life planning/real estate advise

[Simmons99]

I agree with the idea of the advice of a REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY or a real estate investor that has done well.

My father and my father-in-law are both really successful real estate investors and my husband and I doubled our net worth last year in real estate (our primary residence), which is how we could afford the new pool.

Generally both my father and my father-in-law say - when the neighborhood is going down hill GET OUT BEFORE THE VALUE DECREASES! You may be on the late end - if you are already noticing that you have a lower %?? of appreciation than houses of comprible age/size in a close neighborhood.

Basically they look at the number of rentals - if there are a lot and the trend is increasing - that is bad; then look at the types of cars parked in driveways - if the trend is towards older cars and more cars that are just sitting - that is bad; then the third is the general upkeep of the neighborhood - if people generally let their yards go and they are not actively trying to improve their homes - that is bad. Not necessarily that there are more noisy teenagers in the area.

I think you should see someone who is familiar with the real estate market in your area to see what you can do - but right now you can sell real estate without tax burden (on the first $250K of profit) as long as it was your primary residence for 2 out of the last 5 years. So you could rent it for a couple of years and be OK. Then after that you have capital gains tax - which is currently fixed at 15%.

As far as private schools (I know I am going to catch hell for this....)- I am a bit biased - personally I believe that sending your children to government run schools is ALWAYS a bad decision - unless you are in an area where the government schools have some sort of competition for students and $$. Even then - government schools will teach your kids what the government wants them to know - just like if you sent your kid to a Catholic school - they would teach your kid what the Catholic Church wants them to know... I'd rather be in charge of my kids education.

My vote - get the new house - rent this house for a couple of years & no new cars for the next 5 years to off set the cost of sending your kids to private school.

BTW - Florida is booming too - you used to be able to buy a nice house for $200K - now the average is about $255K for like a 1500sq foot home. I live further from town - they run about $330K for 2500sq ft - no yard/no pool.