Would you do this?

[mamamilkers]

Sorry for all the questions today!

I am curious as to opinions on this situation. My DP's best friend's family is going to be living overseas for four months. They have a nice house and offered it to us to live in, rent-free (only pay utilities) while they are gone. We currently rent and are on month-to-month so can leave at any time. We pay just under $1000 a month for rent. Unfortunately, the rental market has gone up a bit since we moved in here and when we needed to find another place to live it might end up being more than we are paying right now for the same kind of place. Plus, we'd have to figure out what to do with our stuff during that time.

However, we would save close to $4000 in rent by doing this. That figure looks pretty attractive considering we are trying to pay down debt and want to work on buying a house before TOO long.

Would you do it?

[Ruthla]

It depends on a lot of factors.

What's it going to cost you to put your stuff in storage?

Are you going to have a problem finding affordable housing when they return? Since they're only going to be gone 4 months, any rent savings while they're gone might be eaten up in higher rental fees when you rent again.

What happens if something happens to their stuff while you're house sitting? Will you have to pay for it? Will it strain the friendship?

Is there any risk of your rent increasing if you stay put?

[aisling]

is there any chance that you could sublet your current apartment? And if so, could you sublet it as a furnished apartment for the time frame you'd be in the house?

If I could sublet the apartment, I would definitely do it. If I was really concerned about not being able to find somewhere affordable to rent when the time in the house was up, I wouldn't. Because I wouldn't feel like I was saving any money if I knew I was just going to be spending the saved money on a different apartment in a few months. yk?

Good luck! Sounds like an awesome opportunity if you can make it work!