foreclosures out there for investors such as you describe to go out and purchase, so unless there is something extra special about your house, I think the chances of you finding a buyer who would be willing to do this are pretty slim.

Even if you decide to sell or rent, how long will it take to find a buyer or renter? If I loved the house and was pretty sure I would want to return someday, I would rent. If I was ambivalent I would more likely list for sale or rent and see who came along first. You can exclude pets or get a bigger deposit, and plan the cost of yard and pool care in your expenses. Even if rent still makes you pay out of pocket monthly, it is losing less than having it sit empty. I am not aware of a tax benefit of renting a home. Rent counts as income. And if you sell in the future, you have to be sure you have lived in the home as your primary residence for 2 of the past 5 years to avoid capital gains on profits over 500k. So if you rent more than 3 years, then sell, it was not your primary residence for 2 of the past 5 years. I have had my former house for sale for 6 months. I know that is not long in this market. But I am now considering listing for sale or rent to see if a renter comes along sooner than a buyer. (now it is just costing me money) Keeping in mind the primary residence for 2 of the past 5 years rule, it gives me about 2 1/2 more years to sell it and still meet that criteria. Another way to think about it, selling is more irreversible than renting. If you sell, it is unlikely you can buy it back if you return. If you rent it now, you can always choose to sell it later and never return to it. Sounds like you have an adventure coming up!

So if you sell now with a longer escrow period and then have a 60-90 day rent back perhaps would this put you closer to your estimated move in date? I understand your hesitation - for many reasons we would rather sell our house and move next year instead of this summer, and we still might do that, but we've already bought our out-of-state home. I just don't feel very comfortable waiting a year to sell our home here and risk missing out on the current real estate market. We bought our fixer upper second home in a strong seller's market (and for more money than we planned on spending) so we'll need every bit of equity we can get to put into that home and make it as nice as the one we have now.