Okay, so I’ve been running some numbers with regards to my (~) investment property. I can basically do the following:
- Sell it
- Rent it out.
- Move into it.
Now that I have some solid numbers, these options are eliminating themselves. By selling it for the same price I purchased it for (it’d be impossible now to sell it for a gain), I’d be losing about $25k after taxes, shipping and handling. That’s a lot of money and it would hurt to lose that much. I could recover from that, but I don’t particularly want to lose that much.
Conversely, if it sat empty for the next year, I would lose about $17k. So, at the very least, doing nothing for a year costs less than selling it. Ergo, selling it is not an option in this economic environment. But leaving it empty is pretty lousy as well.
Next up is renting it. It’s been up for rent for two months now with no takers. I can drop the rent a little more. I have calculated that if I go down by another $25 per month, I will lose $6500 per year. That’s looking a lot more attractive.
Finally, I could move into it. If I did that, I could stop paying rent on my existing place but the drawback is that I’d have to move into a condo I don’t really want to move into. But if I did, compared to my current place, it would cost me an additional $4624 per year compared to what I am paying now. Is the change in lifestyle worth $1900 to me (6500-4600)? The traffic patterns are a little worse and the area of town is more isolated, but I could get by.
Now that I have numbers compiled this is starting to make it a little easier to come to a decision.