Live for free w/an hour commute? Or pay rent and no commute?

[Fuamami]

WWYD? We are thinking pretty seriously about moving. Long story short, my dh got laid off, we racked up credit card debt trying to pay our mortgage, stopped paying our mortgage, got approved for a trial mod, and are now trying to get that permanent. If it is approved, our payment will $1k less each month. Unfortunately, because we kept optimistically thinking things would look up and continued to pay our huge mortgage even though dh was making about 60% of his previous salary, we now have 12k in credit card. So we can't really afford to live here anymore, but we could rent it for really close to our payment. We hope.

Anyway, a family member has offered to let us live on their property in a house that will be vacant otherwise, for free. It's an hour from where dh works (most of the time), and where I'm trying to find housecleaning clients.

Pros: It's free. It's on a great property with 40 acres, near a river, I could garden, my horses could live on the meadow, it's actually in a small town and it's very, very convenient to a 4-lane highway into the town where we work.

Cons: It's an hour commute for dh, unless he could work in the small town or in the garage, which he probably could do sometimes. But there would be lots of times he couldn't. And all our friends live in the other town, so we'd be isolated and having to start over with schools, etc. And, it wouldn't be a permanent solution. The family member hopes to eventually sell the whole property, so if an offer came in for it, we'd have to skedaddle. It seems unlikely in the next few years, but it could happen.

So, my wise friends, what would you do?

[Drummer's Wife]

I think I would do it! It wouldn't have to be forever, and you could move again if it wasn't working out.

My DH communtes about 45 minutes (some days it's closer to 30, other days it might take an hour) and for us, to live in a nicer, cheaper area with better schools, it is absolutely worth it.

You can't beat free housing!

[lilyka]

I would do it. If you needed to vacant suddenly you would have your house to go to right? and since it is not permanant you wouldn;t have to worry abpout being out in the middle of nowhere forever. it would be disrupting to your children to change schools and house so much but kids are resilient. I say head out there and get as much debt paid off as humanly possible as quickly as possible. consider this a temporary break, set goals, make a plan, get out of debt and get back into your home.

[Maluhia]

I would do it for sure, making your fincances better in 2010 would be great!

[lalaland42]

Have you calculated how much the increase in transportation costs would be? When we moved from somewhere with very little commute (we shared a car) to somewhere with a driving culture, our transportation costs went up by quite a bit. Now that we are down to no car (moved again lol) I think we are saving $750-1000/mo.

[lucyem]

I would do it. But I would have a couple of questions first.

How bad a commute? A straight hour on a highway is nothing. A hour which turns into three of traffic is not.

How quickly would you have to move if the property sold?

If you do have to move quickly where will the horses end up? Would the horses being thrown into last minute expensive boarding which would defeat anything you saved. (I have horses too and they determine a lot of things about housing for us)

[DangerMom]

I'd be tempted to do it (after figuring out the transportation costs). It might even be a possibility that you would save enough money to be able to not do the housecleaning business, which would save you more in transportation. Unless of course you just really want to do the housecleaning!

As for possibly being asked to leave if the property sells, it wouldn't come without warning, right?

[Ola_]

The thing that stood out for me is the uncertainty of the rental possibility. I'd want to have a better idea of what the rates and interested tenants situation is before committing either way. Maybe try putting an ad on Craislist or something just to see how many bites you get at your desired price?

[Stayseeliz]

I'd be wary and make sure you do ALL your homework and figure out exactly how much you'll be saving. We did this last year-putting our house up for sale and moving into a "free" home that MIL owns. The utilities are MUCH higher here, we are paying the property taxes and we had to spend a good bit of money to make the house livable. All in all we're not coming out that much ahead then we were at the other house. And I'm constantly driving back to our old area for homeschool functions, shopping, etc since this town is much smaller. I'll admit that a BIG part of me regrets moving!

[zoebird]

i would also do it:

1. you could rent your house for the payment (or possibly more, check prices in your area, and this could be income-earning for your family);

2. you save the money that you would be putting into the payment, though some of that would probably pay for gas for the commute depending upon the car that you have;

3. in a couple of years, a lot can change such as you might sell your house and be able to live on the property permanently (by buying it or whatever), and you could find local housekeeping work too, and so on and so on. . .

i think it might be a good solution, and as the PP pointed out, if you had to move out, you could just move back into your house.

anyway, blessings on you. it seems to me that you are showered with abundance and possibilities, and will be able to create wealth through these opportunities---no matter what you decide.

[_ktg_]

I'd be tempted to do it too, but I would do the homework on the COL and see how much in savings it would be for our family.

[Leta]

If you rent in the city where your DH works, what is your plan for your horses?

[Thystle]

If it were me I would get brutal with my finances first.


You say "horses" meaning two or more of them. Now horses are the most expensive PET and money drainer unless they are working farm animals or racing/breeding animals EARNING their keep. When you are in "desperation" mode all "farm" animals should earn their keep... meaning they should be able to pay for themselves with products and/or services.


I love my animals, but the cold hard truth is that to me humans come first. So if your horses are part of the money problems that are forcing you to uproot everyone and seek drastic measures, you may want to honestly take a good hard look. They are a luxury, plain and simple, no matter how much we love them.


A good friend of mine was left homeless while 8 months pregnant and with two little kids because her husband chose to pay the boarding bill for his horse instead of paying for their rent. He ended up losing that horse later because he couldn't pay for it. And he started a snowball that nearly destroyed her.




I would go over every other bill you have with a fine tooth comb and see where else you might have "leaks". Any extra's like kids classes? Is your food bill whittled down? Are you getting the best rates for everything? No spend days? Making everything by scratch? Are you guys working hard on saving heat and light bills? No salon type bills? Buying used? Etc... Not saying you do any of these, I have no idea what you do so it's the normal "frugal drill".




Have you calculated the gas bill for the commute? What if you move and they decide to sell the next month? Do you have any special needs that will make it harder and longer to get to services? Is there a grocery store or will you have to drive for that too? Are there many kids or is it more of a "retired"
community? What happens if DH loses his job (or clients that are an hour away)? Would you all be able to survive then? Do you eventually want to move back to your house? If not would it be better to let it go? Put all the pros and cons on a list to see which ones is longer?




Good luck, this is a rough choice!

[skreader]

You asked for advice.

1) Look at your present combines income and try to find some other place in the same town that costs less than 1/3 of your present family income. Move.

2) Sell the horses

3) Start paying down your credit card debt.

Moving into the "free" house would not be a good idea because.

1) It's very far from your husband's work (what if gas goes up in price again this summer) & you mentioned having to switch schools - so it would be hard for your kids.

2) It would isolate you from your friends & community

3) It makes you dependent on your relatives for the free housing, which can often lead to uncomfortable family dynamics.

4) It would be an unstable situation, because you might have to "skedaddle" if your relatives sell the place/

[Fuamami]

Thanks for all the great advice! Yay! I'm going to answer some of the questions here:

1. The horses. We spend very, very little on them because for the past two years I have bought a truckload of hay and then sold it at a profit. Well, I don't make any real money off of it, but I make enough to cover horse expenses and keep enough to feed them. So really I spend the electricity to run the pump to fill up their water trough every couple of weeks, and buy a bag of sweet feed about every three months or so for around $7.

Lucyem, if we had to skedaddle, my dad could and would take them to his ranch. We won't sell them, but we could send them there now, and will if we move to a rental in the bigger town where we work currently.

2. The commute. Straight shot, safe roads, no real traffic most of the time. I guess I didn't mention this in my OP, but we currently have a 40 minute commute (we're in our "dream house" on horse property in the country). So it would add, but we'd be used to it. I would probably drive less, because there is shopping in the town with the free house, and there is nothing where we currently live. I wouldn't drive less than living in the town where we work, though, so I guess I shouldn't factor that in. I guess what I'm trying to say is it wouldn't be much of a sticker shock, or change, to commute an hour vs. the 40 minutes currently.

The problem with our budget is that my housecleaning income is the only consistent income. My dh is a contractor, so some months he does great and covers all our expenses, but other months we don't even come close. Things have been picking up, he's been laid off from his salaried job since August of '08, and he's slowly getting more business on his own, and getting better at making money off the business he gets. But it's still tough. So that's one reason the rent-free option is appealing, it would give us a little slack and help him really get his business going. And mine, too. Ideally, I could get some housecleaning clients in the town with the free rent.

Anyway, the budget has been gone through with a fine-tooth comb. We're constantly behind and constantly playing catch-up and there's never really nearly enough money. I can't think of anything else I can really cut, and I've tried. I'm not even paying all the bills we currently have!

I'm going to try and figure out more accurately the transportation costs of living with the hour commute, and that should give me a better idea of how it will work.

Also, I am pretty sure we would have a decrease in utilities in the free-rent place as it is a lot smaller.

[Fuamami]

Oh, and one more thing!

The free house is on a property that is to be sold as a subdivision. It's currently a farm, but the zoning and everything has already been done. So it's got a big, big price and any offer would move pretty slow, I would imagine. I'm sure we'd have at least 3 months notice, and I'd be surprised if anyone came along interested in buying it for that within the next two to three years.

[lilyka]

oh well, if you are only addding 20 minutes to your commute...GO!!

[Thystle]

IF you do choose to move, get it in writing!!! Even if it's free.......... get THAT in writing AND have them put a certain amount of time they would give you as a notice to move!!!!


Save your sanity and power plays later!

[staceychev]

I'm all for paying a little more for quality of life (ie, shorter commute), but in your situation, I'd take the free housing. Besides, while you'll be taking a hit on quality of life in terms of commute and friends, you'll be gaining in terms of access to nature and family, right? And, as other posters have said, it's not forever. While that might be stressful in terms of worrying about an "eviction," it also might be a blessing. Use the rent-free time to adjust your lives and get yourselves back on your feet, financially. I think it sounds like a blessing! Good luck!

[Smokering]

Free rent, are you kidding? TOTALLY go for the free rent! Think of how much a week's rent is, divide it by 10 (assuming your DH works five days a week, so two hours travel a day). Think of it as him "earning" that much by sitting in traffic for an hour - probably not bad. I guess petrol costs mess with that analogy a little, though. Still, petrol can't cost more than rent, right? It sounds like a great opportunity!