The Kids Are Gone, You Are Heating, Cleaning Too Big A Home..Apartment Life!

Consider this...look around and see all the singles or couples living and rambling and heating a large single family home.

  If you purchase a multi unit or converted your home if it is big enough into apartments, a new easier, lower cost phase of living could happen.  Consider this...your grandmother lives in the first floor apartment instead of assisted living across town for a large monthly rent. Your favorite aunt/uncle live on the second floor while you live out front. And your sister and her two kids are in another unit. You can see that owning an apartment filled with family members could be worth considering. Some families would not be ideal for this arrangement but there are many that are close, helpful and everyone could benefit.  Saving money under one roof.  Someone is heading to the grocery store and kindly asks if you need anything while there to save time and gas.  Years ago three generations living in the family farm was common.  Out of necessity financially, due to closeness and fondness for each other and because on the family farm, many hands made light work. The labor was needed on the farm.  Grandmother had supper ready for the farm workers during spring planting or harvesting.  Your son just finished splitting wood for next year's winter, dad was out back trying to get ten more acres of land seeded to oats before it rained.  And so on.  In the multi family with higher oil costs, and with joint trips to the grocery which saves gas, this type of living can work.  Too communal living for you? Or makes sense and could draw families closer? I think it all depends on what kind of family dynamic you have...some families would be at each other's throat...others could share the duties and because of low fixed incomes, could end up with a higher quality of life and money saved to do something else with besides heating, insuring, etc  an ark. Filling an apartment house..one that has lots of charm, stained glass, original woodwork, fireplaces with family members..not just tenants.  Would that make the idea of buying an apartment house more appealing and a win win  situation for the entire family? The national real estate industry may see more and more of the family ownership of multi units that might have been harder to sell up until now. Due to high fuel costs, peddling apartment houses may become easier when you think who is going to fill them. Previously some buyers might have been scared of owning. The sense that as landlords they will have fewer rights than the tenant to protect the quality of the property may change if they consider family, folks they know and trust and love living in these units..not strangers.

MAINE REALTOR Andrew Mooers  * Houlton Maine / Aroostook County Real Estate Broker