When do you sell?

[Mike McKinzie]

I am currently selling a piece of rental property to buy other property. The property brings in rent of .55% of the selling price. I am buying property that brings in 1% of price, thus basically doubling my monthly cash flow.

So my question is to the those "Buy and Hold" investors. At what point do you make the decision to sell and buy something else? Let's say you buy something that brings in 1.5% of market value in rent and then the value raises faster than you can raise rent and the rent is now less than 1% of market value. Do you sell? Or do you 'let it ride?'

What other factors make you decide to sell a piece of property? A declining value? A declining neighborhood? Too long of a vacancy?

I would love to hear what decision process you go through when you decide to sell.

[Bill Gulley]

The cash flow is what keeps you in a property and establishes the basis for the sale price as well. When depreciation begins to fade, when the external property issues of a maturing area begin to slide, I dumped them and moved on. While my income may go down from cash flow, owning equity in a better property with a new depreciation schedule can more than compensate feeding an old champion to the grave. Either keep it and fix it and let it ride or change over, I just think changing the inventory makes more sence in my case. Good luck