Should I Sell?

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. Ryan knows what he's getting into with this house, because he has been paying the mortgage since his ex-roommate, who has title, left. But not just that. I may not give him all of it if I sell. I'd likely buy a coin or two. Anyway, thanks again. I won't be raiding my IRA, though. Thanks especially for all your advise on that.

I like what HOLLYWOOD mentioned also about buying a home.
One more thing. And again, I may appear pessimistic but does your son's friend work? Or is she just concentrating on school?
I mention this due to a situation from my past. Someone I knew real well was in a similar situation. Only it was a girl and she dropped out of college completely. She worked two jobs to support a guy going to school. He eventually acquired a masters degree, got a great job with the government, dropped her completely and moved on to bigger and better things. She ended up a little to late to continue school and I don't want to mention how this eventually turned out since it becomes very sad.
I understand your concern but I'd be real carefull here. I know he thinks he is doing the right thing and I hope all's well that ends well.

I see lots of advice here, all posted with good intentions although some with less experience than others. So, let me give my advice. To back up my advice, I was a Realtor for 16 years and my father was a Realtor for 36 years. I have been personally involved in over 5,000 Real Estate Transactions. My father has been personally involved in over 10,000 Real Estate Transaction. We have a Family Trust that owns property in California, Texas, Colorado and Virginia. We are currently looking to buy in North Carolina. Several of my extended family have a six figure MONTHLY income from real estate investments. So let's start with the basics.

Your son will have to pay rent no matter where he lives if he does not own. The upside of renting is that you can move quickly and you have someone else make most of the repairs. The downside is that you are not building any equity, you can't make changes to the property for your own benefit.

If you own a house, the benefits are numerous. First off, you get a tax break for mortgage interest paid. Next, you can make changes, additions, upgrades and enjoy the benefits of them. Home ownership also gives you other perks like reduced insurance premium costs on autos, life, etc...

If things do not work out, your son can either rent the house or sell it. If he can rent it for a positive cash flow, it is a good investment. If he has to sell it, he make have a loss but you have to compare that loss to what he made with tax savings.

With the current real estate market being down, it is a GREAT time to buy. The prices will have to turn around, even if it takes five years.

Let me give an example. My wife and I bought a house in Texas two years ago. We paid $103,000.00 for the house. After putting 20% down, our monthly PITI payment is $848.00. It is currently rented for $1,071.00 a month. So looking at the tenants, they paid $12,852.00 in rent last year and have nothing to show for it. We put $20,000 down and made $2,676 the first year which is 13%, not counting any appreciation or tax breaks. So, whose position looks better, the tenants or us? As a side note, we have NEVER even seen the house nor do we plan on ever seeing it.

So let's say you sell your collection and give your son $10,000 for a down payment. He buys a house for $100,000, gets a $90,000 mortgage with an $800.00 PITI payment. If the price of the house goes up $10,000, your son will have doubled his equity. If the price of the house goes down, he is most likely paying LESS with a mortgage than he would be if he were paying rent.

As a final note, I think the house has a better chance of appreciating than the coin collection. As a matter of fact, there is a good chance that in ten years, the equity in the house would buy your coin collection back, five times, maybe ten times, over.

Just my humble opinion.

Lots of good advice either way being posted. All I can tell you is what I would do if it were me. I quit building complete sets after I finished my lincolns. I went on to upgrade the set to all reds but when it was done I felt kinda disappointed because there was nothing left to do. So now I collect the coins that interest me, with no perticular reason. I would sell the set, if my son was making a well thought out decision and working hard to get what he wants.

You are looking at a tough choice no matter what you do, but there are two things that make me worry a little bit:

1. The deed is not in his name and he is paying the bills. He is actually building someone else money flow and credit with no advantage to him. This other person could get up and leave, sell or even evict him without a second thought and put him into a world of hurt.

2. A 'girlfriend' that is just finishing school...what are her desires after school? Where will she work? Where will they live? Just because she has a degree does not mean they will stay where they are at, in fact, most people leave the town they received their degree to find a job. Right now is really scary economically and there is no guarantee there will be anything for them when school is finished.

I bring this up because over the last few months I have lost my job, house and about everything I own just to survive and never thought it would happen to me. I am lucky that I have parents like you that are helping out but I can not except too much at the same time. No matter what gift you give him he will always owe you for what you have done to help him out in life alone and this will either make you closer or put a strange feeling between the two of you. The thing that makes this more special is that you are giving something up for someone you truly love, maybe see where everything is first and see what you can do to help from there. Besides, with the way everything is going right now, maybe that coin collection will be the only thing you have left for retirement.

My first feeling is not to sell your coins. But I truly understand you wanting to help your son.
I think you need to speak with your son and tell him your thoughts and feelings and what you were thinking of doing.

He may surprise you, and tell you that that's the last thing he wants you to do, is sell your coins.
He may know what they mean to you and would feel terrible with you selling them.