Home ownership by default

Taxes?
Don't know 'how' you inherited the house or if you paid inheritance tax, etc.

BUT, if you sell it now without claiming residency in it, you WILL also be paying a hefty capital gains tax if you sell it.

I am pretty sure the gov still left in place one of Bush's housing tax breaks.

If you 'live' in the house for 2 years you do NOT have to pay capital gains tax on the sale.

Sell it before 2 years is up living in it and/or without living in it at all and you will have to pay capital gains tax on it.

Just something to think about to help you make the decision. :C

My impression is/was that homes do not appreciate rapidly in Texas (a generalization of course).

If you do not want to live/stay where the house is. Sell it.

John&Joey wrote:
You might have the perfect setup without even knowing it. Nice spring and fall stay in TX. Hot summer explore the north, cold winter explore the south.

Try it for a year or so, then make your choice.

This sounds ideal to me as well. A super cheap home base sounds good and you can be a "warm bird." :)

Clean it out and rent it for a year or two. That will give you time to make a non rushed decision.

I had a similar situation with a house in Denison. I kept it because my aunt still lived there and we went to visit her but when she died, I finally sold it. The taxes were cheap until the assessor found out that my parents had died and I was the owner plus I was not a Texas resident. Another big expense is trying to insure it with it not being full time occupied. It was costing me about $10K/yr to maintain because we flew back twice a year from WA, once to get it ready for winter, and again in the spring to ready it for summer. Rental car expense in DFW is out of sight.

There are times I wish I had kept it

Unless you'd really want to live there, I'd sell it. Why keep it as a storage unit?

I would sell it and contents and put the money in the bank. Once you decide where you want to live when you stop full timing you can build or buy or rent a place. Less to worry about in my opinion.

OP
Property taxes are frozen at $1037/yr. House will be unoccupied 6 months a year = min. utilities. Hence $2k expenses.
This is cheaper than rental on a storage space for toys. Sister in law will be staying in N. TX house in winter. House is in a fairly good neighborhood so crime is low.
Just wanted to see many's reaction to a good situation. And it's in my wife's name so she will be deciding it's fate. Thanks.

I would think about it for six months to a year. Unless you really don'want/like the house.

An auctioneer is quick and easy. But, you do pay and there us no guarantee the house will bring what you want.

Good luck with whatever you chose.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
You may want to revisit those expense figures. It is very hard for me to believe that all the utilities and property taxes only equate to $160/month. It is likely your mother in law had some property tax relief (homestead and/or resident senior citizen) that you may not qualify for. Property taxes are very high in Texas (offset by no state income tax). And you are right, unoccupied property is a magnet for crime. I would sell and if you are concerned about having a permanent place in the future, put the money aside from the sale and use it to buy when and where you want to own.

Property taxes in Texas get frozen for those owners over 65 and there's also a Homestead exemption that can come into play. Most likely the mother-in-law had low taxes because of this, but any new owner would face a tax re-evaluation. Now if the new owners are also over 65 their property taxes could be fixed at that point as well.

Compared to various other States I've lived in, worked in and paid taxes in I don't find the overall taxes all that high here in Texas. It depends on where the property is. A friend of mine had a house on a small lot in Dallas County and she was paying more than twice what I pay for a similar sized home on 1/2 acre in Collin County just north of Dallas.