Sell the house, or rent it?

[Anonymous]

We are moving out of the DC area and are weighing sell vs. rent options. Facts:

- It’s a SFH in a desirable neighborhood with good schools.
- We pay 2.7% interest on the mortgage.
- Equity is $650K, give or take $100K.
- We don’t know if we’ll return to the DC area or not. Right now odds are 50-50.

WWYD? Will we be able to find good tenants given the economic situation? Rent for 1-2 years then decide? Or take the money and run now? I’m very hesitant to give up the low interest rate. Rent less expenses would in theory cover the mortgage and yield a small profit, but there are many unknowns.

[Anonymous]

Personally I would sell and take the (up to) 500k tax free gains. Being a long distance landlord is not a great situation— at best you find a local management company that eats up your projected small profit.

You could try renting for a year or two and then decide but in some ways that is the worst of both worlds.

[Anonymous]

In a neighborhood with good schools, most renters will be families looking to be in that school district.. but you just missed out on their moves, as they wont' move mid school year. Your place will sit empty until July. Keep that in mind if you are counting on 12 months of steady rent.

In our case, we had a military family and he got assigned to another city, whihc means legally they can break the lease. They broke it in March and we were stuck with an empty house until July, since it appealed mostly to families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving out of the DC area and are weighing sell vs. rent options. Facts:

- It’s a SFH in a desirable neighborhood with good schools.
- We pay 2.7% interest on the mortgage.
- Equity is $650K, give or take $100K.
- We don’t know if we’ll return to the DC area or not. Right now odds are 50-50.

WWYD? Will we be able to find good tenants given the economic situation? Rent for 1-2 years then decide? Or take the money and run now? I’m very hesitant to give up the low interest rate. Rent less expenses would in theory cover the mortgage and yield a small profit, but there are many unknowns.

I am south asian and this is the advice we got- you only need enough rent that it covers your interest payment, that is enough money to justify keeping the property. Think of paying the principle as an investments/savings vehicle. I would add maintenance fees to this but the people I know who follow this advice are refugees the I got here with 20 bucks in my pocket/one suitcase crowd and they are all millionaires now.

I know ppl love to leverage debt for real estate but I must say that the fully paid off commercial property I have that brings in a very tidy sum brings me incredible peace of mind for my old age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are moving out of the DC area and are weighing sell vs. rent options. Facts:

- It’s a SFH in a desirable neighborhood with good schools.
- We pay 2.7% interest on the mortgage.
- Equity is $650K, give or take $100K.
- We don’t know if we’ll return to the DC area or not. Right now odds are 50-50.

WWYD? Will we be able to find good tenants given the economic situation? Rent for 1-2 years then decide? Or take the money and run now? I’m very hesitant to give up the low interest rate. Rent less expenses would in theory cover the mortgage and yield a small profit, but there are many unknowns.

I am south asian and this is the advice we got- you only need enough rent that it covers your interest payment, that is enough money to justify keeping the property. Think of paying the principle as an investments/savings vehicle. I would add maintenance fees to this but the people I know who follow this advice are refugees the I got here with 20 bucks in my pocket/one suitcase crowd and they are all millionaires now.
.

This might make sense of the alternative was spending the money on hookers and blow but presumably OP would invest the money elsewhere — there is no reason to expect residential real estate to have better long term returns than a diversified investment in stocks.

[Anonymous]

Your problem isn’t the house. It’s moving with the expectation you might return. Figure that out first. If you’re going to move, make it permanent and move on with your life.

[Anonymous]

Your money should double in the market every 7 years. Would you have 1.2 million from the house after 7 years of renting?
What are you going to learn by renting? It may end up being trouble and a part time job.
Investing will teach you a lot. I got much higher returns once I had been investing for few years.
Sell it and run.

[Anonymous]

I would take the $500k tax free assuming you are married and have lived in it for at least two years. If you rent it for two years, then you might get close to losing that major tax break.

[Anonymous]

If you move back would it be in 3 years? 10 years? If it’s closer to 3 or 5, I’d keep the house. You can depreciate everything on taxes as a rental property, too. Not sure of your neighborhood, but the rental market in our close in Va suburb is strong. Not true that families only look to move at the beginning of the school year. There are moves all the time as well as families in temp or apt rentals bc they couldn’t find anything. I’ve had great luck with embassy tenants, too, as they like 3 year leases and the rent is paid by the embassy.

[Anonymous]

DC or “DC area”? Being a landlord in DC is a pain. VA or MD would be easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC or “DC area”? Being a landlord in DC is a pain. VA or MD would be easier.

This is crucial. I’d never be a landlord in DC itself.

[Anonymous]

If I were looking to rent out my house, I would advertise to military families. They tend to be very tidy as well as short term.

[Anonymous]

We have three rental homes listed for the last month in our highly desirable neighborhood that would have sold with multiple offers in a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally I would sell and take the (up to) 500k tax free gains. Being a long distance landlord is not a great situation— at best you find a local management company that eats up your projected small profit.

You could try renting for a year or two and then decide but in some ways that is the worst of both worlds.

+1

Also, no renter, no matter how "good" will treat your home the same as you did. They don't tell you about little issues, they wait until it's a big issue and costs you much more to repair.

Everyone I know who choose to rent hated it, and in the end barely broke even. If you have to do $10K+ in repairs once you get it back to bring it back to your acceptable level to live, you didnt' earn anything.

And all it takes is 3-4 months without renters and you are behind $$$

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest reason to rent it is the possibility of coming back here. If you come back, is that where you’d want to live? Are you guys military? Might you want to retire out in this area? I’d look at the long-term possibilities and use that to make the decision.