Keep in mind that you can usually get out of the lease if you really need to (although I seriously doubt you will).

Note that I’m not saying you’ll need to screw your landlord to do this, but that most leases provide for a way for you to get out if you need to. The only thing to keep in mind is that you’re on the hook until they find a new tenant, so it will likely cost you something.

Procrastinating is something you generally don’t want to do. Unless, that is, you’re thinking of buying a house right now. I’m *guessing* you already know that…

Replacement Tenants

My tenants moved out early and I am charging them rent until I find a new tenant to take over the house. I thought that the house would be vacant for a couple of months, with December usually being the low period for renters.

Advertised, and about 20 people have called me up, interested in the house. I have about five who are interested in moving in NOW.

So unless your landlord is a real prick, I’d say it wouldn’t take too long to find a replacement tenant for them…

(gotta love that craigslist).

surveyor, very interesting. Do you know if any of these potential tenants moved here from another area, or why they are renting and not buying?

Interesting … 4 out of the 5 moving in from either outlying areas or out of the area. Seems counter-trend to the population exodus we have witnessed.

I fit the bill, moved here to rent. Had a comparable job offer in North Canton, OH. This location was an hour from my home with very little traffic. Then the San Diego offer came and the salary offer was $45k more, plus way better bennies.

What helped me decide was to take the other job I’d end up moving anyway, and if I was going to leave my little comfort zone in Youngstown-Warren, why not just go for in CA. Also the Ohio job was with a small niche company, whereas out here I am with a known commodity. Even if I decide to leave here, my career is far better off.

So we rent…

So people who are willing to double up as renters, are still willing to move to San Diego? Was the Georgia guy then a young fella, i.e. one of the groups I suggested that will come here, have some fun in So CA, and then leave if he can’t afford a house when he’s ready to settle down? I got this theory from someone at the piggington meeting (was it zk?)

I was one of those that moved here in January this year. (reaching my 1st year anniv. :))

Anyway, my wife and I moved here from WI, we had good jobs back at home, and were thinking of buying but held off because we have always wanted to move to CA.

We knew about the housing prices, and were really discouraged. Yet moved anyway because we knew that where there’s a will there’s a way right? If other people were buying out here then so can we! 2 white collar professionals, I got around a 10k pay increase and my wife got around a 20k pay increase with good bennies, both positions were good career steps. (we lucked out, we applied when we got here)

I don’t know how many people are willing to do what we did though. My wife and I are both outdoors type people, and back in WI you are very limited because of winter. So for us it was worth it. I couldn’t live in AZ or other places due to allergies, or heat (this summer sucked though) plus, I wanted to be a surf bum lol.

It has worked out well, and when we initially got here we saw that it was a “buyers market!” asked people what they did and how they got loans etc. Quickly got approved for a 7yr fixed interest arm (though the realtor and broker thought I was being too conservative.) It was a 80/20 loan (we blew a large portion of our savings on the move) with the 20 being fixed for 5 with the hopes of having the 20 payed off in 5 years so we could refinance (it would have been possible) I look at it now and think, “what the hell was I thinking” I came here with the “midwest” attitude that if you are renting you are wasting money.

Put a couple bids on some condos, so many owners didn’t want to budge on price, we put ourselves on a limb and put a higher bid that we didn’t feel comfortable with, they declined still, we pulled out of the market to save until we can get a regular mortgage. (I posted that I saw that condo on the market many months later for 30k less than what we bid) Our thoughts were if we couldn’t buy in 3-5 years, we probably shouldn’t be living in SoCal.

We still have that feeling. If things don’t get affordable by 2008-2010.. we’ll move somewhere else, and take our nice size savings and buy there instead.

To be honest though, I don’t think we’ll have to move 😉