All Forum Posts by: Corriene McKeown

@Bill S. thanks for this tip!

Makes it so much easier to reply to people. 

Yes we have been living a rather lavish lifestyle in Asia and saving lots of money but due to my last pregnancy we had to relocate for better health care. 

Thankfully baby and I are safe and healthy but the move and hospital bills and oh my the market place insurance I had to buy for us cost us so much of our safety net. 

At his current job we won’t be able to build that up and I see us just going backwards right now. 

While in Asia we saved money but haven't been putting money into my retirement accounts and ( husband is Australian so doesn't want to do much with one) he would rather have property. For some reason I'd like to have college accounts started and start putting back into my IRA

And yes continue to live like we have been accustomed to but that’s really not feasible in the states. 

I’m fine with living a modest life for a bit and holding off selling.. 

we are staying in Iowa for that reason but it’s just a temporary solution. 

And yes once he can take a better paying job we won’t want to sell. It’s just been a very stressful year for us all around. 

He’s convinced that this house is our retirement/ kids college fund.

I just can’t imagine it going up so much more and don’t like having all of our “ eggs in one basket” so to speak.. 

I have thought about trying to run it as a job doing vbro to bring in more money but that’s more stress on an already stressed mom of 3. 

I’ve called around and we are renting it out for way less than we should be so if I can improve that’s a start. 

Yes no personal loans at all here and a refi didn’t seem like a good idea either. 

And a HELOC makes me nervous..

but so does carrying 3 mortgages..

Thanks for the input. 

I really thought I was going to find everyone telling me to sell while the market is hot.. makes sense to me but what you are saying also rings true! 

@Ericka G. 

Yes another pilot wife! 

So you get the life style and the habit of collecting homes rather than selling 😂

I don’t consider ourselves investors it just seems to happen like this. 

The Denver house was our first home and right after we got married boutght the house, got his green card the economy went to crap and I left my well paying flight nurse job to follow his dream job in Asia. 

He feels very strongly about not selling this house. It’s almost an obsession with him. 

And yes it will cause a huge riff in the marriage. Especially that he will have to stay at his current local pilot job that doesn’t pay well in order to make me happy by being home more and also allow us to possibly get this once in a lifetime tax break.. that’s how I see it.

I’m sorry you regretted selling.. you said it was very attractive to do so.. 

can I ask why? 

I’m just a bit worried about being finically strapped in the current situation and don’t really want another international move just to get ahead when we could in theory get ahead again by selling this home..

Oh and btw thanks for the head up on the amazon thing. I had no idea. Been out of the loop of what’s happening in Denver for some time now 

@Greg W.

Yes these are all points my husband had been making to me. 

I need to really tighten our budget and see if we can get by for a yr or so without having to sell. If not well we just have to do what’s best for right now. 

Our international move was necessary but he took a huge pay cut and due to family issues he’s agree to take a local job that pays much much less in order to help me out. 

3 small kids and a pilot who’s gone all the time does not equal a happy life.. 

our vacation home is getting a new kitchen period lol I don't have a dishwasher and it's just not very functional. It's not a big remodel about 13k. I just hate using our savings and doing a HELOC just doesn't seem logical to me. It will add value to this home if we decide to ever sell it but being somewhat nomads it's nice to have a home base and in my home town. I really want to keep this home forever so the kids always have someplace that they felt like they can call home.

I know our situation will improve finically. If things got real I could go back to work as a nurse but right now family life and being comfortable is more important to me.. 

It is hard to see the big picture. 

I do appreciate the advice. 

It just seems silly to me that at age 40 with preschool age kids and baby at home that I should need to go back to work to help make ends meet or get ahead when we have so much equity in another property.. 

We are really living an extreme lifestyle change back in the states so that could be the other issue with me adjusting right now 

Hi Tyler-

I would love to keep the house but I feel we need to possibly diversify our assets and buy selling the house I could that. I’d rather have more cash available and than everything sitting in one place. 

Yes I agree I wouldn’t sell it to just by a new bigger primary residence. 

I would just like to have more of a safety net and live as we have been rather than having a tighter budget. 

I’ve had pretty good luck with my property management company  but yes I did call a round and read up about doing  air B and B/ VBRO. 

Having a company do it for you eats a lot of the profit. And there is always new laws to worry about and permits and furnishings.. 

I get why it works for some but a family home in city park doesn’t seem as easy as a condo.

I think even now if I kept the house I would just increase the rent rather than do VBRO 

Thanks jerry 

Yeah it has to end somethime I’m guessing. I just don’t want to hang out waiting for the next big upswing if we do t sell soon .

Hi Greg- 

Was hoping to hear someone take my husbands view/ side.

I don’t think I’d re invest in Iowa. We have a modest house here that we bought as a vacation home and works well for now. Could use some improvements to make it more comfortable. Like new kitchen 

If anything we would buy a primary residence in another state or stay here and buy a place  on a lake or ski condo. Something we could at least get use out of and enjoy.

We live rather modestly. No new fancy cars but anything reliable that can seat 3 car seats is expensive even used. So we do have one small car payment. We have our emergency funds for the other properties and still savings. We aren’t desperate for the cash out 

The re fi is possible but I’d rather just sell and be comfortable and not have to worry about keeping to a strict budget or worse me going back to work! 

The property only brings in about 800 a month so it’s not like it’s a huge cash cow..

I just still don’t think his argument is strong enough.. 

The condo wouldn’t bring in much of anything and managing air B and B from another state ends up eating up tons of profit. 

good points though but I’m still leaning to sell high and be happy 

Anthony 

That’s a great way to put it! 

Could you call my husband and explain it to him like that 😀

I think my husband is hung up on this particular property as he built and sold a house in Perth Australia years before we meet and he sold low and has been kicking himself since.. 

I’ve got my tax accountant doing up the exact numbers and our finical planner on my side.. just hope I don’t need a divorce lawyer to get my point across.. kidding.. sort of .. 

Hi Kevin-

Yes I originally was looking at doing a HELOC and that's still a option. Just for a safety net/ peace of mind but that's when I realized that we may qualify for a rare chance at a jumbo tax beak.

That’s why selling seems to make more sense to me as I can’t see us qualifying again for this until possibly retirement. 

I’d hate for us to find ourselves needing to sell and being stuck in the 15-20% gains tax bracket. 

My interest rate is 3.7 so don’t think I could do better than that

Jon- 

Yes I’ve been doing my research and  have my accountant looking at the deprecation that we have taken on it in previous years. So yes we may have to pay taxes on that. 

It’s been well maintained with a property manager and we have done a few spot checks when we have been in the country. It’s an old bungalow so things like old pipes we will just say no. It was a filp and fix when we bought it in 09 so was well done. 

I have a good friend who’s a realtor there and he said he would do it for 4% and possibly with the market being as it is buyer pays closing costs. We have heard houses going for over asking price also. 

As for the long term capital gains tax our accountant said as long as our taxable income is below 74.6k for married couple we should qualify for the 0% tax. I’ve looked it up and have seen it listed. 

I’m guessing that yes we won’t keep all the 300k but quite a bit

But I’m going to think twice if we have to pay the 15-20% tax. It’s just not worth it to sell if that’s the case

I looked into the exchange and I’d rather keep the house than invest all of it into something else. If there was a way where you could invest some and keep some that would be ideal but that didn’t seem to be the rules. 

Great advice Jon

Let me know if I’ve missed something or am off based. 

Thanks again 

Corrie 

Thanks Thomas 

I would rather put more money in our retirement and college funds for the kids and pad our savings again rather than just getting by..

But husband thinks this place will go up and up and we will regret selling