I'm so happy

[Jan E]

We bought a very small house for DS to live in when he was a student. Having transferred a couple of months ago the mortgage from that house to our own house spread over 40 years (we'll be well dead by then!), we finally sold the student house yesterday at a great loss - one quarter of what we paid for it. I had suggested to DH that may be we should keep a bit of the money for a couple of home improvements instead of putting all the sale proceeds towards repaying our mortgage and he said he would think about it. He is still thinking after a couple of days. However, rather tongue-in-cheek, this morning I suggested buying a 25 point add on and after all of ten seconds he agreed. I wonder why I think he prefers WDW (Boardwalk) to our own house! So I'm off to e-mail MS.

 

[mdmbdumont]

We own a couple single family income properties and have considered purchasing a small property on or near campus when our sons are in school.

Did you take the loss because of accumulated depreciation or was it an actual out of pocket loss? Did you find the overall savings on room and board to balance the expense of the property?

Thanks for any feedback. College is still a couple years away, but we are considering several housing options like this already. The state college he is considering now runs a lottery for housing for upper classpeople and we want to be prepared.


Michael

 

[pluto109]

where is gonic?

 

[Jan E]

Hi, there were three students living in the house - DS and two friends. I had great enjoyment getting everything together. (I like a challenge!) We collected weekly rent from two friends which was the going rate at the time. (You have to remember here that we are in the UK!) The rent was sufficient to cover the mortgage repayments. Each of the three students then paid his share of the water, telephone, electricity etc. The idea was that, when we came to sell the house, we would make a profit because house prices should rise. At the time we bought the house, there was a bit of a slump in the market, but unfortunately in this university town the slide continued. According to government figures, this town is the only town in England where the house prices have not increased in years. This was helped along by the fact that one of the two universities in the town amalgamated with another university 50 miles away and moved 9,000 of its 11,000 students out of the area. This meant that there are now, and have been for several years, so many small houses on the market that the price continues to fall.

I'm afraid that this was just about the worst ideas I have ever had! However, we are still discussing holidays to Florida, so things aren't that bad!