A Widower, a Paid-Off House and a One-Way Ticket
In June he bought a one-way ticket to a coastal town abroad, where a friend rents out rooms.
Picture a man named Arthur, 70, whose wife Ruth died in March. Their house is paid off and worth about US$500,000. In June he bought a one-way ticket to a coastal town abroad, where a friend rents out rooms. The flight leaves in the middle of October.
Two weeks before, his daughter Dana drove over to help him pack. She found him in the hall closet with Ruth's gray wool coat in his hands.
"I am going to sell everything," Arthur said. "The house, the furniture, all of it. I do not want to look at it any more."
Dana took hold of the other sleeve. "Dad, the ticket is one decision. The house is another. You could fly in October and decide about the house next year."
"Your mother hated waste. Paying for an empty house would have driven her mad."
"She also kept every recipe card for forty years," Dana said. "She was never in a hurry about the things that mattered."
Dana had made a page, and she laid it on the bed. It showed three ways to spend the year. His room at his friend's costs the same on all three, so she left it off.
| For one year | Fly, leave the house empty | Fly, rent it out for the year | Fly, sell before leaving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Money in | US$0 | US$33,000 (US$3,000 for 11 months) | US$18,800 (US$470,000 after 6% selling costs, at an assumed 4%) |
| Money out | US$14,900 (about US$1,240 a month) | US$13,800 (tax, insurance and big repairs US$10,500, plus a 10% manager US$3,300) | US$0 |
| Left over | −US$14,900 | +US$19,200 | +US$18,800 |
| Can it change later? | Yes | Yes. Sell next fall, or rent again | No |
| The coat | Still in the closet | Still in the closet | Gone before he leaves |
Arthur read the last row of numbers. "Thirty-three thousand seven hundred dollars," he said. That was the gap between an empty house and a sold one.
"That is what an empty house costs for a year," Dana said. "The middle column is different. A property manager finds the tenant, collects the rent and takes the calls. The tenant pays the utilities and the small repairs. A year of renting leaves you about where selling would."
Arthur sat on the bed. He looked at the coat for a while. "Then waiting is not the expensive part. Leaving it empty is."
"Yes," Dana said. "And the manager would be the one to answer the phone, so you would not have to look at the house."
He thought about the town, the rooms by the water, and the house where Ruth had hung every picture herself. He called a manager that week. The lease was for one year, and Dana kept a key. They wrote a date on her calendar, one year later, for a talk about the house. One box from the closet went home with Dana.
Arthur flew in October.
You could…
- Write the ticket date and the house date on two separate lines.
- Ask a property manager what a one-year lease would involve and what you would still pay.
- Ask an accountant whether a sale a year from now would still fit the US home-sale exclusion, which asks that you lived in the home two of the last five years.
Did you ever set one decision aside so that another could go ahead? Write to us in the comments about a decision you set aside. A reader with a ticket and a house to decide about could find it useful.
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data, before income tax, with prices held flat. The US$10,500 is an assumption for what an owner pays when a tenant covers utilities and routine upkeep.
Tell us in the comments