To Hold and Rent or Sell and move on?

Question

Question for those with more experience

Should I hold our current home as rental for 0-$100 per month cash flow for 10 years to be paid off, or take the cash out and sell now?

My family and I are closing on our next personal residence next week. We borrowed 50K from my 401K retirement in order to offer and win the next house. Here are the numbers below

Current home we owe 145K on a 15year loan @4.3% with 11 years left currently knocking off $750+ in principal per month with a total PITI payment of $1530. Market rent for this property would be $1500 so zero cash flow, the return will be in appreciation and principal pay down. Its possible to up the rent $1-200 per month to assume some risk (pets, month to month, ect..)

To sell now and move on. Market value is $228K. I am a real estate broker so my net will be higher (228-145-7) Netting around 75K now. That will repay the 401K loan and replenish our 25K investment to move into the bigger house, The bigger house will also be a similar PITI payment on a 30 year loan.

Renting seems to make more financial sense since it will basically be a tenant letting the investment grow with myself risking the major capex every few years. I will be paying $500 per month on the 401 in this scenario during the 10 year period. The rental market is very strong and if it continues market rent would be over the PITI payment within 1-2 years. The reward comes 10 years in to be 100% cash flow at market rent.

I would appreciate any advise given.

Elizabeth Colegrove · Answer

Do you have to put 50k into your next house? Can you do the conventional 5% down? Yes it has pmi but you can through extra on it to get it to 78% at which time it fall off. That way you can leave your retirement accounts alone. This way both of your baskets are building.

I think you should keep it! We own 5 houses, 4 our rentals. They are great baskets for our retirement. We have done great operating on slim margins and have even made a profit on our taxes (our account was impressed lol). I call my model the southwest airlines model. Feel free to pm me or check out my website if I can help! Best of luck!

Drew Vukov · Answer

10 years is a long time. Instead of borrowing from your 401K, why not refi your current residence take out 50k, push the mortgage back out to 30 years. You should have positive cash-flow right away and the money needed for a new residence. You may not like that idea because you only have 10 years left on the loan. But use leverage to your advantage. A cash flowing property that also has strong appreciation is a great asset. I wouldn't sell it it was me.

To Hold and Rent or Sell and move on?

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