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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: FIRE Realtor on November 16, 2012, 02:08:01 PM

Title: Should we buy another house and rent out our current house?
Post by: FIRE Realtor on November 16, 2012, 02:08:01 PM

Hi,

Currently we live in an 800 sq. ft., two bedroom, one bath house.  It's great for us and our toddler, but if we have more kids I would definitely want something a bit bigger with a better layout.  I'm always on the lookout for good deals in the neighborhood, but wouldn't want to sell this house because we've only lived here 3 years and wouldn't make any money from it. 

Question is, would it be worth it to buy another home and rent out our current home?  Our mortgage is $700/mo. and the estimated rent for this house is at least $1200/mo.  The vacancy rate for 2 bedrooms in our city is less than 2%.  We are in a wonderful neighborhood close to shops and on the busline to downtown at the university, about 3 miles to each. 

Neither of us has experience being a landlord, I'm extremely risk averse with money and am afraid there would be unexpected costs and the whole thing would end up being really stressful.  On the other hand, having someone pay our mortgage and making an extra $500/mo. sounds amazing!

Thanks,
Kelly

Title: Re: Should we buy another house and rent out our current house?
Post by: arebelspy on November 16, 2012, 11:08:26 PM

You'd have to run specific numbers, but based on just those two general numbers (mortgage payment and gross rent) it looks like it'd be about break even if you did your own property management.  Meaning they're paying off the house for you (an ~7% return, assuming you put 20% down, IIRC).

The real test is when you run based on actual numbers (expected repairs and such..how old is the house?) as well as what the eqty is to figure out ROI and if keeping versus selling is the better move.