This month (July):
Balance:$22,465.56
Years left: 1.6666666667
P =$1,121.04, I =$93.36, Escrow =$809.48
Last month (June):
Balance:$23,586.60
Years left: 1.75
P =$1,116.62, I =$97.78, Escrow =$809.48
One month’s prepayment savings: $0
We put our house on the market for under the market value. We gave a $200/mo discount on top of that for a family to rent it furnished rather than unfurnished. We only advertised on the university web-page and on sabbatical homes and the MLS. No Craigslist!
A family from overseas contacted us right away. They had their local friends look at it. We had a brief discussion via the internet wherein the husband tried to bargain us down from the listed unfurnished price, not understanding that we were renting it for less than what he was trying to bargain it down to because he wanted it furnished. The wife and I discussed daycares and leaving DC2’s outgrown clothing and toys since her child is a year younger and how much cheaper water is in the US than in her country. We put the husband in contact with our real estate agent. We hammered out all the details like dates. The wife contacted the agent with a lengthy list of demands of things she wanted cleaned before they got here (all of which we were planning on doing anyway) and a demand that we get rid of some of our paper blinds which she thought were grey and covered in dust from her friend’s video, but are actually peach and what she thought was dust are shadows from the pleats. We said no to replacing the blinds.
I got a few more contacts from less desirable prospective tenants (two dogs and a cat kind of less desirable– our HOA only allows two pets, or people needing the house for less time or wanting to bargain us down more), but they didn’t contact me back when I said we were in conversation with another family.
And then nothing for a few weeks. With the end of the school year etc. we didn’t really notice things weren’t progressing, but once that settled down we wanted to nail things down. We contacted our real estate agent, who said things were progressing. And then a week later things stopped progressing. So the real estate agent sent a firm email noting he’d been turning people away from looking at our house, and that activated some action from our prospective tenants, the irritated full professor noting that he is a very busy man in the middle of organizing a conference. Which is no doubt true, but he really should have taken care of the lease before the conference! He sent the background check information and passed the check. And our agent sent the lease to sign both electronically and in pdf form (in case the electronic version wasn’t working). And… then nothing.
So then our agent stopped turning other families away from looking at our house which meant we spent some time outside at the playground where it is very very hot. The first new family to look at the place texted right away and said they loved the place. They wanted it for the full time and they wanted it unfurnished (so another $4K for an additional 2 months + $1200 to rent unfurnished instead of furnished + the utilities we wouldn’t be paying those two months… but also plus hassle, storage, and potential breakage) and were willing to give us a deposit and signed lease right then and there. We gave the family we had an agreement with until the weekend was over to get us the signed lease and deposit or we were moving on. And they did. So we turned the second family away and took down the sign on our lawn and the listing off sabbaticalhomes.
Hopefully this will all work out!
I do think it helps that we listed the place under market price and that we had two prices for furnished vs. unfurnished that reflected our desire not to move our stuff into storage. We have more money than ability to deal with hassle these days, and it’s nice being able to just say, screw it, we have the cash for this, we can take a risk or pay to not have to deal with something. Me five years ago (when DH was still a tenure track professor) would have been freaking out at every point, and we’d have had a higher listing price. And I can’t even think what me when DH was between jobs would be doing.
Wish us luck!
Have you ever acted as a landlord, temporary or otherwise?