updates

Stress in moving is always high. There is no easy way to get around it. Riley has been napping after school. He missed Monday for a runny nose. I let him stay home Tuesday to do make up work. He was well enough to go to school, but we had fun. We played pool. I beat him at two games. We played chess. He beat me.

He was working in speech class on bills and the proper terms. They are going to debate each others ideas. Its a very liberal class from the bills that were presented. Demanding vegan lunches in the cafeteria to tax payer funded surrogate moms for gay couples.

Riley's bill was to adjust the 3% increase a year in value rule on property values for tax purposes in Oregon, to reflect Gross Domestic Product when it is less than 3%. So the assessed value doesn't reach the actual market value as we have now. I thought it was a brilliant idea. I had to laugh as he said he had to explain it to his teacher and the class, figures they wouldn't get it.

Meanwhile, we still wait to hear from Bank America to approve our offer. They have a notorious reputation in the industry. It makes me want to switch banks once we reach Longview. I will miss West Coast Bank. I haven't found any bank yet as nice and accommodating, with a user friendly web site. Bank America makes you wait 24 hours after adding a merchant to their account, before sending a check. West Coast provides you in essence with your own private checking account on line, where you can send a Friend a check without delay and keep them in your personal list for future transactions. They don't make you wait for approval.
On the house they are making us wait an excessively long time. We are now three weeks passed our original closing date which gave them a month originally to approve us. We are now going on two months if we get into June.

Good news is Tom mentioned to me that we should check out renting our house. He back pedaled a little when I found a local property manager to come over. I did some tax research. There is so much you can write off on a home when it is a rental that we found it to be a very lucrative option. It will also keep our credit intact.

Four bedroom homes are in high demand on the rental market. We are showing the house this weekend to two different potential families to rent. We can cover the mortgage and the taxes. Mortgage is covered with the rent and the taxes and other costs are covered with the write offs on expenses and interest. It is a pretty sweet deal. The house is already family friendly so to speak. We are rough on a house. I said pets are allowed. We even have a doggy door already installed.

We are only a month behind so it is an easy catch up on the mortgage. Easy recovery. The problem is we need to move out. I said the house would be available in July. Which worked well for the potential renters. Everyone is waiting for school to let out to move their kids.

I did ask for a three month interior inspection, including attic, to discourage drug dealers. A friend mentioned that as a concern. Having visited the "Drug House" in Longview where they destroyed a beautiful home, I definitely want interior inspections to frighten drug dealers away. I also offered discounts for long term contracts. The manager didn't like contracts. She does month to month normally. She said it was easier to evict someone on a month to month. But we don't want turn over and vacancies. I am a terrible house keeper. The house is not that special to us. The carpet is already toasted. I am expected to have the house move in ready after we leave. I may hire some cleaners to achieve that clean goal. I don't throw rocks at bad house keeping. You only have to worry about how the house looks when you try to bring in someone new. Our rent is high enough that I anticipate decent renters because they will need to have professional jobs to afford it. What I do know is four bedrooms are hard to find. And our town has a decent school system with a community that cares.

I have been trying to convince Tom for years to get into the rental business, but having grown up in rentals, he didn't want to be a landlord. Now I get what I have wanted without a fight. Though he did put up a struggle until I showed him the write offs. We had to come up with enough write offs to offset the income created with the rent. The only way people really make money in rentals is if they own the property without debt. All our costs wipe out all the profit in the income. It was fascinating reading and learning about depreciation. I am still trying to figure out what our basis is on our house. Do we use the original purchase price? Depreciate to this year and start with that price? Used the tax assessed value for this year (safe bet in my book)? Use the price the bank wants us to list it for (dreamers)?

Depreciation is over 27.5 years, about 3.6% per year. You can write of expenses, management costs, taxes, interest. Pretty much anything cost wise associated with the house. House hold items and appliances are depreciated over 5 years. Its a lot of book keeping. But I am thrilled to find an out to our nightmare and we can salvage our reputation and credit scores. Everyone is happy.