What to do with this house?

[Sam Giberti]

Let me paint you a picture of a problem one of my close friends has been dealing with for over 10 years...

She bought a house in 2007, (I know not an ideal time to buy), for $190k. This is a town house w/ an monthly HOA fee.

With that, the insurance, mortgage, & other expenses it has had a negative cashflow from roughly between $200-$400 for over 10 years.

In 2008 when the Market ate ****, the value plummeted to $130k, and has since risen to $170k. She has about $75k in equity, amounting to just under 40%. And in the following years the principal starts get bigger and bigger. However its still negative cash-flowing over $200.

It is a very nice home in Palm Beach Gardens in a nice location for families, has a pool, and the HOA covers the majority of maintenance.

She is not as well educated in RE rental properties as she should be. And although she does have to pay over $200 into that mortgage each month, she does make near six figures at her job.

Note she also has a primary residence that is $90k above the value of what she paid for it. Which in a way makes up for the negative cash-flowing rental.

I’m looking for solutions for her. Should she sell at $170k having under 20 years left? I personally think the property will continue to go up in value in the long term. She has paid so much in interest thus far, I feel like with limited knowledge in RE that her best bet might be to keep the prop. Let me know what you guys would do? All solutions welcome.

Thanks BP,

Sam

[Gregory DeRosso]

I probably got the numbers wrong but just doing quick math using today's numbers because we know that over time her HOA will increase as well as what she collects but say it washes each other out. At its Current Value 170k, assuming modest appreciation growth in 20 years, the town house will be worth about 205k. so over the course of 20 years that's 30k. but at the same time she is giving up ideally only $200 a month for 240 months and that's - 48k. This is where I would recommend selling and cut her losses and use it as a lesson learned... "You make money when you buy, not when you sell"