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No More Rent

June 5th, 2015 at 03:21 pm

Turned in my final rent check this week. It felt great. They managed to find a renter starting mid-June, so I only had to pay a portion. We saved over $1k by moving out to my parents early! I'm sure it will help with the unknown house purchase costs that are bound to pop up.

We've also adjusted our paychecks so our take-home is about $500/month higher. I'm hoarding cash until I get the final numbers. The change in paychecks does mean we aren't putting much into HSA right now or as much into retirement as normal, but the plan is we will only do this for a few months. I'm ok on the HSA as we've hit our deductible for the year already (actually, we've hit three different deductibles in the last 6 months). After we get the initial new house costs figured out, we'll go back and revise. Ideally, I'd like to get my next year's deductible saved before December. And retirement - always a good thing to do.

Speaking of retirement, it's been quite a hassle to get my old 401k rolled over into my new one. HR, when bad, is bad. They had my wrong social. I always thought that that was one thing NOT to mess up. Sigh. And THEN, spouse has to sign a form, with a notary present. It makes sense, but what a headache.

We are in the three week window until closing. I both want it to crawl and to speed up. I think buying your first house is kind of life changing. In a good way for me- I feel like I'm coming out of a fog, but it might just be that it has been long enough since giving birth, too. Plus sun. Sun always helps.


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Paid New House Expenses:
$ 1,000 Earnest Money (goes towards eventual down payment)
$ 300 Lease Break
$ 80 Moving boxes and extra gas
$ 325 Inspection Fee
$ 425 Mortgage Application Fee (goes towards eventual closing costs)
=$ 2,130

Money saved:
$ 26 May internet
$ 43 June internet
$ 47 May utilities
$ xx June utilities (up to $115/mo)
$ 25 June pet fee
$ 667 June rent
$ 60 May/June gas from carpooling savings
$ 164 Renters insurance refund
=$1032 to $1147 Saved!

Anticipated expenses (approximate numbers):
$ 4,200 Down payment (in addition to earnest)
$ 2,900 Closing Costs (in addition to mortgage app. fee)
=$7,100

Potential fixer upper costs
$ 3,000 Roofing materials (simple small single story roof and gutters, work done by selves)
$ 800 Appliances (used stove, fridge, washer and dryer)
$ 500 Doors and locks (exterior doors need to be replaced, not just re-locked)
$ 300 Window AC units (craigslist)
$ 200 Bathroom repairs (grout, tub replacement, shower head, caulk)
$ 200 Paint (walls, ceilings, trim, cabinets, potentially exterior)
$ 500 Misc other updates, move in expenses
=$5,500

3 Responses to “No More Rent”

  1. snafu Says:
    1433518030

    I've no idea of your local costs but I'm concerned that some anticipated costs listed may be unrealistic. Due to long term costs, appliances need to be 'energy efficient.' Front load washers use significantly less water making operation less expensive. Clothes dryer is the most expensive appliance to run, if you can possibly hang items to air dry you will save significant sums. {I put anything that goes on hangers in dryer and set stove timer for 5 minutes, grab out those items out and hang on hangers to air dry with aid of an inexpensive, retractable, rack}
    http://www.amazon.ca/Household-Essentials-5-Line-Retractable-Clothes/dp/B0000V09X2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1433515787&sr=8-6&keywords=clothes+drying+racks

    I think you'll be surprised by the cost of paint and painting supplies. Given the amount of work, it's not smart to use poor quality paint. I suggest checking Consumer's Report @ library for their 'Best Buy' recommendation. If you decide to paint the exterior, I recommend you rent or buy [depending on your plan] a paint sprayer. It takes a day to set-up for spraying exterior covering trim, windows, doors, stairs, shrubbery etc with newspaper, plastic or drop sheets but the sprayer uses far less paint, gives excellent coverage and best of all gets the job done on a bungalow in less than 6 hours. Trim and doors will take at least a day mostly because of set-up and take down window by window.

    It takes patience and skill to spray interior rooms but it goes so fast if the rooms are empty. The most time consuming is rinsing tube and small parts.

  2. rob62521 Says:
    1433533438

    I am shocked at how much paint and good brushes and rollers cost. And like snafu said, you don't want to skimp because you will pay for it later.

    Perhaps I missed it, but did you include homeowner's insurance? I noticed you had a return of renter's insurance.

  3. Kiki Says:
    1433539641

    My dollar store had simple brushes that worked very well for the small areas around the doors and windows inside. Also, they had drop cloths very cheaply that worked very well.

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