Did you know I have a rental property? I do! Many of you have asked me to share an update and so today, I will! I love hearing what you want to read about on Frugalwoods, so please keep the suggestions coming! You can add your ideas for future posts in the comments below or send me an email (liz@frugalwoods.com).

Our First Home = Our Rental Property

We bought our first home in Cambridge, MA (which is Boston-adjacent) back in July 2012 with the short-term plan of living in it and the long-term plan of renting it out. In June 2016 we moved to our Vermont homestead and signed our first tenants for the Cambridge house. Since then, it’s been fully rented with no vacancies and we’ve been able to charge market rate rent each year. We’ve used the same property management company from the outset and consider that expense a very worthwhile trade-off.

Continue reading What’s Happening With Our Rental Property? at Frugalwoods.

As long-time readers are aware, Mr. Frugalwoods and I own a rental property in Cambridge, MA, which is one part of our diversified portfolio of assets. This is the very same property formerly known as our first home. We bought this house in 2012–for the lowest purchase price per square foot for that buying season in Cambridge–and happily lived there for four years.

This home was purchased with the intention of one day translating into a rental after we pursued our ultimate dream of moving to a homestead in the rural woods of Vermont, which came to fruition in May 2016. Today’s post is devoted to the tale of everything Mr. FW and I did after making the decision (in spring 2016) to rent out our Cambridge home.

If you’d like more backstory on our rental–as well as our current home in Vermont–please enjoy:

• Why Did We Buy Our House?

Continue reading How We Turned Our City Home Into A Rental Property at Frugalwoods.

As I shared in a fit of elation the other week, Mr. Frugalwoods and I bought our Vermont homestead!

If you want to get caught up on this breaking news, check out the first two posts in my homestead mania series: That Time We Bought A Homestead and How We Decided Our Homestead Was The One. Today, I’m addressing the financial aspects of our dream-come-true property.

Our plan, and ability, to move to the woods of Vermont is predicated upon several financial factors working in harmony:

1. Extreme frugality.
2. Renting out the home we own in Cambridge, MA.
3. Purchasing a homestead in our price range.
4. The ability to work remotely from Vermont.
5. The possibility of someday generating income from our land.
6. Frugal Hound’s international modeling career. Let’s be honest, she’s one fabulous looking greyhound.

Continue reading The Finances Of Our City Rental And Country Homestead at Frugalwoods.

In case you missed last week’s announcement… Mr. Frugalwoods and I bought our homestead in the woods! In light of this revelation, I’ll devote a spate of upcoming posts to discussing every angle of our rapidly approaching homestead journey. Today’s edition of “all things homestead” analyzes the reasons why we chose the property we did. Future installments will address the financials and sundry other topics.

Although we felt an immediate emotional connection when we first laid eyes on what would become our homestead, Mr. FW and I knew we needed to back those mushy feelings up with cold, hard data. And so, we commenced our research. In addition to the house and the land, we have a vested interest in the surrounding community. Thus, our prior-to-purchase vetting process was relatively extensive and included such factors as the local school district, nearby community organizations, and even the grocery store.

Continue reading How We Decided Our Homestead Was The One at Frugalwoods.

In case you thought the only new thing going on in our lives right now is Babywoods, well, I have a small surprise. We kinda sorta bought our homestead. And by “kinda sorta” I mean we 100% bought our homestead.

I’m thrilled to share this news with you and it’s the main reason why I’ve been posting less often lately–Mr. Frugalwoods and I are delightfully busy preparing for our impending move!

We closed on our Vermont homestead earlier this year and will move there in mid-May (we needed to get our affairs in order before divulging to you fine folks). Our Cambridge home is already rented out for June 1st and I’ll discuss the rental property angle of our plan in a future post. In the meantime, we spend most weekends in Vermont and most weekdays frantically packing up our Cambridge place (and, of course, fixing the 1 million things that decided to break… gotta love that everything happens at once!).

Continue reading That Time We Bought A Homestead at Frugalwoods.

It is 100% possible to live frugally anywhere. Of this, I’m convinced. I often hear folks bemoan our high cost-of-living city as thwarting frugal endeavors, to which I say preposterous! For all of our post-college years, Mr. Frugalwoods and I have lived in notoriously expensive locales: New York City, Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA (twice). And we’ve still managed to adhere to–and enjoy–an extreme frugality regime.

Lately, I’ve been pleasantly inundated with messages from fellow Boston-area frugal folks–thank you all for saying hi and especial thanks to those of you who’ve invited us over to your homes, we look forward to meeting you!

In an effort to give the people what they want, I’m devoting a few strokes of the pen (keyboard?) to detailing how Mr. FW and I frugal it up in one of the priciest zip codes in the country. What we’ve discovered is that high cost-of-living areas are actually secret boons for thrifty people.

Continue reading The Ultimate Guide To Frugal Boston Living at Frugalwoods.

It’s open house season! You perhaps thought these balmier temperatures and tulips indicated a season called spring, but no, tis the season of house buying. The inspiration for today’s post comes from a reader who recently sent me a fantastic question about one of my favorite things… open house etiquette! Before Mr. Frugalwoods and I slapped down the money to buy our current home, we frequented a ton of open houses. And by “ton,” I mean roughly 270+ over the years.

The Young Frugalwoods vs. A Hot Real Estate Market

When we first moved to Cambridge, MA (as dewy-eyed, engaged 23-year-olds… sidenote: that sounds REALLY young), our #1 financial goal was to buy a house. And this wasn’t a typical goal in these here parts. The Boston metro area (of which Cambridge is part) comprises the third most expensive real estate market in the country and, to make matters worse, the housing supply is extraordinarily limited.

Continue reading Our 12 Tips For Visiting Open Houses: We’ve Been To Over 270 at Frugalwoods.

Mr. Frugalwoods and I have done the city thing. Since graduating from college, we’ve lived in New York City, Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA (twice). Why would we, as notorious frugal weirdos, live in some of the most expensive cities in the world?

Come find out on my guest post over at Canadian Budget Binder today!

Continue reading How We Live Frugally In The City at Frugalwoods.

Several people in my office are thinking about buying a home and since I’m known as the resident real estate nerd, they’ve started asking me what they should do to prepare. I always start with finances–in my experience, that’s where people are most likely to get tripped up. Borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars is complicated — and it should be! It’s not for everyone. It’s essential for potential home buyers to understand their finances and how much they’re comfortable spending before talking with a realtor or mortgage broker.

Welllllll, not really. Realtors and mortgage brokers only get paid if you spend money, and they get paid more if you spend more. The incentives here are not in your favor. But fear not, let’s talk basics first.

What is a mortgage?

At the most basic level, a mortgage is a loan that is secured by property.

Continue reading What does it take to get a mortgage these days? at Frugalwoods.

Condos can look enticing. In hot real estate markets, they may appear more affordable than traditional homes. But there’s a lot not to like about condos. If you’re considering purchasing a condo, here are a seven things to look out for:

1. Condo Fees: Any condo is going to have a fee. Usually this is referred to as a Home Owners Association (HOA) fee on the MLS listing. Make sure to factor this fee into your monthly payment calculations. When you’re calculating the long-term cost of ownership, make sure to index this fee to inflation. It will go up.
2. Condo Assessments: Did you know that just paying the condo fee may not be the full extent of your financial obligation? When something major needs fixing like the roof, the boiler, or all of the windows, the Condo association can levy an assessment on all of the owners.

Continue reading 7 Reasons Condos Can Be a Bad Investment at Frugalwoods.

Buying a house is falling out of fashion in the Financial Independence and Early Retirement community. Not “Green Polyester Leisure Suit” out of fashion, more “Cherry Cabinets and Ornamental Backsplash” out of fashion.

The oft-cited, and extensively researched, post on the matter is the awesome and amazing JCollinsNH’s “Rent v. Owning Your Home, opportunity cost and running some numbers.” If you haven’t read it, you should. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

I weighed in with my own “Should I rent or buy a house” post the other day, cribbed from the research and soul searching Mrs. Frugalwoods and I did during our house hunt in 2012.

Now back to the issue at hand. If Mrs. FW and I are so darn frugal, why do we own one of these wealth destroying monsters?

Location, Location, Location!

Location Bonus #1: Our house is 0.5 miles from MIT and 1 mile from Harvard University.

Continue reading Why Did We Buy Our House? at Frugalwoods.

One of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make is whether to buy or rent your home. This decision can feel more important than mere numbers and ratios. After all, most realtors will quickly whisper in your ear “it’s not a house, it’s a home!”

Once you’re settled in a career and have some money in the bank, the idea of renting quickly becomes less appealing. Moving every few years is a pain, landlords raise rent, and you’ve always wanted a backyard for your concrete alligator collection! And don’t forget, if you owned you could paint the dining room that perfect shade of fuchsia…

As for the financials, even the President of the United States says it’s a good thing to own a home:

Today I’ve come to Phoenix to talk about the second component, which is the most tangible cornerstone that lies at the heart of the American Dream, at the heart of middle-class life — and that’s the chance to own your own home.

Continue reading Is buying better than renting? at Frugalwoods.