OK, so y'all know I have the farm up north and I have blabbed on and on about the houses I missed here in KY. Well, I also have another house. Yes. We'll just call it "the
This house is a little bungalow I bought in my early twenties. Cute as can be, but only 750 sf and, at the time, I decided it was too small when a husband and baby decided they wanted to live there too. I tried to sell it, but the dismal real estate crisis provided too many "dream McMansions" at affordable prices and no one was interested in a cute, tiny bungalow (priced for a steal BTW for $28,000!)
Fast forward 7-8 years and the house has been consistently rented. The tenant that resides there now is often good at paying her rent (but often not as well and I have to go through the whole, 'I am not running a charity here' rigmarole). She has really cheap rent (less than my crummy apartment in Louisville). It is not enough to cover the (nearing its end) mortgage, taxes and insurance and each month I pay the difference.
The shining star has always been the low taxes. I always have received a credit for having a house over 70 years old. The lot, while fairly good size for an urban property, is small and the house is appraised at $35,000 (which is truly not accurate considering I couldn't even sell it for $28,000). The credits have always kept the taxes affordable.
Well, I looked up my bill today (due on the 10th) and it has leaped up by $500 a year! This probably doesn't sound bad when itemized over 12 months, but, considering I barely get enough to pay half the costs on the damn house, this bites. I mean really bites. My cost of living adjustment (cola) has been frozen, food and gas are ridiculously high, utilities are pondering for their share of the pie, insurance costs have gone up and now they raise property taxes in Indiana?
So, it is going back on the market. At one point we actually had a His, Hers and Ours homes-thank the reality gods we finally sold his house this past year! There is absolutely no way we are buying another house until we unload some obligations!
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