Our daughter did just that. Actually, she was financially able to buy her new house and carry both mortgages until the old home sold.

One piece of advice from her experience:

Check with your homeowners insurance about leaving your current home unoccupied while you have it on the market. There may be some instances that aren't covered while your home is unoccupied and the insurance rate may be higher as well.

Dgregory, thank you! I hadn't thought about homeowners insurance. I knew we would have to keep it at the current house until it sells, and also get a renters policy, but I didn't think about there being rules about occupied vs. unoccupied. I will add that to my list of things to find out. :)

Is paying up to 12 months of rent in addition to up to 12 months of mortgage really worth the inconvenience of living in your home while repairs are being made and during showings?

For me, I'd rather keep the money that would be spent on rent in order to buy a load of new furniture or to use to take a nice celebratory vacation when the house sells.

Jewel654, that makes a lot of sense, and is part of my internal debate also. :) I think if you look at it from a strictly financial point of view, the obvious choice is to sell before doing anything else. What appeals to me most about moving into the rent house is that once our year lease is up, we will go to a month-to-month rental agreement, and can freely look for houses to buy or land on which to build. That freedom sounds glorious to me! :) I realize we could potentially still get that by selling our house first and then moving into a rent house, but this particular one won't be available if we wait, and I am worried there won't be any other rent houses I want to live in if we wait until we sell. It is very important to me to have a place where my family will be comfortable living. Depending on how long it takes us to find or build a house, we may be there for quite a while. Of course, pregnancy hormones and nesting may have a little bit to do with my strong desire to make sure my family has a safe place to live. :) I also just really want to avoid being rushed through this whole process. Moving into the rent house first will be more expensive, but I think it will be a lot less stressful. At least, that is my hope. Maybe I'm kidding myself! ;) I've usually found, though, that paying for peace of mind is almost always worth it -- at least emotionally, if not financially. I don't want to make a huge mistake, though, which is why I'm asking for advice and other opinions. I think if we didn't have children, or there were lots of places on the market we wanted to buy, it would be easier for me to live in our house through the selling process.

Your logic is excellent, but making this work depends on your house selling within the "few months" that your budget can handle this scenario. The success of this plan hinges on how fast houses in your area are selling and how competitively your house is priced.

Would I consider doing it? Nope, there is too much stress in carrying the mortgage and making the rental payment.

But here is an idea. Test the waters. Ask the owner of the rental house whether he would leave that house unrented for ONE month if you paid him a month's rent. Then you stay in your house, put it up for sale, and see what the market is like. Within the first two weeks, you will have a good idea of how strong the market is.

graywings, that is an interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that. Of course, then we are still living in our house during repairs and listing/showing, and I'm not sure that we can get our house completely ready to sell in just one month (the current occupants of the rent house will likely move out within the next month). The average time on the market in our area is 180 days. I'd like to think that our house will sell quickly (I would consider 3 months on the market to be quick), but that may not happen. I guess absolute worst-case scenario would be that our house never sells, and after a year of renting the other house, we have to move back in. That would be a colossal waste of time and money, for sure. :)

Homeowner's insurance as mentioned is a big issue. Most policies will not cover an unoccupied house.

Another concern is theft. There were a rash of unoccupied homes that were broken into for the removal of copper pipes when my unoccupied house was for sale. This made me extremely nervous.

We live in a cold climate and won't risk a month to month tenant moving out in winter so we never allow our leases to expire. Before the end of each lease we ask our tenants to renew the lease or move. So before you go to the hassle, make sure the landlord is going to let the lease go month to month.

Have you considered renting a storage unit instead of an apt? We bought a house that needed renovation which we did while we were living in the house for sale. We were crazy busy! I moved absolutely everything we didn't need into a storage unit so the house was easy to keep up with, it showed better, and we could easily move when the time came. It was inexpensive.

Also, why not consider a housekeeper? She could come once a week or before showings, cheaper than moving.

We bought, closed, moved before selling twice. It gets old fast!

We live in a cold climate and won't risk a month to month tenant moving out in winter so we never allow our leases to expire. Before the end of each lease we ask our tenants to renew the lease or move. So before you go to the hassle, make sure the landlord is going to let the lease go month to month.

Have you considered renting a storage unit instead of an apt? We bought a house that needed renovation which we did while we were living in the house for sale. We were crazy busy! I moved absolutely everything we didn't need into a storage unit so the house was easy to keep up with, it showed better, and we could easily move when the time came. It was inexpensive.

Also, why not consider a housekeeper? She could come once a week or before showings, cheaper than moving.

We bought, closed, moved before selling twice. It gets old fast!

Let's be realistic -

Do you really think OP could/should take care of 3 young kids including a baby while completing repairs, and then put the house in showroom condition 24/7, in addition to all the work required of running a young active household for months or may be years?

Op, Why not do a test run by keeping your house and yard sparkling clean and in perfect shape. Putting limit on cooking and family activities such as most toys have to be kept out of sight, beds have to be made perfectly every single morning, nothing in the house could get displaced. Telling kids and husband that you may have to show the house in a moment notice, so they could not live as they usually do in the house...... Find out if you could live like this for two months, of course, you have not factored in the work of updating and repairing your house and taking care of a new baby yet.

This post was edited by azmom on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 21:50

Lots of people do!

Newgardenelf, those are some great, inexpensive ideas!

Jewel654,

No one cares if hundred or thousands people have done that, it only matters if OP could handle the burden.

I have been told that a house that stands empty is seen as a home with desperate sellers and the offers will come in low because of that perception. Food for thought.

OP, this is pretty common where I live. Most houses here are shown empty and staged (so clearly this varies by region--and yes, insurance policies do cover this with no issue, though you do need to notify them, and again, that may vary by region--perhaps they don't like to cover these situations in areas where an unoccupied house is very rare?) People either buy and move into new homes first, or rent in the interim while prepping and listing their homes. Which you do depends on what kinds of funds you have available. In your shoes with three young kids (including a newborn!) I would 100% do this unless your market is very, very slow such that it is unlikely that your home will sell in a few months' time. (If it's normal for a home to take 6+ months to sell, as it is in some areas due to either slow markets or low demand, I'd be concerned about taking on costs for both.) It will make selling easier, but far more importantly (for me) it will take off the pressure of finding a new home right away. Good luck!

Thank you all for the replies! I am learning more things to think about. :)

AcadiaFun, that is very unfortunate about the thefts. I know that sort of thing is always a possibility, but I also think that risk is not something that should hold us back. We live in a nice neighborhood (but not so nice as to draw attention to itself, if that makes sense), and we have great neighbors that we know and trust, who, I think, would keep an eye on the house for us after we move out.

newgardenelf, our friends who are currently renting the house are in a month-to-month rental agreement after their one-year lease was up, so I am assuming the landlord would offer us the same deal. Of course, we would make sure of that before deciding to move. We already have a storage building, and have tried to declutter some. A housekeeper would be great (just for life in general - ha!), but keeping the house clean and show-ready is just one concern. The other is finding a place to live once our house sells (if we were to keep living in our house through the selling process). I fear being in a situation where we have to rush to buy a new house or else find someplace to rent quickly, because that may prove to be very difficult in our area.

azmom, you're in my corner, I can tell! ;) I had to laugh at the idea of doing a test run, though. I feel like our entire married life has been a test run, and we have failed miserably! I know, without a doubt, that we could not keep our house and yard sparkling clean for a month or two. Add the repairs that need to be done (nothing major, but not things we could easily DIY either) and a new baby to the mix, and that sounds like a recipe for one stressed out mama.

Jewel654, You are correct. Lots of people do successfully sell houses while living in them with kids. That's why I am questioning whether or not moving out before selling is really a good idea. But azmom is right too... I'm not sure if I can personally handle that burden (and keep my sanity). And, if a person has the means to avoid an unpleasant situation, does it make sense to hand over the money to make it easier? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Is it worth it (on all levels) to pay both mortgage and rent for a while just so we don't have to live in our house through the listing and selling process. I've never sold a house, so I don't know. It sounds super stressful to me, and I tend to try to avoid super stressful situations, which is why securing the rent house before we list our house is so appealing to me.

sheilajoyce, people have to (or choose to) move out while selling for lots of different reasons. I don't think it automatically communicates desperation. Also, we will likely do some light staging in the house, so it will not be completely empty. Of course, our missing fridge will be a dead giveaway that we don't actually live there anymore. :) Still, I am not overly concerned about it. We looked at empty houses this past summer, and our own house was empty when we bought it fourteen years ago. I never got the impression that the sellers were desperate just because no one was living in the house during the showing. Maybe I'm wrong about that, and most buyers do feel that way. Not sure.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and ideas! I shared some of them with my husband this evening, and he still thinks moving to the rent house before we sell is a great idea, so we will see!

"It will make selling easier, but far more importantly (for me) it will take off the pressure of finding a new home right away."

artemis78, my thoughts exactly! :) Our plan would be to put our house on the market this spring (we would shoot for April or May at the latest), and hope that it sells before school starts again in August. That is prime selling time in our area. Our realtor was impressed with our house when he did a walk-thru, and felt confident that it would be an easy sell to the buyers who will be looking in our neighborhood. Of course, it's in his benefit to make us feel like he can sell the house quickly, but I don't think he was being overly optimistic. I think the most important thing will be pricing the house competitively. We bought before the housing market went beserk, and values have gone up since then, so we should be able to price it very fairly and still come out ahead. Thanks for your encouraging words! :)

There are many pros and cons, but I think this makes a lot of sense if you can pull it off financially. The other factor that I'm thinking of is the frantic period while actually under contract - although the contract ("escrow") period is longer now with mortgages taking longer to approve. And if no mortgage is required, there are cash buyers who are thrilled to be able to close quickly and move in ASAP to an empty home.
By "frantic" I mean the part where you have all your normal daily stuff (work, school, eat, sleep, etc) as well as 4-6 weeks to pack, clean, pack, have a garage sale, pack, run to the dump because of all the stuff you're throwing away, pack, find a new place to live (and maybe a temporary place if it takes a while to close), make the requested repairs, and meanwhile you are living in box-land...and then the contract falls apart halfway through because the appraisal was too low (or fill in from various scenarios here)...and start over. All the ups and downs that people have brought to this forum.
The way the OP is thinking, the family can control that whole period and with kids and a new baby, I can see how appealing that is!

Hello annie,

Guess it depends on a seller's goal. I tend to be a perfectionist during selling as everything has to be perfect in term of sight, sound and smell. Houses we had sold were all rated in "creampuff" condition, we got top dollar and sold them quickly, in different economy , for sale by realtors or owner.

I recall the most stressful selling was when the kids were in elementary school and we moved cross country. I quit job right before the selling, it was a lot of work even for a stay at home mom.

The easiest one was FSBO of our last house. We purchased our current home, moved extra items to it, cleaned and staged the selling place as perfect as we could. We sold it very quickly, got more than similar houses sold by realtors in the same neighborhood.

We had sold house empty too. It is not as easy as most people think since no place to hide any flaws. We examined everything from different angles because sometimes light reflects flaws and defectives.

If I were you, I would plan out a strategy. Decide how much effort you want to put in selling, there are differences between dumping a place vs getting top dollar and everything else in between. You don't want to prolog the process and put the entire family, marriage and bank account through the torture. Also, be mindful about your own physical and mental health. Having a new baby taxes a lot on any mother.

This post was edited by azmom on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 8:44

OP -- I've often thought of the scenario you are describing, mainly because we, too, have been in our home about the same amount of time and have outgrown the place.

Lots of great suggestions from the others, I don't have any special solutions, but I know how tiring it can be to manage kids and a baby. I sense you're feeling some pressure because the rental you like will soon be available.

Sit down and try to consider worst-case-scenario. Worst case -- you move to the rental, pay rent and mortgages, house doesn't sell, have to move back to house. That's a lot of moving!

How long could you realistically maintain the house payment and the rental payment? Do you know what kind of repairs your home needs? Are they major issues that would be hazardous for your kids to be around during the day? Are you willing to lower your asking price if the house doesn't sell right away? Are you willing to stay in the rental for YEARS if you don't find the perfect house once your place sells? Are you willing to compromise on the "perfect" house to get an "it's pretty close" house?

anniebeagle,
I don't want to burden you with more stress, but if you choose to move and sell your (current) home unoccupied, if at all possible have someone do a daily interior/exterior check on the unoccupied home.

Referring back to my daughter's unoccupied home sale, after the buyer had a inspection it was determined the main shut off needed replaced. Professional plumbers came in and did the work.

The next day the repair began to leak and flooded the home for 3 days before my daughter found it. Her homeowners would not cover the cost of repairs.

Then the insurance co. informed her that they would not cover break-ins on an unoccupied dwelling either. If I remember correctly, fire was the only thing that was actually covered.

After some discussion and many phone calls, fortunately the plumber's insurance paid for all repairs, but it was a giant hassle and almost killed the sale.

Still stresses all of us out thinking about it.

Annie,
That is a wonderful idea! Yes, yes yes do it!
You will also have a totally empty house (leave a few things), for painting also, in case you want to paint before showing.
Especially since you are expecting, do it.
You know what, money isn't everything is it?
Less stress is priceless.

If you can afford it, I would rent, especially if you are "picky" about your new home. We sold our condo last year while living in it, and with 2 cats and a messy husband it was really stressful. I can't even imagine what it would be like with kids. It also really limited us in our choice of homes, because we weren't able to make an offer on a house until ours was sold (so there were several properties that I look back on that would have been better/in a more ideal location). We also rushed to find a home that was on the market in our timeframe, and I would have really appreciated more time to decide. Thankfully our buyer was willing to do a rent-back for a month since he was renting himself, which gave us a little more time to get everything together before the move.

Needless to say, if I were to do it again -- even though it's a hassle to move all your stuff twice -- I would rent before buying a new home.

Also, someone made a good point about daily checks if your house is vacant. We went and saw a lovely home that we would have strongly considered except... there was a SEMI ALIVE mouse in a snap trap in the laundry room that I guess the owner forgot to clear out. The squeal that came out of my mouth... think I broke some glass. I couldn't think of anything else but that mouse afterwards.

Have you talk to the landlord yet? They might have someone else in mind and may even raise the rent after your friends move out. And if it is in area that has few rentals you never know if they will rent to you. You need to talk to them first before you make all of your plans.

That was my initial thought also barb13. A raise in rent after the currant tenant moves out. Or they may not even rent to the OP. Definitely talk to the landlord first. If all is well with the landlord, then rent. It seems that is you hearts' desire. You don't want all the extra stress that staying in your currant home will make while selling. If you have the finances to do it, so be it. NancyLouise

We sold our home last summer and were expecting to have to rent after we did so as it seemed very unlikely we would find what we wanted when we needed it. We did, so that was nice, and didn't have to rent.

We had many similarities to you-- our old house had some major things that had to be done to it before we moved, and then after that we had to deal with the showings, etc. I have six children, at that time aged 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. It was a lot of work, but I honestly think that having to move twice would have been even more painful. And even worse would have been the daily stress of knowing we had pressure to sell. It's hard to not go for an offer that's not solid or that's a lowball when you're under that kind of pressure.

Really there's no 'perfect' way to do this with a bunch of kids. But like another poster mentioned, all the money you're not spending on supporting two houses can go towards things to make life a little easier during the crazy-- eat out, get takeout, use paper plates, get a weekly housecleaner, etc.

The other thing to consider is that the market is just getting warmed up. If you do what you're considering, and then your absolute dream home comes on the market, you've added the additional complication of getting out of a lease you've just started. As well as two moves in quick succession.

Thanks again, everyone, for all of the replies!

To address some of things that have been mentioned...

We will definitely talk to the landlord before making any final decisions. Our friends, the current tenants (who are wonderful people and a landlord's dream), are also planning to put in a good word for us. Our agreement would be contingent upon the rent remaining the same, the lease going month-to-month after one year, and the landlord not having any plans to sell the house. If any of those conditions are not met, we will not rent the house. The landlord does not know yet that the tenants plan to move out, so we have to wait for them to talk to him first. All of this is hinging on the deal for their new house, and they are currently still in negotiations. If their deal does not go through, which is certainly a possibility, then we will do nothing for now. I want to be ready with our decision as soon as they know for sure, though, which is why I am going through all the pros and cons now rather than waiting to see if the opportunity will actually materialize or not.

If we do move into the rent house and put our current house on the market, we will not start looking for a new house until our house is sold and our lease is up or almost up, so there will be no issues with finding the perfect house and not being able to get out of our lease. Trust me, I remember how stressful house hunting was last summer, and I am not eager to begin the process again until we are completely ready. We were totally jumping the gun last summer (not even having our house ready to sell), and have learned a few lessons. Next time around, we plan to be ready to buy with no contingencies once we find a house we want. I'm prepared to be patient and just live in the rent house for at least a year while we get all of those things in order.

We can't buy a new house now and just pay two mortgages until our current house sells because the monthly mortgage on a new house will most likely be higher than what we will be paying in rent. Also, we may need to dip into our savings to be able to pay for both rent and mortgage (especially if our house takes several months to sell), and if we bought a new house, we would deplete our savings for the down payment. Finally, we need to sell our house before we'll really know what we can afford and how much we'll have for a down payment. It may be that we need to save up for another couple of years, and I am OK with living in the rent house until then. Saving money will be pretty impossible while we're paying both rent and mortgage, but should be easy once our house sells and we're only paying rent.

Thank you to those that suggested daily check-ins at our old house. If we do move, I'll make a checklist that my husband (or one of our neighbors) can quickly run through each day. That will be easy for us since the rent house is only a few minutes away from our current house.

The more I think about this idea, and the more I talk with my husband about it, the more I like the idea. It would certainly not be right for everyone, but I think it might be the right decision for us. Of course, this all depends on whether or not our friends get their new house and whether or not the landlord agrees to rent the house to us at the same rate. We will see! We should know something next week. :)

I say, go for it! Nothing more stressful than selling. If you can manage it financially, move into the rental. Fix the main house up and try to catch the Spring market.

Where do you live? How is the market there?

Good luck whatever you do, but I like your idea and would choose that.

Jane

While it sounds tempting, you mention, "Also, we may need to dip into our savings to be able to pay for both rent and mortgage."

This may be an off-the-wall idea, but depending on your location, could you find a temporary "tenant" or house sitter who will show your home for free or vastly reduced rent?

TEST

nosoccermom, I have thought about it. We have two sets of friends who are currently doing that. Both recently bought new homes. One family bought before they sold their current home, and have already moved into their new house. The other family sold their house already, but bought a fixer-upper that they are currently gutting. So, they are renting the other family's old house and showing it for them. Anyway... I have thought about it, but I would definitely only work this out with someone I knew well. A possible option is that I have a cousin who's thinking of trying to get a job in our area, so we could potentially rent our house to her. She's a single mom with toddlers, though, so I think I might feel bad about expecting her to keep the house spotless and leave for showings (especially since I'm trying to avoid that myself!). Anyway... we'll see! We still haven't heard from our friends at the rent house whether or not their deal is working out. So, it's all still up in the air. :)

Actually your homeowners insurance will go up a lot if you turn your home into a rental property. By the way, your current home won't be considered vacant if you or your husband stays the night there once every month or so.

If your purpose in renting a second house is to avoid stress, going into your savings to pay the rent may increase your stress, depending on how long the house stays on the market. You need to avoid stress during your pregnancy.

We are renting a house while our house is being readied to go on the market. However it had the benefit of saving my spouse from a 3-hour commute everyday, which is a value that is worth the cost.

I think you should consider the stress of living in a house on the market (and there's no doubt that's stressful!) versus the stress of the house not selling and your savings starting to dwindle. Which is the larger stress for you?

There are house sitter sites with vetted sitters. One is Mind my house

A professional single or couple might be a better option than a mom with toddlers.

Thanks again for all the responses! I am the type of person that likes to anticipate all the possible pitfalls before jumping into something new, so you all gave me exactly what I wanted. :)

I finally heard from our friends who are currently renting the house, and it looks like the deal on the house they wanted to buy is not going to work out. So, they will be staying in the rent house a while longer. I really feel for them as they have been looking for their dream property for about two years (they're not getting it because the sellers decided not to sell after all).

Anyway, we are staying put for now, but have a list of things to do to get our house ready to sell, and will start working on that little by little. If only we could add a bedroom, we'd be content to stay put for a long time. I worked on some plans today for adding a room to our house, but then discovered that the setbacks wouldn't allow it. Our house was actually built a foot closer to the property line than it should have been, so there's really no room for an addition. Oh, well... It will all work out!

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