How to keep going with a disability?

[hosslyn13]

My MiL is disabled living in Portland and her husband died a year ago. She’s been looking for ways to keep her house since then but everything has fallen through. She has I think $170,000 dollars left, and the house is worth $300,000 (just dropped $100,000 in value because of the portland market). Her interest rate on the house is only 2% but she can’t afford to keep it on disability.

She says working full time isn’t a good option for her because her disability makes her unreliable and unable to work long hours but she has skill in real estate, carpentry, (She used to fix up old houses as a side gig) and copywriting (what she did before she became disabled). The problem with that is that she can’t find copywriting gigs and every house she’s looked at in Oregon is either way out of her budget or completely unsalvageable.

Do you have any advice?

 

[cpo]

@hosslyn13 Would she be ok with renting out a room or two, even temporarily?

A 2% mortgage rate is something she should cling to.

 

[nevamae99]

@cpo I've never rented a room out myself (always been a renter) but I've heard that traveling nurses and graduate students are often great tenants in this scenario. Of course, you need to be near a university or fairly large hospital, but it Portland, I imagine she would be.

 

[bac]

@nevamae99 This is true!
When I worked in the prison medical unit the travelling nurses ALWAYS rented rooms. One rented from one of her fellow nurses Sisters. The sister “Jane” said: she’s the perfect pennant! She pays on time sometimes 2 months, she’s rarely ever here and when she is she’s sleeping or bathing, she’s neat and tidy , and it’s nice to have an RN in the house

 

[cpo]

@bac This sounds very tempting. I’ve been contemplating emptying out my office and renting it out to ease our financial struggle. My husband is fighting it because he heard too many horror stories of deadbeat tenants being able to stay, because Cali law tends to be on the side of the renter.

 

[bac]

@cpo I say get the money up front!
But if you do mostly nurses they’ll have the money trust me hahah

 

[loversofjesus_2018]

@cpo Yes, or even rent the entire place furnished while she goes on a long road trip, or camping for the summer, or housesitting for someone else...

 

[resjudicata]

@hosslyn13 How to Get On is a fantastic blog with disability resources based in the US, hopefully something there can help

https://howtogeton.wordpress.com/

 

[xekuter]

@hosslyn13 Renting a room in that area would be a huge help. There are lots of remote, part time opportunities where she would potentially work from home for flexible hours. If she is a senior or disabled, there should be programs available to help with her stay in her home. Most of them like one called “season of sharing” can be accessed one time per year depending on how much money is in the pool. There’s also assistance on utilities.

 

[mynameisjeff]

@hosslyn13 Renting spare rooms will help her. If she has 2 tenants that’d be at least $1200 a month extra. She will need to run credit and background checks.

 

[green5]

@hosslyn13 In my county in a different state, they reduce your property taxes with proof of disability. Check and see if that’s an option in Portland.

Can she leverage her skills to teach or consult? New homeowners might pay to get an hour’s consulting time to review their home and recommend approaches to fix or improve things.

Other options to consider: pet sitting or rent out a room.

 

[quantum777]

@hosslyn13 Can she do a side hustle and do something with her carpentry or real estate skills? Those two seem like you’d have the best bet of working at your own pace for a little extra income.

 

[ocean_soul]

@hosslyn13 She has $170k in savings? I’m trying to understand the math here. Or do you mean $170k left on the mortgage? What is her house payment and what is her income?

 

[hosslyn13]

@ocean_soul 170k in savings, partially inherited from her husband. She has no income besides disability. Idk all the details, sorry

 

[ocean_soul]

@hosslyn13 So why not use the $170k to supplement her disability income to keep her house?

 

[faithfulmommy]

@ocean_soul That’s not sustainable long term. It just help so in the meantime.

 

[aric]

@hosslyn13 She might want to consider renting out a bedroom or two.

I live in Portland and our housing market is still quite tight, though it is going through a much overdue correction. I’m a bit skeptical that her house would have dropped $100k in value as $300k is still very low here unless the house is in bad shape or quite far out.

 

[hosslyn13]

@aric It’s a perfectly good house near Mt. Tabor (but 1 bathroom) but there was a shooting a block away the other day and that caused the drop

 

[elixir11813]

@hosslyn13 I’m confused… is she planning on selling it this week? I can’t imagine a taborhood house going down that much and not bouncing back because there was a shooting… is it east of 82nd?

 

[aric]

@elixir11813 Yeah, something seems off. A house for $300k to $400k would sell almost immediately in Mt. Tabor, even east of 82nd would go for more than $300k.

Edit: even with a shooting, it’s unlikely it would have dropped that much. I live in north Portland and hear gunshots semi-regularly, houses are still going quickly and at over $300k.