Renting vs Buying in TV?

[NatureBoy]

I'm about to hit the big 5-0 and my wife & I are starting to look at where we want to be when we become empty nesters in about 5 years. The easy answer is to roll the equity in our current home to a Villages home and keep on chugging. But not so fast.

According to this article (https://affordanything.com/is-renting-better-than-buying-should-i-rent-or-buy/) the decision to rent vs buy is far from a slam dunk for 'buy'.

The prime factors I see are:

How long you intend to stay in the home.
On the buying side, the shorter time you plan to stay in a home, the more money is eaten up by closing costs, agent commissions, remodeling, etc. In our case, our child will go off to college and we MIGHT move to wherever she ends up to be near any grandchildren. So we could be in TV from four to eight years and then move away.
The Price-to-Rent ratio.
TV is a vacation area and rents vary greatly seasonally. I poked around in Zillow a bit, but it was hard to get a feel for the P/R for longer term leases.

Appreciation
If the article is to be believed, over the long run, home prices don't outpace inflation measurably. From what I've seen of TV, they are building new homes so fast with no end in sight, that it appears resales go for about the same as new. Maybe at some point FL will put a moratorium on new construction for environmental reasons and that will make the prices shoot up. But in the mid-term, I don't see a lost opportunity cost for holding out on buying.



One of the things that's impressed me about TV people is that many "do their homework" and did a lot of research before moving to TV. Anyone care to share any of the financial homework you've done or have seen others do on the rent vs buy in TV equation?

[JoMar]

One of the first questions you need to ask is are you looking for a place to call home or an investment? Sounds like you are leaning to investment. There will be an option in 2020, The Lofts at Brownwood which will be minimum one year leases. There are many here who have moved 3 - 4 times, I assume they have made enough profit to meet their requirements....we have a couple in our neighborhood that are on home 3 and every move was an upgrade.

[fw102807]

That an awful lot of mights and maybes. What if your daughter does not have grandchildren or if she moves to Florida. Planning for the unforeseen does not seem like much of a strategy to me.

[eweissenbach]

Since I've been coming to TV since 2010, the prices for new and pre-owned homes has far outpaced inflation consistently. Saying that, it is NO guarantee that will continue! I have always been a buyer with the philosophy that the landlord bought the home, is making some money or breaking even on rent, and getting all the equity increase. There is no sure answer but, short term (I would say four years or less) renting may make sense, but given your perameters, I would be a buyer.

[graciegirl]

That an awful lot of mights and maybes. What if your daughter does not have grandchildren or if she moves to moves to Florida. Planning for the unforeseen does not seem like much of a strategy to me.

I agree.

[villagetinker]

IMHO, I would think buying would be the better option, but you need to consider:
1. Where are you getting the money from? Savings, investments. etc?
2. Possible lost income from using this money?
3. Current interest rates for home loans if you decide to finance. look at 15 year to 30 year for best rate.
4. You may want to talk to your financial advisor with regard to buying versus leasing. I consider leasing as "sunk money", you are throwing it away. Purchase should be lower monthly cost, possible tax deduction, and you are building equity.
Good luck with your quest.

PS, TV is great, and you can always travel to the grand-kids a couple for times (or more) per year.

[Toymeister]

I would buy, here is why: The baby boomers started in 1946 but peaked in 1957. Those boomers will be 62 next year. In 2023 they will be 65. The demand for homes will continue at an accelerated rate for birth years 1958 -1964 Presumably, home sale price will exceed inflation based upon this demand.

As a rule, though, not all homes pay for themselves as rental income properties. Designers vary from 1500 to 2100 square ft. The spread in purchase price can be dramatic but the rent price... Not so much. In large part of depends if you handle the property as a business , or a hobby.

[rjm1cc]

This site might help VH4R Home Rentals in The Villages (http://www.villagershomes4rent.com/)

I would not want to be a landlord and would hold off on buying until I knew I wanted to live in the home. I am not considering financial gain in my decision.

[Challenger]

The most important decision in buying investment property is the "purchase price" which includes all costs associated with the transaction. Often associated costs can add 5-10 to the actual cost of acquisition . The rate of return on the investment is then based on that total expenditure. Long term increases in house prices ( disregarding special circumstances) usually track generally with inflation. If you truly want to determine ROI, all expenses must be accounted for. The average "non professional" investor doesn't account for wear and tear costs. How old is the roof. If the house is new you may get 15 yrs with the roof. Cost of roof replacement $8000/15 = $500+ per year maint. reserve; Air conditioner, refrigerator , repaint inside/out , landscape maintenance--on and on. My guess is that most amateur's do not do well after considering time value of money, and the fact there are liquidity considerations with real estate. Just some issues to consider if RE investment is a new venture in retirement.

[Bay Kid]

6 years ago I came here to visit Dad. He rented for 2 months a year for what I consider big money. Within a day I fell in love with TV, of course. For over 20 years I owned a beautiful waterfront lot on the Chesapeake Bay I was saving for retirement. All I did was pay taxes and cut grass. I sold that land and put my retirement cash into a home in TV. Now I have my own private home with everything being mine. I stay from 4-6 months a year for about the same cost as Dad paid for 2 months rent, plus Dad gets to stay in TV each year for FREE. The balance of my family and friends also love to come visit, another great ownership bonus.

If I sold tomorrow I would be ahead of the game and would be lucky enough to have many years of enjoyment.

This is, in my opinion, the best investment in life I could ever of made!

[graciegirl]

6 years ago I came here to visit Dad. He rented for 2 months a year for what I consider big money. Within a day I fell in love with TV, of course. For over 20 years I owned a beautiful waterfront lot on the Chesapeake Bay I was saving for retirement. All I did was pay taxes and cut grass. I sold that land and put my retirement cash into a home in TV. Now I have my own private home with everything being mine. I stay from 4-6 months a year for about the same cost as Dad paid for 2 months rent, plus Dad gets to stay in TV each year for FREE. The balance of my family and friends also love to come visit, another great ownership bonus.

If I sold tomorrow I would be ahead of the game and would be lucky enough to have many years of enjoyment.

This is, in my opinion, the best investment in life I could ever of made!

What a great guy you are, BayKid. I have always enjoyed your posts but now I know you have good common sense, a kind heart and a wise plan.

[tophcfa]

6 years ago I came here to visit Dad. He rented for 2 months a year for what I consider big money. Within a day I fell in love with TV, of course. For over 20 years I owned a beautiful waterfront lot on the Chesapeake Bay I was saving for retirement. All I did was pay taxes and cut grass. I sold that land and put my retirement cash into a home in TV. Now I have my own private home with everything being mine. I stay from 4-6 months a year for about the same cost as Dad paid for 2 months rent, plus Dad gets to stay in TV each year for FREE. The balance of my family and friends also love to come visit, another great ownership bonus.

If I sold tomorrow I would be ahead of the game and would be lucky enough to have many years of enjoyment.


This is, in my opinion, the best investment in life I could ever of made!

Agree with everything in the above post and will add that whenever we visit our Villages home we can jump on a plane and the only thing we need to bring is our IPad and house keys. It's so nice to get to our home, filled with our stuff, rather than a rental. We even have the exact same bed and sets of golf clubs in both Florida and up north.

[dewilson58]

The options are (1) Buy now; (2) Buy later.


I'm not a renter / leaser.


Sounds like you have some time here, so I would do your research and then buy. Good research will take less than a year. Decide New vs. Used?? Location?? Floorplan?? Obviously, price.


Prioritize the above items. Your top priority might answer the next item or two.


There are people who rent for a year.........really get to know TV and determine prioritize. Many are happy they went that route. Not me. I did a couple Life Styles (over 5 years) and pulled the trigger.


Good Luck.

[dadspet]

Don't over think it. Renting before you buy is a great option to determine if you will really like it here and more importantly where would prefer to live and what style house you would like. We rented for 3 yrs Before we finally decided to buy (1wk,1mt then 3months). It's really a about the lifestyle. It's not for everyone but if your looking for Activity in a beatiful well planned community give it a try. If your thing is watching TV and keeping mostly to yourself I'm pretty sure you can find that here also but you can find it many other places for less.

[NatureBoy]

Thank you for the replies. If you read the article, from a financial point of view buying is NOT always the wisest decision. And the shorter time you live somewhere, the more the balance sheet tips in favor of renting.

I agree with Toymeister's point that demand should stay high in TV for the next 10+ years, so buying should be a pretty safe "investment" even if the time in the home is relatively short (close to 5 years).


There are people who rent for a year.........really get to know TV and determine prioritize. Many are happy they went that route. Not me. I did a couple Life Styles (over 5 years) and pulled the trigger.

I think that's what I'm trying to sort out. Do we do some short-term rentals to learn enough to pick the "perfect" place, or do a long-term rental to really get to know TV and see if it's really where we want to stay?

Regarding the comments not to "over think" this. One person's over thinking is another's due diligence. I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw around. $20k one way or another seems worth several hours - or even days of analysis & planning.

I'll be in central FL with the family over the next two weeks; the wife & I hope to make a day visit to TV.

[ArkOuFan]

We have been visiting over the last 7 or 8 years as short term renters because we are still working. What we have tried is renting in different areas and probably more importantly different times of the year. There are big differences say renting in the spring vs winter. Not good or bad just different. While some may say we have thrown the rent money away we feel much more confident when we do purchase we know what we want. We're to the point now that we could give the realtor our wish list and be comfortable buying when they find a home that checks those boxes. We appreciate all those owners that have allowed us to rent their homes but for us s once we buy we plan to make it our full time home.

[thetruth]

I'm about to hit the big 5-0 and my wife & I are starting to look at where we want to be when we become empty nesters in about 5 years. The easy answer is to roll the equity in our current home to a Villages home and keep on chugging. But not so fast.

According to this article (https://affordanything.com/is-renting-better-than-buying-should-i-rent-or-buy/) the decision to rent vs buy is far from a slam dunk for 'buy'.

The prime factors I see are:

How long you intend to stay in the home.
On the buying side, the shorter time you plan to stay in a home, the more money is eaten up by closing costs, agent commissions, remodeling, etc. In our case, our child will go off to college and we MIGHT move to wherever she ends up to be near any grandchildren. So we could be in TV from four to eight years and then move away.
The Price-to-Rent ratio.
TV is a vacation area and rents vary greatly seasonally. I poked around in Zillow a bit, but it was hard to get a feel for the P/R for longer term leases.

Appreciation
If the article is to be believed, over the long run, home prices don't outpace inflation measurably. From what I've seen of TV, they are building new homes so fast with no end in sight, that it appears resales go for about the same as new. Maybe at some point FL will put a moratorium on new construction for environmental reasons and that will make the prices shoot up. But in the mid-term, I don't see a lost opportunity cost for holding out on buying.



One of the things that's impressed me about TV people is that many "do their homework" and did a lot of research before moving to TV. Anyone care to share any of the financial homework you've done or have seen others do on the rent vs buy in TV equation?

Five years from now?
The information you are asking for simply does not exist and what is known you would not or should not share publicly.

UNKNOWN-what will your current home that you plan on,"cashing out," be worth. I think you implied that your current home is not paid off and you plan on having a mortgage on,if you purchase a place in the Villages. You do not know the mortgage rate in five years. That will effect not only the cost to buy but the ease to sell.

MY THOUGHTS-beware of panic and mistaken planing. It is a standard comment of people in the villages moving several times. The ones I know of, it was not due to financial changes, or death or health issues. I would not ask but, poor planing and or BOREDOM come to mind. It is true that homes in the villages are going up in price but, do not forget the home you now live in
is likely also going up in price. The increase in your current residence may be higher than the average in the villages. In any case it will offset part of the price increase in the villages.

YOU DID NOT MENTION- You stated your plan is for you to be 55. Be sure you have healthcare insurance. You cannot get on to medicare till age 65. Private healthcare insurance for two, will cost you about 20,000 a year.

FAR AS A FIVE YEAR PLAN-now is a great time to get rid of stuff.
I, a pack rat, sold stuff on ebay for like five years-very part time. We had a garage sale once or twice a year. I made a good amount of money. Money is far easier to move compared to STUFF.

OUR PLAN-we are ex-New Yorker's. We escaped the 6% state tax, a 3% city tax, oppressive real estate tax bill. ALL WENT AS PLANNED-EXCEPT FOR WHAT DIDN'T

[eweissenbach]

ALL WENT AS PLANNED-EXCEPT FOR WHAT DIDN'T

:1rotfl::1rotfl:That's the funniest, and truest, thing I've seen on TOTV in a long time. :1rotfl::1rotfl:

[SIRE1]

As a retired engineer, everyone teases me about how I've got everything on a spread sheet. But, after renting for 4 years, we decided to buy. But I was always curious about whether that was the best economic choice. The literature that The Villages provided said the estimated annual cost of owning was $12,000 per year, but I wanted to see what it actually was. So I decided to put EVERYTHING I've spent on our house on a spread sheet and then compare the annual cost to a monthly rental to determine how many months I need to stay to make it economically justifiable over renting.

So far, three (3) of our years here in The Villages have cost me $14,000 a year, while the other 3 full years have cost me $10,000 a year. When I compared the total amount I've spent to an estimated $3,200 per month rental cost, I found that the break even point for renting was 3.74 months per year. So if we were going to stay 1 to 3 months every year, it is better to rent. If we stayed in The Villages 4 or more months each year (we have been averaging 5 months), then it is better to own.

And that is just comparing the ongoing operating cost and not any appreciation that hopefully our house will generate. And the 3 years at $14,000 a year included house improvements, so they aren't really indicative of what it typically cost to own a home in The Villages.

[B-flat]

We rented for 2 months in January and February of 2018 since we weren’t sure we’d like the Villages. We liked it so much that we planned on renting for 3 months in 2019. After discussing it with our financial advisor the said just buy something since your cost for the year will likely be about what the 3 month rental would be. With that said we purchased a villa this past June. From my point of view renting for a short period was the way to help us make a decision.

[Bay Kid]

What a great guy you are, BayKid. I have always enjoyed your posts but now I know you have good common sense, a kind heart and a wise plan.

Thank you Gracie. I do my best with what God gave me.

[queasy27]

If there's some likelihood that you'd only be here 4-5 years, an unfurnished long-term rental might be a suitable choice from a financial aspect. Personally, my concern would be the owner deciding to sell at the end of an annual lease. I don't do well with that type of uncertainty, but of course it's not a problem if you're open to moving. The better news is that many owners here offer multiple-year leases, and that (so far) there are usually a range of rentals available.