All Forum Posts by: Harley Emelia

@Josh Young You've got my wheels turning. Who exactly rents a 4/2.5 + den 2,700 sq ft house? 

@Josh Young 

Thank you so much for the thorough reply and explanation. I was thinking of it similarly, but without the specific calculations to go off, so that's really helpful.

Your #'s are surprisingly accurate - $9k/yr principle paydown and with pool maintenance (I thought I should pay this too, so thank you for confirming), the cash flow isn't great. 

Since you are local, we are just south of the 60 near the old Fiesta Mall that is getting demolished. I wish there were more updates on what's going in that space (I've seen the articles that say it will likely be mixed-use). Any guesses as to what something like that could do to the projected appreciation?

We made the decision last year to downsize and are in the process of building a new home (slated to be completed in June). Originally, we had every intention of selling our current home but now I'm not sure if we should sell it or keep it and turn it into a rental. What would you do? 

Relevant information:

1. We own one other long-term rental but I wouldn't say we're "seasoned" real estate investors. 

2. Home in question: 2,700 sq ft 4 bed/2.5 bath + den, 2-story. Built in 1979. Includes pool, large backyard (for the area and also a corner lot), great location, family-friendly neighborhood. Realtor says it should sell for $700,000 - but also that buyers may ask for some concessions. 

Mortgage balance $455k at 3.99%. I'm waiting for our prop mgr to tell us what she think it'd rent for so I'm not 100% certain, but there's one house in our zip code that's similar (4/2 w/ pool- slightly smaller size but nice) listed for $3,200/mo

3. New home will be $562k - haven't locked in rate yet. 

4. We are approved for the new home even if we don't sell the current and we have money to put down on it if we don't sell the current home.

5. Overall, my thought is that our current home is not an ideal rental - it's big, the pool requires constant maintenance, the yard requires regular attention/landscaping but I could be wrong. 

Scenario 1: Sell current, buy new, use funds on hand to invest in other properties that might be better. We are snowbirds and spend half the year in the midwest so could look at getting some properties there.

Scenario 2: Rent out our current, buy the new, use funds to put down on new house

Scenario 3: Something I'm missing?