My evil plan. Yay or nay?

[Laura Johnson]

Thanks thanks for reading my post about my evil plan. This could get lengthy, as I hate when people don't give enough details to fully support their questions.

We currently own a sfr in Cedar Hills, near American Fork Canyon. It's a highly desirable area, although not quite as expensive as Alpine. Our schools are all rated at 9, and it's a very quiet community. We have lived in our 1970s split-level for the past nine years, fixing it up as we go. It was a rental for the 18 years previous to us owning it and had really fallen into disrepair. 

What we have done: all new kitchen 6 years ago, all new bathrooms last year, new energy-efficient windows and sliding glass door, new drywall texturing, new base and case, created a 4th bedroom in the basement (cut a window and finished the room), new HVAC 4 years ago. Also we need a new roof($7k), planning on doing that very soon. Also planning on a new front entry door this spring($1800).  All that is left imo is vinyl siding the house ($7k). 

I am very much a diy. We have done almost all of this work ourselves. Or should I say, I have done most of this work. My husband is not very handy when it comes to household things unfortunately. But...I have four children, the oldest 12 and youngest 3. Finding the time to remodel can be tricky for me as the mom.

Now, on to my evil plan: I would like to rent out our Cedar Hills house and purchase a new place with a basement apartment.

Our mortgage is roughly 1100/month. We can rent for approximately $1700-$1800, more if we allow pets (we are considering allowing a pet because our carpeting is 9 years old and needs to be replaced soon. Charge more for allowing a pet with the current carpeting and replacing it with solid flooring after the first tenants leave.)  

Since we have replaced so many of the essential items in this house, it only makes sense to rent it out. We could sell it, and would pocket roughly a 100k. Because this is a very desirable area, I see this home as a good investment because, like Alpine, it always hold it's value. 

Ideally we will purchase a home with a basement entrance and create our downstairs apartment. most houses we are looking at that have this availability for our large family and to accommodate a one-bedroom apartment are in the 400s. Our mortgage will be around 2400/month. We plan on renting out the basement for around 1000/month (fairly normal for cedar hills). Ideally we move to eagle mountain, buy a house for 340, with a mortgage of 1900, and rent for 850. I like those numbers better, but I like this area better.

My current goal is to allow us to live in a bigger home in a more kid friendly neighborhood, and to pay the same or less per month. My long-term goal is for us to be able to go into retirement, my husband is 44, owning 2 rentals by living in the basement apartment when he retires/the kids move out.

So my first question is, does this seem like a feasible plan? In my mind it makes perfect sense. We want to keep our portion of normal monthly payment to 1100 or below. I don't want to move just to have to pay more per month in mortgage, I want to pay less if possible. 

My second question is, if this is a good plan, my husband thinks we should start renting our house this spring and move into his brother's basement apartment while we look for a new home. Unfortunately his brother lives way down in Springville, so if school starts up and we haven't found our house yet I would be traveling quite a ways each day to take my kids to and from their current school. We are very selective in which house we purchase, I do not want a new build where I can reach out the window and high-five my neighbor. I like space. We also need our basement entrance to come out the side or back corner of the house, as we don't want our renters having access to the backyard where our children play. My husband wants lots of parking, we own three vehicles and a travel trailer, plus we need parking for renters. So all this means it could take us a while to find a home. We were looking last year and found a few that would have been ok, but my husband isn't 100% committed yet, which is why I'm reaching out to you to see if my plan is feasible and good. My husband said if we want to move forward with this plan he wants to have renters in our house before we start looking for a new house because that would take a lot of the stress off him. He is a man of comfort who really doesn't like change or risk :-)

Thank you for reading my novel. I welcome any and all feedback. Have a great day!

PS. I understand we sound polar opposites and not on the same page...and we kind of are. He's of the idea that you can just put a little bit into retirement and work at the same job forever and retire as soon as you hit 65 and live completely fine (he started a career very late, we will never have enough in 401k to support us unless he works until 75, which is not gonna happen).  I am of the mindset that 401k isn't enough and that we need to put a plan in place to allow us for income each month once he retires.