This is a picture of the kitchen in the house we are wanting to rent. NO, we have not signed a lease on this house yet. We aren't stupid. We will not sign a lease until we find a good quality renter for our home now. Are we risking losing this new rental house? Maybe a little, but we've worked out a first right of refusal with the owner of this house and are putting ourselves in the best possible position we can. If it gets rented out from under us, we'll find another house. There are lots of rental houses out there. If we can't rent our current house, we'll just stay here and nothing will change.
This is a calculated move. We've run the numbers. We've thought things through. Although it might be coming out of left field to an outsider, it's something Eric and I have talked about and thought about for a long time. We didn't move to Colorado so that our views are of cars zooming by and the back of someone's house.
The view from our back door now:
View from the new rental home:
We didn't move here so that our son can't run and play in his own yard because of the cars speeding by. Yes, we love our current house. We wish we could take this house and pick it up and move it to a couple acres in the woods. But that's not possible. This morning I was woken up by the neighbors behind us. The little boy was waking up the little girl for school. He wasn't even being that loud about it, but when the houses are that close together and your windows are open, you hear it.
We could move to a bigger house in the woods. One that wouldn't really save us that much money. We are doing this to save money and see what it's like to live out there. If, by the end of the year, we find that we hate it, we'll move back here with a big cushion in our bank account. If we find we love it, we'll continue to rent out our house, or sell it, or whatever. We'll make it work.
So, why did we buy a house that was on such a busy street and so close to other houses 5 years ago? Well, first of all, we were the third house built in this neighborhood. It was tons of land and three houses. It wasn't on a busy street. Many of those streets that the cars are going to now didn't even exist. We weren't close to our neighbors. We didn't have neighbors. We knew that there would be houses built, but we didn't really have a good image in our head of exactly how many houses would be there. We also didn't have a child at the time so a small yard and close to traffic didn't bother us. We didn't think anything of it. But now we have a 2 year old that absolutely LOVES to be outside. And when he plays out there I just about have a heart attack the whole time. His balls roll into the street. He rides his little motorcycle and I have to catch him at the end of the driveway or else he will get hit by a car. I spend my whole time watching the road and yelling at cars to slow down instead of actually playing with my child.
This is a move that makes sense for us. It's something we want to try out and see if it works. We have more knowledge than the average person about real estate and rentals. We are being smart about it. Everyone that really knows us and has spent time in our house is being very supportive, and that's really all that matters. But for the rest of you, we do care about your opinion of us, and want you to trust that we are making the right decision for US, both financially and emotionally.
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