Why we can't rent...
"Real quick answer.....the homeowners MUST live in the house. You may "allow" other people to live with you but the owner of the home must be in residence.Your exact proposal / model was in place next to my townhouse for over 2 years with Ashley living in it with 3 girlfriends from Messiah and charging them rent.It worked because the home owner was in residence and the township never found out......the association was always "against" wholesale renting such as you are proposing...especially with an eye to prevent Messiah college students ect from making group homes. Upper Allen twp has..likewise...provisions against groups of students renting off campus. There are several landlords with students that are apparently being Grandfathered and continue to rent to students but this is kind rare...FURTHER complicating your idea is a township ordinance already in place for a couple years stating that groups of students cannot be within 400 feet of another rental or group of same. I am quite sure there is just such a townhouse just up from yours near the corner of high street. Again....in a nutshell.....I think you may encounter resistance from the township for sure......"
This is the explanation that our association president gave us for why we're not allowed to rent. We are considering selling the place and buying something in MD or perhaps buying another house here in PA to rent out. Here's where you guys come in...
Do you know anyone that could keep an eye out for a fixer-upper that we could buy at a lower price tag and make improvements on? Maybe a realtor or just someone that has a good eye for houses? It doesn't even need to necessarily be "liveable" to start off with. We could live with my mom while we made the needed improvements to the house before we actually moved in. Or if Laurie takes a travel nursing job, they will pay for an apartment for us until we can make it liveable.
The only thing that we would want is to make sure the house is structurally sound, no bug infestations, etc. and that it is in an area that has the potential to increase in value. We have found a few townhomes in downtown annapolis (not the historic district) that are within our price range. We also found a few places on the other side of the Bay Bridge that are also in our price range and have a decent amount of land to them. That would require $2.50 every time we crossed the bridge but if we could get a house for a more affordable price, it might be worth it.
So, anyone have any comments, connections, or advice on what to do?
Matt and Laurie
posted by Matt Boyer @ 8:54 AM
7 Comments:
Not sure why the font was so small on that. I cut and pasted and maybe it brought the font size with it. Srry about that. Hope you can still read it!
Thanks for the encouragement and the reccomendations. Christine - do you know anyone that lives on the other side of the bridge but works in the balt/annap/d.c. area? I am just wondering if that is feasible or if it just ends up costing more than it's worth. The way I look at it is if we cross the Bridge once a day with each car every day of the year, it will cost us $1825 a year crossing the Bridge. That's about $150 a month. So, if it saves us more than $150 a month on our mortgage payment compared to what we would pay for something comparable on the other side of the bridge, then it makes sense to buy a house there. Are you following my logic?
Matt,
I know some people who do the bridge thing. 1. the MTA offers reduced prices to people who commute often, don't know what the deal is, but I know they used to sell $.40 tickets to the $1.00 toll at the tunnels in B-more. 2. 410.757.6000 is the phone number for the Bay Bridge. I'm sure they'd have some answers for you. 3. I do have a great realtor who I'll hook you up with. She is awesome. (one day I'll tell you the story of a friend who bought a home from sellers and Carman was her agent... They said we had a great realtor.) 4. $150.00 a month might be a good deal. We'll be watching. I'm back from vacation now, so I'll be in touch. Love ya, buddy.
As for Ben's comment on the Bay Bridge, if you get an EZ Pass or M-Tag, you pay $25 for 25 trips accross the bridge (2 way), and they are good for 60 days.
Well, you invited us all up in your business... I'm concerned about your calculations of only crossing once a day. I guess you estimating that there will be some days you cross more than once, and some not at all? Not discounting the idea of living with the webbed foots, just trying to focus to the most accurate picture.
What Christine? Does Kevin pay tolls? That's some kind of perk.
Regarding Ben's comment, yes, I was basing the two cars a day on the idea that there will probably be many days that we will cross the Bridge together and just stay over there for the day. I'm also thinking that since we are both going to be setting up offices in our homes, there will probably be at least one or two days during the week that I will just work from home. That will mean only Laurie will be crossing the bridge on those days. I guess I just figured that both cars once a day would average it all out.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions. There are definitely some good deals over there. We are hoping to come down sometime in the next few weeks just to drive around out there and see what is available.
Hey, I got an idea for a title for your next post... "Why I can't post." Whaddya think?
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