Real Estate Opinions Needed....

[Sheya Stephens]

Hello all-

My mother in law sold her house in Denver and moved up here to Idaho. For the last year she has been renting a house. She is receiving survivor benefits from her husband's death and has a part time job. Her rent is the majority of her survivor benefits... and the money that she has from life insurance policies are dwindling.

It is pretty muddled to explain... but they are so used to living above their means, that her $ is running out. She now wants to buy a house. Do we look into that as an investment? But at 61 years old, is it better to rent and have all of the major details of home ownership fall to some one else? To sum up my question...

1- Find a less expensive house to rent.

2- Invest what $ she has left to purchase a house.

Her mentally disable son lives with her, so it is just the 2 of them. I am afraid of giving her wrong advice, when I have no idea the pros and cons of either situation...

Thank you.

[Dave McClung]

Hello all-

My mother in law sold her house in Denver and moved up here to Idaho. For the last year she has been renting a house. She is receiving survivor benefits from her husband's death and has a part time job. Her rent is the majority of her survivor benefits... and the money that she has from life insurance policies are dwindling.

It is pretty muddled to explain... but they are so used to living above their means, that her $ is running out. She now wants to buy a house. Do we look into that as an investment? But at 61 years old, is it better to rent and have all of the major details of home ownership fall to some one else? To sum up my question...

1- Find a less expensive house to rent.

2- Invest what $ she has left to purchase a house.

Her mentally disable son lives with her, so it is just the 2 of them. I am afraid of giving her wrong advice, when I have no idea the pros and cons of either situation...

Thank you.

Shea

I doubt that anyone could give a specific answer without knowing more details. For instance, you mentioned survivor benefits and insurance proceeds, but didn't say what happened to the proceeds from the sale of the house in Denver.

Whether or not home ownership makes good sense depends on how much money she has.

At 61, she still has a lot of years left based on her life expectancy. She needs to sit down with some one with financial skills to determine if she has enough to buy a home.

I recently counseled a widow about the same age. In her case, we determined that home ownership made good sense -- over 20 years it made good financial sense.

Dave