Should I sell or rent my house?

Question

I moved to South Georgia last year for my job. It all happened within a month and I purchased a 4 bed 3 bath house with a big yard in a good neighborhood for $177,000. I pay a monthly mortgage of $1,070 on my house.

There have been some changes in my job and I am likely moving back home (Lexington, KY) in the next 3-months. That puts the ownership of my house to 15-months.

I'm trying to decide if I should sell or rent my current house (I plan on renting a place in Lexington for a year while I can get settled and make a smart decision on buying again). I am planning on reaching out to some investors in the area to se what I could rent the houes for in this area. I would expect that nothing would cashflow that great, but maybe well enough I could just hold on to the house for a few years and sell it for a slight gain later.

Or I could try to sell it right now, but I'm not sure what I could get for it. I think I'd have to sell it for at least $195,000 to break even and I don't think there's any chance of that happening.

Does anyone have any advice? I did not plan on moving so quickly, but am trying to make the best of a tough situation.

Jake Ernst · Answer

@Sam Harover I think it's a good idea to see what you could rent the property out for, then from there make a decision. If you can rent it out to where the cash flow is enough that it breaks even with the mortgage and expenses then I would keep it as a rental. Then you could keep it awhile until there is enough equity to sell it for a profit or when you look to buy in Kentucky. I would not keep it as a rental if it is going to cost you money each month. Sometimes the best thing to do is to know when to cut your losses.

Lindsay Linton · Answer

Yes sounds like a higher rental market than where i am.  I have friends from there.  Sounds like either way is a win as long as the rental market there is strong.  I wish I’d kept my last house as a rental!

Theresa Harris · Answer

How much could you rent it for and how much are insurance, property taxes, etc?

Piyush Arora · Answer

He is moving to another state so likely won’t be self managing it. At that cash flow, you’re going to mostly break even. But as you said, it’s better than losing money by selling the house. Both options aren’t good to be honest in terms of this property. But I would recommend renting for now. It’ll give you experience renting and renting across states, and gets you time to find another deal that will be a better investment.

Theresa Harris · Answer

If you can cash flow $150-400 a month, that isn't too bad.  Don't forget to add in repairs.  I'm assuming you will be self managing it.

Sam Harover · Answer

Hi Lindsay, this is in Thomasville, Georgia. It's a town of about 20,000 people just north of Tallahassee.

Sam Harover · Answer

Thanks for the reply Jake. I reached out to the realtor who helped us purchase the house and he suggested we could sell it between $189,000-194,000. He suggested we could rent it between $1,600-1,800.

After hearing that, I think we could cashflow in the ballpark of $150-$400 and most likely will keep it as a rental.

Using a home sale calculator, it looks like we'd still lose about $1,500 if we sold it for $194,000.

Sam Harover · Answer

The real estate agent who helped us buy the house suggests we could rent between $1,600-1,800 a month. Mortgage pluse insurance and taxes is $1,100.

Lindsay Linton · Answer

What city is it in?  I live in Blackshear and invest in Blackshear and Waycross and i wouldn’t keep a house that nice as a rental.  You can get houses much lower with a much higher return on your money, that would rent out very easily here.  In other cities there is more of a market for houses like that.  Even just an hour from here, so in those areas my opinion would be keep it if that’s your goal and you don’t need to sell in order to buy where you’re going.

Should I sell or rent my house?

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