To sell or rent?

[Kevin Adams]

We live in a 3 bd x 2.5 bath, 2021 built single family home north of San Francisco (Sonoma county). It is a beautiful new home, large backyard in a nice neighborhood in wine country. Mortgage is a 30yr fixed, VA loan, $6,433/month at 2.75%. Our house is one of the larger, more expensive houses in the neighborhood. I am in the military and may have to move in a year and I am unsure if we should sell or attempt to rent out the home. I am new to real estate investing and am wondering if there is a creative way to keep the house and rent it out with cash flow. I fully realize the mortgage is very high and therefore rent would have to be higher than surrounding neighborhood rentals to create cash flow. Perhaps this would be a better short-term rental than leasing? The more passive the better so I like the idea of a property manager, however I'm willing to manage the property if it reduces costs and helps us create cash flow.

I would love to hear any tips, wisdom, or resources from experts in the BP community to help us navigate this situation. Clearly I didn’t buy the home as an investment as I wasn’t investment savvy at the time. I’m just starting my real estate investment journey now so I’m trying to learn as much as possible and I want to make the best financial decision in this situation. Thanks all!

[Hamp Lee III]

Welcome to BiggerPockets!

Congrats on using your VA loan benefit. I'm active duty Air Force.

I recommend speaking with a property manager to find out what you potentially rent your home for. And though a STR is a possibility, you would want to know the house can cashflow as a LTR first in case the STR doesn't work out.

You can use tools like the AirBnB estimator in the Tools section here to get an idea of what your home could go for. There are other sites to get this data as well, like Mashvisor and Awning, but these two just two of many.

After you get your numbers, you’ll have a better idea of the route to take. Real estate investing is a numbers game.

I wish you all the best.

[Kevin Adams]

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback and resources.