Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forum and have been reading the website for a few months. This sounds like a great community and a lot of folks replying here have tons of experience. I’m hoping to get some input on my situation. Thanks in advance.
I live in Denver and my wife recently relocated to St. Louis for a job and is renting an apartment there. She is 36 years old, I am 40 and we don’t have kids. I would like to join her this summer and I will be able to leave my job in Denver this summer. My basic question is do we sell our house here or rent it out with a management company? My inclination is to sell, mainly because I don’t want the hassle of being a landlord from another state and I think we could get good value from the house by selling. However, our long term plan is live back in Denver, though her job could keep us in STL for the next 2-4 years. The housing market in Denver is a bit crazy right now and we don’t know what we can afford when we move back if we want to buy, but forcasting out a few years is tough.
We refinanced our house this past year to a 15 year fixed mortgage thinking we were going to stay here, but we learned about the work move after we refinanced. We both have very low interest student loans (2.5%) so we would use the value gained from the house towards the loans and add the rest to savings.
I really don’t know how to make a sell vs rent decision on a house (our primary residence). I think we would just rent a house in STL until we get things figured out and decide where we will live long term. I know we would lose the opportunity to build equity if we sold our current house and rented in STL, but the flexibility will be nice until we are sure of our future location. Thanks for any advice!
Market Value: 360,000
Original Purchase price: 245,000 (new build in 2005)
Original Mortgage Amount: 195,000
Interest Rate: 3.375% (recent refinance)
Mortgage Term: 15 year (refinanced from 30 yr at 4.8%)
Term remaining: 14 year
Amount remaining on mortgage: 169,000
Gross Rents: Assume we would get $1750 month for rent, our mortgage is currently $1415.
Principal and Interest (the P&I of your PITI - should match with the above info): $1219 per month
Taxes and Insurance (the T&I of your PITI): $195 per month
HOA costs: 0
Deferred maintenance notes: 0
The house was a basic new construction in 2005 and my wife bought it while still in graduate school. It has a main level which is 1100 sq feet and an unfinished basement (also 1100 sq feet). 3 BR and 2 bath, upcoming neighborhood, but not the most sought after currently. We xeriscaped the yard and built 2 raised garden beds and a patio (no grass, but park is nearby). We also put in a high efficiency wood burning stove in the house. Thanks again!