Debating whether to sell a home or rent it out

[Sean Ahn]

Hello all, 

As a newbie in real estate, I wanted to get some of your opinion on the situation I'm in. I bought a condo in NJ for 220k around 4 years ago and have been living in it. Unfortunately my wife's job started requiring her to come into the office in PA so we plan on relocating there. We do have a decent amount of equity on the home about 150k (current estimated value is ~315k) but since the mortgage is 15 years (which I thought was smart & would save me interest over time...) if I were to charge market rent I would break even or possibly lose a little and get no cash flow. I do know there's tax benefits and tenants paying the mortgage off for you. However the HOA is very high ~$500 and it scares me to think about possible vacancy & the whole process of renting a home out. Any opinion / advice to help me make a decision would be much appreciated, thank you!

[Dan M.]

It sounds like you already decided for yourself: sell it and sleep at night.

The other alternative is to refinance to a longer term so it will cash flow, though by how much with these high interest rates is tbd. Throw in your balance into a mortgage calculator and see what it looks like amortized over 30 years at say 7.5 percent.