Why We Sold Our House and Moved into an Apartment
No, it’s not the smartest financial decision in the world, but not everything’s about money.
We recently sold our house and moved into an apartment. We weren’t in financial trouble, we didn’t move for a new job, and there were no family issues.
By most measures we were making a bad financial decision.
Most people would say that buying a house is the best long-term investment. They would stay that renting is just throwing your money away. Many financial advisors would tell you to go from renting to owning as soon as you’re able to.
The only reason to sell your house would be to buy another house whether bigger, smaller, or in a different city. Selling a house to go back to renting would be the last decision you want to make — especially when you’ve only had that house for 2 years.
So why did we do it?
There were three main reasons: correcting a mistake, creating community, and setting up a future.
Correcting a Mistake
We bought a house too early.
When my wife and I got married, our first home together was a one bedroom apartment. For the next 3 years, it was perfect for us — we didn’t need anything bigger. We were close to our friends, our church, and a small downtown area. So people were always over to visit and we made a lot of sweet memories there.
Then my wife got pregnant, and her first instinct was to buy a house. We needed more room for the baby (we actually didn’t). We could have simply moved into a bigger apartment, but we thought we needed a house.
Common advice from our elders said we needed to buy. As long as we were renting an apartment, we were just throwing that money away. But if we bought a house, our mortgage payments went directly into us owning it.
Comparison to peers said it was time to buy a house. We were leaving our 20’s and entering our 30’s. Most of our peers were buying their first homes, and others had already bought their homes years earlier. When you see your high school acquaintances on Facebook in front of their new homes, it can be easy to…
