I bought a new home in Nevada in 2004, right before my wife and I were married. We lived in it for nine months, and then began renting it because we moved away for my wife's education. At the time we didn't sell because we were "moving right back" after her internship (and why sell something that was rocketing up in value ;). Once we realized we might not be back, it was too late to get out as the bottom dropped out of the market. Since then our plan has been to sell it as soon as the value was high enough to cover the mortgage and our closing costs. We were fortunate that her father was a real estate agent in NV and helped us manage the property, we had renters probably 90% of the time. He is now retired and ready to relax.
This spring the numbers lined up so we asked our month-to-month tenant to leavee and paid for $3000 in repairs to get it ready for sale.
In parallel with this process I started reading MMM...
Out of curiosity I asked the agent doing the sale what we could get for rent, as they do property management as well. At this point we could have a very slightly positive cash flow ($50-100 per month), excluding any repairs.
Mortgage: $138,000, 2.376% ARM (12 month treasury average plus 2 pts)
SFR, in a subdivision, lots of warehousing/manufacturing jobs in the area, including the new Tesla Gigafactory
We have several offers today, including a full-price at $168,000.
At this point we can pocket approximately $10,000 after closing costs and the repairs. This is my wife's preference, as it has been an emotional drag to have a property so far away to deal with (we now live in North Carolina) and having a negative cash flow for the past 10 years. However, based on all you crazy people on MMM, it seems like keeping it might be the best option if we are going to get serious about FIRE.
I have only have a few hours to decide on this offer, and I'm really having my doubts after spending almost my entire workday reading journals here!
Open to any and all advice.