You Sold Your House…Congratulations! Now What?

  Housing

“People are living longer than ever before, a phenomenon undoubtedly made necessary by the 30-year mortgage”. Doug Larson

So, you’re stuck. What choices do you have?

  • Overpay in today’s market?
  • Temporarily move in with others in your family?
  • Rent until something might become available, but then have to buy out the remainder of your lease?

 Or (smiling now), there’s always this:     

There is an alternative. You can consider, “Extended Stay” at a local hotel/motel.

Extended stay rates can be much less than the typical overnight rate, sometimes even half the cost. There are many advantages to extended stay vs. renting.

  1. No lease. If you find your next home in one, two, or six months down the road, you can simply pack up and check out.
  2. No utility payments. No electric, heat/cooling, water, garbage disposal, etc.
  3. Free internet, including TV.
  4. No additional property taxes and insurance.
  5. No maintenance. Housekeeping is supplied. You won’t even have to buy toilet paper.
  6. Many places have indoor pools, hot tubs, steam rooms and workout areas at no additional cost.
  7. Free breakfast every day is provided. It may not be fancy but it will fill the need.
  8. There may be kitchens in your room. It will allow you to prepare many of your own meals.
  9. You have security. Someone will always be on duty if you need help.
  10. You can accumulate ‘reward points’ that, if you want to travel, can be applied at other corporate locations to reduce, or even entirely cover, the cost of your stay.
  11. For payment, use a particular membership credit card (Sam’s Club, Costco for example) and get a rebate on a portion of your room cost.

There are a couple of downsides to consider.

  1. You will not be getting the same amount of space you moved from, so expect to pay some storage for whatever you kept to furnish your next home.
  2. Living quarters will be smaller than what you were probably living in before. It gets ‘squeezy’ after a while but be patient, your sacrifice may wind up saving you tens of thousands of dollars when the housing market normalizes.