Building a sailing kitty: tough choices

[GimmeShelter]

Originally Posted by carstenb

There's a lot of verbage on this thread - but the general consensus seems to be that $5000 is a bit on the high side.

A lot of cuirsers (who do like their comforts) have budgets that are around $3000 per month (including us). this includes repairs food, drinks, marina, sightseeing et.al.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...nth-42283.html

worth a read

Well we do intent to live more on the low side of this budget, but I like to pad all my budgets. We had friends who left and intended to sail for years, but 3 transmissions later had to come home after 6 months. (he had a L instead of a R prop). I figure worst case scenario we stay out longer..no harm done.

[DsquareD]

Former landlord here. I have owned two single family rentals and one office building. They are a major headache.

People trash your property or simply don't pay and then it takes time, lawyers and money to get them out. When I sold the houses and bought the office building where my wife had a business I thought I would not have tenant troubles, but they only escalated. One tenant's German shepherd jumped on my wife and when I told him his dog was not allowed he tried to sue me.

Who will manage your property while you're away? That costs money and they don't fix anything for free. That all costs top dollar when you're not there to manage it.

I think you'd be better to sell it and put your stuff in storage than rent. I tried managing my rental while living 8 hours away and it was a major hassle.

Not all tenants are bad. I had some great ones. One even bought one of my houses. But it only takes one bad one (sometimes they start out good but lose their job, get divorced, etc.) to really ruin your plans in a big way.


Dennis

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[Bill4]

I agree with everything you said Dennis. I speak as an ex landlord too. We had some, but relatively few, problems, renting a house 200 miles away from where we lived. The agent tried to rip us off once, but by chance we discovered what was going on and sacked the agent. Our tenants always paid their rent on time. We were lucky. I know another ex landlord who had a tenant who ended up living in one of his houses for nearly a year without paying rent and it took a lot of legal work and money to finally get rid of them. Of course they wrecked the house before moving out.

Be careful if you only have one house to rent out and you're relying on the income to live. How will you eat if the tenant stops paying their rent?

[FollowingCs]

What market is the house in, and what cycle is that market in? Depending on where you are at in the country, it may be a fine time to sell in a few years when you are ready. Talk with some Realtors now, and find out what you should do to your house and what NOT to do that won't return value. Get it ready to sell, making whatever cost efficient improvements you can. Then de-clutter, de-personalize and define before listing.

As for savings versus paying down mortgage, it just depends what you plan to do with the savings to make it grow. If the answer is a simple bank account at 0% interest, you may be better paying off the loan faster even if it is at 4.5%.

~Following C's~

[tbodine88]

I have a rental, its great if the renter pays, bummer when they don't or they move out and you have to rent to someone else.

I've had the house for years, its nearly paid off, (next year )

We've rented the house we are in while we were over seas and better than paid the house payment. So if you are in a great house market (from the landlord point of view) its a good plan to keep the house. If however its not so good as is my mother's rental, it may be better to sell (if you can) and use the cash for buying a boat or putting in the kitty.

The questions are better answered by Real Estate and financial advisors than a bunch of sailors

[brookiesailor]

I am with Dennis on this one. I have a house that I go back to during the summer, the rest of the year it sits vacant. In other homes we have had tenants and dealing with them from distance is a huge hassle. This time around we decided to keep it Unrented and use it as a summer home for me and the boys. I have awesome neighbors that look after it. That being said, if I were to do it again I would sell the house and put the money aside for someday. We thought we were only going to be gone for two years...it has been six.


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