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should I rent my house out or sell it?


smokin5s

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so I'm getting married in June. We currently have 2 houses and I would really like to be rid of our houses by the time we get married and live together instead of commuting between houses all the time. She has a daughter from a previous relationship, and she is enrolled up by her house so just moving out of her house isn't an option right now until school is out.

 

Given the current market, would I be better off renting out my place for a year or so, or trying to put it up and see how the market fairs? It was a bank reposession when I purchased it and I have done alot of rennovating on the house, so I should at least break even on the house if I try to sell it (even with taking a little hit)

 

Anyone been in this situation before? What are my best options? Anyone Currently rent or have rented... how would I go about finding a good tenant that won't destroy the house?

 

Thanks!

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The housing market wont stay tanked forever. I say hold onto it and rent it out. Interview prospective tennants first as if you were hiring them for a job. Which you are; house sitter.

 

I don't know a whole lot about realestate, but from what I can tell there's two things that will ensure a good house value in the future: Lack of development space and increased area growth. There's ton of space to build out here, but there's also a ton of growth. To my untrained eye, this looks a good area to invest.

 

Of course I could be completely wrong too. :D

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they are deffinately building like crazy over here.... problem is there is low income apartments that got built up not too far from my development plus forclosures in the area are killing the area as far as resale value.
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Whats the specific market like in your neighborhood? Is it full with 100-150k homes or 250k+ homes? This would determine how much you would be able to charge for rent, the higher the rent the more chances your going to get someone responsible who will take care of the property themselves. However charge too much rent and you'll be hard pressed to find someone willing to pay 1500-2000$ just to rent a house.
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they are deffinately building like crazy over here.... problem is there is low income apartments that got built up not too far from my development plus forclosures in the area are killing the area as far as resale value.

 

Nevermind you pretty much answered my question here.

 

If your going to rent your not going to make any money. Any money that you might profit form the rent will probably go right back into the property itself. Then your held liable for things going wrong, like the roof leaking, fixing any plumbing or electrical etc... What sort of taxes are you looking at if you rent it out? Is the rent considered taxable income? All things to consider I suppose.

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Josh,

 

You've seen my house. I'm renting it out, using a Property Management company. It's been on the market for a week and a half now. Two families have already submitted applications and one of them put a deposit on it.

 

Even with all the foreclosures in my neighborhood, and extremely low resale values around my area, I will be getting $1,297 per month. But, $75 of that goes to the Property Management company. I don't know for sure, but I think I'm in a bit better situation than you because my mortgage payment on the house is $927 per month.

 

After someone moves in, I'm going to do a streamline refinance on that house. My taxes were lowered last summer because of the lower value of the house, but my payment hasn't reflected that yet. Also, my home owner's insurance will drop because I will switch to landlord insurance, which will run me $300 per year. And lastly, my interest rate will be lower.

 

With all of that, I'm figuring my payment will drop to around $800 per month.

 

1,297 - 75 = 1,222 - 800 = $422 per month that will go into a separate savings account for the house. This money will be used for any maintenance that is needed on the house.

 

The company will be putting tenants in 16 month contracts. $422 x 16 = $6,752

 

I think it's a great deal for me. I have a house that someone else is paying the mortgage on. If the market turns around at some point and the value of my house was to go back up, I may consider selling it.

 

The only other thing is, I had to provide a $500 maintenance deposit. When someone rents it out, I have to pay first month's rent. Basically, I won't get a check the first month.

If you decide you want to rent it out, hit me up and I'll give you the name/number of the company I'm using.

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get ahold of me Mike...

 

I think my house lists for a little higher than yours but my Mortgage is 1056 a month... I just always pay 1200 a month to get the payments down... I thought about refinancing until everything turns around myself.

 

Pleae get me their info and I will get ahold of them and see what they can do.

 

Do they do background checks and make sure that if the tenants destroy something in the house that it gets fixed?

 

My house has a new roof, new siding, new, gutters, new flooring, etc... so I don't really see that stuff going wrong... I see animals peeing on the floor as more of a problem than anything else with rentals... am I wrong in assuming this?

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Whats the specific market like in your neighborhood? Is it full with 100-150k homes or 250k+ homes? This would determine how much you would be able to charge for rent, the higher the rent the more chances your going to get someone responsible who will take care of the property themselves. However charge too much rent and you'll be hard pressed to find someone willing to pay 1500-2000$ just to rent a house.

~200k or a little less, so it's in between

 

if I sell it, my house will be listed in the 180's.

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get ahold of me Mike...

 

I think my house lists for a little higher than yours but my Mortgage is 1056 a month... I just always pay 1200 a month to get the payments down... I thought about refinancing until everything turns around myself.

 

Pleae get me their info and I will get ahold of them and see what they can do.

 

Do they do background checks and make sure that if the tenants destroy something in the house that it gets fixed?

 

My house has a new roof, new siding, new, gutters, new flooring, etc... so I don't really see that stuff going wrong... I see animals peeing on the floor as more of a problem than anything else with rentals... am I wrong in assuming this?

 

When I refinanced in February of 07, it was valued at $150K. When I was looking for my current house, my realtor said that houses my size in my area were going for about $130K.

 

They do credit check, criminal check, predator check, all that. That doesn't mean that the tenants won't destroy the house, but this company does the best that they can to make sure they get someone in there that will most likely take care of the house.

 

As far as animals go, it's your house. You are allowed to say, "I don't want animals living in my house". They will put that restriction on there.

 

I'll PM you here in a little bit with their info. I should probably do some work for a while since I haven't done shit the whole hour that I've been here. :-)

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Even with all the foreclosures in my neighborhood, and extremely low resale values around my area, I will be getting $1,297 per month. But, $75 of that goes to the Property Management company. I don't know for sure, but I think I'm in a bit better situation than you because my mortgage payment on the house is $927 per month.

 

Is that it?!? If its only costs 75$ for a property management company to handle the paperwork and monthly communication with the tenant then I would say its completely worth it. I thought these companies were alot more expensive.

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Is that it?!? If its only costs 75$ for a property management company to handle the paperwork and monthly communication with the tenant then I would say its completely worth it. I thought these companies were alot more expensive.

 

It may be different per residence, but my understanding is that houses like ours would be that price. But, yeah, the company handles everything. The tenants are not allowed to contact you. You even get to choose which applicants you want to move in your house.

 

You just have to keep paying your mortgage. The company will pay it for you, if you want, but I want the peace of mind knowing that it has been paid by paying it myself.

 

Here's a couple other things to consider though. If maintenance needs to be done to the house, let's say the water heater busts. The tenant calls the property management company. The company calls a repair company to go in and replace it. They will pay the company for parts and labor. When your check is sent to you at the end of the month, they will deduct that amount PLUS 15% as a convenience fee.

 

OR

 

You can ask the company to contact you whenever there is a problem. If you want and can fix it, you are allowed to. If you know of someone that can do the repairs on the cheap, you can contact them to do it.

 

They are very flexible and just want to make you happy and get you the most money that they can.

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