JimH wrote:
We will be selling our house in 3 or so years as the kids will (hopefully)
be gone. We are now looking at some fix-ups that will add value to the
house. One includes repainting the garage and doing something with the
concrete floor.

Speaking of selling real estate:

I had a really interesting afternoon. We decided to sell a couple of
our rental properties. One of our tenants is very hot on purchasing the
home they've lived in for a couple of years. To make a long story
short, when they first rented from us, we cut them some slack on the
rent because they were just getting started - she was 19 at the time an
LPN working on her RN and he was a student working on his BSEE and
painting houses part-time. We charged them about two hundred dollars
less than the going rate. The upstairs was rented to another young
couple - he is a rookie cop - a friend of our kids and she was a
Teacher Assistant working on her BS in education - cut these kids slack
at about the same rate as the downstairs. Hey, everybody needs help
when you get started.

Well, as things happened, we had the house evaluated by a real estate
agent and came up with a market value range. We discounted the lowest
value by 15% and told them we would absorb the closing costs. All they
needed to do was get the loan. We were still making a ton of money on
the place - didn't hurt at all.

They went to three banks and all turned the mortgage down for the
following reason.

The rents were too low.

Can you believe that? I couldn't so I went to these banks this
afternoon, one of which we've done business with for 35 years, and got
on the loan officers for being really stupid. Apparently, they take the
average value of the intended rental and work that against the couple's
income. If the rental value is lower than the average, that counts
against granting the mortgage. The reasoning is that if the rental is
significantly lower than the average for the area, that is an indication
of property value regardless of tax assessment or sale price.

At this point, I'm working with the loan committee at our bank to see
the light. If they don't see the light, they won't be seeing our
accounts as I will move them just for spite.