Sell vs rent: could clear $700/month

[Anonymous]

We have been planning to sell our current property and buy a new property. We really dislike the idea of being landlords, but the more I think about it, I am wondering if holding on to the property makes more financial sense. If you could clear $700/month (rent minus mortgage), would it be worth it to hold on to a property....keeping in mind annual upkeep and maintenance issues and other headaches associated with being landlords?

[Anonymous]

Rent minus mortage = cashflow basis. For a rental property, you only get to take interest paid as an expense, and then a depreciation (27.5 years straight-line) for the property/house. It's on Schedule E.

So look at tax issues on top of it.

Being a landlord depends on the time you have to deal with something breaking, and it'll always happen at an inconvenient time. Also if the current lease term runs out and it takes you two months to find a new tenant, think of the lost revenue. Just things to think about -- you can still make it work.

[Anonymous]

I think you could find someone to manage it for 8% or so of the rent, so you might consider whether it makes sense if you didn't even manage it yourself.

I'm not sure how we would have made the downpayment/loan on our new place without selling the old one so we didn't look too hard at it.

[Anonymous]

you are the tpye of person that a time share salesman would like to talk to.

Talk to yoru financial advisor. You migth breakeven each month in the long run. Assume your house is vacant 1 month a year. so that gives you $7700. taxes, repairs, and the tenent will call you for the smallest things that they can fix but hey, you are the land lord so fix it. lawn care, snow removal, painting after each tenent, carpets cleaned, floors refinished, appliances, etc etc


It is not jsut collecting $700 a month.

[Anonymous]

Where is the house? If in a desirable DC neighborhood w metro access it might be worth keeping.

[Anonymous]

We are in the same position. Here are some things that make me feel good about renting:
1) our neighborhood is very desirable (walk to GW, IMF/WB/IFC, lots of law and other firms)
2) our condo fee covers all utilities and heating/cooling issues and any issues the tenant could cause (i.e. someone who messes up the plumbing) would be quickly caught.
3) the staff of the building are really "on it" so we'd also know quickly if we had a partier or other troublemaker.

I think renting a condo is much safer than renting a house, in terms of potential costs and problems.

[Anonymous]

Some condo assns have rules against renting because some lenders don't like offering mortgages if most of the units in the building are rented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some condo assns have rules against renting because some lenders don't like offering mortgages if most of the units in the building are rented.

+1. Something that would make me hesitant too is that about 6,000 brand new condo units are in the pipeline to be built in the District shortly. Plus possible cuts to federal spending. Bad recipe for DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think renting a condo is much safer than renting a house, in terms of potential costs and problems.

Agreed. I have a rental house and a rental condo. The house just has a lot more things can go wrong, which are my responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Calc your yield, if it is better than your stock portfolio returns, go for it.

[Anonymous]

I prefer tangible investments over stocks but that's just me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prefer tangible investments over stocks but that's just me

Me too.

[Anonymous]

We've rented our rowhouse on the Hill for 16 years. We'll pay off the mortgage next year -- or, rather, we'll toast the tenants who paid it for us. Then we'll enjoy about $3,500 a month in revenue... forever.

Rent it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer tangible investments over stocks but that's just me

Me too.

+2

We've been renting out our DC condo for 3 years now. There have been minor fixes, but they haven't been a big deal. The condo will be paid off in 4 years and I am looking forward to having a steady stream of "passive income."

Two things to think about: 1. If you sell the property now, will you have earnings form that sale? If so, you may want to sell in the next few years in order to take advantage of the 250k (single person) or 500k (married) capital gains relief. 2. I love renting out our apartment, but DC "business" tax on the rental income is about 9% -- on top of the federal income tax I pay on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer tangible investments over stocks but that's just me

Me too.

+2

We've been renting out our DC condo for 3 years now. There have been minor fixes, but they haven't been a big deal. The condo will be paid off in 4 years and I am looking forward to having a steady stream of "passive income."

Two things to think about: 1. If you sell the property now, will you have earnings form that sale? If so, you may want to sell in the next few years in order to take advantage of the 250k (single person) or 500k (married) capital gains relief. 2. I love renting out our apartment, but DC "business" tax on the rental income is about 9% -- on top of the federal income tax I pay on it.

This is just on your profits right? Not on the total rental income? So for OP it would be $700/mo?