Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - Looking ahead to retirement...

We own our home in Virginia. It is paid for.We are about 10 years from retirement and will be looking to move out of this area, perhaps to Arkansas. We have about $30,000 cash we could put toward a second home, and could afford to make monthly payments if we rented the second home.

Home prices here run about $100,000 more than in Arkansas. Which, in your opinion would be a better course of action.

A. Buy a more expensive house, here, rent it and maintain it ourselves?

B. Buy the house we MAY want to retire in Arkansas, rent it and have the property maintained by someone else? (And how do you find someone to do that?)

C. Put the money under our mattress:)

Thanks for any input. Connie

I would use the $30k to buy a piece of property that I would want to spend the rest of my life on, even if it meant paying a 10 year mortgage on it. Then, when you retire take out an interim loan to build the retirement house of your dream. Sell the house in VA and pay off the interim loan when it is completed.

You may want to sell the VA home before construction is about half way over. You will likely want to be there about the time the bells and whistles are being put in the interior.

But that's just me. Your mileage may vary.

Hi mdtaylor,

I know nothing about land, other than I don't want to live someplace with septic, a well, and overhead power lines! I like about an acre, but who knows, as we get older, what kind of property will be suitable?

Another problem, of course, is taking time to travel and discover WHERE you want to spend the rest of your life.

Thank you for your advice, it certainly has given me a different line of thought to consider.

Invest the money in low risk ventures to safeguard your principle. With no current mortgage, you should be able to make this amount grow significantly in the next ten years. Owning rental property is a lot more work than most people think and I would not recommend it for you at this point. Deal with buying more property only when you're ready to move.

Thanks, Mitch,
It's currently in our credit union in a money market account...is that what you mean by low risk?