If only we all had this problem, right?
My stepmom is the sweetest person
and she is offering us $10k as a down payment on a house in their area.
We love their area. We tried to move there while I was pg but the economy took a dump (as you may have heard) and we couldn't sell our hourse so we gave up.
In hindsight, it's good that we didn't move. We really can't afford a bigger mortgage (as much as I HATE my house--declining neighborhood, dinky dinky house, we should have sold at the top of the market and got while the going was good).
So enter stepmom and her generous offer. If we were both working, we would jump on it but we aren't. We are barely making it as is--healthy food is SO expensive in our area, it eats up a lot of our budget. Our cheap mortgage, even though we hate the house, is really a lifesaver. We do not have the extra $1k a month (or more!) I estimate it would to move into a more expensive area with higher property taxes.
Plus, we would not be able to afford our dream house, which we are of the mind, if we buy again it's going to be what we want, we don't want to settle like we did with the current house. We'd likely end up in another fixer upper for which we do not have the money for the needed upgrades. The area is a high end area and you need $170k to $200k to get into something nice. Even if we sold our dinky house, it would only give us $20k total to put down on a new house which would leave us with a HUGE mortgage payment (ours right now is under $1k and the total mortgage is under $100k).
We are going to turn the money down but I am nervous about it. I think it's the right thing to do if we want to keep me as a sahm/wahm. DH is still finishing his BA so our hope is once he is done, his income will go up as he will be promotable once he has the degree.
$10k is not enough but I am just nervous about telling her no b/c I don't want to seem ungrateful or rude, kwim? Plus, I feel stupid turning down a windfall, but I really don't think it is enough to do anything for us house-wise. I was thinking too of telling her this would be a better offer for when DH is done with school and his income starts going up. Also, DD will be older and I can look at going back to work or will have grown what I am doing now into a more financially successful enterprise--so we might be able to swing the expense of a better area in a few years.
I am posting here just to double check and be sure I haven't missed anything. It's not every day someone wants to give you $10k and you have to say no. I hope we're not doing anything stupid here.
V
My stepmom is the sweetest person
and she is offering us $10k as a down payment on a house in their area.We love their area. We tried to move there while I was pg but the economy took a dump (as you may have heard) and we couldn't sell our hourse so we gave up.
In hindsight, it's good that we didn't move. We really can't afford a bigger mortgage (as much as I HATE my house--declining neighborhood, dinky dinky house, we should have sold at the top of the market and got while the going was good).
So enter stepmom and her generous offer. If we were both working, we would jump on it but we aren't. We are barely making it as is--healthy food is SO expensive in our area, it eats up a lot of our budget. Our cheap mortgage, even though we hate the house, is really a lifesaver. We do not have the extra $1k a month (or more!) I estimate it would to move into a more expensive area with higher property taxes.
Plus, we would not be able to afford our dream house, which we are of the mind, if we buy again it's going to be what we want, we don't want to settle like we did with the current house. We'd likely end up in another fixer upper for which we do not have the money for the needed upgrades. The area is a high end area and you need $170k to $200k to get into something nice. Even if we sold our dinky house, it would only give us $20k total to put down on a new house which would leave us with a HUGE mortgage payment (ours right now is under $1k and the total mortgage is under $100k).
We are going to turn the money down but I am nervous about it. I think it's the right thing to do if we want to keep me as a sahm/wahm. DH is still finishing his BA so our hope is once he is done, his income will go up as he will be promotable once he has the degree.
$10k is not enough but I am just nervous about telling her no b/c I don't want to seem ungrateful or rude, kwim? Plus, I feel stupid turning down a windfall, but I really don't think it is enough to do anything for us house-wise. I was thinking too of telling her this would be a better offer for when DH is done with school and his income starts going up. Also, DD will be older and I can look at going back to work or will have grown what I am doing now into a more financially successful enterprise--so we might be able to swing the expense of a better area in a few years.
I am posting here just to double check and be sure I haven't missed anything. It's not every day someone wants to give you $10k and you have to say no. I hope we're not doing anything stupid here.
V
Or just a very gracious no thank you. 
