This story was originally published on my vet school blog, “Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5.” I often refer to vet school as “committing financial suicide,” which is not an exaggeration. If you’re remotely considering vet school, I hope you are either 1) independently wealthy or 2) talk to a dozen recent graduates about the financial and emotional toll of this profession.
My current commute to school is exactly one hour. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep that up during vet school, so I’ve been weighing my options.
The sensible thing to do would be to sell my house and move to an apartment near school. But… maybe that’s not so sensible considering:
1) My house, in a tourist town, is a REALLY good investment.
2) I love my peaceful little cabin in the woods, because
3) I think I would go insane if I lived in a city. Plus,
4) my other half lives in the tourist town, and I would like to see him more than once a week.
So, with all those factors in mind, I’ve been looking at living halfway in between. In an ideal world, I would rent my current house and buy a house at the bottom of the canyon I drive each day. I’d be half an hour from school and half an hour from my other half, plus I’d still be in a rural, wooded area.
Last week I found a lovely little house for sale in the canyon–on the sunny side, and near the river–so I went to see the mortgage guy. He didn’t outright laugh at me, because, being a professional, he’s not allowed to. But the cartoon balloon over his head said, “Are you kidding me? *snort snort snort*”
In the days before the recession, it would have been possible to create the ideal housing scenario based on my credit score and assets (though they be small) alone. Nowadays, they want a little thing called income, which is hard to come by if one wants to maintain sanity while being a full-time student.
“How do you pay your mortgage now?” Mortgage Guy asked incredulously.
*sigh* “Never mind…”
Anyone want to invest in a lovely little canyon house and rent it to a poor, but reliable vet student?
That sucks. When my ex and I bought our house in the midwest, the mortgage company was basically like, “You look like nice people. Here, why don’t you take this loan so you can buy a house?” And now, I’m friends with a couple who just bought a house, and they had background checks similar to what I imagine the Secret Service would want. They had to submit 6 months of bank statements, which the mortgage company went over with a fine-tooth comb, and almost every day K would get a call from them wanting to know what this $60 expense was, and why they withdrew $120 in cash one week — it was insane. She probably spent 20 hours a week trying to satisfy the mortgage broker.
Can you rent out your house (which sounds beautiful — I’m jealous! I’ve only been to Colorado a couple of times, but I LOVE the little towns! I’d like to live there someday) and rent something halfway in between? If you could stand having a roommate (I can’t even imagine having a roommate at this point, but a friend of mine is my age and has a first-year roommate who’s probably 23, and it seems to be working out great) that might help a lot with the money part.