Hey folks.
I have a 2BR/1BA house in Portland, OR. My mortgage is $1525/mo. I'm hoping to move into a shared living situation for ~4-500/mo. The question then is what to do with the house.
Option 1: Sell it. I bought the house last year, but now being post-marriage, I don't need/want that much space or responsibility. I would also likely lose some amount of money given that I have only owned it for a year, haven't done much to update it and it was renovated before I purchased it, so it was probably at the top of its value (not to mention, even then it sat on the market for a while).
Option 2: Rent it. I think I could get 1500-1600/mo for the place, according to a property management company I spoke to today. They take a 10% fee, meaning I would need to pay ~$100 mo given this option (assuming I use a property management place).
Option 3: Get a roommate. This would presumably bring my rent payment to ~$800/mo. This is more expensive than the rent it option, as I should be able to find a reasonable place to stay for ~4-500/mo.
Option 4: Airbnb. Similar to renting it. I spoke to a friend of a friend who does airbnb stuff in PDX. She said it's very seasonal, with summers being popular. This would likely require an upfront investment in furniture (especially as I'd want to get a second bed for the other bedroom to maximize rentable rooms) and social capital of finding a friend who can help me make it look nice. A theoretical maximum of booking would be ~3k/mo. Guessing, I'd estimate more like $1.5-2k/mo in the summer and $0.5k/mo in the winter. I don't have a strong basis for this, though.
My initial leaning is rent it, paying ~$100/mo to keep an asset on hand while someone else pays the mortgage, thereby saving me ~$1k/mo.
There's also the option of personally managing the property myself (maybe using something like
https://www.cozy.co/ ). I have worries around placing people in the house (marketing the property), eviction things, dealing with maintenance and housing damage, screening tenants, etc. I'm not sure if this is worth $150-160/mo. It seems like the upfront investment for me will be higher (figuring it all out) but there is minimal cost going forward. That said, every month I don't move out and rent it is $1k wasted (or 8 months of their service). I think it might make sense to let them rent it out up front, learn about renting things and then take it over in a year or so.
Thoughts? Does my leaning towards renting this out w/ a property management service sound like a financially sound, Mustachian decision? Any options I haven't considered?